It is understandable that academic staff have concerns about the accessibility and availablitiy of print resources, housed in the Central Library, for their students. However the answer is not to tranfer 100’s of items from the various levels of the Central Library into the High Demand Collection.
One of the changes taking place in the University prior to the September earthquake was the increase in the number of online course avialble through Learn, and the resources that were linked to the courses. After the February earthquake for those students who had internet access, and the 2nd student survey showed that 97% of them did, courses on Learn with associated resources allowed students the opportunity to continue studying.
In 2009 and 2010 Library staff worked through a High Demand Project to shift the focus of this collection. The High Demand collections in all of the libraries are designed to be small, highly utilised and focussed collections. They are created in the weeks prior to the beginning of each semester to support students in their course work. Short loan periods are exercised to give maximum exposure of the resources to the greatest number of users.The physical spaces allocated to these collections can not support massive numbers of items, as well measureable work is required in order for each item to be transferred in and out of the High Demand collection which involves manual intervention and processing by Library staff.
When the physical buildings have been closed by events, library staff have been able to able to gain limited access and move the High Demand items to an accessible library space. If these collections become too large then this flexible action would not be able to happen.
There have been a number of discussions since September 2010 seeking an alternative space for the Central Library collections, to date no solution has been found as such a building would need to have compliant floor loadings, the space to house the collections plus building security for the bookstock. No other building located to date has been able to replicate the size and strength needed.
What Library staff can do in the current environment is to encourage academics to be selective about the resources that they require included into the High Demand collection and to offer alternative suggestions, including but not limited to, e.g. if only a chapter of a book is required seek permission to get the chapter digitised, identifying electronic alternatives that UC Library has access to (e-books, e-journals, open access resources) or recommending the purchase of access to the e-book titles and to e-journals. Access to these digital resources for students will be via Learn through their courses.
Today, Levels 2 & 3 of Central Library were reopened. With the exception of Level 4 (and this status will change soon) all other levels can be retreived from. Encouraging staff and students to place requests for resources housed on these floors will ensure that resources are retreived and onloan. The Law & Business collections are gaining greater access each day. If needs be, I am happy to talk to academic staff members who are do not understand the shift in focus for the High Demand collection.
Heather Jenks