Assisted by a Mellon planning grant and led by principal investigator Sarah Thomas, a Cornell University project team investigated the potential of significant structural reorganization that would increase the value of the Library’s services to the University. The study revealed that the proposed benefits of restructuring are better support for scholarly creativity and communication; use of library space that privileges library users; more cost-effective allocation of resources; and the development of a new infrastructure to permit new relationships between libraries to flourish, enabling improved services at lower cost. To provide information from all the relevant stakeholders who would be affected by a reorganization, the project team engaged in a year-long research effort involving more than a dozen initiatives to collect and analyze data. Part I of the document contains the final project report to Mellon; Part II contains extensive appendices containing library staff and consultants’ reports; the outcomes of a planning retreat with prominent library leaders; and the findings of a market survey of 1,000 New York State libraries, archives, historical societies and museums to gather data for assessing and planning an innovative, entrepreneurial library service center for collection storage and access; preservation, conservation and cataloging; digital library services; and a conference and training center.
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/karen_calhoun/30/