Summary of Henderson Library Achievements 1999-2004

• We developed our Y2K audit of library computers, taking corrective actions where needed.
• We promoted our request for a 14 million library building addition.
• We initiated a strategic planning process in parallel with President Grube’s campus wide process. President Grube spoke at our January 2000 strategic planning retreat.
• We approved a new set of Library faculty promotion and tenure criteria.
• We created a new department, Collection and Resource Services, by merging the acquisitions and catalog units. The merger led to economies of scale, cross training opportunities, and improved technical services coordination. The benefits of the new department were confirmed in the report of the Southeastern Library Network (SOLINET) consultant who analyzed our ordering and processing procedures.
• We instituted a web-based interlibrary loan request form.
• We received a bequest from the late Huldah C. Mingledorff of approximately 10,000 books and $200,000, which led to the establishment of the 4th floor George Burford Lorimer Reading Room.

• We completed our Level I start plan organized around the six themes found in the University’s new strategic plan:

  1. Academic Distinction

  2. Student - Centered University

  3. Technological Advancement

  4. Transcultural Opportunities

  5. Private and Public Partnerships

  6. Physical Environment

• We transferred our library catalog and operations to the Voyager Integrated Library System, a product of Endeavor Information Systems, Inc. Voyager was adopted by all University System of Georgia libraries.
• We were awarded a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities enabling us to hire a SOLINET consultant and begin developing a long-range plan for preserving our collections from deterioration and disasters.
• We signed memoranda of understanding with the Statesboro Regional Library and partner libraries near our distance education sites.
• We founded the Friends of Henderson Library.
• We added the first government documents records to our online catalog.
• We completed the design for the George Burford Lorimer Reading Room.
• We laid new carpet on the third floor.
• We hired architects to develop a library building expansion and renovation program.

• The Board of Regents increased our building project to $22.7 million, and architects from Cogdell and Mendrala developed the first schematics.
• We received Student Technology Fee Funds to install LPT One printer management software in our public computer lab. This led to substantial reductions in wasted paper caused by patrons printing documents more than once because they did not receive clear and timely notifications of successful printing. LPT One also reduced the incidences of unwanted lengthy World Wide Web printing.
• We initiated e-mailed table of contents alerts for faculty and graduate students.
• We established our “mini endowment” giving opportunity, in which a $500 gift would buy one book each year in perpetuity. The late Ida Mae Hagin’s bequest, along with several founding mini endowments, raised this account to $72,894.
• We recorded and began selling the CD of Professor Michael Braz’s carillon recital. The CD documents what has become a Georgia Southern tradition, his 15-minute carillon recitals on Tuesdays and Thursdays during fall and spring terms.
• We laid new carpet on the bottom floor and moved pre-1972 bound periodicals to the North Building in order to begin work on the Lorimer Reading Room.
• We issued a revised disaster preparation plan.
• We established a state of the art instruction lab in room 1042.
• With the Statesboro Regional Library and the Magnolia Coastlands Area Health Education Center, we were awarded a $20,000 LSTA grant establishing the Coalition of Regional and Academic Libraries Health Education Network (CORAL HEN). This initiative helped us upgrade and develop our consumer health information collections and services, including a web site aimed at assisting patrons in finding reliable and authoritative consumer health information on the Internet. We have subsequently added similar consumer services and web sites for legal information (CORAL Law, a.k.a. LegalEase), and AIDS awareness (SEaGAIL).

• We received the results of the 2001 American College Testing Service Student Opinion Survey, which showed 93% of 744 student responses indicated overall satisfaction with the library, a 13% increase over the 1994 survey results, and only 1% expressed dissatisfaction. The ACT-SOS has been conducted by hundreds of institutions nationally, and on average 75% of responding students indicated satisfaction with their library and 10% indicated dissatisfaction.
• On December 13 we opened and dedicated the George Burford Lorimer Reading Room.
• We introduced electronic reserves in fall term.
• Our book inventory was completed, and we satisfactorily accounted for more than 99% of our holdings. Most library inventories report loss rates of more than 3%.
• We found the LPT One management software had reduced our public printing costs by 25%.
• Attendees of Information Services Department workshops rated the workshops 4.52 on a five-point scale.
• We became a depository for state government documents, and the government documents personnel began working with Collection and Resource Services personnel to refine our procedures for processing documents catalog records in Voyager.
• The audio-visual materials LC classification project was completed.
• Check-in records for thousands of serial titles were added to Voyager, enabling users to view full holdings information.
• We did Endeavor one better, bypassing their bindery module and implementing a system developed in-house for recording in Voyager what volumes have been sent to the bindery.
• Parliamentary debates were re-cataloged, and many electronic serials and Web-based resources links were added to Voyager catalog records so users could access the resources directly.
• We sponsored several cultural events, involving Savannah’s Southern cooking authority Damon Lee Fowler, Georgia’s state poet laureate David Bottoms, and Mystery Week, coordinated by the Library’s Rebecca Ziegler and Mary Hadley of Writing and Linguistics.

• Our building project was approved, designed and funded. http://library.georgiasouthern.edu/cio/cio109.html#expansion
• We conducted the LIBQUAL+ survey, developed by the Association of Research Libraries and Texas A&M University. We found GSU students and faculty judged our services and collections to be acceptable overall, although faculty and graduate students expressed reservations about the depth of our collections.
• We prepared a Quality Enhancement Plan to teach students information literary skills.
• We expanded our liaison program with academic departments in order to better promote our resources and services, and to become better informed about patron needs.
• We began using LPT One to charge community users for computer printing, eliminating their free ride on the student technology fee.
• We helped test GIL Express and implemented it in Fall 2004. The service enables faculty and students to request books online from other USG campuses and receive them within two days.
• We began experimenting with positive reinforcement to reduce overdue book rates.
• Jocelyn Poole’s exhibit on diversity among our student employees took 3rd place at the American Library Association’s Diversity Fair. http://library.georgiasouthern.edu/cio/cio109.html#diversity
• We implemented a new web page design based on usability tests and the University’s new style template.
• All books in Special Collections were barcoded.
• We completed weeding duplicate periodical issues and identifying gift periodical issues to fill gaps.
• We classified the newspapers and labeled microfilm newspaper boxes.
• We began creating item records for bound periodicals and attaching barcodes in preparation for the automated retrieval unit.
• We implemented the A-Z index of our electronic journals, greatly facilitating patron access.
• The CORAL Health Education Network received the prestigious Blue Ribbon Consumer Health Information Recognition Award for Georgia from the U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science. http://library.georgiasouthern.edu/cio/cio109.html#coral
• We are making available this fall new GALILEO linking features, Express Links and GALILEO Local Resource Integration, which will enable faculty to find our electronic resources more easily and to create customized menus for their students.
• We are implementing the ILLIAD software to streamline ILL and provide patrons the ability to track their orders.
• In October of 2004 we are co-sponsoring the first annual Georgia Conference on Information Literacy. Other co-sponsors are the College of Education and the Department of Writing and Linguistics. http://conted.georgiasouthern.edu/informationliteracy.html
  

Our slogan, Empower the Learner, expresses our continuing mission of supporting educational goals and priorities through whatever media, means, and services are most appropriate. We seek to facilitate opportunities for lifelong learning and self-fulfillment.

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