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The Olive Tree |
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The Olive Tree |
Another exciting academic year has begun and I am very pleased to welcome
both our new and returning students to the University. The UMaine Hello and New
Student Orientation on Labor Day weekend will mark the beginning of another
fulfilling semester for both the library staff and the UMaine community. We are
looking forward to the upcoming academic year and remain committed to making the
library a great resource for all of our users.
As was noted in our previous newsletter, Fogler Library participated in the
LibQUAL survey during the spring semester. We have now received all of the data
from the Association of Research Libraries and are ready to begin a detailed
investigation into how users evaluate our services and resources, and how they
view the library building. Our findings will be reported to the University
community through our web site, informational flyers, and an open summit. The
summit will allow us to present the survey results in detail and to have a
conversation with our users about their needs and how the library can best
respond to those needs. The survey results will help us in our assessment of the
library and will tell us where we need to focus our energy.
Library staff will also participate in the upcoming New England Association of
Schools and Colleges accreditation. We will participate in the mock review as
well as the visit from the Association in 2009. This will be an opportunity for
the library to do a self- assessment and will also draw on the information from
the LibQUAL survey.
Our scanning projects took off with the launch of our Yearbooks Online web page.
Prism yearbooks from 1859 to 1997 were digitized and made available for all
users via Fogler’s Alumni Services webpage. The Yearbooks Online were very well
received by alumni during the June Reunion Weekend. Our next project will focus
on the collection of Maine town reports and is a collaboration with the Maine
State Library. The Maine town reports from the early 1800’s will be scanned and
will also be available for users via the web. As we were working on these two
initial projects we were invited to participate in a venture to make scanned
materials from our collection available for purchase from Amazon.com. As part of
this new venture , we will digitize Maine histories from our Special Collections
Department. These titles will then be available for print-on-demand purchase
from Amazon. Fogler Library will still have these materials available through
the web for our users at UMaine.
We are also very pleased to provide access to ScienceDirect beginning this fall.
This database offers more than 1,800 full-text online journals covering
scientific, medical and technical information. This resource will be invaluable
to our students and faculty for their research and was made available thanks to
annual funding from the University of Maine System, the University of Maine, and
the University of Southern Maine.
We are once again offering a series of programs that are free and open to the
public. We would love to see you here. If you are able to visit us I would be
pleased to give you a tour of the library so you can meet the staff and hear
more about the resources and services I have described. I hope you are pleased
with what we are doing and you will continue to support us into the future.
Thank you for your support.