When the CURL Strategic Directions for 2000-2004 were published, there were 21 university libraries in full membership of the Consortium. By March 2002 the number of full members had risen to 25, including 22 university libraries, as well as the British Library, the National Library of Scotland and the National Library of Wales. The change in the three national libraries’ status from associate to full member, together with the British Library’s commitment to working in close collaboration with the HE sector, has greatly increased CURL’ s potential for improving information resources and service provision for research and research-led learning and teaching across the British Isles.
Other factors have led to a significant change in the information and library environment since 2002. To name only a few, by July 2002, all UK CURL libraries had experienced close working collaboration with other CURL and non-CURL libraries through participation in the highly successful UK-wide Research Support Libraries Programme (RSLP). 2002 was also the year when the Consortium actively participated in the debates generated by the Research Support Library Group (RSLG), including the implications of the electronic media on the national research infrastructure. The expected resulting establishment of the Research Libraries Network represents a significant shift in the landscape for CURL.
Given the importance of these developments, both internal and external, CURL believes that, rather than wait until 2004, it must review its mission and strategic goals now. Within this updated framework, CURL can seize the opportunities created by this new environment and work towards enhancing library and information provision for the research community as a whole.
CURL’s mission is to increase the ability of research libraries to share resources for the benefit of the local, national and international research community.
Vision
CURL will make a difference for researchers by helping to build the Distributed and Hybrid Research Library of the future. Researchers, wherever in the world and whatever their disciplines, will be able to:
CURL will:
For the next three years CURL will pursue five main strategic aims:
National Strategies for Research Support
CURL will actively contribute to the development and implementation of appropriately funded national strategies aimed at coordinating the provision of research information and generating sustainable solutions to the information needs of the research communities. This objective will be at the heart of CURL’s activity in a number of areas, including resource management and discovery, digitisation and scholarly communications. CURL will also seek to make a significant contribution to the success of the Research Libraries Network, the new body recommended by the Research Support Libraries Group.
Collaborative Resource Management
In the light of the widely recognised fact that no research library can cater for all the needs of its researchers, CURL will continue to explore, test and implement procedures enabling research information providers to engage in deep collaboration with one another in all areas of resource management. This will involve furthering the collection mapping agenda and developing strategies aimed at facilitating the sharing of responsibilities in the areas of acquisition, preservation, digitisation and retention, e.g. as initiated by the CURL-CoFoR project.
CURL will adopt a two-pronged strategy to further the development of electronic resource discovery tools in the light of recent and future technological developments. It will (a) continue to enhance existing activities, such as the CURL record retrieval database and the COPAC resource discovery service, and to contribute to the development of the Archives Hub and the e-prints SHERPA project; (b) revisit the whole resource discovery landscape with a view to identifying innovative, inclusive and sustainable solutions, in particular, in terms of models (types of data, technology, quality control) and services. CURL will also actively contribute to other national initiatives, in particular, Full Disclosure.
Digital Content Creation and Curation
CURL will develop and implement a digitisation strategy aimed at facilitating digitisation and digital preservation work at institutional level within a coherent and coordinated national framework. In order to do this, it will identify what is already being done by other organisations and what needs to be done by CURL, on its own or in collaboration with other bodies, particularly in the areas of repositories for born-digital content, digitisation of library material, preservation and long-term access of digital content.
Communication & Working Methods
CURL will develop and implement a communication strategy and working methods within the Consortium aimed at providing a framework for greater engagement from the Members in order to increase consortial debate, networking and co-operation. It will also seek to provide a framework conducive to appropriate involvement across sectors and domains, as well as to the development of strategic alliances and collaborative partnerships with other stakeholders and sister organisations both in the UK, Ireland and worldwide.