A Multi-Dimensional Framework for Academic Support: Final Report

Abstract

The University of Minnesota Libraries received support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to develop a multi-dimensional model for assessing support for scholarship in the context of a large research campus. The project team explored discipline-specific needs for facilities, information content, services, tools, and expertise in the humanities and social sciences. The goal was to develop a model for bringing greater coherence to these distributed resources through physical and virtual means, and also a research support environment that could be modeled, prototyped, and evaluated. The study is also being used to assist the academic leadership in understanding how libraries can promote the physically boundless nature of inquiry and information use.