Assessment of Library Resources and Services
The USC Lancaster library can demonstrate that sufficient learning resources are available and readily accessible to support the basic requirements of the USC Lancaster curricula. The core collection is comprised of both print and electronic materials including books, newspapers, journals, microfilm and microfiche, audiovisuals, pamphlets, college catalogs, and various computer-related items such as CD-ROMs and electronic databases. Additionally, more than three hundred periodicals are received in Medford Library, ranging from scholarly journals to popular news and recreational magazines to newspapers. These materials are organized according to the Library of Congress Classification System and meet or exceed ACRL Standards. In addition, Medford Library is a Federal Depository Library. Selected government publications are available through this designation. Because all materials are available in such a variety of forms and cover such a wide range of topics, a primary function of the library staff is to help in finding and interpreting information and in explaining the use of appropriate technology. Through the use of its core collection and through electronic transmission of data and materials, the library has continued to meet the information needs of its students and faculty.
The library ensures that its is available to all faculty members and enrolled students by operating 64.5 hours per week, including evening and weekend hours, and by using appropriate technology to deliver information to students and faculty regardless of their physical location. The library also places increasing emphasis on cooperation with other libraries to help meet the demands of its users. USC Lancaster students and faculty enjoy full borrowing privileges at the Thomas Cooper Library, the main USC library, and at all other USC libraries. Through its membership in the Charlotte Area Educational Consortium the Medford Library is able to provide borrowing privileges for USC Lancaster faculty in twenty-five college and university libraries throughout upper S.C. and lower N.C. Finally, through a new borrowing agreement among the academic libraries of S.C., USC Lancaster students may borrow from any institution of higher learning in the state of South Carolina.
The Medford Library exists to support the teaching, research, and community functions of the University of South Carolina at Lancaster. These are not competing missions but complementary parts of the same mission, each strengthening and drawing strength from the other two. Operating within the institutional environment, the library acquires, houses, preserves, and makes accessible to all its constituencies, both physically and bibliographically, a collection of print and nonprint materials sufficient to support the curricula of the college. Finally, the library, through its information services and outreach activities, serves as a link with the University’s broader public community. In brief, the Medford Library serves as the academic center of the University of South Carolina at Lancaster.
The library surveys students and faculty in a systematic fashion through online user surveys, e-mail, a suggestion box, orientation program assignments, close cooperation with the faculty Library Committee, and through the dissemination of printed faculty and student surveys each spring. Survey results for the most recent survey indicate that the faculty and students are satisfied with the bibliographic control and organization of the Medford Library collections, that the library provides convenient hours of operation for its patrons, and that it has developed procedures which adequately address the needs of patrons. Library use statistics show that on the average over 80% of respondents use the library regularly throughout the semester – and over 50% use it at least weekly. A very small percentage does not use the library at all, and most of those because they are enrolled in a course or courses that do not require it. Substantial majorities of respondents visit the library not just to use its print resources, but also to use its audio-visual resources and equipment, and to study. Nearly half visit the library to engage in independent reading outside of class for enjoyment. The survey data also sustain the impression that the library’s collections and other resources are regularly and widely used. Students overwhelmingly affirm that increased use of computers for library research has encouraged their use of the library. Finally, the Government Depository collection was inspected and found to be in compliance on June 14, 1996. Future inspections of this collection are expected to take the form of a self-study.
ACRL Standards, which provide quantitative measures in the four areas of collection size, collection growth, staffing, and space, indicate that the Medford collection is adequate to support the mission of the institution, with a sporadic growth rate. Staffing is below the minimal level called for in the standards, and this is a serious problem. Although space also falls below the minimal level, a new library building and renovation project has been funded to address the need for seating, collections, and technology space. One challenge the library faces is in balancing the traditional demand for a core collection with the emerging demands for new electronic services, especially during a period when the costs of books, and especially journals, are increasing at a rate well beyond the inflation rate for the general economy. It should also be noted that the collection has not been able to keep pace with course offerings in the graduate education and distance education programs of USC offered on the USC Lancaster campus, nor does the library receive funding or support for these courses.
Given the size and mission of USCL, the Medford Library’s collections are of sufficient quality and quantity to support the institution’s instructional mission. External collection development standards and student and faculty survey data document the sound quality of the library’s collections. Similarly, standards for collection size as well as student and faculty survey data document the adequacy of the size of the library’s collection. In general, while it houses a relatively small collection, consistent with the size of the institution, the Medford Library is able, through its own collection and through use of electronic databases and Interlibrary Loan services, to provide students and faculty with satisfactory access to materials they need for learning and teaching. The collection meets both the quantitative standards of ACRL and qualitative measures undertaken by the library to assess the quality of materials in the collection. The collection is regularly weeded for currency and materials are purchased on a priority basis to support the areas of growth and demand. Items determined to have little or no academic benefit are selected for possible weeding. The Head Librarian works with the faculty to provide even coverage in the collection. In working to create an appropriate collection, the Medford Library has relied on standard bibliographies, book reviews in professional journals, and faculty and professional input for making book selections. For example, the library has utilized the Brandon and Hill list and the UMI Essential Medical Titles listings for its nursing program; and Choice Cards, professional journals and publications, publisher’s catalogs, and various Web sites are used to select other appropriate titles to support other programs. USC system-generated reports supply raw data for evaluation of the collection in terms of its age, usage, and number of titles per Library of Congress subclass. Periodicals are selected and de-selected on the basis of curricular need, patron demand, and cost. To help maintain a relevant collection, it remains the responsibility of all full-time and adjunct faculty to recommend for purchase books and other library materials to support the courses they teach. Each academic area receives a percentage of the book budget based on such factors as enrollment, course offerings, and previous circulation in that area. In addition, the library purchases materials to maintain and support all academic areas. Determination of the actual amount to be allocated to the budget categories (books, periodicals, databases, standing orders, microfilm, etc.) remains the responsibility of the Head Librarian, with input from the library staff, Library Committee, and the Administration of USCL. All remaining funds are set aside for purchase of books and audio-visuals recommended by USCL faculty. Control and dispensation of all acquisition funds remains a library responsibility. Because the library is faced with financial limitations, planning and evaluation must dominate the budgeting process. The library strives to present convincing models for its role in the University budgeting process, propose solutions to the resource allocation process in order to support both existing programs and new programs, and find ways to express the shared responsibility required for maintaining its crucial role in the University.
The library strives to provide an adequate and balanced collection, which will meet the needs of the faculty and students. Library materials are selected according to their usefulness in supporting the USC Lancaster curriculum. Written collection development policies and procedures are included in the library’s Policies and Procedures Manual. Procedures are also in place providing for the preservation, replacement or removal of deteriorating materials. Faculty and library staff share the responsibility of evaluating areas of the collection to determine strengths and weaknesses and to identify materials that need to be added. Both current and future course offerings are considered so that materials support all courses. The library utilizes an internal and continuous five-year library planning process concerning materials and services; these documents are shared with the faculty for their feedback. Additional needs are identified through surveys and through individual consultation with faculty.
USC Lancaster ensures that students and faculty have access to a wide range of printed resources as well as computer and online based resources. A full listing of electronic resources is available on the Medford Library Web page. (http://www.sc.edu/lancaster/library/library.htm)
All USC Lancaster entering freshmen receive at least one full hour of multimedia based library instruction, followed by "hands-on" training and a graded assignment. In addition, the library encourages professors to arrange instruction for their classes when coursework requires that students make extensive use of the library collections. These orientations generally take one hour and are tailored to meet the specific needs of students and their assignments. Basic library tours can also be arranged at virtually any time the library is open and generally last for fifteen minutes.
In addition to the multi-media-based lecture orientation, both printed and electronic Web-based guides are available to reference materials in various subject fields, such as where to find book reviews, literary criticism, business and investment information, bibliographical information, general information, and the right electronic index. These guides to using library technology and resources provide all users with a means of self-instruction. Similarly, an online web tutorial serves as a basic introduction to resources on the Internet. The instruction of students in the use of the library at the reference level, whether general or in-depth, is still introductory and basic. The function of the professional librarians is to teach bibliographic search techniques, whether through answering students’ questions, or when guiding them to the appropriate material, and to provide fundamental knowledge and skills in library and technology usage.
Information literacy is a basic component of many courses taught at USC Lancaster.
The professional librarians make classroom presentations at the request of faculty members, prepare special bibliographies and guides tailored to meet the needs of specific assignments, and communicate the library’s mission to faculty committees such as the Curriculum, Honors, and Computer Committees. In addition, the library supports the Academic Success Center and Opportunity Scholars Program by offering tutorials and lectures to these students. Finally, the library is currently working with the USC Lancaster Honors Committee to create a series of Web-based instructional pages and tutorials for use in USC Lancaster’s Honors Program classes.
The Library is open 64.5 hours per week, including weekend and evening hours. The library will also open additional hours by prior appointment to assist with course requirements or assignments. Survey data shows a high degree of satisfaction with the current hours; however; staffing is currently inadequate to cover them. Professional librarians are available during all library hours except for two evenings during the week; an individual holding a master’s degree in teaching staffs these two evenings. Internet-based resources and databases are available on campus and at home independently of the library’s hours.
Medford Library’s technical services are handled for the Medford Library by System Library Services of USC. National standards for cataloging are met in several areas:
The library ensures the provision of and ready access to adequate library resources and services to support the courses, programs and degrees offered by USC Lancaster. Library usage and survey data are used to help the library plan for and respond to needs of its users.
In addition to its internal collections, the library subscribes to a reasonable number of electronic databases that support the areas of need/demand in the curriculum. Subscription databases have included ERIC, SIRS, First Search base package plus, Britannica Online, Grolier, MLA Bibliography, PsycINFO, DIScovering Multicultural America, Peterson’s GradSearch, Books in Print with Reviews, the GPO Catalog, and VuText’s Charlotte Observer and State newspapers. These subscription databases are supplemented by an enormous array of Web sites, as well as by the S.C. State-funded DISCUS databases and the USC-funded USCAN catalog. The library’s Web page, user guides, and library staff help guide users to appropriate sources.
The current library facility of 12,000 square feet is inadequate to house, service, and make the current collection easily accessible and has required significant retrofitting with additional shelves and cabling for technology. Substantial seating has also been lost due to space needed for additional shelf ranges to alleviate collection crowding. Fortunately, the library will break ground in late spring 2000 on a state-funded, state-of-the-art addition and renovation. The new library will open in late 2001 or early 2002 with three times the current space, or about 36,000 square feet, which is predicted to provide adequate space and seating for the collection and its users for 15 –20 years. The new facility will include a new book security system and self-checkout; a new bibliographic instruction room with multimedia capabilities; sufficient study, office; and conference space; a quiet reading room; a reserve reading room; and room for our collection figured at a growth rate of 4% per year. Finally the new library will provide sufficient seating and study space to accommodate at least 20% of the student population at one time. The building will of course be heavily wired for technology and for Internet/Intranet access at all study and access areas.
Interlibrary loan is a fast and efficient option for all USC Lancaster students, faculty, and staff. Requests may be placed on paper or via the Web. The Library has implemented the ARIEL delivery system to speed Internet delivery of articles using the Internet; other systems of delivery include U.S. mail, fax, and weekly USC shuttle deliveries. The staff has processed an average of 1,340 ILL transactions annually over the past five years. Of those items requested by USCL patrons, the successful completion rate is 95%.
Medford Library uses NOTIS automation software for its online catalog, technical services, and circulation system. The circulation system interfaces with the University’s student database and with the online catalog to reflect the circulation status of library materials and also tracks circulation statistics.
USC Lancaster is committed to providing the essential reference and specialized program resources needed by the Medford Library to support the educational, research and public service programs of the institution. During the 1980’s, USC Lancaster was able to support strengthening of the library’s collections through a policy of annual increases in the library’s budget, typically in the ten- percent range. The reduction of State support for higher education beginning in 1991-92, however, forced the institution to make drastic cuts in the library budget. Since 1994-95, USC Lancaster has been committed to restoring library funding to previous levels and has assigned this a high priority in its budgeting of operational funds for coming years. Barring unforeseen developments in State funding, such as unanticipated shortfalls, USC Lancaster is committed to increasing the library budget by 10% each year. In addition, through establishment of the Medford Library Fund and Friends of the Medford Library organization, USC Lancaster has undertaken to supplement public funding for the library with private donations. USC Lancaster supplements the traditional library materials budget with technology to expand access to information for users at remote sites.
The library provides access to its collection to all enrolled undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, and staff, as well as other local institutions and community.
The collection is organized using the Library of Congress System of Cataloging and Classification. To maintain order, shelfreading and inventories are performed regularly.
The library’s Web page is updated as necessary by the library staff.
Although USC Lancaster provides only the site for these courses, the library attempts to provide resources for graduate students within its collections as well as through cooperative arrangements with other institutions. It should be noted, however, that the Medford Library selection policy does not support the purchase of materials to support distance education courses of USC; these students are normally expected to contact the Thomas Cooper Library at USC for needed materials.
The professional library staff and the USC Lancaster faculty share in collection development. All teaching faculty recommend materials in their academic area; these requests are honored to the extent of available funding. In working to create an appropriate collection, the Medford Library has relied on standard disciplinary bibliographies, Books for College Libraries, book reviews in professional journals, Choice Cards, New York Review of Books, Library Journal, and Publishers Weekly for making book selections. The library staff works with faculty to maintain an adequate representation of titles across the disciplines, as measured against American College and Research Library (ACRL) and other external standards. Because USC Lancaster is essentially a liberal arts institution, the strengths of the Medford collection are found in areas such as history, literature, sociology, philosophy, and political science; however, it has been determined that support for the sciences is adequate. The library houses strong periodicals and reference collections, maintains a core set of electronic and print resources, and is rapidly acquiring an important collection of federal government publications. It should be noted that the USC Lancaster faculty Library Committee serves as a consultative body, providing a continuing overview of the library facility, including the collection, physical plant, hours, and planning and budget.
The library has on file a materials selection policy governing the purchase of materials. Similarly, a weeding policy and procedural guidelines ensure that the collection remains current and that discarded materials are made available for use by other area libraries.
Web sites are formally reviewed and evaluated by the professional librarians before they are linked to the library’s Web page.
Evidence of technological advances include but are not limited to the purchase of ARIEL software for interlibrary loan, the purchase of multimedia equipment for library presentations, the development and maintenance of the library’s Web page, and a myriad of Web-based resources and electronic databases. Since 1993, the Medford Library has been fully automated using the USC Columbia-mounted mainframe NOTIS system. A USC-funded Infoshare database project in 1995 provided the library with access through its USCAN terminals to several bibliographic databases as well. Additional citation and full-text databases (General Reference Center, Expanded Academic Index, Business & Company Profile, and the Health Reference Center.) were funded at the state level in 1997 under the Digital Information for South Carolina Users project (DISCUS). The University of South Carolina Access Network (USCAN), the guide to materials located in the USC libraries and in the State’s medical libraries, provides online access to a three-million-volume collection of library catalogs. Students can search library catalogs to find out what books, journals, magazines, newspapers, documents, videos, sound recordings, maps, and manuscripts are held by the library system. Additionally, Medford Library provides unlimited free access to the Web and has developed an online tutorial to its resources. A campus-wide network provides simultaneous access to the Internet, to locally owned databases, some in full-text, and to more advanced and sophisticated indexes to the journal literature. Reference works like encyclopedias, dictionaries, almanacs, statistical works, directories, etc., are accessed through the Web and thus made faster, simpler, and more effective to use. Of equal importance, Medford Library users are able to do much of their library work by using these computer-based resources in faculty offices, computer labs, and at home. Specific examples of technology purchased in the last five years includes two video-data projectors, a digital camera, a wireless keyboard and mouse, a flatbed scanner, four laser printers, a microform reader/printer; four TV’s and VCR’s, and ten Pentium computers.
The library maintains its own collection of holdings independently of the other institutions with which it has borrowing agreements. Consortium or written agreements with USC libraries, the Lancaster area libraries, and with the Charlotte Area Library Consortium are in place. Librarians in these groups meet regularly to discuss agreements.
Three full-time ALA-accredited professionals and one part-time individual holding a master’s degree in teaching staff the library. The library staff affirms the American Library Association’s Library Bill of Rights as the basic policy guiding Medford Library services, and recognizes the Statement on Professional Ethics, (ALA, 1981) as the professional principles which guide librarians in action. The Head Librarian reports to the chief academic officer on campus, the Associate Dean for Academic and Student Affairs. The Head Librarian and the Assistant Librarian hold faculty rank and tenure.
One part-time member of the library staff does not hold the traditional library degree but is highly trained in electronic information retrieval and possesses highly relevant professional experience in working with students. This individual holds a master’s degree in teaching
The library staff is comprised of three professional librarians, a part-time worker holding a master’s degree in education; and one student assistant. As noted earlier, this is below the minimum ACRL standard.
Institutional policies concerning classified and non-classified status, salary, and contractual security for library personnel are clearly defined in the USC Lancaster Policy Handbook and made known at the time of employment. It should be noted that many classified library workers carry job descriptions and titles that were developed at a time when these positions performed mainly clerical tasks like typing and filing cards. Today, these same positions work extensively with computers, deal more with the public, and perform work that is more intellectually challenging. However, the grades and pay levels for these positions have not changed. Library classified positions and pay levels should be reevaluated.
Distance learning students are provided with access to all library resources, both print and electronic and the library strives to help distance education students be successful with their coursework by providing in-house and electronic access to materials, guides to the use of library resources and services, and interlibrary loan services. It should be noted that the library is increasingly challenged to balance the collective needs of internal students and faculty with the demands of remote and distance education users
The library provides print materials as well as online resources through direct ownership of these resources, supplemented by consortium agreements. It should be noted that the library faces the challenges of an evolving digital library. Shifts have begun to occur in our materials budget allocations as the library begins to move from an ownership mode to a lease approach to providing some of its information.
The Head Librarian at USC Lancaster is ultimately responsible for providing library resources and services and for ensuring continued access to them by all constituencies.
Achievement of Students Transferring from Two to Four-Year Institutions
Transfer reports for the USC Regional Campuses are available.