Happy New Year to the GALILEO Community

Last year, as we entered our 30th anniversary year, I wrote about the challenges of living in “interesting times.” That certainly remains true as we begin 2026!

Artificial Intelligence is rapidly changing the way we do research and provide library services, and many of our vendors are already embedding that technology in their products. Open source and open access continue to show a lot of promise, even as the USG libraries have decided to remain with Ex Libris’ suite of proprietary library management tools.

Funding is still up in the air for many of you – and for GALILEO; the biggest uncertainty for us lies with our K-12 programs. New accessibility requirements, a reworked statistics platform, changes to statewide library leadership – all of this adds up to another year of change.

It’s been nine years since we engaged in a robust strategic planning process, and while the resulting plan has served us well for almost a decade, it’s time to do it again. Last time, we involved the help of a consultant, which we’ll likely do again. We will kick off the process at the GALILEO Annual Conference, which is taking place in April this year. As we move into May, we’ll connect with our USG libraries at the GUGM conference, which will focus on re-engaging with Clarivate/Ex Libris and learning about their plans.

After that, we will work to engage all of our stakeholder groups to provide feedback on what we’re doing well, where we can improve, and what you’d like to see from us in another ten years. We know we have a strong foundation – our recent annual survey gave us the highest user satisfaction level in several years. That said, the next ten years will no doubt bring challenges that we can’t even imagine right now!

Whatever changes may come, whether they be technological, financial, or strategic, the GALILEO staff stand strong with a commitment to serve you and your patrons.

– Lucy Harrison, executive director of GALILEO