Introduction The past year has seen the University Library continue its transition to electronic source material, while still recognizing the value of some hard-copy resources. The number of hard-copy monographic titles grew slightly—from 234,344 to 234,720—as new additions were offset by withdrawals of superseded or damaged items. At the same time, the number of electronic monographic titles grew from 203,054 to 215,547, a 6% increase. The additions were mostly the result of collaborative collections with the UW System and UW-Madison, a network that has paid high dividends for Stout. The Library began the process of turning the Reference area into a more spacious and inviting Information Commons, carving out new study space for students—that process will continue as we identify the means to pay for more renovation. With ever more resources coming to us online, there exists a need for maintenance and oversight of their access tools. To that end, our cataloging and processing department worked very hard in the past year to re-designate the location of physical titles in the catalog collection by floor, greatly assisting students in finding needed resources. They also verified the catalog links to over 2,300 online journals, insuring access to all the titles to which we subscribe. Our Student Artist-in-Residence history page was re-designed by the webmaster, replacing the old site with a kinetic, interactive page that brilliantly displays the available work of each artist and gives a short statement of their artistic intent. In addition to again re-designing our web page, the Library’s 32 course guides, 174 research guides, and library and staff pages were also revised in preparation for the campus move to the Fig Leaf web design software. Our Access Services group added new digital SLR cameras and other equipment for checkout, while maintaining camcorders, projectors, and other digital cameras for student use. The librarians conducted 249 instruction sessions for nearly 6,000 students, faculty, staff, and community members, teaching database searching, the basics of intellectual property, instructional materials for teachers, and other valuable topics. In addition, 94 outside sessions were scheduled in the Library Instruction Lab (Room 111) for Human Resources, Finance and other external groups. For all of the Library Staff, the focus has been on the changing landscape of electronic information resources and how best to utilize them. Staff members remain committed to providing the best resources—no matter in what form they appear—in order to further the mission of Stout and the education and enlightenment of the students, faculty and community.
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