Background
In August 2020, the Libraries’ Leadership Team identified a reorganization of the Libraries as a top strategic priority. Multiple factors contributed to the urgency of a reorganization, including gaps in mission-critical staffing, the addition of new services, the desire to streamline workflows, and an imperative to position the organization for growth as it expands to meet the needs of an R1 institution.
In December 2020, Dean Cox formed a Task Force to make recommendations for the reorganization based on internal and external research as well as on extensive consultation from Libraries personnel over a six-month period. In May 2021, the Task Force delivered its report, which included four organization chart proposals reflecting the feedback gathered throughout the consultation period. In August 2021, the Libraries’ Leadership Team developed a new organizational structure and implementation plan for the Libraries based on the Reorganization Task Force Report and input from all faculty and staff.
The resulting Reorganization Report depicts three divisions, each of which is managed by an associate dean. In this arrangement the dean deals primarily with external functions, and the associate deans focus on managing internal library functions and daily operations of the Libraries.
Dean of Libraries
Direct reports to the Dean of Libraries include Admin support, Business Office, Development, University Historian, Advisory Groups, Cross Functional Teams (Collections, Strategy, Instruction, Discovery), and Committees (Organizational Development, Assessment, Communications/Web, Events/Exhibits).
* Indicates a dotted line report to the Dean of Libraries
Associate Dean
Organizational Performance & Administration
- Organizational Performance
- IT infrastructure
- Learning Environments
- Communications
- Strategic Directions
- Assessment
Associate Dean
Teaching, Learning, & Research
- User Services
- Digital Scholarship
- University Press*
- Teaching and Learning
- Instruction
- Creative Technologies & Digital Literacy
- Research & Engagement
Associate Dean
Collections & Discovery
- Acquisitions
- Print Collections
- Resource Sharing
- Collection Development & Analysis
- Continuing Resources & Gov’t Docs
- E-Resources
- Metadata Services
- Digitization Services
- Special Collections & Archives*
New Organizational Divisions
Organizational Performance and Administration
The Organizational Performance and Administration division supports the success of the Libraries as an organization and its employees. The division’s focus is on two areas identified by all employees as the most important to the organization’s overall health and growth: Organizational Development, including organizational culture, professional development and training. Other functions in this division include assessment, IT infrastructure, learning environments, strategic planning, and communications and marketing.
Teaching, Learning, and Research
The Teaching, Learning, and Research division focuses on the promotion, education, and use of collections and services to support student and faculty research and instruction. In addition to instruction and research services, the division also includes digital literacy, digital scholarship, scholarly communications, and data services. This division also houses the University Press, whose publishing services, now including the Libraries institutional repository, provide a publishing platform for student and faculty work at Clemson.
Collections and Discovery
The Collections and Discovery division acquires, maintains, and provides access to all of the Libraries information resources in a variety of formats, including print and electronic. Acquisitions oversees collection development and analysis, resource licensing, e-resources, continuing resources, and negotiation of “big deals.” Cataloging and Metadata oversees the optimization of records in the discovery system and digital collections. Digitization Services focuses on the reformatting of analog materials for digital use and discovery. The division also houses Resource Sharing, which includes off-site storage and courier operations, and Special Collections and Archives, which includes Records Management.
Cross-Functional Teams
In addition to the three divisions and organizational hierarchy described above, several cross functional teams and committees were developed to help guide operations between the new divisions.
Cross functional teams include representatives from across divisions:
- Collections Strategy: Strategizes large collections purchases or projects.
- Instruction: Provides educational programming to the campus and set policies and best practices to optimize library instruction. Ensures statistics are captured and continual evaluation is conducted.
- Discovery: Ensures the Libraries’ systems provide high level support for patrons in identifying and locating materials of interest to support their research.
Committees
Libraries-wide committees exist to support the work of those coordinating key project areas. They are volunteer opportunities for faculty and staff. Members rotate on and off the committee in predetermined terms.
- Organizational Development: Completes projects and gathers feedback from employees related to organizational development issues of interest.
- EDI: Completes EDI projects, provides training and programming in coordination with the EDI area coordinator.
- Assessment: Supports the work of the Assessment area coordinator.
- Communications/Web: Supports the work of the Director of Communications and Web Developer.
- Events/Exhibits: Coordinates scheduling for external events or exhibits; coordinates and plans events and exhibits provided by the Libraries.
Implementation Timelines
Download accessible PDFs of the Implementation Timelines or view them below.
