Melissa Townsend-Crow
LIBR230
March 7, 2014
Paper_1
“Prepare
a 1500-word (about 6-page) paper and express your opinion on the NYU plan. What
observations can you make about the NYU plan and the OCLC findings? Is NYU
positioning itself successfully to be a leader among North American academic
libraries?”
At first glance, this assignment seems to be to compare the two reports
and see if NYU’s plans mesh with the interpretation of data from the previous
OCLC study. Because NYU surveyed their
own constituents and used the data they collected to prepare their report,
however, I propose that NYU’s plan will be successful for NYU. Of course, a
comparison is appropriate for the purposes of this study and to compare the
data in hopes that NYU might be a model for other universities. To begin the comparison, the OCLC’s report on
student perception is divided into sections:
Libraries and
Information Sources Use, Familiarity and Favorability
In this section, the results of surveys on how many, when, how, and why
students have used both public libraries and campus libraries are reported. Overall,
the results of the research show that out of all respondents, college students
show a higher rate of using the library than the other respondents.
The summary of the results of this survey shows that, although more
students go to physical libraries, they also go to electronic resources first,
primarily through e-mail, search
engines and instant messaging. In fact,
according to the data, 89% of students will start their information search with
a search engine (De Rosa, et. al,
2005, p 1-1).
An interpretation of all the charts, graphs, and statistics show that
college students are most familiar with online search engines and physical
libraries. Google is the most popular of the search engines and Yahoo comes in
second place. These results make sense in light of the fact that the study also
shows that “college students’ usage of
the librarian as a source of information about electronic resources was
the highest among all segments surveyed” (1-9).
Using the Library—In Person and Online
Most of the college students surveyed for this
study reported using the library primarily for doing homework or studying
,using the computer and/or internet, using online databases, using library
reference books, researching specific
reference books, borrowing print books, get copies of articles/journals,
getting assistance with research, borrowing or reading bestsellers. According
to the report,
“College
students’ use of library electronic resources is higher than that of overall
respondents. Use
of library electronic resources among college students at least monthly is
higher in all of the eight categories than that of respondents overall” (2-5).
Perhaps of particular interest to library school
students is that, overall, most of the respondents answered “no” to the
question of whether they had sought library assistance with electronic
resources. The first source of help when it is sought, however, is the human
librarian. Overall, respondents agree that assistance from the librarian was better than assistance
from search engines.
The Library Brand
This section discusses what resources are available and evaluates whether
students and other respondents found these resources reliable and trustworthy.
There is also an examination about which resources are associated with or
“branded” to the library. According to the study, most respondents associate
print books with the library though some responded with “information,”
“education,” or “learning.” Mostly, however, “the overwhelming response is that
the library brand equals books”
total respondents are unaware or unfamiliar with many of the products and
services currently available at the library. Although college students have
more awareness of library electronic resources than respondents overall, many
are not sure what libraries offer. Thirty-two percent of college student
respondents are not sure that their libraries offer electronic journals.
Thirty-one percent are not
sure that their libraries provide online databases. Twenty-three percent
are not sure if their libraries have online reference materials. (3-23-24).
This
result shows that the library has huge potential to be of more assistance if
they can make people aware of the resources beyond books that are available
there.
College
Students’ Advice to Libraries and Perceptions of Potential College Students
When surveyed, most of the respondents, students and others alike, said
that libraries needed more materials, updated materials, better customer
service, and more or better access to computers and/or the internet. Some
students suggested that the libraries do more promotion of their services and
some said that better access to the physical library would be appreciated,
perhaps as in extended hours.
As the OCLC gathered this information on libraries and services for
college students in general, NYU surveyed their own constituents and found much
the same perceptions. As a result of this information they have gathered, the
university has proposed a plan to address the issues they discovered. The NYU research and plan is also divided into
sections:
Library as a Stimulating Environment
In common with the
findings of the OCLC study, NYU found that students wanted the library to be “a
place to study and work that is comfortable, aesthetically pleasing, and welcoming”
(Marcus 2007 p11). In addition, the library needs to meet these needs for a
diverse community, including providing space for those who are working
collaboratively and those who are doing solitary research.
Evolving Resources, Tools, Modes of Access
Again, with a diverse
constituency which spans disciplines and departmental curricula, there is a
need for both physical and virtual/digital resources. Some of the faculty and
students surveyed said they only used the library for online journal articles
and databases while others used the internet to order physical books and other
print materials to pick up at the library and still others used the print
materials. Several of the partons interviewed brought up the value of
serendipity or “browsing.” This writer concurs with the respondents who said,
“Serendipity is a critical reason why libraries should never lose their books.
Besides that, the only other reason is the smell of old books” and, ”Electronic
search interfaces will never mimic serendipity … “ (p 16). Others who were
surveyed preferred what they considered the more efficient method of browsing
the online catalog and having materials pulled for their retrieval.
Recommendations and Plans for Implementation
Most of the responses NYU
received were very similar to the results found by OCLC. The plan NYU has
created to meet the needs expressed by their constituents may not work for
every library, but the plan does address some of the common needs. The plan was
accomplished in three phases. The first phase was gathering information and
interpreting the data to recognize the information needs of the university
population. The survey conducted and discussed above was part of this phase as
was a review of the literature and research into trends at other universities
and their libraries. Once the information was collected, phase two began and
the team tested the insights gained through the information they gathered in
phase one. According to the report, “Phase 2 also involved formulating objectives for ideas
and recommendations in which the team determined a core set of objectives for
changes to the library’s space and services” (p10). So, in phase one, the data
was collected was interpreted. In phase, it was tested and hypotheses were
made, ideas received and inspiration acted upon. In phase three, the ideas and
innovations were formulated into recommendations which, ideally, would create
the library for NYU to meet the diverse needs of the university and research
community. It is a start and a pretty good example fpr other iuniversities to
follow. The recommendations for NYU’s Brobst library are as follows:
1.
Improve and expand spaces for work
2.
Enable collaboration and connections across separate disciplines
3.
Make the discovery process more powerful
4.
Expand beyond traditional conceptions of the library
5.
Create more spaces and mechanisms for inspiration
Conclusion
The
question was raised, Is NYU positioning itself successfully to be a leader
among North American academic libraries? In the opinion of this writer, the
responses to questions asked of the NYU community were similar to those
reported by OCLC and recorded in that report. The NYU report offers viable
recommendations and a timeline for implementation. Furthermore, the NYU recommendations
are germane to their constituency and may not work in every – or even any other – college or university
library. However, if other individual academic libraries were to conduct
such a thorough study of their own
constituencies and make recommendations that would meet not only the
general but specific to the community
library and information expectations and needs, then yes; in this writer’s opinion, NYU would be setting
the example of a leader, not only in North America, but wherever there is a
university or college with a library to follow its example.
References
De Rosa,
C. (2006). College students' perceptions of libraries and information
resources: A report to the OCLC membership OCLC.
Marcus,
C., Covert-Vail, L., & Mandel, C. A. (2007). NYU 21st Century library
project: Designing a research library of the future for New York University:
Report of a study of faculty and graduate student needs for research and
teaching. Retrieved March 07, 2014
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