Assessment of Library Resources and Services
DEFINITION:
The USC Union library's responsibility is to serve the scholarly reading, reference, and research needs of the students, faculty, and staff of the campus, as well as the general public. To fulfill this responsibility, the library strives to support all areas of the curriculum offered at Union and Laurens by supplying books, journals, audio/visual media and equipment, and access to the Internet and other electronic databases as appropriate and monetarily feasible. The library also is responsible for teaching all patrons basic library skills and research methods, in a classroom setting or one-on-one, so that they are able to take full advantage of the information available toward lifelong learning.
INDICATORS:
ASSESSMENT METHODS:
ASSESSMENT RESULTS:
The USC Union library has been located on the ground floor of the Central Building since its renovation in 1981. According to accepted standards for colleges enrolling fewer than 200 fte students, our library space meets basic standards. A standard inventory of audiovisual equipment is available in the library and in the Main Building and in Laurens, for faculty who teach in these locations. The library is responsible for the maintenance of the audiovisual equipment, and has funds budgeted for that purpose. The library does not have a microfilm printer, but does circulate the film on a one-hour checkout basis so that students can get copies at the public library three blocks away.
Through the addition of a T-1 computer line, the Union campus now provides high-speed access to the Internet. The Laurens reading room has one computer with dial-up access to the Internet, courtesy of the Piedmont Rural Telephone Company. In both Union and Laurens, students can gain access to USCAN, Infotrac Searchbank, and other electronic databases available through the USC homepage, http://www.sc.edu.
The library is staffed by one professional librarian, who has been with USC Union since 1988, and by one full-time Library Technical Assistant III, who has been on staff since 1992. These two permanent staff members are assisted by a varying number of student assistants. The USC Union librarian holds the master of librarianship degree from the University of South Carolina, earned in 1985. The American Library Association considers the MLS the terminal degree for the field, as noted on their web page (see http://www.ala.org/acrl/guides/termdegr.html).
According to the ACRL standards, staffing requirements should meet the minimum of three technicians for an FTE range of 1,000-2,999 students. The USC Union library employs one full time library technical assistant whose primary responsibilities include circulation, interlibrary loan, helping supervise the work/study students, and providing reference help when the librarian is not available.
The Union library ensures that it is available to all faculty members and enrolled students by operating 50.5 hours per week (current as of the Spring, 2000 semester, and increased two hours from the Spring 1999 semester) at the Union campus. The Laurens reading room is open Monday through Thursday, generally between 2:30 and 7:00 p.m., and Friday from 2:30 until 5:00 p.m. The staff secretary has been trained by the librarian to check out books, make photocopies from reference materials, and to search the various electronic databases, which include the USCAN online catalog and the Infotrac Basic periodical database. The USCU librarian also makes periodic trips during the semester for onsite reference consultation and assistance; a calendar is posted for information. An 800-telephone number is available for out-of-town students to contact the librarian or other library staff in Union, and electronic mail addresses are posted on the USC Union web page, http://www.sc.edu/union, for contact through the Internet.
The library houses 32,000 books, subscriptions to 52 periodicals and standing orders, and 8,000 pieces of audio/visual media and microfilm, and provides full access to the Internet and the Infotrac Basic periodical database. These learning resources are adequate to the purpose of the institution. The ACRL standards recommend that for an FTE student population of 1,000 to 2,999, a minimum collection of 40,000 volumes is required. The USC Union library currently has approximately 32,000 volumes which meets the criterion for its average FTE population of 200. Approximately 1,000 volumes are available at the Laurens reading room for use of students there.
In analyzing our holdings in specific areas, we find considerable strength in the liberal arts, in literature, history, psychology, sociology, basic sciences, and in foreign languages. We find weaknesses in the hard sciences, computer science, business, and in education. These are disciplines that especially require currency of information. For instance, we have randomly sampled from our collection and find the median age of holdings in biology to be 1968, in business to be 1970, in chemistry to be 1957, in education to be 1975, in government/law to be 1922, and in sociology to be 1944.
USC Union provides access to a collection of basic reference resources both in Union and Laurens that meets standard bibliographies. This collection is planned to serve primarily the first two years of baccalaureate course work, but subject coverage is augmented by evaluation of circulation statistics, interlibrary loan requests, and faculty input. The library also provides access to more specialized resources on the main campus via electronic mail reference requests and interlibrary loan.
Beyond books and periodicals, the Union collection also includes most standard formats, including audio/visual media and equipment, microfilm, journals, state documents, and newspapers. Educational films and videos are available for the use of local professors from the Film Library on the Columbia campus, and they can be identified and received within a very few days using the Internet and email. The Laurens reading room collection concentrates on book materials that directly reflect the courses offered there each semester, along with a small reference collection as well as reserve materials. Holdings from the Union library are relocated to the Laurens site on a semester basis upon request from local instructors.
The interlibrary loan service is available for students, faculty, staff, and alumni to obtain materials that are not available at Union or Laurens, and students are taught in the library orientation sessions how to expand the online catalog to locate additional material if they cannot find enough information in Union. Generally, if an item is located within USC, it can arrive within a few days; if it must be obtained outside USC, it can take a few weeks.
The USC Union library also meets the ACRL standards in the provision of basic LRC services and activities. By these standards, a minimum of 16 basic library services are required for an institution our size, and 28 ranks as excellent. USC Union provides 31 services, including acquisition and processing of print, non-print, and microform materials; audiovisual equipment services; audiovisual equipment distribution, maintenance, and repair; an automated online catalog with public access; bibliographic instruction; circulation of print and nonprint materials; interlibrary borrowing and lending; inventory of audiovisual equipment; listening services; microcomputers for student use; microform print service; reference services; reserve book service; sound cassette duplication; and video production. In the provision of additional services above the basic level, the library is open to the general public on a regular basis, is the only source in the county for state and federal tax forms, and is responsible for providing the student identification card service and campus mail service.
The USC Union library provides ongoing orientation programs at both the Union and Laurens sites. These programs include live lectures and demonstrations, bibliographies, handouts, and library tours. In University 101 an exercise introduces students to the library by "walking" them through searching for information on a topic, generally something timely or popular. Brief instructions on library use are included in the "Student Privileges at the University of South Carolina Union Library" brochure, which is handed out at orientation sessions. More complete library information pamphlets have been devised for Union and Laurens students, which include basic information about the types of materials available, how to access this information via USCAN or Infotrac in the library or from home, and how to obtain information via the Internet or interlibrary loan. USCAN guides and interlibrary loan forms and pamphlets are available next to the public computers. Introduction to subject-specific reference materials, such as for sociology and biology, and more in-depth USCAN and Infotrac searching is made available upon request of the professor.
Collection development is shared by the librarian and the faculty. All teaching faculty recommend materials in their area, and these requests are honored to the extent of available funding. The librarian is responsible for developing the reference collection, as well as for covering gaps in the collection not covered by the resident faculty. Trade publications, book reviews in journals, titles available in the University System, and faculty resources are utilized for the collection development process. A collection development policy is in place, and can be found in the library’s public services manual. Electronic database resources are fairly new, and so far have been added in consortium with the other USC campuses, such as the Britannica, Grolier, and SIRS additions; the Infotrac Searchbank database was added as part of a state-wide consortium.
Accepted standards suggest that at least 6% of the campus budget be used for the library. This figure has varied between 5.3% and 6.1% over the last eight years, with an average of 5.7%
A variety of surveys are periodically administered to students, alumni, faculty, and staff, and data collected from 1993 to 2000 were considered for this report. In both the responses to individual items and in written comments taken from the surveys, we see that patrons are making a successful transition from print media to electronic sources of information. Students are using our own books and newspapers less often (spring 2000 responses 46-79% above average or excellent) but are making heavy use of our interlibrary loan service and our newly available and much more diverse collection of electronic periodicals (see below). We have added significantly to our reference collection, and student satisfaction there is relatively strong (recent responses 63-89% above average or excellent).
Patrons perceive the library staff to be helpful and courteous, and this perception has improved substantially since 1993 (spring 2000 response 97% above average or excellent). Finally, the library is regarded as a comfortable facility (Spring 2000 responses 80-90% above average or excellent).
Like the students, the faculty find weaknesses in the print collections but are making many more assignments based upon electronic access. The faculty want more input into the allocation of limited library resources, but admit that they do not take advantage of opportunities for input that they do have. Finally, they recognize the quality of the reference collection (100% satisfactory) and appreciate the organization of the library and its services, and the caring attitude of the staff (again, 100% positive).
USE OF ASSESSMENT FINDINGS:
The size of the library is adequate for our current enrollment. If we grow, we will have to provide a larger library, and our current, 5-year strategic plan (http://www.sc.edu/union/StrategicPlan.htm) considers this need. We will be studying the possibility of constructing a new classroom/library building.
The Union/Laurens Commission on Higher Education recently gifted the library with a Gateway Pentium II personal computer for student access to the Internet, the USCAN online library database, and other electronic reference and periodical databases. A few reference-oriented CD-ROMs have been added for use with the Gateway machine, including a medical encyclopedia and a resume writing resource. Additional 486s have been reconditioned by the Union campus director of computing resources for increasing student access to electronic resources in the library. Four more PCs will be acquired for student use over the next five years for placement in the library's computer room, which is already wired for Internet access. The librarian has a Pentium machine on her desk, and an additional one is in use as a circulation terminal. The recent addition of a Pentium III machine for the library technical assistant will enable him to upgrade the Union library's participation in the new interlibrary loan system. The USC libraries will implement during Summer 2000 a web-based interlibrary loan system, to be called "ILL Express," which will replace an old and dying CMS mainframe-based version. Interlibrary loans will be handled electronically, and full text articles will be distributed via the Web. The librarian is in the process of learning to work with html and Microsoft's Front Page web page development software to develop a library web page for patron information and access to databases. Customized links will enable tracking and generate usage reports for these databases, enabling the librarian to evaluate the effectiveness of database choices made.
A new Mita 2360 photocopier, with enlarging and reducing capability, was added to the library in January 1999. Two additional VCRs have been mounted under televisions in two classrooms in the Main building, courtesy of the USC Columbia Distance Education department. The librarian and the Academic Dean are working on identifying funds to replace a roll-around TV/VCR combination for the Main building, as well as three additional VCRs for the remaining wall-mounted televisions on campus.
The job description for the library technical assistant is currently being revised to reflect new duties assigned in recent years. Soon after installation of a new Lucent G3 Definity telephone system in 1997, the LTA attended a week-long training seminar and now has sole responsibility for customizing service, training, and troubleshooting for each telephone set on the Union campus. This summer, the LTA will also assume more technical duties in the library, taking over the ordering end of the acquisitions process from the librarian, as well as learning a new Web-based interlibrary loan system. Shifting more of the technical processes from the librarian will enable her to concentrate more on the public aspects of the Union library services, including developing the library Web page, an online library orientation, and more systematic collection development.
Two additional hours were added to the library schedule during 1999/2000. During the fall, both hours were added during Sunday, expanding the schedule to 1:00pm-6:00pm. During the spring, one hour was cut from Sunday, due to poor attendance during the first and last hours, and shifted to the Friday schedule, keeping the library open until 1:00pm. Usage rates are constantly monitored, and operating hours are adjusted accordingly.
Union and Laurens students have access to approximately 1,500 periodicals, over half of which are full-text, via the Internet through the Infotrac Basic online database, made available statewide through the DISCUS (Digital Information for South Carolina Users) project. All of the USC campus libraries participate in this statewide consortium.
Databases included in the DISCUS project for public libraries and college/university libraries:
Databases included in the DISCUS project for elementary and secondary schools: Kid’s Edition (Infotrac), Junior Edition (Infotrac), New Book of Knowledge Online (Grolier), SIRS Discoverer, and Student Edition (Infotrac)
The USC Libraries also teamed up to provide Britannica Online, the electronic version of the encyclopedia, and JSTOR, a scholarly full-text periodical database, both made more affordable by consortium purchase. Currently, electronic links to these databases are available on the Columbia campus home page, but the Union library will shortly have a home page with links to these databases set up to generate statistics on local usage. Union and Laurens students also have access to the Electric Library online database via local campus computers. Electric Library provides full-text access to newspapers, television news programs, maps, and photographs, as well as periodical articles and book chapters. The USC Provost's Office will soon provide to the Regional Campuses a scholarly citation database called "The Web of Science" made up of the ISI (Institute for Scientific Information) Arts and Humanities, Science, and Social Science citation indices. The Regional Campuses librarians have also formed a consortium and have begun discussions of ways to obtain access to more specialized electronic databases, such as MLA and PsycInfo.
Although we do participate in the USCAN library network, and our students do have relatively easy access to the state-wide library resources described above, we realize that our library holdings still are smaller and older than ideally they should be. They must be strengthened, including books, periodicals, and CD ROM.
We have worked to strengthen our reference collection. Some of the works added over the last few years are:
Encyclopedia of psychology, an eight-volume collection of articles covering all aspects of psychology
Encyclopedia of religion, almost 3,000 articles in 8 volumes cover all aspects of religion in three dimensions--the theoretical (doctrines, dogmas, myths, theologies, ethics), the practical (sacraments, meditations, cults), and the sociological (religious groupings, ecclesiastical forms)
Encyclopedia of multicultural America, containing over one hundred signed original essays, each addressing a distinct ethnic, ethnoreligious, or Native American group in the United States
The African American encyclopedia, a six-volume encyclopedia covering essential information on African American life and culture
Encyclopedia of business, two volumes of information covering all aspects of business, finance, and commerce
Encyclopedia of careers and vocational guidance, a four-volume encyclopedia of career information
Notable corporate chronologies, a two-volume set chronicling thirty or more major events in the life of over 1,150 of the most significant corporations operating worldwide
Encyclopedia of American social history, covering the processes and the people of the American social structure
Encyclopedia of social issues, six volumes of articles covering various current social issues, from abortion to homelessness to violence in schools
The Gale encyclopedia of childhood & adolescence, a single volume work covering human development from birth through adolescence
Encyclopedia of the American legislative system, three volumes of "studies of the principal structures, processes, and policies of Congress and state legislatures since the colonial era"
Encyclopedia of earth and physical sciences, 11 volumes of coverage of all the major earth and physical science topics, including chemistry, geology, and physics
Encyclopedia of life sciences, 11 volumes covering chemistry, geology, and physics sciences, including biochemistry, biotechnology, ecology, genetics, psychology, and zoology
Encyclopedia of family health, 11 volumes covering health topics and issues
Encyclopedia of technology and applied sciences, an 11 volume work covering computers and communications; engineering, manufacturing and industry; medical, military, and transportation technology
Literature criticism from 1400 to 1800, and a "...for students" series--including
Epics for students.
Poetry for students.
Drama for students.
Novels for students.
Short stories for students.
Shakespeare for students.
Shakespeare's characters for students.
Series of reference books giving analysis, context and criticism on the most studied works of literature. Each volume includes an overview of the work, biography of the author, analysis of themes, a glossary of terms, and other pertinent information. Subject, theme, and nationality indexes are included.
New for the Fall 1999 semester, students in all Union campus English 101 classes attended a hands-on orientation given by the USCU librarian and held in the campus computer lab. Twenty-six sessions were scheduled at different times of the day and evening, allowing students to choose a time convenient for them. The orientation included hands-on practice for the students in how to access the USCAN online catalog for book and reference materials, as well as periodical articles and abstracts through the Infotrac Searchbank database on the Web. Search strategies, including author, title, subject, and keyword searches, were demonstrated in both USCAN and Infotrac. Students were then required to complete a library skills exercise to demonstrate comprehension and competency.
The librarian has also worked with a biology faculty member over the past two semesters to present in the campus computer lab searching and assessment strategies for biological and nursing websites using the Yahoo and Infoseek search engines.
More and more, the USC Union faculty is incorporating an Internet searching element into students' assignments, and the library staff has spent time working with web sites, search strategies and engines in anticipation of students' questions and concerns. Orientation sessions concerning electronic mail are planned for the Spring 2000 semester as a part of the regular orientation schedule.
Union and Laurens students are also instructed how to access these materials and online databases in their homes via remote access through the Internet.
To help us use our limited resources as efficiently as possible, the librarian, in consultation with the faculty Academic Affairs Committee, is developing a new formula for allocating departmental funds for library materials acquisition, taking into consideration the numbers of upper and lower division courses offered, the varying disciplines, and the amount of circulation of materials in the library. The librarian will reserve the right to ensure that the collection is developed in a balanced way among the disciplines. The librarian will also work with the Associate Dean and the professor concerned when new courses are added to the curriculum to produce a "library impact study," determining materials that are already available in the library to support a course and what materials need to be added.
Achievement of Students Transferring from Two to Four-Year Institutions
Transfer reports for the USC Regional Campuses can be found at
http://kudzu.ipr.sc.edu/IEReports/transfers/tran2000.htm