Vision 2020:  A 21^st Century Vision of

Penfield Library at SUNY Oswego

The Context for our Vision

                No one could have predicted fifteen years ago the incredible technological advances that would by 2006 utterly transform the storage of and access to information.  Likewise, it is difficult to predict exactly what changes in the next fifteen years will affect our campus and our library. Nevertheless, it seems safe to assert that by 2020 new information technologies will provide access to a vast array of materials in different media.  Increases in electronic and multimedia holdings will undoubtedly outpace the expansion of our print collections, and some of those print materials will be moved to storage to make room for other learning activities related to the library’s mission.  We assume that students, faculty, and staff will have not only more advanced technological skills but also more complex information needs.  Thus, librarians will increasingly be called upon to partner with faculty, staff, and students as experts in the analysis, evaluation, and communication of information and knowledge.  In addition, we expect to see new modes of course delivery, expanded use of distance education, more fluid boundaries between disciplines, and a greater diversity among the students on our residential campus.  Concurrent changes in society, academic programs, and students’ expectations will spur physical and virtual adaptations in the library as well.  As it adapts, Penfield Library will play an increasingly important role in supporting the learning-centered mission of SUNY Oswego.

A Vision for Penfield Library

In the 21^st century Penfield Library will be a physical and virtual nexus of scholarly and creative activities, a forum for academic exchange, a center of academic support, and a portal to high quality information and knowledge.  Library resources and librarians will facilitate the scholarly work and professional studies of students, faculty, and staff from their first inquiries to the completion of their projects. The library will promote connections across disciplines, cultures, generations, communities, and technologies and will play a leading role in information literacy, management, and evaluation.  It will provide access to well-chosen, well-organized virtual and physical collections in support of our curriculum and our mission as a comprehensive college.  It will prize, preserve, and make available its unique archives documenting the history of the College and the region.

 Penfield Library will promote intellectual integrity, disciplined inquiry, free and open access to information, life-long curiosity and love of learning, democratic attitudes and perspectives, respect for the past, and hope for the future.   These commitments and values will be reflected in interactions with individuals and groups, instructional activities, collections, exhibits, and library events; and they will spread across campus through face-to-face and virtual interactions between librarians and all library users.

             Penfield Library as a place will be inviting and inspiring to all who enter.   An attractive entrance will greet those arriving on foot or by car along the east-west corridor of campus.  Once inside the library, people will easily find areas of service and support to meet their scholarly and personal needs.  A variety of comfortable and easily accessible study environments (quiet, social, individual, group, technology-rich) will be distributed throughout the building.  Other areas will be devoted to instruction and events; professional and student skill development; print and multimedia collections; electronic access to collections and software; and staff work.  Interior spaces will be open, adaptable, and filled with natural light.  Walls and furnishings will complement the library’s purposes and programs.  Displays will be educational and thought-provoking. 

            Form and function will coincide.  Penfield Library will be at once a physical place and a virtual space for efficient research and serendipitous discovery.  It will serve to open a universe of possibilities within and beyond its walls.

The Library Visioning Committee, 2005-6