INFORMATION FOR
The school year opened again with what has become a community celebration of our new students with faculty and staff in school colors and forming a happy gauntlet to welcome them and hoping they will enjoy their Pioneer Journies on their road to success at the university and beyond. These were our latest rendition of Pioneers ready to forge a great path for themselves, their states, a proud nation, and a vibrant world. The joy and optimism in the air pointed to great things to come, and in that spirit and on behalf of the library and its faculty and staff, I welcome our new and celebrate our returning Pioneers. The pomp and circumstance we witnessed on Welcome Day reflected the abiding faith in higher education encapsulated in its historical role in passing on traditions and sustaining the intellectual vibrancy of societies that have long embraced the enduring and transformative power of knowledge to chart an enlightened future for humankind.
In the exhilaration and optimism, I was reminded again of the value in what we do: building meaningful futures and transforming lives. That has from its very beginnings been the promise of the academy. It's humble enabler, that repository and transmitter of the information and knowledge needed to drive the enterprise has been steadfast in its understanding that ensuring student and faculty success should be at the core of its mission. How it did that would always be subject to the realities of an evolving academy, the dynamics of scholarly communication, and the behaviors and expectations of the students and experts who actively engaged its resources and services.
As a result, Lynn Silipigni Connaway's 2013 ("The Library in 2020 Will Be Engagement Centered") proclamation appeared spot on: "The library of 2020 will provide user-centered services and systems that will meet the expectations of the community. The library staff will need to develop relationships with their users and partner with other organizations in order to produce, store, and preserve content and data sets and to provide personalized services. Recruiting and retaining innovative, creative individuals who are willing to engage users and to embrace new technologies and modes of communication will be imperative for the success of the library of 2020. Access to the library and its resources when and where users need them... will be essential since convenient access to resources, whether human, print, or electronic, is the most critical factor for users." Connaway's observations may have been visionary in 2013 but are now the expectation in 2026, and Cheng Library has responded accordingly.
Embracing its role and mission as "the academic knowledge center of William Paterson University," the library has proactively engaged our students, faculty, staff, and external community to ensure the creation and provision of resources and services that support the academic and social vibrancy of William Paterson University. Its highly efficient and knowledgeable faculty and staff educate and lay foundations for academic success, robust research, and community engagements that improve town-gown relationships. Here is a sampling of some concrete examples in FY2026.
In support of retention and graduation rates and to enhance the efficacy of teaching and learning, librarians collaborated with academic departments to increase adoption of no and low-cost instructional materials by 16% in the course schedule for FY 2026, bringing the number of classes supporting textbook affordability to 44% of all course listings in spring 2026, up from less than 1% in spring 2023, a noteworthy improvement in just 3 years. The efforts continue. The number of students participating in the library's LEARN Digital Badge program increased by 25%, while completion of Tier 3 and Tier 4 offerings were up significantly (+80% and +86% respectively).
Librarians also led webinars for CAPS and WPOnline students and developed and taught a total of 40 synchronous webinars on key information literacy skills, directed primarily at the Adult Degree Completion program and WPOnline but open to all students. They conducted 234 course related library instruction sessions and in an annual survey to assess instructional impact learned that 88% of responding students claimed to have learned something new to help them succeed in classes, 88% intended to apply what they learned, 87% felt more confident about completing their assignments, and 87% were more aware of resources and services provided by the library. Reference librarians also handled 4,122 interactions & consultations. The library's AI literacy lessons to all sections of Will.Power 102 in the Spring 2025 semester represented an attempt to educate students on generative AI and its effective and ethical use. These efforts continue and have been scaled to engage the entire University community.
As part of its outreach to the external community the library, as it has done in years past, participated in all service fairs sponsored by Admissions during the academic year. It also increased outreach to area schools by providing 31 library instruction and professional development sessions, an increase of 138% over the previous year. The now established Real Men Read program offered 75 sessions to area elementary schools led by 36 WPUNJ volunteers, who read to some 1,300 students. These are noteworthy achievements that demonstrate the library's commitment to the University, its students, faculty, staff, and external community.
The organization of an Open Educational Resources Forum provided faculty and student leaders a chance to have an open discussion in which students shared their concerns and hopes for the expansion of free and open textbooks across campus. Faculty who have adopted open and low-cost educational materials for their courses discussed their experience finding and adopting such resources, the challenges they faced in the process, and the gratification in helping with the reduction of educational costs for their students. The positive impact on class participation and overall academic success that open resources provided was also noted. The Library also collaborated with the Student Government Association’s Academic Affairs Committee to recognize faculty and academic departments for their efforts to adopt such course materials. The student-led initiative recognized departments based on criteria including the greatest percentage of courses designated as no-cost or low-cost and the greatest increase in the use of these materials, while also recognizing individual faculty members who demonstrated a strong commitment to adopting affordable course materials.
The University Authors Reception, organized and hosted by the library, and the University Authors Bibliography compiled to accompany it, celebrate the scholarly and creative productivity of university faculty and staff and serve as demonstrations of excellence and sources of pride for the university community.
In a fiscally challenged world where the inflationary dynamics of scholarly materials continue to outpace the library’s ability to cope with acquisition and subscription costs, cancellations and innovative solutions with open access solutions preserve the library's ability to provide quality resources while mitigating costs. As Periodicals Librarian Judy Matthew puts it: "The Library continues to deliver great value for its patrons in a cost effective and timely manner." This is against a backdrop of a FY26 in which the Periodicals Department expended 5% less than FY25 though prices of subscriptions saw a more than 5% increase in 2026 over those of 2025, forcing the department to cancel $63,000 in direct periodicals and $15,000 in electronic resources.
Building partnerships with other universities to expand access to our user community and engaging in collaborations that lower our financial burdens have also been critical to Cheng Library's ability to continue serving the university at a high level and ensuring it effectively provides/mediates access to the information and knowledge needed to support our academic enterprise and the programs and structures that ensure efficacious navigation, discovery, and use of available information/knowledge to satisfy learning and research goals. These are the challenges and opportunities that the library has to grapple with and it continues to do so with a dedicated and capable faculty and staff in the service of all Pioneers.
Welcome Pioneers to a new academic year and may your unshakeable Will.Power power you on as your library continues to explore effective ways to support you!
