About the Library
SMSU McFarland Library Strategic Priorities Plan
University Mission:
Southwest Minnesota State University prepares students to meet the complex challenges of this century as engaged citizens in their local and global communities. Our comprehensive degree programs, taught in the liberal arts tradition,
are dedicated to connecting students’ academic and practical professional development experiences in southwestern Minnesota to the wider world.
Library Mission:
The McFarland Library provides diverse teaching and learning opportunities to the SMSU community through access to essential resources, instruction, services, and spaces. (Adopted AY 2024-25)
Strategic Priority 1: Teaching & Learning
Objective 1: Promote and support faculty efforts to incorporate information literacy learning outcomes, library resources, and technology into curricula.
Objective 2: Continue development and assessment of information literacy components in LEP 101: First-Year Seminar.
Objective 3: Seek opportunities to deliver discipline-specific research instruction across the curriculum.
Objective 4: Promote and support information literacy and information-seeking needs in online learning environments.
Strategic Priority 2: Space, Services & Outreach
Objective 5: Evaluate, propose, and implement improvements to the mix of study, technology, group, individual, quiet, and collection spaces in the library.
Objective 6: Offer excellent direct user interactions and library service at points of need on campus and online.
Objective 7: Promote library services and collections through intentional displays, social media, and engagement.
Strategic Priority 3: Collections & Access
Objective 8: Continue evaluating print and digital collections for subject usability and equity gaps.
Objective 9: Continue organizing and marketing the University’s print and digital archives collections.
Objective 10: Promote and support development of collections and resources for use in online learning environments.
Strategic Priority 4: Scholarship
Objective 11: Support Open Educational Resource (OER) efforts at SMSU.
Objective 12: Continue to engage in the Undergraduate Research Conference.
Objective 13: Continue marketing and coordinating Discovery: The SMSU Journal of Undergraduate Research to support student publishing opportunities.
Initiated AY 2017-18
Updated AY 2019-20
Updated AY 2024-25
The Library Bill of Rights adopted by the American Library Association is a policy of McFarland Library:
- Books and other library resources should be provided for the interest, information, and enlightenment of all people of the community the library serves. Materials should not be excluded because of the origin, background, or views of those contributing to their creation.
- Libraries should provide materials and information presenting all points of view on current and historical issues. Materials should not be proscribed or removed because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval.
- Libraries should challenge censorship in the fulfillment of their responsibility to provide information and enlightenment.
- Libraries should cooperate with all persons and groups concerned with resisting abridgment of free expression and free access to ideas.
- A person’s right to use a library should not be denied or abridged because of origin, age, background, or views.
- Libraries that make exhibit spaces and meeting rooms available to the public they serve should make such facilities available on an equitable basis, regardless of the beliefs or affiliations of individuals or groups requesting their use.
The McFarland Library faculty as members of the American Library Association adhere to the profession's Code of Ethics.
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