Introduction
Flo Wilson became Acting Director on July 1, 2002, leading the library through
a successful search for a new director and a major renovation project while
working with architects and planners to design a new library facility. During
this same period, she served as President of the Library and Information Technology
Association and continued in her position as Associate University Librarian
for Heard Library. Her extraordinary efforts are most apparent in the stately
beauty and functionality of the library building. A steadily increasing number
of students use the library to study and to access electronic resources as
they discover its comfort and elegant atmosphere. The main floor is now regularly
used for Peabody receptions and meetings.
Facility
The renovation of the main floor and first floor of the library began in July
2001. Staff and patrons tolerated inconvenience and even displacement. The
public workstations were sometimes unavailable. When the Information Services
desk had to be removed, reference service was temporarily relocated to another
area of the library.
The attractive new service desk was custom-made. For the first time, circulation functions and reference service were combined at one desk. The location for parts of the collection and for service points changed. Because of delays in finishing the shelving along the walls, the Reference collection was housed in Room 307 until late in the academic year. This was only one effect of the many problems that were encountered with the furniture vendor.
The AV collection, staff offices, and the periodicals collection were moved to prominent locations on the main floor. A display shelf for new books was purchased for recently-purchased titles. A card reader installed on the exterior of the building allows authorized patrons to access the library during certain hours on evenings and weekends without a turnstile barrier at the entrance. New signage for the current periodicals now indicates the availability of electronic access. An architectural floor plan helps to direct patrons. Unused furniture was shipped to surplus. Finally, a new voice mail system was installed.
Services
A new "open reserves" system allowed students to use materials without checking
them out, saving time for students and staff. The library remained open for
additional hours during the December and April exam periods. Free coffee was
a popular service extra! Stacy Owens created a brochure with reserves policies
and procedures for faculty and redesigned the library's reserves Web page.
The Payne Computer Lab was closed at the end of fall Semester. To alleviate the problem of fewer lab computers for students, the library's iBooks were configured to print to a printer on the lower level of the library. Two Dell pc's were added in the spring and made available for checkout.
The library Web site was revised to better meet the needs of Peabody students and faculty as well as the broader academic community. Links such as "Research Help" and "Finding Journal Articles" were added to the main page.
Access Services and Information Services staff planned for cross training by compiling a list of basic competencies for all who staff the main service point of the library. A rotating night/weekend schedule was implemented in the spring semester so that full-time staff would be available for more hours. The Reference Manual and New Employee Manual were revised and are available on the staff Web site.
Flipchart guides were developed to help patrons start their research when reference assistance is unavailable. The guides include information on locating books, articles, ILL, printing tips, and brief information about several databases.
The new service "Ask A Librarian Live" was implemented. Information Services staff monitored the chat service for several hours each week. Information Services staff instituted an appointment system for in-depth research help. A database of questions received at the Information Services Desk will be categorized to plan for staffing needs.
Paper and toner cartridge usage and resulting costs are escalating. To determine the amount of paper that is discarded by patrons immediately after printing it, sheets of paper collected from the recycle bins were counted. The total number of pages collected from May 2001 to July 2002 was 27,211. Approximately 438,970 pages were printed during these months. So approximately 6% of the pages printed were immediately discarded.
Instruction
Due to the renovation of the main floor, walk-in sessions or library tours
were not scheduled during the fall semester. However, course-related instruction
sessions were arranged when requested by faculty. Lee Ann provided an orientation
to the Curriculum Lab at the beginning of each semester for several social
studies elementary education classes. Chris Benda and Jean Reese created a
video to introduce Peabody faculty to library staff members and their responsibilities.
Jean showed the video at the orientation for new faculty and spoke about library
services.
Collections and Electronic Resources
Lee Ann Lannom assumed responsibility for allocating collection fund amounts
and maintaining data in WorkFlows. During the spring semester, she worked
with Steve Heyneman and Howard Sandler, representatives from the Peabody Library
Advisory Committee, to review the library's journal collection. Advisory Committee
members coordinated review by their departments. Lee Ann compiled a list of
titles that faculty recommended for purchase and those which could be cancelled.
The Heard Library psychology bibliographers agreed to purchase the APA PsycARTICLES database from SilverPlatter. Five divisional libraries (Central, Education, Law, Management, BioMedical) agreed to share the cost for the database. Two other significant databases for Peabody faculty and students that have been added are ISI's Social Sciences Citation Index and the Journal Citation Reports: Social Science Edition. Social Sciences Citation Index had been available as a standalone CD-ROM for use in the library only.
This year, the subject for the textbook donations from the Tennessee Textbook Commission and Commissioner Phyllis Streiff was social sciences. This annual donation greatly enhances the collection and supplies resources that could not otherwise be afforded. Susan Bell, from the Heard Library's Resource Services, worked throughout the year to catalog the new sets of elementary social studies, American history and government, psychology, sociology and economics textbooks.
Chris Benda is removing superseded and outdated government documents from the collection and correcting ACORN records. In the process, he identifies problems, such as missing documents, incorrect holdings information, and duplicate ACORN records. Bill Dwyer is identifying periodical holdings inaccuracies in ACORN.
The volume of interlibrary loan requests is growing due to easy access to consortium holdings through Athena and Kudzu.
During the American Library Association Conference, Lee Ann and Leslie attended a hands-on workshop to test the forthcoming GOBI II database from Yankee.
Stacy Owens planned and coordinated the "vault project" which included books for Ida Long Rogers (African college) and old theses. Duplicate copies of books classified in the Dewey system were withdrawn. Weeding of duplicate copies of LC-classified books was begun. Weeding of for the Curriculum Lab materials was completed by the fall. The fiction and biography areas of the Youth Collection were weeded.
Barbara Hennessey coordinated a major shelf-reading and rearrangement of the general collection. Alycia Carter, a student assistant, inventoried the Curriculum Lab test collection and added records to an in-house database.
Service priorities and access
Priorities identified by the library staff for service for this year were:
- Assisting users
- Virtual reference service
- Library Web site?
- Library newsletter
- Print and electronic reserves
- Guest lecturing for Peabody courses on information topics
- Laptop circulation
- Shelf reading
- Weeding collection
- Update collection development policy
- Repackaging Curriculum Lab materials
- Administrative activities
Outstanding issues:
The Library Advisory Committee strongly recommended that the large room on
the lower level that formerly held the current periodical collection be converted
to a computer lab. This would bring more students into the library and help
to compensate for the closing of the Payne Lab. The room could be used for
hands-on classroom instruction by librarians and other faculty, as well. This
issue is unresolved.
Students want the library to be open for longer hours. The library extends its regular hours to 1:00 a.m. during exam periods. Budget and staffing issues are the impediments to implementing this service.
Ongoing training and turnover of student workers continues to be an issue along with difficulties in staffing the service points.
Library Advisory Committee
The members of the Library Advisory Committee were: Ann Neely (Chair), Mark
Bandas, Carolyn Evertson, Gina Frieden, Greg Glasheen, Steven Heyneman, Ann
Kaiser, Laura Novick, Jean Reese, Howard Sandler, and Joan Walker.
The Committee met on September 24, November 30, December 3. Some of the topics Discussed were: the impact of Payne computer lab closure; access to the library by non-Vanderbilt patrons; fund-raising; collections budget; electronic resources; and evaluating the library's journal subscriptions.
Participation in Director search
A search for a Library Director began early in 2002. The members of the Search
Committee were: Flo Wilson (Chair), Lee Ann Lannom, Ann Neely, Stacy Owens,
Howard Sandler, and Lisa Shipman (ex officio). The new director will start
on July 26.
Library Staff
Administration:
Flo Wilson, Acting Director
Cheryl McClure, Administrative Assistant
Access Services:
Bill Dwyer, Periodicals Supervisor
Barbara Hennessey, Circulation Manager
Stacy Owens, Coordinator
Student assistants:
Jessica Bearden
Taylor Bruce
Hyo Jung Choi
Megan Elliott
Mimi Franke
Ljubica Jovanovic
Cicely Kelley
Nino Kutateladze
Alison Montgomery
David Park
Britt Stone
Tabitha Taylor
Information Services:
Chris Benda, Library Associate
Leslie Boyd, Information Services Librarian
Lee Ann Lannom, Information Services Librarian
Jean Reese, Associate Director
Student assistants:
Alycia Carter
Melissa Hopkins
Alison Johnston
Leonidas Kotsiris
Professional Activities
Chris Benda
Workshop, "Untangling Your Website: Web Accessibility." Solinet workshop,
June 28, 2002
Digital Media Center Committee
Technology Advisory Group
Technology Support Coordinators
Leslie Boyd
Committees
Web-Based Instructional Support Subcommittee of the Information Services Advisory
Committee
Collaborative Digital Reference Service Project, backup representative from
Peabody Library
Professional Development
Nashville Library Club Fall Meeting, Nashville Public Library, September 27,
2001
Cut N' Paste Plagiarism Workshop, Central Library, October 23, 2001
Cascading Style Sheets class, Peabody Library, November 20, 2001
Nashville Library Club Spring Meeting, Country Music Hall of Fame, March 5,
2002
Vanderbilt University Web Spiders Group, Kennedy Center, March 20, 2002
Faculty/Staff Campaign for Vanderbilt University. Campaign solicitor for the
Heard Library System, May-June 2002
iLink Overview Session, Central Library, April 16, 2002
American Library Association Annual Conference, Atlanta, Georgia, June 14-19,
2002
Vanderbilt University Web Spiders Group, Kennedy Center, July 18, 2002
iLink Open House Reception, Central Library, July 31, 2002
Bill Dwyer
Professional Development
Claiming serials electronically seminar Feb. 28, 2002
Education substitute at March Training Coordinators Committee Imaging Seminar,
June 6, 2002
Sitebuilder Workshop, June 20, 2002
Peabody staff subcommittee on extended hours
Lee Ann Lannom
Committees
Collection Development Advisory Group
ISAG Subcommittee on Cooperative & Virtual Reference Services
Heard Library Merit Committee
Peabody Library Director Search Committee
Peabody College Curriculum & Education Program Committee
EBSS, Reference Sources & Services Committee, 2002-2004
Conferences
American Library Association:
EBSS Reference Sources & Services Committee
Games Academics Play: Mastering the Social Psychology of Faculty/Librarian
Relationships
The Future of Reference Service
From Text to Technology: The Changing Reference Collection
Yankee Book Peddlar-sponsored hands-on workshop to test the new GOBI2 system