Shapiro Library Annual Report: 2004 - 2005
The library continues to develop information literacy skills assessment measures, has extended library instruction to its off-campus populations, and improved the facility by upgrading furnishings ( through funding from donors) and increasing print book storage capacity through additional phased installation of compact shelving. The diminishing purchasing power of the library is a growing concern as we see intellectual resource inflation rates moving again into the ten percent range while FY05 library allocations for material expenses increased 7.1 percent.
It is important to recognize as well the unprecedented involvement of all library faculty in professional presentations and publications. In that spirit, this report departs from the narrative executive summary report of prior years to better reflect faculty input at the departmental level.
Reference and Instruction
Reference services and library instruction contribute to the furtherance of the mission of Shapiro Library by “interpret[ing] our published intellectual and creative heritage” (quoted from the Shapiro Library Mission Statement) to patrons in both individual transactions and in classroom settings. In some cases, the “interpretation” means the provision of definitive answers to questions posed. In others, it involves educating the patron about the process through which information is obtained, evaluated, and ultimately used. With multiple access avenues for
Our part-time
Reference Department Coordinator Kevin Coakley-Welch has begun internal discussions concerning how a designated Shapiro Library Blackboard site might be developed and used to enhance delivery of library services and content. Students at all levels of the University are increasingly using Blackboard as their primary platform for course content and communication.
The demand for library instruction has continued a five-year upward trend and set a new annual record in 2004—2005 for total sessions taught. Once again the library experienced a near 100% connection rate with the Freshman Seminar Experience Program (FEX 100), reaching over 420 first year students.
More students in all areas of the university received library instruction than ever before. The total number of students was an unprecedented 2,881.
In other areas of the curriculum, library instruction continues to
The highly successful and popular “Library Golf” interactive tour aspect of library instruction that has been used in 2003 and 2004 will be replaced in 2005 with an orientation package that combines a PowerPoint presentation (similar to that used with MBA 500 students) with a hands-on exercise using the university’s common book We Are All the Same. (The pre-class survey of library/information skills knowledge will be retained, as will the TILT tutorial).
Off-Campus Library Services
Information literacy instruction delivered at the various the Continuing
A tutorial for DE students was developed in-house using a program called “Captivate” (formerly “RoboDemo”) that demonstrates how full-text sources can be identified and retrieved in library databases. Two other library RoboDemo library tutorials
Access Services
Access Services continues to see growth in the amount of service we provide to SNHU students, faculty and staff. The most significant collection circulation growth this year was in the use of the
In order to cope with the diminished collection shelving space available in this facility and improve access to the circulating collections, additional compact shelving was installed this past May in order to increase facility shelving capacity. Once this project was completed, access services staff undertook the measurement, planning, and reorganization of more than 65,000 volumes that comprise our circulating collections. This reorganization will improve access to print resources at a time when shallow online resources are increasingly attractive to academic communities. Of course, relocation involves an interruption of customary user behavior.
While we are pleased to report the increase in the number of people using the library facility, we are also seeing a trend to make greater use of the quality print resources that we
Not only did the number of physical resources checked out of the library increase by 8% over last year, it exceeds the circulation counts for the past decade.
Access Services continues to look for ways to improve services. The department lacks Supervisor staff coverage for 47.5 hours each week, resulting in service deficiencies as well as a safety issues. Furthermore, due to the change that has been made in the graduate schedule--converting to a 10 week schedule--graduate students now arrive at least two weeks later than undergraduates and leave before undergraduate exams begin. While we
In Summer 2005 we began a six month trial participation in GMILCS Common Borrower Card Program. This program enables current SNHU ID holders to borrow material from any of the twelve GMILCS participating libraries once they
SNHU access to resources unavailable in Shapiro Library has also improved. Interlibrary Loan also implemented electronic delivery using ARIEL software. Now Interlibrary Loan requests for articles may be delivered directly to the patron’s e-mail box, significantly decreasing the delivery time. Of 1,566 completed ILL transactions, 481 articles with a seven day turn around time were received from other libraries; 50 articles with a one day average turn around time were sent to other libraries. On book transactions, 520 were lent to us with an eight day turn around time while 515 were loaned with a one day average transaction time.
Periodicals
The past year was one of major periodicals transition. Apart from significant staff changes, a series of new initiatives were implemented, old systems were modified, and the planning for a new periodicals service was begun.
A new Periodicals Librarian, Sam King, joined the faculty in October, 2004 and shortly thereafter a library periodical specialist Chris Cooper was hired following the retirement of long-time University employee Sue Lesmerises.
The department researched and selected a digital copying technology to provide an internet based alternative for users who wish to use the library’s microform collection.
A systematic review of print periodicals was begun, including the monitoring of shelving statistics, investigation of the relative research value of titles and the availability of titles in electronic format leading to the development of a strategy for selected periodicals formats as well as individual titles in the collection. This will lead to a strategic vision and specific goals for the periodicals department in following years. Currently the library subscribes to 20,015 electronic titles and 738 print serial subscriptions. These 20,753 titles are bolstered by 378,160 microfilm resources
Technical Services
Another very busy year of ordering, receiving, cataloging, and processing monographs, serials, and government documents. The numbers are not quite as high as the unprecedented figures for 2003-04. This is partly due to purchases of more expensive materials which resulted in lower statistics.
Shapiro library added 3,370 new titles totaling 4,198 volumes, discarding 1,334 volumes that were no longer suitable for the 92,000 items currently comprising our collections.
As federal documents increasingly were made available electronically, roughly 800 items were added.
Electronic Resources
A substantial Electronic Resources budget and discounts through NHCUC & Nelinet enabled the library to add 10 new databases and renew 44 databases. New resources were added in communications, international business, history, environmental law, hospitality, marketing, psychology and general
Communication and Mass Media Index, Hospitality and Tourism Index, and Marketresearch.com Academic were subscribed to at discounted prices through the coordinated database licensing project of NHCUC and NHCTC. At the direct request of faculty for databases to support the curriculum, subscriptions to Environment Reporter and EIU Viewswire were signed. Mintel Reports, Psychiatry Online, xreferplus and the Historical Boston Globe were also added to the collection along with electronic access to the Elsevier titles in our paper collection via Science Direct Selected Journals.
After reviewing usage and database coverage, AltPress Watch was cancelled.
PRS Online and MarketResearch.com Academic were also cancelled and replaced by EIU Viewswire and Mintel Reports at the request of library and
To further enhance our service to the Continuing
Building partnerships within the university and with outside institutions continued to be a major focus. The RefWorks bibliographic management software subscribed to by Instructional Support was added to the library website and the Center for Financial Studies agreed to share the cost of upgrading DataStream and adding an additional user to our license. An external partnership was formed by joining the Westchester Academic Library Directors Consortium (WALDO). The first product renewal (ACM Digital Library) through membership in this consortium resulted in a savings of $2,500. Discounted prices for eight database subscriptions were negotiated with our vendors for
Twelve library staff members received new computers, flat panel monitors were installed at the circulation desk, and the highly successful student laptop borrowing program received 5 new laptops. A server and scanner to use with the Ariel software were purchased for Interlibrary Loan.
Shapiro Library was the first department in the University to partner with Computing Resources in the campus “Single Sign-On” initiative, modifying the individual’s e-mail address and password as the login to remotely gain access to Electronic Resources. Changes and adjustments were made to the library web site as needed including the redesign of the Off-Campus Library Services page and the addition of the OCLS tutorials and the MBA 500 and ENG 120 PowerPoint presentations. The “What’s New” page was continued and the library staff contributed 14 articles highlighting topics such as the new audiobook collection, new electronic resources, new library faculty, survey results and recurring book displays.
For the second year, the server log analysis tool statistically analyzed traffic on the Shapiro Library and the Electronic Resources pages throughout the year. Sawmill reports traffic on a server as “hits” (accepted log entries), “page views” (Hits on a specific .html page), and “visitors” (unique people who visited a site).
The library website received 37,172 unique visitors from
|
Month |
Total Visitors |
Average Visitors per day |
|
Sept. 2004 |
4,511 |
308 |
|
Oct. 2004 |
5,478 |
425 |
|
Nov. 2004 |
5,003 |
385 |
|
Dec. 2004 |
4,826 |
327 |
|
Jan. 2005 |
5,300 |
363 |
|
Feb. 2005 |
5,527 |
464 |
|
Mar. 2005 |
5,527 |
440 |
|
Apr. 2005 |
6,010 |
478 |
|
May 2005 |
5,314 |
394 |
|
June 2005 |
4,342 |
342 |
|
July 2005 |
4,093 |
339 |
The top ten databases are ranked below by visitors for fall 2004 and spring 2005. Details can be obtained from the Electronic Resources Librarian.
|
Fall 2004 |
Spring 2005 |
|
Infotrac |
Infotrac |
|
Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe |
Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe |
|
Business Source Premier |
Academic Search Premier |
|
Academic Search Premier |
Business Source Premier |
|
Science Direct |
JSTOR |
|
BNA Human Resources Library |
RefWorks |
|
JSTOR |
BNA Human Resources Library |
|
Psych-Articles |
Science Direct |
|
Opposing Viewpoints |
NetLibrary |
|
ERIC |
Opposing Viewpoints |
In the 2005-2006 academic year, the research capabilities in history, business and psychology information will be greatly enhanced. In September three new databases will be available –
We look forward to hearing from SNHU faculty, staff, and students regarding the efforts of Shapiro Library to provide the intellectual resources necessary for academic success.
Ronald H. Epp, Ph.D.
Director of University Library