Thanks to all of you for your patience with the new procurement system as we’ve rolled it out this fall. The good news is that the January renewals have been completed already – on time and ahead of schedule, actually. I have turned in all our orders and have even signed most of the license updates for next year’s subscriptions.

That said, I too have been learning ConsortiaManager, and I’ll take this time and space to add the following notes:

• ConsortiaManager sends a lot of automated messages that look like they are coming from me but in fact are being sent from the system; if you receive an email that addresses an overdue payment, unless you have a special reason to ask for a delay in payment terms, there’s no reason to reply to these emails with any explanation of your circumstance.
• The old rules still apply once you confirm an order in the system: you can’t retract it. The orders you and we place are sent almost seamlessly to our vendors, and usually all I do is confirm with our vendors that you submitted the order before I sign an agreement confirming these orders. This can all now happen in a matter of minutes. If you change your mind about an order, it makes our consortial workflow exceedingly complicated, so please be sure your library knows what it wants before submitting orders in the system.
• ConsortiaManager definitely wants to put all your college’s subscriptions on the same invoice, and to split out databases on different invoices is much harder than it was with the old system. In fact, I have to actually cancel the order and begin again. If you need things invoiced separately, please email me almost immediately so I can know before I generate the invoice.

In this season of change for so many of us, I again want to thank you for your patience and good cheer in moving to this new system. Onward and upward, and have a great holiday season.

I have been in discussions with Raul Arambula (Dean, Educational Services and Support) and Zitlali (Tali) Torres (Program Analyst, Educational Services and Support) in the Chancellor’s Office about setting up a meeting for the committee---hope for it to be in December 2019.  I think we have heard from the constituent groups (including CCL, ASCCC, and ACTLA) about appointments to the committee.

The 2018-19 Annual Data Survey has been sent out to the field and was due October 31, 2019.  This fits in with the approval by the CCC Board of Governors (item 2.4, September 2018) to revise section 55800 of Title 5 so that “the due date be amended from August 31 to October 31 of each year. The due date change is better suited for the Library communities academic year calendar.”  Tali has been working with Terrence Willets (researcher contracted by CCL to evaluate and analyze the results of the survey) to update the survey.  Many thanks to Tali and Terrence!

As of October, a new MOU between the Humboldt State University Library and College of the Redwoods allows students from CR to access books and other resources from HSU. 

While HSU students, like all residents of the district, have been able to get “community borrower” cards at CR, the university previously required CR students to pay an annual membership fee for check-out privileges.  College of the Redwoods covered the cost for students in the Honors Program, but now all CR students will have the same benefit.  Providing easier access to the HSU library will allow students to become more familiar with the university’s resources and help to make the transition to the university more seamless for students who transfer. 

Because of licensing restrictions, neither college allows off-site access to electronic resources, but visitors are welcome to use databases and eBooks while in the libraries.  

The two libraries are exploring other possible collaborations and ways to better serve the needs of their shared community, which is separated by several hundred miles from the next nearest institutions of higher education.  Serving Del Norte and Humboldt Counties, and parts of western Trinity County, CR has one of the largest service areas in California, covering nearly 10,000 square miles from the Mendocino County line to the Oregon border.  

Maybe you know this … but it’s almost 9 years since CCL first began discussing the idea of a shared ILS!  We talked and talked and talked among ourselves until we felt the ground beginning to turn solid under this proposal (and ever-advancing technology and software capabilities contributed a lot to that!).

And then we talked with others:  people in the Chancellor’s Office, technology leaders in the CCC world, stakeholders (think ASCCC, students, CIOs, the League … and so many more), other groups of libraries headed in the same direction.

Sharing our ideas and “the vision” opened minds to the possibility of such a thing and also started to build an awareness that librarians were strategic thinkers and good partners in the efforts to improve and expand the CCC frameworks for student learning and student success.  CCL built many bridges and forged many working relationships as a result.

I hope that you and your colleagues are finding (making!) opportunities to share the ideas and vision with others:  on your campus, in your district, with your friends, at your service club or social group, etc.  I’ve been sharing news about this LSP effort with my Rotary club and my church groups and even with librarians in other types of libraries.  

Why?  The more people who know how we’ve marched forward and grabbed the brass ring, the better it is for our profession and our work.  And those “more people” share information with others; I know that one or two have mentioned it to legislative types that they know.  

Yes, “the more people who know …” keeps making that ground more and more solid!  It may be what helps to get us the ongoing state funding we have asked for.  It may be what helps you achieve an important library milestone at your college or what helps CCC librarians reach for the next great thing after LSP. 

The MCC Library Exhibit Series continues its exploration of women's suffrage and equality with the latest exhibit entitled "Land & Space: Women's Contributions to the National Parks System & US Space Program." This exhibit showcases notable women who overcame great obstacles and made important contributions to both the National Park System and the United States Space Program. These women came from different ethnic, cultural, and socioeconomic backgrounds and yet were united in their passion and dedication for the causes they believed in. Though some faced ridicule, misrepresentation, and outright rejection, their perseverance challenged the rigid cultural expectations of the day and paved the way for younger generations. From Minerva Hoyt, who tirelessly lobbied for the creation of Joshua Tree National Park, despite being initially turned down, to Katherine Jonson--a NASA mathematician, whose calculations were critical to the success of the first U.S. crewed spaceflights, these women's stories are a key part of the American story and a source of strength and inspiration. We celebrate their example and those who carry on the spirit of these courageous women today.

The exhibit will on display through December 15, 2019.

SCIL Works 2020: Disaster Planning: Bouncing Back from Instructional Fails
Friday, January 17th, 2020 
University Library 
California State University, Long Beach

More info: http://librarywriting.blogspot.com/2019/11/cfp-scil-works-2020-disaster-planning.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

California Conference on Library Instruction - 2020
Deconstructing and Reconstructing Assessment
Friday, May 29, 2020
University of San Francisco
 
The California Conference on Library Instruction invites you to submit a proposal for the 2020 program, which will explore the intersection of information literacy and assessment.

More info: https://www.cclibinstruction.org/

Library Instruction West: Justice
July 22-24, 2020
University of Washington

Library Instruction West (#liw20) seeks proposals for its 14th conference.

More info: https://twitter.com/liwconf?lang=en

When the CSU choose to implement Alma and Primo as the basis for a systemwide Unified Library Management System [ULMS], a primary goal was to combine the library catalog and discovery service into one search tool across resources, including digital archives and other assets. Ready access to CSU-wide holdings was another key deliverable that was sought through the adoption of these systems. More efficiencies and collaboration among CSUs were also seen as a highly desirable outcome.

The implementation of Primo has provided a unified tool that merges the library catalog and discovery search interfaces. All but one CSU currently offers an ‘everything’ search that combines results from local collections, systemwide print holdings, and Primo Central collections. Most CSU libraries also provide their users with separate search tabs for local collections, articles, and course reserves. All campuses use the same branding and overall layout for the Primo interface. More than three quarters of CSU libraries have elected to include non-full-text Primo Central results by default, thus allowing users to check all collections indexed in Primo Central. 

Primo has successfully provided each CSU library with ready access to systemwide print holdings. A search scope allowing users to search print holdings across the CSU is offered by all campuses. A majority of campuses integrate all CSU print holdings within their default ‘everything’ search scope. The availability of systemwide holdings has made it possible to create the CSU+ resource sharing network that allows users to request print items from any campus. Overall, the CSU libraries have seen strong growth in demand for this service.

Central management of some aspects of the Primo interface, as well as shared e-collections, has alleviated the burden of local operational upkeep. Visual and functional preferences commonly adopted across all campuses are implemented and maintained by the central office. This saves time and effort for each campus and creates efficiencies systemwide. This has allowed the CSU libraries to pool development and assessment efforts rather than repeat the same work locally. Successful examples of this include redesigning the sign-in and user account menu options within the Primo navigation bar, improving the display of systemwide holdings within each record, and the placement of the systemwide Primo logo (all CSU use OneSearch as the name for Primo). Shared e-collections are activated and maintained by the systemwide office. The central office also provides weekly ERM updates to assist campuses in managing their collections.

Collaborative development and assessment by teams that include representatives from multiple campuses has produced significant improvements to the functionality and interface of Primo. These initiatives have also created efficiencies by removing duplication of effort at the local campus level. Some examples include a multi-campus user experience assessment of the labels and design used within Primo, a drop-in replacement for the link resolver, and improving the placement of the actions menu (this menu offers options for emailing records, generating citations, and more) within the full record display. These efforts have also produced centrally managed add-ons that allow campuses to integrate Google Analytics, send citations via SMS, and add problem reporting forms to the full record display. A project led by the systemwide office created a web app that makes it easier for users to locate course reserves.

Collaboration among the campuses, a unified tool for searching across collections, and central management of the system are some of the positive benefits achieved through the adoption of Primo. While key project goals were accomplished, there are ongoing efforts in the CSU libraries to seek improvements to the Primo interface, the functionality of the integrated link resolver, and the indexing of collections. Through working together, the CSU libraries will continue to focus on delivering the best possible discovery search experience to its users. 

In the coming years, we’ll be able to assess Ex Libris’s Alma/Primo LSP with depth and specificity. We’ll have figured out how to leverage many of its strengths, we’ll have work-arounds and complaints about what it can’t do, and we’ll be joining other consortia in working with Ex Libris to make improvements. But one fact is already clear: this project has already changed California’s community college library faculty and staff. 

Here are some key ways we are different:

1. CCC library faculty and staff are developing a stronger identity as a single cohesive group.
   We have a governing committee to provide oversight to the operation of the LSP that is committed to inclusion, communication, and transparency. We are developing policies that will help us act in the best interests of the entire group. Through our work groups, we are developing resources that are already saving our professional community time and are leading us to effective practices and procedures in our new LSP environment.
2. We are communicating within our CCC professional library community more than ever before.
   That communication happens in major channels—over 600 of us on the Canvas shell, and even more than that signed up with LSP and Council of Chief Librarians listservs. And that does not even account for the many direct e-mails we are sending around the state asking our work friends and colleagues for specific advice on our own situations.
3. We are strengthening our regional relationships with nearby colleges.
   In two distinct waves—one early in the project and another after we got our test environments—librarians took the initiative in many different regions of the state to bring local colleges together for workshops and professional learning related to the LSP. Every time this happens, we connect more deeply with our colleagues and are more likely to pick up the phone or send an e-mail and ask for or offer help.
4. We are strengthening our connections to other higher education systems.
   Part of this is happening regionally, as our librarians are reaching out to their counterparts at CSU’s to get input and advice in implementing the LSP. We are also in regular contact with folks at the CSU’s who are participating in the governance group for their LSP who have provided lots of guidance about how to set up an ongoing structure to provide oversight and support.  We have gotten similar input from other large academic consortia, most notably Orbis Cascade in the Pacific Northwest.
5. We are bringing greater equity to what remains an inequitable system.
   While huge disparities in staffing, budget, and other resources remain, the fact is we will (nearly) all now be using the same library services platform—one that is by many accounts the best available for academic libraries. This means the half our libraries who were operating without a discovery tool will now have one and will begin to see the benefits of such a tool in students’ and faculty’s ability to locate the best available resources.  Understaffed colleges are already getting advice and support from our work groups and colleagues both regional and statewide. The equity benefits of this project will continue to be a model for other statewide resource sharing efforts. More statewide databases, anyone?

If you’re reading this in the Outlook, you likely already have an appreciation of the role the Council of Chief Librarians plays in supporting the CCC library community and this project, which began as a CCL initiative over five years ago. The CCL board has focused many of its efforts in support of this project since initial funding occurred. Its LSP task force members have been meeting weekly for two years to provide input and support to CCC Technology Center Program Managers Amy Beadle and Amy Carbonaro for selection and implementation planning. CCL has sponsored regional LSP meetings and statewide professional development for this project, and it will continue to provide long-range support and advocacy for our librarians. We are an impressive professional group, and this project only shines a brighter light on the talent and dedication of librarians that so capably serve a 2 million-plus student population.

As a solo-librarian, the LSP project has been a lot to handle on top of my regular job duties. Like many of us, I felt like an island in this process, but our regional “LSP Fridays” have helped.

My college (Coastline) is one of three colleges in our district (CCCD) and we were part of a CalWest Consortium with Fullerton College and Cypress College. The five colleges tried to help each other in the early part of the LSP but it wasn’t until this summer when Ward Smith from Orange Coast College and I had bi-weekly meetings with CCCD IT that things started to improve for me. Librarian Smith and I would work on Alma after these meetings and found this ended up being very productive. Near the end of the summer, Librarian Smith suggested we keep the meetings going and invite others in our region. LSP Fridays were born.

The process is simple. An invite goes out. We meet from 9-12 each Friday and rotate who hosts. At 9am we ask what we want to talk about and make a list. We go through the list, sometimes going on tangents and solve all kinds of issues. Six colleges regularly show up and about eleven are invited.

I remember someone stating at the beginning of this journey that the LSP would help the community colleges work more collaboratively and it wasn't until LSP Fridays started that I believed it. I still may regret my choice to join the LSP--hindsight is 20/20--but I am grateful to my colleagues across the state who have shared solutions and work-arounds and to my colleagues in the region who join me for LSP Fridays! I still feel like an island, but now I can see I am an island in a chain and the boat ride is not too far away.

LSP Fridays will take a break over the winter holiday but I suspect we will keep them going. Let me know if you would like to be invited!

The purpose of the Library Services Platform Governance Committee is to advise and guide the California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office (CCCCO), the Council of Chief Librarians (CCL) and the California Community Colleges Technology Center (CCCTC) on the deployment and management of Library Services Platform (LSP) Project for the California Community Colleges.  

The committee serves these functions:

• Reviews progress and provides input on program planning.
• Establishes uniform system standards and policies and recommends effective practices
• Solicits input from respective constituent groups to inform the committee
• Communicates project status to respective constituent groups and the field.
• Provides recommendations to the CCCCO, CCL and CCCTC on program activities.

Currently, the committee includes representatives from the following groups (with the number of representatives following the group):

• Academic Senate for California Community Colleges (ASCCC) — 2
• California Community Colleges Chief Instructional Officers (CCCCIO) — 1
• CCC Chief Information Systems Officers Association (CISOA) — 1
• Ex Libris Users of North America (ELUNA) — 2
• Community College League of California (CCLC) Library Consortium Director — 1
• Library and Learning Resources Programs Advisory Committee (LLRPAC) — 1
• LSP Task Force/CCL Representative — 5
• Student Senate for California Community Colleges (SSCCC) — 1
• Vanguard Member - Large School — 1
• Vanguard Member - Medium School — 1
• Vanguard Member - Small School — 1
• Work Group Member - Analytics — 1
• Work Group Member - Cataloging — 1
• Work Group Member - Circulation — 1
• Work Group Member - Discovery & User Experience — 1
• Work Group Member - Electronic Resource Management/Acquisitions — 1
• Work Group Member - Professional Development — 1
• Work Group Member - Systems — 1

The members of the Library Services Platform Governance Committee are appointed every two years by the California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office. Faculty are appointed by the Academic Senate. A list of current Governance Committee members can be viewed at https://cccnext.jira.com/wiki/spaces/CLSPP/pages/799113827/Governance+Committee+Members.  “Vanguard Members” above are representatives from vanguard--or pilot--colleges that went through data migration and staff training as a trial run; their work informed the overall design of the statewide project and their place as part of the Governance Committee was instrumental in the early stages of the project. Co-chairs, currently Doug Achterman from Gavilan College and Eve Miller from Santa Rosa Junior College, are elected by the committee annually. 

Much of the work of the committee is accomplished through eight functional work groups, whose leads sit on the governance committee. Over 80 library faculty and staff from throughout the state sit on these work groups, which include:

• Acquisitions and Electronic Resource Management
• Analytics
• Cataloging
• Circulation
• Discovery and UX
• Instruction
• Professional Development
• Systems

These groups research and develop effective practice recommendations in their respective work areas. Where statewide policies are required, these groups draft policy recommendations, solicit input from the field through LSP and CCL listservs, revise those recommendations, and submit them to the Governance Committee for approval.

The Governance Committee meets either virtually or face-to-face monthly. Its work, including the resources provided by the Work Groups, is documented and available through the LSP Project site: https://cccnext.jira.com/wiki/spaces/CLSPP/overview.

By now many of you have started to play around in Alma Analytics, the primary tool we will be using to work with data generated by and housed in Alma. When we want to look closely at what is circulating, which online resources are being used, how many library patrons we currently have, how we’re spending our funds, and so on, we’ll be using Analytics. If you’ve spent some time exploring, though, you might have noticed a few odd things. For the benefit of that moment of validation (is it just me?) and for those who haven’t yet dipped their toes in, I’ll just highlight a few of the major points that the Analytics work group have noted in our meetings:

It’s a completely different system. You might have thought we were getting one system, Alma, or maybe 2, Alma/Primo, but in fact Alma Analytics stands apart from both. It is actually not an Ex Libris product at all, but rather an implementation of Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition, customized to work with Alma. This means that it doesn’t actually access all of Alma’s data, at least not on a one-to-one basis; and in fact we will periodically find that new data elements (or “dimensions” in Analytics lingo) appear as enhancements, making our work a little easier.

It’s your data, yesterday. Analytics does not access your live Alma’s data; rather, Ex Libris exports everything to a data warehouse once a day, and Analytics runs against that. You might see some advantages in this arrangement; while you are manipulating your Alma data in Analytics, you can be confident that you are not inadvertently changing it. But you also need to be aware that very recent changes will not be reflected in what you’re looking at. If you need current data, you should do searches in Alma itself; if you can create an Alma set that gives you what you’re looking for, that might in some cases be a better solution than using Analytics.

Check your filters. Analytics reports can contain a huge number of records, so thinking about what you’re really looking for and applying appropriate filters early on is a good tip.

Sharing is caring. The “Alma” and “Community” areas of the Shared Folders in the Analytics Catalog are intermittently inspiring sources of reports that you can use as-is or customize to your needs. Our CCC network will soon establish our own community folder that, as we communicate about our successes in Analytics, will help us grow together. 

There’s a learning curve. It’s really not hard to build a simple table. But before long, you need to start including some SQL functions (otherwise you can’t, for instance, filter your data to “more than 2 weeks ago” or “within the current month”). And then of course you’ll want to create some charts and graphs (and by the way, Ex Libris tells us that we will soon be getting a slew of new visualization features). What are these “views”--are they like a Primo VE view? How, and while we’re at it, why does one build a pivot table? Why am I being told to use a “regular expression”? Can’t I just express myself as an individual?

Don’t worry. Just as with Alma, we’ll get better at it as we do it more. The Analytics work group has provided some key resources and recommendations for getting started. And if you’ve played with Analytics at all, you can see how this tool will help us with external reporting, such as the Chancellor’s survey and IPEDS, as well as more substantial inquiry into the outcomes and effectiveness of our library collections. If you’re interested in getting to the next level, be sure to check out Ex Libris’ recorded “Advanced Analytics” sessions and their accompanying documents.

The Analytics work group has a few projects planned, including a guide to setting up COUNTER e-resource usage data and toolkits for completing common external reports. If you have suggestions for other projects the Analytics work group should work on, please either contact one of us directly--our membership is available via the LSP wiki--or try the Analytics-specific listserv.

Rationale

The California Community College (CCC) Library Services Project presents our libraries with new opportunities to operate in a true consortial environment.  The CCC Alma network zone allows libraries to work together to reap the benefits of collaboration and coordination in ways we haven’t been able to achieve in the past.   The network zone will be maintained by a network zone manager and a committee of CCC librarians who will continually coordinate standards, policies and best practices to make sure the network zone works well for all of our libraries. Listed below are some of the many advantages the CCC Alma network zone offers.

• Automatic updates to bibliographic records
• Shared expertise of the worldwide cataloging community
• Resource sharing made easier and faster
• Analytics can be performed at a centralized level
• Simple ways to see which library owns what resources
• Catalogers can quickly locate the best record for use

Additional Benefits for Resource Management

• With the network zone’s linkage to OCLC WorldCat, bibliographic records will be continually improved by the worldwide cataloging community

• Copy cataloging is vastly simplified
• Institutions can add their holdings and items directly and then automatically copy the bibliographic record to their institution zone
• Normalization of metadata can be done in the network zone, removing duplicate effort
• Reduces the need to purchase MARC records from materials vendors
• Leads to fewer brief records, aiding discoverability of new resources

Additional Benefits for Collection Development and Resource Sharing

• Quick identification of other CCC libraries who own a title you’re considering purchasing

• Establishes a foundation of regional and/or statewide Interlibrary loan initiatives (such as the CSUs have achieved with their Alma network)

Additional Benefits for Analysis and Assessment

• Demonstrates CCC libraries’ contributions toward student success through the utilization of a broad range of library resources

• Aids in finding areas of overlap in electronic and physical resources
• Helps discover opportunities for consortial purchasing
• Tracks growth of open-access and OER resources

Requirement for Network Zone Participation

In order to participate in the network zone based on OCLC records, OCLC requires that all colleges maintain a current OCLC Cataloging and Metadata subscription. Remember that, in the event of ongoing funding for the LSP, your library budget will no longer incur ILS subscription costs, and while the OCLC cataloging pricing structure makes the subscription a challenge for some colleges, the cost of that subscription will almost certainly be less than the subscription and maintenance licenses for your legacy ILS. We are in conversation with OCLC about statewide cataloging licensing and are looking for ways for that to be part of our ongoing funding. In the coming year, however, we need colleges to provide this subscription on their own, hopefully as a bridge toward a statewide solution.

The Integrated Library System (ILS) is the lifeblood of the academic library.  Through it, students, staff, and faculty are able to access the wealth of information necessary for their research endeavors.  In 2016, the University of Southern California (USC) acquired the ExLibris Alma/Primo ILS in order to better meet the needs of its users.  As one of the few institutions that currently utilize Primo VE, this article will address the changes made by the libraries that service the USC University Park and Health Science campuses. I will provide a brief overview of how these changes impacted the way in which we view and approach reference and instruction services. Throughout, you will find links to the CCL Primo VE Workshops conducted in October 2019 as well as examples of workshops/trainings conducted at USC during the implementation project in 2017.

As my job title suggests, a large percentage of my job is dedicated to the promotion of public services through reference and instruction.  As a member of the ad hoc USC Libraries Reference Taskforce, I help tackle issues that affect our reference librarians and advance our virtual and in-person reference services.  During the implementation project for the ExLibris platform launch, the Reference Taskforce took on various tasks to ensure a smooth transition to the new ILS. The following efforts were executed in anticipation of this transition.

Usability Testing

While not required, we found usability testing to be valuable in our attempt to anticipate patron questions and challenges when using the new search engine. The Reference Taskforce developed a Usability Testing Questionnaire that was administered to various users including a faculty professor in Music, a senior majoring in Business, a graduate student majoring in Education, a faculty professor in the Writing Program, and so on. The responses allowed us to better understand how users navigated and searched within the library’s impending ILS. We presented our findings to the larger ExLibris implementation team and also utilized these responses to develop training scenarios to incorporate into workshops for librarians.  Even if you decide not to conduct usability testing, I highly recommend that you dedicate time toward forecasting the various questions, expectations, and pain points your specific user groups may encounter as a result of the new system.

Librarian Training

The Reference Taskforce developed and led multiple Primo trainings for librarians. The trainings served as an opportunity for all USC librarians who provided reference and/or instruction services to contribute to decisions regarding configuration settings such as naming conventions (the first thing they wanted changed was Tweak my Results!), placement of icons, and the activation/deactivation of various features available in Primo.  The first training, Primo Part 1 Training: Configuring Options, allowed librarians to become familiar with the basic layout of the Primo interface, ask questions, and provide input on how the system would eventually be displayed and utilized for reference and instruction transactions. After this initial training, the Reference Taskforce made recommendations to the ILS implementation team based on librarian feedback. A second training: Primo Part 2 Training, was conducted shortly before the ExLibris Go Live date. This training focused on using Primo for reference and allowed librarians to practice hands-on activities in order to become more familiar with the results and special features within Primo. Librarians were able to see their input from the initial training materialized in the second training.  Including all librarians in the decision-making process allows them to have a more vested interest in the success and increased use of the system.

During the same week of the Primo Part 2 trainings, a specific Primo for Instructors training was also offered.  Led by the Head of Instruction (who is also a member of the Reference Taskforce) this workshop centered around the teachable elements within Primo which included an overview of Primo’s algorithm, an example of what students could expect to see in the results list, the prominently displayed access points for each database within an item record, and the various ways to save or export citation information from item records or directly on the results page.  This training allowed library instructors to know what to expect once inside of a classroom setting and know how to troubleshoot issues that may arise.  

Moving Forward with Flexibility

I don’t believe that there is one perfect ILS for any one library and I anticipate that we will continue to experience challenges and frustrations with this or any other system we acquire in the future. But we make course corrections and do the best that we can with what we have. In the Summer of 2019, we launched a new USC Libraries’ website interface in part as an attempt to help patrons navigate the libraries website with more ease.  Using a bento-box approach, this overlay reveals to users the number of results we have based on categories such as Articles, Books, Databases, and Other Materials. While this might not be ideal for your library, there may be other ways that you can share information with your patrons.  Research Guides such as the User Guide and Searching Solutions guide have proven to be useful resources for our patrons and librarians alike. We continue ongoing evaluation of our ExLibris ILS and will continue to anticipate new ways to engage our patrons with helpful tips.  Be flexible with this system and know that you have at least one other academic institution that has been where you are going.  

For questions, please contact Christal Young at youngc@usc.edu or Win Shih, Director of Integrated Library Systems, at winyuans@usc.edu.  

Further Readings and Resources:

Primo VE for Instruction Workshop Presentation Recording and Slides: bit.ly/cclprimoinstruction 
Primo VE for Reference Workshop Presentation Recording and Slides: bit.ly/cclprimoreference

Galbreath, B., Johnson, C., & Hvizdak, E. (2018). Primo New User Interface: Usability Testing
    and Local Customizations Implemented in Response. (Report). Information Technology 
    and Libraries, 37(2), 10–35. https://doi.org/10.6017/ital.v37i2.10191

Valentine, B., & West, B. (2016). Improving Primo Usability and Teachability with Help from the
    Users. Journal of Web Librarianship, 10(3), 176–196.
    https://doi.org/10.1080/19322909.2016.1190678

Editor's Note:

Christal Young was a presenter at CCL's Fall 2019 workshops. Materials from two other presenters are available below:

• Presentation materials from Walter Butler ("Librarians and OER")
• Presentation materials from Lauren McFall ("Primo VE Configurations")

Five librarians in the California Community College system presented “Partnering with Librarians to Integrate Information Literacy Support for Student Success” at the Strengthening Student Success Conference in October 2019, generously sponsored in part by CCL. The conference was hosted by the RP Group, a non-profit engaged in research, planning, and professional development for California Community Colleges, and in particular, the data and evidence components of this work. The non-profit is active in many current initiatives of the CCCs, including guided pathways, AB 705, workforce-related activities, and more. SSSC is attended by faculty, administrators, deans, researchers, counselors, etc, and we thought this would be a good place to grow awareness among stakeholders about opportunities to partner with their own college libraries.

We then presented our integrations with English courses at our colleges. Cabrillo & Solano demonstrated their co-requisite library courses. Their transfer level English courses are paired with a 1 unit, online library research class, and these students utilize the activities in the library class to improve research in their English class. In addition, the classes explore timely topics, such as algorithmic bias and fake news. In some cases, the courses are embedded within retention programs, such as Puente and Umoja, and are integral to AB 705 adjustments and guided pathways projects.

City College of San Francisco presented a slightly different embedded model. In the Spring 2019 semester, five CCSF librarians were hired for an additional 20 hours of work to embed with English classes. With the compression of previous levels of English courses due to AB 705, most “students [are] placed into one of two versions of transfer-level English, either English 1A without support, or English 1A with support.”² Librarians were embedded in the “with support” courses, and the pilot was paid for with Equity funds. The librarians used the time to collaborate with English instructors, create learning objects (such a research guides), and meet with the class a minimum of three times.

With each embed model, students were generally positive about the library component, with comments like “This class is very helpful for my future!” and noting how it helped them in other courses. The librarians reported an 8% increase in course success among students in the English 1A classes with an embedded librarian. In addition, the collaborative aspect was noted by English instructors, who no doubt feel overwhelmed by the rapid changes induced by AB 705. 

Attendees were given time to reflect on current information literacy configurations at their campuses, and were then encouraged to share with others at their table. Attendees at the session asked questions about how we were funded, and how they could find the time to add deeper integrations with the library. Attendees identified as counselors, English instructors, administrators, and institutional researchers. We attempted to share how our models came to be, and how leveraging the library component can sometimes shift some of the burden away from faculty challenged with scaling these complex concepts in a short period of time. 

Ultimately, we demonstrated that librarians are experts in information competency, and that libraries are key partners in many of the initiatives we are working to implement across the state. The session led to some thoughtful conversations, and we are optimistic that it inspired attendees to reach out to their librarians to collaborate. We hope to continue to spread the word at other community college-focused conferences. We encourage you to do the same! Library conferences are wonderful and generous spaces to find allies and share skills, but it is just as important to share our hard work in non-library spaces. What feels like part of the routine to you might be the missing piece needed to improve the success of students at another college. With 114 CA community colleges, there’s a lot of ground to cover!

Handout
Slides

References

1. Howe, Elaine M. "School Library Services." California State Auditor. Last modified November 17, 2016. https://www.auditor.ca.gov/pdfs/factsheets/2016-112.pdf. ↩
2. "The English Sequence." City College of San Francisco. Last modified December 14, 2018. https://www.ccsf.edu/en/educational-programs/school-and-departments/school-of-english-foreign-languages/english/EnglishSequence.html.↩

The Folsom Lake College Library is pleased to welcome Megan Ozeran as our new Technology and Electronic Resources Librarian. She comes to us from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, where she most recently worked on a project involving data visualization in the library setting. She will begin her duties here in January. Our current Technology and Electronic Resources Librarian, Amy Brinkley, has taken on the role of Technical Services Librarian which was left vacant at the retirement of Stacia Thiessen in May of this year.