COMPLIANCE AUDIT REPORTS

Section 2: Core Requirement 2.9
The institution, through ownership or formal arrangements or agreements, provides and supports student and faculty access and user privileges to adequate library collections as well as to other learning/information resources consistent with the degrees offered. These collections and resources are sufficient to support all its educational, research, and public service programs.

Statement of Compliance: Dyersburg State Community College is in compliance with Core Requirement 2.9.

 Rationale for Judgment of Compliance:

Mission Statement

The Learning Resource Center (LRC) mission statement [Ref 1] relates directly to the central issue of this core requirement, which is the responsibility to provide access to learning resources of the size and type required to support Dyersburg State Community College’s (DSCC) educational and public service programs.

Learning Resource Center Collection

DSCC has a 2006 1,856 full time equivalent (FTE) students, and, consequently, uses the quantitative measure of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) standards for a community or technical college (1994) with an FTE enrollment of 1,000 to 2,999 to determine the adequacy of the library collection [Ref 2]. The Learning Resources Center (LRC) provides 44,185 print materials and 2,248 videocassettes/DVDs. The Information Gateway makes an additional 49,101 E-books available, 95,534 total collection, which places DSCC above the criterion for an “Excellent Collection” [Ref 3].

In order to provide an LRC collection [Ref 4] consistent with the degrees that DSCC offers, the dean of the learning resource center and the learning resource committee solicit faculty and staff recommendations regularly for purchasing decisions during the fiscal year. However, the main responsibility lies with the professional LRC staff because of their knowledge of the overall collection and its utilization. The LRC Dean visits academic Deans and Program Directors periodically to review relevancy of program-related learning resources and to request additions to the collection. The Faculty Satisfaction Survey solicits faculty input and demonstrates adequate and useful LRC resources that support their programs [Ref 5].

Some examples of supporting specific instructional programs are: NetLibrary E-book Nursing Collection and EBSCO Nursing Allied Health Collection of periodicals for Nursing; National Geographic CD Collection including maps and the Facts on File History Collection for History; The Literature Resource Center for Literature and Composition; The Science Resource Center for the Science area; Issues and Controversies for the Social Sciences area; LexisNexis for Business and Law.

The LRC staff annually evaluates and updates materials in the collection that no longer meet standards. [Ref 6]

DSCC LRC Budget for its Collection

DSCC allocates $41,000-$46,000 in capital expenditures annually for collection development and support for database subscriptions (in addition to databases provided by the Tennessee Electronic Library and Regents Online Degree Program) [Ref 7].

Internal Reviews of DSCC LRC Collection

By the DSCC Faculty. In addition to the five-year program review mandated by the Tennessee Board of Regents (TBR), the DSCC LRC has begun a collection review process that involves faculty. So far nursing faculty has evaluated the nursing collection, and the science faculty has reviewed the science collection. The process has provided recommendations for new materials as well as ongoing evaluation to remove dated materials. The social sciences are the next area for review followed by the business and technology areas. The social sciences will begin in the Spring/Summer 2008 followed by the business and technology review in Spring/Summer 2009.

By DSCC Students. Student satisfaction surveys produced an 80-85 percent “Agree to Strongly Agree” reaction to the statement about the collection being helpful in finding information [Ref 8].

External Reviews of the DSCC LRC Collection

External reviews of the DSCC LRC collection are conducted by the accrediting/certifying agencies reviewing selected technical programs. Several professional accrediting agencies include a review of LRC resources as part of their accreditation process and have affirmed that the resources are sufficient for the accredited program. These agencies include the National League for Nursing, which accredits the nursing program [Ref 9]; the American Health Information Management Association, which accredits the health information technology program [Ref 10]; and the Association of Collegiate Business School Programs, which accredits the business programs [Ref 11].

LRC  Cooperative Agreements

Tennessee Electronic Library. LRC information resources are supplemented by extensive electronic resources accessed through the Tennessee Electronic Library (TEL) provided to all Tennessee libraries free of charge by the Tennessee State Library. The DSCC LRC is provided access to Thompson Gale databases through TEL [Ref 12].

Regents Online Degree Program Virtual Library. This TBR program provides access to four EBSCO and eight WILSON databases for use by both online and on-ground students and faculty [Ref 13].

TBR Colleges and Universities Libraries. The Directors and Deans of TBR Libraries form an advisory group for sharing information and resources and providing input to the administration of the TBR [Ref 14].

TBR Media Consortium.  DSCC LRC participates in TBR Media Consortium  that provides the opportunity for collective purchasing of media products [Ref 15] [Ref 16].

Tenn-Share. The DSCC LRC participates in Tenn-Share, a cooperative of Tennessee libraries that provides the opportunity for collective purchasing of resources and services. It also provides access to SOLINET, a regional cooperative for collective purchasing resources and services [Ref 17].

West Tennessee Academic Library Cooperative. DSCC participates in this cooperative of West Tennessee Academic Libraries for sharing information and resources. It provides student and faculty with access to all member libraries [Ref 18].

Support for College Programs and Access Documented by Use

Information Gateway Web Page. Actual use is one of the best documentations of access and how resources support college programs. As shown in the table below, the Information Gateway Web Page hits have significantly increased since its inception in the fall, 2000.

There were 56,463 hits in 2004-2005, 59.5 percent of which were off campus hits. This demonstrates that easy access is provided both on- and off-campus [Ref 19].

Database Searches. As shown in the table below, online database searches have increased from 11,824 when first used in 1995-1996 to 79,489 in 2004-2005 and to 80,294 in 2005-2006. The number of online database subscriptions has increased from three to 39 during the same time period. This is in addition to the 21 databases provided by Tennessee State Library and 8 by the TBR [Ref 20].

LRC Facility Usage. Use of the LRC facilities demonstrates physical access to resources. Data is available for the main campus and Jimmy Naifeh Center. Main campus LRC traffic has increased from 32,382 annually to 66,852 annually since 1995. Jimmy Naifeh Center LRC traffic has grown from 1,739 when it opened in 1998 to 14,183 in 2005-2006 [Ref 21]. The Gibson County Center LRC data is only available since 2000.  LRC use has remained relatively constant.  The Obion County Center provides training for 15 certificate students and continuing education programs.  Online resources and services are available to these students.  In the future we hope to expand offerings that will include credit-bearing courses and expand LRC services.

Institutional Effectiveness

The LRC can attribute its accomplishments to the institutional effectiveness processes at DSCC, in addition to the efforts of the LRC team. These processes enabled the LRC to set objectives, develop strategies, assess results and use this assessment to improve the LRC [Ref 22].   

For example, the information gateway began in 2001-2002 with a 7,419 increase in hits on the LRC Web page. Based on this data, we decided to improve the design of the page and add a link to a help desk page. This produced a 19,131 increase in hits for both pages. These results indicated that the information gateway page with an integrated help desk function would improve ease of use. The redesign combined the help desk with the resources on the same page. This new page produced an increase of 7,233 hits. Currently fifty percent or more of the use of the page is from off campus centers [Ref 23].

Data from online databases searches clearly indicates an increase in the use of online databases with a leveling off in 2004-2005. There are small increases from 1999-2000 to 2002-2003. Based on this data, in summer 2003 the information skills program was changed to include more emphasis on the online databases. The change produced a significant increase in 2003-2004. However, 2004-2005 data reveals a leveling off. The data indicates two databases that decreased significantly in 2004-2005 which produced this leveling off. An increased marketing effort for these databases and emphasis on information skills are needed [Ref 24].

Authored by Mr. Bob Lhota in coordination with the SACS Leadership Team

  Documentation: