Most current version:

The library's instruction mission is to enhance learning and integrate information competency into the curriculum. Library staff partner with faculty and other instructors to help all members of the academic community to find their way into collections, and to master research techniques and methods. In a rapidly changing information and education environment, we help them learn the skills needed to  find, read, evaluate, and use complex resources from the Cornell University Library and beyond, in a confident, efficient, and ethical fashion.  

The library's instruction mission is to enhance learning and integrate information competency into the curriculum. Library staff partner with faculty and other collaborators to empower students and other members of the community to become researchers and knowledge producers-. We teach them the skills needed to confidently and efficiently find, evaluate and ethically use complex information sources from the Cornell University Library and beyond in a rapidly changing information environment.-

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3 Comments

  1. Anonymous

    Mar 15, 2010

    Maybe there should be something in the statement about teaching the students to access CUL's collection. My thinking comes from the amont of money that is spent on the resources.

  2. Anonymous

    Feb 03, 2010

    Some suggested rewordings:
    "The Cornell University Library's mission is to..."
    Something about "effective researchers", perhaps.
    Something about efficiency. "to confidently and efficiently find".
    "Rapidly changing information environment".
    I'm glad you wrote "library staff" and not "librarians". It's not just librarians who teach.
    What's missing is any indication that we use cutting edge tools in this process.

  3. Anonymous

    Mar 16, 2010

    Hello!

     The last anonymous remark needs to be taken into account.

    Also, "to become researchers" may be ambivalent. Cornell is a research university, and yet only a small number of Cornellians "become researchers" in the professional sense. It takes decades, sometimes a life to become a researcher. Some students just need to write a research paper.

    "The community" is also ambivalent = we're all members of several communities. Here I think we point out to the academic community at large = Cornell and beyond -- even though we also work actively with local communities, and welcome all visitors, I believe they're not directly concerned by this mission statement.

     "Information sources" may be too limitative: students and faculty are looking for all kinds of (re)sources: primary sources, bibliographical references,illustrations, digital art, translations in different languages, and last but not least new ideas and concepts etc.

     I would also add one verb: "read". It applies to texts, but also images, maps, etc. I've had many students who are able to "find" a source, but do not know how to "read" it and therefore "use" it inadequately - quite often we can help them here with a set of tools, techniques and alternatives. This is different from "evaluate", which means that they hierarchize and select the best or fit-for-purpose source they need,  

     Finally, it;'sot just the information environment that changes, it's also teaching (interaction / technologies in class, etc.).

     Therfore I would suggest the following slight changes:

    The library's instruction mission is to enhance learning and integrate information competency into the curriculum. Library staff partner with faculty and other instructors to help all members of the academic community to find their way into collections, and to master research techniques and methods*. In a rapidly changing information and education environment, we teach them the skills needed to  find, read, evaluate, and use complex resources from the Cornell University Library and beyond, in a confident, efficient, and ethical fashion.* -Laurent