2010 Survey Comments and the Library's Responses

Your Comment: The website is not intuitive, and it’s difficult to get to the online journals and databases from the library website. I should be able to everything I need in 3 clicks. Sometimes finding the right information in the library’s databases can be a bit of a needle-in-a-haystack effort.

Our Response: The library is currently implementing both a new website and a new version of our journal linking software. These new methods should improve journal access. The new design also should improve findability of databases. The new library home page features a GIL catalog search box—no clicks!

For research in your subject area, it is worth trying out the Research Guides under the Search & Find tab on the new website. They provide quick access to resources by subject. Remember that if you need assistance finding any materials, you can ask a librarian: 404-413-2800, libref@gsu.edu, or chat from the box on the right.

Your Comment: It would be nice if I could login to the library website and see a custom list of databases and saved searches.

Our Response: Due to both technical and privacy concerns, we are unable to track individual actions on the main web site at this time. However, within Article Databases you can login with your CampusID to save citations and databases that you use most, and you can also apply custom categories. Additionally, you can copy a link to a database and put it on a personal webpage. The link will contain the information needed to allow you to login if you are off-campus. Also, most of our databases allow you to sign up for search alerts—automatic notification of new publications in your research area. Contact your subject librarian to find out how to subscribe.

Your Comment: I’m a faculty member. How can I login to the library computers?

Our Response: Faculty members can log into library computers using the CampusID and password. (Note: this is NOT the Novell ID used in offices.) Access to network drives is available only via eStorage.

Your Comment: The library needs to add more computers, and the computers need to work!

Our Response: We don't have physical space to add more computers, but we are adding laptops for checkout. We currently have 75 laptops that circulate and are adding 15 netbooks funded by the student technology fee, which brings the total number of computers available in the library to 490. You can check real-time computer availability here.

We also regularly discuss the need for additional campus computer labs with campus administrators. In spite of very heavy use, we do our best to keep the computers working. We occasionally do take down a group of computers for maintenance. Please alert one of the student workers at the computer support desks if a computer is out of order, so we can quickly investigate the problem.

Your Comment: More attention needs to be paid to the library website. Some links are broken, and some pages contain outdated information.

Our Response: We are sorry you have been frustrated by out-of-date or broken links on our website. A new streamlined and updated website just went live. Please report specific issues via the online suggestion form, so we can address them.

Your Comment: I’ve been using the beta article search tool on the library home page, and results have been very good.

Our Response: We’re glad the search worked well for you! We are continuously working to improve this tool and to identify other tools that will help with finding information.

Your Comment: I wish the citations for articles I find online were in the current citation styles. The citation formats are at least 2 years old, and, therefore, not accurate or usable.

Our Response: Articles you find online come from a wide variety of commercial vendors. If there is a particular database where you have noticed this problem, please alert us using the online suggestion form, and we will contact the vendor to ask them to update their citation formats.

The library recommends two citation management tools that you might want to consider: Zotero, a free Firefox plug-in, and EndNote, a standalone program for managing bibliographic information.

Your Comment: I wish the library provided access to more online and print journals in my area of research.

Our Response: The library recognizes the increasing demand by faculty and students for print and electronic resources necessary for their learning, teaching and research. Unfortunately, even before the recent budget cutbacks, funding for library collections failed to keep pace with enrollment growth, new programs and degrees, and the escalating costs (well above general inflation rates) of scholarly journal and database subscriptions.

In some cases, the library's declining budget for journals has forced us to choose between print and online subscriptions for journals. Since many more people can simultaneously use an online journal from outside the physical library, we have and will continue to move as much content as possible from print to online journal access.

Because the library has been unable to subscribe to many new journals for the past few years (and will be reviewing serials again this year for additional cancellations), we are providing very fast turnaround time (24 hours) for the majority of articles requested via Interlibrary Loan.

If you know of resources that would be beneficial to study in your discipline, please suggest them to your subject librarian. The library is happy to consider all requests, and though funding to obtain the resources may not be immediately available we are always striving to provide a collection that best meets the needs of our users and will consider requests as funding becomes available.

Your Comment: The library needs more healthcare field journals online.

Our Response: By 2011, the library's print journals in the health related disciplines will be available online for those journals that offer electronic access. This appears to be a growth area for the university and we are looking for alternate funding sources in order to add to the collection.

Your Comment: I mostly use electronic journals. For many of the journals I need, the content is available electronically back to the start of the journal, but in most cases GSU Library does not provide access to these back issues. It would be really helpful if such access could be provided.

Our Response: The library has purchased several backfile collections of journals. We continue to do so when funds are available for these purchases.

Your Comment: You should consider adding more books on CD or tape for commuting students, especially textbooks, novels for literature classes, and history books, so we can prepare for class while driving.

Our Response: If you have specific suggestions for class-related novels to add to the collection, please let us know. Unfortunately, our decreasing materials budget does not allow us to purchase textbooks or audiobooks that are not related to the curriculum. (You may also have noticed that we have had to eliminate our casual reading collection due to budget cuts, but we are facilitating a book exchange program. We will include audiobooks in the exchange program, if people want to donate them.)

Your Comment: Other libraries, such as the Emory University Library, often have what I need.

Our Response: The University Library maintains cooperative agreements with other academic libraries in the Atlanta area, so that GSU faculty and students can take advantage of the collections of nearby schools such as Emory and Georgia Tech. We also participate in the GIL Express delivery service – you can request a book from another library and pick it up at the GSU Library.

Your Comment: It would be nice if more legal resources were available online from the GSU Law Library for non-law students. Non-law students need access to legal resources.

Our Response: The University Library and the Law library share as many electronic collections as our license agreements allow; examples include HeinOnline and Making of Modern Law. LexisNexis Academic also includes significant legal resources. Unfortunately, resources such as WestLaw will only allow online access for law school students and faculty.

Your Comment: It would be nice if the full-text PDF were available for all articles.

Our Response: We have no control over format; the decision to offer journal articles in PDF or HTML is up to the publishers and the database providers. While the library prefers to subscribe to journals that offer PDF articles, they are not always available in that format.

Your Comment: It’s very inconvenient that some online journals aren’t available for a year or more after publication.

Our Response: Publishers make the decision whether or not to "embargo" or deny online access to the most recent journal issues for a period of time, usually one year. If you need a current article from a journal that is embargoed, put in an ILL request. We can usually deliver the article to your desktop within 24 hours of your request.

Your Comment: If I am willing to donate money to pay for a journal, why will the library not buy that journal for me?

Our Response: Subscriptions to journals are ongoing costs, which increase each year. It has been the library's experience in the past that donors are not able to continue funding subscriptions as prices increase each year. It is not feasible for the library to initiate subscriptions for only a year or two and then cancel access to the title when the donor funds are no longer available. If a journal title fits within our collecting profile we will seriously consider any donation for journal title support that is for a period of five or more years.

Your Comment: It would be convenient if the library provided electronic books that can be retrieved online immediately, like other university libraries do.

Our Response: The library provides access to a number of electronic book collections, for example, ebrary, Books 24x7, NetLibrary, and Gale Virtual Reference Library. You can find these collections through the library’s Article Databases. Records for electronic books are also in GIL, the library catalog, so if you search for a title or subject in the catalog, electronic books are included.

Your Comment: Please don’t replace all of the library’s print books with ebooks! Electronic journals, however, are fantastic.

Our Response: The library does not plan to replace print books with e-books! However, we recognize that e-books have merit: they are convenient for accessing off-campus, allow for multiple people to use the same book at the same time, and fill a need for patrons who cannot come into the library to retrieve a book.

Your Comment: Books that are lost should be replaced automatically. It’s maddening to find out a book is missing, and then learn that the library might not even bother to purchase a replacement copy.

Our Response: The library does selectively replace books that are declared lost, if the book is available and not out of print. The library’s declining materials budget does not allow us to replace every book that is lost from the collection.

Your Comment: I would like to see the acquisition of print books continue to grow. The downside to electronic access is that students don’t physically go to the library. I worry that we lose an awareness of the development of research across time that is only understandable by physically removing items from shelves and replacing them according to year and/or discipline.

Our Response: The library recognizes that not all disciplines use research materials in the same way, and that humanities and fine arts scholars need access to printed books. Budget permitting, the library will continue to acquire print books in the disciplines that require them.

Your Comment: An “introduction to research” class or library orientation that focuses on the library and its resources would be beneficial. It should be required for all graduate students. A regular weekly class just for graduate students that focuses on research resources and library services would also be beneficial. All beginning classes should be required to visit the library and find out about its resources and services, perhaps through a weekly class.

Our Response: Good ideas! We’ll share these with the subject librarians and Undergraduate Services Librarian. These might also be good topics for a series of online tutorials. In the meantime, please contact your subject librarian for more information on available library instruction sessions or to ask about one-on-one instruction.

Your Comment: Library employees can be rude.

Our Response: We’re sorry you were treated rudely. We take seriously our commitment to good customer service, are constantly striving to improve customer service in the library, and do address issues that are brought to our attention.

Your Comment: I would like to see Interlibrary Loan and Books by Mail services offered together. I often need a book that comes via ILL but it is difficult for me to get to downtown campus.

Our Response: Interlibrary Loan materials, by definition, are not the property of the GSU library, so the rules on how we can distribute these materials are determined by the lending library. Currently, students who are taking online classes ONLY (classes that do not meet physically in a classroom) can obtain books in the mail from the University Library's collection. Interlibrary loans are very helpful given shrinking budgets.

Your Comment: I would like greater access to the journal subscriptions held by other universities in our state.

Our Response: When possible, we have negotiated license agreements that allow GSU faculty and students to access electronic journal subscriptions held by other research universities in the state (Emory, GA Tech and UGA). However, the trend by publishers is not to allow this type of cooperative access to electronic journal subscriptions. You can obtain these articles via Interlibrary Loan, or by visiting the library that has the journal you need.

Your Comment: Library employees should be fluent in using the online resources provided by the library.

Our Response: You’re right. There are general resources that ALL library employees should know how use. For some more specialized resources, subject librarians are available to assist you. Discipline-specific services sometimes require a consultation with that discipline’s librarian. Unfortunately, not all of our personnel are fluent in using the vast library resources available online, but they all should all be able to refer you to someone who can help you.

Your Comment: The library should do a better job of advertising the available resources.

Our Response: We have been focusing much time and energy on making our resources more visible. This has included using social media as well as revamping our website to make it more user friendly.

Your Comment: There should be space in the library just for graduate students.

Our Response: We have very little available space to dedicate to a specific group, but we are looking at possibilities and trying to identify space that can be used only by graduate students.

Your Comment: Please improve the library signage.

Our Response: Much of our signage was developed by designers during our renovation. However, we are exploring what we can do to improve what we have—both in print and digitally—to make your library experience easier.

Your Comment: Wireless access in the library buildings needs to be improved.

Our Response: IS&T (Campus Computing) recently upgraded all of the wireless access points in the library. We hope that will help with problems; the system had been quite stressed during the 2009-10 academic year. If you are having difficulty in a particular area of the library, please alert us using the online suggestion form so we can follow up, or report your problem to the IS&T Help Desk: (404)413-HELP.

Your Comment: I like the coffee shop, Saxbys, but it’s so expensive. Maybe you should implement a rewards program or discounts for students. Also, they should serve a wider selection of food items.

Our Response: Please consider sharing your feedback with the Saxbys manager. The library does not manage Saxbys so has no control over the cost of the coffee, what kind of food is served, the hours the coffee shop is open, or the availability of a rewards program.

Your Comment: I’m a GSU alumnus/alumna. I wish I could access the library’s databases.

Our Response: Unfortunately, the license agreements for many of our online resources prevent alumni from accessing our databases, and the cost to add alumni access is prohibitive. However, some of the databases that we access via GALILEO are available from your local public library. The public library can give you information about the databases available and accessing them from home.

Your Comment: The library needs to open more hours.

Our Response: We are continually looking at library hours, trying to figure out what best meets the needs of our users. For example, in the past we had so few students in the library on Saturday mornings that it was hard to justify opening before noon. As campus life changes and we begin to see more resident students, we will continue to evaluate our hours and adjust them accordingly. Note that we do extend hours at the end of the semester during final exams.

Your Comment: Library employees should enforce the group study room policy, so that rooms aren’t taken up by individuals. Also, it’s difficult to know whether a group study room is reserved. There needs to be a way to monitor this.

Our Response: Our policy states that an individual must vacate a group study room immediately if a study group asks to use it. Please let a library employee know if you need assistance accessing a room that you have reserved. We currently are working on a way to advertise that a group study room has been reserved.

Your Comment: The library is too noisy, mainly due to cell phone use and loud talking. There are few places in the library for “real” study due to the noise. Please monitor the noise level.

Our Response: We are, in fact, stepping up our patrols through the building, especially in the evening. Currently, the fifth floor of both library buildings is considered a quiet study area, designed for users who want to get away from the traffic on the lower floors. We mostly rely on our users to self-police these areas, but if you do not feel comfortable asking another user to be quiet, please ask a library employee at one of our service desks to intervene for you.

Your Comment: Please restrict food in the library. The smell bothers me.

Our Response: It bothers us too! Having “aromatic” or smelly food in the library is against the Library’s Patron Food and Drink Policy. If you do not feel comfortable intervening, please report issues with others’ eating or food to library employees so that they can intervene for you.

Your Comment: Please block sites like Facebook on the library computers, so that other students can use them for real research.

Our Response: As a university and an academic library that values intellectual freedom, we do not restrict information or websites that are being accessed by our students, faculty, and staff. Additionally, we are aware that there are classes on campus that are using Facebook and other social media sites for class work, so feel that there is no way to make a blanket policy about limiting access.

Your Comment: Please provide more funding for printing from library printers. $3 per semester is not enough.

Our Response: This is a budget issue that is outside of the library’s purview. The library does not have a budget to cover the cost of paper and toner for student printing. The Student Government Association (SGA) lobbied for the $3 credit, which comes from the Student Technology Fee. SGA could perhaps be asked to lobby for an increase to the credit.

Your Comment: The loan periods for interlibrary loan books are shorter than other books, and sometimes I can’t renew them.

The libraries that we borrow from establish their own lending policies and loan periods for ILL materials, and as the borrowing library, we must abide by those policies.

Your Comment: I used the Alpharetta Center Library’s meeting rooms frequently, and I no longer can reserve them.

Our Response: The meeting rooms in Alpharetta are no longer managed by the library, which means they cannot be reserved via the library reservation system. We passed your comment onto the Alpharetta Center Director who responded: “Actually, they can be reserved on a first-come, first-serve basis. We do keep the doors locked. Students and faculty can come to our main office, Rm. 125 to reserve, and once approved the security guard will unlock the door. In our new building we have a small student lounge on the second floor, as well as ample seating along the end walls for students to study. A study room on the first floor, much smaller than the previous Library area, is available, too, with 2-3 study rooms.”

Your Comment:

• As a GSU faculty member or student, I should be allowed to bring my family members into the library on weekends.
• Thank you for restricting the library to students on the weekend.

Our Response: We have had to institute a more restrictive access policy because of the large number of people using the library. The Library Access Policy that limits access on weekends and evenings to enrolled GSU students, faculty, and staff, also restricts family member access. The library grants special borrowing privileges to certain individuals, which might be an option. See the Special Borrowing Privileges Policy for more information.

One section of the Library Priorities and Satisfaction Survey asked respondents to rate the importance of various services and resources, or, if they were not aware that the service or resource existed, to indicate “not aware of this.” Here are the top items that faculty and graduate students do not know that we do or provide access to.

62% of faculty and 40% of graduate students are not aware of the Center for Research Libraries.
The Center for Research Libraries (CRL) is a consortium of North American universities, colleges, and independent research libraries. The consortium acquires and preserves newspapers, journals, documents, archives, and other traditional and digital resources for research and teaching and makes them available to member institutions through interlibrary loan and electronic delivery. These holdings are available for use by students, scholars and other researchers affiliated with Georgia State University.

36% of faculty and 39% of graduate students are not aware of the Library Blog.
The Library Blog is the library’s official source for library events, announcements about new books and databases, and where we highlight the scholarship of faculty and graduate students. Check it out, and if you like what you see, subscribe to the feed.

35% of graduate students are not aware that they can make one-on-one research appointments with a subject librarian.
If you need help getting started with your research, you can visit us in person, call, email, or chat online. If you need in-depth assistance from a librarian who specializes in your subject discipline, you can make an appointment for a one-on-one meeting with the librarian. Find your subject librarian here.

32% of graduate students are not aware that librarians offer instruction for specific GSU classes.
Instructors can ask a librarian to lead a session on research strategies and subject-related resources. Encourage your instructor to schedule a session with a librarian, or, if you are a GTA, you can set one up yourself.

24% of faculty are not aware of the library's electronic book collections.
The library provides access to a number of electronic book collections, including ebrary, Books 24x7, NetLibrary, and Gale Virtual Reference Library. You can find these collections through the library’s Article Databases. Records for electronic books are also in GIL, the library catalog, so if you search for a title or subject in the catalog, electronic books are included. Ebooks in our collections are device-independent, which means you do not have to have a special device to read the content.

18% of faculty and 37% of graduate students are not aware of instruction by librarians not specific to GSU classes, such as EndNote workshops.
GSU librarians often lead workshops and presentations on topics of interest, such as how to use Zotero or EndNote and how to find out who is citing your work. These sessions are advertised on the Library Blog.

16% of faculty are not aware of GIL Express.
GIL Express is a request and delivery service for book items owned by University System of Georgia institutions. If you find the book you need in the GIL Universal Catalog, you can place a GIL Express request. The book will be sent to the GSU Library for you to pick up, and you return it here. Best of all, the service is free!