Mission

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:

Search, locate and request all resources, whatever their format, easily and quickly from the desktop

Have quick and easy access to an increasing amount of electronic resources, both born-digital and digitised

Have physical access to manuscripts, archives or printed items that have not been digitised and cannot be moved, wherever these are held

Have other printed items from outside their own institutions delivered to them efficiently

CURL will:

Provide strong leadership to find research-centred solutions to common problems

Influence change and provide a seedbed for innovative projects and services

Provide practical tools for finding information

Engage its membership to improve support for researchers

Foster synergies through strategic alliances and collaborative partnerships that will benefit research support in the UK, Ireland and worldwide

Help to shape the wider debate at national and international levels

Strategic Plan for 2006 - 2008

CURL’s Strategic Plan for 2006 - 2008 builds on the initiatives and collaborative activities outlined in the Plan for 2003 - 2006. A key focus for CURL will be to work with the Research Information Network (RIN) and other organisations to provide an innovative and integrated approach to designing and delivering information services for research support.

Principal strategic aims for CURL from 2006 – 2008 are:

* To contribute to the development of a national framework for research support

* To facilitate new approaches to support for research

* To enhance resource discovery and delivery

* CURL as community: to improve support for members

National Framework for Research Support

Developing a national framework for research support

The establishment of the RIN provides the opportunity for CURL to increase its collaboration with other organisations, including the British Library, the JISC, SCONUL and the Research Councils, in defining and developing a national framework for research support based on the information needs of researchers.

CURL Directions

As the primary practitioner library and information organisation in the UK focusing on supporting research, a key priority for CURL is to enable an integrated approach to information provision for the research community.

CURL will:

* Identify and map existing provision and significant gaps in the information infrastructure, content and services supporting research

* Agree priorities and actions that will promote a coherent national approach to research support

* Shape activities undertaken within the CURL Strategic Plan to accord with these priorities

New Approaches to Support for Research

Developing services for research support

Libraries and other information services are moving beyond provision of content and responding to the changing needs of researchers by developing services in support of the research process. They are innovating across traditional academic and service boundaries and, in collaboration with other service providers, are broadening the range of their contribution both to researchers within their organisations and to the research community generally. Research libraries are developing new service models for open access publishing, the management of physical and virtual space, partnership accords with research teams, and institutional e-research data management. The range of professional activity is changing in response to the developing research support environment, and new skills are required to meet this change.

CURL Directions

CURL will explore ways to increase understanding of how the requirements and characteristics of researchers and the research process are changing. We will support initiatives to map researcher needs and will promote new models for enhancing support for research.

CURL will:

* Work with other organisations to increase knowledge of researchers’ need for and use of information resources

* Develop new models to support the research process, and identify appropriate skillsets

* Facilitate opportunities for awareness-raising and skills development amongst information professionals as a means of underpinning new roles

* Work with education and training bodies to promote professional training and development for information professionals

Enhancing Resource Discovery and Delivery

Developing the Resource Discovery Environment

Researchers in all disciplines place increasing reliance on discovering and accessing resources electronically. Developments such as digital repositories and Grid technologies are stimulating the exploitation of datasets and e-format research materials in innovative and increasingly complex ways. Even where material is not available in digital format, there is a growing expectation that discovery and location will be carried out electronically.

Research resources in traditional formats will also remain significant. Managing these as a collective resource is the most effective response to issues such as space and funding. This implies a national approach to resource discovery supported by services which will deliver material to the researcher promptly and efficiently.

CURL Directions

CURL will support collaborative approaches to developing a national, integrated resource discovery environment with strong international links.

CURL will:

* Scope in collaboration with other partners the future path for resource discovery, and determine a common strategy for development

* Undertake strategic development and exploitation of the CURL database and COPAC in the context of an emerging national - and unified - approach to resource discovery

* Support improved models for delivering traditional format materials to researchers.

* Contribute to the creation and curation of a national collection of digital research resources

* Shape further development of a national approach to research resources through collaborative collection management

CURL as community: improving support for members

Improving support for members

As a membership consortium CURL must ensure that its policies, services and activities best reflect and represent the interests of its members and their missions.

CURL Directions

Internally, we will reinforce membership benefits and increase outreach to improve members’ awareness of, and engagement with, CURL activities. Externally, we will focus on CURL’s positioning and strategic alignments, and will increase our efforts to support members’ interests.

CURL will:

* Enhance the benefits of CURL membership at both member and consortium levels. Particular emphasis will be given to sharing best practice, collaborative working within CURL and with partners, and defining benchmarking standards and performance measures. We will also promote CURL member interests in key areas such as scholarly communication, information policy and professional leadership

* Implement a communications and brand strategy designed to extend member engagement, to promote external collaborations, and to emphasise CURL’s central role in UK research support

* Facilitate professional and leadership development and promote networking opportunities for staff engaged in support for research at all levels

* Optimise funding available to sustain CURL’s ability to support strategic development on behalf of its members and the wider research community.

* Target CURL resources according to priorities identified in the Strategic Plan