Harvey A. Andruss Library Annual Newsletter 2010-2011
Compiled by Lauren Gostomski, Summer 2011 Library Intern Under the direction of Linda Neyer Ch 8/2011
The Library is changing! The librarians and staff of Harvey Andruss strive to find new ways to accommodate students and faculty with their research needs. This past year the Library has undergone many changes. One of these changes includes the new Research Center desk located on the first floor. The research librarians are there to help students and faculty explore many different types of resources needed for their academic and professional growth. Other changes include the reconfiguring of the first and second floor by moving the reference collection down to the first floor and the current periodicals up to the second floor. Also, the Andruss Library has added more group study rooms, and these rooms are now equipped with large screen TV’s. Stay tuned for more exciting changes!
More resources for our students & faculty! Library Research Center (formerly the Reference Desk) moved to 1st floor New Popular Reading Collection on 1st floor Discovery Search (“Search For… Articles”) new interface with easier navigation New database “Films on Demand” with streaming video for educational use More group study rooms, up to 30 from 16 New ebook collection of 70,000+ e-books -ebrary Academic Collection More laptops, portable whiteboards, and various A/V equipment on a cart, for use inlibrary
Collections An important part of helping our students and faculty achieve academic and professional growth is providing the necessary resources. The people who work in Harvey A. Andruss Library constantly work to find the best resources for our users. The Library currently provides over 50,000 magazines, newspapers and journals in both electronic and print format; over 475,000 books, government documents, videos, sound recordings, maps, k-12 curriculum materials, and theses that can be found either in the Library or online; 2 million microforms; and over 150 online databases. The latest additions to the Library’s collection are the Popular Reading Collection, which provides leisure reading materials such as novels and general nonfiction books; the ebrary Academic Collection database with online access to over 75,000 ebooks; and the Films on Demand database which provides online access to over 6,000 videos and 60,000 individual video segments in streaming video -- great to ‘punch up’ a classroom presentation or lecture. The following statistics from the last year give a nice snapshot of our resources and services for users. (Charts retrieved from Bloomsburg University’s Institutional research)
Each Category has increased significantly from previous years.
Books from our collection:
Island Beneath the Sea by Isabel Allende A Season of Gifts by Richard Peck Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand.
Databases & Tutorials This year database usage reached an all-time high. There were 1,545,357 'hits' to our databases from July 2010 to June 2011. This is compared to 666,721 hits in 2006. Usage has more than doubled in the last 5 years. Clearly, our users are taking advantage of the resources Andruss Library offers. And with Bloomsburg University’s population growing steadily each year, the number of ‘hits’ will continue to rise. The Library continues to receive requests from other libraries to adapt its online General Library Research Tutorial. Five of the librarians including David Magolis collaborated to write an article about our tutorial that was published in the July/August 2010 issue of C&RL News, a national publication. As of August 2011, 25 libraries had requested permission to adapt the tutorial worldwide. Requests have come from fifteen different states and five countries (USA, Canada, South Africa, UK, and the Netherlands).
Following are some of Andruss Library’s faculty and staff activities this year, all of which ultimately help us better serve our students, faculty, and staff. Education Research Librarian Darla Bressler has kept busy the past year with numerous projects. In addition to teaching 44 Course-Related Information Literacy Instruction sessions, she has added approximately 300 titles to the Juvenile Collection and has obtained for the Curriculum Collection, through the generous donations of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt publishers, textbooks valued at approximately $9,000. Professionally, Darla has served as a member of the COE Technology Committee, as Assistant Chair of the University-Wide Promotion Committee, and as a member of the Board of Directors for the Women’s Center, Inc. of Columbia/Montour Counties. In collaboration with Katie Yelinek, Darla co-author an article entitled “The Perfect Storm: A Review of the Literature on Increased Noise Levels in Academic Libraries” that will be published in College & Undergraduate Libraries in March 2012. Finally, Darla and Dr. Barbara Wilson, Department of Exceptionality Programs, were awarded a BU Foundation Margin of Excellence Projects grant for $3,135.00 that will enable them to conduct their research into Young Children’s Emergent Literacy Skills. In addition to serving as liaison to the College of Education, Darla is also liaison to the departments of Developmental Instruction, and interim liaison to Sociology, Social Work & Criminal Justice. Business Research Librarian Michael Coffta has accomplished many things this year including writing and filming a new Library Video Tour, supervising the Summer 200 Library Intern, Lauren Gostomski, presenting at TALE, “Introduction to Prezi,” attending the ACRL workshop “Scholarly Communication 101” at Lehigh University, and teaching a total of 45 Course-Related Information Literacy Instruction sessions in the 2010-2011 academic year. Michael has also developed numerous subject guides for students, to make library research more productive, including ones on Literature Reviews, Current U.S. Debt Crisis, and Career Development. Michael also serves on the Bloomsburg University Curriculum Committee. In addition to serving as liaison to the College of Business, Michael is liaison to the departments of Economics, Instructional Technology, Mathematics, Computer Sciences & Statistics, and Philosophy. University Archivist and Coordinator of Special Collections Robert Dunkelberger continued to make progress on the University-mandated mission of preserving the institution’s history. This work included the processing of manuscript collections, creation of findings aids, the acquisition of much new material on the life of former art professor/wild animal trainer George Keller, assistance with numerous Advancement initiatives, and the display of two major exhibits. The first was on Keller’s life and career and the second a retrospective of
the university’s years as a state normal school. In the past year the number of Archival and Library resources that have been digitized and made available online also continued to grow. A total of 120 images of the Bloomsburg State Teachers College taken during the 1940s by the Morning Press newspaper were placed in the CONTENTdm database, and over 70 items, including issues of Bloomsburg: The University Magazine and many historic course catalogs, were added to the Library’s collection in the Internet Archive repository. Outside funding became important to further the Library’s digitization efforts. The Friends of the Bloomsburg University Library Association paid for five unique films created by George Keller from 1937 to 1942 to be converted to digital format for their preservation, and the Friends were joined by the Bloomsburg University Alumni Association in seeing that four more years (1982-1985) of the student newspaper were added to the Olive database, bringing the total online coverage of the paper to 63 years beginning in 1923. Finally through the efforts of retired faculty member Steve Wiist issues from two local Nineteenth Century newspapers, the Columbia Democrat and Columbian, dating from 1837 to 1890 will become a part of the Library of Congress’ Chronicling America historic American newspapers project. In addition to his work with University Advancement, Bob is also liaison to the department History and interim liaison to Art & Art History, and Communication Studies. Coordinator of Cataloging and Interim Coordinator of Collection Development Marilou Hinchcliff has overseen the Library’s transition to a new book vendor, including reprofiling every academic department for automatic books and notifications and providing numerous training sessions for faculty. She has added over 80,000 records to the online catalog for video and ebook databases, added metadata and images to the Library’s digital ContentDM collection, coordinated the project to add tables of contents to catalog records (and loaded them for over 3000 titles), and coordinated the extensive journal holdings project and several large deselection projects performed by Cataloging Dept. staff. She’s also attended numerous conferences and webinars such as the Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) Virtual Conference, the 2011 Annual SSHELCO Library Conference, OCLC Webinars on the new edition of the Dewey Decimal System and Webscale Management Services for online systems, Webinars from ALCTS, ALA TechSource, and Lyrasis on the new cataloging rules, and YBP webinars on Collection Development for New GOBI Users and on Collection Development using additional Baker and Taylor resources. Marilou is liaison to the departments of Languages & Cultures and Music, Theater & Dance and interim liaison to Mass Communications. Linda Neyer, Health Sciences/Science Research Librarian, has been active professionally this year. She was elected Vice Chair / Chair Elect of the College & Research Division of the Pennsylvania Library Association and planned the Spring Conference held at Monty’s, titled “Higher Ed Assessment: How Do Libraries Measure Up?” featuring Dr. Megan Oakleaf. She was also awarded a TALE Center Teacher-Scholar Award for to fund a proposal she had submitted with 2 nursing faculty for a syllabi study of information literacy outcomes. Linda co-presented at 3 conferences this year on first year students’ information literacy skills, including one for K-12
librarians. She also published an article, “Beyond Boomer Meets NextGen: Examining Mentoring Practices among Pennsylvania Academic Librarians”, as joint author with Katie Yelinek, in the May 2011 issue of the Journal of Academic Librarianship. Linda also serves on the newly formed General Education Committee and was elected as Chair of the Library Faculty. She is liaison to the departments of Audiology & Speech Pathology, Biological & allied Health Sciences, Chemistry, Exercise Science & Athletics, Nursing, Physics & Engineering Technology. Research Librarian and Government Documents Coordinator Katie Yelinek has kept busy this past year publishing three articles and a book chapter. She published “Beyond Boomer Meets NextGen: Examining Mentoring Practices among Pennsylvania Academic Librarians” with Linda Neyer; “Documents and Maps Association of Pennsylvania: The History of a Documents Network”; “Using Jersey Shore as a Popular Culture Example in Information Literacy Classes,” co-written with Amy Springer from the College of St. Benedict/St. John’s University and “Managing the Previously Vacant Position” in Middle Management for Academic and Public Librarians. Katie also attended the Pennsylvania State Data Center annual data user’s conference and organized the government documents special interest group meeting at the Annual SSHELCO Library Conference in Harrisburg. Katie also serves on the Faculty Professional Development Committee. She is liaison to the departments of Anthropology, English, Geography & Geosciences, Political Science, and Psychology. David Magolis, former Social Sciences Librarian, is beginning his 3rd year as Interim Library Director. Last summer David was granted his Ph.D. in Instructional Systems from Penn State University. The Library is fortunate that David has agreed to serve a third year as Interim Director. His vision and energy in improving the Library’s space, services, and resources have been invaluable and has given the Library much-needed direction.
The Library welcomes Daniel Walz, new Library Assistant 1 in the Acquisitions Department. Formerly employed by Brodart, Daniel has substantial library experience which will be of great value to the library. The Library bid farewell to Cindy Miller, Clerk Typist in the Office of Technology and Library Services, who took another position closer to her home. Her job responsibilities are currently being handled by Barb Robbins and Lisa Hemrick. Requests for scheduling AL 243 should be directed to Barb Robbins, x4704 or x4077.
Events Some library-related events that took place this year at Bloomsburg University:
Friends of the Bloomsburg University Library Association (FOBULA) held their 11th Annual Book Sale on March 19-March 21, 2011. Susquehanna Library Cooperative’s Annual Interlibrary Loan meeting on June 24th, in the Schweiker Room, organized by Andrea Schwartz, Interlibrary Loan Coordinator Coffee Nights, sponsored by Friends of Bloomsburg University Library Association (FOBULA), APSCUF, and Global Awareness International Society, held again this year, during finals week for both fall and spring semester. The College & Research Division of the Pennsylvania Library Association held their Spring Conference at Monty’s on May 17th, and featured nationally-known speaker and author, Dr. Megan Oakleaf, who addressed the topic, “Higher Ed Assessment: How do libraries measure up?” The Andruss Library Schweiker Room was the site for a webinar on Dec. 15 and 16 on the topic of “User Assessment and User Studies”, also sponsored by the CRD-PaLA. During the Bloomsburg University Student Research and Scholarship Day on April 29th, College of Business students displayed their posters in Andruss Library - Schweiker Room
The Andruss Library Schweiker Room is also a popular spot for campus events and meetings. The Institute for Culture and Society has sponsored several lectures in the Schweiker Room this past year: "Navigating the Kingdom of Darkness: Early Modern Explorations of the Unconscious" – Dr. Kurt Smith, November 30, 2010 “Exposing Hollywood's Heterosexual Preference “ – Brian Johnson, February 21, 2011 "Reforming Literary Education in Post-Soviet Russia" – Professor Boris Lanin (Russian Academy of Education, Moscow), March 1, 2011 “The Legal, Social, and Economic Benefits of the Early Twentieth Century Black Labor Movement” -Alexander J. Chenault, J.D. -- Assistant Professor of Legal Studies & Frederick Douglass Teaching Scholar, Department of Finance and Legal Studies, April 11, 2011
Challenges and Goals The Library continues to face challenges during a time of extreme change in higher education. Among the many challenges facing the Library is providing a high level of service with fewer personnel. This summer Steven Wiist, Special Projects Librarian, retired after 17 years of service, the third librarian to retire in the last 2 years. The Library hopes to be able to hire a new librarian in order to continue developing new and innovative ways of meeting our users’ needs. The Office of Technology and Library
Services also will be seeking to hire a permanent library director once Interim Library Director David Magolis’ term ends. The Library continues to make extensive changes in its use of space, all of which are designed to benefit users. The Writing Center is opening a satellite office on the 1st floor of the Library fall semester 2011, opposite the Research Center. A new Scanning Station has been installed at the 2nd floor desk, where the Reference Desk was formerly located. One temporary inconvenience will be the unavailability of the Library Instruction Classroom AL 243 for most of fall semester 2011. Due to the Sutliff building renovation delay, many of the open labs on campus have been pre-empted for regularly scheduled classes. This is something completely outside the Library’s control, and we hope it will be a brief inconvenience. Finally, the Library is constantly working on how to improve users’ research skills and the usability of the Library. The librarians are currently discussing ways of integrating information literacy instruction more consistently into the General Education curriculum, and will be meeting with faculty from other departments. During summer 2011 the Library employed the services of a Communication Studies Intern, Lauren Gostomski, who among other things developed and conducted a web usability study to study how well students are able to use and find materials using the library website. A future goal of the Library is to conduct a web usability study to understand how faculty members use the website. These studies will help the Library make adjustments to help students and faculty conduct research with greater ease. The librarians will continue to develop research guides and tutorials to help users find answers to their questions about research, including ‘more like these’ -
Ebrary Ebooks Groundwater Hydrology Literature Reviews Mental Measurements Yearbook and Tests in Print Primary and Secondary Literature in the Sciences U.S. Debt Crisis
In addition, look for all the ways to connect with a librarian for research help, including the new Library FAQs.