VisionThe Library is a center of discovery - entrepreneurial, knowledge driven, and timeless.
To be a center of discovery means that the Library's collections, services, and facilities enable learning, scholarship, and knowledge creation. The Library, whether onsite or online, is a resource for Syracuse University students, faculty, staff, and alumni, as well as the broader community of users beyond the University. The Library is a welcome conduit for the curious and their pursuit of understanding.
To be entrepreneurial means that Library staff members use their energy and intellect to reinvent and enhance their work to heighten services to faculty and students and to preserve the collections. They assemble data and knowledgeable staff teams to analyze and improve services, physical spaces, and the digital environment. The entrepreneurial approach-- questioning, creative, and resourceful-- seeks better answers to make the Library a learning organization, one that constantly changes as it strives to be an integral component of teaching, learning, and research.
A knowledge-driven library reflects decisions that are informed and well-researched, focusing on both global issues and local exigencies. The Library functions with the understanding that change is constant and evolution is energizing, and teaches that the creation of new ideas requires the effective gathering and sharing of generated knowledge.
The idea of the library - a refuge for human knowledge - is timeless. Syracuse University Library's collections span 4,000 years and range from Sumerian cuneiform tablets to 21st century digital data sets. Even while the types and forms of knowledge change, the library strives to keep pace, never losing sight of its purpose: to collect and preserve the cultural record for generations of students and scholars.
The Library's overarching goals are to improve student outcomes, to attract and support world-class faculty, and to preserve the treasures of society and culture.
