User Services Annual Report
1999-2000
BOUNDARY
SPANNING TO VISIONING:
Adjusting
Organizational Development to Technological Change
The key factor that will spell the difference between development and
decay is boundary spanning. Within
a library organization, boundary spanning centers on a convergence of public
services and technical services. In
the broader environment, it ranges from a realignment of campus computing
structures, to a redevelopment of consortium relationships, to a readjustment
of the library and university=s
dual mission to serve society through the electronic scholarly
communication system.
BCharles
A. Schwartz. Restructuring
Academic Libraries: Organizational Development in the Wake of Technological
Change. Chicago: ACRL. 1997.
No longer is the library the sole repository of scholarly
information; that responsibility rests in a shared, distributed environment
including government, private firms, scholarly societies, various campus
departments, university IT services, and libraries. The late 1990s have provided a glimpse into the
transformational possibilities that the Internet holds for libraries,
learning, and scholarship, once technology
has permeated all of the major facets of the university=s
mission.
BSusan
Rosenblatt. Information
Technology Investments in Research Libraries.
Educom Review, July/August 1999, http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/html/erm9947.html
The realization that
technological changes are drastically affecting our jobs and the library
organization hit hard this year, as we questioned our long-standing
perceptions of librarianship and our place in the university as well as the
entire information provider environment.
As more and more students began relying on internet resources and
electronic information for research, the traditional role of the reference
librarian appeared to be headed in a different direction. We found ourselves,
in many instances, providing technical assistance rather than answering
informational questions or guiding a student through a research problem.
How would we fill the void left by the new technologically-oriented
student who is more impatient than ever to find information quickly on the
Net, rather than in hard copy books and periodicals and microforms?
By launching an all-out effort to make telephone and remote electronic
reference services usable? by converting more materials, both books and
periodicals, to electronic formats? by redefining our jobs as information
literacy specialists and teachers? Or by concentrating on designing user
interfaces for electronic research?
As we entered the spring
semester and encountered the university=s strategic planning initiative
as well as the NCA self study, we turned our attention to visioning and
assessing our own organization against the new Standards for College
Libraries. Our visioning exercise
gave us a chance to look at Athat perfect state that might
never be reached, but which you never stop trying to achieve,@
using as components the organization=s
culture, people, products and services. The
document which resulted is a product of our brainstorming, team work,
consolidating ideas, and refining statements.
It still needs more work, and in our revisions, we should take
seriously the advice of Duke University=s
John Lubans, who consults and teaches on organizational issues for middle
managers.
While strategic plans can be visionary and display bold leadership,
too many I have seen are formulaic and anchored in the past. A modest proposal
I have is to take the thousands of hours required by library strategic plans
and put them into a Askunk works,@ encouraging alternative and contrary views.
Let the most inventive staff consider options and opportunities for
experimentation. Then keep what
works.
Here=s a real problem for
a skunk works: many large libraries are in critical need of service and
architectural solutions for the precipitous drop-off in reference questions.
Many users are using the Internet to find resources that were only
available in the library building from librarian intermediaries.
The user still asks reference questions, but they are fewer and of a
different kindBthey
take longer to answer and are technologically richer.
A skunk works could consider the opportunities in this shift away from
the traditional reference service. They,
in collaboration with architects, should redesign public service portals to
engage the Anew@
type of questions.BLubans,
John. I Can=t
Find You
Anywhere
but Gone:
Avoiding Marginalization.
Library Administration and Management, 14 (2), Spring 2000,
67-69.
As the semester ended, we
started planning the library=s self study in relation to the
university self study. Since many
of the areas for assessment are included in the ACRL=s
Standards for College Libraries, we began dividing into teams:
Services; Instruction; Resources; Access; Staff; Facilities; Communication and
Cooperation; Administration; Budget.
Meanwhile, the day to day
business of the library went on, and this report documents what User Services
accomplished in 1999-2000.
HIGHLIGHTS OF
THE YEAR:
Numbers
Items
used (includes Special Collections and Muskogee
200,677
(items checked out or used in
house, provided through interlibrary loan, and searched electronically)
Reference
questions answered
22,535
VTLS
searches (author, title, subjectBJune-April)
94,738
Access Systems, ILL,
Document DeliveryB
Interlibrary
loans for NSU
2,504
Interlibrary
loans from NSU (Some items counted 2 times)
3,184
Document
delivery-books
27
Document
delivery-articles
774
(6,383 pages)
Circulation/ReserveB
Turnstile
counts
200,959
Days
open
284
Items placed on reserve
9,439
Items
removed from reserve
1,698
Reserve
items checked out
14,492
Electronic
reserves
11,241
Government PublicationsB
Federal
documents added
8,642
Federal
documents withdrawn
9,964
Federal
documents added to JVL Main Collection
659
Total
number of federal publications (5/31/00)
282,050
Oklahoma
documents added
1,437
Oklahoma
documents withdrawn
117
VTLS Processing of Government
Publications
Item
records built
6,356
Item
records deleted
922
Bibliographic
records deleted
923
Items
checked in (Jan-May)
918
Holdings
updated (Jan-May)
57
Item
records changed (Jan-May)
111
Marc
records changed (Feb-May)
76
Reference
Reference questions answered
(On and off campus, in person, by telephone and e-mail)
Reference (JVL)
19,985
Muskogee campus 1,672
Newspapers,
magazines and microforms used in Periodicals 75,275
Electronic
searchesBend users 45,735
Resource CoordinationB
Books,
audio, video, maps, microform, software selected for purchase
2,894
Gift
books selected for addition to collection
4,754
Serial
subscriptions (including CD-ROMs, online access, microforms)
1,876
Amount
$430,517
Approval
books profiled and selected
2,220
Classes
taught
Campus
(library instruction, LIBM 4611, College Strategies, MIS
187
Outside
53
Number
of persons
6,073
Program reviews
5
Special CollectionsB
Campus
patrons assisted
1,300
Off
campus patrons assisted
398
Items
used
5,262
Reference
questions
878
Systems/Technology Support
ServicesB
Building
inventories
2
Computer
inventories
2
Service
requests answered
973
The complete User Services
Activity Report, 1999-2000 is in Appendix A.
Public
Relations and Marketing Initiatives
A User Services Newsletter
was initiated in August 1999, and three issues were published in print and
online during the 1999-2000 school year.
During the year there were 8 news
items, features or ads in The Northeastern and other publications,
including publicity on the library hours, Scholastic Book Fair, OKShare,
and National Library Week.
The College Strategies
(Freshman Orientation) video was replaced by a new rewritten and updated
script and a presentation on Corel, complete with sound.
It introduces freshmen to the library=s
floor plan, indexes available on the library=s
Web pages, the Virtua Online Catalog, the LC classification, and the reference
services available in the library and beyond.
Over 1,000 flyers were
printed and distributed to all students in ACollege
Strategies@
to market the LIBM 4611, AElectronic
Information Retrieval@
class, fall 1999, and to inform students
about remote reference services.
Bookmarks
with library hours and ways to avoid overdue fines were printed and
distributed at checkout counters.
The library was represented at
the Campus Connections and Transfer Days.
A list of transfer students requesting library orientation was
collected, and the students were contacted during the month of September and
invited to come to the library for orientation at their convenience.
The Director of User Services greeted
all new faculty with a letter and a packet of information in September,
1999. Resource coordinators were
encouraged to contact new faculty, greet them and offer a personal tour of the
library at the faculty member=s convenience.
Gary Cheatham announced a Class
Assignment Library Service (CALS) in the October 1999 User Services
Newsletter. This service is
available through the resource coordinator or the reference desk.
Thanks to Bonnie Tiner and her
student workers, Cherokee Kimpel and Daniel Watson, there were interesting and
informative displays on bulletin boards and in cases all year:
holidays, shells, beaches and surfing, Scottie dogs, soup cans, spices,
children=s
books, mystery books, and many other themes.
The Scholastic Book Sale was
held in the fall semester and the spring semesters and earned a approximately
300 children=s
books for the Y Collection. Katherine Ott, Diane Morgan and Harriett Hobbs were
instrumental in making the sales a success.
National Library Week,
April 9-15, called attention to the library=s
resources and services during the week and presented several Live at the
Library activities: Movie Day at JVL, Live at the Library Day, Dress
Up Day at JVL, Amnesty Week, and Linking Libraries & Community, which
promoted the Habitat for Humanity boat contest.
We worked with Campus
Connections to provide rooms and reading materials for parents waiting for
freshman students who are testing and enrolling.
Borrowing privileges were
extended as a courtesy to all members of the NSU Board of Directors for the
Alumni Association.
Room numbers were corrected
over all doors in the building, and large
numbers were replaced by workers from the Physical Plant.
Darren Tobey was responsible for surveying the building for incorrect
room numbers.
Services
Revised and loaded reserve
pages on the Web, including Reserve
Request Form, Fair Use Checklist, Copyright Clearance Request.
Set up Copyright Clearance Center accounts for TRS
(transactional reporting service) and ECCS (Electronic Course Content Service
to use copyrighted materials in electronic format).
Set up a demo account on ERes (Electronic Reserves system) to
test its capabilities.
The Reserve Desk added a PPST
workstation for the College of Education for students in the teacher
education program.
The Electronic Reserves
Committee wrote a proposal and won a FASTT grant for electronic reserves.
When we learned that the ERes System had increased its price, the
committee began looking at alternatives such as FreeReserves.
The FASTT Committee approved a change in the conditions of the grant,
and at year=s
end, Helen Hill had taken charge of the project.
The current plan is to use the Blackboard server to load
electronic course documents.
Special Borrowers delinquent
accounts were set up in Business Affairs.
Fay Simms researched the law on library theft, and Business Affairs
began the process of turning over those who abuse the privilege to a
collection agency and possible prosecution.
NSU faculty, staff, and
students now have borrowing privileges at all OK-Share participating
libraries in Oklahoma by applying for a library card at their own
university library.
Copying Services.
It was again proposed that we
either install copy card readers on microfilm printers or discontinue charging
for microform copies. We
participated in the process of renegotiating copier contracts for new public
copiers to be installed in FY2001 to be equipped with ACCESS (Diebold) card
readers only and $.15 coinop. At
the same time we requested card readers for the microfilm reader-printers.
A new copier policy
initiated by the university administrative offices turned over the day-to-day
maintenance to 2nd floor reference and the reserve desk.
In addition, new change, card sale, and refund accounts were set up at
the 2nd floor reference desk.
A Trans-AMIGOS Express
Courier Service was entered into with pickup and delivery of interlibrary
loan items for all participating libraries in Texas and Oklahoma.
The service is designed to save libraries money and time, with low-cost
rapid delivery, 5 days a week in 24 to 48 hours.
The Reference Department added
five new online databases, decided to replace SilverPlatter products
with WilsonNet, and added the OCALD shared reference resource, NewsBank.
Reference increased the number of Web workstations from 6 to 15
and the number of public laser printers from 2 to 4.
The Reference Department, with
Jim Winterbottom doing page maintenance,
revised the indexes Web page to make it more user friendly and
provided greater access to indexes for remote users.
Government Documents,
after a temporary halt in the barcoding and check-in projects,
continued to provide greater access to documents through the catalog, and updated
periodical holdings records as they are received..
User Services personnel
participated in planning the Broken Arrow Campus library and made
recommendations for a floor plan, furniture and equipment.
Library
Materials/Collections
The Circulation Department
acquired new shelving, moved oversized curriculum materials and
continuously shifted to keep up with the influx of new curriculum materials.
The shelving restrictions created by the need for weight-bearing floors
brought on a crisis which has been alleviated by a drastic weeding project
and new guidelines for the CurrMats collection spearheaded by the
Education resource coordinator. Circulation,
the User Services Director, and Katherine Ott proposed a radical weeding
project for curriculum materials, and Katherine pulled materials off of the
shelves to be approved for weeding by resource coordinators.
User Services and Technical
Services personnel added 2,220 approval plan books to the collection and
revised Blackwell approval plan profiles to make adjustments and
provide greater relevancy in books acquired through this plan.
A team of User Services and
Technical Services personnel wrote a Broken Arrow Campus Collection
Development Policy which includes a Blackwell Opening Day collection of
6,000-10,000 monographs and approximately 300 periodical titles.
The Reference Department weeded
or relocated several collections including the Rand collection, the PDK
Fastback collection, and the curriculum materials.
User Services allocated the
materials budget of $100,000.00 to the program areas, Muskogee, Reference,
Special Collections, General, and Y Collection. An attempt was made to adjust the allocations based on the
percentage of the approval book budget each program area received; however, in
reality the adjustment was too small to make much difference.
A different formula will be used this year as we try to make the
allotment of the materials funds as equitable as possible.
Resource coordinators
reviewed serials lists and revised index
subscriptions late in the spring semester.
Faculty were contacted for a
last chance to request 16mm films before they were withdrawn and either
sold or reassigned. Films which
could be located were distributed to all faculty who requested them.
The Mass Communications Department requested all the films which
remained for instructional purposes, and they are now boxed up and ready to be
delivered. (Note: the Mass Comm Department has now withdrawn their request,
7/6/00.)
The Government Documents
Department continued the physical withdrawal of weeded documents, and in
addition, weeded the entire paper collection of congressional documents
during the summer 1999. The
annual GPO item selection update was done in June 1999.
All User Services Web pages,
including Resources Selected by Librarians were checked and revised
before being transferred to the UNIX library server in April.
Instruction/Continuing
Education
Reference
librarians/resource coordinators taught a
total of 240 classes with 6,073 students during the spring and fall semesters.
This total included 2 sections of LIBM 4611, Electronic Information
Retrieval.
The User Services Director
rewrote the library orientation script for the College Strategies course for
freshmen and produced a presentation on Corel with the assistance of Bonnie
Tiner.
User Services personnel met
early in the semester to discuss a focus or theme for the year.
The User Services Director suggested Boundary Spanning or
restructuring our organizational development to broaden our scope from
Abounded
areas of library units, work flow processes, personnel, and budgets to
campus-wide and geographically dispersed fields of opportunity afforded by
networked information resources and services.@
The Reference Department, led
by Sarah Brick Archer, focused on professional development as
part of the boundary spanning theme. Several Apresentations and workshops
designed to improve service and job performance@
were held: AEdgar
and the Library Finance Web Page@-Gary
Cheatham; ATroubleshooting Web Workstations@-Charles
Veith; AIntroduction to NT@-Computing
and Telecommunications; AHow
to Do Basic Legal Research@-
Park Medearis; APublishing, Presenting, and
Poster Sessions@ panel discussion moderated by
Sarah Brick Archer, Bela Foltin, Gary Cheatham, Jeanette McQuitty, Linda West.
The User Services Department
sponsored a teleconference and discussion on October 27, 1999: ABuilding
Earth=s Largest Library.@
The Reference
Department/Resource Coordinators began visioning in response to the
university=s
strategic planning initiative and wrote a draft of a visioning statement which
should be refined in the months ahead.
The User Services Department
began planning a self study based on the NCA Self-Study Committee=s
guidelines and the new ACRL Standards for College Libraries, 2000.
This self study is open to the entire library=s staff and will be continued in
the summer and fall semesters.
User Services staff
participated in 56 workshops, seminars, and
other continuing education during the 1999-2000 year.
Government Documents Technician
Connie Mnich attended the American Factfinder workshop in Tulsa on May 9,
2000.
A grant proposal was
submitted to FIPSE (Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education)to
initiate an information literacy program at NSU and to provide for a complete
teaching lab. The proposal was
not funded.
Milestones/Passages
(Personnel)
Katherine Ott was named
Reference Librarian/Resource Coordinator for Education and Psychology.
She replaces Melissa Cast who resigned last year to work for ACRL.
Joyce Varner served as interim librarian.
Darren Tobey was named
Reference Technician to replace Sandy Medearis, who resigned last July.
Connie Mnich was named
Government Publications Technician to replace Sherry Rhoads, who resigned in
October to work at the Oklahoma Department of Libraries.
The Reference Department
named three coordinators: Sarah Brick Archer, meetings and planning; Gary
Cheatham, scheduling, Z/REF fund, and reference serials; Jim Winterbottom,
technician coordinator.
Interlibrary Loan Technician
Renee Ridge is now in charge of the
Interlibrary Loan/Document Delivery Department. Amy Roberts, Gina Champlain,
and Karalyn Ingalls have worked as document delivery technicians this year.
Helen Hill spent the summer
training for her new duties as UNIX manager and traveled far and wide
to receive her training.
User Services made the
following personnel requests: full-time ILL/Document Delivery technician; 2
reference graduate assistants for extended library hours. The requests were approved but not funded.
Several User Services personnel
were certified for CPR BBonnie Tiner, Sandy Medearis, Fay
Simms, and Jeanette McQuitty.
Access Systems and
Technology Support were combined this
spring to form a department of two: Helen Hill and Mike Shehi. Earlier in the year, Mike Shehi was named library
Webmaster and took over the responsibility of loading library pages and
assisting library personnel with page composition.
Ben Etemad was employed as the
Director, Muskogee Campus Library, and was trained during the summer and fall
semesters by JVL faculty and staff.
Reports from each of the
User Services areas are included in this annual report as Appendix
B.
Page maintained by: Jeanette
McQuitty
Last
updated: November 28th, 2000