TLC - Helping students get what they need!

Since using TLC, I have to say I'm hugely impressed with the usability and the interest my students have had in using the catalog. In the past, students were NOT very receptive to searching within ALEPH for items ... perhaps because it was lacking visual aides. I believe that TLC is already proving it's value at my campus (and most likely at other campuses) because I'm noticing a HUGE uptick in the number of items borrowed and loaned by my campus. What about at your campuses? Also, is there a way to track how many requests are being placed directly by the students, as opposed to being mediated by library staff? I think that would be an interesting figure to track. I know that many of my students were delighted that they could now, seamlessly, request books on their own.

On a side note... Have we included the additional cost of postage and bubble mailers into our budget for 2009-2010? Seriously, we may need to! :)

My attempt to encourage students to use the Library Catalog

I created a poster which hopefully will create some interest in checking the library catalog for books. I hope it will spark interest in the library's resources.

Cataloging accomplishment

It's amazing what one can accomplish in just a few months. I'm finally feeling GOOD. If not 100% then pretty darn close, and it's apparent in the work I've been able to accomplish recently.

We have the internal auditors here this week, and it was important to the campus director to get as much cataloging as we could for this campus. It's not to say nothing was cataloged. There was a slight glitch here because Aleph was going through an upgrade around the same time I started, and while items were ready from OCLC, we couldn't get them into ALEPH. I'm not complaining - it just is what it is.

Well, nothing like a deadline to just get things done…

We now have 700+ books, reference books & DVDs in the ALEPH (public online) catalog. Since June 2008, I’ve cataloged +550!!!

Since I returned from vacation / surgery / 2008 craziness, 351 items were cataloged. I’ve had assistance from Sara from St. Cloud (THANKS!) who successfully cataloged 124 which helped tremendously.

Phew ... bring on the world! :)

Circ Success

One of the displays we're doing this month is on fiction (regular popular novels... FIC :-) I've advertised this in the weekly announcements & on our kiosk. Amazingly, students have been checking out books! Another "gimmick" is that I point out to students that we have a few titles in the collection written by a Gen Ed instructor.

Successes

I did an "Intro to the Library Resources" for one section of Success Strategies last week and I implemented a couple of new items we talked about at our team meeting.

1. There were ~ 18 students. I had them sit in tables according to the School of their program. They were curious as to why there were more at the table of the School of Allied Health. I took the opportunity to let them know that 50% of the school's students were in that school.
   
2. After showing how the books were organized, I had them in their groups physically take books off the shelves and look at what they had to offer. I've never done this specifically before, and it proved to be a huge success! I gave each one a self-check out form, and I had more than 3/4 of them check out books! A HUGE boon to my circulation statistics. I will expand upon this next quarter and have every introduction workshop have this same sort of component.
   
3. I used Dennis' "half-sheet response' and was delighted to read them afterwards. I will continue doing this type of assessment for me.
   

Proof that marketing works

Last night, I sent all students an e-mail with an attached list of the items added to the library within the last two weeks, along with their dot sections. About noon today, a student walked into the library, headed straight to the Office Management shelf, and selected a brand new book about Office 2007. The book hadn't even been on the shelf for 18 hours.

Plus, I'm relieved to know that at least one student reads the e-mails I send.