Blueprints: Falvey Library

Contents: September 2000
 

• What in the world is collection development and management?

• To preserve and protect: Falvey's preservation effort

• Falvey's garden

• Falvey Library VQI Enhancement Team news

• New faces at Falvey

• IMS graphic artists host workshop

• Did you know?

• Noteworthy . . .

• A successful assessment for two-year old Quest

• Also contributors to this issue...

This continues the series highlighting the variety of Falvey Memorial Library's departments.

"Collection development" is defined as the process of planning and building a library’s information resources in a cost efficient and user-relevant manner, while "collection management" is the process of maintaining those information resources. (Adding to the confusion is the more widespread use of the term "collection management" for collecting overdue bills.)

Falvey Library’s Collection Development and Management Department is staffed by Dennis Lambert as head, with part-time staff support from Robbie Rosci. The department is located within the Resource Management Center on the first floor. Needless to say, such a small staff cannot do the big job of collection development without help from faculty and other library staff.                     

The department's main job is to coordinate the selection of materials for the Library. Selection is complicated by the vast number of information resources available, by the number of formats available (electronic resources, books, periodicals and other serials, and microforms), by language, and by the diversity and complexity of the University’s academic programs.

Faculty help the selection effort by reviewing books sent on approval from appropriate vendors, by filling in library request cards, by returning Choice reviews on slips, and by returning vendor notification forms. Requests are also sent electronically from the Library's home page (click on "Request Forms" on the dark bar under the seal, then click on "Requesting a new book for the Library"). Some requests are also made by phone (ext. 9-7966) or e-mail (dennis.lambert@villanova.edu).  Faculty further help by assigning a priority to the book order which helps Dennis to manage the flow of requests within the context of a large, but still limited, materials budget. It is also helpful when faculty indicate if they need to be notified when an item comes and whether the request requires rush treatment.

Other library staff assist with collection development by coordinating selection of materials with the faculty; managing the budget; reviewing approval books; selecting reference titles; selecting periodicals; setting up standing orders; and placing orders for books, media, periodicals, microforms and electronic resources. Other staff process, catalog and store in an organized way all the materials purchased.

In addition to the materials that Falvey Library purchases, there are many gift books to handle. Gifts range from a single volume to several bags or boxes to larger specialized subject collections numbering hundreds or thousands of volumes. Gifts often come from Villanova faculty or alumni, but they also come from non-Villanova scholars or collectors residing in the region. To restrict the overall numbers, not all gifts that are offered are accepted, nor are all volumes donated added to the collection. Many of the volumes not added are bought by area book dealers.

The department also strives to maintain the collection. Some books that are circulated never return, and decisions must be made whether to replace them. Some titles just vanish from the stacks. Other materials that are not circulating and have less value are weeded to make room for newer items or newer editions.

Occasionally, books returned to Falvey Library have gotten wet during their circulation, or they have been roughly handled and some pages are torn, loose, or missing. In other books the paper has become brittle due to heat, light, and many years spent in the Library's stacks. The goal of the preservation program is to make cost effective decisions to retain the information content of damaged books through binding, minor repair, replacement, and reformatting.

Dennis Lambert and Robbie Rosci serve as the Preservation Department staff (see article on Collection Development); Preservation is located in the first floor Resource Management Center, and maintains a small minor repair station in the Library’s bindery.

Preservation is everyone’s job. Proper preservation of library materials requires everyone to handle materials carefully. The Circulation staff help to identify and process damaged or "distressed" books. Shelvers assist by assuring that books and journals are properly arranged on their shelves.

A disaster response team stands ready to handle small wet book disasters in the Library. Falvey’s collection is at risk from roof leaks and water that does not drain properly from the air conditioning system.

The Falvey Library VQI Enhancement Team completed a number of exciting and rewarding projects this past spring and summer. During the spring semester, a project aimed at reducing the amount of graffiti on the library carrels and soft seating was launched. New slogans were devised to discourage students from defacing the furniture. These slogans were attached to each carrel and posted near the soft seating. Also, scratch pads were placed on selected carrels for student use. The furniture will be monitored throughout the coming year and Facilities will be asked to remove any offensive graffiti that may appear. It is hoped that these gentle reminders will help to reduce the amount of graffiti in the Library.

To improve communication between Falvey Library and the WildCard office, the Enhancement Team held a "meet and greet" during the spring semester. Discussion involving daily operations of the Library and the WildCard office was fun and informative and emphasized the importance of open communication between both organizations. In June, Kathy Gallagher returned to give a PowerPoint presentation to the library staff highlighting the many uses of the WildCard.

To provide a nice break from daily routines, two brown bag lunches featuring the "Fish" motivational video were held for the library staff. The film stressed the need to have fun at work and many employees reported feeling better about their jobs after seeing the video. These sessions were well attended and lively discussion followed each time.

The Falvey Library VQI Enhancement Team is comprised of Luisa Cywinski, Chris Foster, Laura Hutelmyer, Jackie Mirabile and Kathy O’Connor.

On July 26 Falvey Memorial Library’s Instructional Media Services Graphics Department hosted a workshop for members of the Tri-state College Library Cooperative (TCLC) Library Exhibits Interest Group. The well-received instructional session offered basics on conceptualizing, organizing and preparing materials for exhibit. Attendees from Rosemont College, Cabrini College, Delaware Valley College, Cheyney University, Villanova University and Montgomery County Community College participated in the morning session, which included a tour of Falvey Library’s current exhibits, hands-on instruction, and take-home written guidelines with a bag of samples. Cathy Fennell, head librarian at Rosemont College, commented that the presentation was "informative and fun. The IMS staff gave many new and useful suggestions." Falvey’s VQI team has asked IMS Graphics to offer the workshop to Falvey staff during semester break in January.

...that you (or your students) can schedule an appointment with a reference librarian to discuss a term paper or research project? Sources, print and/or electronic, and search strategies will be suggested. Click on "Request Forms" from the Library home page (www.library.villanova.edu) and select "Research Appointment with a Reference Librarian" or call Reference (94273).

...that while in the Library you will be asked for your email UserID (LDAP ID) and email password before you can connect to a paid subscription database listed on the Library home page? NOTE: your last name and WildCard number will no longer be used to access databases.

...that CountryWatch.com provides brief general background information and political, economic and environmental overviews of 191 countries. A link to CountryWatch.com is provided under "Databases (A - Z)" on the Library home page.

A successful assessment for two-year old Quest By Merrill D. Stein and Susan B. Markley

As Quest, the information literacy program for the entire first year class, begins its third year, the Information Literacy Committee continues its efforts to evaluate the program’s effectiveness. The two-semester program, developed by Falvey librarians and Core Humanities Seminar faculty, guides students’ research on their own topic using a variety of traditional and non-traditional tools via a Web-based tutorial and instructional sessions allowing for hands-on practice of database searching.

What do Villanova’s incoming students know about gathering and analyzing information? Does Quest actually help? To assess the overall success of such a long-term project, pre- and post-tests were administered to randomly selected CHS sections. These students were asked questions about locating books and journal articles, how to use Boolean logic effectively, and how to evaluate Web content. Answers were tabulated and applied to several standard statistical tests with the help of Joseph Pigeon, department of mathematical sciences.

The statistical findings clearly demonstrate that the effect of this intervention on the first year students’ experience is significant. In particular, the Chi-Square test offered positive evidence of a successful program (X²=65.179, df=1). Additional analysis of individual pre-and post-test questions helped improve the content of the instruction delivered in later sessions. CHS faculty and Falvey librarian feedback were also collected and used for further modifications to the program.

For Quest, the online tutorial, overall test results and responses from individual questions underscored the benefits of the program and its individual components. Together, there was a 22% increase in questions answered correctly in the post-test. Specifically, 71% of all students correctly answered the pre-test questions and 87% correctly answered the same post-test questions.

Although the in-library Quest Strategies sessions showed statistical improvement in the test questions answered correctly, the actual improvement in individual questions was less substantial. Specifically, 30% of the students correctly answered the Strategies pre-test and 59% correctly answered the post-test. It was felt that the responses were still strong enough to confirm the benefits of library instruction and hands-on exercises as effective tools in learning basic skills necessary to seek and evaluate information found in print, electronic and Web resources.

Over the last few months, the Information Literacy Committee refined Quest, utilizing the test results and conclusions from the past year. This fall, the program will be delivered on a WebCT platform, and the pre- and post-tests will become part of the online tutorial itself. This should ease the burden of administering such tests and gathering statistics while increasing the sample size.

The Quest Strategies sessions will be moved to the spring semester and will continue to be held in the Library. Some form of testing will again measure the effectiveness of that component of the program.

Susan B. Markley is head of Periodicals, and Merrill D. Stein is head of Access Services.

Also contributing to this issue of Blueprints: Donna Chadderton, Bernadette Dierkes, Louise Green, Laura Hutelmyer, Dennis Lambert, Judith Olsen and Jacqueline Smith. Photographic credits: Bernadette Dierkes, Steven Dixon and Lorraine Williamson.