Tammy Nickelson Dearie
September 8, 2005

I. Introduction
II. Environmental Assesment
III. Departmental goals for FY immediate pass
IV. Progress toward departmental goals for FY 2004/2005

• Goal One: Library Information Literacy
• Goal Two: Library Environment
• Goal Three: Manage Libraries’ Information Resources to Match the Needs of Users
• Goal Four: Cultivate a Healthy, Diverse, and Dynamic Environment

V. Concerns and constraints
VI. Horizon Issues
VII. Departmental goals for upcoming FY 2005/2006
VIII. Appendeces

• Appendice A: Statistical Summary
• Noteworthy Acquisitions
• Public Service Statistics

I. INTRODUCTION

SSHL started the 2004/2005 academic year with a fully staffed Management Team and a new strategic planning process that allowed the department to focus on change and improvement, and concluded the year with a minimal recruiting record, only eight staff recruitments and three academic recruitments. The SSHL staff embarked on several new services including chat reference, self-check service, expanded hours to accommodate the Biomedical Library services, and made permanent the popular expanded hours during finals week. The workload in SSHL continued to grow in expected areas such as collection usage, instruction, Library Express, reserves, and overall gate counts. Operations were streamlined to allow staff to continue to perform efficiently and effectively. Most noteworthy was the automatic downloading of student, staff, and faculty records into the III circulation system, allowing us to bypass the individual registration of each student, staff and faculty member at UCSD. Finally, SSHL revved up their outreach program to entice students and faculty into our library. The activities were a mix of academic and enrichment programs and promotions that were welcoming and responsive to students and faculty needs.

II. ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT

As the largest library in the UCSD Libraries system SSHL serves as the main library for the large and growing undergraduate student population. The increase in undergraduate students overall, as well as the growth in academic disciplines served by SSHL and the interdisciplinary nature of the academic departments, combine to create a large group of students and a growing demand for services. SSHL, like other UCSD libraries and libraries across the nation, struggles with the challenges of defining user needs and services in the midst of declining service statistics in some areas and robust and growing statistics in other areas. Students increasingly demand more study space and want to use the library differently than many of the library staff envision libraries to be used. At the other end of the spectrum, faculty want more access to collections and more individual support, in ways that we have not provided in the past.

Internally, similar struggles were evident this year. The demand for space for services, collections and students became more contentious with the arrival of the Biomedical Library. Faculty carrels, lounge seating, and specialized study space (quiet or group) became a thing of the past as the building accommodated the staff, services and students of the Biomedical Library. Current Periodicals, Newspapers and Microforms unit was most impacted with their services incorporated into the Biomedical Library service and staff reassigned to other SSHL service points.

III. DEPARTMENTAL GOALS FOR FY IMMEDIATELY PAST

SSHL conducted a strategic planning process in the summer of 2004. We focused on the Collections, Library as Place, and Education and Outreach goals and the Organizational Effectiveness strategy from the UCSD Libraries Strategic Planning process. In department meetings we developed objectives to help us, as a department, meet those goals. There were many objectives for each of the goals and every staff member in SSHL participated in at least one of the teams. To list all of them would be beyond the scope of this report so I offer the top accomplishments from the process.

IV. PROGRESS TOWARD DEPARTMENTAL GOALS FOR FY 2004/2005

1. Expand and refine the Libraries’ Information Literacy and Academic Outreach Programs (Goal 2: Information Literacy)

• Launched successful Summer Reading Program (Worship a Good Book Lately? Staff Summer Reading Contest) targeted to faculty, staff and students on campus during the summer. Fifty-two participants took part of the summer 2004 program submitting over 400 reviews.
• Continued Author Talk series with a lecture by Camille Forbes, Assistant Professor of African-American Literature and Culture, UCSD Department of Literature, who discussed her research on 19th century black comedian Bert Williams. The talk coincided with a display for Black History Month on the Harlem Renaissance.
• Hosted symposium, “The Future of Gender Studies: Honoring Undergraduate Research on Women and Gender” in conjunction with the UCSD Women’s Center. In support of the symposium and Women’s History Month, the SSHL and the UCSD Women's Center exhibited "Creating their own path: Women who paved the way" which celebrated women throughout the past and present who have led remarkable lives.
• Displayed an exhibit titled “ Dance Photography” by Elazar Harel. His artwork, focusing on dance and people photography, has been featured in numerous publications, websites, and calendars and created a welcoming environment to the SSHL Reference Room.
• SSHL promoted several new services including Self-Check, Chat Reference and the Geisel Libraries’ 2:00am extended finals hours service. The extended hours promotion was most extensive and very successful with a series of PA announcements made by Diamond Dan (SSHL Security Officer, Dan Carlos), “Glows After Dark” wristbands, and advertisements in the UCSD Guardian.

2. Provide the UCSD Community With a Welcoming, Comfortable, Safe, and Technologically Enabled Environment That Promotes Intellectual Exploration and Learning. (Goal 3: Library as Place)

• Working with “Library as Place” team and Geisel Department Heads, identified facilities issues in Geisel and developed a report outlining areas that needed cleaning or additional maintenance. The outcome was a special cleaning crew during the summer that cleaned, repaired, and renovated areas of concern.
• Created a checklist that will be used annually to identify areas of concern, both internally and externally, that can be shared with the Facilities Department for follow-up. Areas of concern include identifying facilities issues that are potentially dangerous to users of the building (ripped carpet, burned out lights, loose wiring, etc.) and issues of esthetics (graffiti, stains, inadequate routine maintenance, etc.).
• In an effort to create a comfortable space for all users of the SSH Library, worked with Facilities and Physical Plant Services to adjust the HVAC system. The attempt was not hugely successful (but we continue) so we have decided to embrace the chilly nature of our building and help users by identifying colder zones and warmer zones in the coming year.
• Most of the SSH Library staff was involved in some aspect of “Library as Place” – everything from exploring a Library Café, a New Book Reading room, a special area of MMW students to consult with faculty and librarians, to creating an appropriate location for the consumption of food and drink. Many of these options will continue to be explored in the coming year, some as a Libraries’ wide effort, with the recognition that until the Biomedical Library moves to their new facility we will be limited in our ability to make changes to the physical space.

3. Manage the Evolution of the Libraries’ Information Resources to Match the Needs and Behaviors of Users and to Reflect Changing Technologies and Practices in Publishing, Research and Education. (Goal 1: Information Resources)

• Coordinated and participated in collection development initiatives across the UC Libraries like JSTOR shared print archive and the Blackwell, Elsevier, and Sage format migration and annual title review. UCSD began discussions with Nancy Kushigian about a System-wide review of microform subscriptions to European newspapers and the potential for campus “last copy” agreements.
• SSHL took the lead in participating in a UC pilot to introduce chat reference with two librarians in SSHL answering questions by many UC students. The pilot ended in May 2004.

4. Cultivate a Healthy, Diverse, and Dynamic Environment that Attracts and Retains Competent and Creative Employees, Structure Our Organization to Motivate and Enable Library Employees to Provide the Highest-Quality Services. (Strategy 1: Organizational Effectiveness)

• A continuing education team continues to work on creating training resources that will help new staff learn more about the UCSD Libraries, including a “Top Ten Things about …” list (ILL, Reserves, Reference, etc.) and a “Day in the Library of …” (for each unit in SSHL).
• A draft of the SSHL Training Manual has been completed and under review. The manual will provide new staff, of which there are many in SSHL, with the basic policies and procedures to make sure everyone has the same information and a place to find resources.

V. CONCERNS AND CONSTRAINTS

Despite our accomplishments, both those linked to goals and those that happen every day as we build collections and provide access to them, and maintain services and operations seven days a week, 98 hours per week, SSHL continues to have concerns about the larger issues that impact all the libraries and how they impact SSHL in particular.

• Space – SSHL has run out of space to continue to house all the collections we need to keep in the building and still meet the demand of students who want to study in and use the building in new ways. The solution may seem obvious to some (move out more books), but the challenges in deciding which books, the best use of space (individual versus group); coupled with our desire to keep valuable materials at our fingertips creates frustration for many. It is also an incredible workload to move collections, especially as it creates more demands on those same people already struggling with growing workloads to provide more individual consultations, more outreach, more instruction, and continue to purchase materials.
• Population growth, identity, and mission – As the de facto “main library” for the undergraduate student population and visitors to the campus, we struggle with our identity and mission. What is our role vis-à-vis undergraduate student instruction, who are our primary users, what services should we offer and to whom? Have we become the undergraduate library? Is that our role? SSHL subject librarians are being stretched to the limit providing instruction, outreach, reference and consultations to all students: lower-division and upper-division undergraduates, graduates and faculty, and also trying to complete growing responsibilities regarding collection development.
• Wages and retention – the lack of significant response from the Office of the President regarding wages, no cost of living increases, and a library assistant series created in the 1970s continues to have impact on our ability to hire and keep staff. Librarian wages continues to stagnate and the push to hire more librarians new to the profession creates difficulty in attracting the best and the brightest given the cost of living and competition. SSHL has excellent staff and librarians – keeping them and hiring new ones is a challenge.
• Recruitment and training – The impending retirement boom, which has already started, the inability to retain staff, and the constant influx of departing and arriving staff place enormous burdens on the department. Recruitment takes a lot of time, training even more. Filling in, often with students or temporary librarians, means more training and more demand on existing staff and librarians. With little centralized support for training we often feel that we are recreating the training wheel with each new staff position. Efforts within our department are solving some of the training issues, but there is much library wide training that could assist individual departments/libraries in centralized training.
• IT support – issues identified several years ago continue to plague the department in its ability to offer new services and provide support for collections. We acknowledge that the broader issues are great and change will happen slowly, but we continue to feel stymied by our inability to change quickly to meet user demands. Our users and their needs are very nimble and keeping up with them requires the ability to move quickly.
• Academic Computing Services support – ACS manages software used by the entire campus, some of which we support (GIS, soon RefWorks), provides computing labs, including one in Geisel, and provides minimal support for students. A closer partnership with ACS may provide students with better computing support and avert the library from taking on that role.

VI. HORIZON ISSUES

• Population growth impact – the impact of a growing population affects the campus and the library. SSHL staff identified the following impacts with a growing population:
• Price Center expansion – more foot traffic.
• Lack of classroom space – larger classes mean larger library sessions, more library instruction.
• Facilities needs in library – more students need more restrooms, which needs more janitorial support. Library needs updating/refreshing more frequently.
• Food and drink – students want to eat and drink where they study. A policy change will impact how the building is used and maintenance needs.
• Demand for more group study space, more quiet space, more wireless support (printing, electrical outlets, wireless passwords).
• Demand for basic instruction including use of MS Office products, configuring proxy server, surfing the web effectively, basic library tools and services.
• Demand for more support for disabled students and staff – more parking, better access to building, more support for assistance in the building.
• Summer Session – no down time for staff, vacations will be harder to schedule, projects won’t be done during summer, more pressure on entire library to remain geared up for the entire year.
• Rady School of Management – a new population to support and service, impact on collection space, reference desk, instruction needs.
• Space planning – a comprehensive space planning for SSHL needs to be undertaken. Staff are ready to create new space and services, willing to reduce footprint of collections to accommodate new space needs, but effort needs to be libraries wide, not piecemeal. When the Biomedical Library departs the Current Periodicals area will need to be reconsidered. The maintaining of an information desk and separate reference desk needs to be reviewed. Self-check may change the way the circulation desk is designed. The growth of Reserves needs to be considered.

VII. DEPARTMENTAL GOALS FOR UPCOMING FY 2005/2006

SSHL has not completed the formal goal setting session, but goals already identified and underway include:

• Space review – With the departure of the Biomedical Library we will need to review and assess our space needs and determine how the library space and services can be reconfigured to meet the growing demands and needs of students.
• Outreach Events – SSHL’s outreach program has been a great success. We have identified several new opportunities for the coming year, including a revamped Welcome Week program, an SSHL marketing plan, and promotion of several services.
• Training – With the need to recruit four librarians and several staff positions already on the horizon the SSHL training program needs to continue to develop. Efforts already underway include finalizing the SSHL Training Manual and individual units’ procedures manuals.

Appendice A: Statistical Summary
Public Services