Keeping Up with the (Dow)-Joneses: How We Do What We Do

By Karen Hopkins and Maggie Dwyer

Two years ago the Libraries Annual Report included an illustrated timeline of events from the earliest days of the institutions that evolved into the University of Texas at Arlington and it’s Libraries. (View the timeline online at http://libraries.uta.edu/publications/AnnRep/99-00/Timeline.htm.) Collecting those illustrations and that information provided a unique opportunity to glance at the technology and offerings available to the campus community. In that report, Library Director Tom Wilding noted:

Reflecting on the decade of the 90s, it is easy to see the spiraling effect of technological advancement. At the beginning of the decade, it is just possible to see the catalog and a few reference sources move beyond the walls of the library. By the end of the decade, the Web has transformed library services and the educational enterprise. Web-based educational opportunities obviated the need for students to come to campus, and this put pressure on the Libraries to provide the same level of access to high quality information resources to support those distance learners.

As the saying goes, these advancements didn’t happen in a vacuum. They were put in place by librarians and staff who work to stay abreast of current and evolving technologies and who then pass this expertise on to users in the larger university community. This article will examine how we in the library approach a multi-faceted task of keeping up, staying ahead, and taking our library users with us (or keeping up with them!). Let’s start with an easily recognizable library landmark—the card catalog.

In August, 1987, the general card catalog for the UTA Libraries was closed as the library converted to a computer-based cataloging system called NOTIS. This was the point when users noticed that libraries were changing as new technology became available. Change didn’t necessarily appear to be rapid after that; for many years the computerized catalog was the only computer interface with new technology that library users saw. But as Wilding noted, change was occurring, and the momentum for users began picking up as more materials became available through various devices. One example is microfiche, a form that had been around for a long time but the machines that helped reading it were greatly improved. Once available only on paper, entire journals, and then journal collections, came in widely-available microforms, soon followed by index databases arriving on Compact Disks for use on dedicated terminals. The Internet and Full-text documents (as opposed to online indexes pointing users to other media where the full texts could be found) soon followed. Several years ago the Libraries’ “dumb terminals” that had limited text-only capabilities were replaced with fully connected Web-based Internet workstations and those journal collections were no longer delivered on CD but over the Internet. As technology, programming, and librarian expertise grew indexes and articles were licensed to be viewed online, necessitating passwords for authorized users. As the list of passwords grew longer (first available on wallet-sized cards, then listed on a secure web page) they were finally tucked behind the scenes with cgi scripts and UTA users reach subscription resources from anywhere in the world via active server pages and proxy servers. Librarians had to design a system for our library, implement these technologies, and to teach the users how to use it. The most recent library catalog is a web-based entity called PULSe http://pulse.uta.edu that is light-years ahead of NOTIS in its ability to conduct complex searches and to link to licensed off-site full-text materials. As advanced as PULSe is, it’s successor is already in the planning stages.

Chart Sidebar 

Here in the Libraries we use a conventional process to approach the task of long- and mid-range planning, employing a multi-year strategic plan that takes into account changing technology and the continual need for training. “Three years ago,” according to Karen Hopkins, Assistant to the Directorate for Planning and Assessment, “the Libraries finalized the Strategic Plan 2000-2005, involving the whole staff and user community in the process. Mindful of the overall UTA mission, this Strategic Plan articulates the Libraries’ management and allocation of staffing and programming resources in order to reach our goals and to meet or exceed the primary functions of the Library.” In the 2000-2002 UTA Libraries Annual Report, Library Director Tom Wilding wrote:

But while our strategic plan defined new roles for the Libraries, the organizational structure within which we worked and the culture we had established did not necessarily support new directions and new definitions. Clearly if we were to succeed, it had become necessary to focus the Libraries’ work and human resources on our new directions.

Accordingly, the library reorganized. Of particular note to this article are the strategic plan’s goals to use emerging technologies to improve and expand the services we provide; to plan and design library facilities for the future; and to give every library staff member opportunities to succeed in an increasingly complex workplace. According to Hopkins, these goals "suggest strategies to guide us into implementing our vision of the Libraries in the twenty-first century. A key element of strategic planning is integrating the changing environment into the annual planning. Decisions can then be energized by considering implications of developing challenges."

In February 2003, at the mid-point of our 2000-2005 Strategic Plan, the Libraries’ managers and staff volunteers took time to” review the strategic directions, to reconfirm our orientation toward our vision.” In this instance, Library staff conducted a retreat at Garrett Creek Ranch, north of Fort Worth, in order to allow participants to work uninterrupted in meetings in which the air was thick with ideas and flip charts were filled with possibilities. This retreat allowed all levels of library staff to evaluate and tweak the strategic plan as it is in effect today.

One must move beyond the simple evolution of the library catalog to show some of the other ways in which librarians are using new technologies. Many library functions, such as cataloging new books, searching the catalog, and checking out books, are all integrated through the Voyager system. (For more information about this and the parent company, Endeavor, visit www.endinfosys.com/) Use of such a system involves a dynamic relationship between the library and the software developers; the librarians in the field report back to the software company and work together to continually improve the product and the information it provides. (See sidebar—Michael Doran)

In preparation for this article, several librarians were asked how their jobs have changed as the technology has changed, and the responses ranged from little to great change. Helen Hough, subject librarian in both nursing and sciences, illustrates that the old tasks haven’t gone away; she still works on “collection development, mediated searching, reference, and library instruction,” noting that “conceptually it’s not any different; I [still] go to conferences and workshops and read manuals. I send email instead of writing.” Ann Hodges, acting head of Special Collections, described a process of learning to convert large amounts of a varied rare documents into a form viewable or searchable online. Much of this has been made possible through grant funding and has allowed for equipment, software, materials and specially trained staff to make Special Collections materials available to users around the world. Others, like Bea Cantu, who handles Interlibrary Loan requests through the Access Services department, had a remarkable tale to tell of the change in her department, taking it from the hide-bound Dickens-era to the digital age. “We used to use gobs of paper,” said Cantu in her office, pointing out several tall filing cabinets no longer in use that used to bulge with files. “We’ve gone paperless.”

Sidebar: Michael Doran, Amber Royer, and Peter Zhang

A primary step for librarians and staffers in the face of all of this growth and change has been to take classes and attend American Library Association and Texas Library Association conferences and symposia. And in addition to the specialized Voyager training, there are courses offered in Dallas by AMIGOS, a nonprofit organization that is “one of the nation’s largest library resource-sharing networks and a leader in providing information technology to libraries.” (Visit www.amigos.org for more information.) Cantu said she has taken several of AMIGO’s specialized classes to do with Interlibrary Loan. As one of several staff trainers, she then returns to our libraries to teach our staff these skills. The UTA Continuing Education department has provided some of the basic web-related training and certification for those library staff and librarians who maintain pages on UTA Libraries Online, the umbrella name of the extensive set of pages generated by all of our departments. Visit www.uta.edu/library to begin exploring our library web site.

In other instances, whole new departments have sprung up to meet the technological demands of campus programs. The Digital Media Lab is set up to integrate many hardware and software platforms. According to their web page:

In the DMC, you will find a variety of computer hardware and software suited for developing almost every type of multimedia project. The DMC features 14 high-end Dell and Apple computers, scanners, and audio/visual equipment. We have digital cameras and miniDV cameras available for short-term checkout. Available software enables digital audio and video editing, graphic and animation creation, web site creation, animation, photo and image manipulation, and multimedia authoring. Projects can be burned to CD or DVD, saved on a Zip disk or network drive, published on a web server, or printed on large format color printers.

“Interesting things happen when working with a strategic plan during periods of evolutionary change” says Hopkins. “The direction of our vision has not wavered, but our library, information, publishing, and academic universes have continued to evolve. New opportunities and challenges have emerged as we have focused on our goals.” Here are some of the results from recent library surveys that Hopkins conducted:

* Data from the 2000 library student survey indicated increased use and dependence on electronic resources. We learned that the majority of our students own a personal computer and have Internet access from home. Additional data indicated that we needed more computer workstations within the Libraries to accommodate access to the increasing amount of subscription information available electronically.

* The University’s 2001 Comprehensive Student Survey revealed that 78% of our students have jobs, and almost half of all students work more than 20 hours a week. Over half of the respondents consider themselves likely to enroll in a distance education class.

These two surveys confirmed our need to provide as much information as possible whenever and where ever it is needed. What do university users see today? Library planning has concentrated on providing virtual access to a wide array of information resources.

* Additional workstations were added to the Libraries.

* Wireless access was made available within the library facilities, along with a new initiative to check out laptop computers for use within the Libraries.

* User authentication issues for off campus users needed to be resolved, and

* The Libraries began working more closely with the University’s Office of Information Technology and the UTA Center for Distance Education.

Technology is the most pervasive and sexy element in the evolving information world. The explosion of Internet availability and the proliferation of digital information have impacted all areas of library resources and services. One has only to look at such things as course reserves, many of which are now online, the wireless network and laptop computers available for checkout, and the colossal success of Sam’s Click, the library’s Internet Café to easily illustrate the dynamic interface between the library and its users. This writer finished a Master’s in English here at UTA in 1999. I spent hours on the third and fifth floors of Central Library from 1996-1999, tracking down essays on paper, and used the Modern Language Association (MLA) online bibliography to get citations to send to Bea Cantu in ILL. (Thanks, Bea!). In contrast, today’s student has easy access from home or campus to a huge indexed array of online printable full-text essays and an automated ILL process that saves lots of paper. The old materials are still available, and are still a valuable resource. Our new databases and technologies still point toward the resources we have on the shelves, but they also bring distant resources to our fingertips. What a remarkable time to be a part of the UTA high tech community!