some topics for the coming year

Well finals are done. The Watzek Library holiday cards are almost in the mail. And the library's holiday party starts at 2pm today in the Pamplin room.

Here are a few topics that I'd like to post on in the coming months:

• library budgets: is there a balance to be struck between acquisitions and operations/staffing? Are we drifting one way or another?
• collections and space: are our collections still growing in a physical sense?
  
• the return on investment on library sponsored events and programs (or how the hell do we justify that big food and drink expense line in our operations budget?)
• the digital library center: what characterizes this kind of a service unit and how prevalent are they at selective liberal arts colleges?
  
• does the library have a role as an interdisciplinary catalyst (I'm supposed to write a book chapter on this topic)?
• why design is a typically underrated component of academic digital projects
• ideas for partnering with bigger institutions to support academic digital projects
• NSF data management plans at small liberal arts colleges (we need to start doing these this year)
  
• strategies to promote change in scholarly communication at small colleges