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| Wilbur Stolt: Libraries have an increasingly
important role in helping users evaluate the
quality of the informaion they locate |
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UND’s
Strategic Plan calls for a stronger emphasis on research
and graduate education. Has that affected
the library?
The library’s historical collection is quite
remarkable. We continue to build the “Core Collection,”
which is intended to support broad informational needs
in our undergraduate programs. A challenge is to acquire
the resources to support burgeoning graduate programs.
Graduate research brings more intensive study and specificity
of investigation. Subject coverage goes deeper —
the type of information required is more detailed. Graduate
programs need more specific scholarly journals and information
resources. The cost of this is higher. We cannot possibly
acquire locally everything needed by the students and
faculty at UND. What we don’t have here, we will
try to get through interlibrary loan.
A significant portion of graduate student research
and stipends is supported by external funding, but grants
generally don’t cover the cost of acquiring information
resources. In some cases, a grant may cover some of the
cost — say subscribing to a periodical — but
when the grant period is over, the funding to continue
that subscription ceases. It is important for the University
to anticipate support of these resources before the grant
is over.
People are key to the success of the University.
We have seven reference librarians serving all academic
programs. As enrollment grows and as the specificity of
programs narrows, our ability to meet the individual needs
of the students and faculty is challenged. As information
becomes more specific and complex, our staff is required
to know more about different publishing sources and different
options for acquiring information. The Library staff does
a remarkable job working with students, faculty, and staff.
As our programs increase, it will be important to recognize
the need for quality library staff as well as quality
informational resources.
Talk a bit about UND’s Patent
and Trademark Depository.
The Chester Fritz Library’s Patent and Trademark
Depository provides an entrée to those who are
investigating their ideas for new products and inventions,
etc. The Patent Depository program is supported by the
federal government and is a good place to learn about
inventions and ideas filed with the U.S Patent Office.
This is not the place to seek legal advice or help with
patent filing, but we can provide useful information about
the process. We house the only Patent Depository in North
Dakota.
The Chester Fritz Library also manages a Federal
Depository Collection, which houses publications issued
from the U.S. government. In North Dakota, we divide responsibilities
for a regional Federal Collection with the North Dakota
State University library. This cooperative arrangement
gives the universities and the people of North Dakota
access to almost all of the federal publications produced
each year.
There
are probably those who think the Chester Fritz Library
is just for faculty and students, but you
just mentioned the general public, too. Are there
other special features that are available to the general
public?
Absolutely. The Family History Room is a good
example. As the name implies, it houses resources for
those tracing family roots. Included in that room are
nearly 1,000 Bygdeboker — Norwegian regional heritage
books, sort of equivalent to county history books in
this region. It is one of the largest collections in
the United States. We have significant resources for
non-Norwegian genealogy and also for local history.
Most people think of books when they think of
a library, but we have other resources, too, in Special
Collections: 2,000 audio tapes, 1,700 videotapes, 1,600
films, photographs, and more, including documents from
the personal holdings of many famous North Dakotans
and others. The famous White Bull Manuscript, which
depicts the Battle of Little Big Horn, is a good example.
The Library is also a resource for people from
other areas of the state. We are part of an Interlibrary
Loan system through which someone in Bowman can identify
a book at UND and request it be loaned to their local
library. We handled 4,750 requests through the state
Interlibrary Loan network last year.
The Chester Fritz Library is open to any adult,
and there is no charge to come in and use our collection.
We do ask local citizens to pay $10 each for a courtesy
borrowing card. It is a token payment, really, in that
it doesn’t cover all the administrative costs.
Are
there other special collections that you want to mention?
A new one is our Special Learners Collection,
brought to UND from the North Dakota Department of Public
Instruction. The collection has resources to aid students
with special needs: from those with developmental disabilities
to gifted and talented students. This is a natural home
for the collection, since UND’s College of Education
and Human Development educates special education teachers.
We also have a large collection of children’s
literature, which supports our student teachers who
are going into elementary and secondary education.
We are also blessed with a great number of Asian
artifacts collected by our benefactor, Chester Fritz.
He amassed a fantastic array of art, furniture, ivory
sculptures, tapestries, masks, and more during his many
years in China. A portion of his collection is on display
in the East Asian Room. We also display Chinese clothing
donated by the Rev. Douglas Erickson.
Another special collection is our Popular Reading
Collection, which we started with seed money from Student
Government. The Library acquires novels in many different
genres, including those found on the New York Times
bestseller lists. No pun intended, but it’s been
very popular. We see it as part of the University’s
Strategic Plan for enhancing campus climate.
Every year, the Library and the UND Alumni Association
award a prize in the Merrifield Competition to a student
who has done primary research in Department of Special
Collections. The UND Foundation partners with us by
providing a $1,500 scholarship. We also sponsor the
annual Elwyn B. Robinson Lecture, in which we ask a
researcher, usually a member of the faculty, to talk
about his or her research. And we also publish a list
of UND faculty and staff publications in conjunction
with the Lecture.
So what are your challenges as you
continue to build a library for the 21st century?
As mentioned before, the cost of scholarly information
is high. Some journals cost as much as $12,000 annually.
Some databases are over $50,000 per year. Inflation
for scholarly resources is higher than most people realize
and is usually ahead of the Consumer Price Index.
So as we see more expansion of all of the University
programs, finding additional sources of funding will
be important. Already it is difficult to keep up with
the increased requirements — and the increased
costs — to expand Library services appropriate
to the University’s needs.
Technology has NOT made things cheaper. Group
purchasing — working with other libraries at other
institutions to share costs — has been helpful,
particularly in the acquisition of electronic journals.
We are trying to manage the collections and costs as
well as we can, but as we increase the number of programs
and students, it creates demands. The cost for technology
to access information and enhance research simply adds
to the funding requirements of the Library.
Fortunately, President Kupchella understands
the role of the Library in supporting the academic programs
of the University. He has been very responsive to library
needs. The Strategic Planning process also provides
a positive avenue for faculty and students to express
their needs within the campus goal-setting process.
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