Mission

The Earlham College libraries support the mission of the College by providing access to information resources and facilitating their use.

Goals

This mission is forwarded through programs and activities that strive to achieve the following goals:
  1. Develop a collection (e.g., print, microforms, electronic) information resources that meet the information needs of the students, faculty and staff of the College as they engage in the teaching/learning process.
  2. Provide methods for accessing information resources owned by us or maintained by other information providers.
  3. Provide a program of course-integrated instruction and reference services that will help prepare students to be effective life-long learners.
  4. Provide a collection of materials and supporting services for the study of the Society of Friends, particularly in the Midwest.
  5. Provide a library facility with physical environment and ambience that is conducive to the use and preservation of information resources, and which promotes the use of information resources.
  6. Provide efficient and effective internal processes to enhance services.
  7. Develop closer working relationship with Computing Services and with Instructional Technology and Media to work towards an integrated information services program for the College community.
  8. Provide staff development opportunities that will stimulate thinking about the improvement of library services and prepare staff to become effective in improving those services.
  9. Maintain awareness of new developments in librarianship, information management, and services.

Assessment

The College stresses the importance of assessment as a mechanism for improvement. The libraries of Earlham (Lilly and Wildman Science) began a formal assessment program, begun in 1998, which continues today .  Below are reports on the most important of these assessments. Additional assessments are also reported in publications which are listed on the libraries' Awards and Publications page.

  • In the spring of 2008 Information Services contracted with The Planning Edge and Alan Cox to conduct focus groups and a follow-up survey. The survey focuses on perceptions of quality (or lack of) of the libraries' facilities. The results are being used in planning for future renovation. The survey also explored the needs for new services which are being factored into the ongoing planning. The full report is posted here and an executive summary will be posted here shortly.
  • Lib Qual Survey was conducted in the spring of 2005 and provides user persepctives on the libraries' collections, services and facilities. The LibQual Survey instrument is a widely used instrument that has been in existence for about eight years. While initiated by the Association of Research Libraries (ACRL), it is now widely used in all types of academic libraries.
  • LibQual 2005 Comments
  • MISO Survey is a newly developed survey by Bryn Mawr College and partners. MISO stands for Merged Information Services Organizations and is designed for liberal arts colleges that have merged library and computing units of the college. Conducted in spring 2006, this is the first use of the survey beyond the pilot group.
  • The first major comprehensive survey was done in 1998 and consisted of a in-house developed survey by which those surveyed indicated both the importance of a library characteristic and the level of importance.  The summary faculty and student results of the survey are available.

 

2/06