Mission, Values, and Vision
Mission & Purpose
To advance Western Washington University’s mission and cultivate inclusive excellence, Western Libraries connects people to programs, expertise, collections, and spaces essential for academic success, lifelong learning, and belonging.
Underlying this mission is our foundational purpose as an academic library, which is to:
- Collaborate on and support teaching, learning, and research
- Facilitate connections, co-inquiry, and relationships
- Influence and co-create the information landscape
- Ensure responsible stewardship and preservation of, and access to, information
- Anticipate and support the teaching, research, and creative endeavors of students, staff, faculty, and the broader community
- Advocate for our community and guide library patrons through the evolving intersections of information, technology, humanity, and broader ecosystems
Values
Western Libraries is committed to a culture of curiosity, integrity, and inclusive leadership that encourages bold thinking, critical discourse, shared accountability, and transparent practices. Western Libraries values:
- Barrier-free access
- Collaborative partnerships
- Employee expertise and empowerment
- Equity, social justice, and inclusion
- A diversity of integrated academic literacies (e.g. reading, research, writing, speaking, quantitative reasoning, as well as broad information literacy)
- Intellectual freedom, inquiry, and privacy
- Innovation, creativity, and curiosity
- Learner-centered pedagogies and practices
- Responsible and sustainable stewardship of information resources
Vision
Western Libraries facilitates transformative opportunities for interdisciplinary connection, intellectual growth, and human engagement so that our community can collaborate in addressing the 21st century’s most challenging questions.
Strategic Goals
Goal 1: Student Success
Contribute to students’ success and wellbeing at Western by supporting their academic, intellectual, and professional endeavors as well as their sense of community and belonging. Uphold and advance university and Washington State values of access to higher education through support of, participation in, and leadership on student retention initiatives.
Goal 2: Outreach & Engagement
Engage meaningfully with library stakeholder communities to better understand and support changing needs, and increase the positive impacts of Libraries’ spaces, services, and collections.
Goal 3: Inclusive Pedagogy
Lead, collaborate on, and provide foundational and transformative educational experiences that contribute to a university culture of innovative teaching, scholarship, research, and creative activity.
Goal 4: Collections
Ensure the responsible development, sustainability, and accessibility of Libraries collections to support Western’s academic mission and institutional goals.
Goal 5: Organizational Culture
Model openness, inclusion, and humanity at all levels of library operations. Encourage an efficient, respectful, and empowered workforce that embraces and embodies learning, professional growth, and mutual accountability.