caul-cbua.ca

Introduction

Post-secondary libraries exist in a fast-evolving landscape, and those in the Atlantic Canada region are no exception. As such, the CAUL-CBUA strategic plan was developed with the understanding that the plan is a living document that needs to be regularly reviewed and updated to evolve with the landscape. It is also critical to the success of CAUL-CBUA in supporting the needs of its members, that the plan is ever present in the planning and activities of CAUL-CBUA, its committees, and its working groups. To enable this, committee terms of reference shall be reviewed annually to ensure that their goals, objectives, and activities continue to align with the strategic plan. CAUL-CBUA must also provide an effective governance structure that allows full participation by all members in all types of libraries. To further foster inclusion, the plan must integrate accessibility[1] throughout.

A working group was formed in November 2017 to develop this document. The working group was chaired by Cynthia Holt (CAUL-CBUA) and included: Donna Bourne-Tyson (Dalhousie University), Heather Sanderson (Saint Mary’s University), Joe Wickens (Dalhousie University), Maggie Neilson (Acadia University), Suzanne van den Hoogen (St. Francis Xavier University), Scott Olszowiec (Acadia University), Yayo Umetsubo (Cape Breton University), and Michelle Paon (Dalhousie University). The working group used the draft document developed at an all-member strategic planning session held in May 2017 as a starting point for their work. Member and community stakeholders were consulted at various points in the process to arrive at this final document. This document also recognizes that although there are many issues and items that are of concern to our members, there is a limit to the resources available on which to call for advancing the priorities of CAUL-CBUA and its members, so the focus for the group was in identifying key strategies in the plan while incorporating flexibility for future shifts in priorities.

Committees and Working Groups

An important part of the organization is CAUL-CBUA committees and working groups. These are listed below in no priority order.

Committees

  1. Collections Committee
  2. Copyright Committee
  3. Digital Preservation and Stewardship Committee
  4. Scholarly Communications Committee

Each committee has Board representation. It is the Board that is responsible for ensuring the actions in this plan are implemented, but many of the initiatives will be done by CAUL-CBUA committees and working groups.

Mission, Vision, and Values

Mission

CAUL-CBUA enhances teaching, learning, and research in Atlantic Canada through the provision of information resources, library resource sharing, collaborative projects, and shared professional development.

Vision

CAUL­-CBUA supports member institutions in the provision of exceptional library services and resources to help our institutions achieve academic and scholarly excellence.

Values

We value creativity, collaboration, engagement, and decisions based on best practices.

CAUL-CBUA Strategic Priorities

Strategy / Goals / Objectives / Timeline / Owner
1.0 Foster a collaborative approach to shared regional challenges and opportunities / 1.1 Develop a leadership and operational structure for ILL and Document Delivery Services across CAUL-CBUA /
  1. Investigate and evaluate leadership and operational models used in other consortia to develop options for CAUL-CBUA.
  2. Consult the CAUL-CBUA DDG community for input on potential leadership and operational models.
  3. Provide a final recommendation for Board review.
  4. Implement the Board approved model.
/ March-April 2018
April-May 2018
Spring 2018 Board meeting
June 2018- / ●Manager
1.2 Optimize the Relais implementation for ILL and document delivery services across CAUL-CBUA /
  1. Establish a working group to explore options and provide a recommendation to the Board for optimal implementation of Relais ILL to best meet member needs.
  2. Implement the Board approved recommendations of the working group on the optimal implementation of Relais.
/ December 2017-June 2018
July-December 2018 / ●Relais Implementation Optimization Working Group
●OCLC
1.3 Work with Novanet to better coordinate shared service efforts, preferably on a regional scale /
  1. Explore opportunities to expand and implement online reference services to CAUL-CBUA members, ex. Novanet Live Help.
  2. Develop a more connected and collaborative relationship between the CAUL-CBUA Manager and the Novanet Executive Director to identify and advance future opportunities for shared regional services.
/ In progress / ●Manager
●Novanet Executive Director
●Novanet Live Help Coordinator
1.4 Develop networks of shared expertise among CAUL-CBUA members. /
  1. Develop a plan to implement Communities of Practice* in CAUL-CBUA.
  2. Implement tools to facilitate sharing of information, such as listservs, wikis, Google Drive space, etc.
  3. Facilitate and recommend education/development opportunities for CAUL-CBUA members in the area of shared services (coordinate with Strategy 3).
*A community of practice is a group of people who share a concern or a passion for something that they do, and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly. / ●Manager
2.0 Develop a comprehensive strategy across CAUL-CBUA to facilitate the actualization of the CFLA TRC Report recommendations at member institutions
Note: Need to ensure Indigenous Peoples involvement in any activities or strategy development. Per the terminology used in the CFLA TRC Report, this includes First Nations, Inuit, and Métis. / 2.1 Develop an education and training program to foster understanding among CAUL-CBUA members of the Indigenous Peoples that they serve.
Note: Needs to coordinate with other CAUL-CBUA groups working on education and development /
  1. Create a working group to develop a training program for CAUL-CBUA members to learn the best ways to work with Indigenous Peoples. Key areas will be:
  2. cultural awareness
  3. intergenerational legacy of the Indian Residential Schools
  4. respectful terminology - common understanding and usage
  5. Indigenous cultural protocols and other related guidelines and processes
  6. Identify and facilitate access to best practices and resources related to services, spaces, and core approaches for CAUL-CBUA member libraries.
/ July-Sept 2018 / ●Working Group
●Manager
2.2 Develop strategies to address member needs in working with Indigenous Peoples. /
  1. Create a working group within CAUL-CBUA focused on surveying the membership to ascertain current activities in this area in member institutions as well as identifying what resources already exist in the CAUL-CBUA community.
  2. Conduct an inventory of provincial, regional, and national resources surrounding training related to working with Indigenous Peoples.
  3. Categorize and provide CAUL-CBUA members access to these resources.
  4. Identify gaps in content and create materials to support those areas.
/ May-June 2018
July-Sept 2018
October-December 2018
October-December 2018 / ●Working Group
  1. Establish a CAUL-CBUA Committee focused on the development and implementation of strategies to facilitate the actualization of the CFLA Report recommendations. An example is:
●Outreach with Indigenous Peoples (communities and groups). This may involve seeking research ethics approval. / May-June 2018 / ●Committee
2.3 Foster interest in, and support for, Indigenous Peoples in the Atlantic Region entering information management careers, either directly, or in partnership with other organizations and/or institutions. /
  1. Explore previous, or existing, scholarship programs with the idea to create a scholarship, with dedicated funding, for an Indigenous student.
  2. Foster paid internships at CAUL-CBUA and/or at CAUL-CBUA member institutions for students who self-identify as First Nations, Inuit, or Métis.
  3. Actively recruit to serve on CAUL-CBUA working groups both students in the information management field and staff at CAUL-CBUA member libraries who self-identify as First Nations, Inuit,or Métis.
  4. Facilitate mentoring opportunities for members to:
  5. Learn from Indigenous Peoples’elders/knowledge keepers to foster and develop awareness of Indigenous matters; and
  6. connect scholarship awardees with others in the Indigenous Peoples communities to be future mentors.
/ June-Aug 2018
Sept 2018 - March 2019
June 2018 - June 2020
June 2018 - June 2020 / ●Working Group
●Manager
2.4 Foster the indigenization of collection development across CAUL-CBUA member institutions. /
  1. Facilitate the preservation of oral history - work with communities and experts across CAUL-CBUA, following Indigenous cultural protocols to offer expertise in preservation and access, where appropriate, within the Atlantic region.
Note: The CFLA Indigenous Matters Committee is investigating the following objective, so care should be taken to not duplicate the work being done by this Committee.
  1. In conjunction with CFLA initiatives, work with Indigenous Peoples to understand their epistemologies, to fill the gap between Indigenous and traditional cataloguing and classification.
/ June 2018 - June 2020 / ●Collections Committee
●DPSC
3.0 Foster growth and development in employee knowledge and skills at member libraries to meet the challenges of an ever-evolving post-secondary education landscape / 3.1 Develop an ongoing comprehensive plan for education and development opportunities for CAUL-CBUA members.
Note:To the extent possible, ensureaccessibility in opportunities. /
  1. Survey the membership to ascertain member needs in terms of education and development and to highlight skills gaps.
/ ●Manager
●Working Group
  1. Investigate and facilitate approaches to address education and development needs identified in the survey by leveraging:
  1. Expertise across CAUL-CBUA;
  2. Opportunities through other organizations, such as the Education Institute, APLA, ALA, OLA, and CARL; and
  3. Member institutional resources.
/ ●Manager
●Working Group/Committee
  1. Work with CAUL-CBUA Committees and Working Groups to develop education and development plans in their areas of focus and coordinate with centralized initiatives.
/ ●Manager
●Committees
3.2 Enable financial support opportunities for CAUL-CBUA members. /
  1. Continue to refine the process of enabling CAUL-CBUA funding of group registrations for webinars, etc.
  2. Investigate potential support options (example: grants), for employees who do not have access to funding in their institutions.
  3. Establish an Innovation Grant Award separate from the Collaborative Research and Innovation Grant Award.
/ ●Manager
●Executive Committee/Board
3.3 Develop a multi-faceted approach to ensuring member awareness of education and development opportunities. /
  1. Create a centralized “clearinghouse” on the CAUL-CBUA website for archiving webinar recordings and accompanying materials.
  2. Develop and implement a marketing plan to increase member awareness of education and development opportunities.
/ ●Manager
●Working Group
4.0 Foster a collaborative collection strategy to maintain the integrity and discoverability of, and access to, member collections in the region. / 4.1 Develop a strategy for the preservation of print collections in the region. /
  1. Create a working group within CAUL-CBUA focused on exploring options for “last copy” preservation of print serials and monographs. This may include:
  2. Partnering opportunities with Novanet;
  3. Partnering opportunities outside of the region where infrastructure and commitments are already in place for last copy collections. Examples include the University of Alberta’s BARD facility; the University of Toronto’s Downsview facility; and COPPUL’s Shared Print Archive Network (SPAN) distributed model.
  4. Investigate options to facilitate regional analysis of member collections. Where viable, implement options. This might include:
●Exploring OCLC’s Greenglass software.
●Examining the Novanet Centralized Storage Project for insights. / ●Collections Committee
●Manager
  1. Identify unique special collections within the region and develop an inventory of these collections.
  2. Investigate opportunities to improve the discoverability of, and enhance access to, these collections. Develop recommendations to present to the Board for approval.
  3. Implement the Board-approved recommendations.
/ ●Collections Committee
4.2 Develop a strategy for the preservation of / perpetual access to electronic resources in the region. /
  1. Create a working group focused on investigating and recommending options for a digital repository for curatorship of, and access to, member-purchased perpetual access content (all types).
  2. Should the CRKN Trusted Digital Repository (TDR) be adopted, work with CRKN and other stakeholders to explore the expansion of the Scholars Portal TDR to the national level.
/ ●Collections Committee
  1. Continue to negotiate consortial licences for members and expand this to purchase of resources with perpetual access rights.
  2. Explore options for collaboration with a national LOCKSS network.
/ ●Manager
●Collections Committee
  1. Create a working group focused on investigating and recommending solution(s) for optimally managing, and automating where possible, the CAUL-CBUA licensing process and facilitating easy access to data related to the resources licenced by CAUL-CBUA on behalf of members. This might involve an E-Resource Management (ERM) system, a Licensing Information Module (LIM), and/or an analytic tool.
/ ●Collections Committee
●Manager
  1. Create a working group to implement the Board-approved recommendations from the LIM-ERM Working Group process.
/ ●Collections Committee
●Manager
4.3 Facilitate discoverability of member collections in the region. /
  1. Create a working group to explore opportunities for a regional portal to improve discoverability and access to member collections and make recommendations to the Board.
  2. Create a working group to implement Board-approved recommendations.
/ ●Collections Committee
●Manager
4.4 Develop an education and training program to facilitate member skills and knowledge development. /
  1. Identify and facilitate access to best practices and resources for services and core approaches as they relate to CAUL-CBUA member collections activities. Examples might be:
●strategies for optimizing resource use (budgets and space) and improving user access to materials;
●data analysis and visualization;
●negotiating with vendors. / ●Collections Committee
●Community of Practice
●Manager
5.0 Coordinate regional, and leverage national, RDM initiatives to support institutional researcher needs / 5.1 Provide ongoing access to training resource material and enable CAUL-CBUA members to participate in education and training opportunities related to research data management. /
  1. Conduct an inventory of provincial, regional, and national resources surrounding training related to RDM.
  2. Categorize and provide CAUL-CBUA members access to these resources.
  3. Identify gaps in content and create materials to support those areas.
  4. Facilitate and coordinate access to training opportunities in the Atlantic region.
  5. Identify training opportunities (webinars, guest speakers, seminars, workshops) on an ongoing basis.
  6. Act as facilitator and host for training activities held live and in person.
  7. Provide access and technical support for those available virtually.
/ ●Digital Preservation and Stewardship Committee
5.2 Connect members with documentation to support RDM service development and delivery. /
  1. Provide guidance to librarians and researchers in selecting an appropriate institutional or disciplinary repository for active, short-term, and archival storage of research data.
/ ●Digital Preservation and Stewardship Committee
5.3 Ensure regional awareness of national RDM services and initiatives through network development and information sharing. /
  1. Connect librarians and researchers to an inventory of training opportunities, RDM documentation, and data repositories through promotion and outreach to CAUL-CBUA members.
  2. Create a direct link to Portage through a CAUL-CBUA RDM “first response” team comprised of the Vice-Chair, DPSC Co-Chairs, and aBoard representative from NS to balance provincial representation on the team.
/ ●CAUL-CBUA Board
●CRKN
5.4 Develop a region-wide strategy to address long term access and stewardship of research data. /
  1. Investigate the need for a regional repository or discovery layer/portal to draw together Atlantic repositories.
  2. Regional long-term digital preservation of data (institutional commitments)
  3. creating and implementing inter-institutional MOUs surrounding data maintenance and preservation practices
  4. maintain a regional distributed network for data security and protection
  5. ensuring use of metadata according to national standards

6.0 Foster excellence and innovation across the region by supporting the work of the CAUL-CBUA committees, to develop initiatives such as... / 6.1 Open Educational Resources (OER). /
  1. Develop and administer a survey to determine interest in, or experience with, open access textbook adoption at CAUL-CBUA member institutions. Recommend actions for Board consideration based on the results of the survey.
/ February 2017-February 2018 / ●Open Textbooks Survey Working Group
  1. Actualize the Board approved recommendations from the Open Textbooks Survey Working Group Report.
/ March 2018-March 2020 / ●Scholarly Communications Committee
●Manager
7.0 Foster partnerships and collaborations among CAUL-CBUA members and with external organizations to CAUL-CBUA to facilitate the realization of Strategic Plan goals / 7.1 Investigate broadening community participation with academic libraries in the Atlantic Region, enabled through possible partnerships. /
  1. Explore partnering opportunities with public libraries so that public library cards work at member institutions. Note: Board desire for institutional branding of cards instead of direct use of public library cards.
  2. Focus on CURBA/CAUL Card for Indigenous Peoples that can be used within the CURBA network.
/ ●
7.2 Explore alternative staffing options for advancing CAUL-CBUA initiatives. /
  1. Investigate options for funding secondments to facilitate leadership of initiatives.
/ ●

[1] Accessibility “[r]efers to design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both "direct access" (i.e. unassisted) and "indirect access" meaning compatibility with a person's assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers).”–accessed March 21, 2018, at