PROFILE -- UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII AT MANOA LIBRARY
submitted to the Association for Research Libraries (ARL) - August 2009
Institutional Background
Founded in 1907, the University of Hawai'i is a land, sea and space grant institution and is the only public system of higher education in the State of Hawaii. The University of Hawai'i at Mānoa (UHM) is the research campus of the ten campus system. The Library at UH Manoa is centralized in two buildings, Hamilton and Sinclair libraries. The main resource collections reside at Hamilton, while the Student Success Center, Music and Audiovisual Services are housed at Sinclair. As the only major research library in the State of Hawaii, the UHM Library combines its physical and owned resources with the multiplicity of online, shared, networked, scholarly, scientific and professional resources to support the research endeavor in a uniquely Hawaiian place of learning.
Mission and Vision
Mālama i ka ‘ike "Caring for Knowledge". The University of Hawai’i at Manoa Library acquires, organizes, preserves and provides access to information resources vital to the learning, teaching and research mission of the University.
Services and Assessment
The UHM Library seeks to meet the needs of our users with "easy to use, anytime and anywhere access". Included in meeting the needs of users is provision of an appropriate physical environment, adequate stewardship of print and electronic collections and efficient use of staff resources.
Externally, the Library used the LibQual+ (2003 and 2006) and ClimateQual (2009) assessment tools to inform the improvement of user services. It also welcomed the results of a University Faculty Senate Survey of concerns about the library that was conducted in 2007. An assessment team has been formed to regularize assessment as an ongoing part of the evaluation and improvement of library services. Internally, the Library recently contracted (summer of 2009) with an outside consultant to review technical processes with an eye toward more efficient workflow that ultimately saves the time of the user.
Increasingly, information literacy and subject oriented library instruction is provided by UHM Library faculty through a variety of face to face and online venues. Included are workshops, lectures and demonstrations offered in a classroom, via HITS (Hawaii Interactive Television System) or online. Library Essentials workshops are taught in 90% of the University's English 100 sections. LILO: Library Information Literacy Online [http://www.hawaii.edu/lilo/] takes students through a process of finding, evaluating, and citing information for a research paper. A three-credit course (LIS 100) is a course on the use of libraries and information technology for scholarly investigation. Other instructional services provided to students, faculty and staff are listed on the Library Instructional Services website: http://library.manoa.hawaii.edu/services/instruction/instruction.html.
The Library seeks to enhance its outreach to the campus and larger community by providing library related exhibits and public events and by increasing its presence by actively publicizing library activities and programs. See http://www.manoa.hawaii.edu/about/exhibits/. A recent exhibit entitled "Karate: From Okinawa to Hawaii" illustrates the collaborative nature of the Library's exhibits program. The exhibit was sponsored by the University of Hawaii at Manoa Library, Center for Okinawan Studies, Center for Japanese Studies, and the Consulate-General of Japan, Honolulu. For more information visit the Hawaii Karate Museum website.
As with other research libraries, providing 24/7 building access has been a goal. It is presently achieved at Sinclair Library. Online access to the library's eBooks and electronic serials is available all the time. Extensive wireless access is provided in both Hamilton and Sinclair buildings. Other services that save the time of the user include self-checkout of library material, increased web presence for such activities as holds, recalls, open URL linking to ILLiad document delivery requests, and live chat reference services. "Ask a Librarian" chat reference service is provided through an arrangement between the UHM Library and other academic library members of GWLA (Greater Western Library Alliance) and uses the Questionpoint chat reference system.
University graduate students are supported with the provision of closed study carrels and lockers. A "Library as Place" working group is developing plans to establish a graduate student lounge in a prominent first floor area of the Hamilton Library. Both undergraduate and graduate students have access to the use of group study rooms. State-of-the-art digital presentation/classrooms are provided in both Hamilton and Sinclair libraries and can be scheduled by graduate students and faculty.
Interlibrary loan services seek to meet the information needs of University affiliated students, faculty and researchers to provide "just in time" access to information not owned by the Library. We have interlibrary cooperative agreements in place including: Greater Western Library Alliance (GWLA) Resource Sharing and Document Delivery, Amigos Library Services Resource Sharing, Global ILL Framework (GIF) Project for Interlibrary Loan and Document Delivery between Japan and the United States, and some smaller, individual agreements with libraries in the Pacific region (University of Guam, American Samoa Community College). We are also a member of the National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NNLM) Pacific Southwest Region via resource sharing on DOCLINE. For over twenty years UHM has participated in PRAISE (Pacific Regional Aquaculture Information Service for Education) a service hosted by the Library's Science and Technology Dept. Under the auspices of USDA's regional aquaculture center, PRAISE provides research services and document delivery to aquaculturists and related marine scientists in the U.S. affiliated Pacific region. The Library's External Services Program (ESP) provides non-affiliated users with access to library materials on a fee basis.
Through its MAGIS program [http://magis.manoa.hawaii.edu/], the library is expanding its array of spatial information services to include on-line viewing of aerial photography and supporting Geographic Information Systems teaching and research on campus. MAGIS (an acronym for Maps, Aerials and GIS) seeks to connect researchers worldwide to spatial information in analog or digital forms to enhance and integrate geographic information in their teaching and research. A physical center in the Hamilton Library brings together Maps, Aerial Photographs and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) services.
Collections and Scholarly Communications
The Library has print and ebook holdings representing over 3.2 million volumes. Over 3/4 of the Library's material budget is now devoted to e-resources. The Library's Voyager catalog (Ex Libris) serves not only the research campus but also the other nine campus libraries of the University of Hawaii System.
UHM has strong general collections in areas of University research strength including tropical agriculture, oceanography, astronomy, volcanology, Asian studies and its unique resources in the Hawaiian and Pacific Collections. Other special collections of note include the Hawaii War Records Depository, the Japanese American Veterans Collection, the Jean Charlot Collection, the Harbin Collection of materials on Russia in the Far East, and the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands Archives, among others.
The Hawaiian Collection [http://www2.hawaii.edu/~speccoll/hawaii.html] is a comprehensive collection of retrospective and current materials pertaining to Hawai’i. The collection’s strength is the 20th century and contains numerous unpublished reports and papers that are unique to the collection.
The Pacific Collection [http://libweb.hawaii.edu/libdept/pacific/] offers materials relating to the island regions of Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia. In addition to an internationally recognized breadth and depth of print material, its digital collections include the Trust Territory Archives Photograph Collection, the Steve Thomas Traditional Micronesian Navigation Collection, and Rapanui: the Edmunds/Bryan Photograph Collection.
The Hawaii War Records Depository (HWRD) [http://libweb.hawaii.edu/digicoll/hwrd/HWRD_html/HWRD_welcome.htm] is an extensive collection of archival materials of life in Hawaii during World War II. It contains photographs of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, military facilities, and civilian defense.
The Jean Charlot Collection [http://libweb.hawaii.edu/libdept/charlotcoll/about-coll.html] is a major archive of documents and art works relating to the artist and writer Jean Charlot and to those with whom he came in contact over his long career in France, Mexico the U.S. and the Pacific.
The Russian Collection [http://libweb.hawaii.edu/libdept/russian/] includes several unique collections such as the Northeast Asian Collection, a collection of Russian materials printed in China from 1900 to 1949, covering the Russian period in Manchuria. Russians in Hawaii and Russian-Korean materials are also represented in the collection.
The Library's digitized special collections continue to grow. See: http://www.manoa.hawaii.edu/research/digicoll.html
The UHM Library's institutional repository, ScholarSpace [http://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/] provides a home for the increasing amount of digital scholarly output being created by the UHM community. Over 27 "communities" with over 282 collections are currently represented in ScholarSpace. The mission for the Library's digital collections program is to produce, maintain, deliver, and preserve a wide range of high-quality networked information resources for scholars and students at UH and elsewhere. The goals for developing specific digital projects are the following: 1) To build digital library collections that are sustainable, scalable, and compatible with UHM's technology infrastructure and 2) To facilitate the creation, discovery and use of special collections and unique resources by providing digital surrogates. Institutional repository librarians and staff work to bring in and create the materials populating ScholarSpace. The program captures, indexes, stores, makes searchable, disseminates and preserves digital materials and provides these services for as long as they are needed. The IR staff has been so successful in recruiting communities and collections that it is reaching full capacity in its existing storage resources and will be expanded as funding permits.
Campus Collaborations
Since 1988 the Library has collaborated with campus Information Technology Services (ITS) to provide computer access to students. By combining ITS equipment and technical expertise with Library space, we have greatly enhanced student and faculty access to computing facilities in both the Hamilton and Sinclair library buildings. Not only are more computers provided, but access has been extended to longer hours than when the labs were located in non-library space.
The establishment of the Student Success Center [http://gohere.manoa.hawaii.edu/] at Sinclair Library is a recognition that undergraduate students benefit from "one-stop" services located in a single physical space. The Center provides a place for students to work with librarians, mentors, tutors, advisors, counselors, and/or teachers, to meet their individual needs. As host to the Student Success Center, Sinclair Library provides a learning environment that meets the space, computing, and information needs of the students and support staff. The Library is helping provide these services by developing partnerships with the Learning Assistance Center, Manoa Writing Workshop, Student Employment and Career Services, the Honors Program, International Studies, First Year Experience and Outreach College. Student tutors are helping students individually and in study groups. Workshops in study skills and information literacy are offered on a regular basis.
A strong, forty year old association exists between the UHM Library and the Library and Information Science (LIS) Program [http://www.hawaii.edu/lis/], which is part of the Department of Information and Computer Sciences. Library faculty regularly teach in the LIS program and the Library provides opportunities for paid and unpaid internships and jobs for LIS students.
Planning and Horizon Issues
In 2003 and 2006 the Library conducted the LibQual+ survey of users. That and the ClimateQual survey of 2009 inform the Library's planning for user oriented services. As with most U.S. research libraries, state and national economic downturns are forcing deep budget cuts in materials and staffing for the University of Hawaii at Manoa Library. This fiscal context has informed and colored the 2008-2015 Library Strategic Plan [http://library.manoa.hawaii.edu/about/strategic_plan.pdf], the Strategic Action Team recommendations including the 2009 review of Library processing workflows by an outside consultant. Continuing to provide quality services and access becomes ever more challenging in this environment. By using the information and planning processes engendered through the strategic planning process and workflow studies, the Library is positioned to make positive, proactive changes that will help it become increasingly efficient, productive and user focused in the years to come.