Although somewhat dated, an example of using the S-T-E-P format for Environmental Assessment can be found in:
Mobley, Emily. “The Future: Looking for Tea Leaves to Read” C&RL News 61(10): 898 – 901, November 2000; to find this online, look for the companion article by Stoffle, Carla et al “Predicting the Future: What Does Academic Librarianship Hold in Store?” which begins on pg. 894
(RB)
This page consists of macro-level environmental assessements. It includes an analysis of the forces and factors outside the library that affect the library.
Possibly helpful template for framing your analysis (gc)
http://www.rapidbi.com/resources/PESTLE-ANALYSIS-TEMPLATE.pdf
UC Long Range Enrollment Planning paper (gc)
http://www.ucop.edu/acadaff/swap/pdf/LREP080401_2.pdf
S - Sociocultural Forces (CC, GC)
UCSC Sociocultural.pdf
Calif pop projections.doc
T - Technological (EM, CB)
Technology-Standards, Authorities, Best Practices/Guidelines
Technology is the underpinning of all library services, allowing us to acquire, process, access, deliver, preserve, and store our physical and digital resources. Changes in technology continue to allow new ways to search for, retrieve, and use information, and they also provide new methods for social connection. Putting into motion the re-purposing and conversion of data/collections to new formats, these changes have encouraged us to examine our traditional methods of organizing and ordering ideas and knowledge, and they provide new methods for delivering information.
To utilize technology effectively and to maintain and control information, physical resources, and digital assets in our changing and increasingly digital environment, libraries adhere to technical standards in providing descriptive and structural metadata. Libraries also hold fast to standardized vocabularies and authority control and follow technological guidelines and best practices constructed by those in authoritative international professional organizations and institutes. The development of new standards and new versions are often a response to emerging technologies.
There are many interesting new ideas arising from technologists (e.g., David Weinberger in Everything is Miscellaneous). For example, where in the “third order” of the digital world there is no difference between data and metadata, both assumptions of authority and definitions of order are challenged.
As we consider these ideas and encounter technological changes, staff members will need to:
• keep abreast of developments of standards and authorities (contribute to them via participation in professional organization & committees, testing/evaluating versions, social networking with colleagues, vendors, etc.)
•upgrade their technological skills as new standards, tools, and systems are adopted into work processes, material is digitally converted and/or re-purposed and metadata captured, digital assets are built, stored, and curated.
•stay apprised of emerging technologies and their sociological impacts.
Selected examples of standards, authorities, best practices/guidelines used:
• Library of Congress
Authorities: http://authorities.loc.gov/
Network Development and MARC Standards Office: http://www.loc.gov/marc/
• NISO, the National Information Standards Organization: http://www.niso.org/about/a non-profit association accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), identifies, develops, maintains, and publishes technical standards to manage information.
• NARA, National Archives and Records Administration
Technical Guidelines for Digitizing Archival Materials for Electronic Access:
http://www.archives.gov/preservation/technical/guidelines.html
• CDL, The California Digital Library provides software, best practices, and other tools to facilitate digital library operations. See http://www.cdlib.org/inside/diglib/ for “Digital Library Building Blocks.”
Includes such documents, software and services as:
Guidelines for digital objects, version 2.0: September 2007
Guidelines for digital images, version 2.0: April 2008
Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) encoding guidelines
OAC best practice guidelines for Encoded Archival Description (EAD), version 2.0: February 2005
Pairtrees for Object Storage
BagIt File Package Format
UC-eLinks
eXtensible Text Framework
7train
Date Normalization Utility
Noid (Nice Opaque Identifier) Minting and Binding Tool
Markup data dictionary
E - Economic (CH, DK)
Local economy, how will it affect us?
*
As of this writing there is still no State budget. Proposed state budget plans have varied, but cuts to university budgets and student fee increases have been proposed. The outlook is not good.
- April 2008: Schwarzenegger has proposed a plan to cut higher education funding by about 10%. If enacted this is likely to result in the reduction of enrollment by about 27,000 students statewide over the next 2 1/2 years. Source: Hardship Predicted for Students 4/17/08 http://articles.latimes.com/2008/apr/17/local/me-cuts17
- June 2008: Schwarzenegger’s revised May budget restored $98.5 million from earlier proposed cuts. That budget would still reduce UC’s budget by $234 million, Kliger said. Source: June 2008 Campus provost gives early outline of budget cuts - http://www.ucsc.edu/news_events/text.asp?pid=2257
- UC Santa Cruz will need to cut between $7 million and $12.3 million from its 2008-2009 budget, Campus Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Dave Kliger told the Academic Senate Friday. Source: June 2008 Campus provost gives early outline of budget cuts - http://www.ucsc.edu/news_events/text.asp?pid=2257
Other Economic Factors
- Gas Prices: The rising cost of oil increases the costs for professional development travel and the shipping of materials, thus eroding the libraries purchasing power.
- Student Hardship:
- "UC has been suffering for years from what the Academic Senate Study called a "hollowing" out because of a lack of money. From a distance, all appears normal; once one goes inside, the damage is clear." Source: 4/17/08 Hardship Predicted for Students - http://articles.latimes.com/2008/apr/17/local/me-cuts17
- Federal student aid is getting scarcer - Source: January 08SCUP Trends in Higher Education - http://www.scup.org/knowledge/ttw.html
- Student fees are likely to increase (see above).
Conclusions
"A confluence of forces is likely to make for a bumpy road over the next few years. Economic swings have varied and delayed effects on campuses. There are predictions that 2008 will see higher increases in materials and labor, state budgets are predicted to grow almost 2% less than historical averages, and construction on campuses will be particularly hard hit." Source: SCUP Trends in Higher Education January 08.
All these factors will constrain the availability of funding to the library and the campus, and may restrict what services we can provide.
If students are more financially strapped due to less financial aid, higher university fees, and increased cost of living they will likely rely more heavily on university services including those provided by the University Library.
P - Political (NL, LO)
Local Area
Area libraries:
• Cabrillo is closed on Saturdays and Sundays during their school term, and open only Monday-Thursday during intersessions and Summer.
o Potential Impact: Greater use of the UCSC libraries by non-affiliated students and community members on weekends.
o May limit opportunites to collaborate with area libraries on mutually beneficial projects and services.
o Santa Cruz Public library hours are unchanged, but may potentially be reduced in the future depending on the city budget.
Town/Gown relationship:
• Settlement of lawsuit over LRDP may present increased opportunities for outreach and collaboration with area governments and organizations. The library is typically viewed as a politically neutral entity, whose archival responsibilities and research collections also serve the local area.
o Pro: May help improve the campus relationship with the town if the library is viewed as a positive benefit to the community.
o Con: Our resources are stretched simply providing services to our affiliated users, so outreach endeavors would need to take limited resources into account.
Regional
Silicon Valley Center: http://svi.ucsc.edu
• The campus has a strong interest in forging ties to silicon valley. Uncertain at this time whether this growing center will require staffing – either in-person or remotely.
Partnerships with other academic libraries: SJSU, Santa Clara U, Stanford etc.
• Collections: Interlibrary loan and Link+ may increase awareness and opportunity for collaboration
• Depending on funding there is untapped potential for joint projects such as staff development/training, regional collections, digital projects (i.e. digital preservation) etc.
UC/Consortia:
• The fiscal pinch experienced by each UC campus, as well as other partner institutions may require increased resource sharing and exploration of shared collections.
State
California Budget:
• State budget is unknown, but almost guaranteed to be reduced. Potentially impacts all our services and collections. To what extent is dependent on a final budget being signed by the Governor.
• Anticipated cuts to K-12 funding will have negative impact on future students, as schools are forced to cut programs and funding for library collections and school librarian salaries.
Federal/National
Excerpted from: Trends in Higher Education, Society for College and University Planning, January 2008
• Higher education is facing more challenges than ever as federal and state legislators push accountability, even as they provide fewer public funds. Much is likely to stay unclear until after the election, but some issues will remain.
o There is a continuing push to reform accreditation and increase accountability, which most likely will not be addressed until the new President is elected.
• Ongoing concerns: Policy issues surrounding requirements included in the USA Patriot Act, No Child Left Behind, as well as copyright law, and file sharing on campus and digital rights management.
Global
• In order to remain competitive with other nations, the United States will continue to need to produce PhD’s, particularly in the areas of math and science. Source: A Test of Leadership: Charting the Future of U.S. Higher, 2006http://www.ed.gov/about/bdscomm/list/hiedfuture/reports.html
• Foreign Students o U.S. immigration policies and visa requirements make it difficult for foreign students to attend U.S. colleges and universities. Number of students declined significantly, rebounded somewhat and hover around 4% of total enrollment Source: Chronicle of Higher Education, http://chronicle.com/weekly/v55/i02/02a04101.htm ">http://www.ed.gov/about/bdscomm/list/hiedfuture/reports.html
• Foreign Students
o U.S. immigration policies and visa requirements make it difficult for foreign students to attend U.S. colleges and universities. Number of students declined significantly, rebounded somewhat and hover around 4% of total enrollment Source: Chronicle of Higher Education,
http://chronicle.com/weekly/v55/i02/02a04101.htm ">http://chronicle.com/weekly/v55/i02/02a04101.htm
E - Education/Scholarly Communication (KPS, RD)
For libraries, scholarly communications issues are addressed on systemwide basis within the UC Scholarly Communications Officers group. Scholarly communications efforts also take place on a variety of levels within the local institutions and at UCSC, this tends to be within the Office of Research (http://research.ucsc.edu/) under the direction of VC Bruce Margon.
In this collaborative local environment, UCSC's Office of Researcg together with the Library have not been especially active though the UC SCO group has been addresing issues which will affect all UCs, as well as UCSC. The following from the 2007-08 SCOs final report represents developments at a systemwide level:
"The approval of an open access policy by University of Harvard faculty indicates that targeted marketing and communication of issues related to scholarly communication can be successful. Perhaps the most interesting development was the mandatory deposit of all NIH-supported research into PubMed. SCOs were busy on each campus, working with colleagues and constituencies affected by this law, even assisting in a UC-wide teleconference (http://www.ucop.edu/audit/presentations/abog/nih_pol_webinar_041508.ppt#256,1,NIH Public Access Policy). A scholarly communication web editorial board was established, consisting of SCO and UCOLASC faculty members, to address timeliness and accuracy of information on the UCOLASC Reshaping Scholarly Communication website.
This year was an exceptionally challenging year, given the current budget situation and the downsizing of personnel and responsibilities at UCOP. With John Ober moving to another position at the California Digital Library (CDL), the Office of Scholarly Communication (OSC) is currently being staffed by Catherine Candee, in her new capacity as Executive Director, Strategic Publishing and Broadcast Initiatives. OSC duties are only one of many competing responsibilities on Ms. Candee’s plate, and thus SCO officers have been challenged to find ways to direct and initiate many SC functions from local campuses rather than from a centralized unit, such as OSC. Thus, a request to the University Librarians for a temporary Support Specialist position, to assist SCOs in the transition period was forwarded."
The SCO group has been working to collectively address challenges to the NIH mandate, as well as broaden the education and involvement of faculty in this scholarly communications effort. The mandate, while specific to NIH-funded projects (of which UCSC receives aproximately $18 million/year) has the potential to be transformative for faculty and publishers alike, affecting the published output of all research funded by federal bodies in the future. It sets a model for access to and preservation of federally funded research output and certainly sets the stage for discussion of scholarly deposits into open-access repositories.
That said, UCSC receives comparatively low $$ of NIH funding at this time (compared to several other UC institutions) and lacks a campus-wide, open-access digital repository system. Due to campus ITS priorities, this is unlikely to be addressed in the coming fiscal year - or two - so the library and interested faculty will need to concentrate on addressing UCSC scholarly communications opportunities through the UC e-Scholarship Repository and its underlying BePress SelectedWorks, as well as the available disciplinary OA options. The Library will also need to develop a closer relationship with the Office of Research in order to educate faculty about scholarly communications efforts and the effect on access to scholarly works if faculty continue to misunderstand the value of depositing their work with open-access repositories and organizations. With continuing UC-wide budget impacts, scholarly communications issues as they relate to collections and access issues, are imperative and must be addressed by the Library in the coming year.
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