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 library of Southeast Kentucky Community and
Each campus library has a substantial reference collection, as well as a reserve system, which enables teachers to place materials in reserve and thereby assure that they are available to all the students in a class. The latter includes telecourse videos and DVD’s which are made available to students taking courses via Kentucky Educational Television, who are not always able to watch all of the programs when they are broadcast.
In addition, a substantial number of materials are available to students at all campus locations in electronic format. Though these materials are provided by the library, they may be accessed from any computer on any campus directly; almost all are also available to students working from home, provided they have the appropriate passwords (the campus libraries make these readily available via cards and sheets). These materials include over 18, 000 electronic books from NetLibrary, as well as databases which give access to full-text articles in about 15,000 periodicals and abstracts or citations to articles in an additional 20,000 periodicals [2]. The databases offered include Infotrac (articles on all subjects, with two separate databases specifically geared to health issues); Opposing Viewpoints, which features articles on both sides of various issues confronting the modern world; ProQuest’s Nursing Journals, computing, Career and Technical Education, and All-press Watch; Newsbank (articles from 27 newspapers scattered around the country, including those from Louisville, Lexington, Knoxville, and Cincinnati, as well as the New York Times); Ebsco’s 25 databases—some general, some specialized by subject, some specialized by reading level; the Oxford Dictionary; the Encyclopedia Americana and other Grolier’s encyclopedias online; and OCLC’s FirstSearch, featuring WorldCat—a catalog to virtually all the library collections in the country as well as some in other parts of the world. Users may access all of these databases from the library webpage, which contains a description of the databases designed to help them decide which ones to use [3].
Besides the databases, the library webpage [4] provides access to the library’s online catalog, which contains the holdings of the libraries of SKCTC but also those of other libraries in the KCTCS system—easily obtainable via inter-library loan. The library’s webpage also contains general information about the library such as house of operation, library policies and procedures, and links to helpful resources, including information on how to document and evaluate research sources.
The collection of each campus is geared somewhat toward the
programs offered on that campus. For
instance, the Harlan campus library consists mainly of books in the various technical
fields, as well some medical and clerical fields, taught there. The Pineville campus library is almost
completely composed of materials related to medical fields, with a specific
emphasis on the allied health disciplines taught at that campus. While the other campuses have broader
offerings, supporting the general curriculum needed by transfer students, they
still have collections geared toward specific programs.
The library webpage also features links to the webpages of
the public libraries in the three counties in SKCTC’s service area as well as
the library webpages of other colleges and universities with which Southeast
has close ties. Reciprocal agreements
with those libraries facilitate smooth cooperation in order to benefit students [7a] [7b].
Beyond that, Southeast’s library is a member of Solinet and the Online Computer
Library Center (OCLC), which enables students to borrow materials from
libraries around the country. Participation in the Kentucky Virtual Library’s courier system provides
for especially prompt delivery of items to and from most other
Opening hours of the various campuses libraries vary [9]. The libraries on four of the campuses are large enough to house general library collections and are open regular evening hours during the school year. The Pineville library is small and therefore restricted primarily to medical materials, and it is open only during the daytime, but Pineville students use the nearby Middlesboro library extensively. Each campus library contains an adequate number of computers for student use; this is particularly essential in the case of the Pineville and Harlan libraries, with their relatively small and new physical collections [10]. Patrons may borrow circulating items from all campus libraries in accordance with the library’s circulation policies [11].
From a physical standpoint, the library offers services to off-campus users mainly by maintaining five campus libraries containing materials appropriate to courses offered at those campuses, as well as the capability of using various library services, including the use of inter-library loan service to obtain materials from elsewhere. However, the principal way in which library services are made available to off-campus users is in the various materials and services offered online, all of which are readily accessible from the library’s webpage. These include the library catalog, the many databases, the electronic books, the links to other library catalogs, information about the library itself, and guides to assessing and documenting sources.
Student satisfaction with the library is assessed using both annual surveys of students currently in classes and exit surveys conducted with students as they leave Southeast. The annual survey results are broken down by campus as much as possible, in order to facilitate their being used to improve library services [12]. Survey results indicate a high degree of satisfaction with library services at SKCTC; in particular, the Harlan campus results reflect vastly increased student satisfaction, due to the fact that the library on that campus has grown tremendously over the past two years [13]. In addition, a comprehensive survey of faculty was conducted in 2003-2004 to determine their level of satisfaction with their respective campus libraries; the survey consisted of interviews, and the results, while not easy to summarize, were used to make improvements in library resources and services. Another equally labor-intensive survey will be conducted in 2006-07 [14].
Separate from its library, the college also includes an Appalachian Archives, staffed by two professionals, which is open to the public, including students, from 8:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. Monday – Friday. Occasionally, patrons who sign a loan agreement are allowed to borrow items from the archives [15]. Its collections include oral and video histories, a realia, photographs, manuscripts, folk art, and records pertaining to the college [16]. The Archives operates in conjunction with the college’s Historical Information Management Program.
