ACRL Excellence in Academic Libraries Award

The J. Edgar & Louise S. Monroe Library is pleased to submit this application for the 2003 Excellence in Academic Libraries Award.

I. Context

University overview Loyola University New Orleans is a comprehensive Catholic university that embodies the standards of academic excellence synonymous with Jesuit education. As a community united in the search for truth and wisdom, Loyola’s faculty, students, and staff are committed to scholarship, service, and justice. Consistent with its Jesuit and Catholic heritage, the university is open to all faiths. Loyola University New Orleans has a total headcount of 5,902 (4800 FTE) students, including 4,106 undergraduates. The geographical diversification consists of representatives from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and 48 foreign countries. Loyola is aware of the need for innovation in undergraduate education. Because of its ideal size and independent status, Loyola is in a unique position to explore new programs and approaches in education. Loyola experiments with the full realization that lack of change often implies more risk than change itself.

The Library’s Vision

The library is a center for enhancing skills that are necessary for success in college and in life-long learning. Students build information literacy and critical thinking skills throughout their careers at Loyola through the collaborative efforts of their professors and the library faculty and staff.

The library building is a technologically advanced, inviting and welcoming place for the entire Loyola community. Everything the library has to offer, its building, collections, services, faculty, and staff, is recognized as a key component in recruiting and retaining students.

The library is user-centered, always seeking to understand the needs of its primary clients, the students and faculty, and making decisions based on those needs. The library is the campus center for instruction in the use of technology in teaching and research.

The library values the contributions and excellence of its faculty, staff, and student workers. The library is a learning organization, characterized by people who are continuously developing new skills and greater expertise.

Work in the library is marked by collaboration: among students, among students and faculty, and among faculty. Library faculty and staff work together and in partnership with people and organizations outside the library. The collaborative relationships formed by library faculty and staff benefit the whole university.

The library strives to be a model of what academic libraries are and will become. The library, as an organization, encourages creative thinking and actively seeks to serve as a test bed for new ways of delivering information and new methods of teaching and learning. As a result, the library provides the highest quality learning tools and information content to enhance the educational experience for faculty and students.

II. Criteria

1. Creativity & Innovation with Meeting the Needs of an Academic Community

Vision: The library building is a technologically advanced, inviting and welcoming place for the entire Loyola community.

Issue: The library experienced a severe lack of space for collections, study, meeting, teaching and learning. The old main library building had limited technology and its infrastructure was inadequate and outdated.

Action:

  • Planning for the new library began with a report by a faculty, staff, and student task force. The report was issued in 1988 and provided a blueprint for the kind of library the university would need to take it into the next century. The new J. Edgar & Louise S. Monroe Library was dedicated in February of 1999 and made real the university’s shared vision of a new library.

Outcomes:

  • The university held an opening gala for donors, and hosted a symposium on libraries and culture, featuring keynote speaker William Gass. Shelby Foote received an honorary degree at the library dedication. The university hosted a special student dedication, serving a lunch of New Orleans favorites while the Rebirth Brass Band played at the front entrance.
  • The facility is state-of-the-art, yet inviting to our students. In a survey done on the university’s web site in 1999, 80% of students said that the library is the place they most like to hang out. Students like the beautiful traditional look of the building, and the completely up-to-date services and technology inside.
  • There was a 200% increase in use from the old building to the new one. Statistics for building use, circulation and ILL/Article Delivery have all continued to rise each year since the building opened.
  • The library has 150,000 square feet, seating for 700 with 600 network jacks, 16 group study rooms, 15 faculty research/study rooms, two multimedia classrooms, 4 seminar rooms, a library instruction classroom, and three 24-hour computer labs. The diversity of spaces makes it possible for many kinds of study and learning to take place. The library also has a vending room, with drink and food machines, where students can take a break.
  • The new library has allowed us to integrate nearly all of the library’s activities under one roof, including government documents and media services, formerly housed in another building. Special Collections, which were formerly located on an inaccessible floor of another building, are now prominent in the Monroe Library, with a very beautiful public face. The Special Collections space has afforded us many opportunities to showcase unique collections and host donor receptions.
  • Focus groups conducted during library planning expressed a strong need to put all user services together on the first floor, keeping computing, research, reference, media services, circulation, and reserves in close proximity. Now, four years after the building opened, these services have become even more integrated than we expected.
  • We continue to foster the culture of the library as an inviting place by purchasing and installing works of art, by creating a climate of excellent service, and by sponsoring student and faculty events.
  • Also housed in the Monroe Library are the Lindy Boggs National Center for Community Literacy and the Collins C. Diboll Gallery.
  • The library building was awarded the People’s Choice! Award, sponsored by Gambit Weekly and the American Institute of Architects, New Orleans Chapter.
  • The library building continues to be flexible. Since we moved in, we’ve recreated our library instruction classroom and established a new high-end Mac classroom.

Quotes from our student focus groups:

“In the old library, I only went once a semester. Now, I spend more time in the library than anywhere else on campus.”

“I love the physical things, the shininess, the newness, the openness … So many people, and it’s such an active place.”

“I use the library now because I want to. I used to only because I had to.”

“It looks like a church, but if we’re going to have a cathedral, it should be to books.”

Vision: The library strives to be a model of what academic libraries are and will become. The library, as an organization, encourages creative thinking and actively seeks to serve as a test bed for new ways of delivering information and new methods of teaching and learning.

Issue: In 1997, the Dean of Libraries Mary Lee Sweat proposed organizational renewal that would meet the challenges posed by a large new building and its corresponding expanded services, and take advantage of new innovations and opportunities, while operating under the constraints of stagnant budgets and limited staffing. We began a process of organizational restructuring that would foster leadership at all levels and allow the dean to focus on fund raising and the library’s role in university-level planning.

Actions:

  • The library worked with organizational consultant Susan Jurow in 1996 to design the new organizational structure and mission statement.
  • Over the course of a year (1997-1998), library faculty and staff spent intensive time with library consultant George Soete to develop and implement a team-based organization that would be flexible, focus on users, improve communication, and become even more productive. Mr. Soete also provided training in leadership skills and meeting management.
  • In 1997, library faculty and staff studied facilitation and decision-making skills with Dr. Caroline Fisher, a management faculty member.
  • In 2001, the library hired consultant Gloria Kelley to review acquisitions and cataloging workflow and to make recommendations for streamlining and increased productivity.
  • In 2001-2002, Dr. Brenda Joyner of Loyola’s College of Business Administration worked with the library faculty and staff to improve strategic planning and to help the library tie budget planning to strategic planning.
  • In 2002, the library faculty and staff worked with Dr. John Cornwell, Assistant Provost for Institutional Effectiveness, to identify priorities, outcomes and key performance indicators.

Outcomes:

  • The library moved from a hierarchical to a flattened organization. The organization has become more flexible and provides opportunities for leadership at all levels of faculty and staff.
  • The provost has recognized the library as a model learning organization on campus. She sees the library leading the rest of the university in terms of its non-hierarchical organizational structure.
  • The library developed an evaluation process that better reflects the new team-based organization. Staff and faculty conduct team leader evaluations and participate in team development surveys for each team on which they serve. Each team leader completes an evaluation for each team member.
  • Despite flat budgets (until 2002-2003), the library has been able to reach ambitious goals, and to add new services and programs without adding staff.
  • 92% of those faculty surveyed say that they are satisfied or very satisfied with the library services, collections, and facilities.
  • The library’s efforts to tie strategic planning to budgeting came to fruition in a 40% increase to the library’s total budget and a 108% increase to the materials budget in academic year 2002-2003.

Vision: The library is user-centered, always seeking to understand the needs of its primary clients, the students and faculty, and making decisions based on those needs.

Issue: In order to meet the challenges of new generations of students and faculty, the rising costs of resources, and opportunities for new technological innovations, the library needed to become more strategic about the use of resources and make even greater efforts to determine the current and future needs of its users.

Actions:

  • In 1995, the university underwent a self-study for reaccreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. At that time, the library began an odyssey of learning how to plan for the future.
  • In 1996, the library instituted Library Planning Day beginning with one meeting per year. We now have All Library Meetings twice a year in which we plan together, work on the library’s vision and mission, share information about new programs, and provide training.
  • A SHOT (Staffing & Hours of Operation) Team composed of public services staff and faculty evaluated user needs for increased hours of operation, within a context of limited staffing. Good decision-making and a flexible attitude helped this team recommend creative solutions for increasing hours in the new library building.

Outcomes:

  • In a student satisfaction survey done in 2001, using a scale of 1-7, student satisfaction ranked at 5.72, as compared to a national mean of 4.83. Library staff helpfulness and approachability ranked a 5.59 in satisfaction, as compared to a national mean of 5.31.
  • In exit surveys of graduating seniors, on a scale of 1-4, traditional undergraduates gave a score of 3.44 to library services and 3.23 to library resources. City College graduates gave library services a 3.59 and library resources a 3.47. These scores were among the highest given to any university program.
  • SHOT recommended a shared staff position between the Music Library and the Monroe Library to meet needs in both locations and to make it possible for the Monroe Library to stay open longer on Friday nights and Saturdays. Staff involvement and buy-in in the process made the transition easy.

Vision: Everything the library has to offer, its building, collections, services, faculty, and staff, is recognized as a key component in recruiting and retaining students.

Issue: The university had a serious problem with student retention and developed a Student Retention Taskforce to focus on the issue and provide recommendations for solutions.

Actions:

  • The library had two members on the Student Retention Taskforce. Library student workers were shown to have a better retention rate than the average student.
  • In a SWOT analysis undertaken by the taskforce, the new library was shown to be a major factor in student retention.

Outcomes:

  • The library was one of the major partners in creating the Academic and Career Excellence Center (ACE). Prominently located on the first floor of the library, ACE is intended to be a central place for students to get information about student support services and to receive assistance with writing, career services, technology, and study skills.
  • Library faculty members Darla Rushing and Deborah Poole co-wrote a chapter, ”The role of the library in student retention” in Making the Grade: Academic Libraries and Student Success (ed. Maurie Caitlin Kelly, Andrea Kross, ACRL, 2002)
  • The library instituted a Peer Information Counseling program, putting well-trained students at the reference desk to make other students feel more comfortable about asking for help. The university has a large Spanish-speaking student population from Latin America, and we have focused on hiring Spanish-speaking PIC students.
  • The library is an active participant in university recruitment and retention activities, including the President’s Open House, the Black Student Experience, and Parents’ Weekend.
  • The library hosts an annual Halloween Pizza Party in honor of its student employees. Several library teams conduct specific orientations and parties for their student workers, fostering stronger relationships between students and staff.

2. Leadership in Developing and Implementing Exemplary Programs

Vision: The library is a center for enhancing skills that are necessary for success in college and in lifelong learning. Students build information literacy and critical thinking skills throughout their careers at Loyola through the collaborative efforts of their professors and the library faculty and staff.

Issue: Developing and using critical thinking skills is an important component of a Jesuit education. Loyola students need to develop information literacy—learning to find, evaluate, and use information.

Actions:

  • The User Education Team has held biannual retreats in the past several years in order to realign its focus on information literacy, to develop new programming, to identify new trends and user needs, and to fine-tune the effectiveness of the instruction program.
  • In the spring of 2003, Beth Orgeron, Library Instruction Coordinator, will participate in a panel on information literacy in the core curriculum at the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities conference.
  • The library has successfully integrated instruction into the curricula of core courses in business, composition, and communications.

Outcomes:

  • Loyola’s participation in instructional sessions for 2000-2001 totaled 3,753, as compared to the national average of 1,173.
  • In a recent faculty survey, 100% of respondents had participated in library instruction to some extent. 85% of those familiar with library instruction were satisfied or very satisfied with the program. 88% felt that library instruction had a positive impact on their students’ research skills and ability to complete class assignments.
  • Through the library’s efforts to bring information literacy into the forefront, the university’s Academic Affairs Strategic Agenda includes a goal to integrate information literacy into the curriculum by 2003-2004.

Quotes:

“Thanks again for your great (and hard) work in my classes. Many students noted how their intimidation decreased as they learned. My students and I really appreciate it.” (Jennifer Shimek, Composition professor)

“I have a better understanding of how to do accurate online research” (Biology

student in LI evaluation)

“I think this lab is important. It shows how you can do things to make the most of the library.” (Accounting student in LI evaluation)

Vision: The library is the campus center for instruction in the use of technology in teaching and research.

Issue: In the early 1990’s, the campus was in great need of a group to provide instruction and support in the use of emerging technologies, especially e-mail and the world wide web. Today, there is an even greater need for instruction and support for applications software; a need that is not being met anywhere else on campus.

Actions :

  • The Library instruction program has a long tradition of providing one-time sessions, course-integrated instruction, and workshops. The library took a leadership role in teaching faculty, students and staff how to use the emerging Internet as a research tool. Forming a partnership with then Academic Computing Services, we taught Kermit, Gopher, Veronica, file management, and e-mail systems.
  • Throughout 1995-1997, as faculty were given their first desktop PCs, librarians taught faculty to use text-based Lynx and Mosaic, the first Windows-based browser, and Netscape. This group has been through several iterations and has evolved into the library’s User Education Team, which is dedicated to teaching information literacy skills on campus.
  • The library has added a new Instructional Technology Support Specialist position. Through that position and the support of the library’s Student Technology Experts Program, students are receiving much-needed assistance in the use of applications software. The library is currently offering weekly drop-in sessions in the ACE Center, called Technology Tuesdays (or Technology Freaky Fridays, depending on the day of the week).
  • Media Services also provides one-on-one support for scanning, using images, PowerPoint, web page creation, and other applications and equipment (such as digital still and video cameras).

Outcomes:

  • The library is recognized as a leader on campus for instruction in information and instructional technology applications for research and teaching. One result of the library’s good reputation in instructional technology was the invitation to become the instructional team for the campus adoption of Blackboard courseware.
  • We estimate that 15-20 students make use of each weekly drop-in session.

Issue: The university, led by the Dean of City College, was interested in implementing course management software to enhance the classroom experience as well as support distance education courses.

Action:

  • Librarians were involved from the very beginning in courseware evaluation, policy development, implementation, instruction, and support.
  • The library’s User Education Team held a retreat to immerse its members fully in Blackboard software, and to begin developing a series of workshops for faculty who would become the early adopters.
  • The library developed a Blackboard campus listserv to disseminate information about Blackboard to faculty adopters and to allow discussion among faculty using Blackboard.
  • The User Education Team developed a series of Blackboard workshops, beginning with Blackboard Bootcamp, an all day hands-on workshop for the forty interested faculty members who wanted to adopt Blackboard in the first semester it was offered. These workshops allowed librarians to lead discussions about pedagological techniques incorporating courseware. The team continues to offer workshops throughout the year to support faculty who want to use, or are using the software.
  • The User Education Team developed extensive documentation on using Blackboard software, including how to batch enroll a class using the university’s registration system, how to set up a course, how to organize a course, how to use Blackboard assessment, and how to archive a course.

Outcomes:

  • The library’s Instruction Coordinator is the key contact for faculty who need support with using Blackboard. The library has provided instruction to approximately 85% of the faculty who use Blackboard.
  • The library received a grant from the University Course Development/Faculty Development Committee for Blackboard@Loyola, allowing us to hire an Instructional Technology Support Specialist, a position that has now become full-time on the library staff. The grant also supported the cost of offering workshops.
  • At the end of the first year, the library held a successful cocktail party for faculty adopters of Blackboard. Faculty were able to share how they used Blackboard, how students liked it, and to demonstrate various techniques for each other.
  • The library provides support for Blackboard use to students at the reference desk. Because of our partnerships with the Registrar, Information Technology, and faculty using Blackboard, we are better able to serve students.
  • Blackboard has been adopted for approximately 450 courses and by many university committees.

Issue: Students expect the latest in technology tools and the support to use them.

Actions:

  • In 1996, the library hired a Media Services Coordinator who took the library in a new direction of support for instructional technology and more fully integrating technology with traditional library collections and services.
  • The library has assumed a leadership role in providing both technological tools and instructional support on campus.
  • In 2000, 2001, and 2002, the library undertook, in partnership with Institutional Advancement, a fund raising campaign for student technology. This campaign raised $15,000 dollars the first year to support a student laptop loan program and $25,000 dollars the following year to establish a Student Technology Experts Program (STEP).

Outcomes:

  • The student laptop loan program has been highly successful. 99% of students surveyed said that this service should continue, and students asked us to expand the program to allow laptops to leave the building. Laptops circulated 2,630 times in academic year 2001-2002.
  • The Student Technology Experts Program has provided valuable support to students and faculty in a cost-effective way. Students in the program provide support to faculty in their offices, in classrooms with using equipment, and to other students in using media equipment in the library (graphics, scanning, web page development, etc.). The service has proven effective both to those who take advantage of the support and to the STEP students themselves, who are gaining valuable experience.
  • The third year parent fund raising program, called Imagination on the Move, has provided $20,000 dollars for still digital cameras, digital video cameras, and other equipment.

Quote:

“It’s great that the library provides high-end equipment to student users. The support has been invaluable to my students to complete their assignments. I know it’s expensive but this is what the library should be doing.” (Marina Onken, Business faculty member)

Vision: The library provides the highest quality learning tools and information content to enhance the educational experience for faculty and students.

Issue: To support the growing emphasis on faculty scholarship and undergraduate research, the library was challenged to meet increased demand for resources and research tools without significant budget increases.

Actions:

  • The library has been able to supply a growing number of online resources to our users. Through the statewide LOUIS consortium, we have added many databases at an extremely low cost. In a recent survey of music library services, we discovered that we were providing the same resources to our users as our peer libraries, but at a greatly reduced cost. This year, we are providing access to over 70 electronic services at a cost of around $150,000, with more purchases still to come.
  • In 1997, the library became a charter participant in JSTOR.
  • We established the Tulane University/Loyola University Reciprocal Borrowing Program in 2000, allowing undergraduates from each institution to borrow from the other’s library. Prior to this program, only faculty and graduate students could borrow directly from other area libraries.
  • Librarians from Tulane and Loyola have begun a cooperative collection building program, focusing on the areas of education, religious studies, and environmental studies.
  • In May of 2002, the library installed Sirsi’s new web-based catalog interface, called iLink. The iLink interface gives the catalog a search engine-style appearance, and provides added content to the catalog in the form of cover images, summaries, tables of contents, authors’ biographies and much more.
  • In the summer of 2002, the User Education Team provided a series of workshops introducing the new catalog interface, ILLiad, RefWorks (citation management software), and eRes. We called the series “Demos & Donuts” and served Krispy Kreme donuts to faculty participants.
  • In fall 2002, we implemented ILLiad software that allows users to submit and track their Interlibrary Loan and Article Delivery requests from any computer at any time.
  • In spring 2002, we purchased and implemented Docutek’s eReserve system. We began with a pilot for the Chemistry Department’s reserves, and have now expanded the service to include all article reserve materials and web links.
  • The library offers rush cataloging service to all users. Users can place their own holds in the catalog on in-process items, and a notification is sent to cataloging staff who catalog the item that day and get it to the patron. If the user is working with a reference librarian, the librarian may call cataloging staff to request an immediate rush, getting the item to the student or faculty member within 20-30 minutes of the request.
  • In academic year 2001-2002, we instituted a rush purchase service. If a user comes to a librarian with a request for an item that we do not have in the library, the librarian may initiate a rush purchase for the item. The item (book, score, CD, or video) is usually purchased with a credit card, from either Amazon.com or a local bookstore, within 7 days and is rush cataloged as soon as it is received.
  • In 2000, Solinet offered a shared collection to its member libraries of netLibrary e-books specifically geared to academic libraries, and Loyola purchased access to that shared collection. The collection includes 14,000 e-books in various subject areas. Solinet also made available files of cataloging records for the e-books, so we have full cataloging for each title in our online catalog.
  • In 2000-2001, the library began cataloging books that the Boggs Center had purchased. The Boggs Center collects materials on literacy, race, poverty, and non-profit organizations that could be of great benefit to library users. The Boggs Center has its own locations in the catalog and maintains its book collection separately; however, library users can check out Boggs Center books. In 2001, the library began cooperative serials collection development with the Boggs Center by which the Center pays for subscriptions to a group of journals that are very beneficial to library users. The library checks them in, binds them, and maintains them as part of its regular journal collection.

Outcomes:

  • Faculty and staff from across the library developed catalog terminology that makes sense to our users, and a way of presenting services that will make finding them and using them more intuitive. Choosing the iLink interface has enabled us to easily customize language and navigation. We have also begun to make use of the booklist function within iLink, making electronic lists of books on display.
  • There are now 78 faculty accounts on our eRes system, 118 active courses, and 977 documents. 74% of faculty surveyed who had used eRes indicated that they were satisfied to very satisfied with the new service.
  • 20 users requested rush purchase in the first year the service was offered.
  • The collaborative collection development, acquisitions, and cataloging with the Boggs Center has been beneficial to students and faculty, as they now have more ready access to Boggs Center materials. It has also allowed the Boggs Center to use their resources more efficiently as they have not had to provide their own technical services.

Quotes:

“I am extremely impressed with the new e-book system. They are easy to use, take up less space, and save tons of paper. I think the library made an excellent move with giving students the ability to access e-books.” (Shelley Hammann, Communi-cations junior)

“I really found TU/LU to be a very valuable service. Since the universities are so close to each other it only makes sense for us to have access to each other’s resources.”

“It’s the best thing (TU/LU) that ever happened to me, in regards to research. PLEASE keep it going.”

“I can't tell you how many times faculty throughout my 18 years there asked me for something 'yesterday' be it a newly acquired, yet uncataloged, library book or videotape with an 'essential' chapter or segment that had be used to support a very important point in that day's lecture or presentation. I knew I could count on cataloging staff to find the item, catalog it and come through for me at the last minute.” (Rich Wilson, administrative assistant)

Issue: Enhance the library’s presence on the web.

Actions:

  • The library was the first unit on campus to run a web server and host a web site.
  • In 2001, the library formed a Web Team to completely reevaluate content, design, navigation, and management of the site.
  • In 2002, the library discontinued support of its own web server, and moved the site to the university’s server, thus allowing for even more cooperation with the Information Technology Department. The library still maintains the design and content of the site without responsibility for the hardware.

Outcomes:

  • The web site was redesigned in fall of 2001 and uses cascading style sheets in its design. The site is Bobby-Approved, allowing those users who require special devices such as web readers to make use of the information on our site.
  • 96% of faculty surveyed who are familiar with the library’s web site said they were either satisfied or very satisfied with the web site.
  • Using Web Trends software that analyzes web use logs, the library ranked 10 th in September and 13 th in October in the list of most common directories accessed by visitors to the university’s main page.
  • Using the new technology of streaming video, the library provided graduating seniors a chance to “Say it to the World.” Each senior could post a video message about his/her college experience and future plans.

Quote:

“I really liked learning about the different search engines. I had no idea we had so much information on the library’s web page.” (International Business student in LI evaluation)

Vision: The library values the contributions and excellence of its faculty, staff, and student workers. The library is a learning organization, characterized by people who are continuously developing new skills and greater expertise.

Issue: The library must do more work and more complex work with the same number of library faculty and staff. Faculty and staff skills need continuing development, and faculty and staff need to be rewarded, recognized, and motivated.

Actions:

  • In 2001, the library contracted with Solinet to provide a customized workshop on creating a staff development plan.
  • The Dean of Libraries and the two division coordinators are working with Human Resources to review all staff positions (non-librarian) for possible upgrade.
  • The library strongly encourages and generously supports faculty and staff to become professionally active locally, regionally, and nationally, and to take leadership roles.

Outcomes:

  • The library developed a working group on staff development, and the group conducted a needs assessment exercise at an All Library Meeting in January of 2002. Since then, the library Steering Group has focused on offering training to meet organizational-level needs, and teams and supervisors have set about finding training to meet individual and team-based needs.
  • At the All Library Meeting in August 2002, the library sponsored a presentation on customer service to the entire library faculty and staff.
  • The library encourages anyone who has attended a workshop or conference to present what they have learned at a brown-bag lunch for other faculty and staff.
  • Workshops/conferences attended include ACRL ALA, CCUMC, InfoCom, LAMA, LASSAL, LITA LOEX, MLA, SEMLA, Harvard Leadership Institute, and the Virtual

Reference Desk conference.

Quote:

“Every time I talk to people in the library about something we’d like to do, you say ‘We’ve already done that and here it is!’” (New Human Resources Director, Sue Metzner, regarding needs assessment for faculty and staff development)

3. Substantial and Productive Relationships with Classroom Faculty and Students

Vision: Work in the library is marked by collaboration: among students, among students and faculty, and among faculty. Library faculty and staff work together and in partnership with people and organizations outside the library. The collaborative relationships formed by library faculty and staff benefit the whole university.

Issue: The library needs to work closely with faculty to develop collections, services, and programs that support the curriculum and faculty research.

Actions:

  • The librarian liaison program was established in 1997 to promote collaboration between the library and the academic departments. With the College of Business, we have established the CBA/Library Working Group, which works to develop and evaluate collections, gather input from business faculty about their needs, and disseminate information about the library. The model has worked so well that we are replicating it by establishing a College of Music/Library Working Group.
  • The Career Center and the library have investigated ways in which they can partner to provide career information to all students. The investigation involved replication of a 1992 national survey on the prevalence and variety of collaborative efforts between university career centers and libraries.
  • The Center for Study of Catholics in the South has offered the library an opportunity to strengthen and build on the library’s collaboration with the southern province of the Society of Jesus. The library houses the provincial archives, a significant historical record of the Jesuits in the Americas, and provides services to researchers using the collection.
  • In addition to the Boggs Center collaboration in collection development and technical services, the library also offers borrowing privileges to all literacy providers in the city. The library has provided instruction in web page creation, Internet use, and other technology-related topics to literacy providers.
  • To sensitize university faculty about the issues surrounding scholarly publishing, the library invited Dr. Henry Hagedorn to speak about his research and SPARC initiatives.

Outcomes:

  • 86% of faculty surveyed who were familiar with the librarian liaison program said that they were satisfied to very satisfied with the program. 100% of faculty who responded to the survey said that they had worked with their librarian liaison in some capacity.
  • The results of the Career Center/Library study will be presented as a contributed paper at the national ACRL conference in 2003.
  • 2002 Dux Academicus award winner, Katherine H. Adams, acknowledged the library, and in particular, Interlibrary Loan Coordinator, Patricia Doran, in her acceptance speech at the spring convocation, as having provided invaluable assistance to her in her research and teaching.

Quotes:

“I have found the library staff to be extremely helpful in providing instruction to my classes as well as keeping me informed of new arrivals or suggestions for my students. Jim Hobbs [librarian liaison to Chemistry] is the main person I have dealt with and his advice and help has been invaluable to me. It is a pleasure to work with the staff of the library. Any time I call with a question, I get an immediate reply along with an offer of help for myself or my students.” (Chemistry faculty member)

“I think we have the finest group of librarians of any library that I have ever used!! Thanks for everything!” (Education & Counseling faculty member)

“I think the library staff are doing a fabulous job -- I love going to the library, there's a nice atmosphere there. The services are great, too -- most notable for me have been Article Delivery and Media Services.” (Biology faculty member)

Issue: The University Planning Team set a goal to improve classrooms and bring them up to date with technology. There was also a need to support the faculty’s use of new technologies.

Actions:

  • The library’s Media Services Coordinator spearheaded efforts to open campus discussions about updating classrooms and teaching with technology. The library co-hosted (with Tulane University) a CCUMC teleconference on classroom design for educators throughout the city, then co-hosted a workshop by Dan Neimeyer, a recognized expert on technology in classroom design.
  • The library’s Media Services Coordinator co-chaired the university’s classroom enhancement committee.
  • In collaboration with the College of Music and Departments of Visual Arts and Communications, we have redesigned space on the library’s first floor to include a new high-end G4 classroom and an e-Mac lab.

Outcomes:

  • Media Services has outfitted seven classrooms with new technology and developed high-end media carts for use in those classrooms that did not receive an upgrade. Funds for the project came through collaborative efforts from deans, the provost, the president’s office, and the library.
  • Students and faculty will benefit from the G4 classroom and e-Macs. The labs will draw in new users who have never used the library and its previous Windows-based technology. A new Macintosh Support Specialist position was established to assist with Mac technology and to strengthen the Media Services Team.

Issue: The library needed to reach out to faculty, students, and the community, to engage them and inform them. The library needed to be more proactive in promoting its collections and services, not simply relying on the good will created by the new building.

Actions:

  • The library established an active Outreach Team.
  • The Distance Library Services Librarian’s title was changed to Outreach Librarian.
  • The library has an active University Library Committee composed of faculty from each of the colleges and a student representative nominated by the SGA.
  • The Dean of Libraries has established a Library Visiting Committee whose members include community leaders, library advocates, and alumni.

Outcomes:

  • The Outreach Team hosts an end-of-semester Library Tea on the first floor of the library, complete with a Loyola student string quartet and real china cups.
  • The Advertising Campaigns class, led by Communications Professor Teri Henley has taken the library on as its client. Each student advertising team has studied the library and will compete to develop a winning campaign to promote the library. The Outreach Team and Steering Group will then have access to all of the campaigns for future public relations programming.
  • To promote the library’s drink policy and make it easier for students to follow the policy, we sell library-approved logo mugs and water bottles for a nominal fee.
  • The Library Visiting Committee sponsored a panel discussion on spirituality and literature at Words and Music, the 2001 annual New Orleans Faulkner Festival.

Quotes:

“In addition to its traditional resources, the Monroe Library has a wealth of technological assets backed by a staff that is both friendly and knowledgeable.”

“Monroe Library offers more services and resources than its major competitors (based on secret shopping evaluations)”

“Librarians are the ultimate search-engines. Their new job descriptions further enhance their ability to assist students in research endeavors.”

-- Advertising campaign class plans books.

Issue: The library had a great need to establish solid fund raising. The capital campaign to support building the new library had not covered planned endowments for collections and staffing. To do so, we would need to collaborate with Institutional Advancement.

Actions:

  • In 1998, the library worked with Dr. Susan Martin, University Librarian at Georgetown University, to assess fund raising opportunities and to make recommendations for further collaborative efforts.
  • The library created a new position of Development Coordinator and established a Development Team, with members from Grants & Research and Institutional Advancement.

Outcomes:

  • The 2001 Senior class gift was given to the library. We recognized each student’s gift with a bookplate and by placing a note in the online catalog, searchable by the student’s or honoree’s name, or by Class of 2001.
  • The Development Coordinator has established a database of “library alumni” that tracks former library student employees for development opportunities.
  • The Development Coordinator and Assistant Provost for Teaching & Learning applied for and received an NEH Challenge Grant to establish the Center for Study of Catholics in The South. The grant will create a new archivist position, develop collections, mount exhibits, and support research.

Issue: Strengthen communication with students and student groups.

Actions:

  • Library administrators meet with the SGA President and Vice-President during their orientation, then meet once per semester throughout their term of office.
  • We have established a Student Library Advisory Committee, which helps keep the library informed about student needs and concerns. The committee also reviews policies and updates students on new programs and services.

Outcomes:

  • Upon recommendation from SGA leadership, we moved 24-hour study during exams to the library from the university center. We worked with the SGA, University Police, and Student Affairs to establish procedures for security in the building, with library-employed students in charge of each floor. We have coffee and give away library-approved logo mugs to the first 200 students.

Conclusion: The staff and faculty of the Monroe Library are dedicated to serving the mission of Loyola University. Through its leadership, partnerships, creativity and innovation, the Monroe Library strives to be a model of what academic libraries are and will become.