Spring 2007 Planning Retreat

A library retreat will be held at the Rockefeller Conference Center in Petit Jean, Arkansas, on May 31 and June 1, 2007.  Department heads, members of the Program Steering Committee, and other personnel who attend the retreat should assess where the Libraries are in terms of strategic goals and where we should be going in the future.  The goal of the retreat is to give us all a good chance to review our progress and to look for ways to “re-create” ourselves as necessary in the next three to five years.

The Program Steering Committee will take on the responsibilities of planning the agenda for the retreat after they receive suggestions from library personnel at large. The Committee will meet regularly about the retreat in between its normally scheduled meetings. In planning the agenda for the retreat, Program Steering members should take into consideration the vision that Chancellor White and Provost Smith have for the campus and what role the Libraries will play in that vision. They should also be cognizant of the “hot topics” being discussed now in the academic library world­some of which are indicated on the attached page.

I do not have any preconceived notions per se about what specific topics should be included in the agenda, although I do expect that in general the major goals, ambitions, and desires of library personnel and departments should be considered.  Some of the suggested “local” topics on the attached page are examples of what might be considered for discussion.

I encourage all of you to offer your suggestions in the planning for this retreat, especially with regard to the topics to be discussed.  Department heads should converse with their staff about the retreat. All individual or departmental suggestions should either be given/sent directly to Anne Marie Candido or submitted via an electronic form to be provided later in the month.  These suggestions are due by  Friday, December 1st and will then be passed on to a small intermediary group (to be appointed) who will process and organize these suggestions before they are presented to Program Steering for its consideration. 

Various articles and materials will be provided for you as “pre-retreat” background to peruse in the coming weeks and months as you think of suggestions for the retreat. Here are a few that have been identified thus far:

1. The UofA’s stated institutional goals: http://chancellor.uark.edu/
2. 2010 Commission Reports: http://chancellor.uark.edu/101_ENG_HTML.htm
3. http://www.cni.org/staff/joan-pres/2006/umd0603.Lippincott.pdf
4. http://www.taigaforum.org/docs/ProvocativeStatements.pdf
5. http://www.davinciinstitute.com/page.php?ID=120

More "pre-retreat" materials will be provided as time goes by.

Without your help, this retreat will not succeed.  The outcome of the retreat will depend on all of us providing our ideas and visions.

Thank you,
 
Carolyn Allen
Dean of Libraries
 
 08/08/06