In the new functional model, users will continue to benefit from existing relationships with Western Libraries staff, while having the advantage of access to a broader range of knowledge and expertise and the opportunity to build new relationships and contacts. For example, a faculty member or graduate student who has traditionally worked with a single librarian as a point of contact for collections, teaching and/or research support will now have access to a team of librarians, archivists and other library staff who can provide various types of expertise. The faculty member or graduate student can still reach out to his or her traditional contact, but now this librarian can draw on the expertise of or refer the request to one of many other library colleagues who can then provide a range of both standard and specialized services.
university of western ontario library staff
Depending on the nature of the support required, users will begin to see some changes and, depending on the specific library program or service, there may be new staff contacts, new processes, and, realistically, some initial delays in delivery. We will do our best to minimize the impact on our users as we roll out the new model. We continue to appreciate everyone's patience and understanding.
Western Libraries previously relied on a liaison system, with each Faculty -- and sometimes individual departments and programs -- assigned one specific subject librarian. We have now adopted a functional, team-based approach to providing library services. This transition addresses a variety of opportunities and challenges, including the need to create new services and to specialize in increasingly complex services. A functional approach will also provide opportunity to standardize service quality across faculties and eliminate redundancy across library locations. The model is intended to enhance our ability and capacity to respond to user needs, as we now have teams assigned to provide specific supports and services. In the short term we will still offer the same services as before, and we anticipate that services will evolve and improve as our staff develop their functional expertise. Libraries have evolved tremendously over the last several decades, and our new model is designed to keep Western Libraries adaptable and responsive to the continued transformation of the academic library and the needs of our user community.
Absolutely, and they will be happy to hear from you! However, as all library staff now have a primary area of responsibility on one of our functional teams, your previous contact may not be the person who will follow up. If this is the case, please rest assured that your request will be forwarded to the appropriate person or team.
The significance of standards collections and related information retrieval skills in university education is documented in the literature. Taylor (1999) described the importance of a properly developed and managed standards collection at academic libraries that meets the research and instruction needs of faculty and students. He also outlined several acquisition approaches currently implemented at his library and emphasized the need to quickly acquire requested standards. Davis, Beyerlein, and Davis (2006) discussed deriving profession-focused learning outcomes for capstone engineering design courses based on the profiles of engineering professional practitioners, and pointed out the importance of following accreditation requirements. Leachman and Pezeshki (2015) provided library instruction on finding and using standards in a capstone senior design course. They surveyed the industry sponsors of this course regarding the companies' use and organization of standards to inform the library's future work in standards collections and related instructional directions. Murphy, Strong, and Sewerin (2007) examined the teaching of, and access to, standards in Canadian academic libraries and introduced best practices at their own institutions, Queen's University and the University of Toronto. Besides striving to provide their users with easy access to standards, they also stressed the importance of holding a well-built standards collection that supports teaching and learning.
To investigate purchase-on-demand options, a general search of university web sites for engineering programs was conducted. Western Michigan University had a purchase-on-demand model for standards currently in place. The Engineering Librarian at Western Michigan University was contacted regarding the purchasing model's sustainability and ease of use for faculty. The Western Michigan model allowed direct purchase of standards by faculty with payment for such by the university. The Engineering Librarian commented that the purchasing model worked smoothly for his university. Although our library's acquisition and funding of collections will not allow direct purchase by faculty, the streamlined purchasing model in use at Western Michigan University encouraged the Standards Working Group to explore a revised purchase-on-demand model for Western.
We then established funding and procedures for a pilot project. A $5,000 special fund was set aside for the project. We developed a flowchart (see Appendix 2) to document a standard's purchase from the receipt of a request by a faculty member or graduate student to final processing, deposit for circulation in our reference collection and notification of availability to the requestor. Two purchases (one print and one electronic) were made to test the purchasing procedures documented in the flowchart. Problems identified during the test purchases improved communication among units, resulting in a more streamlined acquisition process. The new purchase model required extensive collaboration and communication between the librarians and library staff of the Taylor Library and Western Libraries' Information Resources Management (LIRM) unit. Duplicate purchases were avoided by the Taylor reference staff verification procedures.
Comparison of costs between subscribing to the online CSA for a two-year period (approximately $28,000 CDN) and the adopted CSA on-demand purchasing model ($1,048 CDN) with the complementary existing print collection resulted in a savings of almost $27,000 CDN for these two years. This cost savings is tremendous, especially when considering the impact of the aforementioned low currency exchange rate on our library budget. All purchase requests for CSA standards resulted in orders being generated or users being directed to the existing print collection. The turnaround time from ordering to receipt of the standard proved to be quick. Generally, the print copy derived from the PDF version is available to users within two weeks, while hard copies take longer to arrive due to shipment time. In comparison, under our previous standing order for print CSA standards, standards were not sent individually upon publication but were bundled and shipped to the library two to three times a year. As the pilot project progressed, the efficiencies in both communication and collaboration among staff increased. The library did not receive any complaints or negative feedback from our users regarding the pilot project. The collections policy has been updated to capture the implementation of the new purchase-on-demand model (see Appendix 3).
This week, the public library in London, Ont., said it would be hiring a full-time addiction and mental health specialist from the Canadian Mental Health Association to its staff, a step other libraries in bigger urban centres have also taken.
This webinar will help library staff who work with youth and young adult collections become familiar with this new type of literature so that they can better serve their young patrons. Librarians Pauline Dewan and Meagan Lacy will introduce the emergence of genre blends, their appeal, and the special considerations that come when working with literature that spans multiple categories. Participants will be introduced to six of the most in-demand genre blends for young readers and gain a working knowledge of this new type of book.
Raynor Memorial Libraries offers more than 1.8 million volumes, hundreds of research databases, computer access, laptops on loan, a multimedia collection, group study spaces, 24-hour access and library staff members who help researchers from around the world.
We began planning our study by thinking of typical text digitization projects seen in academic library archives and special collections: digitization of historical newspapers, older reports published by the university, journal backfiles for open access projects, and special collections books.
The Teaching Support Centre works collaboratively with faculty, graduate students, postdoctoral scholars and staff to advance teaching and learning at The University of Western Ontario. The TSC believe that the quality and value of university education is enriched through scholarship and pedagogical reflection. Working in partnership with Western Libraries and Information Technology Services, the mission of the Teaching Support Centre is to: 2ff7e9595c
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