Introduction
Clemson University Libraries (The Libraries) provide resources and services that promote and enable engaged learning experiences, world-class research, and community change. The Libraries employ almost 30 faculty and 70 staff. Organized into three divisions—Collections & Discovery, Organizational Performance & Administration, and Teaching, Learning & Research—The Libraries serve all colleges and academic disciplines. The Libraries also function as a College, with faculty actively engaged in research and committed to student and faculty support. Throughout these core areas of engagement and focus, The Libraries actively contribute to advancing the Clemson University strategic plan, Clemson Elevate.
Purpose of the Strategic Plan
This strategic plan will guide and shape the forward progress of the libraries.
Mission
Clemson University Libraries empowers students, faculty, researchers, and staff by fostering information and digital literacy, promoting experiential learning, offering high-quality research support, and cultivating a vibrant learning environment.
Vision
To be the preeminent research library in the southeast by fostering unparalleled access to knowledge, cultivating a collaborative research environment, and delivering exceptional user service.
Key Values
Guided by the American Library Association’s (ALA) Core Values and the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), Clemson University Libraries follow these fundamental principles:
- Access – Providing opportunities for everyone in the community to obtain library resources and services with minimal disruption (ALA).
- Intellectual Freedom – Empowering people to think for themselves and to make informed decisions while respecting each individual’s dignity and independence (ALA).
- Operational Excellence – Operating with goals, values, and processes responsive to users’ needs, wellarticulated, fiscally accountable, ecologically sustainable, and effectively communicated (ARL).
- Sustainability – Fostering a research and knowledge ecosystem that is financially, technologically, and ecologically sustainable and prioritizes this both in business practice and advocacy work (ARL).
- Collaboration – Two or more partners bringing different strengths and perspectives to a task with shared goals, vision, and a climate of trust and respect (ACRL).
- Community – process of working collaboratively with community members — be they library customers, residents, faculty, students or partner organizations— to address issues for the betterment of the community (ALA).
- Innovation – The process of renewing and updating a domain, a product, or a service by introducing new methods, techniques or creating innovative concepts to produce new value (2023).