Library Committee
Annual Report, 2010-2011
The Library Committee met twice this year (2010-11), with the final meeting coming on April 29, 2011. The major issues covered were as follows:
First, we examined the total materials budget expenditures for last year, the allocations for one-time expenditures, and the anticipated expenditures for 2010 – 2011. Over $1.8M was spent last year. It is anticipated that over $1.7M will be spent this year.
R2, nationally known library consultants spent three days interviewing each staff member as well as meeting with strategic committees. They produced a report with some major recommendations including investing more resources in the library’s virtual presence, enhancing outreach programs, and creating an organizational structure that will foster participatory decision-making, communication, and timely decision-making. The library has begun addressing these recommendations. Presently, librarians do not supervise other librarians, so the appointment from within the current staff of division heads supervising librarians represents a significant change. The formation of a management team, making the library a more hierarchical organization, is considered essential to increased efficiency and effectiveness.
The library is experimenting with e-readers -- Kindles and IPads, and there is an escalating transition from print to electronic in reference books and the more gradual transition from print to digital in books from the general collection. The library now has over 120,000 e-books. While they are not being used extensively, the feeling is that this will change as new generations of students will feel more comfortable with e-books. E-books are still in their infancy and over time will become more user-friendly.
Two major activities included a web redesign project using Sharepoint (continuing) and the implementation of a search and discovery tool called “Summon.” Summon will make it possible for patrons to search practically all of the print, media, databases and electronic resources using a “search box.
Finally, some of the highlights of the past year included the Digicenter being a finalist for the Innovision award, the library being named by Princeton Review as a top library, and also being judged by an academic website to be among the top 50 most beautiful libraries in the United States.
The Chair would like to thank Janis Bandelin, John Beckford, David Fleming, Lon Knight, Janet Kwami, Tamara Matthews, David Spear and Betty Kelly for their service to the committee.
Respectfully submitted
Paul Kooistra