AnD reWArDs
Patricia Hernas and Timothy Karas
Partnering has become the mantra and mania for many organizations over the past decade. Partnerships have flourished for many disparate reasons; however, two overarching themes become apparent: “to do more with less or to do some- thing entirely different than their existing resource base permits” (Bergquist 1995, 11) and “to survive in these turbulent times, organizations must be nimble, adaptable, and. . . . People and organizations must recognize their deep interde- pendence” (Bergquist 1995, 12). Over traditional hierarchical structures, effec- tive partnerships allow organizations to be responsive to the forces of change and to more efficiently use limited human and fiscal resources.
Within the overarching framework of forming strategic partnerships, aca- demic libraries forge campus partnerships for several specific reasons: furthering institutional goals, building relationships with key client groups, and creating strategic opportunities to obtain additional funding. Often these reasons and subsequent activities overlap. For example, building a relationship with a spe- cific department to increase use of the library might result in additional fund- ing to purchase specialized material. Supporting the college’s mission to reach out to a specific underserved community group by participating in events and activities might increase administration’s support toward building library col- lections and services needed to enhance academic efforts for that targeted population.
While there are many commonalities among libraries, there are significant differences too. Being regionally located, private or public, or two- or four-year programs are important factors that shape the challenges and opportunities that influence the types of partnerships that can be formed. Much has been writ- ten about partnership and collaborative efforts in large academic libraries, and smaller academic libraries can learn from these examples. However, smaller
public academic institutions have unique challenges, and this is especially true for community colleges.
Following is a brief summary of the colleges profiled in this chapter that de- scribes partnership and collaborations between the library and faculty, adminis- trators, and students at several colleges in the San Francisco Bay Area. Each of these institutions is briefly described to help better understand the institution’s circumstances and the challenges of the particular small academic library. These statistics are from “California Library Statistics 2005” (B: 1–2).
College of san mateo Library (Fy2003/04) san mateo County Community College district Number of Colleges in District: 3
Students: 24,067
Faculty (FTE): 3.1
Classified Staff (FTE): 6.3
Administrator: 1
Circulation: 34,909
Total Operating Budget: $744,601 evergreen Valley College Library (Fy2003/04) san Jose evergreen Community College district Number of Colleges in District: 2
Students: 14,432
Faculty (FTE): 4.3
Classified Staff (FTE): 6.0
Administrator: 1
Circulation: 30,057
Total Operating Budget: $876,792 menlo College Library (Fy2003/04)
Private academic (4 year)
Students: 629
Faculty (FTE): 4.0
Classified Staff (FTE): 5.5
Administrator: 1
Circulation: 3,745
Total Operating Budget: $427,864 mission College Library (Fy2003/04)
West Valley mission Community College district Number of Colleges in District: 2
Students: 11,093
Faculty (FTE): 4.0
Classified Staff (FTE): 6.0
Administrator: 1
Circulation: 20,737
Total Operating Budget: $905,913 sMALL ACADeMIC LIBrArIes CAn PArtner
With librarians and staff straining to provide standard services to faculty, stu- dents, and staff, how can a smaller academic library find the time and energy required to initiate and forge strong partnerships across campus? It is impor- tant to realize that without such partnerships the library is in danger of being marginalized—with collections unable to keep pace with the needs of the cur- riculum and outdated service delivery methodologies unable to support the needs of distance education students. Let us examine examples of what some small aca- demic libraries are doing to forge collaboration and partnerships across the campus by building on already established activities or standard operating procedures.
Integrate with Existing Campus Activities
Partnerships are most often enjoined because each party is aware of the other and can identify mutual benefits through working cooperatively. Advertising the library and its services is important so that students and faculty are continually reminded of the benefits of the library; this keeps the library in the forefront when defining new potential partnering opportunities. Open houses, events, speakers’
series, workshops, and fliers are some ways to advertise the library; however, with few staff and limited time, how can the library use events to advertise its value?
Most easily the smaller library can take full advantage of existing campus activi- ties sponsored by academic departments and student groups. Thus, the time to plan and implement a campuswide event is borne mainly by other groups.
Several times a year, various groups at colleges organize and host campuswide events. Some of these could be holiday related and sponsored by the student government or other groups. Often a student services department will organize events that highlight and advertise diverse offerings such as financial aid, student employment, health services, tutoring services, and the like. These provide an excellent opportunity for library collaboration. The library could provide host space where appropriate or simply help advertise the event through signs and fli- ers. These events also are excellent places for the library to advertise its services.
Student Services Events
At Mission College, the library was exploring various ways to encourage stu- dents to come into the library. As a commuter college, like many community colleges, students often come on campus for only a class or two. Early in the fall term, the student services department hosts a campuswide Student Success Fair in which the library decided to actively participate. To entice students to stop
by the library’s table, a drawing was held for prepaid print cards. The table was shared with the Extended Opportunity Program and Services (EOPS) and near the Counseling Center’s table. Not only did students learn about the library and its services as they filled out the entry forms for the drawing, but librarians made contacts with counselors and staff at the EOPS group. These two programs touch a large percentage of students. Giving these departments an insight into the pro- grams and services offered by the library to students allows them to in turn inform students and encourage them to “hit the library” while on campus.
Evergreen Valley College celebrates Kicks It Outside each semester in which all departments set up booths and activities across the entire campus. Academic departments, student groups, and the student government all participate in the full-day event. The library has a large presence at this event and uses it as a key method of communicating services to the student body. Fliers and bookmarks are handed out, and a large display is set up. Librarians are there to chat with students and faculty who stop by.
Articles
The library can take advantage of any ongoing campuswide communications.
The Counseling Department at Mission College publishes a newsletter, Counsel- ing Connections, twice a semester, and the library has an article in each issue.
The library takes advantage of the Counseling Department’s efforts to produce and publish an approximately six-page glossy newsletter. Often campuses have some sort of master calendar of events that the library can take advantage of to advertise any programming activity or other events, such as special hours during finals week.
Faculty Workshop
Kicking off each semester at Evergreen Valley College is Instructional Im- provement Day, organized by the dean of instruction. Using this opportunity to reach specific faculty groups, the library hosts a workshop highlighting services and collection materials around a specific theme. Using the theme of teaching ethnically diverse students, the library showcases databases that help faculty find tips for working with these student groups, print collections that could be utilized in class assignments, and other specific materials that would be helpful. The li- brary has been hosting such workshops for several semesters, and normally 30 to 40 faculty members attend. The dean of instruction’s office organizes the entire day, and faculty members are expected to be on campus, so the overhead for the library to offer a workshop is very minimal for a large benefit.
Institutional Initiatives
Libraries need to identify large institutional initiatives that will be ben- eficial partners. Most of the time, these initiatives started without any formal
participation from the library department and required the library to repackage its resources and services in a way meaningful to the initiative. Mission College has received a five-year U.S. Department of Education Title V grant. The grant’s focus is “Improving Access and Success for Hispanic and Other Underserved Students.” Key components of this grant include outreach, improving learning outcomes, and developing a more welcoming environment for Hispanic and underserved communities. The library’s mission and goals easily dovetail with the components of this grant. By presenting a proposal to the campus advisory committee, the library has been able to secure funding to purchase two data- bases (EthnicNews Watch and Enciclopedia Universal en Espanol) and English-as-a- second-language books and textbooks. Additionally, the Title V project conducted a qualitative needs assessment for its Latino outreach efforts. One of the conclu- sions in the report was that “Mission College’s library and science building are wonderful assets that could be shown off at Open House events for local high school students and their parents” (Mission College 2006, 16). Being investi- gated are ways to further integrate library resources, programs, and services under the Title V umbrella.
Community and Workforce Education
Mission College is one of eight regional health occupations resource centers (RHORCs) as part of the California Community College Health Care Initiative and represents the Bay Area. RHORCSs provide collaboration opportunities be- tween health care employers and education providers from all segments. Services offered include needs assessments, job analyses, curricula and resource develop- ment, training, certification testing, and employee referrals to health care indus- try employers (California Community Colleges Health Occupations 2006, n.p.).
Students enrolled in RHORC activities do not fall within the traditional col- lege matriculation process and tuition structure. RHORC services are offered via workforce development. This program traditionally made resources available to its students through its own “resource library” located in the program offices. With the library being the information center for the entire campus community, it made practical sense to envelop these students’ information needs into the library.
A pilot program was initiated between the library and RHORC for students enrolled in an NCLEX-RN course. RHORC is providing multiple copies of the textbooks that will be available in the library for checkout to students in this program. These students are not issued student body cards that double as library cards; rather, the library issues community cards to them. On the first day of class, a librarian gives the class a brief orientation regarding library services. In most cases, these students have not visited the library before. After receiving the orientation and being in the building, students can appreciate the full breadth of services offered to them and become active library users. Between May and June 2006, three classes averaging 20 students have participated in the pilot. Overall, the library adapted its existing model for course reserves, community cards, and library orientations.
Libraries should take every advantage to actively participate in campus events, programs, and publications. Keeping the library visible to students, fac- ulty, and administration is a necessary foundation for future partnering oppor- tunities, including large institutional partnerships begun by other academic departments.
enCoUrAge stUDent PArtICIPAtIon
Collaboration on campus is not limited to faculty and administration. Student groups also make excellent partners for the library. Students provide feedback on existing services and programs and so enable the library to better utilize lim- ited resources. Knowing what to spend money and effort on and which things to discontinue can help the library make wise budgetary decisions. Both surveys and informal discussions are excellent ways to gather student feedback. Online surveys can be offered via the library’s Web site.
Student Government
It does take an effort to reach out to students and student groups, but the rewards can be well worth finding the time. In small libraries, the limited resources and staff mean that time is usually a luxury, as there are literally not enough hours in the day to accomplish everything that needs to be done. However, making time to build bridges with the students can result in new and innovative services and offerings. One example is the collaboration between the Associated Student Body (ASB) and the library at Mission College. The cost and availability of text- books provide ongoing challenges to college students everywhere, and Mission College is no different. A large percentage of students enrolled in community college are the first in their families to attend an institution of higher educa- tion. Mission also has a compressed academic calendar with semesters of only 15 weeks, meaning that courses start quickly and students need immediate access to textbooks for homework and study.
Librarians would periodically attend the ASB meetings. These visits might be used to advertise an event or new service or simply provide an opportunity to engage in a brief discussion about the library and hear the students’ perspective.
During these visits, the issue of textbooks often was discussed. According to a study in 2004 by the California Student Public Interest Research Group, the average cost of a new textbook was $102.44. The ASB and students in general wanted the library to purchase textbooks for the collection. This led the library to spend more effort to educate the ASB officers on the overall library budget, philosophy, and process of collection development and basically show them how little money could be used for this project.
Better understanding the situation, the ASB made a bold decision and initi- ated a program to fund textbook purchases by the library—a yearly $4,000 grant to purchase textbooks. The collection development librarian works with faculty to identify classes with high numbers of students and where new textbooks are
being used. The library uses the ASB grant to purchase textbooks and place them on reserve for in-library use only. As newer editions of textbooks are eventually added, the older editions are placed in the circulating collection. Statistics show that this ASB-funded program of textbook reserves is one of the most highly used library services at Mission Library. In the fall of 2005, the reserve collection, which includes textbooks, accounted for 36 percent of total library circulation.
As of December 2005, the library has a total of 768 textbooks on reserve for stu- dent use with a total circulation of 11,125 times.
Service-Learning Opportunities
Service learning is being incorporated into the campus culture across the United States. The report of the National Commission on Service Learn- ing (2001) defines service learning as “a teaching and learning approach that integrates community service with academic study to enrich learning, teach civic responsibility and strengthen communities” (17). Two key components of service learning are the strong curricular connection and that the student learning is provided in a real-world context (Education Commission of the States 2002, n.p.).
Libraries can benefit from courses that incorporate service learning. By reaching out to the faculty and specifically the graphic arts and multimedia de- partments, the library at the College of San Mateo was able to provide service- learning opportunities. The college has a very small library staff, only two full-time library faculty, a director, and five staff members. Even with these few resources, the library provides programs and exhibits for the students, faculty, staff, and sur- rounding community.
Collaborating with the graphic art and multimedia departments, the library was able to offer a service-learning opportunity for several students. The stu- dents were presented with a real-world situation with the library in the role as clients—meeting with the students to provide a description of the program re- quirements (whether print or online), what the tone or feel of the resulting piece should be, style guidelines so that the material would reflect the look and feel of the college as well as the library, logos, and so forth. The students then returned a few days later with concept drawings that were then discussed, and a final selec- tion was made. The students experienced the kinds of requirements a real-world client would make even before leaving school. Students created print and online products. In addition, the students could use the resulting promotional material in their portfolios to show prospective employers or future prospective clients.
The library was able to receive professional-quality services without the need to hire additional personnel.
One example is the Web site, which utilizes the same graphics as the print pieces, to support National Library Week (http://www.smccd.net/accounts/
csmlibrary/nlw.html). The professional look and functionality of the Web site is a reflection of the positive result of the library’s collaboration with faculty to provide an opportunity for service learning in which all parties benefit.
HIgHLIgHt tHe LIBrAry BUILDIng As PLACe
Providing services that encourage students and faculty to visit the library is necessary both to fulfill the institution’s academic mission and to keep the library a vibrant campus entity. Highlighting the library building as a destination place can be accomplished with limited staff and resources, for example, establishing displays promoting campus activities, collaborating with the institution’s infor- mation technology department to add computers and Internet access, and stress- ing friendly customer-centric behavior of staff and librarians.
Evergreen Valley College Library is incorporated into a learning resource center that includes not only the library but also counseling services, a computer laboratory, media services, a testing center, and other services focused on student learning. The library has a large display area, including glass display cases and a wall space designed for hanging art. Working with various departments across campus, the library provides an active exhibit calendar that draws in not only students and faculty but also local community members. The library advertises on its Web site (http://www.evc.edu/it/library/exhibits/index.htm) as well as through fliers and campus publications.
Mission College utilizes the entire library building to support a yearly Asian American speaker program. Supported by a grant from the Robert N. Chang Charitable Foundation, the author events have proven popular over the past several years. Faculty members encourage students to attend (sometimes for extra credit). Community members often visit campus for the first time to attend this speaker series. Last year the program was expanded to include a traveling exhibit, Pioneering the Valley, developed to highlight and celebrate the contributions of Chinese Americans to Silicon Valley by the Chinese Historical and Cultural Project (http://www.chcp.org).
Utilizing the library building as a destination does not have to be a resource- intensive endeavor for the library staff alone. Successful promotion can result in departments’ competing for collaborative events, as with Evergreen Valley College Library’s experience with displays. In addition, the library itself can be the draw. For example, Evergreen Valley College Library was one of the major locations for the college’s thirtieth anniversary celebration, and Mission College Library is a key stop for campus tours.
tAKe FULL ADVAntAge oF tHe LIBrAry’s rePortIng strUCtUre
In California’s small academic institutions, the library most often reports organizationally to the dean of instruction/academic affairs or to the dean of student services/affairs. There are strengths in either organizational structure since the library straddles both the instructional and the service side of the college—whatever the reporting procedure, divisional and department meet- ings that naturally occur are excellent places to identify and create strong partnerships.