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Section II: COC 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 and services and to other learning/information resources consistent with the degrees offered. Collections, resources, and services are sufficient to support all its educational, research, and public service programs. (Learning Resources and Services)

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JUDGMENT OF COMPLIANCE

 √ Compliance             Partial compliance          Non-compliance

NARRATIVE

The Richard Bland College Library provides and supports student and faculty access and user privileges to adequate library collections and services as well as to other learning/information resources consistent with general liberal arts associate degrees offered at the College. These collections and resources are sufficient to support all the College’s educational programs leading to transfer to senior institutions and to support various educational and cultural activities for the community.

Access to Collections and Services

The Richard Bland College Library is located in a building centrally located on the campus. The Library was renovated in 2007, doubling the area to 23,080 square feet on two floors and increasing access to library collections through the addition of compact shelving, meeting room space for instruction in library use, and technology for access to all online resources. For a complete description of library facilities see Comprehensive Standard 3.8.1. The Library is open 70 hours per week in service to more than 1,400 students, 100 faculty and other employees as well as the broader community. The Richard Bland College Library mission statement calls on the Library to provide “resources and services to support the curriculum in the liberal arts,” and to provide instruction to students and faculty “in the location and use of resources and services.”

The Library provides a comprehensive website with easy access to resources and services: LION (LIbraries ONline), VIVA (Virtual Library of Virginia), instructional guides, and various forms for requesting library materials and services. Off-campus access is provided 24/7 through the use of EZProxy software. Instructions for off-campus usage are available on the website.

The collection is listed in the online catalog, LION. Instructions on the use of the online catalog are provided during orientation classes, library instructional classes and through online guides on the library website. On LION, patrons may view their accounts, reserve materials, request materials, determine due dates, and ask a librarian for assistance. Patrons may recommend materials for purchase, request interlibrary loans, and check the WorldCat database to determine what other books are available in their research area to obtain through interlibrary loan. The Library participates in a shared system, Williamsburg Research Libraries Partnership, which includes the College of William and Mary departmental libraries of Biology, Business, Chemistry, Geology, Law, Music, Philosophy, and Physics, as well as the John D. Rockefeller Library and the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture (libraries of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation), Richard Bland College, Earl Gregg Swem (the library of The College of William and Mary) and Hargis (the library of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science). The RBC Library uses SIRSI (SirsiDynix) for this integrated library system. Through a formal agreement, the technology staff at Swem Library maintains the system which includes upgrades and training for RBC Library staff. The system allows the speedy check out/in of materials and the maintenance of patron records. In addition the system provides the library staff technical services such as cataloging and maintaining records of reserves and periodicals.

Promotions and Marketing

The Richard Bland College Library promotes access to its collections and resources through displays and special events, i.e. National Library Week, Banned Books Week, and Welcome Back to the Library activities. The Library also sponsors guest author appearances including Emyl Jenkins and Gigi Amateau during the spring semester 2007.

A key component in effective promotion of library services and collections is the outstanding work of the Friends of the Library. The Friends of the Richard Bland College Library promote the activities of the Library and raise funds for use by the Library. The Friends group raises funds through such activities as the sale of donated books at reasonable prices, flea markets, product sales and raffles.

The Library participates in the ALA’s (American Library Association) Campaign for America’s Libraries. The campaigns include yearly themes with monthly activities. Recent themes have been:

2006-2007 Renovating for the Future @ your library^®
2005-2006 Food for Thought @ your library^®
2004-2005 Lights Camera Action! @ your library^®

The excellent marketing programs at Richard Bland College have received numerous recognitions. The Friends of the RBC Library received the Group Excellence Award in 1999 from the Friends of Virginia Libraries and in 2005 were presented one of three national awards given to Friends by Baker & Taylor/FOLUSA (Friends of Libraries U.S.A.) partnered with the ALA for groups who completed outstanding projects. The Friends of the RBC Library won the @ your library ® Campaign Award which honors the Friends group that made the most creative use of the campaign logo/or slogan during the 2005 calendar year.

The Library, working with the Friends group and the local DAR chapter, was instrumental in having the gravesite of Richard Bland (Revolutionary War era statesman and author and namesake of the College), declared a National Literary Landmark in 2006. External funds were raised to support the project.

Collections

The library’s collection includes over 68,000 books, 53,200 eBooks, 118 periodicals, subscriptions to six newspapers, 2,130 DVDs, 1,620 videos and 33,670 microforms. According to ACRL (Association of Colleges & Research Libraries) guidelines for the number of books and total materials expected in libraries among our peer group, the Richard Bland College Library has an “excellent collection.”

In addition the Library offers access to several special collections including a collection of materials on southside Virginia including books, realia, memorabilia, rare books, maps and electronic resources. One significant feature of these holdings is the Blair Collection which consists of 267 bound volumes of original period newspapers published in twenty different U.S. cities from New England to California focusing primarily on the Civil War era.

The College is a member of VIVA (The Virtual Library of Virginia) which is the consortium of the nonprofit academic libraries within the Commonwealth of Virginia. Members include all of the 39 state-assisted colleges and universities, the 32 independent institutions and the Library of Virginia. VIVA’s mission is “to provide, in an equitable, cooperative and cost-effective manner, enhanced access to library and information resources for the Commonwealth of Virginia’s nonprofit academic libraries serving the higher education community.” This membership provides RBC’s faculty, staff and students full access to 161 databases, with full-text access to millions of articles and more than 5,600 full-text journals and newspapers, as well as nearly 10,000 full-text works of poetry and verse drama and over 750,000 other full-text scholarly materials (e.g. statistical reports and company financial reports). The Commonwealth of Virginia consistently funds the VIVA program thereby dramatically expanding the College’s access to holdings from around the Commonwealth at minimal cost.

The Richard Bland College Library Director participates in VIVA collection development by recommending purchases to VIVA’s Resources for Users Committee whose members investigate products and recommend licensing or renewal of databases.

Interlibrary loan (ILL) is enhanced through memberships in both SOLINET (Southeastern Library Network, Inc.) and RALC (Richmond Academic Library Consortium). Through SOLINET, faculty, staff and students may borrow materials from institutions throughout the region. RALC is a consortium of ten Richmond area college and university libraries and the Library of Virginia. According to its mission statement “RALC promotes resource sharing through such activities as interlibrary lending, document delivery, direct borrowing by patrons, shared cooperative collection development and automated networking.” Through RALC, faculty, staff and students may borrow from the local area libraries.

Assessment

The RBC Library is assessed through several measurements and reports including the annual Library Survey of Student Satisfaction, statistics on library usage and services, the 2006 WorldCat Collection Analysis, the 2005-2006 Assessment Plan, and the 2006-2007 Assessment Plan.

The annual Library Survey determines the student satisfaction with library services, access and resources. The 2006 survey of 276 students is reported since it was given before the Library was moved to temporary quarters during the renovation. The chart below, reflecting data from that survey, shows the degree to which the Library meets user needs in the listed areas.

Satisfaction with Library Services, Access and Resources

Question	Percent satisfied
Helpful and knowledgeable staff	95.9
Convenient and adequate hours	91.3
Timely Interlibrary Loan services	67.6
Helpful and easy to use library website	91.0
Helpful and easy to use catalog (LION)	85.1
Easy access to library resources from home	85.0
Helpful and easy to use online VIVA databases	85.3
Good collection of print materials for research	86.6
Library supports my learning and research needs	96.3

The survey also indicated that 67.2% of the students used resources on the library premises at least two or more times each month and 64.9% used online resources off-campus at least two or more times each month.

A 2006 WorldCat Collection Analysis compared Richard Bland College with peer institutions by analyzing the Library’s resources as appropriate to support the educational programs offered at the College. All subject areas offered at RBC were compared and the analysis indicated that RBC adequately supports its curriculum needs.

Assessment plans are submitted annually to the Office of the Director of Institutional Effectiveness and are incorporated into the Strategic Plan of the College.

 

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Page updated February 18, 2008  | Questions or comments? Email sacsparc@rbc.edu

© 2005, Richard Bland College
Petersburg, Virginia