Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College Online Compliance Certification
Judgment of Compliance |
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X |
Compliance |
Partial Compliance |
Non-Compliance |
NARRATIVE/JUSTIFICATION FOR JUDGMENT OF COMPLIANCE
The
staff of the SKCTC libraries includes five professional librarians with
graduate degrees in library and information science from programs accredited by
the American Library Association [1]. Their duties are best reflected in plans made
annually, in which goals are set in various areas of faculty responsibility [2]. The professionals have faculty status and
benefits and are encouraged to maintain memberships in professional
organizations and to attend professional conferences and take advantage of
other professional development activities. Funding is provided to defray the expenses involved with attending
conferences and training opportunities; in addition to library funds, the
college’s professional development funds are sometimes used. During the past two years, SKCTC professional
librarians have attended conferences of the Kentucky Library Association, the
Southeast Library Association, the Kentucky Solinet Users’ Group, and the Special Library Association; workshops offered by
the Kentucky Department of Libraries and Archives, the Online Computer Library
Center, and Solinet; as well as various other
professional workshops and training opportunities [3].
The
professionals are ably assisted by four paraprofessionals, each with at least
an associate degree [4]. Their jobs and qualifications all fall within
the general parameters of the KCTCS job description for the position of Library
Specialist; however, each individual has a job description specifying his/her
specific duties within those parameters [5]. In order to meet their own
individually-established goals, staff members frequently attend locally-offered
workshops in various professional development subjects; these are not usually
directly related to library science. But
since July 2003, various staff members have also attended workshops in such
topics as OCLC Resource Sharing, MS Office, and book repair. Professional development funds are also
available to help defray expenses involved with attending such activities. One Cumberland paraprofessional is currently
taking two library science courses offered by Bluegrass Community and Technical
College—“Introduction to Reference Services” and
“Library Technical Services” and planning to get a professional
degree eventually.
The
educational level of the staff meets or exceeds requirements, and, as a group,
they bring to the operation of the SKCTC libraries a variety of helpful
previous work experiences, as well as years of working in libraries
themselves. Because of the small size of
the various campus libraries, duties overlap considerably. Several staff members perform library
services on more than one campus [6].
The
Nevertheless,
student surveys, conducted annually in the fall, indicate that the level of
student satisfaction with the service they receive from library staff is very
high, even in Harlan and Pineville. This
indicates that the regular library staff is providing adequate supervision and
assistance at those campuses (during the school year,
The staff of the Appalachian Archives is supervised by the Director of the
Appalachian Program. It consists of one
experienced full-time professional archivist, with an ALA-accredited degree in
Library and Information Science, and a full-time Program Facilitator, who is a
professional folklorist with a graduate degree in Folk Studies [9].
