Heart of the Valley

I work at Merced College Library in the heart of California's Central Valley. Who are our students and how can we best serve them?

About a third of our students are recent high school graduates and the majority of the students in Merced County who attend college (51%) start at Merced College. Roughly a third of our students are returning adults over the age of 25. Interestingly, about 60% of our students are female. The student body is ethnically mixed reflecting the population of the county. The largest ethnic group at Merced College is Hispanic (41 %) followed by whites (29%) Asians (10.6 %) African Americans (5.5 %) and Native Americans (1%).

According to the latest census, 30 percent of the students in our local schools live in poverty and at least 35 percent of the people in our community receive some form of financial assistance. These statistics were taken before the worst of the recession when the employment rate in Merced was around 12 percent. Currently, according to the U.S. Labor Bureau of Statistics, unemployment in Merced County is hovering around 20 percent, about the same as Flint Michigan. We also have the dubious honor of being near the top of every list of those communities most devastated by the foreclosure crisis. According to educational statistics compiled by the California State Postsecondary Commission, we are several percentage points behind the rest of California in almost every economic and educational measurement.

So how do we help the students in our county? Our mission statement says that “students are our focus and we are known by their success.” In the library we encounter the whole diversity of the community with a wide range of abilities and backgrounds. We meet them where they are and bring them further along their educational path by providing resources both electronically and in print. We provide computers to use for research and assignments, and individual and group study spaces. Mostly importantly, we provide individualized instruction and help. We are the academic heart of the institution, and service to our students is our greatest goal.

A Step Backwards

We had a difficult week at Merced College Library. Our library circulation system was down for a whole week during a time when students were busy researching and writing papers. Our computer checkout system is automated so this made the checkout of computers difficult. We were unable to gather the many statistics that the computer system usually generates for us, and, most distressing of all, we could not use the catalog to locate or checkout books. Yes, even in our technological era, students still need to use actual physical books. In fact many instructors require a certain number of books as information sources for papers and projects. Librarians had to rely on their memory of the Dewey decimal system to help students locate information on the shelves. We could use OCLC Worldcat to give us a clue as to where other libraries had similar books, but not specific information about our collection. During this week, we also had issues with our electronic security gate and the wireless Internet connection was down for awhile. Without our online catalog, no new books could be ordered, cataloged or processed. No books were checked in and none of the books were shelved. Technologically speaking, the week was a bit of a disaster. We learned how dependent we are upon technology, and how vulnerable the network can be. Of course we also learned how resourceful and creative we still are at providing information and service to our students in an adverse situation.
Today our server is back online, and we are dealing with the issues and glitches that have arisen. Our computers are humming and clicking, and our students can find the perfect information

source online or in a treasured book.

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Photo credit: Margaret Shear http://www.flickr.com/photos/shearforce/231470229/

Cloud Computing

You may have heard the buzzword "cloud computing" and wondered what it was. Of course to ask would be to imply that you didn't already know. You probably already use forms of cloud computing now without knowing what it is. For example if you have a yahoo email account, upload photos to Flickr or if you store a document on google docs you are already using a form of cloud computing. It is also a business model that is increasingly being adopted by educational institutions and businesses of all sizes. Watch this short video "Cloud Computing in Plain English" to understand the term and the buzz.

Free Multi-media for your Blog

Most everything that you post on the Internet looks better with some visual content. The challenge is finding photos and multi-media content that you can legally use. I found a great website that lists several sites with free content. Barb Dybdad has a posting for 26 places to find free Mulitmedia for your blog at http://mashable.com/2009/08/04/free-blog-media/

Should Libraries Be in the Texting Business?

According to an article in the October 2009 Library Journal by Alison Circle,

"*As few as 20 percent of email messages are opened.
*Over 95 percent of text messages are opened.
*The average time for the recipient to view an email message is 6.4 hours.
*The average time for the recipient to view a text message is 14 minutes."

2.4 billion people in the world have cell phones and text messaging is the preferred method of communication for most teenagers and young adults.
My son and his friends will sit directly beside each other and will text instead of speaking directly to one another. While I find face to face conversations, telephone and email (in that order) most agreeable, those under 18 have a very different perspective. This generation grew up with a game boy in hand and they love small mobile devices that allow them to watch videos, listen to music, play games and text their friends.
People still need information, and libraries excel at finding the information that people need. So how do we market and deliver these services to a mobile young generation? Of course the library as a physical place with study spaces, physical books and information specialists (librarians) is still very important, but increasingly we should be thinking about mobile technology. Our patrons and students live in a world of texting and social networking. We need to meet them where they work and play.
Many libraries are launching services like "text a librarian" and "chat with a librarian." Many larger public libraries and university libraries are already offer these services to students and library users. A consortium of international libraries has introduced My Info Quest (myinfoquest.info) a text-messaging service that provides live reference services for the public. The beauty of these services are mobility and reaching people where they are with the devices they prefer to use.
So should we offer text reference? I think if you asked anyone under 18 they would say yes.
TTYL
Cali Valley Librarian