A Content Analysis of the Strategic Plans of the Coalition of Urban Serving Universities\u27 Academic Libraries

As academic libraries support the curricular mission of the university, the strategic plans of academic libraries often reflect the priorities and initiatives of the larger institution. Urban universities often incorporate concepts of community engagement in their mission. The Coalition of Urban Serving Universities (http://www.usucoalition.org), a federation of 43 urban universities, has developed initiatives which seek to establish the university and city as partners. Using the publicly-accessible strategic plans of the Coalition of Urban Serving Universities (USU) affiliated libraries as a data set, the research will perform a content analysis, using Atlas.ti software, to look for evidence that the libraries are supporting the USU’s initiatives and goals. The research will explore examples of how urban academic libraries support their universities’ urban engagement initiatives