UC Merced Library’s Response to Report on the External Periodic Review of the UC Merced Library University of California Merced, Merced, CA
We in the library are pleased with the overwhelmingly positive findings of the Report on the External Periodic Review of the UC Merced Library University of California Merced, Merced, CA, and especially pleased with its recommendations for increased budgetary support for library staffing and collections. In fact, the entire process leading up to the report, including the collection and interpretation of assessment data and the writing of the library’s self review, was of tremendous value in clarifying the library’s current and future role on the UC Merced campus. We greatly appreciate the work of everyone who participated in the periodic review process—especially those who served on the periodic review team.
The Report endorsed a number of the library’s existing initiatives, values, and strategies, and it is certainly our intention to continue doing what works well. We were flattered that the report described the library as an organization with “innovation and flexibility in its DNA” in which “assumptions that are givens in other institutions’ libraries are pushed against, that outmoded concepts are simply side-stepped, and that figuring out new ways of doing things is the norm.” Praise of this sort is hard to live up to, but that is exactly what we intend to do. We wholeheartedly agree with the recommendations regarding more support for collections, additional library staff, more library space for individual and collaborative study, and the formation of a committee to facilitate productive communication between the library and the UC Merced community. Such communication will no doubt be advanced by the newly formed Academic Senate-Administration Library Working Group’s charge to develop more formalized structures for two-way communication between the library and those it serves.
The library invites the members of the UC Merced community to read the Report for themselves. Anyone with questions about the Report or who would like to comment upon it should feel free to contact any member of the UC Merced Library Executive Team.
Donald A. Barclay, Interim University Librarian
Sara L. Davidson, Head, User Communication & Instruction
Jim Dooley, Head, Collection Services
Emily S. Lin, Head, Digital Assets
Eric Scott, Associate University Librarian for Library Operations
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