Initial Data Review Narrative
Bolded text below corresponds to the Initial Data Review spreadsheet sent to the College Library.
Social Impact of the College Library
Technology has added a rich dimension to COD’s library service, allowing students and faculty to access library resources via the web 24/7. While this technological outreach is both relevant and necessary, it does not meet the need our students have for “place.”
The College Library is a hub for gathering students. Here, a student can be ‘alone together,’ surrounded by others similarly engaged in studying, working on a computer, writing, etc. Students hook up with others they haven’t met before: in line for a textbook, sharing a photocopier, struggling with Blackboard at a computer and finding their neighbor is doing the same. They meet friends or members of their study group to quietly collaborate at tables or more robustly share ideas in one of our three group study rooms. They ask for help from staff: the student assistant walks them through printing a document at a library computer; the library specialist locates their textbook, even when they aren’t exactly sure what it’s called; the librarian listens to their assignment needs and teaches them how to find articles and books that will help them succeed.
Social interactions that occur as our students gather in the Library are powerful, but they are not the only way to view “social impact.” In a broader sense, the College Library impacts the social fabric of the Coachella Valley because it offers every committed student a way to achieve academic success: students that don’t have computers or internet at home have it at their library. Students who can’t afford to buy their textbook have access to it at their library. Students whose homes are crowded or noisy or just plain difficult to be in can study safely, quietly and with dignity in their library. Students bound by the smallness of the Valley see a world much bigger from their library.
The College Library impacts students by being the gathering place—a social place for academic activities. More broadly, it also impacts the society in which we live: it enables more students to become educated, employed, self-actualized and productive.
College Library’s Service to the Community
College of the Desert (COD) is in a unique position to provide library service to both COD students and to members of the general public. COD Library shares its building with the Palm Desert Public Library, a branch of the Riverside County Library System. Riverside County Library System shares resources with San Bernardino County Library System and Santa Clarita Public Library in Los Angeles County. This resource sharing is a benefit to all as it allows COD students access to materials from 70 public library branches and it allows library card holders in those public library systems access to most materials at the COD Library. Public library users can access College Library materials by placing a hold on a particular item. Items are received in about a week through a courier delivery service. In addition, COD Library students can receive items from those library systems through reciprocal borrowing. With the COD Library as a partner in this resource sharing, the general public can have access to an in-depth academic library collection typically not found in a public library setting and COD students can access public library materials without leaving campus.
Resources available to the community at the College Library include special collections such as the Desert Collection and Churchill Collection. In-library researchers can also access online databases and other reference materials.
Overall, having an academic library partnering with the public library system is a win-win for both institutions. The two collections complement each other and make researching easier for all.
College Library’s role in enhancing COD’s image in the community
The College Library supports the educational mission of the college by anticipating and fulfilling the information needs of the diverse student, faculty, staff and community populations. A major goal of the Library is to prepare all students including transfer, vocational, and lifelong learners (community members) to function effectively in a highly technological society with an information-based economy. The Library helps users develop information competency, a broad-based literacy that includes the skill to identify, retrieve, evaluate, and apply information.
The Library is one of the few facilities on campus that does not require that a person be enrolled to use its services. In addition, the services are free to anyone who enters the Library. Members of the general public have access to the collection and may check-out items in the circulating collection (with a few exceptions) with their Riverside County Library card. Each time there is an interaction between a member of the public and a helpful library staff member COD’s image is enhanced.
The COD Library is currently housed in a joint-use facility. Even if a community member does not partake of our services, the students are on full view as they study, use computer workstations or check-out materials. When articles about the college appear in the local newspaper, community members who use the public library have seen concrete examples of students hard at work.
Current and Potential Funders for the College Library
Current
· Friends of the College Library
Potential
· COD Alumni
· Professionals in the community who believe in higher education, especially for first-generation students
· Business leaders who can hire from those trained in their workforce (e.g. Solar)
· Chambers of Commerce
· Non-profit charities that support education
· Local charities, such as Berger Foundation
· Corporate foundations, such as Target, Staples or others who give back to their communities
Relevance of the College Library to Transfer Programs
Students who are planning to transfer from COD to four-year colleges and universities are prime candidates for library instruction since they will be doing research for papers and projects of increasing length and complexity as their educational careers continue. Although many of our students have good computer skills, these skills do not necessarily extend to searching for information beyond going to Google or Yahoo and typing in a query. At the COD Library, we approach every reference question as an opportunity to teach students to be “do-it-yourself” researchers so that they can use these skills to find the information they need from any place and at any time. It is critical for students to learn/know the following:
· How to use a library catalog to search for print materials, and how to get access to materials that are not physically available at COD. Once they know how to search our library catalog, they will be able to transfer this skill to the catalog at any other institution.
· How to find the journal articles that will be the basis for their research papers using COD’s databases. Although other institutions will have different databases, once they have learned the methods and techniques for searching, they will be able to use these skills anywhere.
· How to evaluate information (is it accurate, objective, current? what are the credentials of the author?, etc.). Students must learn techniques to become critical consumers of information in order to differentiate between information and misinformation.
· How to cite information. The ability to easily cut and paste information from online sources makes plagiarism a greater problem in research papers than in the past. However, the easy access of correct citation information can help to mitigate this. Our library home page contains links to information about plagiarism and citations, and both are addressed in our bibliographic instruction sessions as well.
Relevance of College Library to Career and Technical Education Programs
Students in our career and technical education programs may not be going on to do extensive research for papers, but the library and information retrieval skills that they learn while at COD will give them the foundation for continuing their education in the future or for using the skills in their chosen professions. They too should be knowledgeable consumers of information when they leave COD, since information seeking skills are desirable, if not necessary, in virtually every profession.
Relevance of College Library to Basic Skills Courses
Students in our basic skills courses are in these courses because they desire additional education beyond high school or because they want to train for a particular profession. Their needs are no different from those of our transfer students or our career/technical education students since they will need the same library and information retrieval skills as they progress through their classes. Teaching library and research skills at every level and reinforcing these skills throughout a student’s tenure at COD will be beneficial to him/her as he/she continues his/her education or embarks on a career.
Type of Service
The College of the Desert Library provides a multitude of services to the campus community. One of its primary functions is to provide instruction and assistance in the use of library and information resources of all types. Library personnel select, order, and process books and periodical materials for student and faculty use. In addition to over 50,000 books in the collection and over 80 periodical subscriptions, the Library also holds a collection of current textbooks for all courses being taught, which are available on two-hour reserve for student use. The Library also subscribes to several online resources. The online resources augment our print periodical collections by extending beyond 3,500 periodical titles online. They also extend our physical book collections with offerings of over 15,000 ebooks and over 1,000 reference resources as well. Online resources are very popular and available to users who are not physically in the Library. What the Library cannot provide physically or online, it can borrow quickly from libraries within Riverside County and a little less quickly from libraries throughout the country.
The College Library is a major computing center, providing access to 52 computer workstations equipped with a full range of Microsoft programs. Basic instruction and assistance in the use of computers and programs is provided. At the service desk we provide on-demand library instruction in the use of the library’s catalog, printed reference sources, online database/index searching, applying formatting standards(e.g. APA and MLA for student papers), and more.
Librarians provide instruction tailored to the needs of classes, either in the library or in a classroom, in which we can focus on the subject being taught to assist students in finding information for their topic. In addition, Librarians have designed and teach each semester two to three sections of LIS-001 (a two unit, semester long course).
Naturally the Library is also a prime location for out of classroom learning and study. On a first-come, first-served basis, group study rooms are available for student study. There are many carrels and group study tables (over 115 seats) in the Library for students to use for studying as well as a “quiet room” in which no electronic devices are allowed. Copy and printing facilities are also provided.
Service Population
While the primary clientele of the library is the students, faculty and staff of the College, we also provide selected services, such as basic reference, to the public who use the Palm Desert branch of the Riverside County Library. In addition we provide a basic level of service to other members of the public, especially the many temporary residents of the valley who spend their winters here.
College Library’s Impact to Students
The impact that COD Library has on the students is inestimable. For many of our students, it is the first time they are introduced to a library. After entering in COD, they soon learn that the library provides unlimited access to computers, and in the process, they learn that the library also provides many other informational resources and services to assist them in their academic work. Most seats in the library are occupied at all hours the library is open and the computer lab is filled to capacity on a daily basis. Through their frequent interaction with members of the library staff, students become comfortable using the library and understand that their library provides a friendly, quiet, and safe environment for their use. They learn how to become responsible citizens by observing the library “quiet” work policies and they learn the meaning of cooperating in a shared learning environment where it’s important to return borrowed materials in a timely manner.
In addition to these “meta-effects”, students also receive constant instruction from members of the library staff. Students learn how to print documents and to perform other computer tasks; they learn how to search the library catalog and how to use the Library of Congress Classification system. In special group instructional sessions provided by the library, students learn how to use the resources the library provides for them and how to find and use information on the internet. Students enrolled in the library’s LIS-001 course, Basic Research Skills, learn the fundamentals of finding and using information and prepare themselves for transfer courses requiring research papers.
College Library’s Impact to Faculty
The COD Library offers a positive effect on the faculty by providing a full-range of services. Services provided to the faculty include:
· Library Instruction: Faculty members are encouraged to have their students learn library use and research skills. The Library provides session either in the Library or in the classroom where their students can receive an instructional session tailored to the specific informational needs of their course. Exercise handouts and other materials can be provided to enable students to reinforce what they’ve learned in the instructional sessions.
· Faculty Reserve: Faculty are encouraged to provide their students with course-related materials which are stored in a secure location and circulated to students for in-library use for two hours at a time. These materials include textbooks, audio-visual materials, former exams, photocopies of periodical articles, etc.
· Library Collection Development: Faculty members are encouraged to participate in the evaluation of their subject areas of the library’s collection. Acquisition Request Forms available on the library’s webpage are used by faculty to make requests for materials to be purchased and added to the library collection.