Annual Report FY07
Web Services
| Staff |
|---|
| Paula Packard, Web Services Librarian |
| Karen Locher, Head of Public Services |
Highlights
During the first full fiscal year for Web Services, the Library concentrated on “social networking.” Characters for the Library were created on several Internet sites:
- MySpace
- Flickr
- UHV Connect
Through social networking pages, the Library connects to students where they frequent the Internet – not asking students to come to the Library’s page directly. These pages have to be frequently updated in order to keep the audience interested.
In keeping with the idea of “going to the students,” focus sessions were conducted with over 16 students to aid in the re-design of the Library’s Web presence. The focus sessions led to many changes in the design and navigation aspects of the new pages. Students favored graphics for navigating and strong color combinations to make important sections eye-catching. The addition of graphics and search boxes for online catalog and TDNET searches off the main page were the results of the focus sessions.
The Library’s first entry into interactive online services, the Ask-a-Librarian service, remained constant in the numbers of both chat and email questions. The majority of questions fell into the reference category, and problems with database access continued to decline.
Behind-the-scenes
Other activities of Web Services included addition of bibliographic records for U.S. Documents, Websites, digital media, electronic periodicals, single-purchase electronic books, and electronic databases into the library catalog. A decision was made to add award-winning Websites to the library catalog.
The clean-up of files on the library servers was started and will continue in the next fiscal year. Validation of files to current Web standards and file clean-up are continuing goals for Web Services.
An additional duty of the Web Services Librarian is collection development as part of the Literature Committee and as Government Documents Selector. The Literature Committee decided on standards for retention of books in the Leisure Reading book collection. These standards were used to rotate some books out of the collection and back to their primary locations.
Government Publications
In keeping with the Federal Depository Library Program’s drive to “go digital,” the VC/UHV Library weeded its collection of U.S. Documents heavily this fiscal year. Documents that did not have an electronic version were moved to the Main Collection or considered for weeding. If weeded, the FDLP guidelines for disposal were followed. Some documents were retained in both electronic and print versions for ease of use by distance students and campus users. This weeding and moving project provided some of the necessary space for the relocation of the Media Library to the 2nd floor of the Library. This "go digital" project resulted in 587 electronic records of federal publications added to the Library's Online Catalog.
The weeding of U.S. Documents was accompanied by a total review of the “item list,” which determines what documents are received from the Library Depository Program. The selector of documents adds and deletes items from a selection offered by the depository. Each item on the VC/UHV Library list was reviewed for relevance for the Victoria College and University of Houston-Victoria students, faculty, and staff as well as the residents of the 14th Congressional District. Electronic-only items were designated by a corresponding bibliographic record in the library catalog with a connecting URL to the material.
The Texas Documents Collection remains intact on the 2nd floor of the Library. It is now accompanied by a new section of Texas Periodicals, shelved by the Periodicals Department. Texas Documents continues to grow slowly and is weeded lightly to preserve historical documents and ensure access to the publications indexed in the Index to Texas Magazines and Documents.