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TRANSFORMING AN OFF-CAMPUS LIBRARY FROM EMPTY SPACE TO AWARD WINNER IN ONE YEAR

Seamus Scanlon

Within a year of the appointment of a full-time librarian at a satellite campus of City College in New York City (CUNY), the library services offered by college’s Center for Worker Education (CWE) earned a prestigious I Love My Librarian Award sponsored by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the New York Times and administered by the American Library Association.¹ The library went from empty space to award-winning space in one year.

CWE caters to 750 nontraditional students (age 25 and up) comprising full-time workers, homemakers, retirees, and others with interrupted school attendance.² Classes are primarily run in the evenings and Saturdays to facilitate their schedules. A liberal agenda in the 1970s prompted New York City unions to establish CWE so their members could secure a college education. It later came under the jurisdiction of CUNY and currently offers a BA in interdisciplinary studies, a BS in early childhood education, and an MA in the studies of the Americas.

One disadvantage of any satellite library is a low profile because it is removed from the power center of the main campus. The corollary, however, can be a major advantage, because once outside the confines of the main campus you control the direction and management of the library service and develop an ambience that supports a student-centric library. The I Love My Librarian Award acknowledges library innovation and service, goals for which “being in charge” provides one with an innate advantage.

Another advantage in this case was the CUNY ethos and mission: “access and excellence.” CUNY is known for educating many generations of immigrants (including nine Nobel laureates and nine Pulitzer prize winners to date), so the markers for excellence are there.

STAFFING CHALLENGES AT THE CWE LIBRARY

The absence of a full-time librarian at CWE had resulted in inconsistent service coverage, including absence of coverage late nights and Saturdays. It was difficult for a multitude of part-time librarians “bussed” from the main campus to build rapport with students and faculty, to provide individualized training in library skills, or to be proactive in promoting the library and its resources.

As a full-timer, I was able to serve on the information technology and scholarship committees, which built goodwill that resulted in positive support for subsequent requests for funding. I was also able to arrange training of faculty/staff in library skills, including one-on-one sessions, which highlighted the value and extent of our digital and other resources.

Overall, I adopted the prevailing ethos at CWE—intensively student-centric—and built on it through the library. As a result, I integrated quickly into the CWE culture and working life. I was able to demonstrate the efficacy of a professional library service for faculty (as well as students), which resulted in backing from the chair and dean when I requested resources.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY CHALLENGES AT THE CWE LIBRARY

Database Access

Initially, there was no smooth access to electronic resources because the IP address range at CWE was treated as off-campus. This was a major disincentive for any of our neophyte nontraditional students struggling with classes, schoolwork, or research papers. I was well positioned to attack this problem in several ways:

• highlighting the waste of resources—millions of dollars invested in scholarly articles and journals, but access thwarted
• advocating on behalf of our students, who had enough challenges without this one, which hindered their ability to research effectively and use the library with confidence
• recording how library workshops became moribund as students struggled to register for off-campus access during class and how barcodes (needed for off-campus) were often missing or invalid
• pursuing the problem vigorously with the computer services department to get answers and solutions

After I delineated the scope of the problem and outlining to dean and chair how these conditions hindered the learning process for our students and faculty, the dean brought pressure to the main campus. The three-year problem was resolved within three weeks. Now instruction classes are seamless. CWE feels like a satellite campus, and students, faculty, and staff more content.

Printers

Another information technology problem was our printers, with constant paper jams and print jobs hanging, resulting in bottlenecks in the library, queuing. and frustration. To address this set of problems, I

• recorded every instance of printer failure
• estimated and logged the amount of time taken to resolve each printer failure
• highlighted the frustration of students with full-time family and work loads who could not print simple assignments
• noted the poor return for students from the technology fee

In response, the dean authorized new printers and software upgrades for the following semester. After implementation, there were no further problems.

PCs and Software

Sluggish PCs in the library and outdated software hindered students from completing assignments and cast our efficacy as a library service in a poor light. I exposed the problem from several directions:

• recorded on spreadsheet the details of PCs—age, RAM, obvious anomalies
• compared the specifications of PCs at the library to those on the main campus
• highlighted the significant contrast between the inferior library PCs and the CWE computer lab PCs, which was putting library users at a disadvantage
• showed that our main-campus students were using later releases of software than students at CWE, poorly reflecting the CWE goal of “access and excellence”

As a result, the dean authorized new PCs and software upgrades. As chair of the technology committee, I was able to make it policy to be in the vanguard of installing software releases rather than trailing the constituent colleges.

Access to 500,000 Books

There was no access for CWE students to CUNY’s 500,000 books via the intra-CUNY campus lending service. A modern academic library service needs access to books as well as electronic journals. The dearth of books at CWE made the absence of this service acute. I elaborated the problem in several ways:

• researched with the library system vendor and central CUNY library services how the lending service could be used by a satellite campus (rather than by a constituent college)
• highlighted to the dean the lack of books in the CWE library
• argued that at full capacity we would only ever have small numbers of books
• presented costing of service in terms of benefit to our students and value for money

Ultimately, the dean authorized a monthly fee so that the limited CWE holdings were augmented by 500,000 books held by the CUNY Libraries.

A variety of conditions and actions made the Center for Worker Education at the City College of New York a success. Autonomy of our library and strong support locally and at the main campus were essential. With the addition of a persistent full-time librarian capable of identifying information technology obstacles and recommending solutions for them in collaboration with computer services and technical support, consistent library service and staffing—and ultimately excellent service—became possible.

Notes

1. For more on the Love My Librarian Awards, see www.ilovelibraries.org/lovemylibrarian/09winners.cfm#scanlon.

2. The Center for Worker Education website: www1.ccny.cuny.edu/prospective/cwe.