Policy and mission statement
On this page, you will find the university library's policy plan for 2030. This plan is aligned with the university's strategic plan for 2030.
Our mission
We connect people and scholarly information, to create, share and use knowledge.
Our core values
Open, Trustworthy and Service-oriented
These values form the basis of our services and collaboration. They determine how we deal with information and with each other.
Adding value
This policy plan describes how the library will add value to the academic community of Utrecht University in the coming years. It is in line with the Universitty's strategic plan 2030.
As a library, we add value in various ways. We create value as a service provider in the field of scholarly information for researchers, lecturers and students at our university. At the same time, we are aware that information only really becomes valuable when people use it. Sharing it openly is an important condition for this, but that alone is not enough: information does not stand alone, but only gains meaning in interaction with people. So it is also about how we deal with information and with each other. It requires conscious choices and commitment to do this in a fair, transparent and inclusive way. That is how we create not just added value, but true value.
This plan helps us to determine our direction in this regard. We have not written it as a roadmap with goals and milestones, but as a compass. It indicates how we continually make new choices, based on developments in the world around us and what we stand for as the library of Utrecht University. Where we see opportunities that match our strengths as a library, we have formulated ambitions in this plan. That is where we can add the most value.
Of course, we do not do this alone: we collaborate with others to achieve our ambitions and, in turn, help them to realise theirs. Open, reliable and service-oriented: we want to be a partner you can count on.
Our mission ' We connect people and scholarly information to create, share and use knowledge'
Every day, we work to realise this mission. We do this based on our core values, which describe what we stand for as a library. They lead in everything we do, and form the basis of our services and the way we work together.
Open
We make our collections accessible and usable for everyone. We share the scholarly output of the UU with society, in line with the principles of Open Science. Openness goes beyond simply opening up. It means that we consciously and actively work on diversity, inclusion and hospitality. In this way, we ensure that everyone feels welcome and seen in our services and buildings and can benefit from our services.
Trustworthy
For centuries, the library has been a trustworthy organisation for storing, and making, scholarly information accessible and available for (re)use. Expert and committed staff are dedicated to making this possible, both today and in the future. In a world of change, we remain steadfast in what we do and who we are. Our users can count on us.
Service-oriented
We help students, lecturers and researchers to learn, discover and investigate. Together, we work on today’s major themes. We organise our services so that they offer the most value to our users. We listen, contribute ideas and adapt our services to what is needed. We ensure that our users can access our services and that these services genuinely meet their needs.
The library manages and provides access to scholarly information, in both digital and physical form. This makes us the university’s content manager. The library is also a recognisable gathering place on campus, fostering connections within the academic community and between the university and the city. We collaborate with colleagues nationally and internationally. We do this by participating in networks in which we share knowledge, learn from each other and work together. This is essential to advance the system of scholarly communication. By committing ourselves to a global, sustainable and open knowledge infrastructure, we contribute to a world in which scholarly information is truly accessible to everyone.
The world around us is changing rapidly and is often unpredictable. Geopolitical tensions, rising nationalism and polarisation are putting pressure on public values, academic freedom and trust in science. Digitalisation and new technologies, such as (Gen)AI, bring opportunities for research and society. However, these developments also raise questions about ethics, reliability, privacy and autonomy. This is especially true given that dependence on large commercial parties entails risks. This increases the urgency for digital sovereignty and knowledge security within the university. It also increases the need to maintain control over access to and use of scholarly information. The UU is committed to independent, transparent research, and a decisive, agile organisation. The university’s 2030 strategic plan includes five guiding principles for this: Collaboration across borders, Future-proof education, Open Science, Engaged community and Focus on sustainable transitions. The library contributes to these strategic ambitions based on our mission, core values and position. This policy plan is in line with the guiding principles. The chapter on strategic opportunities and ambitions describes how we do this.
Opportunities arise when external developments create a need or possibility, and we, as a library, have the qualities and position to respond. Such opportunities come from the world around us, but we recognise them through our own strengths. Where these two coincide, we as a library can meet a need and deliver even greater added value for education, research and society. Not seizing the opportunity is therefore not really an option; it would literally be a missed opportunity in terms of what we can mean to our academic community.
We have elaborated the opportunities we have identified into three strategic ambitions. They guide the choices we will make as a library in the coming years. They articulate where we can offer the most added value and thus form the compass for our decisions:
- We strenghten our connecting role in the network of university, city and region
- We safeguard public values in the handling of scholarly information
- We increase the research community's ownership of its research results.
Based on these ambitions, we determine what we do, where we focus our resources, expertise and time, and which initiatives we prioritise. In this way, the ambitions help us to maintain focus, make choices and preserve coherence in our work. Below, we describe the ambitions based on the following elements: the developments that create the opportunity, why we as a library can respond to this opportunity, our ambition, and the added value this will generate. We translate these ambitions into specific goals and actions for each department in the annual plans. The policy plan forms the basis for this: the annual plans set out what is needed to realise the ambitions.
We strenghten our connecting role in the network of university, city and region
Development
Utrecht University works to solve complex social issues across disciplinary boundaries. By connecting thinkers and doers, the university aims to ensure that new insights actually find their way into society. At the same time, polarisation and the abundance of (mis)information are contributing to a situation in which facts are less readily accepted and mutual understanding is under pressure. This makes openness and transparency essential and calls for a strong connection between the university, the city and the region.
Our strength
The library is a place where knowledge, people and perspectives come together. Our buildings are located literally and symbolically at the heart of the campus and the city. We are recognisable, accessible and connected to all faculties. This makes us an ideal place where people can meet and engage with each other across disciplinary and organisational boundaries.
Our ambition
That is why we aim to strengthen our connecting role in the coming years. We are developing the library into a true “third place”: an accessible, inclusive and safe space to be, meet and discover. Together with our users, we are designing our buildings to invite this. With our public programme, we organise and facilitate activities that focus on connecting people and scholarly information. We also actively promote our heritage and use it as a source of context and historical awareness. We do this physically in our buildings and with partners in the area, as well as digitally.
The added value
In this way, we contribute to a committed community and student well-being. By showing what the university does and is, we reduce the distance between scholarship and society. At the same time, we offer a platform for new forms of collaboration and co-creation in education and research.
We safeguard public values in the handling of scholarly information
Development
Digitisation and technological developments, such as AI, are changing how information is created, shared and used. Information is abundant, but its origin cannot always be traced. Information can be biased or deliberately manipulated. At the same time, we depend on commercial parties to make information accessible and analyse it. This puts pressure on the reliability and integrity of information. This requires safeguarding the public values that underpin (open) science.
Our strength
As a library, we have traditionally played the role of guardian of knowledge and are an independent and reliable authority in the handling of information. Equality, justice, diversity and transparency are public values that we ourselves apply on a daily basis in the management of information. Thanks to our expertise in teaching the responsible use of information, we can also translate these values into the working practices of the entire university. In the coming period, we want to take active control of public values in dealing with scholarly information.
Our ambition
We do this first and foremost by offering the academic community guidance on the ethical and responsible use of information and AI. We advise faculties on how to integrate public values into education, research and content management. As a library, we support this with policies and guidelines where necessary and continue to offer training and guidance on the responsible use of information, data, code and AI. Based on our expertise, we develop the range of training courses and modules for the entire university. We approach information skills as part of a broader set of academic skills and in line with the final intended learning outcomes of each study programme.
In addition, we integrate these public values into our collection and content management. We do this by taking into account the origin of collections, ensuring an inclusive and diverse collection, and explicitly incorporating public values into licensing conditions. This also means that we improve the accessibility of our collections, for example for (digital) visitors with disabilities. We work on achieving equality in education by promoting and supporting the creation, publication, and sharing of open learning materials.
The added value
In this way, we ensure that as a library we not only make information available, but also set an example in the careful, inclusive and ethical management of knowledge. In addition, students, lecturers and researchers learn to use information consciously and responsibly. This makes research more transparent, reliable and fair. It strengthens the public role of the university and the credibility of academic research in society.
We increase the research community's ownership of its research results
Development
Open Science is the norm at Utrecht University. Research results must be findable, accessible and reusable for everyone. More and more of Utrecht University’s research results are openly available. At the same time, researchers are still dependent on commercial parties for the publication and evaluation of research results. This limits their autonomy and the digital sovereignty of the university. To safeguard this, the research community needs to have greater ownership of their research output, data and information.
Our strength
The library is the university’s content manager. We provide access to scholarly information, manage UU research results and support researchers in openly sharing their output. This role and our knowledge of licences, intellectual property rights, FAIR principles and open infrastructures enable us to increase ownership of research results.
Our ambition
Researchers must be able to share their own research results in such a way as to achieve maximum impact, and therefore be able to dispose of their own results. In the coming period, we want to strengthen this ownership by helping faculties take control of their choices in open publishing. Each faculty develops its own publication strategy and makes conscious choices about how to allocate its content budget for closed or open access. The library acts as a strategic advisor in this process and creates the conditions that enable this ownership.
For research data, we invest in the infrastructure needed to manage this data securely and share it openly wherever possible. In the Research Data Board and the Utrecht Digital Competence Centre, we work together with faculties to enable researchers to apply the FAIR principles. In addition, we want to systematically make research information available as a source of information for sustainable operational management (Research Intelligence). In this way, we create opportunities for evidence-based decision-making and strengthen long-term strategic choices.
The added value
In this way, we strengthen the position of the research community and increase the university’s sovereignty. We also make scholarly information in all forms and from all stages of research widely accessible and applicable.