What are our hopes for our students? How will digitized collections impact?

As the College begins the new academic year, all of us in the Library are targeting once again on our stated Vision which in part is to be “a full “learning partner” closely collaborating with the students, faculty and staff of Flagler College to achieve the goal of “engaged higher learning” as a culture within the College.” This Vision looks to accomplish this goal in two forms--one is as a “virtual library” providing high quality and technologically accessible digitized content to the College community no matter where the members are located, and the other is as a “library place” providing a centralized learning facility where students gather comfortably with others to: access and explore information drawn from a variety of formats; analyze this information in group discussions; and effectively produce quality presentations and similar products that demonstrate their learning outcomes within a service-rich, comfortable learning environment.

We will continue during this academic year to pursue this Vision, but to be honest it is not easy, particularly as one has to struggle to fully understand the impact of digitized collections on the physical library as well as on learning and teaching. It is with this background that I was delighted to discover a recent talk that addressed this exact topic. The talk was titled “Scholars Perspective: Impact of Digitized Collections on Learning and Teaching.” It was just presented in June 2008 to a Research Libraries Group (RLG) Symposium, in Philadelphia. The presenter was Dr. David Harrington Watt, who is both Director of General Education and Associate Professor of History at Temple University. I highly recommend a reading of a copy of his talk which is available at http://www.oclc.org/programs/events/2008-06-04a.pdf.

Dr. Watt’s combination of responsibilities provides a wonderful perspective with which to look at our topic of interest. As Director of General Education he has responsibility for promoting the elusive concept of “information literacy” at Temple because Temple requires that there must be an “information literacy” component in every general education class, and "information literacy" includes and is tied closely to students understanding and effectively using the digitized collection. At the same time, as Associate Professor of History Dr. Watt has empathy with his fellow faculty members who really can’t fully make sense of this category called “information literacy” and he sees that the faculty are resistant to making it part of their courses. Here at Flagler, we are still in the early stages of helping students (and faculty) fully understand and effectively use the digitized collections as well as traditional resources. This is our own “information literacy” goal, so we are obviously very interested in Dr. Watt’s observations and comments.

But in Dr. Watt’s words:

“So there is the bad news: we are living in a world in which there is good
reason to believe the students really do need to work on their informational
literacy and which faculty seem resistant to helping them do so.”

However, Dr. Watt also gives some better news because he suggests that one can negotiate through this dilemma by not hitting the faculty with the concept of “information literacy” but instead start learning from the faculty what hopes they have for their students. He has seen hopes expressed by faculty in such ways as:

“I want them to be able to distinguish between relative reliable primary sources
and ones that are less reliable.”

“I want them to compare the data they get from reading physical primary sources
with that they get from reading from digital sources.”

In reality these are “information literacy” objectives but they really were not requested as such from the faculty. This is a lesson we can use here at Flagler.

Dr. Watt offered many other interesting thoughts in his talk concerning the impact of digitized collections on the physical library. For example, one challenge he mentions is the disappearance in many cases of professors running into other professors in the library, and of professors running into students. He had a good feeling about professors and students running into each other, and at the time they probably were involved in a common endeavor in research in one topic or another. Today he sees this same research going on, but the professor is in his office and the student may be in a computer lab. It ceases to be a common endeavor. He misses that interaction of students and professors within the physical library. Fortunately here at Flagler we still have several faculty working together with their students, helping them understand that all formats of information have value in research and many of these formats are only available in a physical library.

As the same time Dr. Watt also described the high value of the digital collections that are acquired today by libraries for use by students and other researchers. He presented the story of the undergraduate student from Temple who was able to write and publish an article in a scholarly journal using the digitized collection, "Early English Books Online," available to him through Temple’s library. He would probably never have been able to accomplish this in the past because of lack of timely access. While Flagler College may not be at the same level as Temple University with digitized collections--in particular collections of primary source documents--our own current digitized periodicals collections and subscriptions, including such ones as JSTOR, ATLA and PsycArticles, do provide access to thousands of digitized journal titles usable for research, as do our access to digitized collections of over 85,000 book titles.

So going back to my initial paragraph, I am pleased to say that our library is continuing to move forward toward achieving our vision, and I think Dr. Watt’s talk may give us some important thoughts to build upon as do our work. I again suggest a reading of a copy of his talk at
http://www.oclc.org/programs/events/2008-06-04a.pdf

Isn't it great that they care?

It has been a thrill over the past couple weeks for us to witness how our Flagler students have helped the Library by providing excellent feedback to us in three different surveys that we hit them with during that time. Many of these same students had just finished taking the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) and/or the Student Satisfaction Survey. We waited patiently until these important College administered surveys were completed, and then we released our own library satisfaction survey (routinely administered every other year) and a short instruction assessment survey. Not only have we been pleasantly surprised by the numbers who completed our surveys, but also by the care taken in providing us with excellent written comments -- some positive, some negative but always in an honest and very constructive manner. And what's amazing is that they answered these surveys in the last weeks of the semester, when final papers were due and when they were starting to prepare for final exams.

We then further complicated their lives by hitting them with a third survey even before the other two were closed out. Early results of our satisfaction survey indicated that there could be a potentially serious noise problem within Library that we want to address before the next semester begins, if it is truly a problem. We decided to ask the students’ help first to clarify the impact of noise in the Library on each one of them, and second to offer suggestions to us on how we might improve the situation. The electronically administered survey (SurveyMonkey) consisted of only one question plus space for comments and suggestions, and we were amazed at how rapidly the responses came back to us on this particular survey. About half of the respondents provided substantial comments typically running from four to eight lines long. It is obvious in most of the comments that the students wrote them with care and concern for the success of the Library, and many students even indicated that they were pleased we asked for their help.

I only regret that I am not able to take immediate action on all the excellent suggestions offered in all three of the surveys we administered, but we will be paying close attention to all of them and many changes will be acted upon this summer before classes begin again in the fall. I will report these changes to students in this blog and in other Flagler communication channels. Equally important, the students will see many changes when they return in the fall.

Isn’t it great that they care?

National Library Week - Busy Times in Proctor Library

It is very fitting that National Library Week is taking place at this time. This week is the mid-point of three weeks that make up probably the busiest and most critical period of the year in the Proctor Library. This is a time when our "circle of knowledge" normally hits its peak, as the academic year is coming to an end, final research papers and presentations are being competed for submission, and students begin their serious study for final exams which take place next week. The Library will continue to be a major contributor to help ensure that students have full opportunity to achieve their own goals for the period.

The Library will begin extended hours on Wednesday, April 16 and these extended hours will continue through the completion of exams. The exact hours follow:

Wednesday, April 16----7:30 a.m. - 2:00 a.m.
Thursday, April 17------7:30a.m. - 2:00 a.m.
Friday, April 18---------7:30 a.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Saturday, April 19------10:00a.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Sunday, April 20-------11:00 a.m. - 2:00 a.m.
Monday, April21--------7:30 a.m. - 2:00 a.m.
Tuesday, April22-------7:30 a.m. - 2:00 a.m.
Wednesday, April23----7:30 a.m. -2:00 a.m


National Library Week and Proctor Library


National Library Week is a national observance sponsored by the American Library Association (ALA) and libraries across the country each April.

Everyday, libraries in big cities and small towns, in businesses, in schools, and in universities and colleges like Flagler College help transform our different communities, by bringing members of the community into the "circle of knowledge."

In fulfilling its vision, the Proctor Library is dedicated to collaborating with the students, faculty and staff of Flagler College to achieve the goal of effective learning and to be an essential and critical resource for active student learning as well as “lifelong learning” for the entire College community. A major element in the Library's mission is to help students and other users become information literate individuals who will be lifelong learners who can grow in their career and be productive citizens.

As the academic year is coming to an end, we in the Proctor Library are striving to continue on the right track toward achieving our mission and vision elements noted above and hope we are helping members of the Flagler College community enter the "community of knowledge." To assess our success and progress, we are currently in the process of conducting a library user survey which we do every two years. This survey is sent out to a representative sample of students and faculty, and after analyzing the results and identifying areas for improvements, we will work in the coming months toward making any adjustments necessary. We have already started receiving completed surveys from students, and they have been providing us with some excellent observations and recommendations--including some action areas that will clearly require our attention before next year. It is clear that the Flagler College community is working effectively to help the entire community grow and improve.

In the meantime, all members of the Proctor Library staff will be dedicating ourselves over the next two weeks to keeping the Library's resources and services available to help the students in their completion of papers and projects and their study for final exams.

While most students have already completed their actual research by this time and are mostly involved in the final writing of their papers and completion of their other projects, the Library's reference librarians will still receive some end of the semester reference questions. Some may even resemble those coming from the student in the following video/audio clip. But we hope they don't :-)

National Library Week: Reference Desk video clip

Getting different perspectives in the Library

My previous blog treated one of my early morning walks through the library with no one around and with only my observations and my imagination to lead me to a few guesses about what had occurred in the library the evening before.

Other walks I make through the library reveal activities one would expect, but there also are always surprises. Today was one of those days. My reference librarian Katherine came up to me and asked, with a smile on her face, if I had been up to the second floor to see what one of the art classes was doing up there. This had me a bit concerned because normally when an art class visits the oversize books in our art collection seem to escape from their organized shelves and migrate all around the second floor. As I said in my previous blog, it sometimes seems like a hurricane has hit. Katherine assured me this was not the case this time, but that there were art students working all around the second floor. I had to see for myself, and what I indeed found were students with their sketch pads all around the second floor--some sitting on the floor, some in chairs, and even some on the top of our shelving.I learned from their professor, who was accompanying them, that they were observing and sketching various spaces in the library that allowed them to understand and illustrate "perspective." Aisles between ranges of bookshelves, long expanses of floor space, and many other areas on the library's second floor gave them the opportunity to illustrate a variety of perspectives. Once again it was a casual walk for me around the second floor, but just as the art students were observing different perspectives, so was I.

Just beyond one of the artists, I observed four students using the library catalog to identify books or other material probably for a more traditional library research project. I then passed one of the corner study rooms just as a scheduled behavioral science class was finishing up. And finally I returned shortly after noontime to a busy first floor where other learning activities, and even some social ones, were going on.

The learning activities of the art students today contributed in yet another way to help the Proctor Library facilty grow as an active center of learning. I am pleased to have had them working here and that we all have been able to enhance our perspectives on the Library.

And what will I find in the morning?

I often tend to be the first member of the library staff to arrive in the morning, and on those days when I am actually awake as I turn on the lights and walk the library spaces, I look around the various areas and try to determine what it was like the night before. I can generally tell that it was a slow night when I find most of the chairs are still in place and the trash cans still have room for more trash. Other mornings all the trash cans are overflowing, and I find such things as a chalk board in one of the study rooms completely filled with written evidence that a study group had been hard at work the night before. Another room may have a couple DVDs scattered by the player, and then I take some time to check the titles and try to guess whether the group was working an assignment or just relaxing. Leftover drink containers and sometimes even a pizza box (even though consumption of food is “not allowed”) also help me imagine what actually was going on.

Other mornings I walk by our large collection of oversized art books, and the area appears like Hurricane Katrina has just passed through. It is clear the art history students have an assignment due in the morning, and several of them had a field day moving the heavy art books around on the tops of our low shelving units. The books are too heavy to transport out of or even within the Library, so most of their work is done right near the collection

Rearrangement of furniture is also intriguing. For example it was clear this morning that a class using our large instruction room broke themselves down into smaller work groups, because I found three separate circles of chairs spread out across the second floor space.


From experience I knew in an instant who had been there – the Children’s Literature class from the Education Department. This class always seems to leave clear evidence. Earlier in the semester, we found cut-out, paper gingerbread men attached to all those areas of our collection containing children’s books or information about children’s books. The instructor for this class always amazes me, because these paper figures appear but I never see her attaching them. I’m sure she can teach our military about stealth actions. However, I did find more evidence of her class this morning, including my friend here:
In other spaces our softer arm chairs have been moved into carrels or next to group study tables and have replaced the harder wood chairs. Sometimes even heavy tables have been moved to accommodate a bigger group. Blinds have been raised in some areas and lowered in others.

It is clear that the students are comfortable adjusting their environment and making themselves at home in the library. And even though I am observing this evidence in the early morning with not one of them present, it makes me happy to know we are there for them. It is a great way to start the day.

New look for the Proctor Library web pages

As the spring semester has now started up, students and faculty will notice a change in our Proctor Library web pages, beginning with the home page (http://www.flagler.edu/library ). We felt very good about our previous web pages, but as with anything there is always room for improvement. For example, we had built in some intentional duplication when the web pages were redesigned a couple years back, but we realized during several semesters of use that this duplication could sometimes be confusing and needed to be part of a change.

Reference & Instruction Librarian Blake Pridgen took on the responsibility of reviewing redesigning the pages, and he succeeded in launching the new set of pages January 7.

Blake took a hard look at our pages, undertook some investigation and study of other academic library web pages and library web page design in general, and he reworked our pages to make them even better to use. One will notice from the new design that many of the elements of the previous pages were retained, but Blake adjusted the look with the thought of making everything even easier. He added some new items as well. Now in the “Find Information” column on the home page, one can initiate a search specifically for “DVDs. CDs and VHSs” as easily as searching for books. And in the far right column one can check lists of both new book and video additions to the Library. And, of course, a link to this “Library Director’s Blog,” plus a link to Polaris, the Library’s research tutorial, also appear in that same column. Directly under the banner on the top of the home page, one will also find quick direct links to the heavily used College tools: “Flagler Home,” “Flagler Email,” “My.Flagler.Edu,” and “WebCT.”

Our set of Proctor Library web pages will always be considered a “work in progress,” and we will always be looking for improvements, so I hope any one who has ideas for improvements or adjustments to our existing pages will feel free to get in touch with the Library, or even directly with Blake. We will appreciate the help.

Seeing the Proctor Library in a Different Light

The normal bright lights in the Library were dimmed slightly following normal closing time on December 18, and the Library’s first floor was transformed from its normal role as a learning center into a venue for a wonderful holiday celebration.

The celebration was organized by the College’s Office of Institutional Effectiveness to honor those friends of the College who have supported the College and Library over the years, especially those donors who have recently made special gifts as a part of the current campaign celebrating the Proctor Library on its “Decade of Excellence.”

Attendees at the celebration were greeted upon arrival with a beautiful five foot tall flower arrangement occupying the center point on the Library’s marble entryway floor.

It also didn’t hurt that the same table supporting the arrangement also supported an inviting variety of dessert creations. We obviously suspended our normal prohibition against consumption of food in the Library…and everyone was certainly glad we did.

In addition, very creative and substantial hors d'oeuvres were prepared and served by an exceptional caterer and her team, and they were enjoyed by all. The whole affair was a wonderful way to celebrate both the holidays and the work of the Library. Many of the benefactors and other guests had their first real opportunity to visit and see the Library, and the Library staff had a chance to meet these people who care so much for Flagler College.

Library staffers Brian Nesselrode, Katherine Owens and Christine Wysocki

All of us clearly appreciate the initiative and work of the Office of Institutional Effectiveness in putting this celebration together. We also appreciate Library staffer Catherine Norwood for capturing the images of the celebration.