7. Library & Information Resources

Description | Appraisal | Projection | Exhibits

Description

The Library, the Academic Media Technology Department, and the Information Technology Department constitute the College’s information resource centers. Their mission is to provide resources and services, both on campus and remotely, that enhance student learning, institutional inquiry, and instructional activities. Each of the resource centers contributes to the College mission by maintaining “support services that enable students to develop academic and professional skills that equip them for ongoing challenges and opportunities” and by “fostering a student-centered environment committed to learning and teaching.” The three information resources centers, administratively separate departments, are working towards greater integration of services under the College’s strategic plan.

The Arthur C. Banks Library

Within this cluster of resource centers, the particular goal of the Arthur C. Banks Library is to provide for the information needs of the students, faculty and staff of Capital Community College. In support of curriculum-based learning, lifelong learning and information literacy, the library provides a broad range of services.

The library occupies the fifth floor of the College’s new downtown facility, covering 25,000 square feet. It includes a journal reading room, six group study rooms, a technical services and interlibrary loan processing area, and a large circulation area. The library has twenty open-access computer workstations with Internet connections as well as 24 password-protected student workstations that provide Microsoft Office products. The library’s fully-equipped media room includes a special workstation for visually impaired students. A library instruction room contains an electronic teacher’s workstation and 25 computers that are used by students for hands-on library instruction.

The library is staffed by four full time professionals and two part time professionals. In addition, one full-time paraprofessional and two part-time paraprofessionals are on the library staff. Each full-time and part-time librarian holds a master’s degree in library science (MLS). The library is open 58 hours per week, including evenings and Saturdays. A librarian with an MLS is scheduled to work during all open hours.

The library materials budget is used to purchase books, videos, DVDs, CAI materials, periodical subscriptions, electronic databases, and supplies, as well as to cover consortium costs and the integrated library system yearly fee. In order to comply with copyright laws, the library follows fair-use/educational use practices when purchasing materials, and a systemwide copyright policy is under development. Recent library allocations have decreased due to budget problems. The table below illustrates the library materials budgets for the past six years.

Table 1—Library materials budgets

The library collection consists of over 45,000 books, 362 periodical subscriptions, and a collection of videos, DVDs, CDs, audio tapes and slides totaling nearly 4,500 items. More than 6,000 full-text periodicals are available through over 40 online databases covering a variety of fields and types of periodicals. A full list of databases is available (Exhibit 7.1), and students are able to access all databases remotely via a proxy server. Students may also obtain live reference help through a statewide collaborative virtual reference service.

College staff and students benefit from the library’s memberships in national and statewide consortia and resource sharing networks. The library web page provides access to regional and state resources, and expanded access to print materials is available through interlibrary loan. The library uses the Endeavor integrated online library system and is part of the LIBRIS Consortium, which provides reciprocal borrowing privileges among the twelve community colleges in the state of Connecticut. The library connects faculty and staff with thirty-four academic libraries through the Council of Connecticut Academic Library Directors Reciprocal Borrowing Agreement as well as with NELINET, a regional cooperative of more than 600 academic, public and special libraries in New England. Library resources are available to students statewide through the reQuest network and nationwide through the OCLC network.

A core function of the library is instructing students in how to access, evaluate and use information resources for assignments and research papers. Librarians provide instruction in connection with several classes: English 101 (Composition), ESL 185 (Modes of Communication), IDS 105 (College Success), and courses in United States and world history. In these classes, information literacy modules are embedded into the course curricula.

• In Composition, basic library instruction is part of the syllabus, and each student is required to complete the Library and Information Skills Workbook (Exhibit 7.2). This workbook, introduced in 1995, provides students with a general library introduction and teaches them how to access information using print and electronic resources available in the library.
• In the College Success course, a librarian leads two class sessions, teaching students how to retrieve information and incorporate it into a research paper. Students complete an Information Literacy Portfolio (Exhibit 7.3), and librarians participate on the team of instructors that meets each semester to discuss the course and how to improve instruction.
• In Modes of Communication, librarians have worked closely with ESL instructors to introduce non-native speakers to library resources. In 1999, librarians developed an online library skills tutorial that guided ESL students in the use of the online public access catalog, library databases and the Internet. Since 2002, the library segment of the Modes course has been more extensive, covering a tour of the physical library along with intensive practice in search strategies addressed to each student’s particular research topic. The Head of Library Instruction collaborates with the ESL Program Coordinator and ESL faculty on the design of this segment of the course, for which scope and depth have been evaluated and adjusted several times to respond to the needs of this group of students.
• To support sections of United States History and of World Civilization, librarians and history faculty collaborated on a recent pilot project in which students are assigned a research paper requiring the use of primary sources accessed via specific library resources. The objectives of the assignment were to introduce students to historical research methods, build skills in information literacy and technology, and to promote critical reading, thinking, and writing. Librarians offered two instructional sessions and individual consultations with students. At the end, 30% of the paper grade was assigned by the librarians based on the quality of research, correctness of citations, and completion of a research checklist (Exhibit 7.4).

Other faculty schedule single library instruction sessions for subject-specific information searches in connection with course assignments. The following table illustrates the number of library instruction sessions taught and the number of students served for the last five years.

Table 2—Library Instruction

Students at the College depend heavily on information accessed through electronic resources. For example, from September 2004 through May 2005, Capital students searched EBSCO databases 17,625 times. In addition, many assignments still require students to use information found in books. The librarians work with faculty across all disciplines to maintain an adequate collection of hard copy resources through purchases for the library collection. A librarian serves on the Curriculum and Academic Policy Committee to assure library responsiveness to curricular changes and to facilitate prompt ordering of books needed for new programs. Since 2000, librarians have been tabulating questions that have been asked at the reference desk, annotating which sources were used to answer the questions. The reports of these tabulations have enabled librarians to identify and respond to needs for additional materials (Exhibit 7.5).

Over the past 5 years, circulations and renewals remain brisk, while Interlibrary Loan interactions show a slight decline.

Table 3—Circulations and Renewals

Table 4—Interlibrary Loan.

Distance learning students have access to all of the library’s subscription databases through a proxy server that is available at all times through any computer with internet access. The library participates in a virtual reference service that connects students to a live reference librarian around the clock. The library homepage includes a special link describing all the library services that are available for distance learning students (Exhibit 7.6).

Academic Media Technology Department

The Academic Media Technology (AMT) Department (formerly Media Services) was recently renamed to reflect a new focus on the support of academics and instruction. The department collaborates with the faculty to develop, prepare, present, and distribute instructional media-based materials in a wide variety of formats for both classroom and online instruction. By providing both creative and technical services, the department ensures that instructional technology engages students in thinking about course content in different ways, offers access to a wealth of materials beyond the walls of the College, and addresses various student learning styles and abilities. The department is responsible for the following areas: classroom instructional technology systems (excluding PCs); multimedia production services; online classroom teaching systems (WebCT Vista); streaming media systems; and the administration of a full academic program in Communication Media. With the exception of WebCT Help Desk support, all AMT services are designed for faculty and staff, not for direct student support, as illlustrated by the following chart.

Table 5—AMT Support Matrix

As part of the 2002 move to the downtown campus, the College devoted over $4 million in state bond funds to the design and installation of instructional technology systems. These systems include equipment for classroom presentation technology, data servers, individual PCs, the streaming media network, the telecommunications system, and the re-equipped television/media studio. As a result, the annual AMT budget has more than doubled (to over $16,000) in order to maintain software systems unique to academic media functions, as well as to maintain the 90 classrooms, labs, and public spaces on campus that contain high-tech presentation equipment requiring regular service.

The AMT Department employs five full-time and one part-time staff members who hold diplomas, bachelors’ and masters’ degrees in key fields including electronics, graphic design, and communication. The director is currently enrolled in a doctoral program in educational administration, and all staff have attended professional development and continuing education courses to remain current with web design software, WebCT Vista design and administration, digital imaging techniques, and classroom audiovisual technologies. Staff are scheduled to cover a total of 57 office hours per week (including evening hours) from September through May. Staff are available by appointment at other times, and they schedule occasional Saturday workshops for faculty. The department has also employed student workers and university interns to assist the professional staff. Over the past two years, the job descriptions and core functions of department positions have been rewritten to concentrate on the instructional technology function at the college.

AMT follows system policy and federal law prohibiting the duplication of copyrighted media materials such as videotapes, CD-ROMs, DVDs, web files, printed materials, film images, motion pictures, or computer disks. Exceptions are made in special cases: when the College itself is the copyright holder; if the requestor has obtained written permission from the copyright holder; or if the material is no longer available and the College’s copy is deteriorating or is stored on an obsolete media format. The College follows fair-use/educational use practices when purchasing materials for classroom presentation. Consistent with this, all copyrighted streaming media is delivered via WebCT Vista, available only to students with password access. This practice simulates on-campus “classroom use” for the purposes of copyright compliance.

The College’s streaming media network is a collaborative effort among AMT, the Library, and Information Technology. The network provides “media-on-demand” services whereby students can access digitized audio and video recordings presented through their instructors’ WebCT Vista course sites. It is also used to broadcast real-time, live webcasts of lectures, special events, and a student television news program produced by the Communication Media program of the Academic Media Technology department. The streaming media network has been available only to on-campus users since its launch in fall 2004. During this experimental phase, the demand from faculty and students has grown quickly, and off-campus service is under negotiation.

The Information Technology Department

The Information Technology Department (IT) is responsible for selection, installation, and maintenance of administrative and academic hardware, user support, wireless network support and telecommunications. IT staff support the computer technology and infrastructure during the College’s extensive operating hours of 7:00a.m. to 10:00p.m., Monday through Friday, and 8:00a.m. to 3:30p.m. on Saturdays. The department manages approximately 900 PCs, 105 Terminals, 30 servers, a VOIP Phone System, Citrix Farm, and a complex network infrastructure with wireless networking and over 5,000 user accounts. IT shares responsibility for a streaming video system with the Academic Media Technology Department. Unlike the library and AMT, which report to the Academic Dean, IT reports to the Dean of Administration. IT provides a secure information technology infrastructure, along with technological tools and system support.

Highlights of campus computer technology include 16 computer labs on the sixth floor of the campus, 25 workstations in the seventh floor “Internet Café,” specialized computer labs for courses in the Library Technical Assistant program and the Communication Media program, and 38 PCs and 20 internet terminals in the college library. Floors eight through eleven offer three student-use units each and 20 self-service registration terminals are available on the second floor for BANNER online access. These provide over 500 student-use PC’s, while each full-time faculty and staff member has a PC. Adjunct faculty use PC’s located in adjunct offices. Each classroom is equipped with a PC at the instructor’s station. There is wireless networking capability on every floor and a streaming media system to deliver audio and video to campus computers via the internet. Network infrastructure was installed during construction of the campus in 2002, and includes fiber optic cabling from two data closets on each floor to the network core in the sixth floor IT facility.

IT maintains specialized software for Nursing, Science, and Continuing Education, and it supports software programs for the visually impaired, auto-cad and wireless laptops. Software for student and faculty use is purchased via site license. The largest site license is the Microsoft Campus Agreement which is purchased through the Northeast Regional Computer Program for maximum cost reduction. Students have restricted logon rights which are determined by PC location. For example, students are allowed to logon in labs but not on computers located in faculty and staff offices. The College follows systemwide policy governing acceptable use of technology systems (Exhibit 7.7). Via e-mail, the IT Department notifies faculty and staff of policies and procedures that respond to illegal or inappropriate uses of technology. Upon logging on to a PC, users may see additional timely warnings. Warnings are also displayed when logging in to the Banner software.

The IT budget is developed in conformity with College operational priorities, and yearly allocations are adequate to meet operational goals. Allocations are bolstered by bond funding for infrastructure upgrades and capital computer equipment.

The department is staffed by a director and a network manager with over 50 years of experience between them, four technicians representing over 60 years of experience, and a help desk operator who manages hundreds of calls a week. IT staffing is stretched thin in the effort to meet all College technical assistance demands. The IT help desk can be reached by telephone or email 61 hours per week, including evenings and Saturdays. The help desk was established to limit down-time in academic activities, student services and administrative functions due to computer and telephone problems. Responding to concerns about delays in service, the department analyzed help desk inquiries and coordinated a process to address requests. The Customer Service Response Procedure is illustrated in the following table.

Table 6—IT Customer Service Response Procedure

During peak times, typically at the beginnings and ends of semesters, the estimated response time may increase. If response time exceeds the estimate by more than two business days, the help desk will provide a specific appointment time within one business day. Other deviations from the response times described above may be due to staff leaves or unusual demand. In general, problems related to academic instruction receive highest priority, with the exception of major student and administrative events and time-sensitive projects.

Informational technology planning is undertaken by the Information Resources Management Committee (IRMC) in the College Governance structure. Both short and long range planning is directed through or initiated by IRMC, which is responsible for strategic guidance and management of input from all college departments.

Appraisal

The library continues to grow in its ability to provide the information resources that students need for courses. During FY 2005, 1,438 volumes were added to the collection, and numerous online databases are continually maintained, providing up-to-date sources for research. In the spring of 2005, a touch-screen survey indicated that 48% of Capital students regularly use the library in their preparation of assignments and 52% accessed the library’s databases from outside the library. The touch-screen survey also showed that 60% of Capital students strongly agreed that the librarian whom they approached was courteous and willing to help.

In 2005-2006, 137 library instruction sessions were taught to 2,573 students, and assessments of the quality of library instruction have confirmed that participating students are benefiting. To assess the library instruction provided to students in the College Success course since spring 2003, library staff randomly selected and scored Information Literacy Portfolio papers of 100 students. The results show that over half of these entry-level students scored at proficient to excellent levels for information literacy (Exhibit 7.8a). To assess instruction in Composition classes, a page of the Library and Information Skills Workbook contains an evaluation form asking what level of confidence students feel in their information literacy after completing the workbook. An overwhelming majority of students reported feeling confident or highly confident in their ability to find the information they need at the library (Exhibit 7.8b).

Despite these successes, and despite repeated and varied efforts by the library staff to promote library instruction to complement classes, a touch-screen survey in 2005 indicated that 40% of faculty had never scheduled a library instruction session for a class. As a result, many students and faculty have not explored the array of electronic databases available to them, and they limit their research to materials found by general-purpose web search engines. The underuse of library instruction may be partly due to the retirements in 2003 of several full time and adjunct faculty who had regularly requested library instruction for their classes. In addition, the move to the new campus in 2002 led to problems with the computer network, inhibiting instruction. The shifting of roles for library personnel after the hiring of a new Library Director slowed the progress of contacting faculty about how library instruction can support classes. Currently, the Head of Library Instruction distributes an outreach letter to faculty mailboxes, and the Director of Library Services makes presentations at the adjunct orientation sessions. Librarians attend academic department meetings to encourage library instruction, and a librarian serves on the Curriculum and Academic Policy Committee (CAP), where information literacy is being considered for adoption as a separate general education goal.

Assessment of library services has been formative but limited. In addition to continuing evaluation of library instruction, regular assessments are needed for the on-ground and remote services of the reference desk and the circulation department as well as for technical services.

Staffing has been a major issue for the library. In 2003, the library lost one professional position to retirement and has been using part-time professional and paraprofessional staff to fill the gap. In addition, since 1999, the Head of Library Instruction has spent at least 40% of her time coordinating the Library Technical Assistant Program, reducing time available for other responsibilities. Consequently, progress is impeded in the areas of library instruction outreach, faculty workshops, and the development of information literacy modules. Budget cuts have also limited the acquisition of updated resources.

Across several departments, personnel work together informally to provide a high level of instructional technology services. Informal observation indicates that faculty, staff, and students expect the College to maintain and upgrade instructional technology facilities to keep up with ongoing developments. While there is institutional commitment to systemic upgrading and expanding of computer systems, especially into any new space the College may occupy, there is no evident commitment to major upgrades in classroom technology. Beyond a single section in the College’s 2002-2006 Strategic Plan (Exhibit 7.9), there has been no clearly articulated vision of the role of instructional technology at Capital. One body that might provide this, the Information Resources Management Committee, has been ineffective. In fact, the IRMC played virtually no role in the design of the Downtown Campus and all its high tech capabilities.

AMT’s new focus on academic services brings increased responsibility for training and supporting users of WebCT Vista, an area which had previously been somewhat disorganized. Online learning technology has been available to all credit-level classes at the College beginning in Fall 2003, and its use has increased rapidly. But WebCT Vista is a complex system to master. Adding the coordination, administration, training, and support responsibilities for all online instruction (on-campus, distance-only, and hybrid courses) continues to be a challenge for the AMT Department to incorporate into its already heavy workload.

Surveys show that faculty members consider the AMT Department to be an invaluable resource in curriculum planning for both on campus and online delivery (Exhibit 7.10a). The department’s quantitative assessments of the use of instructional technologies (Exhibit 7.10b) measure the following: the number of hours of use of classroom instructional technology, the level of WebCT Vista use by faculty and students, and the work hours necessary to complete department projects in video, streaming media, and multimedia production. These assessments have guided departmental planning.

The IT Department is understaffed, and as a result it struggles to provide technology support for Saturdays, evenings, and during staff vacations and sick days. The IT Department is not in a position to train staff and students in the effective use of campus technology. Training for faculty and staff is available through the System Office and the State of Connecticut Department of Administrative Services, while training for students is available at the Academic Success Center. Cuts to the IT operating budget have caused maintenance and upgrades to be deferred. Systems affected by budget cuts and lack of adequate staff are telephone, voicemail, network management software, network operating system software upgrades, wireless network deployment, student access network jacks, backup system upgrades, and PC centralized management.

Communication between the IT Department and the rest of the campus is inadequate. Many problems in the use of technology remain unaddressed. The IRMC, which is chaired by the IT director, has for several years been ineffective in establishing a clear vision of the level of technology and support needed to fit the College’s academic mission and its administrative functions.

Projection

To encourage more sophisticated use of library resources, workshops for faculty will begin in the fall of 2006. The workshops will cover a variety of topics, with emphasis on educating faculty about the library resources available to them and their students. In addition, a liaison program starting in fall 2006 will match a librarian with each academic department/division. Librarians will attend at least two department/division meetings per semester to assess the library needs of faculty and to clarify the role of subject-specific information literacy within courses.

The library will begin more systematic assessment programs detailed in the Capital Community College Library Assessment Plan (Exhibit 7.11). These will measure the following: quality of documentation in the research paper bibliographies of Composition students; effective use of the library workbook among Composition students; potential library support for courses and role of information literacy instruction in courses as reflected in syllabi; student and faculty satisfaction with circulation, technical, and reference services; library services to distance learning students; and patrons’ use of and satisfaction with the library webpage and with the virtual reference service. Librarians will also continue to assess the research bibliographies produced in classes on US History, World Civilization, and College Success in order to determine whether students are accessing resources of sufficient quality.

The library director has collaborated in a grant application to the Hartford Consortium for Higher Education. St. Joseph’s College and the University of Hartford joined Capital Community College in the application for a grant to finance the creation (via the Connecticut Distance Learning Consortium) of online information literacy pre-tests and post-tests for students. The grant application entitled “Creating a Shared Online Test to Access the Information Literacy of Incoming Freshman” was approved in May 2004 (Exhibit 7.12). The results of the pre-test will clarify students’ level of information literacy when starting at the College. The post-test, in conjunction with the pre-test, will measure what and how much students learn from instructional sessions.

Librarians are proposing library instruction tailored to specific assignments, following the model recently used with success in the history classes. This model involves creating an assignment-specific website, devoting an instructional session to application of research techniques, and arranging individual consultations between students and librarians. If the idea spreads, it would require increased library staff.

The library director maintains a plan for hiring a new librarian whenever budget allows. The additional librarian will be integrated into ongoing work on library instruction, faculty outreach, faculty workshops, and the preparation of online and classroom-based information literacy modules.

The Academic Media Technology Department is in the process of developing a qualitative assessment plan for the professional and technical services it provides to the faculty. In addition, the AMT and IT departments are negotiating with HB Communications (vendor) and the Community College System Office Data Center, to provide streaming media availability for students who log into their accounts from off-campus computers. This service, scheduled to begin in the fall of 2006, will allow students to access all WebCT course materials, including audio and video supplements, from any computer connected to the internet via high-speed modem.

Responding to reports of daily IT problems experienced by faculty and staff, the IRMC resumed meetings in late 2005. The President and Dean of Administration will ensure that IRMC continues to meet and that the committee works to complete the activities outlined in the Information Technology Implementation Plan (Exhibit 7.13). The purpose of this plan is to restructure the customer service component of the Information Technology Department in order to provide timely and efficient service to faculty and staff. The committee has established objectives for accomplishing this task. They include the following: developing an IT strategic plan that addresses current and future technologies up to the year 2010; developing a base training program for all current employees, assigning IT employees to troubleshoot only areas where they have expertise; outsourcing services in areas where there is lack of in-house expertise; hiring new IT positions in response to customer needs; purchasing new help desk software; maintaining an IT staff training budget, restructuring current IT office space to make it more customer-friendly; and hiring and training students for PC and hardware troubleshooting, as well as user support with Microsoft products and internet functions.

Staff members from the Library and Academic Media Technology serve on the IRMC along with representatives from each area on campus. The committee recently sent out a questionnaire to the college community soliciting comments and concerns about technology and technology training needs (Exhibit 7.14). Survey results will be worked into the processes of the ongoing IT strategic plan, which will guide the College toward the creation of a technology resources environment that promotes and expands access to learning and service experiences for all, regardless of time or place.

Exhibits

• 7.1 Capital Community College Library Databases
• 7.2 Library and Information Skills Workbook
• 7.3 Information Literacy Portfolio Assignment
• 7.4 U.S. History/World History Assignment
• 7.5 Reference Inquiry Chart
• 7.6 Capital Community College Library Services for Distance Learning Students
• 7.7 CCC Acceptable Use Policy
• 7.8 Library Instruction Assessments
  a. College Success: Scoring of Portfolios
  b. Composition: Evaluation in Workbook
• 7.9 Capital Community College Strategic Plan, 2002-2006, (Section I f)
• 7.10 Academic Media Technology Assessments
  a. Surveys
  b. Quantitative Assessments
• 7.11 Capital Community College Library Assessment Plan
• 7.12 Hartford Consortium Grant Application
• 7.13 Information Technology Implementation Plan
• 7.14 IRMC Survey