11.3 Library and Learning/Information access

The institution provides (a) student and faculty access and user privileges to its library services and (b) access to regular and timely instruction in the use of the library and other learning/information resources.

Judgment

x Compliance o Non-Compliance o Partial Compliance

Narrative

A. Student and Faculty Access and User Privileges to Library Services

The University Libraries system is comprised of several libraries: The Edith Garland Dupré Library serves as the main library, which provides cataloging and technical support to the following libraries: the Instructional Materials Center contains books representative of a school library, and the Reading Center provides support for literacy and research; both are housed in Maxim Doucet Hall. The University Art Museum Library contains books housed in the Paul and Lulu Hilliard University Art Museum, and the William S. Patout III Sugar Library in Patoutville, LA, contains books and materials relative to the sugarcane industry.

Edith Garland Dupré Library Access

The Library, located less than a ten-minute walk from anywhere on campus, is readily accessible to students and faculty. They have adequate, barrier-free access to the Library for over ninety hours per week. The Library’s general collections are accessible at all hours of operation, as are services, including the Reference/Research Desk, Reserve Desk, Circulation Desk, and Reference Online Center and STEP computer labs. The Library’s electronic resources are available 24/7 to accommodate students and faculty needing remote access.

The Library compiles an annual report with statistics and departmental summaries, documenting the activities, programs, usage, and personnel during the fiscal year. The report contributes to the Library’s efforts toward continued improvement of user access.

The Library is equipped with five computer labs: two STEP Labs, Graduate Student Computer Lab, Reference Online Center University Libraries, and the Library Instruction SMART Classroom. Together, these facilities provide approximately 300 computer workstations with a full range of application software and on-site support for shared printing at a central location for use by faculty, staff, and students. The Library is part of the University’s computer sustainability plan. Computer labs are updated on a planned cycle using technology funds from student fees. Free printing is available for all users.

The department of Reference and Research Services provides informational resources in support of the academic and research programs of the University, as well as professional and expert reference assistance and instruction to students, faculty, staff, and to the general public in their research or information-seeking processes. The Library’s Ask a Librarian service provides virtual reference assistance that is available an average of 80 hours per week, and personnel are available to assist users during all operating hours. The service includes reference services via live chat, e-mail, text messaging, and social media. The Special Collections department also provides professional and expert reference assistance and instruction to students, faculty, staff, and to the general public in their research or information-seeking processes via email, phone, and the Live Chat application.

Circulation Services includes the main circulation desk and reserve desk. Library materials may be checked out with a valid University ID card. Books circulate to students for a three-week loan period with renewal privileges, to graduate students for one semester, and to faculty for an academic year. Circulation policies define loan periods, fines, lost book fees, and other concerns.

The Library provides an online catalog for information about its holdings and an extensive range of electronic databases and eBooks for users to access for their research needs. The Library is a participant of the worldwide OCLC Consortium, in which cataloging records are maintained and shared, utilizing the latest national standards. The online catalog is available 24/7 remotely and via Library computers.

The Library subscribes to thousands of online resources. Electronic databases provide subject-level indexing information from journal and magazine articles, U.S. government publications, and many other online resources. A growing number of eBooks are available for full-text downloading by users. Many of the resources are retained as part of the Library’s consortium membership with LOUIS, while others are purchased independently by the Library. Due to the growing demand for electronic resources, including full-text journals, the Library has purchased more online subscriptions. Library users, including distance learners, may access online resources remotely via authentication.

Access to Additional Services

Students and faculty have access to the following services:

· ADA equipment

· Collaboration Stations (large screen monitors and mobile white boards)

· Copy machines

· Embedded librarians in Moodle

· Government Information

· Group and Individual Study Rooms

· Microforms

· Roving research services

· Scanners

· Subject Guides & Tutorials

· USB outlets

Access to Holdings of Other Institutions

For resources not available on campus or remotely, the Library provides various services to its users, whether remote or located on campus.

The Library operates a professionally staffed interlibrary loan department, which uses the ILLiad interlibrary loan system and provides electronic desktop delivery of documents. In FY2017-2018, the Library Interlibrary Loan borrowed 1,724 items and loaned 1,987 items.

The Library is a member of the statewide academic library consortium called LOUIS. Through LOUIS, the Library obtains its online catalog, which uses the SirsiDynix product Symphony, and ILLiad. Membership in LOUIS also provides the Library with access to several online resources including EBSCOhost, with its primary discovery tool EBSCO Discovery (EDS). The Library also participates in the LOUIS reciprocal borrowing program, which grants on-site borrowing privileges to the state’s colleges and universities. In addition to participating in the LOUIS reciprocal borrowing program, UL Lafayette students can use their Cajun Card to obtain a Lafayette Public Library card, which can be used at any branch to borrow books.

When the Library is closed, users may access online resources remotely and take advantage of the following resources, which are available 24/7:

· Library Online Catalog

· Library Website, which offers LibGuides and 360 virtual tours

· Research Databases

· Full-Text Journals and eBooks

· Interlibrary Loan request forms and document delivery

B. Access to Regular and Timely Instruction in the Library

Edith Garland Dupré Library offers continuous instruction in the use of library resources in a variety of ways to the University, middle and high schools, and the local community.

Reference & Research Services

The Reference & Research Services department provides services to individual users during all hours of operation. In addition to drop-in service at the reference desk on the first floor of Dupré Library, the department’s “Ask a Librarian” service provides virtual reference assistance that is available an average of 80 hours per week. The service includes reference services via live chat, e-mail, text messaging, and social media. The chat widget and reference contact information are featured prominently on the Library home page and are visible throughout the Library website and from within most of the Library databases.

Special Collections also provides professional and expert reference assistance and instruction to students, faculty, staff, and the general public for their research or information-seeking processes via email, phone and the application.

Library users requiring specialized or lengthy assistance can use the appointment-based reference service, which allows the Library faculty to devote more attention to the particular questions and needs of an individual researcher. Such appointments can be made with most Library faculty members and traditionally have taken place in the Library, but, in the Fall 2018 semester, Dupré Library piloted virtual reference appointments. This developing program is particularly useful in supporting library users with reference and instruction needs who may not be able to visit the Library in person, including distance learning students.

Library Instructional Services

Dupré Library’s instruction team consists of the Head of Instructional Services, the Head of User Engagement and Instruction Librarian, and a Graduate Teaching Assistant. In addition, most of the Library faculty lead instructional sessions for specialized courses and disciplines and are considered a part of the instructional team. This team supports student research through:

· Reference services at the reference desk, via phone, email, chat, and text

· Research appointments in which students meet with a Library faculty member for help with a particular research project

· Library instruction classes, both general and targeted to support specific research assignments in any university course

· Development of exercises allowing professors to extend student library and/or research skills, including scavenger hunts for particular types of resources

· Development and maintenance of research guides by subject area and on request for specific classes and assignments

· Library tours highlighting general services and special archival resources

· A 360 tour, available from the Library webpage, providing both an overview of key library resources and direct access to reference help and library databases

The Library instruction team collaborates with faculty from other departments to develop, assess, and continually improve both in-person and online exercises to directly address the learning objectives and information literacy benchmarks relevant to any particular course, assignment, or major. Professors can email the Head of Instructional Services to request library instruction. This online instruction request form is also available through the Instructional Services website.

Upon request, the library instruction team develops and refines curricula that support research in each discipline, and works directly with students to support their academic research needs. Library faculty (including the Departmental Librarians assigned to each academic department) design class sessions to teach research skills upon request. They are available to students and faculty for individual research appointments to design course-specific research guides, and to play a research-supportive role in any course. Most first-year students receive library instruction in both their required UNIV 100 and 100-level English classes.

In AY2017-2018 the Library’s instruction team made at least 5,967 student contacts through 328 classes, outreach sessions, individual research requests, and tours. In addition to the 238 library instruction classes, the librarians provided 64 one-on-one research sessions. The Ernest J. Gaines Center led 23 tours of the Center’s archives and general library tours and gave 3 outreach presentations.

In terms of academic department requests for instruction, the top two in AY2017-2018 were English with 80 class requests, and UNIV 100 with 64. Other departments that scheduled a significant number of instruction sessions included History (16 class requests), Modern Languages (12), and Performing Arts and Education (with 7 each). As each request is received, Instructional Services works with the requesting professor to identify students’ primary research needs and agree on learning objectives and a lesson plan for their Library visit that will meet those objectives. The Library provides introductory tours and encourages all professors to consider scheduling library instruction once topics are chosen for a class research assignment, so that students can learn about using library resources in the context of accomplishing a practical and immediate research goal. If a class does not have a research assignment, the librarian either works with the professor to identify a topic the class can research together, or engages the students in a series of hands-on exercises chosen in advance in cooperation with the professor.

ACRL Framework for Information Literacy

The Library instruction team always incorporates at least one of the key elements of the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education in each class. These standards, established in 2016 by the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), focus on the ways in which students think about academic research, and establish foundational concepts necessary for the development of information literacy. By incorporating the ACRL Framework in library instruction, the team ensures that while addressing the immediate research needs of students, they also continually contribute to the students’ information literacy.

Library Research Course

ENGL 305 (Research in the Information Age) is a one-hour credit course designed to sharpen basic library skills and introduce advanced library research. The course is offered during the Spring semester to students who have met the prerequisites for all ENGL 200- and 300-level courses. The small class size makes it easy to support the development of both generally useful and discipline-specific research skills related to the major and coursework of each student. The primary objectives of the course are:

· To provide library orientation and instruction to groups, demonstrating the effective utilization of the available library resources and services

· To provide effective classroom instruction targeted to the specific level of the user's understanding and needs, as established in advance by collaboration between the library instructor and course instructor

· To provide current and effective instruction in the form of printed and online resource handouts, tutorials, and database guides

Evaluation of Instruction

Each year a library assessment plan is submitted to the University. During AY2018-2019 the effectiveness of library instruction was measured using:

· Formative assessment throughout library instruction for visiting classes, using shared Google Docs for student notetaking during research on specific topics.

· More than 700 student surveys, voluntarily completed at the end of a random sampling of classes, including students in:

o UNIV 100

o English Courses, primarily 100-level

o A variety of interdisciplinary 200-500 level classes

· Surveys of all faculty who brought classes to the Library or requested integrated library instruction

· Emails, discussions, instruction interviews with faculty requesting additional library instruction, and other informal feedback

During the semester, the Head of Instructional Services periodically checks the Google Docs provided to classes for research note-taking to see how students are progressing in their research. These documents, initially used in the course of library instruction, often become the place where students, working individually or in groups, continue to keep their research notes throughout their course. Keeping notes in a document shared by the whole class facilitates peer learning and allows both the librarian and the class professor to monitor student progress and provide additional support and feedback as needed. Whether the students have learned to use the Library effectively is clearly evident in their selection of the sources tracked in these documents, and in the feedback received from faculty about the quality of their bibliographies before and after library instruction.

Access to Library Instruction

Library Instructional Services provides on-site instruction throughout the Library and in its SMART classroom. This room is fully equipped with audiovisual and telecommunication access and student computers, all recently upgraded through a University STEP grant. Rolling white boards in the Reference Online Center (ROC) Lab are available for student use throughout the semester and have also proved valuable in library instruction, allowing individual students or small groups to map the research process, and then present and discuss each map with the class. Library Instructional Services also provides off-site instruction throughout the campus, presenting in classrooms, faculty offices, and other locations, including high schools with dual enrollment programs.

The Head of Instructional Services has established and maintains a Google Drive folder of shared and accessible resources for the instruction team. This folder is continually updated and is used to share sample exercises, templates, and copies of the specific guides and exercises used by each class. Such resources support continuous improvement in both the quality and consistency of library instruction, and offer a convenient method for library instructors to share best practices and build on the experience and instructional design assets of the entire staff.

Online student access to library services and regular and timely instruction in the use of the library and other learning/information resources

The Library’s Distance Learning Services Department assists and supports students and faculty participating in hybrid and online courses. Distance learning students are entitled to library resources equivalent to those offered on campus. The Library provides reference and research assistance; guides and tutorials via embedded library services in Moodle; remote access via user authentication to all of the Library's online holdings; article and book delivery of in-house library materials not available in full text online; borrowing of materials from other libraries through the Library’s Interlibrary Loan service; and borrowing of resources from other Louisiana institutions via the LOUIS reciprocal borrowing program.

Students enrolled in online programs who are not able to access the physical libraries may access online resources remotely and take advantage of the following resources, which are available 24/7:

· Library Online Catalog

· Library Website, which offers LibGuides and 360 virtual tours

· Research Databases

· Full-Text Journals and eBooks

· Interlibrary Loan request forms and document delivery

While the Library makes every effort to accommodate distance learners and researchers, certain library services—such as computer labs, scanners, copiers, microforms equipment, Special Collections, non-circulating items, mobile white boards, collaboration stations, and charging stations—are only available while to those visiting the Library.

The UL Lafayette IT Service Desk provides technology support via telephone, email, web, and online chat to all University students, which facilitates online access to library and other information resources, and will soon offer a self-service portal in ULink. To accommodate online learners, Service Desk hours were recently expanded to include evening and weekend coverage. Current operating hours for the Service Desk are Monday through Thursday 7:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.; Friday 7:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.; and after hours and weekend support provided online or by telephone. A complete catalog of information technology services that facilitate online access to learning and information resources is available to students.