|
|
Annual Report, 2003/2004
North Carolina State University Libraries
PROGRAMS
A. Changes in Scope of Activities
Special Achievements. *With support and leadership
from the Provosts and advice from the faculties and students at NC State,
UNC-Chapel Hill, and Duke University, the NCSU Libraries, in concert with
Triangle Research Libraries Network partners, acted decisively to regain
and maintain control over library collecting decisions and manage costs by
terminating the consortial arrangement with Reed Elsevier for electronic
access to its bundled journal package. The action followed months of renewal
negotiations with Elsevier. * The Libraries enjoyed its best year in hiring
librarians from underrepresented groups. Four of seven new hires from national
searches are minority librarians. The Libraries’ current complement
of librarians who identify as minorities comprises 5 percent Black, 5 percent
Hispanic, 3 percent Asian, and 3 percent Native American. This breadth of
diversity makes the Libraries a truly multicultural environment. *The Libraries
gained statewide acclaim and national recognition this year by hosting three
major public events: The Pulitzer Prize Photographs: Capture the Moment,
a stunning traveling exhibition; the North Carolina Literary Festival; and Requiem:
By the Photographers Who Died in Vietnam and Indochina. Because of the
students’ and faculty’s enthusiasm for these events, the Libraries
will seek similar opportunities to present special programs. *The pace of
award-winning recognition for the NCSU Libraries and its staff increased
during the past year. Notable among the awards are: NCSU’s First Year
College selected the NCSU Libraries’ Research and Information Department
for its First Year Student Advocate Award 2003/2004, and the Libraries won
the 2004 Gale Group Award for Excellence in Reference and Adult Services
awarded by the Reference and User Services Association, a division of the
American Library Association (ALA). *The NCSU Libraries retained position
32 in the Association of Research Libraries rankings of its North American
university research library members. The university’s goal is to achieve
a ranking among the top 25.
Advancement of Teaching and Learning through the Digital Library
- The Scholarly Communication Center, a part of the Libraries’ Learning
and Research Center for the Digital Age, added the Copyright Ownership
Tutorial (http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/scc/tutorial/index.html)
to its popular web tutorial series. Based on the Copyright Use and Ownership
Policy of the University of North Carolina and the North Carolina State
University Administrative Regulation on Copyright Implementation, the tutorial
will familiarize NC State University faculty, staff, and students with
copyright ownership questions concerning works created during employment
or enrollment at the University.
- A Digital Library development team has been created within the Learning
and Research Center for the Digital Age to work on an NCSU implementation
of the DSpace software, developed by MIT and Hewlett Packard to support
implementation of a digital repository to store and provide access to the
library’s growing digital collections.
- The NCSU Libraries' newly enhanced and redesigned public web resource,
Congressional Bibliographies (http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/congbibs/),
won the 2004 Gale Group Award for Excellence in Reference and Adult Services
presented by ALA. The award (including a $3000 cash prize) recognizes NCSU
Libraries for having developed “an imaginative and unique resource.”
- A major digitization project undertaken this year will significantly
enhance access to images depicting NCSU’s rich history. Selected
photographs from the University Archives collection are being preserved,
digitized, and cataloged. The Libraries hired its first metadata librarian
who collaborates with archives staff on the project, and implemented the
Luna Insight image management and viewing software to support this as well
as other digital image collections. The library also acquired an eight-terabyte
storage solution to accommodate its digital collections.
- In partnership with Professor Elisabeth Wheeler, College of Natural
Resources, the Libraries is creating a web-accessible database of wood
anatomy features and images. An NSF grant of $270,000 supports this project
over a two-year period, ending in 2005.
- In order to extend virtual reference service until midnight on Sunday
through Thursday nights, for an additional 15 hours of service per week
in the fall and spring semesters, the Research and Information Services
Department participated in a Collaborative Virtual Reference pilot project
with UNC-CH and Duke librarians.
Library Collections
- In a difficult University budget environment, the NCSU Libraries took
a 5.6 percent cut in its collections allocation for 2003/2004. For the
first time in almost a decade, the collections budget of $8,747,362 reflected
a significant reduction ($511,765) from the previous year’s allocation.
The Libraries’ purchasing power was decreased as well by approximately
$350,000 due to inflation.
- The Special Collections Research Center acquired seven new manuscript
collections and added significantly to five existing collections, including
the archives of Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society. In April, the
Libraries opened an exhibit documenting the history of Sigma Xi. The opening
day was celebrated with a reception attended by national and local officers
of Sigma Xi, members of Sigma Xi, and library staff, and marked what will
be a continuing collaboration to preserve and make accessible important
records of the history of science.
- In support of library preservation projects, the Libraries received
a National Endowment for the Humanities-funded SOLINET grant of $45,000
to microfilm materials on the history of textiles in the South.
Improved Access to and Delivery of Information
- Use of the Libraries’ website continued to increase. Users asked
for over 14,870,500 page views from June 2003 to May 2004, an 18 percent
increase over last year.
- A very popular new service is reference linking, where database users
can click on a full text link and be taken directly to the full text of
articles in the library’s collection. In the last year, users clicked
on the full text link over 313,000 times. The library implemented SFX software
from Ex Libris to support this capability.
Campus Community The Libraries’ NC State University
Authors Database, which provides a web-accessible record of publications
by faculty and other authors at NCSU, expanded from just over 14,200 to nearly
16,000 citations for articles, books, and patents. This represents works
by over 6,358 authors.
B. Volume of Activities: NCSU Libraries Statistics (02/03, 01/02, 97/98,
92/93)
Collection Statistics
| Year |
Volumes in Library |
Volumes Added (Gross) |
No. of Serial Subscriptions |
Microform Units |
E-Resources Owned/Leased |
| 02/03 |
3,210,612 |
78,432 |
(a) 51,209 |
5,226,179 |
(a) 116,676 |
| 01/02 |
3,143,738 |
101,154 |
(a) 52,769 |
5,006,819 |
(a) 82,042 |
| 97/98 |
2,713,146 |
103,907 |
35,194 |
4,752,758 |
9,633 |
| 92/93 |
1,485,041 |
48,781 |
15,053 |
2,893,815 |
2 |
Library Services
| Year |
User Visits to Library |
Total Circulations |
Instructional Sessions/Students |
Reference Transactions |
Laptop Loans |
| 02/03 |
1,573,192 |
(b) 788,210 |
691 / 16,144 |
76,550 |
16,718 |
| 01/02 |
1,716,238 |
972,868 |
525 / 12,244 |
89,828 |
8,421 |
| 97/98 |
1,782,700 |
477,443 |
424 / 5,484 |
132,850 |
n/a |
| 92/93 |
1,951,125 |
396,369 |
288 / 5,020 |
113,918 |
n/a |
Library Services (continued), Expenditures, and ARL Ranking
| Year |
Items Loaned to External Organizations |
Items Borrowed from External Organizations |
Expenditures ($) on Library Materials |
Total Library Expenditures ($) |
ARL Index/Rank |
| 02/03 |
14,377 |
21,585 |
9,169,105 |
(c) 26,790,033 |
32 out of 113 |
| 01/02 |
12,559 |
21,339 |
7,781,023 |
(c) 24,707,755 |
32 out of 114 |
| 97/98 |
18,536 |
14,043 |
7,081,355 |
17,210,758 |
37 out of 111 |
| 92/93 |
33,959 |
7,012 |
4,236,505 |
10,413,684 |
90 out of 108 |
For footnotes, see Appendix A at end.
C. Special Achievements of Significance
The NCSU Libraries:
- raised approximately $2,000,000 in private monetary gifts and in-kind
donations – a 100 percent increase over previous years.
- awarded Karl F. Bowman, associate professor of equine surgery in the
Department of Clinical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, the 2003
NCSU Libraries Faculty Award for his unfailing support of the Libraries
and outstanding leadership of the University Library Committee, especially
with regard to fundraising, library space needs, and scholarly communication
issues.
- presented The Pulitzer Prize Photographs: Capture the Moment, a stunning
traveling exhibition featuring 125 prize-winning images dating from 1942
through 2003. The exhibit opened in the D. H. Hill Library on the NC State
campus on September 19 and ran through December 31, 2003. Over 500,000
students, faculty, and visitors came to see the exhibit, which was recognized
as being among the “Ten Best Art Exhibits of 2003” and “The
Best of Visual Arts 2003” by local newspapers.
- hosted the 2004 North Carolina Literary Festival (NCLF) from April 15-18.
The Festival attracted an audience of thousands of patrons, featured nearly
100 southern writers, and provided readers of all ages and backgrounds
with the unique opportunity to meet and interact with some of their favorite
published authors. The NCLF convened prominent as well as emerging writers
with their audience, leaving no reader behind. With that in mind, every
aspect of the three-day festival was free to the public.
- involved hundreds of North Carolina students around the state in grades
K-8 in a statewide art contest to advance promotions for the NCLF. Every
school in North Carolina was invited to participate in a bookmark contest.
More than 50 schools responded and over 900 students participated.
- held well-attended Friends of the Library events, including the 2003
Fall Luncheon featuring John Balaban, NC State’s poet-in-residence
and professor of English in the Creative Writing Program; a Pulitzer Prize
photographs exhibition Gala Opening Reception in October that was attended
by more than 150 guests, curator Cyma Rubin, and five Pulitzer Prize-winning
photographers; special presentations in December by two Pulitzer Prize-winning
women photographers, Annie Wells and Stephanie Walsh; and special receptions
for speakers Alice Walker (author of The Color Purple) and Dennis Lehane
(author of Mystic River), both award-winning novelists, who opened the
North Carolina Literary Festival at NC State in April.
- presented the photography exhibit, Requiem: By the Photographers Who
Died in Vietnam and Indochina at D. H. Hill Library from February - May
2004.
- held a successful 2004 I. T. Littleton Seminar. National Public Radio
reference librarian Kee Malesky addressed information access in a news
media environment.
D. Special Program Reviews, Studies or Plans
Library staff:
- evaluated the feasibility of enhancing security at D. H. Hill Library,
in accordance with the 2004 Campus Security Task Force report, and provided
recommendations to the Provost.
- participated on the Learning in a Technology-Rich Environment (LITRE)
Team and Steering Committee and contributed to the development of the LITRE
Quality Enhancement Plan, presented to SACS in spring 2004.
II. COMPACT PLAN: Major Initiatives
- Recruitment and Retention: *This year NC State developed
a new regulation for Special Faculty Ranks and Appointments. This regulation
governs librarians, lecturers, field faculty, and other non-tenure track
faculty. The adoption of this policy was particularly important for librarians,
as it corrected the erroneous application of the EPA professional (non-faculty)
policy to librarians. Special faculty status is critical to NC State’s
ability to compete for qualified librarians at a time of a worldwide and
growing market shortage. However, improvements must be made to salaries,
as NC State librarians, suffering from another year of no raises, have
fallen to the bottom of our peer groups.
*The Libraries is participating in an innovative national lateral entry
program with the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR), Bringing
Scholars into Academic Library Careers. In 2003 CLIR, in conjunction with
a consortium of academic research libraries including NCSU, announced a
new program of post-doctoral fellowships in scholarly information resources
for humanists. These fellowships will educate new scholars about the challenges
and opportunities created by new forms of scholarly research and information
resources, both traditional and digital, and prepare them for emerging
career paths in research libraries. NCSU Libraries worked with the College
of Humanities and Social Sciences and Dean Linda Brady to develop a fellowship
proposal to support humanities research with advanced information technologies,
and will be one of ten libraries to host a fellow beginning in fall 2004.
*In addition, the Libraries will host a doctoral fellow from UNC-CH School
of Library and Information Science to prepare future professors to mentor
and develop academic librarians. This program is funded by an award of
$496,370 from the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) to the
TRLN libraries in partnership with the School of Library and Information
Science. Grant funding provides five doctoral fellows with a two-year stipend
of $25,000 per year combined with a 20-hour per week research assignment
in a TRLN library.
*The NCSU Libraries took the lead in developing another grant application
with its TRLN partners that, if awarded, will fund initiatives to attract
undergraduate and secondary school students to librarianship. The grant
proposal to IMLS for $472,450 will support internship positions and recruitment
efforts targeting students from minority populations and those with science
and technology background or potential, areas which are severely underrepresented
in librarianship. These initiatives are part of NCSU Libraries’ effort
to contribute to the development of qualified librarians for the future
of NC State and for the future of the profession.
- The Libraries’ Space Needs: *Working with the
Library Building Committee, project architects, and Facilities Planning
and Design, staff developed detailed plans for the Bond I-funded D. H.
Hill Library East Wing Renovation project. While this renovation will increase
available seating by 15 percent, the Libraries will remain significantly
below recognized standards for student seats.
*Coordinated the move of over 200,000 monographs and 5,000 boxes of Special
Collections material to the Satellite Shelving Facility, effectively filling
this on-campus facility to capacity. Staff also organized a move of 9,000
boxes of library material to the Duke University Library Service Center
to relieve severely overcrowded conditions at D. H. Hill Library, which
is operating at 53 percent over capacity.
*Developed plans for over 50 library staff members to move to a swing-space
building on Brickhaven Drive for more than 18 months during the D. H. Hill
renovation. Staff will move late fall 2004.
*In light of space (and security) issues, and to ensure student access,
the University Library Committee recommended imposing some limits on access
and use of the Libraries’ patron computers. The Libraries now requires
user authentication at patron computers, and has limited the number of
computers available to the general public.
- Partnerships: NC LIVE: The Libraries continued in the
partnership with public/private universities and colleges, community colleges,
and public libraries to support and offer NC LIVE, a statewide electronic
resource project. Accomplishments this year included the continued successful
implementation of the outreach program, where over the course of three
years, NC LIVE librarians visit each member library in the state.
III. DIVERSITY: INITIATIVES AND PROGRESS
- The Libraries had its best year in hiring librarians from underrepresented
groups. Four of seven new hires from national searches are minority librarians.
Data for combined EPA/SPA hires in 2003/2004 show that 18 percent of appointments
to permanent positions were made to persons from underrepresented populations.
The Libraries’ current complement of librarians who identify as minorities
comprises 5 percent Black, 5 percent Hispanic, 3 percent Asian, and 3 percent
Native American. This breadth of diversity makes the Libraries a truly
multicultural environment.
- The Libraries, working with a nationally prominent facilitator, conducted
an assessment of the NCSU Libraries Fellows program in the fall of 2003.
The program targets the best new librarians with potential for science,
engineering, or digital librarianship, or library management, and librarians
from underrepresented populations. Of the 21 Fellows who have completed
the program, 95 percent have gone on to academic library appointments (10
at NC State) and/or entered doctoral programs in the field. In the past
three years, 25 percent of Fellows appointments were made to minority librarians,
a very significant achievement in a profession where minority librarians
are only 12 percent of the population in libraries belonging to the Association
of Research Libraries.
- Liz Burnette was selected to participate as a mentee in the 2003/2004
Association of Research Libraries Leadership and Career Development Program.
The program is designed to increase the number of librarians from underrepresented
racial and ethnic groups in positions of influence and leadership in research
libraries by helping them develop the skills needed to be more competitive
in the promotion process.
- With the other TRLN libraries, the NCSU Libraries co-sponsored a training
session, Library Services for Diverse Populations, for staff responsible
for planning and providing public service. Tracie D. Hall, Director of
the Office for Diversity and the Spectrum Initiative at the American Library
Association, taught this session.
IV. STAFF
A. Major New Appointments
Jeanne M. Hammer (formerly Budget Director and Coordinator of Capital Projects
at the University of Virginia Library) as Assistant Director for Finance
and Administration; Todd J. Kosmerick (formerly Assistant Curator, Carl Albert
Center, University of Oklahoma) as University Archivist; Rob Rucker (currently
the Libraries’ Head of Distance Learning Services) also as Administrative
Librarian for Public Services.
The NCSU Libraries welcomed three new Fellows into its two-year Fellowship
Program: Steven McCann, Michele Shular, and Bonnie Tijerina.
B. Kudos, Professional Activities and Recognition
This year the Libraries and its staff achieved the following noteworthy
awards, honors, and appointments: Eric Anderson won an NCSU 2004 University
Award for Excellence; Tamika Barnes was a recipient of the Special Libraries
Association President’s Award; June Brotherton, upon her retirement
from the Libraries, was awarded the Order of the Longleaf Pine by Governor
Michael F. Easley; Debra L.Currie was elected to the Agricultural Network
Information Center Executive Board; Karen M. Letarte was a co-recipient of
the 2004 Samuel Lazerow Fellowship; Eve Mitt received an all-expenses paid
student grant from the North American Serials Interest Group (NASIG) to attend
the 2004 NASIG Annual Conference; Andrew K. Pace was elected Director-at-Large
of the Library and Information Technology Association and was appointed to
co-chair the leadership team of the NISO MetaSearch Initiative; Jacqueline
P. Samples was a co-recipient of the 2004 Samuel Lazerow Fellowship with
Karen M. Letarte, and also won a 2004 Digital Library Federation Fellowship;
The Libraries’ Research and Information Services Department won NCSU’s
2003/2004 First Year Student Advocate Award; The NCSU Libraries won the 2004
Gale Group Award for Excellence in Reference and Adult Services.
V. RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCERNS FOR THE FUTURE
- To remedy the Libraries’ severe space problems and meet University
of North Carolina library-seating standards, a new, additional library
building on the Centennial Campus is the most effective long-term solution.
The Libraries’ Master Plan has received approval. Ensuring the inclusion
of the Libraries’ funding needs in the next university bond package
will be critical.
- Recruitment and retention of information professionals continues to
be a daunting challenge due to the worldwide market shortage of librarians.
The ability to offer competitive salaries is the primary concern, especially
as 2003/2004 is the third year in a row in which there have been no raises
for the staff. Librarian pay at NCSU has fallen to the bottom of our peer
group.
- Due to severe inflationary pressure, which has eroded library purchasing
power by about 8 to 10 percent ($500,000+) every year for the past five
years, the Libraries’ collection budget needs to be shored up by
new sources of funding. Throughout the past decade, faculty and students
have emphasized that a strong research collection is a top priority to
support NCSU’s missions of research, teaching, and extension and
engagement.
- Pending litigation still threatens to redirect receipts from library
fines collected since 1996/1997 to the county school system. This case
is not yet settled. In a worst-case scenario, NC State will forfeit approximately
$650,000 (retrospectively to 1996/1997) to the school system. The University
administration’s support is needed, especially to help deal with
any crippling costs.
Appendix A: Footnotes to NCSU Libraries Statistics
|
|
 |
