Dear UIS community:
I hope that your academic year is off to a fantastic start! Last spring, we heard from 220 of you in a survey that we conducted called LibQual+™. We will be publishing a summary of the survey results on our web site soon, but I’d like to offer a short, informal synopsis of the results now. Basically, we learned that you want more information, and you want that information to be easier to get to than it is now. You also said that the library as a place is sorely lacking: there are problems with the building itself, with the furniture and fixtures, and with noise. On this last point, however, undergraduates and graduate students have very different perceptions: graduate students want more quiet study spaces, while undergraduates can tolerate more noise. Most people think the library staff is doing a pretty good job given the obstacles in terms of the budget and the building.
The survey results tell me that we have to try harder to make the library easier to use, even as we continue to teach students how to use the library. And we need to do a better job of marketing—several respondents noted that the library should advertise its services more. So, in the weeks and months to come, you can expect to hear more from the library.
In the meantime, I’d like to share with you some statistics as of June 30, 2007: the library holds almost 550,000 printed volumes (books and journals), over 39,000 electronic journals, and around 30,000 electronic books. We will work to make these resources more easily visible and more available to you.
Other news:
- The library now has a self-check machine. As easy to use as a bank ATM, you can use it to check out your own books and avoid lines at the Circulation desk.
- We’ve increased the number of books in the browsing collection, and we’ve also added audio-books and dvd’s.
- The library café, to be called Mary Jane’s, is scheduled for construction over the winter break.
- New electronic collections include the historical New York Times, going back to 1841, and additional publications from IEEE.
Don’t wait until the next survey—let us know at any time how we’re doing!
Best wishes,
Jane Treadwell
University Librarian and Dean of Library Instructional Services |
