A Message from the Provost
Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs,
Chief Academic Officer
Great universities have great libraries. Texas A&M Libraries are among the best in the nation and are central to the university’s mission to provide high-quality undergraduate and graduate education, and to discover, develop, communicate and apply knowledge to a wide range of academic and professional disciplines. Much more than a set of buildings, the Libraries are leaders in academic success, collaborators in research, stewards of history and culture and advocates for experiential learning. By supporting students and faculty success through a portfolio of collections, facilities and services, the Libraries empower and elevate our university.
Texas A&M has earned a reputation of excellence through its expert faculty, rigorous and innovative academic programming, impactful research efforts and the high demand for our exceptional graduates as evidenced by several recent accolades.
- The 2024 “Wall Street Journal Best Colleges in the U.S.” ranked Texas A&M No. 1 among Texas universities, No. 6 among public universities and No. 38 overall among nearly 800 colleges in Texas.
- U.S. News and World Report ranked A&M No. 20 in its 2024 Best College Rankings and several of our degree programs are nationally ranked.
- Research conducted at Texas A&M generated more than $1.153 billion annual expenditures in fiscal year 2022.
- Texas A&M ranked 16th in the most recent National Science Foundation’s Higher Education Research and Development Survey with more than $1.148 billion annual expenditures in fiscal year 2021.
With the study and research needs of students, faculty and staff as the core driver, the Libraries offer quiet areas for individual study, innovative collaboration spaces, state-of-the-art video and audio studios and access to a variety of equipment and technology. Services such as Get It For Me, course reserves, library instruction, research assistance, printing and more support Texas A&M’s transformational education and translational research efforts.
As an integral partner in helping to make attending college more affordable, the Libraries are aiming to reduce the cost of higher education materials with the launch of OpenEd, a new program that combines the expertise of librarians, faculty and other academic support units. The Office of the Provost is supporting the development of the program by allocating funds to hire expert librarians and technical staff to focus on identifying low to no-cost Open Educational Resource (OERs) course materials, supporting faculty through the process of adopting, adapting and creating OERs while increasing their awareness of funding opportunities and establishing methods to assess impact on student success.
A recent review of the Barnes and Noble textbooks adoption portal determined the Libraries has licensed 144 items on the textbook list. An additional 336 class resources were subsequently ordered or licensed. Instructors were emailed a permanent link to the resource in the library catalog so it could be placed in an instructor’s Canvas course shell. Through the use of library-licensed materials, it was estimated that 16,045 students saved nearly $1 million in the fall 2023 semester alone. As the program grows, the Libraries expect those savings to students to expand dramatically.
I encourage you to learn more about the Libraries’ collections, facilities and services as you read through this annual report. The Libraries are one of the many aspects of our university community that make Texas A&M one of the world’s premier universities.
