April 25, 2016
Joe Hollmann
[email protected]
There are a lot of resources available to students on campus, and the Kraemer Family Library is trying to make students more aware of what they are.
To help, UCCS conducted a 19-question survey aimed at gauging the level of awareness students had of certain resources available at the library.
Conducted online through a Google form linked to student emails sent out through the student list service, the survey was completed by 290 students.
A few resources surveyed included research consultation, textbooks (for two-to-four hour loaning periods) and headphones.
Joel Tonyan, the systems and user experience librarian and chair of the marketing committee for the library, was in charge of administering the test.
According to Tonyan, only around half of the respondents were aware of the textbook loan program.
Tonyan said he believes the surveys the library conducts help both students and the library.
Ben Patzer | The Scribe
He said the library offers hundreds of thousands of electronic books, as well as access to over 200 academic online databases.
Some of the more useful but not well known resources the library offers include dry erase markers, phone chargers, one-on-one research consultation and an online chat platform.
Kris Knigge, sophomore mechanical engineering student, was not aware of the research consultation, but was aware of the ability to check out textbooks.
“I really like the textbook rental, it’s better to not carry my own around,” he said.
Knigge said he learned he could rent a textbook by asking the front desk if they had one available.
This survey wasn’t the first the library has conducted. The library has also conducted surveys on graphic novels, where they received close to 500 responses, and another survey on renaming the reference desk which received around 400 responses.
Tonyan said the library has continued to keep up with trends, mentioning changes such as a transition from an off-campus VPN to a proxy server, the increasing inventory of electronic sources and the ability to reserve study rooms online.
Martin Garnar, dean of the Kraemer Family Library, explained that student’s busy schedules limit their ability to explore the available options and that students may become comfortable with familiar resources rather than branching out.
“Everyone’s pressed for time between class and work schedules,” he said.
Many students at UCCS do not visit the library because of online programs or general avoidance, according to Garnar.
Garnar said the library has continued to adapt to innovative ways of accessing information, adding the library must adapt to the major shift in where resources are coming from.
“Libraries are shifting from warehouses of knowledge to creating knowledge” said Garnar, adding the library will soon put in new furniture that will facilitate that goal.
“We want to create that space to create new knowledge.”