EBSCO, one of the leading supplier of support services and digital content to libraries of all types and sizes, recently organized and hosted a one-day Strategic Summit for Academic Library Deans, held in Scottsdale, Arizona, on Friday, September 29, 2023.

Two dozen library deans from a wide variety of academic libraries attended, ranging in size from Colorado College with approximately 2,000 students to Arizona State University, with approximately 144,000 students. Eight members of EBSCO’s team also participated. Many western states were represented, including Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Texas, and Wyoming. 

Topics discussed during the day-long summit included: 

• The University of Northern Iowa is exploring new roles for existing library staff members. General discussion of the trend toward higher-skilled library jobs. Opportunities for librarians beyond traditional roles and responsibilities
• OER (Open Educational Resources) Initiatives
• Loyola University of Chicago is realigning all of their campus libraries under a new management structure
• Inclusive engagement initiatives
• How academic libraries can support transdisciplinary research and scholarship
• Interoperable organizations and information systems
• Discussion of future roles and opportunities for library consortia
• The general health of the section of the information industry that supports academic libraries
• Responsible AI
• Data Analytics in the real world
• Open Source Software and open source communities
• Digital scholarship and machine learning
• Linked open data and new methods of creating metadata, perhaps using AI
• Intellectual Freedom in Higher Education

Tom Peters, Dean of Library Services at Missouri State University, was one of the invited representatives. EBSCO provides a wide range of content and services to the MSU university community, including hosting FOLIO, the new state-of-the-art open-source integrated library system, EDS (EBSCO’s Discovery Service), digital research databases, ebooks, and much more.