Tech Library: A Model for Tomorrow
Appendix A: IEMS Faculty Emails
Initial Email:
Hello,
I am part of the Management Team for the IE 392 design class this quarter, and we are proposing to renovate Tech Library. Thus far, we've been so focused on student needs that I wanted to get your perspective as faculty.
Do you use Tech Library? If so, what do you use it for? How often do you use it?
What particular faculty needs do you think the Tech Library should address?
What renovations and changes would you find most useful and beneficial?
Thank you so much for your input.
Pertinent Responses:
Barry Nelson:
Do you use Tech Library? If so, what do you use it for? How often do you use it?
About once a week, to do reading when I don't want to be interrupted. So I am really only using the library for a quiet place to sit.
What particular faculty needs do you think the Tech Library should address?
The library need to subscribe to "aggregators" that provide access to reference materials, like academic journals.
What renovations and changes would you find most useful and beneficial?
The library is functional but ugly. It looks old and worn. Very little would be required to spruce it up.
Follow-up Email to Nelson:
I have a quick follow-up question about your suggestion for a library subscription to aggregators. Currently, the Main Library has a subscription to online databases that allow students and faculty to access journal articles. Is this what you mean? And if so, would you then like this to be expanded? Or are "aggregators" completely different?
Response to Follow-up Email:
That is what I mean. Right now the subscriptions they have are pretty good, but I still run into journals for which they do not have online access from time to time.
Dan Apley:
I use it mainly to find archival journal articles that I cannot find on-line. Occasionally, I will check out a reference textbook. I use it perhaps once a month. Can't think of any improvements off hand.
Follow-up Email to Apley:
I just wanted to follow up with you and see if there are any specific journals that the library does not subscribe to that you would like them to?
Response to Follow-up Email:
The library subscribes to all of the journals that I commonly reference. If I think of any that are missing, I'll let you know.
Seda Ogrenci Memik:
Do you use Tech Library? If so, what do you use it for? How often do you use it?
In my past three years, I guess I have in the library once physically. However, I often use its electronic resources, a few times per month.
What particular faculty needs do you think the Tech Library should address?
I am generally content with the library. Probably there can be a formal process put in place to poll faculty once in a while to collect their recommendations for subscriptions to new technical journals. Right now I don't even know who makes those decisions and to what degree faculty input is taken in the matter.
Follow-up Email to Memik:
Thanks for your input. Are there any specific journals that the library does not subscribe to that you would like to see?
Response to Follow-up Email:
Actually there is one. It is a new journal called "Journal on Low Power Electronics" in the area of design automation for integrated circuits.
Mark Daskin:
Do you use Tech Library? If so, what do you use it for? How often do you use it?
Yes, I use it. I use the electronic version of the library several
times a month. I am physically in the library about once a year.
Most recently I used it to take out a book and to get a book that
I had ordered on inter-library loan. That was just last week.
What particular faculty needs do you think the Tech Library should
address?
There are key journals in our field (e.g., the European Journal of Operational Research) that the library either does not get or has only recently started getting in electronic only form. The library should survey faculty to find out what journals the library should get. They are constantly pruning journals but I almost never hear about new journals being acquired. Most of the journals in our fied (including EJOR which is very expensive by our standards) are quite inexpensive compared to journals in other fields.
What renovations and changes would you find most useful and beneficial?
I think that the key is not physical renovations, but additions to the collection. I know that this is expensive, but my guess is that there are lots of journals that get relatively little use and that can be dropped. This should not be done, as is currently the case, on an area by area basis.
Follow-up Email to Daskin:
I just wanted to follow up with you and see if there are there any specific journals that the library does not subscribe to that you would like to see?
Response to Follow-up Email:
Yes, one that I was looking for today is Computers and Operations Research. This, for example, has a recent special issue with about 3-4 papers on location theory -- my area of specialization – which I cannot access through NU. I will probably end up having to ask a former student at a school like Lehigh to send me the papers!!
William White:
I primarily use the library's reserve system for support material
for my IE 325 class. I basically use it during the spring quarter.
Most of my article and journal research needs are done on-line.
I'm not sure how others use the Tech Library. For me it works
fine and I have no changes to suggest. Thanks for asking, I am
probably not your best resource for this research.
