Faculty use of electronic library resources.Abstract This study examined the use of electronic library resources by teaching faculty to determine which were important to them. Survey responses show the resources faculty members used most often or plan to use, and those they don't use or don't plan to use. Results indicate the library needs to increase faculty awareness of resources beyond the library's online catalog Similar to an online library or databases in the information storage respect, ‘’’online catalogs’’’ allow potential customers to browse a company’s items for sale from a different location using the internet. and periodical periodical, a publication that is issued regularly. It is distinguished from the newspaper in format in that its pages are smaller and are usually bound, and it is published at weekly, monthly, quarterly, or other intervals, rather than daily. databases. Faculty members indicated the need for training in the use of resources with which they are less familiar and the need to publicize pub·li·cize tr.v. pub·li·cized, pub·li·ciz·ing, pub·li·ciz·es To give publicity to. publicize or -cise Verb [-cizing, -cized] these resources. The survey was conducted at Jacksonville State University Jacksonville State University is a public university serving Northeast Alabama on a 459 acre (0 km) campus with 58 buildings in Jacksonville, Alabama which is in the Appalachian foothills of northeast Alabama. , Jacksonville, Alabama Jacksonville is a city in Calhoun County, Alabama, United States. As of the 2000 census, the population of the city is 8,404. It is included in the Anniston-Oxford Metropolitan Statistical Area. History Founded in 1833 on land purchased from Creek Indian Chief Ladiga. . Introduction Jacksonville State University (JSLD is a comprehensive regional university with a student enrollment of close to 10,000. Houston Cole Library is a thirteen-story red granite building with eight subject floors arranged mainly in Library of Congress call number order. Subject librarians, who are responsible for collection maintenance and development, liaison activities and instruction, manage each floor. Floor librarians also rotate duty at a central reference desk on the second floor. Librarians attempt to keep teaching faculty up to date on changes and new acquisitions that will be of value to them and their students. These efforts include communication with faculty about resources in their areas of interest, an e-mail liaison list, a twice-yearly print newsletter, and an online news site. In addition, the Houston Cole Library has a comprehensive Web site with many resources of potential use to faculty members. One example is an annotated list of databases to which the library subscribes or has access, and a quick list of the most frequently used databases The purpose of this study was to find out what electronic resources or services were most important to faculty and which ones they used most often in the library, their offices, or from home. Interest in faculty usage and awareness of electronic resources grew out of discussions after instruction sessions or while talking to Noun 1. talking to - a lengthy rebuke; "a good lecture was my father's idea of discipline"; "the teacher gave him a talking to" lecture, speech rebuke, reprehension, reprimand, reproof, reproval - an act or expression of criticism and censure; "he had to library liaisons, when we would hear "I didn't know you could do that." A survey was developed to assess faculty level of awareness and use of the library's electronic resources. Another objective was to see what the respondents In the context of marketing research, a representative sample drawn from a larger population of people from whom information is collected and used to develop or confirm marketing strategy. thought we could do to increase their awareness of services that were of use, or potential use, to them. Review of the Literature A review of library science and education literature revealed that there has not been a great deal published recently on the topic of faculty awareness of library resources. In papers that have been published, a common theme was that libraries need to publicize and market their services and foster communication with faculty to increase awareness of library resources. Similar findings were expected for the JSU JSU Jacksonville State University JSU Jackson State University (Jackson, MS, USA) JSU Jewish Student Union Library. According to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. Vander Meet, et. al., in a study of computer use in academic libraries, with the development of the Internet and World Wide Web, the issue of faculty awareness became more important. The amount of information available is increasing and changing at such a rapid pace that faculty are "likely to have great difficulty finding and sorting relevant materials." [1] In addition, Amstutz & Whitson found that most faculty are using the traditional services with which they are most familiar, and faculty pass on their biases when presenting resources to students. [2] In a survey done in the 1970s, Nelson found that his respondents were aware of the availability of only fifty percent of the reference services available from their library. "Whatever the quality and quantity of services provided by the library for faculty and students, those services will lack effectiveness if their availability is not made known," he wrote. [3] Weingart and Anderson had similar questions that echo Nelson's statements, but applied to electronic resources. They ask "bow does the university library make patrons aware of resources that occupy no traditional shelf space, and how does it determine what kinds of patron support are needed in the new electronic realm?" An unexpected result from Weingart and Anderson's study was their survey served to show faculty members what resources were available. Part I was a list of available databases and a checklist to indicate awareness of the resource, faculty use, class/student use and ease of use. The second part asked about general issues of electronic access. [4] In another study, Laribee and Lorber looked at the level of awareness, usage and general impressions of their libraries' electronic resources among faculty and administrators. They found two important issues. First, many faculty and administration members were not aware of some electronic resources. The second issue was that the respondents were not satisfied with the training and documentation for these resources. They concluded that training faculty leads to a "trickle down Trickle down An economic theory that the support of businesses that allows them to flourish will eventually benefit middle- and lower-income people, in the form of increased economic activity and reduced unemployment. effect" whereby students become aware of, and begin to use, electronic resources. [5] According to Adams and Bonk, libraries can respond to the need for faculty awareness of resources with "relatively moderate resources." These include training in the use of electronic resources such as e-mail and online databases, which faculty can then recommend their students use. [6] Purpose The aim of this survey was to gauge how much the faculty know about electronic resources, their attitudes toward these resources, and what electronic resources they commonly use. We also wanted to get suggestions for ways the library could help the faculty stay aware of what resources are available. The survey concentrated on electronic resources, as the majority of new library services are electronic. It was considered important for faculty members to have the knowledge and skills to use electronic resources because, if they were not aware of resources and comfortable in their use, they would not pass the knowledge of new services on to their students. Some specific questions that the survey was designed to answer were: () Which resources do faculty use most often? () Did faculty use databases and other resources from their offices or their homes? () Does the availability of electronic resources make it less likely they would visit the library in person? () Do they require students to use electronic resources to complete class assignments? Method A printed survey was distributed by campus mail in early January 2003, to all full-time teaching faculty members at JSU, using a mailing list An automated e-mail system on the Internet, which is maintained by subject matter. There are thousands of such lists that reach millions of individuals and businesses. New users generally subscribe by sending an e-mail with the word "subscribe" in it and subsequently receive all new obtained from the Office of Human Resources The fancy word for "people." The human resources department within an organization, years ago known as the "personnel department," manages the administrative aspects of the employees. . The survey, which contained 16 questions with space for comments, was based partially on examples from University of California The University of California has a combined student body of more than 191,000 students, over 1,340,000 living alumni, and a combined systemwide and campus endowment of just over $7.3 billion (8th largest in the United States). , Irvine [7] and Weingart and Anderson. [8] Recipients were given three weeks to return the survey. A small number continued to trickle in past the deadline, which the authors allowed in order to get the highest possible response rate. The survey asked faculty members to rank their answers using a scale from 1-5, where 5 was "Currently use regularly" and 1 was "Probably will not use." These rankings were later collapsed into two categories for analysis, due to the relatively low return rate. These were "Don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. about and probably will not use" and "Plan to use in the future or currently use regularly." Results A total of 280 surveys were mailed out, and 106 were returned, for a response rate of 37.86 percent. Faculty members were asked to indicate their department or college on the survey, and respondents represented a cross section of subject areas. These are ranked below by number of respondents. The largest number, 21, listed themselves in the College of Arts and Sciences. Specific departments with the largest response were Education, 16, Mathematics, Computing computing - computer and Information Science, 13, and Business, 11. A copy of the survey, and tables illustrating results, are available at http://www.jsu.edu/depart/library/graphic/facultyuse.htm. Other departments represented (in alphabetical order) were Biology, 3; Criminal Justice, 2; English, 8; History and Foreign Language, 2; Learning Skills, 1, Nursing, 7; Physical Education, 4; Psychology, 6; Sociology, 7; and no designation, 4. Other demographic information requested was academic rank. Faculty members were asked to indicate whether they were an instructor, assistant professor, associate professor or full professor. The largest number, 34, were instructors, while the other ranks were very close in number, at 22 for both assistant and full professors and 21 for associate professor. According to the JSU Fact Book 2002-2003, with numbers from fall semester se·mes·ter n. One of two divisions of 15 to 18 weeks each of an academic year. [German, from Latin (cursus) s 2002, the total number of full-time faculty is 289. Breaking those numbers down by rank, including full-time nine and twelve-month employees, shows there are 77 full professors, 65 associate professors, 63 assistant professors and 83 instructors. Those responding had the following statistics. Twenty-eight (28) percent of full professors, 32 percent of associate professors, 28 percent of assistant professors, and 25 percent of instructors. The last section of the survey asked for comments. There were 36 comments on 106 surveys, for a rate of 34 percent. The comments from faculty members were mainly positive. There were three specifically on the need for refresher instruction sessions, either for groups or individuals. One person stated they are much more likely to use online resources accessible from their office for research. Another comment was, "I think the JSU library's electronic resources are a great help to faculty who are working on scholarship. Houston Cole seems to be keeping up with the times." On the other hand, there were several respondents who said they need more notice of new services and features. Due to the ever-changing nature of database interfaces and other features, the librarians try to keep liaisons and other faculty apprised of changes through the electronic liaison mailing list and individual e-mails. Some dissatisfaction was expressed regarding database remote access from home, despite the fact that the library has moved to EZ Proxy from its former, sometimes problematical, proxy server Also called a "proxy," it is a computer system or router that breaks the connection between sender and receiver. Functioning as a relay between client and server, proxy servers are used to help prevent an attacker from invading the private network. to authenticate (1) To verify (guarantee) the identity of a person or company. To ensure that the individual or organization is really who it says it is. See authentication and digital certificate. (2) To verify (guarantee) that data has not been altered. remote users. EZ Proxy makes access easier, as patrons no longer have to go through a browser browser Software that allows a computer user to find and view information on the Internet. The first text-based browser for the World Wide Web became available in 1991; Web use expanded rapidly after the release in 1993 of a browser called Mosaic, which used setup See BIOS setup and install program. process that often frustrated frus·trate tr.v. frus·trat·ed, frus·trat·ing, frus·trates 1. a. To prevent from accomplishing a purpose or fulfilling a desire; thwart: less experienced computer users. There were a number of compliments on how helpful the library staff is, and that the library is a good resource. One respondent In Equity practice, the party who answers a bill or other proceeding in equity. The party against whom an appeal or motion, an application for a court order, is instituted and who is required to answer in order to protect his or her interests. noted that he/she was still not very computer savvy and needed work on that issue. Another said database access "can be extremely frustrating frus·trate tr.v. frus·trat·ed, frus·trat·ing, frus·trates 1. a. To prevent from accomplishing a purpose or fulfilling a desire; thwart: for my students. A certain percentage always has trouble and I am absolutely no help." This faculty member then added, "When it works, it's great." Library faculty could help by offering workshops for teaching faculty, as noted by some respondents. As expected, resources such as the library online catalog and online periodical databases were used most frequently. Eighty-seven faculty members (84.47 percent) reported using online databases from their offices, with "plan to use in the future" at 6.80 percent or 7 respondents, and "don't know or probably will not use" at 8.74 percent, or nine respondents, bringing the total of those who use or expect to use the databases to 91.27 percent. The online catalog was used fairly often, with 92 respondents (87.62 percent) reporting they used the catalog catalog, descriptive list, on cards or in a book, of the contents of a library. Assurbanipal's library at Nineveh was cataloged on shelves of slate. The first known subject catalog was compiled by Callimachus at the Alexandrian Library in the 3d cent. B.C. currently or occasionally. Overall, those who use or expect to use the online catalog totaled 92.38 percent. At the other end of the spectrum, the potential use for downloading citations directly from a database to bibliographic bib·li·og·ra·phy n. pl. bib·li·og·ra·phies 1. A list of the works of a specific author or publisher. 2. a. software, such as ProCite or Endnote See footnote. , was considered to be low, with 27 percent responding positively. In answer to the question concerning whether the use of electronic library resources had made faculty members more or less likely to visit the library in person, the response was rather disconcerting dis·con·cert tr.v. dis·con·cert·ed, dis·con·cert·ing, dis·con·certs 1. To upset the self-possession of; ruffle. See Synonyms at embarrass. 2. , as the majority (48.08 percent) indicated they would be less likely to come to the library. No change was the response of 37.5 percent, and more likely was at 14.42 percent. Students, however, are more likely to visit the library, judging by the response to whether faculty would make class assignments requiring the use of electronic resources. 79.41 percent said they currently do, or will in the future, while 20.59 percent either do not or have no plans to do so. Of some interest to the authors and other members of the library faculty was the last question on the survey, "How comfortable would you consider yourself when using the library's electronic resources?" There were five who said they were uncomfortable, 19 who said that they needed more information or training in use, nine who said they were somewhat uncomfortable, 41 who said that they were somewhat comfortable and 32 who said that they were comfortable. These results show that the majority of faculty (68.87 percent) feel that they are at least somewhat comfortable with the library's electronic resources. Conclusion Data analysis shows that the responses to questions on electronic library services fall into three main categories. The first group is those that have a high use/potential use, compared with lack of knowledge or no use. The questions in this area concerned resources that the authors had predicted would be rated the highest. These were: accessing periodical databases from the office, periodical databases access from home, making class assignments that require students to use electronic resources, using the online catalog, and accessing the Faculty Services Web page (http://www.jsu.edu/depart/library/graphic/facserv.htm). That page was designed to give faculty a concise guide to services the library can provide such as Interlibrary in·ter·li·brar·y adj. Existing or occurring between or involving two or more libraries: an interlibrary loan; an interlibrary network. Loan, how to renew a book via the Web, and how to place items on course reserve. Next were those resources that show moderate use/potential use, compared with lack of knowledge or use. These were using the Web form to place material on electronic course reserve, using the New Books tab in the online catalog to find out what has been recently added to the collection, using Serials Solutions  This article or section reads like a and may need a .Please help [ to improve this article] to make it in tone and meet Wikipedia's . to see in which databases they can find full text articles, using the Web-based catalog interface to renew materials or place holds and recalls and, lastly, using the online Virtual Tour or recommending it to students. A third group shows a low use/potential use, compared with lack of knowledge or use. Using the interactive catalog tutorial An instructional book or program that takes the user through a prescribed sequence of steps in order to learn a product. Contrast with documentation, which, although instructional, tends to group features and functions by category. See tutorials in this publication. , reading the Library News page, using journal table of contents or issues alerts, and downloading citations from databases into bibliographic software. The authors considered these activities to require the most technical knowledge, and were not surprised they were ranked the lowest. A question that arises from this research is how can the library best publicize its electronic resources? Possible ways to meet the need for faculty awareness of resources with potential value to them includes notices in the print newsletter, more one-on-one meetings and librarian attendance at faculty meetings. Another way to reach faculty could be through Academe sessions (monthly seminars on various topics of faculty interest) on library resources. In addition, articles in the campus newspaper about new resources available in the library might reach more faculty (and students) than the online Library News. Some of these ideas are similar to ones offered by Laribee and Lorber [9] in their study, and might be of use in the JSU library. One of their suggestions was to increase advertisement of the library's electronic resources, especially ones "that have received little attention." For example, detailed brochures on relevant databases could be developed and tailored to specific academic departments. In addition, Laribee and Lorber support the encouragement of continuing education continuing education: see adult education. continuing education or adult education Any form of learning provided for adults. In the U.S. the University of Wisconsin was the first academic institution to offer such programs (1904). for library staff. This is necessary because of the seemingly seem·ing adj. Apparent; ostensible. n. Outward appearance; semblance. seem  ing·ly adv. constant updates and changes in database interfaces. At Western Michigan University Western Michigan University, at Kalamazoo, Mich.; coeducational; founded in 1903 as Western State Normal School, became accredited in 1927 as a college, gained university status in 1957. , Vander Meer, et. al. [10], wrote that the established liaison program between the library and the academic departments has been used. Librarians demonstrate electronic resources at faculty meetings, send e-mail communication regarding new acquisitions in areas of faculty interest, and schedule one-on-one meeting and lunches with faculty to share information about library resources. These interactions all have helped with the planning of future services for the Western Michigan
Western Michigan, also known as West Michigan, is a region of the U.S. state of Michigan. library. They conclude that libraries cannot afford to ignore any their faculty constituents, but should "delve deeper into the cause of this disuse dis·use n. The state of not being used or of being no longer in use. disuse Noun the state of being neglected or no longer used; neglect Noun 1. " of resources. These statements still hold true today. As funding decreases and competition for resources on campus increases, the Houston Cole Library faculty should continue efforts already in place to distribute information about new resources and changes, while trying new ideas "New Ideas" is the debut single by Scottish New Wave/Indie Rock act The Dykeenies. It was first released as a Double A-side with "Will It Happen Tonight?" on July 17, 2006. The band also recorded a video for the track. to reach faculty. References [1] Vander Meer Patricia Fravel, Howard Poole and Thomas Van Valey. "Are Library Users Also Computer Users? A Survey of Faculty and Implications for Services." Web page, 1997. http://info.lib.uh.edu/pr/v8/nl/vand8n1.html. (Accessed October 30, 2002.) [2] Amstutz, Donna, and Donna Whitson. "University Faculty and Information Literacy Several conceptions and definitions of information literacy have become prevalent. For example, one conception defines information literacy in terms of a set of competencies that an informed citizen of an information society ought to possess to participate intelligently and : Who Teaches the Students?" Research Strategies 15, no. 1 (1997): 18-25. [3] Nelson, Jerold. "Faculty Awareness and Attitudes Toward Academic Library Reference Services: A Measure of Communication." College & Research Libraries 34, no. 5 (1973): 268-75. [4] Weingart, Sandra J., and Janet A. Anderson. "When Questions Are Answers: Using a Survey to Achieve Faculty Awareness of the Library's Electronic Resources." College & Research Libraries 61, no. 2 (2000): 127-34. [5] Laribee, Janet F. and Carl L. Lorber. "Level of Awareness and Usage in a University Library." CD-Rom Professional 7, no. 6 (1994): 137-44. [6] Adams, Judith A. and Sharon C. Bonk. "Electronic Information Technologies and Resources: Use by University Faculty and Faculty Preferences for Related Library Services." College & Research Libraries 56, no. 2 (1995): 119-31. [7] Office of Academic Computing, UCI UCI University of California, Irvine UCI Union Cycliste Internationale (International Cycling Union) UCI Unidad de Cuidados Intensivos UCI United Cinemas International (UK) Libraries and the Division of and Undergraduate Education undergraduate education Medtalk In the US, a 4+ yr college or university education leading to a baccalaureate degree, the minimum education level required for medical school admission; undergraduate medical education refers to the 4 yrs of medical school. Cf CME. . "Faculty Instructional Technology There are two types of instructional technology: those with a systems approach, and those focusing on sensory technologies. The definition of instructional technology prepared by the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) Definitions and Terminology Survey." Web page, November 1999. http://eee.uci.edu/programs/itsurvey/results/IT.faculty.survey.htm. (Accessed October 30, 2002). [8] Weingart and Anderson. "When Questions Are Answers." [9] Laribee and Lorber. "Level of Awareness and Usage in a University Library." [10] Vander Meer, Poole and Van Valey. "Are Library Users Also Computer Users?" Paula Barnett-Ellis, Jacksonville State University Luke Griffin, Jackson State University Jackson State University, often abridged as Jackson State or by its initials JSU is a historically black university located in Jackson, Mississippi founded in 1877. Barnett-Ellis is Healt and Sciences Reference Librarian. Griffin is Electronic Resources and Government Documents Librarian. |
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