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Speaking Volumes
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Libraries
arent just places for books anymore, theyre interactive systems
to access information.
By Kevin Kipp
Know how to excite a librarian? Ask her about technology.
Its like asking coach Lorenzo Romar about a 6'11" kid with soft
hands and a 4.0.
The world of libraries has changed because of technology, says
Karen Luebbert, vice president and executive assistant to the president
at Webster University. The key now is access rather than possession.
A lot of information is online. It changes how libraries operate.
Theyre not just repositories. Theyre interactive systems to access
information.
In the front of the house, most users are familiar with decades-old
computerized card catalogues. Theres far more.
Take for instance what a couple of reference librarians cooked up
at St. Charles Community College. They created an online tutorial,
including 3-D photos, so students can take a virtual library tour
and instruction in how to use it, says Ying Li, the schools manager
of library public services.
Moreover, college libraries these days have gobs of online access
to academic journals, periodicals and publications via the Internet.
One for-profit school, University of Phoenix sited in Riverport,
promotes the bookless nature of its online library for use by its
adult learners in pursuit primarily of business credentials at 90
campuses nationwide.
It can be a library without a copy of Crime and Punishment?
Well, yes, says UP librarian David Bickford. Our curriculum emphasizes
application of theory to professional practice. As a result our
students tend to look at current journal literature and other rapidly
updated documents.
Traditionalists, rest easy. Theres information that isnt online,
Luebbert says. There will always be books.
(Luebbert, once a librarian herself, shoulders administrative responsibilities
for Websters new $16 million library, scheduled for groundbreaking
this fall and completion in summer 2003.)
And if libraries arent just repositories, they certainly arent
just information dumps either. Francis Benham, university librarian
at Saint Louis University, says, Libraries serve scholarly pursuits,
as well as pragmatic research. Theyre for teaching, research and
service support. They also preserve the human intellectual record.
The million-volume-plus clubSLU, Washington University and UMSLseem
to have taken up that particular cudgel. Their collections reflect
the difference of the institutions mission with Bickfords, (zero
volumes) Lis (58,000) or even Luebberts (268,000).
Li: At a four-year college, the print collection and the electronic
collection are for both faculty and students research. At Community
College we use our resources primarily for students research...very
relevant to the curriculum.
She also points out that the publish-or-perish work at research
universities by tenure-track faculty can quickly become a quest
for arcana.
Rosemary Buhr, director of the learning resources center at Logan
College of Chiropractic, says her collection aims to meet students
curricular needs and faculty research. But the materials pound on
at health-related issues.
A broader curriculum requires more volumes, she grants. Professional
colleges have smaller collections, but within their field their
collections are deep and high qualitysupporting the students and
faculty.
Benham cites another difference: We have a large number of researchers
and scholars and a wide range of topics.
And they want to keep it that way. Strong libraries, she says, are
attractive to the most competent scholars, whether students or
faculty.
And highly competent scholars attract research grants. However,
Benham concludes, No library can have all the books that are published.
In fact, the way life works, if some grad student needs only modestly
obscure detailssay, horse-swapping in conference committee that
finalized the Uniform Relocation Act of 1970every library except
the one where hes enrolled has an insiders autobiographical account.
Enter MOBIUS, the Missouri Bibliographic Information User Service,
the latest library techno-leap. It spells access to 14 million items
in the collections of 50 academic libraries in the state.
MOBIUS is fantastic! Buhr gushes. Its probably one of the most
cooperative endeavors across this state.
Students can request books from any academic library in the state
from home if they have an Internet connection, Li chirps. Then
it only takes a day or two to get the book even from Mizzou.
Undertakings like MOBIUS (Hes the 19th century mathematician whose
half-twisted loop models the symbol for infinity: .) are increasingly
common among colleges and universities within states, Benham says.
Ours is modeled after Ohios model, she says, and Illinois had
one early. (And before MOBIUS, a few Missouri research universities
had interlibrary loan set ups called Merlin and Miracle.) But automation
has made the whole enterprise easier. MOBIUS is a wonderful consortium.
Its also a subtle marvel, considering the challenges of retrieval,
delivery, tracking, and returns of 14 million items...not to mention
interoperability among 50 institutions whose hardware and software
is as diverse as their missions.
Still, the Internet isnt the Library of Congress.
As Benham put it, I saw a broadband commercial that bragged about
sending the contents of the Library of Congress from New York to
Los Angeles in 30 seconds by Internet. The only problem with that
is that the Library of Congress isnt in digital format.
Besides, at any given time, most researchers are only after a handful
of books. Not ALL of them.
More
than books
We asked local institutions of higher learning to send
information about their libraries: volumes, budget, technology...
enrollment for a dash of context. Heres how their librarians
and PR offices responded.
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Fontbonne
College, St. Louis, Mo.
Enrollment: 1,127 full time equivalent
Budget: $150,000 (excluding salaries)
Volumes: 90,000
Through web-based, full-text periodical indexes such as EbscoHost,
Lexis-Nexis, First-Search and others Fontbonne College provides
students with online access to more than 4,000 full-text magazines,
journals, newspapers and other periodicals.
Harris Stowe, St. Louis, Mo.
Enrollment: 600 full time, 1,200 part time
Budget: $471,000
Volumes: 90,000
Lindenwood University, St. Charles, Mo.
Enrollment: 4,500 full time equivalent
Budget: $487,245
Volumes: 123,000
Online databases with full-text articles help Lindenwood provide
scholarly research information to students at their convenience,
wherever they are, whenever they want it.
Logan College of Chiropractic, St. Louis, Mo.
Enrollment: 825
Budget: $460,600
Volumes: 12,500 volumes
Ariel software and a scanner will soon be purchased to expedite
the transmission of requested information. A capital campaign
is underway to raise $1.5 million to renovate the Learning
Resource Center and incorporate the student computer lab.
Maryville University, St. Louis, Mo.
Enrollment: 2,194 full-time equivalent
Budget: $761,145
Volumes: 269,764
The University Library provides access on- and off-campus
to more than 4,000 full-text electronic journals 24 hours
a day. That is in addition to more than 800 paper journals
in house. They all can be located through a single web search
engine.
McKendree College, Lebanon, Ill.
Enrollment: 1,993 full time
Budget: $500,000
Volumes: 85,000, plus periodicals
Holman Library delivers services 24/7 through the shared statewide
academic catalog, ILLINET Online, rapid interlibrary loan
transmissions via ARIEL, and one-click, full-text articles
from thousands of research journals through providers such
as FirstSearch, IDAL and Academic Universe.
Saint Louis University, St. Louis, Mo.
Enrollment: 8,502 full time, 2,610 part time
Budget: $10,010,852
Volumes: 1,728,587
Provide more than 160 electronic databases, 12,000 full-text
electronic journals, plus off-campus access. For general research,
see www.slu.edu/libraries/pius/. For Vatican Library, see
www.slu.edu/libraries/vfl/. For Health Sciences, see ww.slu.edu/libraries/hsc/index.shtml.
For Law Library, see http://lawlib.slu.edu/library.
UMSL, St. Louis, Mo.
Enrollment: 8,800 full-time equivalent
Budget: $4.1 million
Volumes: 1.1 million
UMSL students access more than 100 databases and 13,000 online
full-text publications. The library web pages receive almost
five million hits annually, many from institutions throughout
the world. UMSL librarian Chris Niemeyer’s interactive
tutorials have been translated into French.
Washington University, St. Louis, Mo.
Enrollment: 10,018 full time, 2,070 part time
Budget: $22,861,105
Volumes: 3,422,372
Services available via email or web site (www.library.wustl.edu):
library catalog and request; Ask-A-Librarian; full-text of
selected periodicals, reference works; contents, new issues
of journals; interlibrary loan
electronic reserves; digital images from special collections;
subject guides to electronic resources.
Webster University, Webster Groves, Mo.
Enrollment: 5,837 full time equivalent
Volumes: 268,000, of which 182,000 will go to new library.
Budget: $2,366,425
Information technology is changing the way we do research.
The exciting thing about libraries today is that we can blend
research functions involving media, online, and print resources
into a seamless process. |
Kevin Kipp earned his masters degree in Urban Affairs from Saint
Louis University, and runs a community relations firm in St. Charles.
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