Tuesday, March 23, 2010

University of Arizona Library Student Centered Service

I'm Hector Martinez and on this day 11: 30 am, March 23, 2010 the day President Obama signed the Health Care Reform Bill , for better or worse, I created my first blog . My blog will focus on my academic work, assignments and insight in the next few days.
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6 comments:

  1. HMartinezMarch 24, 2010 at 4:32 PM

    This is a well documented case study that details the development and building of a 26 million dollar of an Integrated Learning Center (ILC) connected to first floor of the University of Arizona’s Main Library. This user centered and space innovation opened in January of 2002 was in response to a reassessment of undergraduate education that showed a high 25% UA freshman dropout rate. The mission of the ILC was to promote a welcoming out- of –classroom setting or home base for freshman that fostered active learning and enrichment through student-focused research assistance and outreach to all students. This was done by the ILC providing space facilities for freshman general education classes, academic advising, and tutoring and technology assistance for classroom work.
    The construction design provided 12,000 square feet of new space for the IOC section into the Main Library and another 21,175 square feet in the Main Library was renovated as part of the main Library Improvement Project. The faculties provided referenced help for access to library resources, computers with an array of multimedia software and group study rooms. The software applications available were graphics like Photoshop CS4, Web page creation, statistics (SPSS17), viewing and listening media
    ( Realplayer, iTunes, etc), Office 2007 class software (Google Earth, SciFinder Scholar), references like Write –N- Cite and assistive technology like Magnifier and Narrator. Security cameras were installed in various areas of the ILC such lab top storage areas.
    The lessons learned after eight years of operation was the need of a strong code of conduct policy due to the successful and heavy use of the ICL. The challenges involved public access to library resources and the conduct of university students. While the money was well spend, the facility in the view of many users, it was too inviting and the wear and tear on the library furniture prompt the need for replacement funds. The ILC of the University of Arizona Library system was an outstanding success in terms of usage and being located at the heart of the campus. Finally, a variety of assessment tools are used on an outgoing basis to monitor the effectiveness of the entire library’s user centered operations.







    Stoffle, C., & Cuillier, C. (2010). Student-Centered Service and Support: A Case Study of the University of Arizona Libraries' Information Commons. Journal of Library Administration, 50(2), 117-134. doi:10.1080/01930820903455065.

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  2. UnknownMarch 27, 2010 at 11:24 AM

    Nice and informative Hector. The fact that part of the renovation was installation of security cameras in laptop storage areas and "the need of a strong code of conduct policy" speaks to our current environment.

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  3. Norma MartinezMarch 27, 2010 at 7:47 PM

    Good article Hector, very informative. I guess the public has access as well, and it seems that students and the public have some sort of conflict. I'm wondering if the rennovation and all the ammenities that the library got, had an effect on the dropout rate, did it lower it?

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  4. HMartinezMarch 27, 2010 at 8:11 PM

    The case study article stated in the conclusion that student retention had improve and that freshmen retention rates have increased by several percentage points. U of A is a huge campus and when I visited a friend there just before the fall semester in 09, I never seen so many freshman looking "lost". Freshman having high entrance test scores doesn't mean that they have the maturity to adjust to campus life.

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  5. HMartinezMarch 27, 2010 at 8:19 PM

    Norma,
    I also need to add that public access was a difficult issue. There had to be a good amount of library employee training on dealing with conduct problems with students and the public.

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  6. bizyreaderMarch 27, 2010 at 8:24 PM

    Good article. Along with building technology it is important to think about security for the technology.

    Thanks for sharing.

    Liz Nebeker

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