I am delighted to join the UF community as the Dean of University Libraries and welcome the challenge of ensuring that the university libraries meet the current needs of our users and are poised to further President Machen's vision of UF becoming a top ten public university.
Taking on the challenge of leading the libraries of a university of this size into the future was a major attraction of this position for me and I especially look forward to serving such a large and diverse population. As superintendent of documents at the U.S. Government Printing Office, I work extensively with academic and research libraries, but being the dean will certainly be a different role for me.
Building collections of international distinction that support the full range of UF teaching and research activities will continue to be one of our major goals. At the same time, we will expand and improve library services and facilities. We will strive to set the standard for high quality service to all our users with outstanding reference and instruction from our knowledgeable faculty and staff, as well as to provide you with excellent educational and cultural exhibits and programs.
We will strengthen our relationship with faculty and expand our support for the curriculum with both new and existing library resources, in both print and electronic form. We will continue to collaborate with the colleges and other campus units to promote the information access goals of the whole institution and position UF to deal with the rapid societal changes being advanced by technology.
The libraries will participate actively in the capital campaign and partner with individuals, corporations and foundations to secure necessary funding to support these goals and meet the future needs of our users.
The libraries continue to evolve, grow and adapt to the changing needs of you, our users. Your continued input and feedback help make that possible. We appreciate your past support and look forward to working with you now and in the exciting future. If you have comments or suggestions, please contact me at jcrussell@ufl.edu.
