Big Challenges

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Big Challenges Opportunities for Academic
Libraries

• A Community College Library Facing Challenges,
  Finding Opportunities

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Facing Challenges, Finding Opportunities

• Facts about CCs and their Mission

• More than 600,000 students enrolled in Texas
  CCs. In 2007, Texas community college students
  out-numbered students enrolled in 4-year
  institutions .
• Texas CCs have more than 75 of the states
  freshman/sophomore level students and 78 of
  minority freshman.
• CCs have higher percentages of first-generation
  in college and students taking at least one
  developmental course . Fifty-six percent of
  first generation in college attend two-year
  institutions.

• Always had a mission of open enrollment / access
  to higher education.
• Provide quality academic transfer and workforce
  educational programs.
• http//www.tacc.org / Budget Hearing Texas Public
  Community Colleges 2/4/09
• http//nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/2008/analysis/fig
  ures/fig10.asp?popuptrue / Special Analysis 2008
  Community Colleges NCES

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Facing Challenges, Finding Opportunities

• Question 1 Credible in the eyes of administrators

• Question 2 Future of role of librarians in
  academia

• How to be viewed as essential to the college
  mission and deserving of the piece of the pie.

• Finger on the pulse and remain the heart of the
  institution and central to the scholarly and
  educational mission.

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Facing Challenges, Finding Opportunities

• Article Heartburn?

• Panel of retired administrators agreed on one
  issue no library should be without a coffee
  bar.

• Politely saying Librarys concerns are of
  lesser importance given the reality of other
  loud institutional voices.

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Facing Challenges, Finding Opportunities

• Its not easy being an academic librarian these
  days.  Speculation persists that we may soon be
  the higher-education equivalent of the Maytag
  repairman, as the Internet becomes the first
  place students and professors look for
  information.
• Original Maytag commercial
• Bell, Steven J. "Electronic Libraries Can't Be
  Academic." The Chronicle of Higher Education
  N.p., 30 Sept. 2005. Web. 30 Sept. 2005
  lthttp//chronicle.com/weekly/v52/i06/06b01401.htmgt
  .

• In the future, faculty expect to be less
  dependent on the library and increasingly
  dependent on electronic materials.
• Housewright, Ross, and Roger Schonfeld. "Ithaka's
  2006 Studies of Key Stakeholders in the Digital
  Transformation of Higher Education." Ithaka
  Ithaka, 18 Aug. 2008. Web. 20 Oct. 2009
  lthttp//www.ithaka.org/ithaka-s-r/research/faculty
  -and-librarian-surveysgt. Path http//www.ithaka.o
  rg/ithaka-s-r/research/faculty-and-librarian-surve
  ys.
• Obvious question where do these faculty
  think these electronic materials are coming from
  and made available by?

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Facing Challenges, Finding Opportunities

• Credible in the eyes of administrators

• Put your team and your programs out there. Dont
  just ask your users. Ask your non-users.
• Provide administrators with information about
  your programs and how they support institutional
  goals.
• Adapt and innovate programs and services based on
  your assessment.

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Facing Challenges, Finding Opportunities

• Credible in the eyes of administrators

• Partner with other departments and support areas.
• Tie your programs to funding.
• Dont throw out the baby with the bath water. If
  it still makes sense, advocate for it.

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Facing Challenges, Finding Opportunities

• What do the studies say about the future?
  Assessing your own future.

• Ithaka study indicated that faculty see the
  importance of the cultural preservation role as
  well as the importance of providing access to
  information resources. Disconnect with the
  librarys role in providing access to electronic
  resources.
• OCLC study indicated that college students want
  more emphasis on tools for self-discovery.
  Libraries were heavily identified with books and
  not other avenues for information discovery. Only
  2 start their research with library resources
  and not search engine.
• ECAR study indicates undergraduates rate
  themselves experts/very skilled at information
  literacy (79.5). Upperclassman rate themselves
  higher than freshman.

• Peer assessments LibQUAL, NSSE, CCSSE
• OCLC Perceptions of libraries and information
  resources.
• Ithaka Ithakas 2006 Studies of Key
  Stakeholders in the Digital Transformation in
  Higher
• Education
• EduCause - The ECAR Study of Undergraduate
  Students and Information Technology, 2008

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Facing Challenges, Finding Opportunities

• Future role of academic librarians/libraries

• Grow partnerships with instructional faculty and
  direct support of curricular goals.
• Continue development of assessment that is tied
  directly to course learning outcomes.
• Librarians will take a more active role in
  programs aimed at improving retention,
  persistence, and student success.

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Facing Challenges, Finding Opportunities

• Future role of academic librarians/libraries

• Libraries will continue to morph into
  collaborative learning centers with mixed-use
  space.
• Librarians will continue to adapt to the changing
  landscape of higher education.

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Facing Challenges, Finding Opportunities

• Librarians have been the real heroes of the
  digital revolution in higher education. They are
  the ones who have seen the farthest, done the
  most, accepted the hardest challenges, and
  demonstrated most clearly the benefits of digital
  information. In the process, they have turned
  their own field upside down and have
  revolutionized their professional training. It
  is testimony to their success that we take their
  achievement and their information-management
  systems for granted.
• Ayers, Edward L. The Academic Culture and the IT
  Culture Their Effect on Teaching and
  Scholarship. Educause Review Nov/Dec. 2004 6 Oct
  . 2009 lthttp//www.educause.edu/EDUCAUSEReview/ED
  UCAUSEReviewMagazineVolume 39/TheAcademicCulturean
  dtheITCult/157939gt

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Facing Challenges, Finding Opportunities