3_8_1

Section 3: Comprehensive Standards

3.8.1 The institution provides facilities, services, and learning/information resources that are appropriate to support its teaching, research, and service mission.

Judgment of Compliance:
Compliance

Narrative/Justification for Judgment of Compliance:
The primary mission of the Captain John Smith Library (CJS) embraces student learning and faculty teaching and research with the highest quality resources and services. The Library fulfills this mission with the input of faculty and students, by collecting and organizing resources and providing services that teach and promote the use of these resources throughout the campus community, and by promoting an engaged learning environment. The mission states:

In concert with Christopher Newport University's mission of providing outstanding academic programs for our students, the Smith Library will strive for excellence by providing the highest quality resources and services in support of student learning and faculty teaching and research. The library will attain this excellence by:

providing users with the easiest access to the broadest possible array of information sources;
educating students in the use, evaluation and presentation of information;
supporting faculty in their teaching and research;
assisting the faculty in the development of creative and innovative uses of information technology in the classroom;
informing the public of our information resources and assisting them in their use;
supporting a staff dedicated to serving the students, faculty and staff of Christopher Newport University, CNU alumni, students and faculty of the Virginia Tidewater Consortium for Higher Education, and the public; and
engaging in on-going assessment of the role of the academic library in the 21st century.

CNU librarians are integrally involved in learning on campus. They engage in continuous marketing by being a presence in many campus activities. They embrace an admissions-to-alumni approach for outreach. Librarians participate in Admissions and Student Life events, orientations for students and faculty; regularly attend academic department meetings; and work with the Alumni Office to develop services including a web page for alumni. Librarians also regularly teach and present in the LifeLong Learning Society, a “membership organization dedicated to persons of retirement age who seek opportunities for learning in an environment of sharing and fellowship.” Such activities enable librarians to understand users needs for resources and services, present the human face of the library to the community, and extend the learning concept of the library beyond its walls.

The new University Librarian hired in July 2005 has an agenda that includes working on fundraising in conjunction with the opening of the new library. This effort will enhance the library's ability to support the liberal arts mission and provide more opportunities, in the form of programs, lectures, and exhibits, to support engaged learning. A Friends of the Library group has been established along with a specific fund-raising plan to support the library's commitment to the liberal arts.

As CNU becomes more residential, the Library serves as a social gathering place and a focal point for engaged learning. The new library has been designed to facilitate engagement of faculty and students, and to support their needs remotely through the use of technology. With its mixed use of social and learning space, the library will provide a setting that significantly enhances the liberal arts mission of the University.

Facilities
The new library building, set to open in late 2006, will be a significant physical and intellectual presence on the campus. The last building to be completed in the initial program that included residence halls, the Freeman Center, the Ferguson Center for the Arts, and the Student Union. Its rotunda dome will be the highest point on campus. Visually, the Library, Freeman Athletic Center, and the Ferguson Center for the Arts embody and complete President Trible's vision for a campus that embraces and nurtures the mind, the body and the spirit of its students and community.

Adjacent to the new Student Union at the center of the campus, the CNU library is designed to attract a varity of learners and meet their needs. The library will be a focal point for social interaction, research, study and learning, and will offer such new features as a major coffee shop, an art gallery, expanded Reference Services space, complete wireless access, 24-hour study room, library instruction classroom, nine group study rooms, and two large study rooms. The new space will also house the University's instructional technology center, video conferencing and two electronic classrooms in addition to a Learning/Writing Center.

Intellectually, the large study rooms will accommodate library and other departmental programs, and the video conferencing space will provide easy access to such programs. This new space will enable the University to expand the book collection to approximately 400,000 volumes, a number based on a review of the holdings at peer institutions. The library will also continue working with the Art Department to provide a space for student art work and exhibits in the new gallery.

Services
The Library is open daily, 8 a.m. to midnight, 99 hours per week. A professional staff of six librarians and one reference assistant staff the Reference Desk Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 9 p. m.; Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturday, noon to 5 p.m.; and Sunday, 1 p.m. to 9 p.m., a total of 70 hours. When the Reference desk is closed, students have e-mail access to Reference services via the library homepage. Print and online pathfinders guide students to relevant resources.

Reference services are assessed regularly. For example, data from sample year 2004 showing that research assistance accounts for 1914 or 18% of all questions, and that information transactions account for the majority of Reference questions (5895 or 55%) have affected staffing decisions.

Access to materials not found at CNU is available through the Interlibrary Loan service via the request management software ILLiad, and a consortial agreement with libraries through the Virginia Tidewater Consortium. Requests for materials from other libraries are regularly reviewed to determine if CNU should purchase them and have assisted in reviewing the journal collection. Assessment data has also shown that satisfaction among users and library staff is high.

The library provides technology to locate or access resources available remotely and in the library. There are currently 16 public computers stations for student and faculty use in the library, eight of which offer networked printing. Wireless access is available campus-wide including the library. Access, both wireless and in the form of additional public computer work stations, will significantly increase in the new building.

The library is equipped to meet the needs of persons with disabilities. The library web site is coded to enable interaction with voice software, and the library provides a public computer work station for persons with disabilities.

Resources
Currently, the CJS Library contains 405,422 volumes in various forms. The specific breakdown is:

169,904 books
16,361 E-Texts
198,457 microforms
37,061 bound periodical volumes

The book collection and use reflects the liberal arts curriculum. Social Sciences [H-HZ] and Language and Literature [P – PZ] are the top subject areas. Circulation in these two areas is also the highest (Collection and Circulation and Charts 1 and 2). Book budgets in previous years have fluctuated significantly (Budget History). However, the University is scheduled to increase the resources for books with the opening of the new library in 06-07 fiscal year.

Because the book collection was not reviewed after the curriculum changes, a major weeding and shifting project began in the spring of 2006. Initially resources in the nursing, education and para-legal programs were reviewed and weeded as appropriate. After these books were removed from the shelves, we began a project of shifting and reorganizing the order of the circulation collection. This project will be completed sometime in the 06-07 academic year.

Access to book holdings is through the Innovative Interfaces online system. The library uses the web OPAC [Online Public Access Catalog], circulation, acquisitions, cataloging, electronic reserves and serials modules. Efforts to make the OPAC more useful to students include:

1. The purchase of a subscription to Syndetics Solutions, a software package that adds additional information to the bibliographic record, such as table of contents, summaries, first chapters.

2. The addition of the records for the book titles in NetLibrary, an e-text product that was added to the OPAC.

The library subscribes to 1,086 individual journals in physical form and over 10,000 electronic journals through the major aggregators of JSTORE, various EBSCO products, electronic products of specific publishers, and other vendors (Electronic Journal Aggregators). The library has been able to significantly expand the University's collection of electronic resources through its membership in VIVA – The Virtual Library of Virginia – whose mission is “to provide, in an equitable, cooperative and cost-effective manner, enhanced access to library and information resources for the Commonwealth of Virginia's non-profit academic libraries serving the higher education community.” Access to the electronic journal collection is through Journal Finder, a software product from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Understanding that the library's web page provides vital access to electronic resources, in the Fall of 2005 a selected working group began work on revising the page. The working group reviewed ARL [Association of Research Libraries] library web sites, and surveyed users to gather ideas for the redesign. The new page was launched in Spring 2006. The Library hired a digital collections librarian in the Spring of 06 to develop and maintain digital collections through the Library's web page that support the curriculum and enhance the current holdings. Specifically, this position develops electronic documents collections, and works with faculty to develop web resources for the academic departments.

Assessment
The Library participates in the yearly University assessment process. Every year the librarians discuss specific activities for the year, and then report the progress of these activities in the subsequent year's annual report.

LibQual, the national assessment instrument developed by the Association of Research Libraries, was conducted in the Spring of 2004. Major findings were:

1. Need for resources to support the curricular needs of students.

Response: The library staff has begun to address the collection issues by attending academic department meetings and active participation in the development of the new liberal learning curriculum. The University Librarian has developed a collection plan that will increase book, journal and digital resources in the next three to five years through increased book budgets; continue work with the VIVA consortium for online journal and reference collection building, and the development of a significant web page with digital resources that support the curriculum.

2. General satisfaction with service provided by library staff, but room for significant improvement.

Response: A priority for all library staff is service and we attempt to maintain this priority through all our interactions. The University engaged in a formal program of staff service improvements in the late fall of 2005. All library staff participated and graduated from the program.

3. Issues with library as place

Response: The new library will be completed in Fall of 2006. It will meet the social and learning needs of today's liberal education students.

LibQual will be conducted again in Fall of 2007, once the new building is opened. This will become part of our regular assessment process and will be conducted every two to three years hence.

An additional assessment exercise took place during the spring semester of 2006. The Marketing Research 320 class surveyed CNU students on their perceptions of the CNU Library. Four areas were examined:

Instruction
Library Web Site
Library Services
Collections

The survey was administered through questionpro.com, an online survey program, to the entire student population of CNU, approx. 4,700 students, from March 27 to April 7. Approximately 580 students responded,12.3% of the CNU student population. Major findings for each section are listed below.

Instruction
1. 60% indicated that they have few problems locating library resources
2. 68% had a class in which library instruction was provided
3. 70% were satisfied with the instruction they had
4. 80% indicated an interest in an online tutorial
5. 96% said that research workshops would be beneficial
6. 88% valued one-on-one training
7. 87% indicated a desire to see instruction expanded

Library Web Site
1. More students use the web site than the library itself
2. Internet search engines are the primary tool used for research papers
3. Students find it difficult to use the library resources on the web
4. Online tutorials are desirable

Library Services
1. Almost 50% have never used hard copy reserves
2. Students are satisfied with online reserves
3. Most students have used WebCT and are very satisfied with it

Collections
1. Students were satisfied with the current arrangement
2. Many respondents suggested clearer signs
3. The majority of the students felt that adequate resources were available to them in both the hard and electronic formats
4. English and Political Science majors indicated heavy reliance on library resources
5. Upper class division students used more resources than lower division students

Overall, the instrument and analysis provided a comprehensive look at the collections and services. The following inferences were made from the survey results:

Satisfaction with collection
Satisfaction with current layout
Effective instruction
General satisfaction with library and services

Based on the results the library staff will:

Implement recommendations
Signs
Partner with the writing center to offer more relevant workshops on research and writing
Continue instructional efforts with faculty
Review holdings in English and Political science
Develop online tutorials
Use the instrument in 07
Use 06 as benchmark

In the Spring of 2006 a new Collection Management Librarian was hired. Her responsibilities include reviewing database usage reports from our electronic products. We use this information to make decisions on the value and use of our electronic products.

Support Documentation:
Captain John Smith Library Mission Statement
Reference
Collection and Circulation and Charts 1 and 2
Budget History
Electronic Journal Aggregators
Library Organizational Chart

Additional Live Web Resources:
None