Section VI:
TRENDS, 2000-2001

 

TRENDS, 2000-2001

Planning:

  • Planning occurs within the context of the College's Strategic Plan 2000-2005


  • Construction (the new Library; an expanded Library Café) continues strongly to influence Library and Academic IT planning and services.


  • Both the University and the College interest themselves in technology planning and policy-making.


  • Outcomes assessment emerges as a key theme; in response, Library and Academic IT staff develop a variety of mechanisms to measure success.

    • Collections:

  • Special Collections continues to expand its holdings, acquiring prestigious new collections.

  • Digital collections grow in size and importance.

  • Digital collections create a new client for Information Services: the off-site reader.

  • Academic libraries, public and private, band together to obtain more favorable rates for electronic content.

  • A volatile e-publishing environment means librarians must be vigilant and skillful in selecting, acquiring, and managing e-resources.

  • The way in which e-journals are packaged greatly reduces our flexibility, should cancellations ever be necessary.

  • The advent of full-text e-resources causes the creation of new tools for access, beyond the Library catalog.

  • Digital collections suggest the need for new measurements of service.

  • Remote access to digital collections becomes ubiquitous.

  • The Library Web site becomes the gateway to electronic collections, increasing its importance as a research tool.

  • Growing numbers of Web-based courses increase demand for full-text e-resources.

    • Electronic Delivery of Information:

  • The electronic transfer of Library information (overdue notices, book renewals, interlibrary loan and document supply requests) becomes routine.


  • The digital delivery of both services and information causes Library and Academic IT staff to collaborate on more and more projects.


  • First-generation Web sites (the Library, AIT) are redesigned using database-driven systems.


  • Document supply and interlibrary loan grow in popularity, as the electronic accessibility of indexes and library catalogs grows.

    • Systems & Networking:

  • The Library Systems group assumes increasing responsibility for software projects.


  • Greater emphasis is placed on network redundancy and back-up systems.


  • The heavy dependence on technology of all Library functions mandates state-of-art hardware and systems.


  • Wireless technologies become part of the Library and Academic IT service program.

    • Technology for Teaching & Learning:

  • Campus interest in Web-based learning accelerates.


  • The Library and Academic IT play key roles in the use of technology with teaching; they meet and typically surpass established performance goals.


  • The need to standardize across campus on software packages commonly used in teaching and learning (as well as versions of those packages) becomes increasingly pressing.


  • The use of the Internet for teaching and research expands, as more and more faculty develop course sites.


  • Faculty begin to incorporate video, audio, and streaming media with their course sites.


  • Course site enrichment tools developed at Brooklyn College put our faculty ahead of their peers at other institutions and generate invitations to share our expertise with others; we extend this concept by opening our faculty training and development workshops to all CUNY faculty.


  • Burgeoning course sites threaten the ability of our current Blackboard license (level 1) to support online teaching much beyond the 2001-2002 academic year.


  • Providing course site accessibility for persons with disabilities presents a constant challenge for both faculty and staff: the relevant software changes rapidly, and software/hardware incompatibilities are common.


  • Faculty workshops for teaching with technology are now tiered, tailored to the needs of both beginners and varying levels of experts; a faculty development program for instructors who wish to teach completely online is offered.


  • Participation in faculty workshops for teaching with technology increases significantly.


  • The popularity of Blackboard as an online course platform rapidly expands.


  • In the Library Café, business surpasses that of the previous year.


  • The needs of students heavily dependent on graphics (chiefly those in TV/Radio, Film, Theater, and Art) spur the addition of Macintosh computers and associated software to the Café.

    • Copyright & Electronic Reserves:

  • Copyright guidelines for "fair use," clear and easily understandable in the print universe, have become murky, more complex, and potentially more limiting in the digital world.


  • The potential to create electronic reserves further complicates our approach to copyright.

    • Instruction:

  • Digital collections cause librarians to increase their emphasis on instruction, both for students and faculty.


  • Brooklyn College assumes a leadership role within CUNY in information literacy.


  • The enormous quantity of un-refereed information available via the Web and its variable quality underscore the librarian's job to teach readers to evaluate the resources they identify.

    • Staff Development:

  • Staff development (for both professional and supporting staff) grows in importance as the Library takes the lead in providing technological instruction for faculty and students.


  • Staff development opportunities take many forms, including external events, in-house training, videoconferences, and partnerships with sister institutions.