ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


500 /C& RL News

Assessing student dissatisfaction: No quality 
w ithout accessibility
A formal evaluation study of our children’s 
literature collection revealed that stu d en ts’ 
perceived dissatisfaction with the quality and 
extent of the collection was primarily due to 
problem s with access.

The small-scale study consisted of three 
parts: Quality w as determ ined by com paring 
a sam ple of titles against several review jour­
nals. Extent or breadth of the collection was 
m easured by com paring our titles against sev­
eral “b e s t” lists. Access w as evaluated by 
m eans of a user survey in questionnaire for­
mat, as well as a close exam ination of the 
classification system used for this collection 
and searching of problem  titles in the online 
catalog. The survey also exam ined the users’ 
perception of the quality and extent of our 
collection.

W hereas quality a n d  extent adequately 
m easured u p  to the standards w e had estab­
lished at the outset of the study, w e found

ies Carlton C. Rochell will oversee m anagem ent 
of the Society’s library services to the public 
and develop joint program m ing for both insti­
tutions such as a centralized com puter catalog 
system, b ook acquisitions and educational and 
public outreach programs. Among the enhance­
m ents planned to the Society’s Library during 
the one-year agreem ent are: increasing library 
access from three days p e r w eek  to five; load­
ing the Society’s database in to the NYU online 
system, establishing an affiliates program  for 
scholars, m ounting exhibits of the Society’s 
collections at NYU, and having NYU oversee 
all current acquisitions, processing and cata­
loguing for the Historical Society; the resources 
of both institutions will be used for b ook pres­
ervation. This is not the first formal relation­
ship b etw een  the tw o institutions; from 1841 
to 1857, the Society was in residence in NYU’s 
original Main Building on W ashington Square.

Do the standard s m eet y o u r needs?
ACRL’s University Libraries Section (ULS) is 
considering w h eth er to revise the Standards 
f o r  University Libraries, approved by the ACRL 
Board of Directors and the ALA Standards Com­
m ittee in 1989- These standards are not pre­
scriptive or quantitative, b u t focus on setting

that problem s w ith access w ere th e major 
cause for students’ dissatisfaction: e.g., prox­
imity of the collection to the com puter lab; 
inconsistent cataloging and classification prac­
tices; inadequate subject headings; the lack 
of cross-references (authority control) in the 
online catalog; but also students’ inept use 
of the online catalog (typos, incorrect search 
strategies, unfamiliarity with limiting keyword 
searches, etc.).

A pathfinder to the collection with help­
ful hints how  to search children’s books in 
the online catalog; reclassification of som e 
titles; addition of subject headings with the 
appropriate subdivision “juvenile literature” 
or “juvenile fiction”; and providing better 
physical access w ere am ong the immediate 
steps w e took to m aking access to the col­
lection a m ore satisfying experience for our 
s t u d e n t s . — S u s a n n e  N e v in , G u s ta v u s  
A dolphus College ■

goals and objectives and m easuring the degree 
to w hich library perform ance m eets these goals 
and objectives. As such, the standards may be 
d u rab le  e v e n  in th e face o f fairly dram atic 
changes occurring in university libraries. ULS 
w ould like your com m ents on the standards 
and is especially interested in hearing how  in­
dividuals have used the standards. Comments 
on how  developm ents since 1989 and those 
on the horizon might affect the stability o f these 
standards are also requested. {Note: The Stan­
dards are printed in the Septem ber 1989 issue 
of C&RL News, pages 679-691.) Send your com ­
m ents to: ULS member-at-large Beverlee French 
by D ecem ber 31, 1993, at Library Administra­
tion, Shields Library, University of California, 
Davis, CA 95616; e-mail: bafrench@ucdavis.edu; 
tel: (916) 752-2110; fax: (916) 752-6899.

EBSS listserv address change
The Education and Behavioral Sciences Section 
of ACRL has changed the location of its elec­
tronic discussion forum. EBSS-ALA is n ow  avail­
able to EBSS m em bers courtesy of the Univer­
sity of Maine. To subscribe, e-mail a request 
that includes your electronic address and full 
nam e to Deborah Rollins at rollins@maine.bitnet 
or rollins@ m aine.m aine.edu. ■

mailto:bafrench@ucdavis.edu
mailto:rollins@maine.maine.edu