Library Mission

The AUP Library is an encyclopedic Anglophone collection of scholarly materials located in central Paris and serving the needs of the University community, from undergraduates and graduate students to staff members, active teacher/scholars, and visiting researchers. The library is proud of its professional librarians and skilled staff, depth of coverage in specialized electronic databases, and innovative, curriculum-embedded, information literacy program. The Library, with ARC and ITS, aims to become the intellectual commons of the university.

The three main challenges facing the library over the next five years are the rapid expansion of MA programs at AUP, the planned move to a new campus, and the revolutions in information technology and scholarly communications that are transforming library services worldwide. These changes will necessitate evolution of our mission statement.

The Library's mission includes helping the AUP community achieve its learning, teaching, and research goals by:

1. Identifying, selecting and collecting information resources - Assembling information resources

• Goal: Provide authoritative and up-to-date resources in a broad range of formats, consistent with the curriculum and research needs of the community.
• To better adapt to the new academic programs and Masters degrees requirements, the Library will reorganize its collection development unit and activities around the existing librarians and staff.
• Develop an up-to-date collection development policy for a broader range of formats in order to match them the current needs of the community.
• With the assistance of AUP's Accounting and Finance Departments plan for better resource allocation of FY budget in order to identify and purchase the best possible academic and scholarly information such as electronic resources, e-reference, databases and start building a basic virtual library.

 

2. Organizing, delivering and providing access to information resources - Connecting users and information resources

The Library creates opportunities for learning and research to occur in a variety of environments adapted to the learning and working styles of individual users. Within the limits of its physical and technological infrastructure, the Library provides physical spaces and helps create online environments that are conducive to individual study, collaborative group work, and successful interaction with information resources of all types. In addition, the Library helps connect its users with the wealth of information resources available in the Paris area and worldwide.

 

 

Goals areas:

Organizing information and making it accessible

Apply appropriate and current techniques to organize resources in a way that allows users to easily find the best tools and sources for their research:

• apply best practices to our cataloging of materials in traditional formats (physical and electronic books, films, journals, etc.)
• provide efficient access to both the Library collection and personalized Library account services via the Library's catalog
• create online tools and guides that direct users to high quality resources for their research, whether free or purchased by the Library

Facilitate users' access to materials and information once identified:

• provide convenient circulation of physical materials while applying consistent policies that maintain adequate availability for the community as a whole
• apply a combination of reliable and innovative methods for bringing online content to users in ways most convenient and useful for their research, whether through e-book, article database or other platforms
• simplify users' requests for existing Library services (collection suggestions, ILL requests, reserve lists, reference queries, etc.) by providing a coherent online interface via the Library website, and by collaborating on referral mechanisms with other campus online information services such as ITS and ARC
• cultivate and apply networks and partnerships that make as much as possible of the world's scholarship accessible to our users

Physical space and IT infrastructure for learning and research

Provide physical space, equipped with adequate information technology, that enables users to effectively find, use, share and create information:

• Provide work and reading spaces that are comfortably and ergonomically furnished, arranged in various arrangements according to users' needs to work individually, in groups, or in a classroom setting
• In collaboration with ITS, equip such spaces with computer hardware, software and networking facilities that allow use of an array as wide as possible of individual and collaborative research, communication and productivity tools
• Provide space for and arrange physical research materials in a way that makes them as easy to locate and use as possible while preventing their degradation

Online environments for learning and research

Expand the Library's creation of online environments that help connect users with the information they need for their research, including:

• development of the Library's web presence, through use of a database-driven content management platform and in collaboration with ITS, to simplify the creation and dynamic maintenance of such online resources in a collaborative environment that could allow the Library but also ITS, ARC, faculty members and students to contribute to AUP information resources

Extend the point-of-need integration of library and other relevant information resources and services into the learning and research environments inhabited by our users, including:

• learning management systems
• email, instant messaging and other communication platforms
• web search engines
• browsers and desktop environments

 

Through collaboration with ITS, explore the application of technologies for automated bridging of information resources, including: link resolvers, federated search platforms, and other technologies for automated integration and interoperability.

 

3.  Assisting all its users in becoming self-sufficient, information-literate researchers - Enabling self-sufficiency and information literacy

The Library provides assistance to its users in research and in the use of Library services, using the forms of communication most convenient and best adapted to our users' learning styles, educational level, and technology skills. The Library collaborates with faculty to provide course-integrated information literacy instruction, across the curriculum but with a particular focus on incoming students.

 

Goals:
Provide a user friendly environment with competent and prompt assistance.
​Provide assistance at times when the users most need them.
Offer a variety of modes of interaction such as:

• In person immediate reference services during the week
• Email reference services
• In depth research appointments
• Individualized one-on-one interaction with students (instruction to first-year students if necessary, term paper research help)
• Asynchronous modes of instruction (web tutorials and documentation, Blackboard postings)

Encourage users' feedback on research assistance services

The Library collaborates with faculty to provide course-integrated information literacy instruction, across the curriculum but with a particular focus on incoming students.

 

Goals:
Communicate clearly to the community the characteristics, the "beyond the curriculum" nature, and the importance of information literacy in today's world of proliferating resources
​Work in close collaboration with faculty members and academic administrators when it comes to plan, design, deliver, evaluate, and improve information literacy instruction; this under the leadership and coordination of a designated person.
Have adequately equipped instructional facilities sufficient in number and size
Teach - with the faculty involved - core information literacy competencies as identified by relevant professional associations and accrediting bodies:

• Identifying the information need
• Accessing the needed information
• Evaluating the information and its sources
• Understanding the legal and ethical issues of information use

Support as much as possible diverse teaching approaches as well as learning styles

Design and deliver upper level instruction sessions to students other than first-year students. In particular, address the needs of graduate students, pursue efforts with capstone courses and possibly start engaging in new research methods courses in disciplinary majors.

Gather data regarding the existing instruction program to allow evaluation and assessment

 

4. Facilitating preservation, organization, and access to the intellectual capital of the University - Facilitating stewardship of local scholarly production

The Library collects, archives, and makes available publications produced by faculty, students, and the University.

 

Goal areas:
Identify key scholarly works in selected formats, produced by the University community, for collecting and archiving
​Create policies and standards for submission of such works so that they can be made as accessible as possible for the AUP community
​Explore, in collaboration with other campus stakeholders, systems for managing the submission, storage and accessibility of such works

 

Organizational Values
​The Library is committed to:

Communication. The Library values regular and open communication among Library staff members as well as between the Library and the University administration.

Collaboration and cooperation, both within the University and with external partners by

• leveraging all possible external networks, including local libraries, partner institutions and consortia
• collaborating with the Academic Resource Center, IT Services, academic departments, and other campus units

Service. The Library strives to provide the highest quality of service possible

​Investing in human resources. The Library recognizes the importance of a staff sufficient in size and quality to meet the needs of all users. In particular, the Library encourages staff to capitalize on new developments in librarianship and information technology through

• participation in professional development associations and activities
• making accessible professional literature and materials

Ethical use of information. The Library is committed to respecting, and increasing our users' awareness of, national and international intellectual property laws.