ArchiveGrid lets history students and other researchers discover the location of documents, personal papers, photographs, and other archival materials hidden in collections all over the world.

For students who can’t jet around the world to do archival research, ArchiveGrid makes it easy to find materials in local Southern California collections within driving distance. A search for a name or topic turns up a list of possible collections and a “Locations” sidebar where the user can scan for local repositories. For instance, a search on the name, Cesar Chavez, reveals 43 relevant collections in five Southern California institutions. Also provided is contact information for the repository to make it easy for a user to follow up with more questions.  To get a sense of the range of subjects that can be accessed in the database, click on ArchiveGrid Topics at the bottom of the screen, and prepare to be amazed.

The Library has finished compiling the results from our Library Hours survey that ran from 12:00pm on Thursday, October 1st through 5:00pm on Tuesday, October 6th.

A total of 655 surveys were received.

We thank everyone who participated in the survey and assure you that these results have been shared with library administration. We are still still discussing and considering all of our options.

Question 1: Do you need the Library open more hours?

Note: 100% of survey participants answered this question.

Question 2: If you answered yes in Question 1, what is the most important use for you?

Note: 92.98% of survey participants answered this question.

Question 3: If you answered yes in Question 1, what is your second most important use?

Note: 91.30% of survey respondents answered this question.

Question 4: If you answered yes in Question 1, what change in hours would best meet your needs?

Note: 89.62% of survey respondents answered this question.

Question 5: Is there anything else you’d like to tell us about the issue of library hours?

Notes:

• 29.16% of all survey respondents provided an answer to this question.
• The 58 public comments can be viewed under our survey post.
• We are still compiling, and trying to find the right format, to share the 133 anonymous comments submitted in the survey form.

Thank you for your participation. We welcome additional comments below.

At the Cal State Fullerton Pollak Library, we wish we could buy every book a student or faculty member would ever need for their research. The same thing is true for articles, DVDs, and all the other resources that our users need from time to time. Since we can’t buy it all, we need a way to get it for you when you need it. That is the purpose of our interlibrary loan service.

Do we value interlibrary loan here at Cal State Fullerton? You bet! Among all the 23 campuses of the CSU, we dedicate more money to interlibrary loan services than any other CSU campus.* For many years, we have worked hard to make interlibrary loan ordering quick, easy, and seamless. Now we find that our budget has been greatly reduced, and we must look very closely at our operations. Careful examination of our interlibrary loan statistics has given us some logical places to make some changes.

• We noticed, for example, that many interlibrary loan requests were for books that we owned but were checked out to another Fullerton user. Now if you order a checked-out book from interlibrary loan, we will ask you to recall the book instead. We will get it back for you, and let you know by your campus email when it is ready to pick up.

• Another category of requests that we looked at was for books that had been recently published within the last year. The problem here is that it is very difficult to find a library that will lend us a brand new book, so those requests were often unfilled; therefore we have restricted those requests as well.

• Over 50% of all the interlibrary loan books not picked up, around 1,600 books last year, were ordered by undergraduates. We believe that students fully intended to pick up all their ILL books, but probably overestimated how many books they could use effectively at one time. Undergrads are now restricted to 10 active ILL requests at one time, a change we hope will encourage better planning. Students should remember to download and then delete their articles from ILLiad because, if the pdf files are sitting in their ILLiad account, those items will count toward their 10-item active limit.

• Graduate students and faculty also have new restrictions on the number of simultaneous active requests, namely 15 and 20 respectively. We have found in practice that the average number of total requests per user per year is 15, so this change should have a limited impact.

In September, 2009, we had to cancel around 750 interlibrary loan requests out of a total of almost 3500 requests that we received that month. Most of those cancellations (around 64%) were due to the fact that the item was already available at the Pollak Library. The remaining cancellations were mostly either due to customer cancellation, duplicate request, our inability to find a library to lend the item, or because the book was published recently.

During the past year, we are proud that we have secured over 40,000 books, articles, or other items for our CSUF students, staff and faculty that they could not get by visiting our electronic or paper collections. We look forward to serving you with excellent interlibrary services again this year.

* CSU Annual Library statistics:

http://www.calstate.edu/ls/Library_Statistic_2007-2008.pdf

The Audio-Visual section of the library contains hundreds of DVDs, VHS, laser discs  that you can use in one of our air conditioned viewing rooms.  We even have a small theater (for 6 people) so you can watch with friends. Just visit the Library Catalog and limit your search to Audio visual to find movies.

Most of you probably use Google every day. At times you may wonder  how much information Google is storing about you and what they do with it.  Google’s  CEO says they do everything they can to protect your privacy and actually delete information that can be associated with individual internet activity every 18 months. You can also opt out of some of their data collection procedures when you sign  up for the particular service. The interview below with Google’s CEO reminded me of one of my favorite articles from grad school - Data Retention and the Panoptic Society: The Social Benefits of Forgetfulness. To learn more about Google’s privacy policy listen the the audio interview below. To get an interesting perspective on the value of privacy in democratic societys, visit the link above.

Do our new library hours meet your needs?

Do you need the Library open more hours? Or are you still able to get books/materials and do your research, studying, and computer work within our current hours structure?

We would like to hear your answers!

You only have until 5pm on Tuesday to take our survey.

NOTE: Because the free web survey service we initially used will only accept 100 responses, we had to move to this new poll format to continue running the survey through its deadline. All previous results have been saved, and will be calculated in with these results. We apologize for the mix-up.

Please Click the Vote button after answering each question.

An update to today’s earlier post and recent alarm problems…

The contractor has completed his investigation and we believe that the problem has been solved.

The Library greatly appreciates Physical Plant’s attention in achieving resolution.

In response to concerns raised by students regarding recent budget cuts to the CSU and the consequent effects on library services, staffing, and materials, we would like your input on this aspect of library cuts.

Please note: This survey closes at 5:00pm on Tuesday, October 6th.

We will share our findings after the survey closes.

Many of you are well aware of the protests and voices of dissent on campus.  We have either seen, heard of or have even participated in these events ourselves.  These protests are a reaction to harsh budget cuts. All of us have been effected by these in one way or another. As a full time staff member and full time student myself, these cuts have been particularly visible… and hurtful. I find myself attempting to help frustrated and angry students as I too am coping with the same issues. And as a staff member we are also dealing with a 10% cut. As campus employees and students we all find ourselves having to do more with a lot less.

When I came into work today I spoke with Ron Rodriguez & Elizabeth Housewright about their experience with the Pollak Library sit-in yesterday.  I am excited to see that students are taking an active role in their education as we should be. Given my position in the University Librarian’s office as his assistant, I have a good understanding of the situation and I can assure you that service cuts are reluctantly made and done so with great deliberation about the impact on students.

Many students may not realize how much the cuts hurt the faculty and the staff that work here in the library because it effects our ability to help the students. It is up to all of us as students, faculty and staff to let the campus administrators know how important the library is. I encourage students to speak with the appropriate campus officials such as the Vice President of Academic Affairs or even the President about the library cuts. Get your parents involved too! If you still feel like you need to do more, you can get involved in various campus organizations and make your voices heard. The Library Committee and PRBC both have mandatory slots for student representation. These committees help determine what happens to our library.

Also, please remember that you can always come speak with us directly in Library Administration. We want to hear from you. We need your input to help us better serve you. Let us know how you think we can best serve the community in these dire times. We are a community and we will make it through these difficult times.

–Sara

People sometimes ask what Banned Books Week is all about. Banned Books Week  (the last week of September) is a celebration of intellectual freedom and serves as a reminder not to take freedom of thought and expression for granted. You may wonder if books are really banned in this country. No they are not. However, books are “challenged” in schools and public library settings quite frequently. When a book is challenged, a concerned citizen is typically asking for the item to be removed from a library shelf. However, this act is an attempt to censor free speech and reduce the diversity of ideas available to others. Most often people challenge books that do not map on to their own person ideology.

Librarians believe that diversity is important for a vibrant and well-functioning democracy. Our professional ethics require us to resist attempts at restricting access to information or chilling the free speech of fellow citizens, even if we personally disagree with the ideas or opinions expressed. Join us in reading  a book from the Banned Book list and listen to the  prose below to hear one person’s opinion about censorship.

“Burn every word - ideas are incombustable!”