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Collection building in today’s technologically rich library environment should include library mission statements that embody all types of formats. It has become the role of the librarian to revisit mission statements and collection development policies periodically and examine the contents for the latest in technology. All library resources formats should be encompassed in the statements developed. The library mission statement should be clear and concise. It is important that the document should project the university’s and library’s goals and objectives. Working in conjunction with the university’s goals, the mission statement should become a foundation for the collection development decision process.

Considers the vocabulary employed by writers of library planning documents, and analyses the terms used for the various concepts. Notes that concepts are often given diverse terminology in planning documents, and that frequently there are inconsistencies in the application of concepts as well as terms. Proposes definitions for three key concepts: mission, plan and goal.

The purpose of this paper is to determine how academic library mission statements are related to their parent institution mission statements.

Using a random sample of the US colleges and universities, library and their respective college or university mission statements were compared using discourse analysis.

This study shows a very weak link between college or university mission statements and library mission statements in the majority of cases.

This paper opens a discussion of the value and purpose of library mission statements with the context of parent institution mission statements.

The purpose of this paper is to review the websites of 22 national libraries in Ibero-America to determine whether and how effectively they display these organisations’ mission statements, as well as any convergence/divergence among these texts.

A review was conducted of the national library websites of ABINIA’s 22 members to locate their respective mission statements. The statements identified were analysed and evaluated against the positioning and presence criteria and wording proposed by experts.

Website content clearly attests to national libraries’ eagerness to publicise their mission statements, which are readily accessible in most cases. Their functions are represented to a more or less standard pattern. Most are portrayed as institutions responsible for custodying, enriching, preserving and disseminating their countries’ cultural legacy. Other purposes mentioned include the promulgation of and accessibility to the heritage custodied.

The paper may prove useful for professional librarians involved in drafting or revising their organisation’s mission statement in the wake of changing circumstances or on the occasion of the formulation of a new strategic plan.

Of the very short number of analyses of libraries’ mission statements published to date, none discusses national libraries. This is the very first study of national library mission statement in Ibero-America. It forms part of a line of research dealing with national library mission statements defined and available on institutional websites for countries anywhere in the world.

Mission statements are used for a variety of reasons in organizations, including defining the purpose of the institution, communicating with its stakeholders, shaping its strategic planning process, providing a realistic snapshot of its everyday work, and outlining its future goals or objectives (among many others). For many academic libraries, mission statements are used to showcase resources, services, technologies, and innovations. The purpose of this study is to examine the mission statements of libraries that have won the ACRL Excellence in Libraries Award and analyze whether (or not) the winning libraries used innovation to create a distinct environment that was reflected through their mission statements. The study uses the work of Pearce and David (1987) to determine what elements are included in the mission statements. This chapter utilizes qualitative methodology in the study.

Pearce and David (1987) outline eight elements found in mission statements: target customer; principal products/services; geographic domain; core technologies; survival, growth, or profit; company philosophy; self-concept; and public image. This qualitative study finds that the mission statements of the academic libraries collectively included seven of the elements, omitting survival, growth, or profit universally. Also, the inclusion of these elements allows many of the libraries to create their unique description, unveiling a commitment to innovation.

As an original research study, this chapter adds a unique perspective to the concept of innovation in academic libraries, particularly as it examines the mission statements of award-winning libraries to determine if innovation is found in these foundational documents.

Academic institutions struggle to differentiate themselves in the eyes of prospective students. Schools use their institutional missions to communicate their unique purposes and goals with core constituencies, but often the mission is not shared during recruitment. Academic libraries can assist in recruiting students by communicating the institution's mission through their collections. This paper aims to focus on the efforts of Brigham Young University's L. Tom Perry Special Collections.

This case study examines the approach of Brigham Young University's L. Tom Perry Special Collections, which has worked with its campus admissions office by serving as a stop on campus tours for high‐priority academic and athletic recruits.

These tour sessions are more than just quick show‐and‐tell sessions; they are opportunities to discuss the university's unique “Aims of a BYU Education”.

The case study provides new perspectives on how academic libraries can demonstrate value by tying their services and collections to recruitment efforts and to the mission of their parent institutions.

In Quebec, where a large majority of public libraries are municipal departments, the mission of the libraries must be defined in collaboration with city councillors and acknowledged by them. The purpose of this paper is to understand the views of city councillors in Quebec on the mission of public libraries, and to compare them to actual library practices.

The research strategy adopted is a multiple case study. Interviews were conducted with 12 city councillors who represent their library on the city council. These interviews and the municipal cultural policies were subjected to a discourse analysis. The interviews with the directors of the public libraries and some documents were subjected to content analysis.

A conceptual framework based on the theory of social construction of reality is proposed to study the discourses of city councillors in their textual dimension, to contextualise them and to analyse them in comparison with library practices.

There is no homogeneous view among city councillors in Quebec on the mission of public libraries. However, a model of the discourse of city councillors does emerge. It is less developed than current literature. It presents a passive image of the library in which the tradition continues, ignoring the Information Society. The analysis also revealed that the views of city councillors are based on their own convictions as individuals, on their role in the management of the municipality as elected officials, and on the image they have of the users of public libraries.

Utilizing creative campus partnerships, alliances, and mergers, libraries can move from a traditional support role to a more participatory role that actively engages a university’s academic mission. Libraries, as centralizing, politically neutral hubs for information, can serve as catalysts for collaborative planning that paves the way for creating innovative campus spaces and services in conjunction with other academic or general campus units. By forging alliances and merging services and resources with campus partners, such as Information Technology (IT) and the English and Communication departments, the library can address student need and initiate transformational changes—changes that are broader in scope than those within traditional library functions. The case study in this chapter provides an exploration of the merging of library services with a writing center, an effort which was enhanced by adding an oral communication support service. It provides examples of what can be accomplished through visionary leadership and teamwork in 21st-century academic libraries, focusing on how student need and library use prompted institutional change at a mid-sized regional comprehensive university. The authors highlight the essential structural and operational mergers and alliances involved in integrating existing and developing library and campus initiatives to create a unique integrated service point for research, writing, and oral communication in the heart of the university’s main library. The case study also identifies continued partnership and collaboration, and briefly outlines methods through which libraries might initiate similar transformational changes and mergers at their own institutions, serving as a model for similar alliances in other settings.

It has been suggested that “space and artifacts constitute systems of communication which organizations build up within themselves” (Gagliardi, 1992a, b, p. vi) and reflect the cultural life within that organization. This is a study of how the “landscape” of a public library (“Library X”), as an information retrieval system, relates to the values of the people who created it. The efforts here are geared towards understanding the physical instantiation of institutional culture and, more specifically, institutional values as they are reflected through the artifact.