Public libraries have broad missions, visions, and values
(Rubin, 2010, pp. 173-174). These can
differ based on the size of the population and the type of community they serve
(p. 174). Pasco County, Florida, is a small rural community north of Hillsborough
County and the metropolitan city of Tampa.
Similar to most systems, Pasco County administers its libraries through
a cooperative. The mission for the Pasco
County Library Cooperative (2012) is one which:
“Attracts and
satisfies customers through outstanding and responsive customer service, an excellent
selection of materials and resources, and an environment that encourages
personal and community betterment.” (p.15)
Apart from the mission statement, Pasco County embraces six
“strategic focus areas”: discovery,
collaboration, technology, creation, spaces, and awareness. These strategic focus areas complement and
expand upon the American Library Association’s eight roles for public libraries
discussed in Rubin (pp. 173-174) without overextending itself.
By focusing on spaces, Pasco Libraries are focusing on the
library as “a community gathering place” (Rubin, p. 178). Svanhild & Ragnar (2012) found that
library patrons tended to socialize more than bookstore customers because they
greater sense of “ownership” of the library and treated it as their own.
The strategic focus of “create” is interesting in that Pasco
County is not only seeking to store media content (Rubin, p. 11-8) but is
striving to be a place where patrons can “create content” such as videos,
presentations, music, and art By
focusing on collaboration, Pasco also is expanding its new role as an
“e-government gateway” similar to other public library systems (Jaeger &
Fleischnann, 2007) .
In Summary, the vision, value and mission statement of the
Pasco County Library Cooperative is consistent with a small community library
that is well supported by the community.
Academic libraries have a specific purpose to serve those
students where the library is located (p. 200).
They also provide a service to the academic community at large by
engaging in scholarship and building collections that go beyond the needs of
the campus for which they serve (University of South Florida, 2007). In fact, there is a trend for libraries to go
“more global” (USF, 2007; Rubin, 2010, p. 200).
The USF library system has five libraries and a budget of
$17.5 million (USF, p. 1). Its mission
is “to become a globally recognized academic library system advancing knowledge
through integrated resources, responsive services, research, and instruction”
(p. 2). It seeks to implement this
mission through five strategic goals.
A few of these strategic goals were interesting. First, while there was an emphasis on “patron
self-reliance” (p. 3) consistent with Outsell (2003a) described in Rubin
(p. 200), there was no information
literacy program specifically mentioned that would help achieve this goal. Second, two of the strategic goals focused on
the acquisition of interdisciplinary academic and special collections. Again, this was consistent with Rubin (p.
200) but surprising in that the interdisciplinary academic collection goal was
announced as late as 2007. Regarding the
specific special collection areas announced in the strategic goal, the focus
has shifted away from “Floridiana” and others such as Medieval studies and
cartography to holocaust and genocide studies (B.Lewis, personal communication,
September 11, 2012). This change was
surprising.
The most fascinating mission statement I found, however, was
the fairly nondescript one from the Harry Ransom Center (2012) at the
University of Austin. It states:
“The central mission of the Ransom Center is to advance the
study of the arts and humanities. To this end, the Center: Acquires original
cultural material for the purposes of scholarship, education, and delight;
Preserves and makes accessible these creations of our cultural heritage through
the highest standards of cataloging, conservation, and collection management;
Supports research through public services, symposia, publications, and
fellowships; Provides education and enrichment for scholars, students, and the
public at large through exhibitions, public performances, and lectures.”
As Basbanes (1995) points out, the HRC went on a buying
spree funded by Texas oil money from 1956 to where in 1970 it was considered
one of the top 5 libraries. Today it
boasts one of the largest collections of manuscripts and letters from the great
nineteenth and twentieth century writers.
Its policy of aggressive acquisition has led some to criticize the HRC
but, in the end, it ranks as one of the greatest repositories of modern
literature.
References
Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin. (2012). Mission
and History. Retrieved October 5, 2012, from http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/about/mission/
Jaeger, P. T., & Fleischmann, K. R. (2007). Public
libraries, values, trust, and e-Government. Information Technology &
Libraries, 26, 34-43.
Pasco County Library Cooperative. (2012). 2012-2015 strategic vision. Retrieved October 5, 2012, from www.pascolibraries.org/PascoLibraryStratPlanFinal2.pdf
Rubin, R. E. (2010). Foundations of Library and Information
Science (3rd ed.). New York: Neal-Schuman.
Svanhild, A., & Ragnar, A. (2012). Use of library space
and the library as place. Library And Information Science Research, 34,138-149.
University of South Florida. (2007). USF Libraries Strategic
Plan: 2007-2012. Tampa, Florida.
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