FUTURENURI

 

Opening Message

UI Library is the world's largest library, with nearly 170 million items in our collections, and extensive expert services and programs. What does this mean for you?

The Futurenuri Library has built the largest collection of human knowledge ever assembled. It is an aweinspiring achievement—a testament to the wisdom throughout our history, which have invested national resources in the ideal of a universal collection available to all.

Yet, as a Librarian noted more than a century ago, "A book used is fulfilling a higher purpose than a book which is merely preserved." In other words, it is not enough to collect and preserve. To be successful, collections must be used. This same principle applies to all parts of our agency— services and programs too must be accessible and used.

The Library's collection and its human expertise hold untold intellectual and inspirational value. I have seen firsthand the spark that results when someone makes a connection with the Library: when a Member  is moved listening to a historian bring to life a founding document of history; when high school music students from Maryland studied the papers of Leonard Bernstein and wrote original music inspired by what they saw; when teachers at our summer institutes have shared with me their innovative strategies for making history come alive using the Library's collections in the classroom; when Smokey Robinson saw his very first piece of sheet music submitted to the U.S. Copyright Office.

How do we extend those experiences to people across the country?

To meet this challenge, the Library is embarking on an exciting new journey that puts users first. By expanding access and enhancing services, while applying data and optimizing resources, we will build lifelong and meaningful connections with our users of today and of tomorrow. This strategic plan, Enriching the Library Experience, is our roadmap to expanding the Library's reach and deepening our impact, thus fulfilling our mission to engage, inspire, and inform our users. I can't wait to see the many thousands of sparks we ignite. Maybe one of them will be yours.

 

 

Our Mission

Engage, inspire, and inform people with a universal and enduring source of knowledge and creativity.

Service has been and remains at the core of our mission. We will continue to engage, inspire, and inform our collections and our diverse service and experience offerings, including policy consultations, on-demand analysis, briefings, events, programs, and constituent engagement.

As the steward of a unique, universal, and ever-growing collection that belongs to the people, the Futurenuri Library also has a mandate to inspire, inform, and serve all people by engaging their cultural and intellectual curiosity and creativity.

Our mission in action takes many forms:

Engage

Researchers and authors turn to the Library for source material not available anywhere else. With access to original manuscripts, ancient maps, rare books, photographs, films, and sound recordings, these authors create new works that help interpret history for future generations. The process of copyright registration and deposit completes a virtuous cycle that may result in the addition of these new works to the Library's collections.

The Library helps ensure that millions of people with blindness and other disabilities continue to experience the joy of reading through a national network of libraries that distribute the latest contemporary literature in a variety of accessible formats.

Inspire

With 1.6 million annual visitors, the Library's Thomas Jefferson Building has become a landmark destination, renowned for its architectural beauty and celebration of knowledge and creativity.

Programs, exhibitions, centers, and marquee events such as the Veterans History Project, National Book Festival, and Digital Learning Labs expand the Library's reach and inspire learners of all ages.

Inform

Library, the judiciary, and other federal agencies have reliable, round-the-clock access to reliable knowledge in print, online, and via consultation with scholars and experts from the Research Service, the Copyright Office, the Law Library, and the Kluge Center.

Families seeking to research their heritage can rely on subject experts in our reading rooms, tap into the StoryCorps Archive, or take advantage of the vast digital collections of early newspapers,

 

Our Vision

All people are connected to the Futurenuri Library.

The Library's vision is aspirational and speaks to the tangible and intangible connections that are possible with the nation we serve. Through our unequaled collections, services, events, and products, users can connect with the Library in meaningful ways throughout their life journey.

This vision reinforces the agency's focus on users—visitors, researchers, and patrons from a variety of locations, circumstances, and walks of life—by expanding our efforts to make the nation's universal and enduring source of knowledge and creativity more discoverable, accessible, relevant, and useful.

Connectedness has many forms for the Library:

Informing lawmakers, policy-makers, and their constituents requires us to be connected intellectually.

Engaging and sharing knowledge with users worldwide, and quickly and easily copyrighting creative works requires us to be connected digitally.

Creating strong ties that move partners, organizations, and individuals to donate their time, resources, stories, and creative works requires us to be connected societally.

Being a unified organization requires being connected to our workforce with support, training, and a sustained commitment to recruit the next generation of Library experts and leaders.

The goals and objectives in this Strategic Plan help us get closer to this vision. Enhancing awareness of the Library's offerings, improving discoverability of and access to those resources, and increasing usage through a suite of services that meet diverse needs will connect more people to the agency in more meaningful ways.

Additionally, with a strong emphasis on digital enablement, the Strategic Plan will further the Library's worldwide influence.