Annual Report
By
Sharmon
H. Kenyon
Dean, University Library
December
2002
Introduction | Access Services | Digital Literacy Closet | Information Services | Library Media | Systems
APPENDICES
(Statistical Charts & Data)
Collection Size | Library Expenditures
Details | Library Expenditures - State Funds |
Community Borrowing | In-Library and
Home Use Circulation |
In-Library & Home Use Circulation Plus Databases and
Full-Text Articles Accessed |
HSU Enrollment (FTEs) & Librarian-Taught Instruction
| Number of Hits to Site / Exit Gate |
Library Summary Organization Roster
Highlights from the year included:
Status of Library Materials
Due to an infusion of additional lottery moneys from the system, we were able to purchase more books, audio CDs, and videos this year than in the previous year. Our print journal collection has remained static, but our electronic offerings continue to grow due to the negotiating powers of the CSU system as a whole. We continue to work on the Serials Management Plan in an effort to try to hold the line on our serials costs.
Trends in Library Usage
Growth in the use of our electronic library has declined for the first year since 1997/98, when we first began to keep use statistics. For the past several years we have seen tremendous growth in the use of the electronic resources. This year saw an 18% decline in the number of hits to the web page, with a small decline in the number of uses of our databases, and a 24% decline in the number of hits to our full-text databases. These numbers seem somewhat surprising, as while our enrollment has declined, the reduction in the numbers isn't comparable. This year has seen a big growth in the use of our web-based instruction and so several theories might be suggested. One is that our instructional efforts are increasing student searching efficiency. Another is that there is a trend towards fewer term papers being assigned and term paper research has been a traditional reason for students to use the library's resources. A third possibility is that with the increased efficiencies of web search engines like Google, it may be that students are relying more upon finding information on the web.
Other measures of library use remain more or less status quo. We had a 3 %
increase in the numbers of materials checked out, caused by the large increase
in the use of our ereserves, ONCORES (+26%). Use of our print reserve collection
declined by 8%, compared to the previous year's decline of 27%. We keep thinking
that the print reserve collection will disappear, but many faculty still like
to utilize the print format for reserves.
Use of the building was also pretty even, with just a 2% decline in our exit
count. The prior two years had seen increases in the use of the building.
Community borrower use remains pretty status quo - just a few hundred less than last year.
In Interlibrary Loan, our students borrowed fewer items from other libraries, but we saw an increase in the number of requests from other libraries for our materials. With the implementation of the Resource Sharing System in the fall, our students and faculty may borrow materials from other libraries directly. However, the numbers aren't all that large yet.
For the coming year we plan on following up with the results of the LibQual+ user study.
More detail on various aspects of the Library's operation follows
in the excerpts from the Access Services, Digital Literacy Closet, Information
Services, Library Media and Systems reports.
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Highlights
2001/2002 was another year of strong contributions by Access Services Department personnel. Some of the more significant changes were in personnel in the Circulation Unit, which were the result of staff turnover. Two key people retired, which then created opportunities for in-house advancement and additional opportunities for new people to be hired.
Other highlights for the year included:
During the 2001/2002 academic year, the DLC offered assistance to faculty, students, and Library staff on 644 multimedia projects and answered 446 multimedia-related reference questions. Photoshop assistance, scanning, color printing, PowerPoint presentations, CD burning, web pages, and video editing were the most prevalent projects. The top seven majors using the DLC were : Art, Biology, Geography, Environmental Resource Engineering, Liberal Studies, English, and Wildlife. The demographics of our users were 577 students, 40 staff, and 27 faculty.
As an experiment, the DLC offered evening service two evenings a week. However, based on usage, it was decided to cut back to only one evening in the future. The DLC was also open during both summer sessions. During the first session 35 people used our services: 27 students, 5 staff, and 3 faculty. For the second session a total of 24 people used the DLC: 21 students, 2 staff, and 1 faculty. Although usage was low in the summer, we will continue to offer the service, due to many requests from prior years.
The DLC also provided formal public instruction sessions. Four two-hour PowerPoint workshops were offered, two in fall semester and two in the spring. Eighty-one students, faculty and staff attended. We also sponsored a Dreamweaver training that was attended by 17 library staff. On the classroom front, DLC team members worked with professors to provide instruction on multimedia resources and authoring to AIE 430 and SCI 331 students.
Reference service continues to show declines. The decline in reference transactions is 20% since 99/00, and to address this change the department worked on revamping the desk schedule to trim back double staffing. The number of transactions has shown an annual decline since 1994/95. This year, desks are double staffed only 4 hours per day on weekdays, and these blocks can be finessed at less busy times of the year by using our new pair of walkabouts. Generally, this decline is thought to reflect growing use of web resources by students to satisfy quick reference information needs. The campus decline in student enrollment is also a factor. It may be that a Live Reference program and promotion would uncover new traffic, but there is no final plan for the system to move ahead in this area so far, and the department has agreed to wait until the system direction is set.
Nevertheless, to continue our departmental attempts to develop greater flexibility for desk staffing, this fall another small group will be trained for the Third Floor Reference Desk (Humboldt County Collection and Government Documents Collections) so that desk can be reliably staffed as expected of a main library reference desk, and so that more of the department will be knowledgeable about the important resources on the third floor. Two staff members were extensively trained last summer for downstairs reference desk service and will continue to work in double staffed slots to gain enough expertise to cover the desk solo next year. The department will continue to work on developing ways to cover responsibilities for a FERPed librarian as well as another who has release time for the next three years to permit UFPC service. Air quality related disabilities are another motivator for more training to provide maximum staffing flexibility.
Instruction activity is holding fairly level over the last eight years, with a pattern of limited fluctuation that presumably reflects the cycles for class offerings. This year we taught a record number of sessions, 227, and the same number of students as two years ago, even though the campus had 315 fewer enrolled students this year than two years ago. An observable trend in instruction is for class instructors to take on information instruction as well, often scheduling a class session in the library for that purpose. Presumably this indicates a higher profile on campus for the need to build information literacy skills in students as well as a greater comfort level among disciplinary faculty with the resources. This year's IS Department initiative to articulate information competency skills in subject areas should result in closer cooperation between teaching faculty and the librarians, and should continue to raise the importance of these skills in the campus vision.
Interlibrary Loan may be challenged next year. The superb performance of this unit on both borrowing and lending sides will be facing such unknowns as the first full year of the CSU Resource Sharing System (RSS) lending system and increasing numbers of lending requests from other libraries as the excellent HSU turnaround time becomes known. With both staff on reduced time bases, no more challenges are needed in the coming year.
Special Collections continues to be an energetic and high profile unit, and is focused next year on completing the task of processing the Clausen papers at last, as well as several other important processing projects. That will be a great achievement. A long-term question will have to be addressed by and for this unit, eventually. As the Library continues to accept local materials as gifts, where are they to be housed? Since it is unlikely that the artifacts will be discarded after digitizing or microfilming, as collections are accepted the required space must expand.
HSU Library's video collection originally consisting of mostly VHS format videotapes
has added 37 DVDs. Library Media is in the process of replacing all laserdisc,
3/4" and Beta videotapes with DVDs and VHS tapes. As more Smart Classrooms
are equipped with DVD players throughout campus, there is a strong need to augment
our DVD collection.
Video Collection Development/Circulation
Library's video collection grew to 4,501 titles during the past year. 301 new titles were purchased over the course of the year. As seen in the past, the trend to utilize videos in classrooms increased dramatically. Once again, circulation increase of these materials and in-library use of these items were quite evident. Library Media staff worked with faculty members to maximize the video budget and offering her expertise in suggesting possible titles to be purchased for several departmental budgets. Library Media staff also assisted faculty and students in locating vendor information and online guides and materials for the video titles.
Independent Study Lab
The Independent Study Lab now offers more DVD stations and video stations. As we saw last year, the popularity of viewing videotapes and DVDs on a drop-in basis was quite significant. The number of video viewing stations increased to 20, with 4 additional VHS machines in the Study Lab. One more DVD player was added to the Independent Study Lab, while another TV/VHS/DVD combination unit has been installed in one of the group study rooms. The use of traditional equipment such as audio and slide viewing machines has decreased dramatically.
Projection
The use of the Study Lab, group viewing rooms, collection and circulation of videotapes will continue to grow, as more faculty require video viewing as part of their coursework. Library Media staff will focus on creating a new Media Cluster in the Library to provide better service in conjunction with other non-print collections and multimedia technology.
The Library systems unit worked with the library's Information services unit and with University Information technology services to design and implement a mobile training facility using laptop computers and wireless networking to make the most effective use of limited classroom space in the Library. The configuration of the wireless LAN took considerable effort and time, requiring the installation of additional hardware to allow University Telecommunications and Network Services to centrally manage the small subnet used by the wireless lab. Full use of the Lab will begin during the Fall 2002 term with expansion of services planned.
The workstations used by the main reference desk were upgraded with flat screen LCD monitors and wireless keyboards and mice.
Two stations for the self-service printing of Library handouts and help materials were developed. The stations, located in the first and third floor reference areas, provide double sided printing of all the Library's training materials, on demand, by our users. The stations are secured to only provide prints of the Library's designated handouts, from the Library's Home page.
Staff workstations were upgraded to Microsoft Windows 2000 and Office 2000 software. The regular upgrade of software covered by the CSU-wide Microsoft agreement is being performed wherever it is feasible, establishing ownership of this software after the expiration of the current agreement in 2003. The Department continues to provide extensive support to the Library's users, with over 400 messages sent to the Department's 00help email address.
The inventory database was expanded to include networking information and additional
data on hardware and software, allowing a very smooth transition when the campus
restructured the network to use a central DHCP server.
A workable system was developed to selectively restrict access to some Internet
sites. This minimally restrictive filtering has allowed the Library to reserve
the limited number of workstations located in the stacks for use with Library
resources. The problems that the library had experienced with unaffiliated users
monopolizing workstations have been greatly reduced. The methods developed by
the Department have proven to be adaptable and easily maintainable, and have
been expanded to filter out web mail services from workstations reserved for
online database searching.
All staff with responsibilities for web page maintenance had the Dreamweaver editing software installed on their machines. This upgrade and the formal and informal training performed by systems staff, had allowed for more distribution of web-editing duties among staff, with a higher quality of output.
The Pharos Union Catalog and its Resource Sharing System for interlibrary loans was successfully implemented, providing user-initiated interlibrary loans and convenient searching of the union catalog of all CSU Libraries. The system continues to be customized and enhanced through local efforts.
Began implementing an upgraded version of the web interface to the CLIO software used to manage the interlibrary loan transactions not initiated through the Pharos system. The new software allows users to check the status of their requests. Local efforts at implementing this system have allowed the Library to use its Endeavor Voyager Patron database for all user logons and inquiries.
Participated in the support of the Library's LibQual+ survey of its users. The Department extracted and managed an electronic mailing list of all Humboldt State Faculty and Students from a several sources. The results were a very sizeable sample of the Library's users that will be providing data to guide the Library's planning in the next year.
Participated in planning for the Telecommunications Infrastructure (TII) Initiative
project. The Library has completed an extensive survey of networking needs and
current deployment for the TII planning. A complete inventory of all network
devices was developed and used to implement network changes required in preparation
for this project.
Supported the Library's weeding project with customized reporting to identify
little used items in the collection. Circulation data from the previous library
system was extracted from archival storage and integrated into the reports to
give bibliographers over ten years of usage data. Reporting of circulation data
is now provided on demand, with a high degree of customization available.
The reporting methods for tracking online database searching activity was redesigned and implemented for this entire period. Database searching statistics are now reported on a monthly, regular basis, with a much greater level of detail available, such as time of day and location of workstation.
The Library's Technology Plan has been updated with the participation of the Library's new All Library Council. The goals of the plan have been approved and individual initiatives are being developed within this framework.
Holdings on June 30 for the last two fiscal years
2001/02
LIBRARY EXPENDITURES
(STATE FUNDS)
COMMUNITY BORROWING - CHARGED CIRCULATION
IN-LIBRARY AND HOME USE CIRCULATION
IN-LIBRARY AND HOME
USE CIRCULATION
PLUS DATABSES & FULL-TEXT ARTICLES ACCESSED
LIBRARY SUMMARY ORGANIZATION
ROSTER
2001/2002
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Last updated: February 17, 2003
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