The Library Committee May Update

     Individually we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean.

Ryunosuke Satoro

 During the academic year 2011-12, I had the opportunity of working with Dr. Aida Cáceres and Prof. Artemio Peñalbert  in achieving the goals set in the Library Committee.  Now as this academic year ends and we complete our final reports, it has been a moment of looking back at the accomplishments obtained in this committee.

     Our committee has the legacy of Dr. Larry Myers’ work which helped the English Department acquire a considerable amount of resources for the benefit of our faculty and students.  Dr. Myers also began the process of assessing the services students and faculty receive in our Library; instrument that is now being used with some modifications to adapt to the present needs of our Department.

     During that period, I worked with Dr. Myers and Prof. Roberto Roman whose work and dedication has been the foundation of the accomplishments we celebrate this year.  This stage helped in my professional growth to face the challenge of chairing this committee.

    In my first stage chairing this committee, I had the privilege of working with Prof. Peñalbert.  Prof. Peñalbert worked arduously in helping the chair in accomplishing the goals and had the infinite patience while the committee fell back in place in this new transition of presiding this committee.  In this period, we celebrated as an accomplishment that the survey using the instruments Dr. Myers created was conducted for the first time.  The committee was able to present data to the faculty and discus the findings of this first stage of research within the Library Committee.

     Dr. Aida Cáceres joined us in this second stage where I have chaired the committee.  Dr. Cáceres, also has supported the committee such as Prof. Peñalbert has done. Both have  not only supported this committee when meetings were held, but have accompanied the chair when meeting with the ADCO (Administración de Coleciones) library professors and by giving suggestions to improve our work.

     The ADCO library professors have also been an integral part in the accomplishment of the goals of our committee. Prof. José Figueroa, Prof. Sergio Rodríguez and Prof. Carlos Velázquez have provided guidance so  the goals established at the beginning of the semester were accomplished.  They have read the work plan, given suggestions to improve it and were always willing to meet with the Library Committee members and listen to our concerns.  Dr. Velázquez contributed by presenting all the resources of the professor’s questionnaires in APA format

      It was in one of these meetings with ADCO professors that “The Owl’s Bookshelf” was born when Prof. Sergio Rodríguez proposed as an alternative a change from the idea of using a newsletter to provide updates of the committee’s work to a blog which would be more dynamic.  The blog would provide freedom to the writer on when the content would be published.  This has been one of the accomplishments of this year’s work which we celebrate.

     The Library Committee also celebrates that for a second consecutive year, a survey has been conducted to assess library services.  This year we also were able to provide a concise list of the resources that were purchased during the years 2008-11 with the effort of Dr. Larry Myers who had chaired the committee.  We now are in the process of tabulating the results and will be able in the following weeks post the findings and later share and discuss these results in a meeting. 

     In this accomplishment we must also thank OPAI office especially Dr. Maria L. Candelaria and Prof. Ivette Blasini who revised the instruments that were used in the surveys conducted this year.

     The Library Committee has evolved from its original duties.  When this committee was established, it was determined that there would be at least three members.  These members would be responsible  to prepare a yearly bibliography of the new materials acquired by the library to be circulated among the members of the Department.   The committee would also request from professors suggestions for acquisition for the library each academic year. And the third duty was to request materials that would be of benefit to the professors and students of the Department.

     While these duties are still important it was gone beyond these original tasks to actively participate of the process of transforming the Department into achieving its goals and to contribute with the new perspectives that have arisen in our educational horizons.

     The library has been an important part of my life since I was an undergraduate student.  Now as a professor, I value the contributions of our library beyond what I saw as a student- it is an integral part of the academic and professional success of our students. Chairing this committee made me value more the outstanding colleagues that have patiently and enthusiastically helped to ensure the Library Committee success in completing the tasks set during each academic year.  Thank you all because as I hand-in the final reports of this committee, each one of the names of this faculty comes into my mind when looking at the accomplished goals.  Together, these goals materialized from just being a possibility.