Our strategic framework: Themes and anchors
Imagine2035 is organised around five interconnected themes. Within these themes, our anchors provide the concrete delivery mechanisms for transformation. These anchors are strategic not operational, cross-boundary not siloed, focused on the future not the past.
The Five Themes
1. Looking outwards in all that we do
We commit to becoming the model of 'One University' working while building strategic partnerships locally, nationally, and internationally.
2. Shaping services through listening
Students and researchers are not users of the Library; they are the reason the Library exists.
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3. Our people are the Library
An inclusive culture that becomes competitive advantage requires more than values statements.
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4. Being core is being central
Our commitment to civic responsibility, sustainability, and equality must be demonstrated through actions that reshape how we operate.
Our 25 anchors
Imagine2035 is delivered through 25 anchors distributed across our five strategic themes. These anchors and ambitions are strategic not operational, cross-boundary not siloed, focused on the future not the past. Each anchor is mapped to one of the five Manchester 2035 Leaps, signalling how the work of the Library directly delivers the University's strategic ambitions.
Theme 1: Looking outwards in all that we do
1. Global Cultural Partnerships Initiative
- Manchester 2035 Leap: Partner of Choice
Projecting Manchester's intellectual and cultural leadership internationally through travelling exhibitions, joint digitisation, and scholar exchanges.
2. Humanitarian Archive: Redefining Applied Archives
- Manchester 2035 Leap: Research Impact
Establishing a globally recognised resource for humanitarian research in partnership with HCRI, demonstrating that archives can be engines of applied impact.
3. Ahmed Iqbal Ullah RACE Centre: National Leadership in Anti-Racist Scholarship
- Manchester 2035 Leap: Partner of Choice
Establishing the RACE Centre as the national reference point for anti-racist scholarship, education, and community engagement.
4. British Pop Archive
- Manchester 2035 Leap: Partner of Choice
Transforming what Special Collections can become through dedicated exhibition space, commercial partnerships, and international touring.
5. Building Advancement and Philanthropy Capacity
- Manchester 2035 Leap: Partner of Choice
Creating the strategic infrastructure to realise our philanthropic potential through dedicated advancement capacity and systematic donor cultivation.
Theme 2: Shaping services through listening
6. Main Library Transformation Project
- Manchester 2035 Leap: Flexible Learning
Complete reimagining of the Main Library as a world-class flexible learning ecosystem for hybrid education.
7. Students as Learners: Skills, Collections and Peer-Led Learning
- Manchester 2035 Leap: Flexible Learning
Dedicated infrastructure for asynchronous support, digital and information literacy, peer-led learning, and proactive outreach to drive social mobility.
8. Research Data Infrastructure 2.0
- Manchester 2035 Leap: Research Impact
Becoming essential infrastructure for Manchester's four strategic research platforms through specialised data services.
9. Manchester Open Research Environment: Sector Leadership
- Manchester 2035 Leap: Research Impact
Establishing MORE as an internationally recognised model for Open Access, Flip to Open, and institutional repository infrastructure.
10. Flip to Open
- Manchester 2035 Leap: Flexible Learning
Leading the move to open teaching and learning materials through Flip to Open initiatives that transition closed content to open access at scale.
11. Strategic Storage Review and Next Generation Access
- Manchester 2035 Leap: Innovation Powerhouse
Reimagining our entire collections footprint for 2035 with innovative retrieval systems and integrated storage solutions.
12. Knowing Our Users: The Library's Digital Estate
- Manchester 2035 Leap: Digital University
Developing sector-leading intelligence on evolving user behaviours in an AI-enabled environment to anticipate changes in discovery and engagement.
Theme 3: Our people are the Library
13. Staff Development, AI and Digital Capabilities Programme
- Manchester 2035 Leap: Digital University
Ensuring every staff member has the skills, confidence, and protected time to thrive in a transformed professional environment, with roles evolving through learning rather than restructure by default.
14. Structural Inclusion: From Intention to Infrastructure
- Manchester 2035 Leap: Partner of Choice
Moving beyond diversity statements to structural change that reshapes how the Library operates.
15. One Library Working
- Manchester 2035 Leap: Innovation Powerhouse
A holistic vision of the Library as a community of relationships and collaboration, where boundaries between teams, services and users are intentionally blurred for the benefit of all.
16. Metadata: From Description to Curation
- Manchester 2035 Leap: Digital University
Strategic evolution of metadata expertise: AI-augmented routine cataloguing of modern collections enabling redeployment of professional skill to the retrospective backlog in special collections.
Theme 4: Being core is being central
17. Carbon Literacy and Sustainable Library Practice
- Manchester 2035 Leap: Innovation Powerhouse
Achieving full carbon literacy by 2035 and becoming a sector leader in environmental sustainability.
18. Truth and Information Integrity Initiative
- Manchester 2035 Leap: Research Impact
Establishing the Library as a recognised leader in information integrity education and practice.
19. The Manchester Impact Framework
- Manchester 2035 Leap: Research Impact
Building measurement infrastructure that demonstrates our centrality to University core business with evidence.
20. The University Library as a Cultural Institution
- Manchester 2035 Leap: Partner of Choice
Securing recognition of the Library as one of the University's Cultural Institutions with appropriate governance and investment.
Theme 5: AI isn't coming, it's here
21. AI Accelerator Programme
- Manchester 2035 Leap: Innovation Powerhouse
Creative adoption and innovation in AI across discovery, reference, metadata, and personalised learning pathways.
22. One Library Platform
- Manchester 2035 Leap: Digital University
In partnership with IT Services, technical infrastructure delivering single sign-on, unified discovery, and seamless integration across all services.
23. Transparency Dashboard and Strategic Portfolio Management
- Manchester 2035 Leap: Innovation Powerhouse
Public-facing dashboard and rigorous portfolio management showing goals, progress, and decision rationale.
24. The Agile Library: Innovation, Service Excellence and Student Success
- Manchester 2035 Leap: Flexible Learning
Embedding agility and service excellence into Library culture through rapid prototyping, innovation time, and rewarded risk-taking, in service of student success.
25. MA Library & Archive Studies: Shaping the Profession's Future
- Manchester 2035 Leap: Flexible Learning
Leveraging our professional programme to become an influential force in shaping the future of library and archive professions.