Kaua‘i community college

Library

The mission of the library is to provide an intellectually stimulating environment for the college community by providing a variety of resources and services that promote the development of critical thinking and information literacy skills. This aligns with the college mission of “providing education in a caring, student-focused and intellectually stimulating environment.”

To support the college’s mission, the library relies heavily on faculty for recommending resources to support their curriculum. The book selection process permits instructors to participate actively in the collection development process by selecting library materials that are supportive of student learning. By means of book reviews, publishers’ catalogs, and personal recommendations, faculty assist librarians in selecting books in their disciplines. Faculty are also consulted when selecting online resources mentioned under Standard II.C.1.
All librarians are assigned subject areas in which they are responsible for the collection development of those areas and they are also subject specialist liaisons between the library and the corresponding instructional division. Since 2003 the librarians have attended instructional division meetings once a semester as liaisons between the library and divisions. This presents an opportunity for the library to address needs and concerns from the divisions and to let the divisions know that there is a subject specialist available that can be conferred with for division support.
The library houses a lab with 8 computers and 10 laptops are available for use within the library. Nine more computers are used for public access to library catalogs, online databases and web resources. One computer is devoted to receiving interlibrary loans through the Ariel System and there are a total of 8 faculty/staff computers within the library. All of these computers and networks are maintained by computer services. In addition to computers, there are two copiers (one color) for student use and three microfilm reader/printers.

The Learning Center

The Learning Center offers computer support and technological assistance to students with its 22 computers. The computers are upgraded on a regular schedule and maintained by Computer Services. The lab also includes a data projector. Currently, TLC is in the process of purging outdated software and materials, and will replace these as funding permits.

Instructional Technology
The Instructional Technologist has researched, deployed, and administered a computer-supported collaborative learning environment allowing faculty and students to create and access computer-mediated resources. Instructors are using this web-based environment as an adjunct to face-to face and distance education courses. This collaborative learning environment consists of a web based IT help desk with links to tutorials, references, and computer applications. Two instant messaging systems (both text and audio) are available for collaborative interactions. A wiki-wiki, and a computer-assisted constructivist learning environment (Fle3) are also available.
The close proximity of TLC and Instructional Technology enhances the collaborative efforts between both units in supporting student and faculty needs. The Instructional Technologist has located free computer programs that have been downloaded in the network and accessible in TLC. Students can also download these programs from a remote site.

Computer Services

The unit plans for and updates the campus technology infrastructure to provide computer access to faculty, students and staff. The college has a 4-year computer replacement schedule and a $50,000 a year budget. This schedule allows for the staggered replacement of all computer systems every 4 years. Computer Services works with the Information Technology Advisory Committee (ITAC), which is made up of instructors and non-instructors from the college to implement the Information Technology Strategic Plan (ITSP). The plan, approved by the College Council in March 2005, prioritizes technology goals and establishes a timeline for implementation through Spring 2007 (Computer Service Program Review – Prioritized Goals and Action Plans for Fall 2004 Through Spring 2007).

Media Services

Currently 12 out of 44 classrooms on campus have DVD playback capability. The campus, however, still has many pieces of outdated equipment. There has been an increasing demand for data projectors for classroom use. Almost all of the existing projectors have been supplied by grants.
Self Evaluation

Library

The Library uses student surveys (given every semester to students in library research classes), faculty surveys (2000 and 2005), a faculty focus group (2005), and analysis of library collection statistics on age and subject coverage to evaluate the Library’s collections.

Although the numbers are not high, some KCC students and distance students express more dissatisfaction with the Library’s book collections than for its other resources or services. The age of the collection seems to be the primary reason for their dissatisfaction, based on the comments at the end of the survey. In Fall 2004, 13 percent of 232 students surveyed were either “dissatisfied” or “very dissatisfied” with the book collection. In Spring 2005, 12 percent of students surveyed were dissatisfied (Library Program Review – Appendix 2 – KCC Library Student Surveys – Fall 2004, Spring 2005).
KCC faculty members were surveyed on their satisfaction with library resources and services in the Fall 2005 semester. The book and audio visual (A-V) collections rated the lowest level of dissatisfaction. The few comments on the surveys indicated the faculty wanted more and newer resources, especially A-V items. The participants in the Library Focus Group, held in April 2005, weren’t sure about the currency or adequacy of the collection as compared with other colleges, but recommended a more active acquisition program. The participants mentioned the benefits of a strengthened collection of DVDs and videos. They liked the Hawai‘i-Pacific collection and were satisfied with the web pages and the online databases. They recognized that they should take an active part in the collection process (Library Program Review – Appendix 23 – Library Focus Group Questions).

Resources	Very Satisfied	Satisfied	Dissatisfied	Very Dissatisfied	Did Not Use
Books	8%	58%	15%	0	19%
Print Journals	4%	69%	8%	0	19%
Online Databases	34%	31%	0	0	35%
Library Web Pages	27%	42%	0	0	31%
Videos & DVDs	7%	53%	20%	7%	13%

(Library Program Review –Appendix 29-Faculty Survey)
To address the need to update the collection, a new library collection development plan was completed in Summer 2005 that replaced the old collection guidelines (1980s). This plan will serve as a basic guideline in the selection of new materials and weeding of outdated items from the library’s collection. The collection analysis statistics (on the age and subject distribution of the collection) and faculty and librarian input on potential book and other material purchases, will be used to insure that current and proposed programs/courses will be supported with appropriate library resources (Library Program Review – Appendix 9 – Library Collection Development Policy and Appendix 11 – Kaua‘i Community College Collection Age Analysis Statistics 2006). By faculty request (Library Program Review – Library Focus Group report, 2005), the library has re-instituted a system in which book reviews on printed cards (Choice Book Reviews) are routed to faculty selectors from each Division on a regular schedule.

Since the last accreditation self study, the library’s book collection has increased in size and there has been a significant median age shift in many of the subject areas of the collection when the 2000 study is compared with the 2004 study. The top 12 subject areas (according to Library of Congress Classification numbers) that showed the most significant increase in median age levels from 2000 to 2004 ranged from 5 to 12 years. There was an additional year or two increase with the 2005 study. All twelve-subject areas have 300 or more titles in the collection at the time of the first study in 2000. What these studies reveal is that there has been a positive and significant shift in the median age levels of the book collection (Library Program Review – Appendix 12 – Ranking of Median Age of Book Collection by Subject Areas 2001-2005).

Although this is a positive statistic, it is not indicative of the source of the new acquisitions. With a very small book budget for the past several years, the library has looked to other sources for books and other library materials. Donations from other libraries, organizations, and individuals have been the source of most of the new book acquisitions. Other means of obtaining books and A-V materials have been though fundraising activities such as the annual used book sale and through grant writing efforts for Perkins and Title III funding to develop the READ Collection (a vocational and general book collection for students whose reading skills are below college level); two University of Hawai‘i SEED Diversity grants for DVDs; and funds to purchase a microfilm reader/scanner and laptop computers). Without a reliable source of funding to purchase new books on a regular schedule, often faculty and librarian recommendations are out of print by the time leftover year-end funds are released.
Other parts of the collection have been downsized due to budget concerns and technology. Within the past five years the microfilm collection has been reduced from 12,000+ reels to half that number. This has been largely due not only to deterioration of the reels but also the datedness of the holdings and the decision to drop the subscription to certain titles.
Periodical subscriptions have also been reduced to 169 titles due to cost and change in priority levels but more recently because of overlap in coverage with full-text online databases. The movement to electronic resources can be further illustrated with the decision by the nursing program director that elected to drop certain print subscriptions and to share costs with the library for a full-text nursing/medical database that covered those print titles and more. There has been a steady increase in usage of the Library’s electronic subscription databases over the past two years as evidenced in the number of searches on the EBSCO databases almost tripling from 5918 in 2002-2003 to 17430 in 2005-2006 (Trends in EBSCO Usage, April 2006). Interlibrary loan requests for articles have also dropped because of access to subscription full-text databases (Library Program Review – Interlibrary Loan statistics).
Another major component of the library’s collection has been significantly reduced due to burgeoning electronic technology. This is the general pamphlet or vertical file index. Once heavily used before the Internet, these materials are now readily found on the Internet. Only the Hawaiiana and occupational pamphlet materials have been retained in the collection.
The incorporation of more computers into the library has been an active response to student demands for more computers on campus and access to them. Currently there are 15 desktop computers and 9 laptops available in the library. There is a current need to add more peripherals (i.e. floppy disk drives and power cords) to match the available laptops.