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by Laural Adams
ladams@lib.nmsu.edu
NMSU Library's strategic planning process consists of several phases and
functions. Five separate committees have been established and each is
undertaking various parts of the process. On March 27th and 28th, a
planning retreat organized by the Values Scanning/Mission Formulation
Committee was held at the Holy Cross Retreat Center to scan the values
of Library employees and our community and to begin reformulating the
Library's mission statement.
The retreat was modeled after the "Future Search Conference"
concept in which a large group of internal organizational members and
external "stakeholders" meet to share and synthesize their vision of the
future, evaluate the past, and devise strategies for directing the
organization towards the future. This process is different from the
meetings and committees an organization usually utilizes for planning
and decision making in that it is focused on examining the whole system
rather than solving problems within discrete areas.
The conference was attended by half (40) of the Library's
employees and an equal number of external participants. Among the latter
were NMSU faculty, students, staff, community members, vendors and other
information providers. These participants contributed their unique views
of the Library and our future.
A framework of five questions evoked observations on the history,
values, ideals, constraints and opportunities that effect us. After
discussing relevant trends and values, we identified who the
organization should serve, what products and services we should provide
and how this should be accomplished. These were the basic elements of a
draft mission statement. We then brainstormed specific actions for
bridging the gap between the present and the future we envisioned.
Library staff noted with enthusiasm how much they had learned
about themselves. After the conference several library participants met
informally to share observations about the process. "I never thought
about the Library that way," one participant commented. "We learned
things about ourselves that weren't always good but we needed to know.
We also learned what things we're doing right."
Since then, the results of the conference have been synthesized
into mission and values statements and passed on to the next committee.
This "strategic business modeling" committee is now using the results to
establish the formal "lines of business" in which NMSU Library engages.
These will give way to a set of goals and methods for measuring how well
we accomplish our goals.
The committee will also identify "strategic business units." Such
groups are very often not constrained to formal departments or
traditional units within departments but are nonetheless instrumental to
accomplishing certain goals. Costs and resource allocations for each
line of business will be assessed in light of the newly devised goals
and future environmental conditions and trends.
This phase is expected to require an intense 16 or more hours of
work and we anticipate its completion by the end of May. We expect to
finish the strategic plan and begin implementing it by the fall
semester. Anyone interested in commenting on the planning process is
invited to do so. A Web site has been established where planning
documents can be viewed and e-mail comments can be made. The Library
Home Page address is at URL: http://library.nmsu.edu
We would like to thank those who participated in the retreat and
others who have contributed their input and guidance to this process.
Particularly, we wish to thank Larry Mays, Phil Bernick, and Ellen
Rosell who helped us organize a successful retreat.
by Cheryl Wilson chwilson@lib.nmsu.edu A Western Women Collection, comprising more than 300 titles, was recently added to Special Collections. The books, both fiction, and non-fiction, focus on the lives, accomplishments, and experiences of women whose contributions continue to influence the history and development of the West. While the core collection was purchased from La Galleria de Los Artesanos, a bookstore in Las Vegas, New Mexico, books are continuing to be added to the collection. To search OLE for books in the collection type t/western women. The books may be used in the Special Collections Research Room from Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. until 12:00 noon and from 1:00 p.m. until 5:00 p.m. Special Collections is located on the 2nd floor east in Branson Hall.
Barbara Delzell, Engineering Librarian since 1992, will be leaving the Library to work for the Vancouver, Washington Division of the Hewlett- Packard Company, Research and Development Engineering Group, as Information Research Analyst. Barbara will be in charge of the Resource Center for Research & Development. She begins her new job on May 20, 1996. Congratulations, Barbara--good luck! Valerie Horton, Head of Library Systems, will serve as NMLA Annual Conference Chair in 1996/97 and as president of the New Mexico Library Association (NMLA) for 1997-98. Valerie has been active in the association over the years, and in fact was local arrangements Chair for the NMLA Annual Conference held in Las Cruces last March. Congratulations, Valerie! Ed Erazo has won the Border Regional Library Association's Librarian-of- the-Year Award "in recognition of outstanding library service to the community." BRLA is the local library association that serves the El Paso/Las Cruces/Juarez metroplex. Ed served as BRLA president during the 1994-95 term.CITATIONS
The Newsletter of the New Mexico State University Library Box 30006 Dept. 3475 Las Cruces, NM 88003-0006 Editors: Tim McKimmie (505) 646-7483 tmckimmi@lib.nmsu.edu Ed Erazo (505) 646-6930 ederazo@lib.nmsu.edu Staff Page: Mike Mitchell mitchell@lib.nmsu.edu Editorial Board: Gwen Gregory Laurie Porter Karen George Published January, April, and OctoberNew Wine, New Bottles
by Charles Townley, Dean of the University Library ctownley@lib.nmsu.edu Throughout the world, major changes are taking place in how scholarly information is accessed and used. Nowhere is this more true than at the New Mexico State University Library. Changes in our users and in the scholarly information we provide are creating new demands for library service at New Mexico State University. We are working with new wine and new bottles. The Library is addressing these changing needs in a new strategic plan. The recent "Planning Our Future" search conference (reported elsewhere) has provided an opportunity for the NMSU community to gather and discuss how we want to access and use scholarly information in the next five years. Library personnel and members of the NMSU community are now reviewing the findings of this conference and related statistical information to create a strategic plan for the University Library. Over the summer, the strategic plan will be elaborated into objectives and programs of library departments and units. It is already clear that there will be some significant changes in library direction and goals. Some new concepts are already being implemented. One is enhanced information training. Users want the NMSU Library to provide a greatly increased amount of training for students, faculty, and staff. We already provide regular sessions on using electronic and traditional resources. We also offer a three credit general education course, Library Science 311, "Information Literacy," for those interested in mastering information skills and strategies necessary for critical evaluation and use of scholary information. We are looking at a broad range of enhancments including several online tutorials. Another area of enhanced activity is in developing borderlands information. The importance of the border in our lives is becoming more and more apparent and the library is responding. We have been fortunate to add two large collections that address current areas of weakness in Mexican and Latin American collections. In addition to our long- standing cooperation with the UTEP Library, the NMSU Library is cooperating more with the Autonomous University of the City of Juarez. This spring we are signing the first Interlibrary Loan and Reciprocal Borrowing Agreements between the two universities on the border. As a part of the Transborder Information Technology Collaborative demonstration in February, we co-hosted a demonstration of online databases with the other two institutions that was seen throughout the Las Cruces-El Paso-Juarez metroplex. For the past year and a half, we have been undertaking staff exchanges with the Autonoma Library in order to share our knowledge of each other's library operations and resources. In the area of cooperative collection development, we are sharing journal lists to assure a broad coverage of periodical titles on both sides of the border. We also are cooperating with the University of Guadalajara and at the Technological Institute in Chihuahua. To improve access to scholarly information in areas with very expensive journals, the University Library is initiating an access initiative with the cooperation of five departments: Biology, Chemistry and Biochemistry, the Klipsch School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Mathematical Sciences, and Physics. This program, which involves a cut in the periodicals list and enhancements in electronic access and delivery, is intended to pilot test new ways of providing scholarly information essential for research, teaching, and service. Lessons learned with these departments will be eventually applied throughout the university.Social Science Data for NMSU Researchers
by Marlo Brown marlo@lib.nmsu.edu The Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) offers researchers at NMSU access to a huge archive of statistical data at little or no cost. International in scope, the ICPSR archive ranges from Canadian census data to ABC News polls, from capital punishment to health care. Continual efforts are made to expand the archive, and data from some of the world's leading researchers is regularly added to the collection. As a member of the ICPSR, NMSU enjoys not only access to the archive, but also training opportunities in data- based research at ICPSR and technical support to help researchers in using data. ICPSR has recently upgraded their delivery system to provide researchers at member institutions with faster and easier access than ever before. Using the Internet, sets of data can be ordered and downloaded quickly and easily. At ICPSR and at NMSU, there is also a movement away from large mainframe computers and toward putting the data on the personal computer of the researcher for more flexible access and easy sharing of data with colleagues. ICPSR has also made information about their program available through their World Wide Web homepage at: http://www.icpsr.umich.edu For more information about ICPSR services or to order data, researchers can contact Marlo Brown, NMSU's ICPSR Official Representative, at 646-7485, e-mail marlo@lib.nmsu.edu.Opportunities: Need for Private Investment
by Nancy B. Dent, Director of Library Development nandent@nmsu.edu The NMSU library endeavors to keep pace with technological advances and the explosion of computer-based resources that are enhancing the library of the future. However, there are challenges that can only be met through private investment in the incredible community resource that is represented by the New Mexico State University Library. Escalating publishing costs continue to devalue the Library's acquisition dollars. The prices of research periodical subscriptions have increased 35 to 75 percent over the last three years, forcing the Library to restrict subscriptions. Publisher's prices for academic books have increased 20 to 25 percent in the same time period. Scientific journals and books often cost three or four times the amount of non-scientific library materials. With the level of science-based scholarship and research taking place at NMSU, the financial impact of this is significant. Technology has dramatically changed the way a research library acquires, processes, and makes information available. In addition to providing current and relevant print materials, the Library is committed to enhanced technical capabilities and public access to computerized information resources. But costs exceed allocations. Private support must be secured to preserve and enhance the quality and distinction of the Library. As a state-assisted university, receiving approximately 38 percent of its budget from state sources, NMSU must call upon individuals, corporations, and foundations to invest in its future. There are many opportunities to invest including outright gifts, gifts of real estate and appreciated securities, deferred and planned gifts. If you would like to discuss how you can help, please call Nancy Dent at 646-5828.UACJ Librarians Continue to Visit NMSU Library
by Karen Stabler kstabler@lib.nmsu.edu Three librarians from the Universidad Autonoma de Ciudad Juarez (UACJ) will visit the New Mexico State University Library in an ongoing program to enhance cooperation between the two libraries. Martha D. Castro, a Special Collections Librarian will be visiting April 15 - April 19, Veronica Flores, a Serials Librarian will be visiting April 29 - May 3, and Jesus Cortes, the Associate Librarian will be visiting May 27 - 31. The visiting librarians will be looking at our procedures, systems, and consulting with NMSU faculty and staff. Each visiting librarian will make a presentation about an aspect of Mexican librarianship. Marta Castro will speak on "School Libraries in Mexico," Veronica Flores will speak on the "Use of Serials in Mexican Universities," and Jesus Cortes will speak on "Library Automation in Mexico." Last year, three other librarians--Juana Martinez, Vickie Martinez and Alejandro Gonzalez--each visited our library for one week. Through this exchange program, a Reciprocal Borrowing Agreement, Interlibrary Loan Privileges, and a Gift Book Exchange have been established.News from the Dean's Office . . .
Several additional renovations of the Branson Hall Library will be undertaken this summer. A preservation laboratory will be built in the Archives Unit and funded in large part by the Stockman Foundation. The Staff Lounge will be moved from the fourth to the first floor to be more convenient for staff. This will also free up additional space for Archives collections and activities. Electronic classroom facilities will be built in both libraries. One facility will be fully equipped with computers and other instructional equipment. Funds for the project comes from remaining funds from the 1990 and 1994 capitol bond issues. The Government Documents Unit was successfully reviewed by the U.S. Government Printing Office. Staff efforts and improvements in facilities were praised. Need for additional support was discussed. The State of New Mexico Legislature and Governor approved $100,000 for additional microfilming activities in the Durango, Mexico area related to historical documents of interest to the citizens of New Mexico. The sponsorship of Representative J. Paul Taylor of Mesilla is warmly recognized. The Library has received three significant bequests this winter. $50,000 was received from the Camien estate to establish an endowment to support the Rio Grande Historical Collections. The McKee Foundation of El Paso has donated $7,500 for additional materials in art and engineering. U.S. West has donated $2,500 for the support of library acquisitions. Tenure as of July 1: R. David Myers (also promotion to Professor), Don Barclay & Tim McKimmie.WWW Access to Science Citation Index Ceases
by Tim McKimmie, tmckimmi@lib.nmsu.edu Although immensely popular, in the end, the cost of maintaining Web access to Science Citation Index (SCI) proved too high. NMSU faculty, staff, and students were able to use this version of SCI for about 4 months through a cooperative, experimental program involving Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Sandia Lab, Phillips Lab, UNM, NM Tech, and NMSU. The program ceased March 31. Many faculty and students have expressed concern about this loss. Not only was it easy to use, but it was accessible from any campus office. The most valuable aspect of this service was the software used for searching SCI. Developed by LANL specifically for searching SCI, the "Explorer" software was sophisticated yet user friendly, allowing powerful search capability, multi-year searching, and hypertext links to cited references. Any computer with a campus ICP address could access the tapes, stored at LANL. In order to continue the service, the Library would have needed approximately $135,000 per year, an amount that simply could not be squeezed from its budget. For now, Library users may access SCI on CD-ROM from 1989 to the present, from a single workstation in Branson Library. Although there seems to be little hope of restoring access to SCI via the Web, a proposal is being drafted that would permit a reduced level of access, rather than campus wide. One of the reasons for the high cost of the service would have been the unlimited nature of access. Under a recently submitted proposal, for example, access could be limited to specific locations of computers on campus. A decision is expected by early May.PEGASUS Document Delivery Service Continues to Grow With High-Flying Success
by Cindy Watkins cwatkins@lib.nmsu.edu PEGASUS, the document delivery service of the NMSU Library, continues to broaden its scope, with the Circulation staff providing the backbone of this new program. Through PEGASUS faculty, professional staff, and registered disabled patrons may request materials to be delivered to their university offices. Requests may be made via e-mail (pegasus@lib.nmsu.edu) or fax (646-7477). Also, look for the PEGASUS fill-out form on the NMSU Library's online circulation desk (http://lib.nmsu.edu/circulation/pegasus/index.html). When requests are received the circulation staff locates the materials, copying if necessary, and delivers directly to campus offices. Guaranteed turnaround time is 2 working days, but most requests are filled within 24 hours. Requests for materials not owned by the NMSU Library are forwarded to the Interlibrary Loan Office. Once ILL has filled the request, the materials are then returned to PEGASUS for delivery. An option for PEGASUS users is the ordering of materials to be placed directly on reserve. Please phone Sandra Padilla for more information 646-4441. From September 1, 1996-March 21, 1996 Circulation staff have processed the following: - Articles delivered 1,906 - Articles referred to ILL 306 - Total pages copied 19,123 - Faculty & professional staff registered for PEGASUS 458 - Departments, Offices and Organizations using PEGASUS 149 From August 1994-March 20, 1996: - Books Delivered 1269 - Books Picked-up 152 Email: pegasus@lib.nmsu.edu http://lib.nmsu.edu/circulation/pegasus/index.htmlMeet the Pegasus Staff
Patsy Hernandez, Branson Periodicals Patsy checks all incoming Pegasus mail, forwarding it to the appropriate area. If she finds that the Library does not own the item, she forwards the request to ILL. In addition, Patsy pulls materials to be copied from the Branson periodicals room, and is responsible for the final quality control check for correct copying and pagination. Mary Chavarria, New Library Periodicals and Copy Center Mary locates requested materials in the New Library periodicals room and coordinates all copying with the Copy Center. She also performs final quality control check for correct copying and pagination. Frances Alvarez, New Library Circulation Frances locates requested items from the New Library stacks and makes deliveries. Dora Morales, Branson Circulation Dora maintains Pegasus files for book requests, and makes deliveries. Cindy Watkins, Branson Circulation Accounts for all articles copied, maintains statistical files for articles, and oversees the whole show. Irene Tellez and Sandra Padilla, New Library Circulation Fatemeh Zafarani, Branson Stack Maintenance Assists when others are unable by pulling or delivering requests. In addition, students from four separate areas assist in copying and deliveries.STAFF NEWS
by Mike Mitchell mitchell@lib.nmsu.eduAnnouncing New Staff: The library welcomes . . .
Ruby Estrada Ruby Estrada is the newest member of the Order/Recipts Unit. She has previously been employed on campus as a student and is very happy to be working at the Library. Her majors are government and ecology. Ruby is a native New Mexican with roots dating back to before New Mexico statehood. Ethnically, she says she is a blend of cultures which have historically been in the area: Native American, Mexican, Spanish and French. Ruby has traveled all over Europe and lived in England for a couple of years. She is convinced that although there is a lot to see and do in the world, there really is no place like home. She predicts that her roots and familiarity with New Mexico will keep her in the area for a long time to come.New Baby
Mary Chavarria, New Periodicals, is pleased to announce the arrival of her daughter, Isabel, born on March 29, 1996. Isabel weighed 6 lbs. and 15 oz. and was 20" long. Congratulations to the proud parents, Mary and Chon!Library Services Alliance Offers Cooperative Initiatives
by Karen Stabler kstabler@lib.nmsu.edu In 1992 the New Mexico State University Library joined the Library Services Alliance, a consortium of technical libraries in the state of New Mexico to enhance cooperation on collections and services. Membership includes the three national laboratories — Los Alamos National Laboratories, Sandia Laboratories, and Phillips Laboratories as well as the University of New Mexico, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, and NMSU. There have been several successful programs including the Reciprocal Borrowing Agreement that permits faculty and graduate students from the six institutions to check out unclassified materials from each other's library. Forms are available at the Branson Library Circulation Desk or call Holly Reynolds at 646-4803. Last year an experiment from October 1 through March 31 on using ISI's Scientific Citation Index, a web-based product, was made available to all NMSU students and faculty who had an IP (Internet Protocol) address. Through the years there have been collection development initiatives to share expensive journals among the members. The Reference Planning Groups is planning initiatives to promote services among technical libraries in New Mexico.Bibliographic Instruction Increasingly Important in High Tech NMSU Library Environment
by Edward Erazo, Education Librarian ederazo@lib.nmsu.edu Most academic libraries in the United States find themselves in an increasingly high-tech environment, one with constant and rapid changes; the NMSU Library is no different. There seem to be new products, new software, new searching options available everyday. All this accounts for making libraries the exciting places they are, but it also serves to challenge, delight and sometimes alarm the students and faculty, who try to keep up with all the latest innovations available in the Library. In the past few years, we have seen library resources gradually move from print to electronic format, as in these examples: the card catalog to the online catalog (OLE), print indexes to CD-ROM indexes, and print directories to CD or Internet directories. We even have full-text legal journals and law reviews available via Internet access on WESTLAW. The result at the Library has been not only the ability to get information faster, but in many cases, get better information as well. With the proliferation of databases available on the Internet and better search engines to locate specific information, this trend toward faster and better electronic information promises to continue. As a result, library instruction is evolving an increasingly important and necessary role in academic libraries and in the larger academic community they serve. It used to be that library skills were something our students learned just once, usually during their first year of college and as part of their English composition class (E-110 & E-111). The overview included an explanation of the card catalog, print indexes and citations. Well, while we still offer the general library orientation to these classes, we are now more apt to demonstrate search techniques for the various electronic databases that students need to know to find their information. We conduct library orientations for many classes besides English composition. Other instructors are discovering that one class period in the library is time well spent learning about specific sources for their students' research papers. Students who transfer to NMSU after their first year elsewhere and returning students are often alarmed at the changes in an increasingly electronic library. "Everything is now on the computer," they say. Just where should they begin? The answer is that they should begin by trying to get into a library orientation class, either one as part of one of their courses, or by joining one scheduled for another class. Chances are that there will be one that will be both suitable for their level and offered at a convenient time. The other possibility is to take us up on our offer to provide a special session if they can get at least five students together on their own. Options for getting library instruction abound, as the growing list of opportunities shows. This semester, the Library again offered "Information Literacy," L SC 311 (Library Science) as a general elective course. As was the case last semester, students quickly filled the one section of the class. (Interestingly enough, last semester several faculty members joined graduate and undergraduate students in L SC 311.) Reference librarians conducted 113 bibliographic instruction sessions since the first of the year. These sessions had been arranged for specific classes and were held in one of the library classrooms. The reference desks conduct one-on-one tutorials everyday on the use of the multitude of electronic databases. Workshops in using CD-ROMS were also offered. Just as the type of library instruction offered has grown, so has the availablity of Library databases both on and off campus. The Library online catalog is available from home or office via modem and so are a multitude of resources by subject available on the NMSU Library Home Page on the Internet. Additionally, selected CD-ROM databases from the Library CD-ROM Network are available throughout campus. Faculty members are searching online databases from their offices through a service called First Search; and students are doing the same from terminals in either of the reference departments. So then, both the number of electronic databases available and modes of access to them are increasing. Library instruction in this high-tech environment has taken on a new importance. Computer literacy and information literacy are vital for the students and faculty of NMSU and throughout academia as we approach the turn of the century. If you would like to arrange a general library orientation or a specific library instruction session for yourself or your students, please contact me at 646-6930 or call one of my reference colleagues in either New Library or Branson Hall.FORO VI /Transborder Library Forum VI Meets in Tucson
By Gwen Gregory ggregory@lib.nmsu.edu Several library faculty and staff attended the 6th Transborder Library Forum (FORO VI) in Tucson, Arizona, February 15 - 17. This annual meeting brings librarians from Mexico, the United States, and Canada together to discuss issues of mutual interest, and also facilitates cultural and information exchanges. Reference Librarian Molly Molloy presented a preconference session on Latin American Internet resources. Archivist Austin Hoover described NMSU's archival collections in a session on transborder archives. Head of Information Services Karen Stabler participated in a panel discussion on library staff exchanges. Head of Library Systems Valerie Horton presented a review of current trends in library automation. Gwen Gregory, Ed Mayfield, and Edward Erazo served as panel organizers and moderators. Charles Townley and Vita Montano also attended the conference. Many librarians from El Paso and Juarez were there as well. FORO VI drew attendees from many parts of Mexico and the U.S. as well as Canada and even the Netherlands and Japan. The FORO provides a unique opportunity for librarians to meet, learn about different cultures, and work on projects like staff exchanges and interlibrary lending agreements. Many Mexican and U.S. libraries have formed partnerships as a result of contacts made at previous FOROs. The FORO is a bilingual conference, with programs presented in English and Spanish. Simultaneous translation was available for all programs. FORO VII will take place February 20 - 22, 1997 in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico. Jesus Lau Noriega and the library staff at the Universidad Autonoma de Cuidad Juarez are already organizing the conference.
CITATIONS
The Newsletter of the New Mexico State University Library
Box 30006 Dept. 3475 Las Cruces, NM 88003-0006
Editors: Tim McKimmie (505) 646-7483 tmckimmi@lib.nmsu.edu
Ed Erazo (505) 646-6930 ederazo@lib.nmsu.eduStaff Page: Mike Mitchell mitchell@lib.nmsu.edu
Editorial Board: Gwen Gregory, Laurie Porter, Karen George
Published January, April, and October
Library Publications Committee
New Mexico State University Library
Box 30006, Dept. 3475
Las Cruces, NM 88003-0006Back to Citations
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