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CRRA Update June 2012

CRRA Update June 2012

In celebration of the official start of summer, we are writing to celebrate what is nearly the end of a year with many accomplishments. Even a partial list of goals and objectives met this year illustrates the progress we have made developing the portal as a significant source for discovering Catholic research materials and strengthening the membership alliance dedicated to achieving our mission. Some of the year’s highlights include the following.

  • Implementation of findings from usability studies and upgrade to VuFind 1.3 for enhanced search functionality
  • Inauguration of a new column in the monthly updates featuring member collections to increase awareness of collection scope, theme and portal content
  • CRRA liaisons to support effective communication between CRRA and its members as well as among members, and for sharing of best practices between and among local CRRA teams
  • Adoption of a five year strategic plan designed to build on past accomplishments in going forward to add value beyond discovery, expand scholarly participation, grow CRRA collections systematically and collaboratively, expand CRRA’s sharing of resources and scholarship, and secure the future.
  • Adoption of an ambitious and inspiring vision describing the positive impact we intend to have.  

Our vision: The CRRA will foster a dynamic scholarly community by:

  • Creating the freely available portal to Catholic research resources in Americas,
  • Sustaining the distinctive network of libraries, archives and other institutions that enable the vision; and
  • Facilitating internationally the sharing of resources and scholarship.

We encourage you to use the portal: http://www.catholicresearch.net. Search for your collections, see which keywords are most effective in bringing back results, learn of related materials in other member collections and put this information to use in developing your collections and alerting faculty and students to the CRRA collections. We are pleased to note as well that CRRA committees, task forces and the Board are already at work for the next year. These groups are joined now by the newly established liaisons group which includes one person from each CRRA participant and will soon be accessible under Contacts on our website.

We thank all of you, especially chairs and members for your excellence in leadership and mission. We are thrilled to be working with such talented and dedicated colleagues. We are truly looking forward to next year.

With best regards,
 
Jennifer and Pat
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