11.3 LIBRARY AND LEARNING/INFORMATION ACCESS

The institution provides (a) student and faculty access and user privileges to its library services and (b) access to regular and timely instruction in the use of library and other learning/information resources.

JUDGEMENT

Compliance Non-Compliance Partial Compliance

NARRATIVE

North Carolina A&T State University is in compliance with Comprehensive Standard 11.3. The university provides not only appropriate student, faculty, and staff access and user privileges to its library services, but also appropriate access to regular and timely instruction in the use of the library and other learning/information resources.

(a) Student and Faculty Access and User Privileges to Library Services

On-campus. All students, faculty, and staff have access to the main library on campus—Ferdinand Douglass Bluford Library. The library building is open 24 hours each day, Mondays to Thursdays, with slightly reduced hours Fridays to Sundays, as shown on the library’s website (Library Hours).

Users have access to circulation services, course reserves, group study rooms and the still evolving learning commons, where students may gather to study and work together. Access Services ensures prompt and reasonable access to library resources by handling the circulation (check out and check in) of library materials, group study rooms, course reserves, and interlibrary loan. In addition to monographs and audiovisuals, students may also check out camcorders, web cameras, headphones and tri-pods. Borrowing privileges vary depending on the user’s status, with three weeks being the minimum for a book for an undergraduate and an entire semester for faculty, staff or doctoral students. Borrowing of materials on course reserves vary from two hours to a week; the timeframe is determined by the faculty placing the item on reserve. Equipment, such as cameras, can be checked out for two hours. A list of equipment for checkout is available to students and faculty online at the library’s website (Borrowing Guidelines at a Glance).

If users need a book that is not in the library’s collection, it can be borrowed from a University Libraries Advisory Council (ULAC) member institutions or TALA. Interlibrary loan (ILL) services are also available to students, faculty, and staff of N.C. A&T. Materials (books and articles) not owned by the library may be requested from other institutions, depending on the resource and the lending institution’s policies. Several days may be necessary to process and fulfill ILL requests, depending on whether the resource is print or electronic.

Library users have access to more than 160 computers located throughout all four floors of the library. Seven group-study rooms, equipped with computers and monitors, are also available for student use. These computers provide access to the library’s website, online catalog, general Internet, licensed electronic resources and course-related software that are often requested by faculty. Scanning and printing services are available to students, faculty and staff. Secured wireless access is available to students, faculty, staff, and guests in the library. Library staff are trained and available to address specific technical questions, such as those related to network access, printing and login issues.

In addition to computers in the library, faculty, staff and students have access to more than 60 open access computer labs on the campus and access to software and course-related resources. The library also offers a laptop loan program, which was scaled up in response to learning challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The helpdesk assists students with general technology questions and is open during the following hours: Monday - Thursday 8 a.m. - 12 noon and 1 p.m. - 9 p.m.; and Friday 8 a.m. - 12 noon and 1 p.m. - 8 p.m. Telephone support is available during the following hours: Monday - Thursday 8 a.m. - 9 p.m., Friday 8 a.m. - 8 p.m.

Off-campus. Many of the on-campus library services are also available remotely. All students, faculty, and staff have access to electronic collections, resources, and services 24 hours a day, seven days a week, though the library’s website. The website functions as an information portal providing a direct link to resources and services available through the online catalog. The online catalog permits users to set up personalized user accounts, renew materials, place holds, submit online interlibrary loan requests, conduct searches across multiple databases and link to full text of licensed resources via a proxy server.

Research guides, through the Springshare’s LibGuides platform, provide an online subject access approach to the library’s resources. Subject liaisons create and maintain these guides for use by on-campus and off-campus users. Faculty can embed these guides into the Blackboard learning management system for traditional and online courses.

User Privileges. All users have the same privileges and rights to library resources and services. The library provides comparable service and access to all, including online degree seekers, distance learners and users with disabilities. Undergraduates do have shorter borrowing periods for book than do graduate students and faculty (Borrowing Privileges). And, faculty and doctoral students have access to study rooms, not available to all users.

For information technology services, faculty and students have different levels of access in systems such as Blackboard, where faculty have access to all materials in the classes they teach while students only have access to materials relative to classes in which they are enrolled. Faculty and students have the same level of access in systems such as Lynda.com where both are users of the system.

(b) Access to Regular and Timely Instruction in the Use of Library and Other Learning/Information Resources

The library provides appropriate access to regular and timely instruction in the use of the learning/information resources. Instruction Services manages the information literacy program and bases this program on the guidelines and frameworks approved by the ACRL: Guidelines for Instruction Programs in Academic Libraries and Framework for Information Literacy in Higher Education.

Most of the library instruction sessions are taught in the library’s multipurpose seminar room. The seminar room can accommodate up to 90 individuals using laptops. The library has 80 instruction laptops, which have proven sufficient for instruction sessions. The room can be divided evenly to support two simultaneous classes of up to 25 participants with laptops, a podium, and a ceiling projector on each side.

Library instruction sessions familiarize users with collections and services. Librarians, often in consultation with teaching faculty, design sessions to equip users with the skills needed to locate, evaluate and use library information resources. Instruction includes, but is not limited to sessions on electronic database searching, research methods, and documentation. The library provides instruction in a variety of formats: informal and point-of-use instruction at the reference desk, individual and small-group instruction/consultations, formal instruction/ research sessions as requested by faculty including printed handouts or worksheets, orientation to new student groups, scheduled workshops on specific subjects, EndNote X9 Guide for citation management, online tutorials and online research guides. Instruction is available to on-campus users as well as to distance learners and instruction sessions can be scheduled in person, by telephone, by email, or via the library website.

The library’s instruction team consists of eleven librarians, providing instruction to classes in general areas (such as English 101) as well as subject specialties. Subject liaison librarians are responsible for creating and maintaining the online research guides associated with their subjects, colleges and departments. Subject librarians also provide instruction for the university’s joint programs such as the Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering and Joint Social Work degrees.

Instruction librarians also visit the classroom. For example, librarians co-teach a course in the history department, teaching archival principles using primary sources related to the history of African American agriculture. Students learn how to handle archival materials, scan the materials, and add metadata to describe the materials for an institutional repository. Table 11.3—i provides data on instructional sessions and students served. Table 11.3-ii presents data for individual and small-group interactions, and Table 11.3-iii presents the training data by colleges.

Table 11.3-i: Instructional Sessions and Students Served

Year	Sessions	Students Served
2014—2015	186	3608
2015—2016	348	6528
2016—2017	183	3906
2017—2018	133	2260
2018—2019	202	3293
2019—2020	204	3899

Table 11.3-ii: Library Instruction for Individuals and Small Group

Year	Sessions
2014—2015	103
2015—2016	85
2016—2017	46
2017—2018	27
2018—2019	31
2019—2020	118

Table 11.3—iii: Library Instruction by Colleges for 2018—2019 and 2019—2020

Colleges	Undergraduate Students		Graduate Students		Total Students
Colleges	2019-200	2018-2019	2019-2020	2018-2019	2019-2020	2018-2019
Ag. & Environmental Sciences	220	305	45	17	265	121
Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences	582	343	0	0	582	300
Business & Economics	68	164	0	0	68	164
Education	0	32	34	78	34	110
Engineering	37	56	51	21	88	77
Nanoscience & Nanoengineering	NA	NA	0	49	0	49
Health & Human Sciences	299	303	14	0	313	135
Science and Technology	128	127	43	26	171	153
TOTAL	1334	1330	187	191	1521	1521

The Office of Instructional Technology Training and Development (ITTD) facilitates the continuing adoption of technology into teaching and learning and provides year-round software and technology training on specialized software and hardware. ITTD also provides support for the Blackboard Learning Management System, which supports online learning as well as all on-campus courses. Blackboard workshops are offered throughout the year to faculty and staff. Workshops are provided to students typically at the request of instructors of specific courses. Students can self-enroll in a Blackboard student orientation course, housed in Blackboard.

Adequacy of Library and Information Technology Services

The Library utilizes the LibQUAL+ survey tool biennially as a continuous means to improve services. LibQUAL+ is a standardized assessment instrument that gauges customer perception of service and quality in providing information resources and services. The overall scores on LibQUAL+ allow the library to assess the desired level of service versus service provided and determine the extent to which the library is meeting its goals. The library also collects feedback on instructional sessions from both students and faculty and also uses surveys and direct feedback to gather the information used to make improvements in services and instruction. The 2019-2020 Assessment Report for the Bluford Library is attached.