Deans & Directors Meeting in Sacramento, Mar. 17 & 18

Although I'm neither a library dean nor director, I attended this annual gathering on behalf of Oxnard College.  On Wednesday, we received updates today on consortium database purchasing, the Council of Chief Librarians, the Electronic Access to Resources Committee and other matters.  On Thursday, we heard from State Chancellor's Office staff about the overall State budget and the allocations for California Community Colleges.  Both sessions were productive and more upbeat than one would expect under the circumstances.  We did hear, however, about librarians receiving March 15 letters and similar unwelcome news.

American River College, March 16

 Next stop:  American River College Library in Sacramento, where my hosts were Librarian Linda Shoemake and Technical Services Librarian Kathy Champion.  Like Santa Rosa, this is a very large campus that serves 40,000 students.  The library was a recently expanded and renovated.  I was shown where quake joints delineate the old and new sections. 

The curvilinear addition was designed to break up the "boxy" feel of the old building, and succeeds in making the entrance inviting.

The student lab space is packed to the gills nearly every hour the building is open, I was told.  The group study rooms also receive heavy use.

Many of the libraries I've seen incorporate atriums, patios or other outdoor/semi-outdoor spaces for rest, relaxation and the inevitable laptops and iPads.  I was told that the temperature is pleasant here even when the sun is beating down.  The ARC circulation desk offers laptops for those who need them (in-house only, but the wireless network is campuswide, of course).

A view from behind the busy Reference Desk.

Below, students studying and relaxing in the front atrium.  No on-site espresso cart, but coffee is available from a close-by cafeteria.

The great view from the second floor, even on a rainy day.

Thanks to Linda, Kathy, Dan Crump and all the ARC librarians for their tours and networking about CCC libraries.

Santa Rosa Junior College, March 15

SRJC sits in the Northern California wine country.  It serves about 40,000 students.  Part of the campus' unique architecture is that all of the buildings have red brick facades...even the parking structure.  It is a beautiful campus, even in the heavy rain that fell much of that day.

The Frank P. Doyle Library was completed in 2006.  My tour guides were Dean Cherry Li-Bugg and former dean, now library professor, Will Baty, and accompanied by San Jose State library science student Loretta Esparza.

Will was largely responsible for creating the Doyle Library and showed me many unique features, including...

...a tree sculpture in multiple sections on each of the building's four floors.  It was created from a large, beautiful tree that had to be removed to build the structure.  The pieces sit in approximately the place where the trunk once stood.   There are many other fine examples of artwork throughout the structure.

 These shots show a faculty resource area....

 ...tables that can adjusted to a student/faculty user's preferences...

...and an instruction area.  Why did I include a picture of a blank wall here, you ask?  What's unique is that it is made of special screen paint, designed for digital projector images.  If the surface is marred, it's simply painted over.  Much cheaper than electric screens, which can't be repaired once they're marked up.

More whimsical art...

...and shots of the interior.  This last one shows one of the rotundas on each floor (note the naming opportunities!)

 At my hosts' suggestion, I also visited the Herold Mahoney Library at SRJC's Petaluma Campus, dedicated in 2008.  They felt that its scale would be much more in tune with the size of Oxnard's new library, and they were correct.  As shown here, the Mahoney building is also beautiful, functional and filled with great artwork.  Thanks to librarians Molly Matheson and Karen Petersen for taking me around their workplace.

My hosts also suggested that I visit the very newest California community college library at Napa College.  Unfortunately, my travel schedule and heavy rain put the kibosh on that.

Thanks also to Judy Kay, Cherry's administrative assistant, for making all the arrangements.

Santa Barbara City College, March 10

SBCC sits on a hill overlooking the Pacific Ocean.  As an idyllic setting for an academy, it's rivaled only by its larger cousin to the north, UCSB.  It serves over 20,000 students.

Named for one of SBCC's trustees and benefactors, the Eli Luria Library was built in 1989.  Its director is Kenley Neufeld.  Kenley and his library have received numerous awards and accolades for their forward-thinking and innovative student services.  For example, the reference desk makes extensive use of chat services, Twitter, Facebook and text messaging to communicate with users. 

The reference desk was a very busy place on a Thursday morning.  Librarians Elizabeth Bowman and Sally Chuah graciously shared their observations.  I was able to see chat reference in action, including gathering real-time statistics of student interactions.  I was told that chat is very useful for ESL students and shy users in general who are intimidated by librarians in person.  Often, the librarians know, whether informed or not, that their patron is sitting out on the floor 30 ft. away (message beeping gives them away).  I hadn't considered this, but I was told there was at least one security-related situation where a student summoned help from campus police via the reference desk...another reason to consider chat reference for Oxnard College.  I told them about my interest in this technology as a hearing-impaired librarian.  Useful site:  http://libraryh3lp.com/webchat   This reinforced my discussions with Leslie Tirapelle at Pasadena CC last month.  Here a couple of (crude) screen shots of what the librarian sees in online mode.  A staff member can answer questions from their office just as easily, of course.  Also:  SBCC uses student tech. assistants next to the librarians, just as I've seen at Westmont and other institutions.

Student requests don't just come from laptops and iPads.  They can also come via cell phone text messaging, as shown by this poster visible everywhere in the library.










Even at SBCC, not everyone has or wants to bring a laptop computer.  There are 50 Mac workstations, with 20 or so Windows laptops available at the Circulation Desk for on-site use.  It's strictly first-come, first-served with no time restrictions.

When it comes to ideas for updating OC's services, we can learn a lot from our northern neighbor.  I was also struck by how cordial and collegial librarian/student interactions were, even in a busy environment, something else we need to emulate.  Allowing coffee and food everywhere helps, though a quiet study zone in enforced on the lower level.  Kenley hopes to add more group study rooms over time, as they are much-needed, but not foreseen back in the late 80s.  The reference books were weeded to make room for the espresso bar and tables...right in the library.

Beyond Federated Searching: "Discovery Searching" and Its Application to College Libraries

Gentle readers,

As noted in my post about SCELC Vendor Day, I attended a presentation by Serials Solutions on their new product Summon.  The following day (March 4), I saw a demonstration of the Voyager integrated library system (ILS) sold by ExLibris Group. The Voyager package includes Primo, another "all-in-one" library search product.  Both packages (and their competitors) allow library users to search book catalog records, serials databases (such as EBSCO and ProQuest) and electronic book subscriptions with simple, Google-like searches. 

At first, I was inclined to say, ho-hum.  What's the difference between this and various federated search products offered by EBSCO, Reference Universe, LibRef and others?  An example of federated searching can be found at this page    Notice the detailed, confusing explanation of how a patron can search five databases at once, integrate results, etc. (This is not meant to be disrespectful of a particular library, only as an illustration).  Federated searching is geeky and confusing.  Little wonder that one librarian after the Voyager demonstration told me that a previous employer had pulled the plug on a federated search product shortly after its inauguration.  User reaction was a mixture of "huh?" and "so what?"

Vendor claims and cant aside, Summon, Primo and similar products offer something new:  the ability to enter one simple Google-ish search, access an entire collection and output meaningful results.  The format of what's found is clearly labeled:  book, e-book, scholarly article, newspaper article, etc., as well as its publication provenance.  Which database it's taken from is not shown...and the user doesn't care.  Students are typically told to find a certain number of items from each format and to suss out information from reputable organizations.  The fact that a particular article came from a particular aggregator is completely irrelevant to the research process.  The "payload" is what matters, not the "delivery system".  I, for one, was impressed with the results I saw from real-life libraries using "discovery" search systems (ASU, for example).

As with all new technologies, this one will have glitches.  Integrating all these resources into one search engine-like box and getting consistent, high-quality results is a daunting task.  However...

I submit, fellow librarians and researchers, that something like these "discovery" products must happen in Libraryland...and soon.   For centuries, we have been clinging to a search model that still depends largely on author, title and subject.  Keyword searching, as useful as it can be, is merely a refinement of "ATS".  All around us, the world has changed.  Students can, and will, Google their way to what they think they need.  Behavioral analysis shows that most students will go for a maximum of three clicks.  If they don't find what they need, they move on to another source.  (This assumes that they bother looking at library resources to begin with, or at all.)  By using modern search engines and algorithms for library collections, we can provide something new, different and useful in our services.  If we don't, we will surely become increasingly irrelevant to our student users.

After hearing the speaker from Serials Solutions, I (rhetorically) asked him: "so, you mean students are never going to learn Boolean searching, are they?"  We shared a good laugh about that.  I didn't tell him this, but when I've seen the much-hyped "new" ProQuest search engine, my reaction was: "so, what?"  It's still based on Boolean searching, for pity's sake.  News flash:  students don't care about ANDs, ORs and NOTs and never will.  Here's another:  in the 21st Century, there's no reason why they should.

As my readers know, this blog has heretofore mostly been my "travelogue" for a sabbatical.  Now that I've opened this can of worms, I hope I may actually get some comments back.  Let's hear from you.  Best/Tom

SCELC Vendor Day/Hannon Library @ Loyola Marymount University, March 3

Each year, the Statewide California Electronic Library Consortium (SCELC) holds a vendor day.  This is the databases purchasing group for most of the private universities in the state.  It is analogous to the Community College League Consortium, of which Oxnard College is a member.  The SCELC folks graciously invite public college/university librarians to their vendor shindig each year.  This was my first time, and I came away with a new understanding of a fundamental change coming to academic libraries: 
"discovery searching".  More about this in my next post.

While at SCELC, I had the opportunity to view the Hannon Library at Loyola.  This round structure opened about 1.5 years ago.  It comprises three stories and offers beautiful views of Los Angeles from its hilltop perch.  The second and third levels have rings of student group study rooms.  LMU was having its spring break that week, which limited some of my  observations, but also made chatting with staff easier.

Group study rooms all look alike and my cell phone couldn't do the views justice.  However, the assignable rooms in the library (and elsewhere at LMU) have an online reservation system, as shown here.  The student/faculty/staff member asks for the room and their name appears on it for their time, such as "Jane Student & Colleagues, Econ. 101".

The third floor contains archives and special collections.  I had the pleasure of meeting Christine Megowan, Special Collections Librarian and viewing a student-curated exhibit of movie memorabilia.  I asked Christine:  what advice do you have for anyone building a library in the round?  She said that noise carries a lot in a round structure, both between and among the group study spaces, for example.  She suggested paying close attention to sound insulation, baffles and other techniques to reduce echoes.  Changes were made based on student input regarding noise issues collected via Facebook.  Like all libraries, LMU must balance the desires of students to collaborate (often loudly) with solo researchers' need for silence.  Compatible scheduling is important, as evidenced by a poetry reading being put next door to a student games night, for example (ouch). 

Thanks to Christine and her colleagues for sharing their "showpiece" library with me.