Let’s talk for a minute about thrill rides. We all know them - the roller coasters with the twists and turns and the adrenaline pumping excitement of speed.
You wait in line to get into the car and buckle your seat belt. Since every roller coaster starts with a long climb, you strain to see what might be on the other side. Anticipation builds and you think maybe you shouldn’t have gotten on this ride. Then - the first drop. For the next few minutes, you are turned upside and down, banking steeply to the right, then to the left. Just as you think that things just might be out of control, the car slows down and you roll into the unloading area. Many of us run back around to the entrance to get on again.
For the past 25 years, libraries and information provision has been a little like being on a roller coaster. As technologies have emerged faster and with greater impact than ever before, libraries and library staffs have ridden a technological roller coaster with continuous change and steep learning curves. After a quarter of century, the car is slowing down a little.
Technologies are still emerging. Old ways of providing information and library service are still changing. However, slowly we are seeing a bit of time between trips on the coaster. Here at the VC/UHV Library, almost continuous change is evolving into planning for the future instead of responding to immediate technological demand. In the next years, we will be looking at ways to evaluate and measure the technologies and services that have sprung from them. We will also explore avenues to enhance existing technologies and to promote their use in the provision of information and research to our students and faculty.
Library Collections
In anticipation of the startup of the University of Houston-Victoria nursing program, librarians evaluated and enhanced our print medical collection. Further evaluation of online resources was deferred until FY07 to allow us to get faculty input and assess program needs.
The startup of the University of Houston-Victoria master's program in computer science also required an evaluation and enhancement of print and online collections. Online resources are vital to this program. FY07 budget requests were made for several databases, including the Association for Computing Machinery Digital Library.
The Reference and Catalog Departments implemented the Gale Virtual Reference Library. This collection of electronic reference books was first purchased in 2004-2005 and enhanced with a additional purchase this year of 190 titles, focused in medicine, business, and the social sciences. The purchase was made possible in consortium with the University of Houston System libraries. These electronic reference books provide much needed collection access to distance students and to students at the UHV Sugar Land and Cinco Ranch campuses as well as the off-site campuses of VC.
Evaluation of our online databases resulted in the following additions to full-text and bibliographic databases:
Use of the Victoria Regional History Collection Photograph Collection continues to grow. To facilitate access to the collection, the collection database was redesigned. This redesign provided the opportunity to cleanup data add more access points for subject searching, and merge three separately maintained files. Plans are underway to expand the access of the database to the Internet in 2006-2007.
The 20th anniversary of the Index to Texas Magazines and Documents in 2004-2005 culminated this year with the inauguration of the online version of the Index. Subscribers now have the ability to search all 20 years of the index at its web site.
Technology Services
As part of a complete redesign for the library's website currently underway, we evaluated the use of our Ask-a-Librarian online reference service. In an effort to provide faster answers to online students, a frequently-asked-questions page was added to the Ask-a-Librarian site.
The Library IT department, working with the UHV IT department, worked in 2005-2006 to increase the access and securities of the public access computers in the Main and Media libraries. Increased access was provided by allowing some installation and the implementation of software for CD burning and copying. Increased security and stability of the systems was provided by the installation of the Microsoft Shared Computer Toolkit.
The popularity of the VC/UHV Library with non-affiliated users has been a mixed blessing, with available computers almost constantly in use. Students at both VC and UHV have complained that computers are not available when needed. Library staff has begun to address the problem with tighter enforcement of existing policies and visual reminders on the computers and other signage that students have priority. This issue is ongoing and will be further studied in 2006-2007.
Library Facilities
This fiscal year saw the reorganization and recarpeting of the first floor of the Main Library. Many changes were made to ease the flow of traffic, add visibility to public workstations, and provide better study space for groups and individuals.
Study Rooms on the 3rd floor were re-outfitted with better furniture, pictures and photographs. Room 304 was enhanced with a video project and computer.
While we wait in line for the next trip on the technological roller coaster, we at the Library will be:
- Assessing electronic databases, especially in light of recent decisions by journal publishers to pull their full text content from aggregated full text databases. As our journal holdings are about 90% online, this movement will have great impact on the journal access available to users.
- Searching for solutions to public service computers and their use. Student demand for these systems is high and many times there are not enough computers to go around. Non-affiliated users are using many of the computers at peak times.
- Watching emerging technologies, especially as it impacts media collections. We have already licensed our first media website access and know that CD and DVD technologies are changing daily. The transfer of purchased content on videotape to newer technologies will be costly and time-consuming as we take in the requirements of copyright and budget.
- Re-positioning the Online Catalog as the primary access point of library collections of all types - media, photographic, archival, electronic, Internet, and print.
- Asking for input from our users about our electronic services to best provide for their expectations and needs for our web site, online databases, and instruction.
- Making the best use of library facilities. Even though library collections are increasingly online, our physical collections continue to grow. We are seeing increasing need for group study spaces, archival and historical collections, and more public access computers.
Maybe we aren't actually waiting in line. Maybe we are still on the coaster!