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What FaCULTY WANT… AT John Cabot University

10th AMICAL Conference June 12-15, 2013 Rome, Italy. What FaCULTY WANT… AT John Cabot University. Isabella Clough Marinaro , Professor Elisabetta Morani , Head Librarian Eleonora Moccia, Reference Librarian Livia Piotto, Reference Librarian. ACADEMIC PROGRAMS. RECENTLY GROWN TO:.

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What FaCULTY WANT… AT John Cabot University

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  1. 10th AMICAL Conference June 12-15, 2013 Rome, Italy What FaCULTY WANT…AT John Cabot University Isabella Clough Marinaro, Professor ElisabettaMorani, Head Librarian Eleonora Moccia, ReferenceLibrarian Livia Piotto, Reference Librarian

  2. ACADEMIC PROGRAMS RECENTLY GROWN TO: 21 Full-time (+8 in the last coupleofyears) 10 Part-time professorswithadministrativetasks 95 Adjuncts 1000 FTE STUDENTS (50% degreeseeking, 50% visiting) MULTICULTURAL FACULTY 13 MAJORS • Art History • Business Administration • Classical Studies • Communications • Economics and Finance • English Literature • History • Humanistic Studies • International Affairs • International Business • Italian Studies • Marketing • Political Science Gottheirfinaldegreefrom

  3. CAMPUS FACILITIES THE TIBER CAMPUS Classrooms Student Services Tiber Lab Cafeteria Facultyoffices THE GUARINI CAMPUS Classrooms Aula Magna Library Computer Labs Offices FACULTY OFFICES GuariniFacultyRoom Art HistoryFacultyRoom TiberFacultyRoom Facultyoffices

  4. WHY THIS RESEARCH? GOALS • Reach out tonewfaculty • Improveservices and policies • Gainaninsightintofacultyperceptions and expectationsregarding the Library FOCUS Facultyresearchpractices, the aspectweknow the least

  5. SAMPLE 10 interviewees • 6 full time, 1 part-time and 3 adjuncts • 2 DepartmentChairs • 6 in the process of being tenured (or just tenured) • Variousresearchdisciplines: • 4 humanities and fine arts • 2 social sciences • 2 political science • 2 business

  6. WHY IS THE LIBRARY IMPORTANT? COLLECTIONS • Libraries are sought out for their very specialized, exhaustive collections • To provide deep backgroundinformation • Forsecondary research • To access expensive resources That library stocks two or three copies of everything that is important ... it was quite rare not to find something… [That library] has the widest range of stuff on … [my topics]. I generally use the Library of Congress to have a complete view of what’s available. I need not to find gaps.

  7. WHY IS THE LIBRARY IMPORTANT? The most important thing is accessibility of journals. We simply don’t have that many journals available. It is a more complicated step to go through JCU because I have to search first in one search engine, and then see if we have engines that I have access to, look at that, see whether they have the papers… In [my old university] it was like ‘This is the article, here is where you can find the link, three different sites where you can get access’. So it’s more immediate. ONLINE RESOURCES ALLuse on-line journals 8/10 use free web resources 5/10 usedigitalcollectionsfromotherlibraries Allneedtoget remote online access in the easiestpossible way

  8. WHY IS THE LIBRARY IMPORTANT? PRINT COLLECTIONS 7/10 used JCU books, but all reported also using other collections: • Libraries abroad (5/10) • Personal purchases (4/10) • Other Roman Libraries (3/10) • Other Italian Libraries (2/10) Books are hard to find and buy, they go out of print very quickly, they get out of stock, so you need good collections specialized in what you do. If you have a library in an Ivy League university you cover all your bases.

  9. WHY IS THE LIBRARY IMPORTANT? I know that when I need something I can ask them. [The librarian] helped, did some of the searches for me, sent me links to articles and other stuff. • Reference help • Humandimension • Acquisitions Librarians are professional and do their best to help patrons. The Library does its best to find things for users knowing that it’s a problem to buy a book that more or less would be just for me. [In other universities] researchers have a certain number of books they can buy through the library... The library is interested in acquiring books... And having professors suggest books. It’s really important to go into a place and say ‘could you help me?’ It’s amazing for its human dimension, not only for the professional dimension.

  10. BEING IN THE LIBRARY WHAT THEY WANT AND LIKE • Light, silence • Open stacks • A spacethatisconducivetointimacy and concentration, appropriate to the complexityoftheirresearchprocess I really like to walk through the stacks whenever possible, so that I can see what I don’t know. Keyword searching is really beneficial but sometimes it’s even more beneficial for me to look at titles next to each other. It’s not lonely because once I sit down and work really closely with a book, I’m talking to that author, it’s my conversation, where I can go home after a good day of work and feel quite full of voices. • Because with this level of research if you break your chain or cannot find what’s mentioned in footnotes elsewhere and understand what people are talking about, then you break your research process, so it’s important to have library where I can essentially build up books around me.

  11. BEING IN THE LIBRARY (???) ABOVE ALL, THEY WANT DEDICATED SPACES • Some finddifficultto work in anenvironmentconceivedforstudents • Few use the JCU library to work on their own research • Theygenerallyuse online resources at home or in the offices • 4/10 complain about lack of work spaces in the library and at JCU generally I don’t know how to distinguish between a library and the rest of the university. For my research I need a desk that I can leave stuff on, where I can have all my books together, and my files in a computer, in other words an office, and I don’t have to put everything in a backpack and then forget stuff, otherwise you end up wasting an hour setting up your research area. In the library itself I feel it’s mostly the students’ place, I tend not to come, I mean, if there were a small room for faculty, I would come.

  12. GETTING ACCESS For 5/10, access was provided through other libraries. 6/10 professors have achieved their PhD recently and their research is still related to their dissertation. Until now they used the connections they had in their almaematres. They are now losing these connections. Now I really depend on JCU and my collegial connections in the US. If I didn’t get something I went to colleagues. I think they deleted it [the account] after that… I will go back to this friend again, probably . Recently I tried gain access to a specific journal... but I couldn’t get it anywhere. I do remember borrowing the password from somebody. (Laughs). My husband worked there for seven  years,  so I was able to  get one of his friends to give me a password. (Laughs). But it was for me, it was my password !!!! I begged for that [account]… I asked my former advisor to give me access, because I have no way of accessing many resources… I think it’s expiring in August, then I’m going to have to switch advisor, you know, one gave me access for years, then I’ll ask to the other one. But until August and for another year from August I should be set. From last month I don’t have access to [my old university] anymore, not to the library. So what I’ve been doing is asking my colleagues in the US.

  13. DIFFICULTIES WHAT THEY STRUGGLE WITH: • Lackofadequateresources at JCU • Heavyteaching and administrativeloads • Difficultiesjugglingbetween family duties and researchtime Itisimpossibleforthemto do sustainedresearch. Mostof the interviewees are onlyableto do researchduringvacations.

  14. MAGIC WAND An office is the biggest thing for my research. Electronic accessto the onlylibrary in the world where I can do research. More resources in my field. We could have more reserved rooms [in the Library]. An assistant researcher that could do a preliminary research for me, screening the literature, and physically going to the libraries. The easiest access possible to resources online … Anything that doesn’t require me to open 4 or 5 different sites to get to an article … The best thing would be you search a paper, click and PDF. A quiet place to study. I’d need a sabbatical … The possibility to take some time off teaching and concentrate for a limited but very intensive period o research. Total access to all relevant journals in my fields… That would be my first, second and third magic wand. I would say guidance ... Help, which I could have gotten from my professors, but I haven’t ... on where I can publish ... I don’t want to publish with some lousy press ... At least I want to be aware of what I do. I’d like a situation where … I have a table that is empty when I start, I don’t have to sit at other people’s workstation, I have access for my PC, wireless access to the internet and where it’s quiet. The only thing would be full access, immediate full access to articles.

  15. TENTATIVE CONCLUSIONS The JCU libraryisperceivedasbeingmainlyforstudents and forteaching. Wecannotbecome a specializedresearchlibrary. But it’s a condition of my tenure that I do research. So it’s hard to make that condition and then not welcome the faculty into utilizing what’s here.

  16. TENTATIVE CONCLUSIONS My local library in New York has access to a lot of databases, it’s networked with every library in the State, it’s a really good system. It’s a tiny library but you can access it electronically whenever you want. SO, WE MUST DO SOMETHING… WE COULD • improveourcollections • create dedicatedservicestoattractfaculty • welcome events, tailoredworkshops • revisepolicies on opening times, acquisitions and services • trytoprovidea fewdedicatedspacesforfacultyresearch • buildbridgesthrough: • intensifiedconnectionswith the librariesofourstudyabroadpartners • connectionswithItalianlibraries • the Amicalnetwork

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