Program Planning Report
Robert E. Swenson Library/
Spring 2007
I. Background and
Analysis
A. Program Description
Overview
The Cabrillo College Library
contributes to the college mission by serving as an intellectual center and providing
instructional focus for a full range of information resources. The library
strives to provide an active learning environment that nurtures and reinforces
self-directed inquiry.
Reference and Public Services
The Library offers a rich
array of core reference and information services. Librarians are available for
questions and consultation at the Reference Desk in person or by telephone
during all hours when the library is open. Patrons rarely wait longer than a
few minutes even though their inquiries can require quite involved interaction
and research, depending upon the topic covered or the patron’s level of
knowledge. The library has also responded to the growth in the campus’
Spanish-speaking population by providing bilingual service at its primary
service points, Reference and Circulation. Bilingual help can be either on-call
or it can be scheduled.
Electronic services available
both within the library and remotely from home computers include 31
subscription full text information resources, a large collection of Internet
links covering all campus department areas, and an email reference service with
24-hour turnaround for replies. Although the practice of providing remote reference
service via “chat” mode has become common in many libraries, the Cabrillo
library does not currently provide any immediate electronic reference service.
During the 2005/06 academic
year, over 280,000 students, faculty, staff, and community members came to the
library. The library’s circulation of books, videos, and other materials
continues at a robust pace, with over 30,000 recorded checkouts and in-house
uses every academic year. Additionally, nearly 20,000 checkouts of course
reserve materials serving virtually every campus department are recorded
annually. Of particular note is the dramatic increase in student printing in
the library, reflecting the increasing use of the Internet and online databases
for research. The number of pages printed during 2005/06 was 44,000, an increase
of 83% since 2003, and the number of print-related transactions was 6900, a
growth of 135% in the same time period. A campus-wide self-service printing
system being investigated jointly by Information Technology and the library should
help the library handle this explosive growth area.
Service areas which need to
be explored include but are not limited to: 1) Live electronic reference
services; 2) 24/7 provision of reference services 3)Watsonville Center reference services; 4)
Expanding the scope of course reserves to include electronic links between
library reserve materials and reserve materials posted on the Internet. (Item
re Encore web 2.0 upgrading technology)
Information Technology Status in the Library
Library services depend in
equal part on a technically-skilled service-oriented group of staff and
librarians and on a sophisticated flexible technology infrastructure. There are
over 70 public computer workstations, most with flat-panel monitors, and 30
circulating laptop computers within the library, plus an additional 27 staff
computers. The library maintains and supports several network servers,
including a web server and a catalog server.
Most of the library’s public
workstations were purchased in Summer of 2004, and they will need to be
replaced within two to three years. The classroom workstations will have their
flat-panel monitors installed in Spring 2007 for better workspace use. Most
staff computers were purchased within the last two-three years, and so should
continue to be adequate for at least another three to four years. It is unknown
whether the advent of
Computer-Aided Instruction
programs available on various library workstations continue to actively support
Geography, Nutrition, and Dental Hygiene classes. Media services include 18
TV/VCR/DVD stations, 2 slide viewers, 4 microform viewers, and 4 audio
listening stations. Assistive technology available within the library includes
two Jaws/ZoomText workstations, one recently updated Kurzweil reader/scanner
workstation, and one Omni 3000 scanner/reader workstation.
The Collection
Successful academic and
occupational programs depend upon the availability of a sufficiently large and
sufficiently current library collection. Although the library’s funding support
has been somewhat erratic over the past five years, as of 2006/2007 our funding
appears to be stabilized. As the library is not an archival collection but
rather an active current collection for campus-wide program support, the
currency of the collection is the most significant measure, reflective of its
usefulness to the campus.
|
As of: |
Percent of Total
Collection Published from 2000 to present |
|
September 2006 |
21.3% |
|
October 2005 |
16.9% |
|
September 2002 |
6.5% |
|
October 2001 |
3.4% |
Access to articles in
magazines, journals, newspapers, and encyclopedias has been enhanced
considerably with the expansion of online databases available through EBSCOhost and other vendors, resulting in over 7,000
full text titles available to the campus community. In the summer of 2006 the
library took advantage of an exceptional consortium offer and virtually doubled
the number of online databases subscribed to, now consisting of 31 databases.
An active collection
development program guides the selection and purchase of library materials,
ensuring that materials support the curriculum and educational programs.
Librarian liaisons are assigned to each college division and work with faculty
to add new materials. During the 2005/06 academic year, nearly 3000 items were
added to the library’s collection, including, for the first time, music CDs. In
addition, catalog records for the 2000+
Library Instruction
Library curriculum and
Information Literacy Instruction is facilitated by the use of an electronic
classroom with 24 student workstations and one instructor workstation. The
Instruction Program of the library has two components: credit courses and
information literacy efforts.
Credit Courses
Library
10, Information Research, is the library’s sole remaining credit course offered
as of 2006. Since the late 1980s, Library 10 has been the one unit co-requisite
to the college’s transferable English 1A course. Library 10 reaches
approximately 800-850 students per semester, with one section open to all
students not enrolled in English 1A. It is a workbook-based course with several
online sections available since 2005, with due dates, a midpoint set of review
exercises, and a performance final. All librarians at the Reference Desk work
with Library 10 students doing the workbook or the online class.
Several
additional library credit courses were discontinued during the past 5 years due
to budget cuts or low enrollment: Library 16, Library 17, and Library 21.
Library 18, a new course, has not yet been funded for offering. Librarians at
Cabrillo feel we should be providing more and extended regular instruction to
students.
Information Literacy Program
The
library has a very active course-related instruction program. Librarians
partner with classroom faculty to develop structured exercises which provide
exposure to the research process as well as appropriate electronic and print
resources. Web-based exercises are linked to the library’s web pages. Between
70-100 instruction sessions are created and conducted every semester, and are held
in the library’s classroom, in other campus classrooms, or at the
Distance Education and Services to Remote Users
As mentioned earlier, the
library’s online subscription databases have increased considerably, from 11
databases in 2001 to 31 databases as of Fall 2006. Funding for most of these
has been from the external categorically funded programs TTIP and Tech II,
periodically supplemented by additional campus funds as needed. The library’s
databases have been available remotely to students, staff, and faculty since
1999. From 1999 to 2004 facilitating remote access was a partially manual
process which resulted in a typical delay of 1-4 days for new library
cardholders to be able to access our databases remotely. In 2005 the
library converted to authenticating remote access by purchasing the Web Access Management
module from the catalog vendor Innovative Interfaces, thereby providing
immediate database access to any new library cardholders.
The distance learner can now
use any of our online databases, check the status of their checked-out books
and renew their titles, and send an email reference question to a librarian and
get a response within 24 hours. One area still needing attention is the
accessibility of a full range of library services to the growing
Staffing
As a result of the loss of a
classified position in the Circulation department, the workload formerly
assigned to the lost position was distributed to five other classified staff
members and one librarian. With the retirement of the Circulation Lead
position, the department will be at least briefly down to one position, from its
previous three positions. Maintaining any level of quality service, let alone a
high level of service, will be extremely difficult for the library staff. The
lost position was eliminated during difficult campus budget times which also
initially reduced other library budgets and therefore some of the workload of
other staff. However, with the return of more normal budgets and workloads, it
is increasingly difficult to continue to provide an even level of service. Changes
in media and materials have notably increased workloads in all areas of the
library, from cataloging and processing to circulation and support. In
addition, the growth of the library's course reserve textbook collection
continues to have a significant beginning-of-the-semester impact on the
workload in both Technical Services and Circulation.
The
Circulation department is a high-volume, extremely fluid function within the
library: not only is it the largest student employer on campus, but it has
experienced the introduction in recent years of circulating laptops and
assorted computer peripherals, a new audio CD collection, new security systems
for multimedia items, and a heavily used course reserve collection that has
grown to over 2000 items. A restoration of this position, as a full-time classified
position, would allow a considerably distributed workload to be consolidated
once again in one person, and would provide Circulation with much-needed depth
and staffing backup.
B. Relationships with Other College Components
All of the full time library
faculty and the library director serve on college-wide committees (Faculty
Senate, Curriculum, Technology, Distance Learning, Staff Development,
Accreditation, Transportation, Bookstore, CCFT), as well as college councils
and boards that promote library awareness and cooperation across campus.
The Library works as an
integral part of the college and has close relationships with most departments
within Instruction, Information Technology, Student Services, and Business
Services.
Instruction
The library’s collection
development program offers every college division and every faculty member the
opportunity to contribute to the selection and maintenance of its holdings.
Students from every department on campus make heavy use of the library’s growing
course reserve materials, print and video/DVD collections, information
workstations, and portable laptop computers. In addition, the library exposes
Cabrillo students to all subjects and areas of study by hosting a heavily used
current periodical display area with approximately 200 magazines on all
disciplines, providing internet links on numerous subject areas, and hosting
periodic targeted awareness-building book and online resource displays. The
library also has a strong partnership with the English department through the
co-requisite classes of English 1A and Library 10, with instructors and
librarians working together on student success, course needs, and collection
building. The library’s Information Literacy program is now reaching
instructors in more than 50% of all campus departments, every year providing
students with over 160 classroom presentations using exercises created in
partnership between the course instructor and a librarian.
Information Technology
The library has a strong
partnership with Information Technology. The library’s director, librarians,
and technical staff work closely with IT on support, development, planning, and
maintenance of the library’s applications, servers, and desktops. The
introduction of wireless services and circulating laptop computers for students
to use for open access word-processing and other applications is an excellent
example of the planning and collaboration that routinely takes place between
the two organizations. Initial technical troubleshooting is provided by library
staff, but IT staff are responsible for extended troubleshooting, repair, and
replacement of the laptops.
Student Services
The Counseling department
hosts more Information Literacy sessions for individual classes than any other
department on campus. The library director works closely with the Student
Senate on a number of ongoing initiatives, most notably the ongoing grant of
15,000 dollars per year for the provision of a single copy of the most
expensive required textbooks at the Reserve Desk in the library. Librarians
work with Admissions & Records staff on the challenges of registration for the
Library 10 co-requisite class.
Business Services
The library works closely
with the Bookstore on annually providing updated course reserve textbooks in
the library for students. Also, as the largest employer of students on campus,
the library works closely and often with Student Employment, and has been
involved in testing new student employee support systems in recent years.
C. Relationships with Non-Cabrillo Organizations
The
In addition to the UCSC
library borrowing privileges available to current Cabrillo faculty, there is a
long-standing agreement between the Cabrillo College Library and UCSC which
specifically allows Cabrillo students to obtain short-term borrowing rights at
the UCSC libraries. The library also works with the
D. Costs
Library percentage of Base College Expenditures
|
|
2001/02 |
2002/03 |
2003/04 |
2004/05 |
2005/06 |
|
Library Base Expenditures |
$1,090,370 |
$1,066,684 |
$949,168 |
$1,021,006 |
$1,117,812 |
|
|
$23,229,461 |
$24,168,447 |
$23,646,684 |
$24,373,819 |
$25,688,668 |
|
Library Pct of College
Expenditures |
4.694% |
4.414% |
4.014% |
4.189% |
4.351% |
The costs of the library when
compared to the college as a whole appear high. The Association for College and
Research Libraries, however, does recommend that 6% of a college budget be
allocated to supporting a library. The college library is a service oriented,
staff intensive function that is responsive to the information needs of
students and faculty. The instructional component of the library program also
generates college revenues through FTES, albeit less than one percent.
|
|
2001/02 |
2002/03 |
2003/04 |
2004/05 |
2005/06 |
|
Fall Semester |
0.61% |
0.63% |
0.66% |
0.74% |
0.72% |
|
Spring Semester |
0.72% |
0.71% |
0.69% |
0.71% |
0.68% |
The Library’s budget for
collections has varied a great deal for the past several years. The funding has
come from a combination of college general funds and the categorical State
Instructional Equipment and Library Materials fund. The college general funds
have been fixed and unchanged from 1989 to 2003, at which point general funds
allocation for collections was reduced by 25 percent [2C-21 Cabrillo College
Governing Board Agenda
E. Student Success
It is difficult to measure
overall student success in the library. Most services in the library are
typically on-demand and transaction-based. The student’s success can only be
inferred by the result: did they understand the librarian’s answer, were they
able to find the desired website or magazine article, etc. We can only infer
that the sum of these small successes adds up to the larger student successes
in an individual course, or in a program of study. In addition, library
services are primarily in support of instruction, serving as a complement to
assignments and study efforts in numerous classroom instruction programs.
Learning that takes place in the library, or because of the library’s services,
can not be isolated to the library, but must be considered part of the overall
picture of student success: do students complete their research assignments,
find the appropriate study materials to pass their classes, etc.
Somewhat easier to measure is
whether the library is providing a sufficient variety of services, and in
sufficient quantity, to meet perceived and projected student need levels. If we
have few students waiting excessively to speak to a librarian, if we have few
students unable to check out their required course reserve materials, then the
levels of service provided are sufficient. From observations, the library
rarely has students waiting more than a few minutes to speak to a librarian or
be assisted with any of the varied Circulation services, rarely has students
who are not provided with acceptable print or electronic resources on their
topic, and only occasionally has students who cannot be provided requested
course reserve materials at the time of their request.
During the 2006 accreditation
and services assessment efforts, it was decided that service operations such as
the library should more appropriately use the college-wide Core
Competencies for assessing their
services, rather than create unique student learner outcomes pertaining to the
many services provided by campus service operations. The library’s completed
Assessment Analysis and Assessment Plan forms are attached to this document. The
library assists students in achieving the core college competencies in several
ways:
Communication: When a librarian engages a student in defining their
information need and translating that need into a query to use with an
information tool, we are directly helping the student hone their communication
skills. Both primary service desks provide experienced service assistance in
English and Spanish.
Critical
Thinking & Information Competency, Global Awareness: The Library 10 course, assistance at the Reference
Desk, and the course-related instruction sessions all represent direct
instruction in critical thinking and global awareness. Assistance at the
Reference Desk is instruction-based, intended not to answer a student’s
information need so much as to teach students how to use electronic tools and
thinking processes to independently and confidently satisfy their own future
information needs.
Personal
Responsibility & Professional Development: Many of the library’s transaction services directly reinforce
students’ personal responsibility by requiring loaned materials to be returned
on time or generate overdue fines. Indirectly, all of our transaction services
help facilitate countless educational pursuits and therefore support
communication and critical thinking.
The
Cabrillo College Factbook indicates that student success rates for Library 10
are typically lower than student success rates for the campus as a whole.
Retention rates for Library 10 are closer to retention rates for English
courses, and both are lower than retention rates for the campus as a whole.
Since Library 10 is a co-requisite of English 1A, we would expect retention
rates to be similar.
|
Success |
Fall 2001 |
Fall 2002 |
Fall 2003 |
Fall 2004 |
Fall 2005 |
|
Library |
61.56% |
63.98% |
61.93% |
65.62% |
53.29% |
|
English |
68.38% |
68.99% |
66.89% |
67.04% |
67.60% |
|
College |
67.73% |
68.04% |
68.81% |
69.62% |
67.23% |
|
Retention |
Fall 2001 |
Fall 2002 |
Fall 2003 |
Fall 2004 |
Fall 2005 |
|
Library |
78.42% |
74.43% |
78.44% |
82.24% |
71.06% |
|
English |
77.85% |
79.25% |
78.30% |
78.98% |
77.43% |
|
College |
81.09% |
80.16% |
81.78% |
82.94% |
80.98% |
Library
10 learner outcomes assessment is accomplished by student completion of the
workbook and the performance final. In addition, the completion of a successful
works cited exercise in the workbook is used to confirm that the student has
learned to identify, evaluate, and communicate information resources. Each
student completes an anonymous course evaluation form that is turned in
separately from the workbook. Summaries of all the evaluative responses are
distributed to the librarians.
Course-Related
Instruction
assessment is observational and inferred
from the class instructors. Although some librarians ask students to complete
an online evaluation form, many sessions are still in need of some sort of
evaluative tool.
F. Student Survey Results
According to the 2005
Cabrillo College Student Survey, of the 872 students asked to rate their
overall experience with the library, 61% responded with “very good” or
“excellent,” giving the library the highest satisfaction rating of all of the
student services included in the survey.
Three library-related
questions were asked of faculty in the Accreditation Self-Study survey (2005).
Their answers indicate that 86% of the responding faculty “strongly agree” or
“somewhat agree” that the library’s support for instructional programs
contributes to student learning outcomes, 83% of the respondents “strongly
agree” or “somewhat agree” that the library is sufficiently responsive to
faculty input, and 61% “strongly agree” or “somewhat agree” that the library
collection has enough breadth to meet the needs of their students. On the last
question, it is worth noting that 14% disagreed and 25% were neutral in
evaluating the breadth of the collection, indicating that vigilance and
communication continue to be vital as we continue to grow the library’s
collections.
As part of the library’s 2005
accreditation self-study, we initiated a review of methods for assessing our
services. We created a survey instrument to assess our general services, which
we repeated twice the first year and then annually every Fall semester. The
primary findings of these general services surveys so far:
It is also worth noting that
in 2003, during the planning for campus-wide budget cutbacks, the library
conducted a student survey to help determine which open hours to cut, as we
were facing the elimination of nearly one fifth of our open hours.
G. Results of External Data Research
There are four general trends
identified in campus or regional surveys that are likely to have a significant
impact on the library: 1)a steady increase in the number of Hispanics in the
local population and enrolling at Cabrillo; 2)an increase in the number of
students who enter Cabrillo at the basic skills level; 3)continuing increases
in the levels of computer literacy encountered in new Cabrillo students; and 4)an
increase in enrollment in campus distance education offerings. The library will
need to review the accessibility of its services and information to the growing
Spanish-speaking population. In addition, the library must meet the challenge
of ensuring that it maintain the functionality of its technology at a
sufficient level to meet the needs of new younger students, while at the same
time continuing to provide accessible services for those students who may not
have a high comfort level with technology.
II. Program Directions and Recommendations: These department priorities reflect the data and
discussions presented in this report, but they are also framed by the college
Master Plan and the college’s stated mission.
1. Maintain appropriate and responsive levels
of service in the Circulation function. (Maintenance of Programs)
Service stability has been at risk for several years within this core
high-volume function. We need to ensure sufficient classified staffing by
restoring the position lost in 2003.
COST: $38,000/year, including benefits.
2. Expand and formalize library services to the
The library has been working
with
COST: $39,000/year, including benefits,
or: $25,725 for 18 hours a week
(two semesters) of units of adjunct librarian
3. Maintain the currency of the library’s integrated
software environment. (Maintenance of Programs, Innovative Scheduling &
Delivery)
The library’s core integrated
library system, from Innovative Interfaces, Inc., should be updated with their
Encore product. Encore, due to be released in Spring 2007, is a unified search
and access tool that will leverage Web 2.0 technologies into the Library’s
integrated system. This library system controls the library’s acquisitions,
cataloging, circulation, and public access catalog. Upgrading to the next
version should be accomplished within two years of the release of the upgraded
software
COST: $39,500.
4. Ensure ongoing reliability of workstations at the
library. (Maintenance of Programs)
a) The
70+ heavily-used public computer workstations, purchased in 2004, will need
to be replaced before 2009. These machines are heavily used for Internet and
online research, and need to be able to handle evolving multimedia information
technologies as well as upgrades to new operating systems.
b) The
27 staff computer workstations will need to be replaced before 2009.
COST: 97 x
$1000 = $97,000.
5. Expand information technology in the library to
meet current trends. (Innovative Scheduling & Delivery)
In order to successfully
provide reference services wherever our students are located, the library must
seriously investigate implementing live online reference services. To
complement remote reference, we must pursue purchase of online subscriptions
for reference books which would be available to students wherever they are. The
library must also investigate online multimedia and other non-static content,
such as video and blogs, to continue to reach our more tech-savvy newer
students. Also, we need to pursue additional online instruction tools, such as
tutorials, online overviews, or even additional online credit courses.
COST: $10,000
for an initial online reference book collection
6. Increase awareness of library services for new
Cabrillo students. (Maintenance
of Programs)
The library services surveys
initiated in 2005 consistently identified new students as the least aware of
the services and benefits of the library. We need to develop mechanisms for
awareness-building among the new student arrivals, possibly including tours,
orientations, promotional information, or advertising the library where the
students are (floating signs around campus, ads/articles in the Voice, MySpace
accounts, etc.).
COST: $2000
B.
Plan for ongoing
evaluation of functions & services
The
general services survey mentioned in #6 above will be repeated every year. We
will compare new results to earlier results, and discuss at regular staff
meetings. Subsequent areas to survey or otherwise analyze will be determined by
the results of the general survey, as well as library staff perception on
high-impact areas to survey: areas which contribute most strongly to the core
competencies, or areas which benefit large numbers of students.
III. Curriculum, Requisite, and Model Program
Review
Library 10, Information Research
Library 15 AZ, Special Topics in Library Research
Library 18, Advanced Internet Searching