DLT Priorities

We dedicated a three hour DLT all-staff meeting today to discussion of DLT goals and priorities. We started by reviewing the outcomes of our ranked concerns and issues list, and from the top scorers there, devised a list of higher level goals. These are:

1. Develop a culture of collaboration and team-work by integrating more fully with ITS.

2. Strengthen our partnership with the Library to better serve students, faculty and staff.

3. Look for operational efficiencies and invest in R&D for new technologies.

4. Commit to professional development, training and information sharing.

5. Implement project management in collaboration with our Library partners.

6. Make DLT a "preferred workplace".

These align with and support the "themes" that Kevin Morooney recently presented in the ITS All-Staff meeting on January 8th:

1. (KM) Leverage the Strength of Being ITS.
=> (DLT) Develop a culture of collaboration and team-work by integrating more fully with ITS.

2. (KM) Recognize and affirm that IT at Penn State is larger than ITS, and strengthen our relationships with campuses and colleges.
=> (DLT) Strengthen our partnership with the Library to better serve students, faculty and staff.
=> (DLT) Implement project management in collaboration with our Library partners.

3. (KM) Put the core business of Penn State in the center of service design and delivery.
=> (DLT) Develop a culture of collaboration and team-work by integrating more fully with ITS.
=> (DLT) Strengthen our partnership with the Library to better serve students, faculty and staff.
=> (DLT) Look for operational efficiencies and invest in R&D for new technologies.

4. (KM) Develop a culture of collaboration and teamwork.
=> (DLT) Develop a culture of collaboration and team-work by integrating more fully with ITS.
=> (DLT) Strengthen our partnership with the Library to better serve students, faculty and staff.
=> (DLT) Make DLT a "preferred workplace".

Contributing to overall ITS strategic planning and a specific Digital Library strategy is an overaching goal and one that we believe we'll be better positioned to contribute to by taking action on these six goals. We realize that there are interdependencies between our stated goals and strategic direction; for example, strategic direction should drive the direction our professional development and training takes. There'll likely be a bit of "TBD" in all of these recommendations, I'd imagine, but we certainly don't have to postpone everything until the strategic plan is in our hands: we need to have a flexible "in the meantime" approach.

Volunteers were assigned to small teams for each goal. The charge to the team is to come back at our next all-staff meeting on Friday, Feb 2nd with recommendations and actions for each goal, shortterm and longterm. The teams are:

Goal #1: Develop a culture of collaboration and team-work by integrating more fully with ITS.
Team: Jack, Janis, Mairéad, Mark, Maryam

Goal #2: Strengthen our partnership with the Library to better serve students, faculty and staff.
Team: Ben, Jeff, John, Joni, Shane

Goal #3: Look for operational efficiencies and invest in R&D for new technologies.
Team: Joni, Kurt, Mark S., Paul, Shane, Steve, Wayne

Goal #4: Commit to professional development, training and information sharing.
Team: Deb, Lance, Mark W., Maryam, Peggy, Tim

Goal #5: Implement project management in collaboration with our Library partners.
Team: Ben, John, Justin, Lance, Lynn, Mairéad, Tun, Wayne

Goal #6: Make DLT a "preferred workplace".
Team: Janis, Justin, Mike, Peggy, Shane, TIm, Todd

Once we determine actions from the recommendations, we'll talk about how we're gong to implement these, how we're going to evaluate progress of them, etc. The easy part!