Many people on campus, including some of our colleagues at the Library, have been hard at work the past few months drafting ISU’s new strategic plan. This morning at President’s Council we heard an progress update and next steps. ISU’s new plan connects in a timely fashion with the strategic planning processes for the ISU Foundation and the Board of Regent’s strategic planning. This makes very good sense, since connections with the Foundation and Regents are so important. President Leath’s four priority areas: student success, increasing ISU’s research profile, economic development, and creating a welcoming, safe, and inclusive campus environment are the foundations of the new strategic plan. Open forums on the new ISU strategic plan are scheduled for March 31, 4:30-6pm and April 5, 12-1:30 pm. I’m planning to go on March 31. Please think about attending one of the forums. And, if you would like to join me at forum on the 31st that would be great.

As I was listening to the update at President’s Council I realized how timely this was for us in the Library. Our Library strategic plan, with goals for a superior user experience, with responsive and anticipatory resources and services, dynamic collections, empowering users through teaching information literacy and research skills, engagement, and physical spaces, and a superior staff experience, with an agile organizational structure and healthy culture, connects very well with President Leath’s priorities. We are making progress on many of the action items and initiatives suggested last year by staff members. In just a few weeks we’ll see the first draft for the university’s new plan and just a few weeks after that, at our April 12th All Staff meetings, we’ll talk about our progress on the Library’s plan. Then, this summer will settle on objectives for next academic year. Planning, planning, and more planning, it’s an ongoing process.

On a completely different topic, in national library-related news:  Earlier today Heather Joseph of SPARC reported the very good news that FASTR, the Fair Access to Science and Technology Research Act, has moved out of the Senate HSGAC Committee and onto the Senate floor. This means that FASTR is now free to be considered by the full Senate as a stand-alone bill, or to be attached to another bill that might be moving for a vote. You can find more information about FASTR at: http://sparcopen.org/our-work/fastr/ and https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/senate-bill/779/all-actions

And, finally, I really like the ideas that have been suggested so far for naming the research lecture series we will co-sponsor with the Office of the Vice President for Research. There’s still time – please get your creative ideas to me ASAP.

Maybe it’s the nice weather these past few days and with it the promise of Spring that makes everything seem so much more promising, do-able, achievable.  Some days working toward our goals can feel pretty daunting but I know we are making progress. I hope you agree.