ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries C&RL News ■ January 2002 / 15 THE WAY I SEE IT Does the “new library model” fit small- and medium-sized libraries? Shippensburg University believes so by Berkley Laite In this and other publications we have read about the changes in our traditional library environments that are being brought about because o f the pressures o f technology, digi­ tized information, and our constituents’ de­ mands. We have read about K - l 6 cooperation at Wayne State,1 partnerships with campus and community organizations at the University of Louisville,2 and the concept o f an Informa­ tion Commons instead o f the traditional Ref­ erence Department3 at the University o f Ari­ zona. All o f these libraries are large, and one might be tempted to say, “Oh well, those are big libraries with big staffs. We can’t do that!” Shippensburg University is a state-owned university in southern Pennsylvania that en­ rolls approximately 7,000 students. We de­ cided it would be possible to do similar things on a smaller scale. It isn’t the size o f the insti­ tution or the size o f the staff that makes cre­ ative cooperation happen. It is the energy and the leadership o f the administration that moves the library into new areas. Three tilings are necessary: • the creative ideas; • the commitment o f one or two individu­ als to the ideas; and • the commitment o f the administration to support those individuals. At Shippensburg University library (which has eight librarians) we, too, have been keenly aware o f the information demands going unmet outside o f our building (faculty unfa­ miliar with e-journals, school and public li­ braries needing to communicate with each other, migrant families completely unaware o f the Internet, senior citizens struggling with the Web, and on and on). We have also learned that all the “library knowledge” that we want to pass on to our users is becoming less and less important to them as their thinking becom es more and more Web based (Why doesn’t our OPAC look like Amazon.com?). As we sit at the reference desk behind a bold sign proclaiming “Ask Us Anything,” we certainly are not addressing any o f the audi­ ences outside o f our building. Even putting a button on the library’s Web page advertising “Ask A Librarian” only reaches a minimum number o f our patrons. It is clear to us, as it is to most in our profession, that w e must leave the building, build bridges, and offer services in unconventional ways. F o rm in g a co n so rtiu m Since Shippensburg University, as part o f its mission, “works closely and collaboratively with other organizations at institutional, pro- About the author Berkley Laite is reference senvices coordinator at Shippensburg University in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, e-mail: bhl@ship.edu mailto:bhl@ship.edu 16 / C&RL News ■ January 2002 grammatic and individual levels to develop com mon goals, share resources, and invest cooperatively in the future o f the region,” I felt there was support for som e extensive outreach activities. We began with the idea o f initiating a lo­ c a l c o n so rtiu m . I a p p r o a c h e d M adelyn Valunas, dean o f Library and Media Services, with the idea o f contacting all o f the librar­ ians in our county to ascertain what interest there might b e in form ing a coop erative group. I received her support and sent out a mailing. In May 2000, 26 librarians from Franklin County responded and we met. There were librarians from fou r sch o o l districts, the F r a n k lin C o u n ty L ib ra ry S y s te m , th e Chambersburg Hospital library, and three academic institutions: Pennsylvania State Mont Alto, Shippensburg University, and Wilson College. Everyone at the meeting agreed that we needed to learn more about each other, to help each other, and to communicate with each other. At this meeting, we chose the name Library Consortium o f Franklin County (LCFC) and decided to create an electronic list (lcfc-l@ship.edu) and to post a Web page (http ://www. ship. edu/~library/lcfc/). G ra n t p ro p o sa ls Since that initial meeting, LCFC has submit­ ted two grant proposals to the State Library o f Pennsylvania. The second proposal is cur­ rently under consideration. This proposal asks for funds to purchase virtual reference librar­ ian software from Docutek™ so that member libraries can share expertise. After investigat­ ing our reference traffic w e discovered: • T he Franklin County Library System (FCLS) serves a population o f 129,033 with six libraries and a staff o f 65. In 1999, FCLS headquarters (with two professional reference librarians) answered more than 7,200 refer­ ence questions. • The Chambersburg Area School District’s 22 libraries serve a population o f 8,657. Dur­ ing the 1999-2000 school year, these librar­ ians responded to 17,000 questions. • The Greencastle-Antrim School District’s four libraries, with a staff o f three full-time librarians and four part-time aides serving a population o f 2,897, answered 5,250 ques­ tions. • Shippensburg University’s eight librar­ ians, serving a student body o f 7,000, an­ swered nearly 2,200 reference questions each semester; approximately five percent o f the questions are received and answered by e- mail. It seem ed obvious that w e could help each other. The num ber o f questions an­ swered by staff in this consortium represents the value that patrons place upon library service. By sharing expertise and allowing our patrons to deal directly with other li­ brarians, w e can only add further value to our library service. P u b lic lib ra ry card s The Commonwealth o f Pennsylvania provides a collection o f databases from five different vendors to all school and public libraries un­ der the name “Power Library.” Some o f the d a t a b a s e s a re a ls o s u b s c r ib e d to by Shippensburg University, but not all. There­ fore, university students do not have access to them unless they have a public library card from their hom etown library. Since 18 percent o f our Pennsylvania stu­ dents com e from Franklin County, w e sug­ gested to the Franklin County Library System that w e encourage students in our library in­ struction classes to get library cards and that w e take the students’ applications for the cards. This idea was eagerly accepted. G o in g to th e sch oo ls Two university librarians have b een regularly making presentations to high school faculty during in-service days, providing Internet in­ struction to middle school students, and of­ fering online reference service to all school districts. O ffe rin g p ro g ra m s The library organized a program that quali­ fied for continuing education credits for school librarians. An audience o f 57 librarians and school administrators heard guest speaker Jo h n Emerick, director o f School Library and Media Services for the Pennsylvania Depart­ ment o f Education, discuss findings from a 1999 study entitled “Measuring Up to Stan­ dards.” The findings demonstrate how stu­ dents’ reading scores can be directly linked to the quality o f the libraries in the school district.4 mailto:lcfc-l@ship.edu C&RL News ■ January 2002 1 17 Beyond th e co n so rtiu m Word has spread beyond the Franklin County borders about the proposal for the virtual ref­ erence librarian software, and librarians in neighboring counties have expressed an inter­ est in participating. Adjacent county public li­ braries have also expressed an interest in our taking library card applications for students from their counties. In fact, it has becom e nec­ essary to consider a name change for the con­ sortium so that it represents a larger regional focus. More th an reference service Shippensburg University cannot duplicate the physical construction o f the Information Com­ mons that is being built at the University of Arizona, but w e can bring in outside services. We shared the Information Commons concept with our Learning Assistance Center, which pro­ vides tutors and remedial assistance to the stu­ dent body. As a trial, the center placed tutors in the library with regularly scheduled hours. This was so successful that the staff respon­ sible for tutors will be moving into the library this fall with the tutoring staff. O ther con stituents The library has offered sessions to senior citi­ zens through the Life Long Learning Center, to migrant workers’ children via the public library system, to the campus secretaries through the Shippensburg Association o f Educational and Office Professionals, and to local K -12 librar­ ians. Two librarians, Douglas Cook and myself, have conducted all of these activities, which brings me back to the last sentence o f my first paragraph: “Three things are necessary: the creative ideas, the commitment o f one or two individuals to the ideas, and the commitment o f the administration to support those individu­ als.” I ’ve described the ideas and the commit­ ment. The third part is the support of the ad­ ministration. Valunas, the dean of the library, believes that outreach and cooperation are so important that “outreach activities” has become part of my job description. I am encouraged to seek opportunities for cooperation and collabo­ ration, while being certain that our library can support whatever I am pursuing. In addition to the dean, my colleagues have given me their blessing by assuming more ref­ erence desk duty and library instruction. With­ out their support and their belief that what I am doing is important, the library could not be involved in so many activities. They all believe that because no library, or librarian, can inde­ pendently satisfy all information needs of pa­ trons, it is necessary to build collaborative re­ lationships for the purpose of meeting our re­ sponsibilities. Notes 1. Janet W. Nichols, “Sharing a vision: In­ formation literacy partnerships (K -1 6 )” C&RL News 62, no. 3 (March 2001): 275-85. 2. Hannelore B. Rader, “A new academic library model,” C&RL News 62, no. 4 (April 2001): 393-96. 3. Prototype Information Commons, Uni­ v ersity o f A rizon a, http://dizzy.lib ra ry . arizona.edu/library/teams/pic/pic.htm (18 May 2001). 4. Keith Curry Lance, Marcia J. Rodney, and Christine Hamilton-Pennell, Measuring Up to Standards; the Im pact o f School Library Pro­ gram s & Inform ation Literacy in Pennsylvania Schools (Greensburg, Pennsylvania: Pennsyl­ vania Citizens for Better Libraries), 2000. ■ http://dizzy.library