At yesterday's launch, the Library Conference Room was filled with the strains of Sultan Selim III's Magnificent Ottoman Empire Turkish harem music. Genie wishes captured via the 'Three wishes to the UQ Library Genie' form scrolled in a continuous loop, along with 15 tag clouds representing the 248 sets of wishes received to date.

Sample tag cloud, showing respondents' wishes.

UQ Executive perspective
Sandra Rothwell introduced Professor Deborah Terry, the University's Senior Deputy Vice Chancellor. Prof Terry spoke of the great importance of the planning process, over the outcome: gathering together, communicating, and creating a shared vision for the Library over the next three years.

The room resonated with her statement that 'culture eats strategy for breakfast'. Prof Terry underscored the need for strong underlying values to be articulated in such times of change. She quoted Donald Rumsfeld, saying whilst it was necessary to identify the known knowns (the elephants in the room), it was critical to scope the unknown unknowns - the tigers in the room - in order to manage blindsiding.

Prof Terry outlined three themes central to UQ Executive's current frame of reference:

• Disruptive technology, such as MOOCs. It is reshaping higher education, world-wide. Attending a conference in Boston recently, she observed an unusually high number of Vice Chancellors and Provosts in attendance. UQ will take leadership in the area, and not merely react. Four UQ MOOCs will be delivered this year - a call for expressions of interest has been issued.
• Funding, particularly in this, a Federal election year. The Vice Chancellor sees the diversification of income sources as critical in an environment fiercely competitive for students (e.g. through partnering, and alumni)
• People. The importance of attracting and retaining excellent staff. Not only for its own sake, but also for its impact on world rankings.

Academics tell Prof Terry that the Library is fantastic, and a cornerstone of the University. She wished us well in the process, and applauded our efforts.

Outline of the process, and the Genie video
Next, Sandra spoke of the team, the blog, the website to go live following this launch, and the wishes gathered via the online Genie form.

A video of wishes expressed by three UQ staff, and several students was shown (additional thanks to Teik, from LTS).

Bob's thee wishes concluded the video, and he rose to the podium to expand on them. In essence, Bob's wishes are for the Library: 1) to be the best exemplar of an innovative academic research library, nationally and internationally; 2) to be a strong contributing partner to UQ's priorities, and 3) to be a fun and rewarding place to work.

Timeline
Helen Morgan outlined the following milestones in the strategic planning process:

19/3-30/4: Preparation of four scenarios to be presented at stakeholder sessions
2-3/5: Four stakeholder sessions, with Brett Mayze
25/3-30/4: Consideration of the Library's vision and mission statements, and values
April-May: Refinement of statements/values, and a new tagline (to replace 'Enriching World-Class Scholarship')
28-30/5: Strategic planning workshop for Library managers leading to a draft strategic plan, with Brett Mayze
June: Strategic planning team roadshows, to gather Library staff feedback on/input into, the draft plan
July: Presentation of the final strategic plan to Bob.

Helen asked launch attendees to complete the forms placed on their chairs. These asked for three genie wishes, and for six aspirational values to be chosen for the Library. The values represent collective beliefs on how the Library will achieve its mission and vision. An online Checkbox form will be available shortly, to capture input from those who did not attend the launch.

Attendees were then invited to afternoon tea.