Should we offer eAudioBooks? NetLibrary offers a Popular Fiction Collection for Academic Libraries. Should we provide this collection for students, faculty & staff?
How should we budget for print books next year? Should I budget a lump sum for each of your campuses for all print books and AV? Or should I make distinctions by program? Should I divide the budget again by Reference & Circ?
What are the core titles that every campus needs to get every year? I'm already thinking:
- ICD-9
- HCPCS
- Almanac
- Statistical Abstract
- Tax Guides/Resources
- CIA Factbook (Yes, I know it's online for free, but I like it in print)
- Chase's Calendar of Events
- Occupational Outlook Handbook (this is every other year - eoy - I don't know where we are in the cycle)
- Health care industry almanac (eoy)
What am I missing?
Besides newspapers, Digital Design magazines/journals, the JAMAA (medical assisting), and general periodicals like Time and Newsweek - what other items do we HAVE to have on campuses in print?
The Trap of Knowing
1 day ago
17 comments:
What need does eAudioBooks meet? My first thought is no, we don't need to offer these. It seems that this would be an offering from the public library for general recreational use, particularly since it is popular fiction. However, if they somehow fit into one of our program areas then they should be considered.
I love a lumpy budget! Each campus can decide which program or area needs more or less materials.
I'm thinking about eAudio in terms of general education, and breadth of knowledge.
Yes, I think we should provide eAudio books for our patrons.
I vote for lump sum for each campus; no distinctions made for program or collection.
Core titles look appropriate.
The eAudioBooks sounds intriguing and should be considered.
I love the idea of eAudioBooks. Emily pointed out some reasons why an Academic Library would include any non-program related reading material. If that's something important for Rasmussen to offer, then audio books should be looked at as well.
Benefits:
1) They're helpful for users who have learning disabilities related to reading as well as those for whom English is a second language. Audio books allow a user have the pleasure of reading without some of the difficulties associated with the printed text.
2)I imagine many students who attend Rasmussen are commuters. I took a Readers' Advisory class last semester and one of the teachers said it was interesting to see where people would check out books and where they'd drop them off. Quite often audio books would get dropped off at a location across the county from where it was checked off. Listening to books while in traffic seems to be growing in popularity. eAudioBooks could be downloaded to a student's portable advice to be listened to while going to school.
Drawbacks:
1) How important is having "pleasure" books in the collection? As I do most of my RCLS work away from a campus, I don't know. Does each campus have a lot of titles? Do they get used?
2)Right now, the devices that support eAudioBooks from NetLibrary are limited. Unless something has changed recently, Macs and iPods wouldn't be able to play the books on their machines.
Here is an explanation of which devices can handle the eAudioBooks:
Supported Devices
As I said, I really love the idea of them but there should be a cost/benefits analysis done depending on how much of the budget it will eat up.
~Krista Jacobson
I tend to agree with Pat. Seems more like a public library offering. At my campus the Fiction collection is used very little, so I have devoted little budget money towards it. However, I have also received donations for that collection.
Lumpy budget would be fine with me- I try to order evenly across programs anyway.
As to the print resources, I would add PDR, Merck Manual (not home edition), World Atlas (or eoy), Black's (new and/or updated eds).
I'm in favor of what Pat called a "lumpy budget" for print books and AV, not divided by circ and ref or by program. Some books cover more than one program, and that would make it tough to do programmatic budgeting. Also, I sometimes have to decide whether an item is ref or circ once I've seen it.
I'm in favor of eAudioBooks--as long as the computers on campus allow students to download, which I'm not sure they do. We have an instructor who is visually impared, and we have students for whom English is a second language.
As for yearly orders... what about the PDR as an every other year order? I'd suggest annual updates for the American Drug Index or Mosby's Nursing Drug Reference.
I like the eAudioBooks idea. I have students come into the library and ask if we have 'real' books. Upon investigation, 'real' means fiction. Not all students have access to public library cards because of where they live. If they live outside of the city, they would have to pay $125/year for a non resident card. We have students/faculty/staff who commute and could use these books. The library is a part of the community in which it exists. This could be a way to serve the staff/faculty community. Personally, I would purchase the device needed to download books, since I don't have any time to go out and spend the money I make. ;^ )
So per the argument that fiction - or audiobooks - are a "public library" thing, I have to disagree. Granted - public libraries do usually provide these services, but Cynthia is right. Not all students have access to the public library, or want to have access. We have a responsibility to serve the needs of our students, faculty and staff - and not just academic needs.
Per the device issue, we don't have to use NetLibrary. Does anyone have other suggestions?
-E
We don't check out many fiction books to students here. I have a few faculty that do. Right now I have a student who would love for us to get some foreign language tapes. Spanish, Somali, Hmong are among the few. He is in Criminal justice and would like to have an uppper hand in the interview world in Minnesota. Students here have told me that they just don't have time for enjoyment reading they are too busy reading their texts and having families.
If we could get eaudio books in teaching foreign languages, I would love the idea. How expensive is the device? That would be something to consider with our college students budgets.
Budget. I like the way the budget was divided up this year. I am finding that some areas need more pumping up than others and I am working on that with each order.
I would not get an ok to update the coding books every year, I had to convince administration that we needed to update from 2001
Those will be every other year.
Lisa, per your "administration" - Brad Moore has made it clear to me we have to have them every year. So... they'll just have to deal :)
PDR
Any Testing study guides as needed per program.
PDR
Any Testing study guides as needed by program.
I like the idea of eAudio for gen ed. and maybe some popular fiction as a by in feature to audio.
I think eAudio as a small collection, when we are offering more literature classes, we could expand it. I like a combined budget, when speaking with the dean and directors it is more understandable for them. I like the idea of a yearly or biyearly core collection for the program areas, I suggest the US Master collections for Accounting as well.
Budget - I would prefer one lump sum. It's easier to work with; also, this quarter I just lumped everything together anyway.
EAudioBooks - I keep adding to our print fiction collection and some members of faculty are taking notice and checking them out. However, I would agree w/ what some other folks said... students really don't seem to be checking out fiction. Every now and then I will make a fiction display, with titles I think would interest students... but, that still doesn't seem to catch their eye. I really think most of our students feel like they lack the time to do any leisure reading. I also question whether students would even be interested in audio options. Some students can't even figure out how to send an attachment, much less download an audiobook to some other device or to their computer. My vote, right now, is NO on the EAudio fiction books.
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