* New Catalog Feature Allows Users to Save and Repeat Searches

* Online Catalog Offers Links to Electronic Resources

* GALILEO Gains Two New Databases from EBSCOhost

* Henderson to Order Three Wilson Databases Eliminated From GALILEO

* Library Uses Positive Reinforcement to Reduce Overdues

* Library Circulation Declines, Prompts Librarian's Research

* Recent Additions to ICPSR Database

New Catalog Feature Allows Users to Save and Repeat Searches

The library catalog commonly referred to as the OPAC (Online Public Access Catalog) is literally populated with thousands of links to online resources. In addition to the traditional role of providing information about the library's physical holdings, the catalog mirrors the library's mission of providing access to resources available in electronic format. Some materials are available in more than one format, such as print and electronic, giving the user a choice. Other materials have related online links that enhance the level of information available to a user. For example, a table of contents, supplemental material, recent issues or specific parts of a print resource may be accessible online, and this information can be reached via a link from the library catalog.

Of particular interest to faculty and students alike are the links to online journals and periodicals to which the library subscribes. Library staff members are adding links for titles held in print so one can determine in one centralized resource all issues available in any format including print, microfiche, or online. For the paper-based journal or periodical subscriptions that were cancelled at the end of December but that continue to be available through GALILEO, links have been added to the catalog record for the online issues.

Many other resources have online links in the catalog. Government documents records, in particular, are often linked to the online version. Many of these resources are only issued in an online version, and records for these electronic resources are in the catalog. Most Georgia government documents now have a PDF electronic version, and links are provided for these documents in the catalog as well.

Through GALILEO's subscription to EBSCOhost, two new EBSCO databases will be available to all GALILEO institutions as of January 6, 2004.

The American Humanities Index (AHI), offers indexing to more than 750 journals dating back as far as 1975. Citations from a variety of humanities journals published in both the United States and Canada are available. Aside from the traditional literary publications such as fiction, poetry, and essays, the American Humanities Index offers citations for photographs, paintings, and illustrations. Because the American Humanities Index covers a large variety of publications, it is a good complement to other EBSCO databases including Academic Search Premier and MLA International Bibliography.

Communication & Mass Media Complete (CMMC) is the result of the merging of two popular communications databases, CommSearch and Mass Media Articles Index. CMMC contains the entire Communication & Mass Media Index (CMMI), plus a full-text collection comprised of more than 160 communication and mass media journals. This database will be the main source of full text communication literature available via EBSCOhost.

As announced in December, 2003, due to a change in OCLC's agreement with the H. W. Wilson Company, several Wilson index and abstract databases are no longer accessible through GALILEO:

Fortunately, Henderson Library will be able to subscribe to the three titles indicated with asterisks, using a special allocation from Provost Vaughn Vandegrift. These titles were selected because they index disciplines not adequately covered by other titles in Henderson's or GALILEO's collections.

In December, 2003, five Georgia Southern student won $30 gift certificates to the University Store in a drawing conducted by Henderson Library. The students were selected at random from among the 3,577 students who had borrowed at least one library item during the 2003 fall semester, and had no overdue library loans during the same time period. The rewards are part of an experiment to determine whether positive reinforcement might be as or more effective in minimizing overdue library materials than are more traditional punitive methods, such as charging fines.

Henderson Library has not charged fines in more than ten years, although they have been a familiar tradition in most American libraries for more than a century. Despite the prevalance of fines policies, there is a controversy regarding whether they are effective. The empirical evidence is weak at best. Further, many librarians, particularly those who work in public libraries, contend that library fines present obstacles to information access for those who can least afford to pay them. Henderson Library's experiment is intended to determine whether positive reinforcement offers a feasible and effective alternative.

The early results are encouraging. Fall 2003 was the first semester the reward system was in place for student borrowers, and Henderson Library recorded a 5.5% decline in undergraduate overdue loans, and a 14% reduction in graduate student overdues, compared with FY 2003. The Library will continue the experiment in Spring of 2004. Costs of the system are minimal, consisting primarily of the gift certificates and a few minutes of staff time to run the computer reports needed to identify reward eligibility and to conduct the drawing.

Compared with figures reported by peer institutions, Henderson Library has unusually low book circulation numbers. Further, book circulation has been declining for several years. This piqued the curiosity of Fred Smith, Access Services Department Head, about three things. 1) What factors cause book circulation to be high or low in the libraries of institutions such as Georgia Southern? 2) Is declining circulation a trend in public institutions similar to Georgia Southern? 3) If it is a trend, what is likely to be the cause? He then began a research project to try to find some answers to these questions.

He began by identifying as many factors as possible that might influence book circulation in an academic library. He posed this question to listservs, asked colleagues, and searched the literature. He carefully studied the data found in two online sources, the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) and the Association of College and Research Libraries Academic Library Trends and Statistics. With the assistance of the Office of Strategic Research and Management, Fred identified 22 institutions similar to Georgia Southern in terms of curricular offerings and enrollment. He then developed a questionnaire to send to the 22 peer institutions. Henderson Library webmaster Janet Burns turned Fred's survey document into an interactive web based form.

From his reading of listservs and discussions with colleagues, the increased reliance on online resources seemed clearly to be the most important factor in why book circulation might be declining, but he needed a way of testing that theory. At the Henderson Library, Dean Bede Mitchell noted that the numbers of public computers and the amount of public printing from those computers has increased in recent years indicating an increase in the use of online resources. So Fred asked participants if their number of public computers and amount of public printing had gone up or down in order to measure use of online resources. He also had an open ended question asking participants what they thought might be important factors in why their book circulation was increasing or declining.

When all the factors pertaining to book circulation were compiled they totaled 30, although there was some redundancy in the categories. Fred consulted with colleague Dr. Sonya Shepherd, an Information Services librarian who suggested the use of the Pearson Correlation to analyze the data. The Pearson analysis showed moderate relationships in four areas. 1) The amount of the annual book budget positively correlated with the number of checkouts per patron. 2) Libraries who check out a lot of books also tend to have high numbers of interlibrary loan transactions. 3) The institutions with the highest book circulation per student also had the highest graduation rates. 4) Institutions with a high number of social science majors tend to have higher numbers of books checked out.

Concerning the question of whether other academic libraries similar to Georgia Southern were experiencing declining book circulation, 13 of the 14 who responded and whose book circulation statistics could be measured separately from other media were experiencing declines. On the question of whether increased use of online resources was an important factor, 13 of the 14 responded that they had experienced increases in the number of public computers and the amount of public printing, and the one which didn't said she was unsure. All but one said in response to the question asking what, in their opinion, might be causing an increase or decrease, that the increased use of online resources was the major factor. The one respondent who answered differently said that her shrinking book budget was the main factor.

Although this kind of research is not able to establish a definite cause and effect, it certainly supports the theory that the increased use of online resources is a factor in the decline of book circulation.

Henderson Library pays for a membership in the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research, allowing Georgia Southern faculty and students to access ICPSR's enormous archive of social science data. Below is a list of new data collection additions to the ICPSR data archive along with a list of released data collections that have been updated:

New Additions: