On March 21, 2008 I walked into the Learning Resource Center (LRC) at Tidewater Community College (TCC) at 10:00 A.M. ready to do my interview. I immediately started to panic when I was told the person I was supposed to interview, Sarah Greene, called in sick. I was trying to think of what to do when another staff member, Brittany Horn, approached me and said that she would do the interview with me. I was very thankful and we sat down to start the interview.
The LRC has an impressive amount of computers. There are thirty public access computers, thirty lab computers, thirty library classroom computers, and ten language computers. The lab computers require a library card for use, however any citizen of Virginia Beach can get a library card free of charge. The library classroom computers are reserved for library staff members for when they are teaching a class. The language computers are specifically for learning a language. The public access computers are for anyone to use for as long as they wish. I have observed the computer usage on many occasions and I never witnessed all of the computers in use. There is no filtering on any of the computers. The computers are the property of the Commonwealth of Virginia and it would break a law to have any type of filtering on the computers.
The lab computers are situated on the second floor of the LRC. The lab computers have the latest version of Mircosoft Office and are Internet ready. The lab has a scanner available as well as headphones. There is not a color printer for student use in the LRC.
There is no cost to print anything. All lab printing needs to be collected from staff because it prints out in a staff area. The public use computers do not have any Microsoft Office products loaded on them, but students can print Microsoft Office files from those machines through a Microsoft viewer. That creates a problem sometimes when a Powerpoint file is printed out because it will only print one Powerpoint slide per page. Students are often surprised when they go to collect their printing and there are thirty pages. Computer users are not permitted to download anything onto the computers.
The college does not really offer the students anything in terms of a social networking presence. There is not a college link on MySpace or Facebook. A couple staff members have expressed an interest in getting a presence on SecondLife but they cannot for the time being because their computers are not powerful enough. There is a TCCLRC Wiki but that is for staff members only. There is a cataloging blog for students to use but they never do so I will probably be removed. When I observed the students using computers in the LRC a large number appeared to be using MySpace or Facebook.
The LRC staff are currently working on getting podcasts on to the library site, but currently there are none. The library website does have quite a few Camtasia Files on it. The Camtasia files are audio- visual library instructional files to teach students things like reference skills. The Camtasia files were basically mandated by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) because that association felt the college did not have enough instructional material on it's website. I was very impressed with the content of the training portion of the website.
TCC offers a IM reference service. It is run at a state level with the Virginia Community College System (VCCS). Each college in the system is given a specific time that they have run the service. TCC is only responsible for providing the service for one hour per week. Most of the time the questions can be answered while the student is live but occasionally is cannot and then the question is written down and researched later. The IM reference is not a 24/7 service but it does cover the opening hours of the library. Any questions that are submitted to the "Ask A Librarian" Email service are typically answered within twenty-four hours.
The most used database at the college is the Gale Powersearch. The college had some databases on trial until April 15, 2008 and the college was seeking feedback from students and faculty. The college planned to submit the comments to the VCCS because ultimately the purchase decision would come at the state level. LRC staff have to give database instruction on a daily basis to students. The library staff offers instructional classes in their library classroom on a continuing basis. Some of the classes originate with the library staff and some of the classes are held because a college professor asked for them. Quite a few of the English, psychology, and the history professors ask the library staff to instruct in reference and database skills. The classes are well attended and well received by the students and faculty.
One of the new features on the library website is a MetaLib search that searches the library catalog and certain databases at the same time. Surprisingly this feature has been rarely used by anyone at the college, staff included. The ultimate purchasing decision for this product will be at the state level but the TCC staff will recommend not to purchase it because of it's lack of use. I was surprised that it was not used more because during the time period that I was examining the college website, the MetaLib search was heavily promoted.
The LRC has a few features for people with disabilities. In the lab there are computers available with less sensitive keyboards. There are computer monitors available that enlarge the print on the screen, and there are computers that can be made so they have no graphics on them.
The furniture in the LRC looked really uncomfortable and did not appear to be ergonomic. The chairs for the computer users are heavy wooden ones with a low back. The college does not want to replace any furniture in anticipation of a future library building with new furnishings. There is currently a proposal in the State Senate to build an academic-public joint use library which would become one of the largest in the USA. Even the staff are making do with inadequate computer furniture. the staff do not even have the pull out keyboard trays.
My final questions for Brittany were what works in the LRC and what does not work in the LRC. What works is most of the computer equipment being less then a year old and the library being in a period of transition working on updating policies and procedures. The main thing that does not work is that the website is locked in by the TCC layout and the library staff are locked out of certain aspects of the website due to the college branding. The college is currently accepting bids for the redevelopment of the website so Brittany hopes the layout will improve after the redevelopment.
Most of my more technical questions could not be answered by Brittany. Other questions were answered by Jacque Dessino, who is the Electronic Services Librarian for TCC. Jacque and I have been conversing via Email for several weeks now and more is to follow in my next report.
Denise
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