Provost addresses strategic vision for Heard Library
Posted 7/27/2009
Provost Richard McCarty
McCarty offered his perspective on the future of not only the Heard Library but also the university during an all-staff library meeting on July 21 at the School of Nursing Annex. “These are unprecedented times,” McCarty said in describing the challenging financial environment and credit crisis. “Vanderbilt, with good management and a little bit of magic, has come through this incredibly challenging year in a very strong position,” McCarty said. However, he also said that he does not think the financial challenges facing the nation and universities including Vanderbilt are going away anytime soon.
McCarty noted that creating a dean of libraries position is a significant move forward for the library system, and he continues to be pleased with Connie Dowell’s leadership in this role. “Vanderbilt’s head of libraries traditionally has not been at the table when meetings of the school deans were held,” he said. “That’s presented a real mismatch in terms of collaborations that naturally occur between the deans that are charged with managing faculty and students and the libraries that are charged with supporting the scholarly work on campus. Now all the voices can be heard, and the deans’ meetings are a critical venue for Connie as she develops relationships across campus.”
A major funding structural change for the four undergraduate schools – Arts and Science, Blair, Engineering and Peabody – is elimination of tuition exchange dollars. “What you will see is more cooperation without loss of entrepreneurship among the deans and schools,” McCarty said. “Our students will be the beneficiary of this with just about every barrier to free inquiry now removed for our undergraduates.” He explained that in the past, students sometimes were discouraged from moving across school boundaries because one school would lose tuition dollars when the student took courses within another school. McCarty would like to see a similar model of cooperation develop among the various campus libraries.
“What I anticipate with Connie’s appointment is a strong dean of libraries who manages the resources of the entire system with an eye toward efficiency and also with better interconnections, so that one library is not doing something in isolation that might actually benefit two or three others,” McCarty said. “This will be a boost for all our students and faculty.”
McCarty promised to do all that he could to support Dowell and the proposed Central Library improvement project. However, plans for new construction across campus were scaled back dramatically last fall due to funding constraints. “I am not in favor of a new building for the Central Library because we have a strong structure already and its position on campus is unparalleled,” he said. “We also don’t have the funding.” He acknowledged that the Central Library is not the most user friendly building, and one of the goals is to make it attractive enough that campus tour groups will want to go inside. McCarty anticipates a series of smaller renovations. “With the help of talented architects, we can have some of the most beautiful reading rooms in the country,” he said.” We need to reposition the old library addition, but not repurpose it, and we hope to do this in a timely fashion.” He added that he would be delighted if the first phase of renovations could get underway next summer, but he said he cannot make any commitments on a start-up date.
Dean Dowell has been meeting with various groups of staff, faculty and alumni to listen to their recommendations and concerns before moving forward with enhancement proposals.
During the meeting, the provost also discussed some of the complexities of open access publishing, the growing movement to allow free online access to research published in academic journals. McCarty, who noted that the Obama administration supports open access to information from federally supported research, said that the time may come when published articles will be freely available through the internet.
“It may evolve into a system in which the author pays for the charges associated with formatting and publishing the article, but how do you ensure access to all the material that has been archived through the years?” he asked. “Also, many of our large scientific societies depend on publishing revenues to support their activities.” The provost does support a proposal that has gone before the Vanderbilt Faculty Senate to create a university archival repository to preserve the intellectual property of faculty and staff. He continues to study the issue as part of a group charged by the Science and Technology Committee of the Congress and convened by the Association of American Universities.
Contact: Ann Marie Owens, (615) 322-NEWS
annmarie.owens@vanderbilt.edu
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