ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries C & R L N e w s ■ D e c e m b e r 2 0 0 3 / 721 PARTNERSHIPS AND CONNECTIONS The community college library perspective in an age of opportunity Meeting expectations in times of uncertainty by Bernard Fradkin T here have n ev er b e e n greater op p o rtu ­nities for support in an academ ic e n v i­ ronm ent than there are tod ay for all librar­ ies. But there have also n ever b e e n greater ch allen ges to that support. This reality is e s­ pecially prevalent for com m unity co lleg e li­ braries that are m eeting n e w expectations in times o f uncertainty and fiscal restraint. B e ­ c a u se o f that restraint, m a n y co m m u n ity co lleg e library program s have b e co m e um ­ brella organizations w orkin g w e ll b e yo n d the core o f vital contributions that traditional li­ braries have m ade to support c o lleg e-w id e program s. As the dem ands increase for com m unity co lleg e libraries to be “e verything to e ve ry ­ b o d y ,” the m anagem ent skills o f librarians, library staffs, and administrators have b e en stretched as n ever b efo re to offer accessibil­ ity w ith assessment. Serving the com m unity Com m unity co lleg e libraries serve not only an a cad em ic com m u n ity o f students, fa c ­ ulty, and administrators, but also the larger com m unities b e yo n d their cam puses. T hese communities are m ade u p o f businesses, n on­ profit and go vernm en tal organizations, lo ­ cal patrons, p ublic sch o o l teachers and stu­ dents, and h o m e-sch o o led youngsters, not to m en tio n the g e n e ra l ad u lt p o p u la tio n thirsting for the k n o w le d g e that o n ly a ca­ dem ic libraries can provide. M aking library service available on and b e yo n d its o w n cam pus is k e y to the m is­ sion o f the com m unity co lleg e library. W hile m ost academ ic libraries ho ld basic services to faculty, staff, and students at the center o f their missions, the com m unity co lleg e library rarely forgets to in clude its local com m unity in its mission statement. That local com m u­ nity can e ve n include form er students w h o have transferred to other co lleg es far aw ay, yet w h o return during the sum m er months to brush u p their academ ic skills in the li­ braries o f th eir co m m u n ity c o lle g e alm a maters. A n d then, there is the gro w in g p o p u la ­ tion o f com m unity c o lle g e alum ni w h o have since b e co m e e m p lo y ed and w h o return to their com m unity co lleg e libraries for k n o w l­ ed ge. T h e challen ges that co m e w ith serving the greater com m unity continue to ad d their w eigh t to hundreds o f com m unity co lleg e libraries on a daily basis, as com m unity c o l­ leg e libraries struggle to maintain their ch ief role o f provid ing the fundam ental library ser­ vic es to their teachers and currently enrolled students. T he com m unity in com munity college also m eans that the com m unity c o lle g e library ve ry often w ill p rovid e a library patron w ith A b o u t the auth o r Bernard Fradkin is associate vice president o f academic affairs and dean for health‚ social and behavioral sciences at the College of DuPage, e-mail: fradkin@cdnet.cod.edu © 2003 Bernard Fradkin mailto:fradkin@cdnet.cod.edu 722 / C&RL News ■ December 2003 the license to use its information resources. As these services becom e more competitive, some restrictions on w hich of them can be provided, including interlibrary loan and online database access services, require that the community college library issue patron cards for a nominal fee. Community college libraries still maintain the model of generally op en access to the community, but as fund­ ing becom es restrictive, the libraries have to fold the scope of their services more closely back into those fundamental services spelled out in their colleges’ educational mission statements. A rgum ents th a t in d e p e n d e n t lifelong learning goes beyond taking classes and that tuition-supported enrollment will fund the community college library often becom e top­ ics of heated debate. The reality is the more strain p u t u p o n the community college li­ brary, the more its services will be strained. When economic times are better and fund­ ing is available, most libraries are less re­ strictive o f community access. But current funding patterns, as well as the sources of continued support, are becoming tighter and the o p en doors to services at community college libraries are becoming even a hotter issue. W hen the time comes for a referen­ dum and tax increase support from the pu b ­ lic, the library is often perceived as a service that is free and open to all. But that service is not free in the sense that not all com mu­ nity colleges are locally tax-supported and many receive funding through state propor­ tional funding. The scope of community college library services is also often different am ong the nation’s community colleges. At many librar­ ies the delivery o f instruction is an impor­ tant com ponent of core operations. These operations may include the developm ent of alternatives— online courses, hybrids, tele­ courses, audio courses, new spaper courses, radio courses, experiential learning— and many of these delivery programs do not fit neatly into th e traditional fram ew ork of course delivery. The community college li­ brary is charged with extending services, in w hole or in part, that support these delivery modes. This close association with these alterna­ tive learning options provides an access op­ portunity that is essential to the library mis­ sion, meaning that building literacy and sup­ porting instruction may involve a team effort at designing effective instruction, especially the development of library assignments. Library managers, as well as librarians, naturally are interested in satisfying the li­ brary client by providing accessible and con­ venient use of resources. But community col­ lege library staff members have often taken on additional duties associated with specific programs for underprepared students, out­ reach activities to high schools, academic computing, and new er populations of library patrons, as well as in facilitating the needs of community colleges to consolidate a va­ riety of instructional support services from telecommunications to academic computing. While it is supportive of the community col­ lege library to lend assistance to the college, it is often done w ithout the back-up of addi­ tional staff, space, and resources. Ingenuity and creativity on the parts of existing staff m em bers may h elp to som e degree, bu t stretching the scope of services at some point needs to be recognized as an urgent quality control issue. Back to lib ra ry In the past, community college libraries have been called “learning resource centers,” “edu­ cational resource centers,” “instructional re­ source centers”—the list goes on. The Col­ lege o f DuPage changed its library’s nam e from learning resource center to library after many years under the former title. It was clear that library was the most fa­ vored term for librarians and other staff, af­ ter years o f trying to explain the concept of a learning resource center. The library w ent through the traditional processes of focus groups with off-campus community m em ­ bers, faculty, and students, and searched the available literature to find that the current concept of library represented the full array of the services and support that w e provided. Library was the preferred term by our li­ brarians (formerly materials utilization con­ sultants, or “MUCS” for short), as well as the educational and extended community. The transition was successful with all constitu­ ency groups, and they have since recom ­ m ended the change to several other com­ munity college libraries. Library today ad­ dresses the core responsibilities of our work, C&RL News ■ December 2 0 0 3 / 723 as well as the technology aspects of the re­ sponsibilities often shared through develop­ ment activities and consolidation. A time of change and uncertainty con­ tributes to the short- and long-term thinking about community college libraries. We can see new venues developing for sharing re­ sources, building new products and services, and finding a niche in contributing to our communities as a guiding support for infor­ mation literacy. Some community college li­ braries have found a global opportunity in reaching around the w orld to bring the rich­ ness o f our programs to new developing na­ tions on other continents. More community college libraries than ever are seeking new ways to begin working together on references and as downlink teleconference sites, build­ ing multi-type communities o f libraries and links to other organizations, as well as new funding sources and services. Many of these advances are built o n the solid background of our core values that have b een provided by Ranganathan’s Five Laws o f Library Sci­ ence1 an d W alter Craw ford an d M ichael G orm an’s Updated Laws o f Library Science.2 Ranganathan’s Five Laws o f Library Science are: 1) Books are for use. 2) Every person his or her book. 3) Every book, its reader. 4) Save the time of the reader. 5) The library is a growing organism. Crawford and G o m an ’s Updated Laws o f Libra›y Science are: Libraries serve humanity. Respect all forms by which knowledge is communicated. Use technology intelligently to enhance service. Protect free access to knowledge. As com m unity college libraries change with the times, it is often best to adopt a clear perspective of the vital values that may guide their development. The opportunities are al­ ways there to forge links and take full advan­ tage of our rich core values as w e develop our futures together. Notes 1. S. R. Ranganathan, Five Laws o f Library Science (Bombay Asia Publishing House, 1963). 2. Walter Crawford and Michael Gorman, Updated Laws o f Library Science. Future Librar­ ies: Dreams, Madness a n d Reality (Chicago: American Library Association, 1995). ■ 72 4 1 C&RL News ■ December 2003 The ACM Digital Library The Ultimate Online| INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY Resource! Discover the ACM Digital Library in the ACM Portal, a vast online resource o f ACM's computing and information technology publications. Your patrons can enjoy unlimited access to more than one million pages of full text with archives dating back to the 50's. This unparalleled resource is a must-have for every technology collection! 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