Vision and Mission
The Angus L Macdonald Library supports the academic ideals and vision of St. Francis Xavier University through library resources, programs, services and personnel. Excellence in teaching and research demands that we share knowledge and skills. We therefore form collaborative partnerships both within and outside the University to provide a high level of collection access, information literacy initiatives and preservation projects. It is imperative that we work to preserve the local records of the past, help individuals inform themselves of the present, and prepare future generations for the information environment of the 21st century. While the Angus L Macdonald Library honours past successes, we continue to seek innovative, effective applications for technology as well as new opportunities to engage with others on our path to excellence.
Vision
To be a learning community in which all share in the universe of knowledge, facilitating learning, teaching, and research in a collaborative work environment.
Mission
To achieve this we will:
- Assist and promote excellence in learning and support for teaching and research.
- Through collaboration and partnerships serve as a gateway to print and electronic resources that are vital to research and scholarship.
- Enhance the library’s traditional role of preservation and access by creating local digital resources with an emphasis on regional knowledge and information.
- Provide a sense of place both physically and virtually for our community of users.
Value Statements
- Literacy and learning -- We foster information literacy to support University teaching and learning, independent research and life-long learning.
- Research Support – We recognize the integral role of research and its dissemination. We support research and scholarly endeavours by providing resources through acquisitions, electronic delivery and collaboration; by keeping abreast of the latest developments in the dissemination of research and by developing tools and services to support and promote researchers.
- Information Access – We value our role as a community resource for copyright, intellectual property and information use (e.g. access to information). We support initiatives that encourage open access to information.
- Learning support -- We strive to ensure that both our on campus and distance students have library resources, services and programs that are equitable.
- Intellectual freedom – We defend the intellectual freedom of all members of our community.
- Service -- We demand quality and excellence from ourselves, especially in our services, basing our policies and procedures on our service ethic.
- Ethics -- We will uphold, as individuals and as an organization, the highest standards of civility in our interactions, by respecting individuality, privacy, and autonomy, and by creating an ethical and harassment free environment both physically and virtually.
- Confidentiality – We ensure the privacy of our patron and confidentiality of library records.
- Place –We value the library as a place, both virtual and physical providing an environment which is welcoming, functional, contemporary and adaptive.
- Collaboration -- We value the increased capabilities that result when we act collaboratively on and off campus.
- Community minded -- Recognizing St Francis Xavier’s strong commitment to community outreach and service to society, we strive to support this commitment in the local community.
- Diversity -- We value diversity and strive to ensure it in our information resource offerings, in our staff and in our services.
- Promotion – We advance University-wide awareness, recognition and support of library programs, staff, collections and services
