WHAT FACULTY WANT…AT JOHN CABOT UNIVERSITY

Isabella Clough Marinaro, ProfessorElisabetta Morani, Head Librarian

Eleonora Moccia, Reference LibrarianLivia Piotto, Reference Librarian

10th AMICAL ConferenceJune 12-15, 2013

Rome, Italy

ACADEMIC PROGRAMS

1000 FTE STUDENTS (50% degree seeking, 50% visiting)

13 MAJORS

• Art History• Business Administration• Classical Studies• Communications• Economics and Finance• English Literature• History• Humanistic Studies• International Affairs• International Business• Italian Studies• Marketing• Political Science

MULTICULTURAL FACULTYGot their final degree from

21 Full-time (+8 in the last couple of years)10 Part-time professors with administrative tasks95 Adjuncts

RECENTLY GROWN TO:

CAMPUS FACILITIESTHE TIBER CAMPUS Classrooms Student Services Tiber Lab Cafeteria Faculty offices

THE GUARINI CAMPUSClassroomsAula MagnaLibraryComputer LabsOffices

FACULTY OFFICES Guarini Faculty RoomArt History Faculty RoomTiber Faculty RoomFaculty offices

WHY THIS RESEARCH?

GOALS• Reach out to new faculty• Improve services and policies• Gain an insight into faculty perceptions and

expectations regarding the Library

FOCUS Faculty research practices, the aspect we know the least

SAMPLE

• 6 full time, 1 part-time and 3 adjuncts• 2 Department Chairs• 6 in the process of being tenured (or just tenured)• Various research disciplines:

– 4 humanities and fine arts– 2 social sciences– 2 political science– 2 business

10 interviewees

WHY IS THE LIBRARY IMPORTANT?

COLLECTIONS

• Libraries are sought out for their very specialized, exhaustive collections

• To provide deep background information

• For secondary research

• To access expensive resources

I need not to find gaps.

I generally use the Library of Congress to

have a complete view of what’s available.

That library stocks two or three copies of everything that is important ... it was quite rare not to find something…

[That library] has the widest range of stuff on … [my topics].

WHY IS THE LIBRARY IMPORTANT?ONLINE RESOURCES

• ALL use on-line journals• 8/10 use free web resources• 5/10 use digital collections from other libraries• All need to get remote online access in the easiest

possible way

The most important thing is accessibility of journals.

We simply don’t have that many journals available.

It is a more complicated step to go through JCU because I have to search first in one search engine, and then see if we have engines that I have access to, look at that, see whether they have the papers… In [my old university] it was like ‘This is the article, here is where you can find the link, three different sites where you can get access’. So it’s more immediate.

PRINT COLLECTIONS

7/10 used JCU books, but all reported also using other collections:

– Libraries abroad (5/10)– Personal purchases (4/10)– Other Roman Libraries (3/10)– Other Italian Libraries (2/10)

Books are hard to find and buy, they go out of print very quickly, they get out of stock, so you need good collections specialized in what you do.

WHY IS THE LIBRARY IMPORTANT?

If you have a library in an Ivy League university you cover all

your bases.

WHY IS THE LIBRARY IMPORTANT?

• Reference help• Human dimension• Acquisitions

[The librarian] helped, did some of the searches for me, sent me links to articles and other stuff.

It’s really important to go into a place and say ‘could you help

me?’ It’s amazing for its human dimension, not only for

the professional dimension.

Librarians are professional and do their best to help patrons.

[In other universities] researchers have a certain number of books

they can buy through the library... The library is interested in acquiring

books... And having professors suggest books.

I know that when I need something I can

ask them.

The Library does its best to find things for users knowing that it’s a problem to buy a

book that more or less would be just for me.

BEING IN THE LIBRARYWHAT THEY WANT AND LIKE

• Light, silence• Open stacks• A space that is conducive to intimacy and concentration,

appropriate to the complexity of their research process

Because with this level of research if you break your chain or cannot find what’s mentioned in footnotes elsewhere and understand what people are talking about, then you break your research process, so it’s important to have library where I can essentially build up books around me.

I really like to walk through the stacks whenever possible, so that I can see what I don’t know. Keyword searching is really beneficial but sometimes it’s even more beneficial for me to look at titles next to each other.

It’s not lonely because once I sit down and work really closely with a book, I’m talking to that author, it’s my conversation, where I can go

home after a good day of work and feel quite full of voices.

BEING IN THE LIBRARY (???)

ABOVE ALL, THEY WANT DEDICATED SPACES• Some find difficult to work in an environment conceived for students• Few use the JCU library to work on their own research• They generally use online resources at home or in the offices• 4/10 complain about lack of work spaces in the library and at JCU generally

I don’t know how to distinguish between a library and the rest of the university.

In the library itself I feel it’s mostly the students’ place, I tend not to come, I mean, if there were a small room for faculty, I would come.

For my research I need a desk that I can leave stuff on, where I can have all my books together, and my files in a computer, in other words an office, and I don’t have to put everything in a backpack and then forget stuff, otherwise you end up wasting an hour setting up your research area.

GETTING ACCESSNow I really depend on JCU and my collegial connections in the US.

I think they deleted it [the account] after that… I will go back to this friend again, probably .

For 5/10, access was provided through other libraries.

6/10 professors have achieved their PhD recently and their research is still related to their dissertation. Until now they used the connections they had in their almae matres. They are now losing these connections.

Recently I tried gain access to a specific

journal... but I couldn’t get it anywhere.

If I didn’t get something I

went to colleagues.

I begged for that [account]… I asked my former advisor to give me access, because I have no way of accessing many resources… I think it’s expiring in August, then I’m going to have to switch advisor, you know, one gave me access for years, then I’ll ask to the other one. But until August and for another year from August I should be set.

From last month I don’t have access to [my old university] anymore, not to the library. So what I’ve been doing is asking my colleagues in the US.

I do remember borrowing the password from somebody. (Laughs). My husband worked there for seven years, so I was able to get one of his friends to give me a password. (Laughs). But it was for me, it was my password !!!!

DIFFICULTIES

WHAT THEY STRUGGLE WITH:

• Lack of adequate resources at JCU• Heavy teaching and administrative loads• Difficulties juggling between family duties and research time

It is impossible for them to do sustained research. Most of the interviewees are only able to do research during vacations.

Total access to all relevant journals in my fields… That would be my first, second

and third magic wand.

I’d like a situation where … I have a table that is empty when

I start, I don’t have to sit at other people’s workstation, I

have access for my PC, wireless access to the internet and

where it’s quiet.

We could have more reserved rooms [in the

Library].

A quiet place to study.

An office is the biggest thing for

my research.

The only thing would be full access, immediate full

access to articles.

The easiest access possible to resources online … Anything that doesn’t require me to

open 4 or 5 different sites to get to an article … The best thing would be you search a

paper, click and PDF.

MAGIC WAND

I would say guidance ... Help, which I could have gotten from my professors, but I haven’t ...

on where I can publish ... I don’t want to publish with

some lousy press ... At least I want to be aware of what I do.

More resources in my field.

Electronic access to the only library in the world where I can do

research.

I’d need a sabbatical … The possibility to take

some time off teaching and concentrate for a

limited but very intensive period o research.

An assistant researcher that could do a preliminary

research for me, screening the literature, and physically

going to the libraries.

TENTATIVE CONCLUSIONS

THE JCU LIBRARY IS PERCEIVED AS BEING MAINLY FOR STUDENTS AND FOR TEACHING. WE CANNOT BECOME A SPECIALIZED RESEARCH LIBRARY.

But it’s a condition of my tenure that I do research. So it’s hard to make that condition and then not welcome the

faculty into utilizing what’s here.

TENTATIVE CONCLUSIONS

WE COULD

• improve our collections• create dedicated services to attract faculty

– welcome events, tailored workshops • revise policies on opening times, acquisitions and services• try to provide a few dedicated spaces for faculty research• build bridges through:

– intensified connections with the libraries of our study abroad partners

– connections with Italian libraries– the Amical network

My local library in New York has access to a lot of databases, it’s networked with every library in the State, it’s a really good system. It’s a tiny

library but you can access it electronically whenever you want.

SO, WE MUST DO SOMETHING…