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Vol. 1, No. 1 Fall 2003
by John McGinty
Why A Newsletter?
The Bridge has been established by the Library as
a means of communicating with the Loyola and Notre Dame communities.
We expect to produce an issue of this electronic newsletter once
each semester and we plan to share with you news of the Library
(new people, new services, new resources) as well as trends affecting
academic libraries and access to scholarly information that affect
all of us. At various times we may be bringing you news of developments
in electronic resources, publishing, technology, copyright, and
other matters. In this inaugural issue we highlight the new (two
prominent new people) and cast a glance back at our past (to celebrate
our 30th anniversary).
Many of you are aware that the Library has embarked
upon an ambitious project that will renovate as well as add to
our thirty-year-old building. The Bridge will keep the campus
communities informed about the project as it moves from the design
phase through fundraising efforts to construction, renovation,
and completion. The proposed $18 million building project will
increase the Library's size by a third, while also significantly
renovating the interior spaces to meet current and future technological
and teaching needs. A dramatic new glass façade turned
toward the two college campuses and centered on the Evergreen
campus will enclose a three-story atrium, providing a more inviting
approach to the Library, while also creating dynamic interior
spaces. This Fall, the building project has proceeded to the second
phase of interior design, infrastructure/utility review and initial
fundraising allied to the two colleges capital campaigns has been
taking place.
Publishing The Bridge in an online Web format and
linking it to the Library homepage will allow for easy distribution
to the Notre Dame and Loyola communities and will also enable
outside users of our Website to see what is happening at the Library.
All of the issues will be archived for subsequent quick retrieval.
As we begin this initiative we welcome your feedback on the newsletter
or the issues that it raises.
Who Uses the Library?
The Library serves a more diverse clientele than
perhaps people realize. While the community of Library users consists
primarily of the College of Notre Dame and Loyola College students
and faculty, the Library is open to the public and welcomes cooperative
use from Baltimore-area colleges and universities. For the past
year, staff gathered statistics on who used the Library and for
which purpose, and what types of materials were borrowed.
Attendance figures, given in percentages from the
past year, document the use by the four constituencies: patrons
with Loyola affiliations account for 61% of Library visits, the
Notre Dame community 18%, the general public 11%, and patrons
from reciprocating institutions 10% (Morgan State, geographically
the closest neighboring college, accounts for 57% of that number).
The 3:1 ratio of visits by the Loyola campus community to those
of Notre Dame essentially matched the enrollment ratio of the
two colleges.
Borrowing trends from the book collection show strong
preferences for the humanities across most categories of borrowers.
The combined faculties borrow most heavily in literature, reflecting
both the size of the two English departments and the fact that
literature also attracts the recreational reader. Among students,
Loyola's undergraduates borrow titles in American history the
most, followed by British and American literature, while Notre
Dame's undergraduate students read more British and Irish literature
than any other category, followed closely by biblical studies,
with family and women's studies placing third. Graduate students
show an entirely different preference based on the degree programs
they are in: Notre Dame graduate students borrow most heavily
in education, while Loyola graduate students use psychology and
psychiatry books most frequently (reflecting the presence of doctoral
programs in psychology and pastoral counseling). Morgan State
students borrow predominately in history, followed by literature,
echoing the typical undergraduate tendencies noted above. However,
Towson University students borrow most heavily in the sciences,
particularly computer science.
Nature of Collaboration
One of the trends that the College of Notre
Dame and Loyola College anticipated by some 35 years is the need
to collaborate. Currently libraries are forming and joining consortia
as the preferred method for purchasing electronic databases (see
the article "Libraries' Consortium Conundrum," by Scott
Carlson, in the October 10, 2003 Chronicle of Higher Education,
p. A30). LNDL participates in five consortia, including the Maryland
Digital Library and the Maryland Interlibrary Consortium. Such
joint arrangements may also extend to sharing storage space, providing
computer resources, exchanging training, and increasingly even
sharing staff for specific functions that require advanced skills.
The Loyola/Notre Dame Library is exploring some of these options
now.
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