GOAL IV: Support more effective organization and presentation of information for diverse audiences.
1. Implement an integrated technological and methodological framework Library-wide, providing users with an integrated approach to discovery and use of Library resources and enhancing collection building and managerial efficiencies. (e.g. Encompass)
STATUS:
On May 19, 2003, CUL launched ENCompass Find Databases/Find Articles, a new service which features federated searching of highly used licensed databases, together with reference linking from citations to the full text articles in electronic journals. Subsequently, we enhanced ENCompass Find Articles/Find Databases/Find e-Journals, most notably by completely redesigning procedures for alerting users to the library’s e-journal holdings. The OPAC and a separate searchable list of e-journal titles now offer comprehensive discovery and connection to the library’s e-journals. In addition, regular maintenance of the e-journal catalog records and title list provide more current and accurate holdings coverage information than has been possible in the past.
CUL is investigating an integrated framework for CUL digital collections. Research deliverables include high-level user requirements for a cross-collection discovery and access system, a detailed list of implementation issues, and an estimate of resource requirements for building the integrated framework. (Report due late summer 2004.)
In the spring of 2004, CUL licensed Innovative Interfaces’ standalone E-Resource Management (ERM) product and began the implementation process. ERM provides more effective organization and presentation of information for staff and users of licensed electronic resources.
CUL's Digital Consulting and Production Services (DCAPS) works with CUL clients to provide a more programmatic approach to digital collections life-cycle services, including determining which information storage/retrieval software—ENCompass, DLXS, Luna, etc.—to use for CUL digital collections.
2. Make resources and services more visible and easier to find within Library buildings and on Library Web sites by employing appealing and engaging design techniques and intuitive navigational approaches.
STATUS:
In 2003-04, an updated and enhanced Digital Initiatives web site ( http://campusgw.library.cornell.edu/about/digital.html) was added to the Library Gateway. The Library Events Calendar ( http://www.library.cornell.edu/events/) was also added, providing increased visibility for the Library’s workshops, instruction sessions, tours and public events.
New signage was introduced in Olin Library and Uris Library to make resources more visible and easier to find. In the spring of 2004, the Library worked with Professor Alan Hedge and the students in his class, DEA 470 Environmental Analysis: Applied Ergonomics and Methods, to review, analyze and evaluate the signs with regard to general way finding concerns, sign design, informational content, and environmental considerations and to compare the impact in areas that have newer signs with areas where the signs have not been changed. This resulted in improvements in the signage and the formation of a sign committee within the Division of Instruction, Research and Information Services.
The Library Gateway home page was redesigned in the summer of 2002. The redesign featured an attractive layout for the first page as well as a style sheet for secondary pages. During and following the redesign a full time web librarian and a half time programmer worked on the project and continue to have the CUL web presences as their primary responsibility. A new Gateway Committee was appointed to insure that information available through the Gateway is up-to-date, to decide how best to incorporate new information, to evaluate and act on enhancement requests, to respond to issues and concerns raised by staff and users, track usage, conduct usability testing, and to continue to develop the Gateway according to best practices.
In 2002-03, the Gateway Committee produced a website of Resources for CUL Web Developers, providing a place to gather tools that will be useful for anyone in the library system who is involved with web development and maintenance. This site is one step toward enhancing the common look and feel and navigability of CUL Web sites.
3. Pursue seamless linking between e-resources.
STATUS:
CUL Implemented reference linking in May 2002 as part of the ENCompass Find Databases/Find Articles service. This provides links to the full text of articles from citations for the articles. If the full-text is not available in electronic form, links allow for the checking of print holdings in the Library Catalog.
In 2003-04, CUL enhanced the Extended Services page of “Find It At Cornell” to make full text links easier to find and began to investigate the addition of an interlibrary loan option to Extended Services page .
4. Develop customized views and services for specific audiences, units, disciplines and genres.
STATUS:
Customized views of the information landscape were developed for several audiences, including Cooperative Extension
<http://www.mannlib.cornell.edu/reference/instruction/CCEindex.html>.
The library’s life sciences working group has been developing a website to cross-index life sciences faculty, courses, events, database resources, and related activities at Cornell. Vivo <http://vivo.library.cornell.edu>, a virtual life sciences library, provides easy cross-referenced access to information on life science research, facilities, and instruction at Cornell. The site has been demonstrated to numerous stakeholders in the new life sciences initiative and feedback indicates that Vivo will fulfill an important role for cross-disciplinary and cross-institutional searching for the new life sciences initiative. Vivo will be released in fall 2004.
Science reference librarians are developing additional expertise related to molecular biology databases to maintain their information skills and knowledge in the life sciences. In addition, the Bioinformatics Librarian completed the NCBI’s Advanced Workshop for Bioinformatics Information Specialists and has organized a NCBI workshop for April 2005, which will be directed at upperclassmen, graduate students, post-doctoral associates and faculty. She is involved in curriculum development for the new genomics minor and is developing a series of modules on bioinformatics.
Several librarians are working with another cross-disciplinary, cross-institutional project, the Library of Life Initiative, and contributing expertise in database and metadata issues.
The Lee Library in Geneva, in coordination with the Hotel and Mann libraries, is working with faculty and staff in support of the new undergraduate Enology and Viticulture Degree Program to engage and support students in research and experiential learning.
The redesigned Olin and Uris Libraries web site was implemented in January 2004 with significant additions to its content ( http://www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/) including additional subject specific guides. The site also houses outreach pages for specific disciplines that are linked to from department Web pages in the colleges.
The redesign of the Law Library’s Web site in 2003-04, with a bold new design and enhanced content, showcases the Law Library’s services and resources to students, faculty, and the general public. It includes web pages on legal research that can be used by new legal researchers, and some pages are specifically tailored to non-law Cornell class needs. The site is designed from a student's point of view, with an intuitive interface and succinct explanatory annotations.
To enhance services for users seeking government information, Olin, Law, and Mann libraries worked together to increase the number of digital depository documents represented by records in the Library Catalog and to automate their delivery to Voyager. (This was accomplished through the one-time and ongoing loading of MARCIVE records in the Catalog.)
The Flower-Sprecher Library developed a fee-based research and document delivery service, called VetAccess for animal owners and veterinarians. The service also provides a list of carefully selected reputable animal health-related web-based resources.
Mann Library worked with faculty and staff at the American Phytopathological Society to provide increased public awareness of Cornell Cooperative Extension publications. Nearly 600 extension publications have been identified and metadata entered into the APS Plant Management Network (PMN) database ( http://www.plantmanagementnetwork.org). Mann also hosted a New Student Welcome reception in Fall 2002 for students in the College of Agriculture & Life Sciences and the College of Human Ecology and developed a program to introduce new faculty in CALS & CHE to the resources and services of Mann Library and the CUL system.
Librarians in the Division of Instruction, Research and Information Services reached out to faculty and graduate students in the humanities, arts and social sciences through direct individual contacts, participation in academic departmental activities, and organized events as well as indirect outreach through exhibits, guides and other informational resources, including Arts & Humanities Library News, the first issue of which appeared in Spring 2003.
CUL introduced a Library-wide web site for CUL technical services ( http://www.library.cornell.edu/tsweb/) and a webzine highlighting CUL technical services, called Backstory ( http://www.library.cornell.edu/cts/backstory/).
5. Integrate CU library sources, products and services into the CU information landscape.
STATUS:
CUL appointed a subcommittee of the Personalized Library Services Working Group to produce a white paper on Blackboard library systems/services integration and to complete an analysis of the services and faculty demands for e-reserve, courseweb sites, and course packs. The subcommittee works with staff in Cornell Information Technologies and its Academic Technology Center on both of these issues.
The IRIS Reference Department has developed a template for subject guides, and in cooperation with subject specialists within Olin, Kroch and Uris libraries, have been creating subject reference guides in a range of areas. Academic departments are providing direct links from their web sites to these guides.
CUL staff produced a white paper in October 2002, “Linking CourseInfo Websites to CUL Collections and Services,” to describe the issues related to incorporating CUL collections and services to the virtual learning environments created by faculty.
6. Provide users with the capability to create personalized views of the knowledge base.
STATUS:
MyContents, a new electronic service launched in August 2002, makes the task of sifting through the latest research easier. MyContents allows subscribers to select the journals most important to them and receive tables of contents (TOCs) from newly published issues via e-mail. (see V.8)
7. Develop enhanced services in support of social science and geospatial data.
STATUS:
The Library has coordinated its distributed social science expertise to provide a point of contact for the Institute for Social Sciences and has allocated additional funding to support the acquisition of materials relating to the Institute’s first year’s theme “Evolving Family: Family Processes, Contexts, and the Life Course of Children.” Four librarians have been assigned to work with the Institute to provide information services and support.
Mann Library redefined a position as a Social Science Data Analyst Librarian to provide additional support for social science data analysis, consulting, and selection.
The Cornell University Geospatial Information Repository (CUGIR http://cugir.mannlib.cornell.edu/) has added Web Mapping to increase the accessibility of geospatial data. Data indicates that GIS consultations have increased by 300%, 99% of CUGIR data sets are accompanied by FGDC-compliant metadata, and CUGIR recorded over 100,000 downloads in 2003, more than any previous year. The CUGIR team has provided outreach to the Cornell community as well as services to St. Lawrence University, Fulton-Montgomery Community College, and The Institute for the Application of Geospatial Technology at Cayuga Community College. Mann Library also began hosting GIS Day 2002, a celebration that attracts a range of participants, including faculty and staff, students, local city planners and area residents interested in geospatial data and services.
Mann Library metadata librarians are providing expertise to the Virtual Linguistics Laboratory of the Cornell language Acquisition Lab in the School of Human Ecology. One of the biggest goals will be a collaboration between the Library and the Lab on the acquisition of grant funding to support the preservation, archiving, and organization of language data.
Mann Library installed a Bloomberg terminal to provide business and marketing data to the students and faculty in the newly-accredited Business Management program and developed an instruction program for appropriate business classes.