The Library As a Place: The Changing Nature,

Enduring Appeal & Access

Sohair WastawyDean of Libraries

The Library holds a central position at ISU; symbolically, as a learning center, and physically as a visual anchor for the surrounding buildings on campus.

Competing Space Priorities

• Book and journal stacks • Seating for students• Quiet space for reflection• Group study space• Technology support• Reserve materials and media• Speaking & cultural activities

Changes in Learning Patterns, Collections, Technology, and Use

Increase in FTE Increase in Gate Count Increase in e-resources use Increase in Technology tools Increase in Collection types

• Gate count visits (Spring)2009 2010 2011+16% +25% +36%111,342 131,694 175,542

• Book Circulation (FY) 151,543 150,333 144,071

• Database searches (FY) 3,066,315 3,369,952 10,139,744

• Borrowing & ILL lending• Reference questions• Use of library material• Stacks capacity

Zero-Growth Stacks & Collection Maintenance

Added WithdrawnFY06 19,714 -24,458FY07 12,177 - 9,817FY08 10,455 -35,145FY09 16,868 -33,945

In 2007, more than 450,000 of least used items were moved to storage. Only 2% of which were

requested for circulation.

Righting the Balance

Relocation Project• Relocated 37, 479 vol. from 3rd to 1st floor

secure storage• Decision was made based on circulation

records, in-house use statistics, acquisition data analysis & subject librarians’ input

• Plans for upgrading space were discussed in library retreats, with Library Faculty Committee, Milner’s entire staff & outlined in Strategic Plan

Acquisition Analysis Volumes purchased Circulations Avg. use per item

FY11 APP 4,967 1,154 0.2FY10 APP 6,680 5,307 0.8 FY09 APP 6,817 7,467 1.1 FY08 APP 6,541 10,520 1.6

FY11 Firm 4,051 3,127 0.8 FY10 Firm 4.316 10,226 2.4 FY09 Firm 4,977 11,387 2.3 FY08 Firm 4,224 14,157 3.4 FY07 Firm 3,834 13,327 3.5 FY06 Firm 8,113 28,213 3.5

In-house Browsing Review• Reviewed the patterns in comparison to

the circulation figures to identify any anomalies in subject areas.

• There were no areas that exhibited significantly higher browsing activity compared to circulation activity.

In-house Circulation

Material Relocated

• 5,542 Redundant journal volumes

• 4,731 Book series

• 1,500 Obsolete reference works

• 27,476 Monographs

68% of Research Libraries operate remote/off site storage*

* Payne, Lizanne . Library Storage Facilities and the Future of Print Collections in North America, OCLC, 2007.

Harvard – 6.5 million volumes

• Milner's secure storage is on premise

• Retrieval of material occurs in 5 - 10 minutesvs. 24 - 36 hours at other universities

• Material used often will be re-placed in open stacks

• A private room for faculty who need to consult material has been allocated and currently used by a faculty and class consulting 90 volumes at once

• New finding tools allow digital browsing

• e-books for new and public domain material will soon be added

• 3 FTE preservation specialists on staff

Process• Met with CAS chairs; collective and individual• Developed a web page about the relocation

and selection process• Sent Deans files that contain the titles of

monographs in their disciplines to share with faculty to select the items they wish to be returned to the browsing collection

• Preservation is a priority for ISU library and archives

Seek Stakeholders’ Feedback

• Subject librarians• Departments’ liaisons• Library Faculty Committee• Users’ comments• Students’ Advisory Council • Circulation data analysis

Questions?

I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.

- Jorge Luis Borges

Thank You!