Newsletter of the Tisch Library of Tufts University
Fall 1999 No. 26
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User Survey Results Analyzed
Achieving a high level of user satisfaction is one of the major goals of
the Tisch Library. To measure user satisfaction in a systematic way, the
library has administered five user surveys since 1993. This year the survey
was mailed to all full-time Arts and Sciences faculty and was administered
by phone to a random sample of undergraduates and graduate students. Institutional
Research assisted in writing the survey, selecting the population, and compiling
the results.
We are pleased to report that the overall level of user satisfaction continues to improve. All three groups of respondents are very satisfied with Tisch Library services. Areas that received high satisfaction responses from all the groups include reference (93%), reserves (93%), study space (91%), and library hours (80%). Satisfaction with the collection has also grown, with 84% of the faculty, 67% of the graduate students, and 82% of the undergraduates reporting that they are either very satisfied or satisfied with the collection.
The survey also asked how often respondents visit the library, both in-house and remotely. Faculty access the library remotely much more frequently than undergraduates and graduate students, with over 75% of faculty respondents using remote access at least 1-2 times a month, compared to 46% of the graduate students and 27% of the undergraduates.
The library was also interested in discovering the best ways to communicate with patrons about library services and resources. The library webpage and direct e-mails were popular preferences from all respondents. Undergraduates also identified the Tufts Daily as a preferred way to learn about the library.
The library will use these findings to increase its visibility in the
community. Look under the
"What's New" section of the Tisch webpage for important updates
on library resources and expect to be receiving more e-mails about our
services and collections! This year, the library will solicit more extensive
feedback on its services through focus groups consisting of different
constituent groups. Your participation in these groups will be greatly
appreciated. On a related subject we are happy to report that in the 1998/99 Senior
Survey administered by Institutional Research, 90% of the seniors rated
the library facilities either "essential" or "very important" to their
Tufts experience, and 80% of them were either "very satisfied" or "satisfied"
with the library. No category of campus services received a higher ranking
of importance, and the satisfaction level also ranked close to the top! Compendex, from Engineering Information Inc., is the most
comprehensive engineering database, giving access to the journal and conference
literature of all fields of engineering since 1970. Compendex is
provided as part of Engineering Village, a service which also includes
journal table-of-contents awareness, current engineering related news
from Reuters and UPI, an electronic bulletin board, an expert consultation
service, and other services. You can get to Compendex by by looking
for the Ei CompendexWeb icon at the bottom of the Engineering Village
homepage.
INSPEC is a database of particular interest to electrical,
electronic, and computer engineers, as well as to physicists. Maintained
by the Institution of Electrical Engineers, it is the online version of
Electrical and Electronic Abstracts, Computer and Control Abstracts,
and Physics Abstracts, with coverage since 1969. Tisch Library
formerly offered INSPEC as a FirstSearch database; now we offer INSPECin
a vastly improved form via the Institute of Physics Publishing's Axiom
service. There are three different searching modes, tailored to the complexity
of your search and your stated skill as a bibliographic searcher. INSPEC
also provides the full text of any papers published in IOP (Institute
of Physics) journals. Items in the bibliographies of the papers are also
linked, either to the full text if they are also in IOP journals or otherwise
to their INSPEC abstracts.
Another new service of special interest to chemical engineers and to
researchers in environmental fields is SciFinder Scholar,
described in the article which follows. There are other databases that
can be of use in engineering research such as Web of Science (Science
Citation Index) , MathSciNet for mathematics including
applied mathematics and statistics, and a number of environmental and
medical databases.
All of these services have online help available and are generally user
friendly. If you encounter any problems though, remember that the Tisch
Library staff is always ready to assist you in any aspect of your library
research. Over 14 million documents are searchable that cover chemistry-related
information including chemical structures, biosequences, polymers, analysis,
and the life sciences. Although chemistry is the main scientific area,
biotechnology, agricultural chemistry, toxicology, environmental science,
medicine, and food science are just some of the other topics covered.
Source types indexed include journals, patents, books, reviews, dissertations,
conference proceedings, online computer files, and technical reports.
Over 2.2 million patents are also indexed. In addition to literature searching,
this database has over 19 million different specific chemical substances
that can be searched for and retrieved. Structure diagrams, molecular
formulas, and chemical names can also be searched. Organic compounds are
the main substance represented in SciFinder Scholar, but coordination
compounds, polymers, biosequences, stereoisomers, and alloys are also
found.
N.B. Unlike other services, SciFinder Scholar requires
the user to download and install special client software on any computer
from which it is accessed. Please see a librarian for more information
about this resource.
John Holmes (1904-1962), a poet and professor of English at Tufts for
many years, was known to many as "Tufts' Poet." Six volumes of his poetry
were published during his lifetime, and his poems appeared in countless
journals, newspapers, magazines, and anthologies. Upon his death Holmes
left his papers, including manuscripts of nearly one thousand poems, to
Tufts University. Generous support provided by Winslow H. Duke A'53 has
enabled the University Archives to devote the time and effort necessary
to make this rich collection available to teachers and researchers. The
cornerstone of the project is "The Poet's Work," a Website devoted to
Holmes's life and writings. Drawing on the themes of Holmes's 1939 book
of the same title, "The Poet's Work" provides a space for the study of
Holmes's poetry as well as the craft of writing which Holmes strove to
teach his students.
The opening will feature a guided poetry walk to sites on campus associated
with Holmes's work. Selected poems will be read at each landmark. The
walk will be open to the public and begins at 5 p.m. in front of the Campus
Center.
The John Holmes Collection Website can be found at
http://www.library.tufts.edu/archives/ holmes . For more information
about the collection or the opening, please contact Anne Sauer at x73737
or asauer@tufts.edu. Hope is in sight. Planning has begun for a new music building on the
Tufts campus which will bring the Music Library, music classrooms and
rehearsal spaces (also in Aidekman), and the Music Department offices
(now in a house at 20 Professors Row) all together into one modern and
sophisticated facility equipped with a new recital hall. The Music Librarian,
Michael Rogan, has been meeting with Music Department faculty, chaired
by David Locke; liaisons from the Tufts Construction Office; and two architectural
firms, Babcock Design Group, Inc. (Fred Babcock principal architect) of
Salt Lake City and David Perry Architects of Cambridge, Massachusetts,
to work on the design of the new music building. (Fred Babcock was the
designer of the handsome Tufts Hillel Center.)
The plans presently call for the Music Library to double its space in
the new building. The extra room is very much needed, as the book, score,
and CD shelves are crowding out the students who would like to use these
materials. There are now only twenty-one seats at which students can read
or listen, while there are over 5000 compact discs with several hundred
more in the pipeline!
The collections are developed to support the curriculum of the Music
Department, whose programs offer something of interest to everyone. Classical,
jazz, blues, pop, rock, world music (especially Africa and Asia), opera
- it all can be found (and checked out!) in the Music Library.
While a project of this size and complexity will take several years for
all its phases to be completed, nonetheless the excitement it is generating
has created a tremendous positive energy throughout the department and
the library. So drop by the Cohen basement, check out some CDs, and enjoy
the buzz!
Tufts libraries will celebrate the addition of a millionth volume to their
collections this year. Many activities are planned, including lobby exhibits
featuring treasures from the collections, a Website listing events and
hosting online exhibits, banners around campus, and outreach to constituent
user groups. The culminating event will occur in March 2000, when Lois Gibbs,
author of Love Canal: The Story Continues, will speak to the Friends
of Tufts Libraries.
In the past few months, there have been a number of changes and updates
to our engineering databases. Tisch Library now offers a wide range of bibliographic
research tools in this discipline, some with direct online access to the
full text of selected journals. As with other indexes, they are available
by choosing Research
Tools on the Tisch Library homepage.
SciFinder Scholar, a desktop research tool, gives access
to the CAS databases produced by Chemical Abstracts Service since 1969.
SciFinder Scholar is a powerful research tool which, in addition
to the usual bibliographic search methods, allows the user to do structure
and substructure searches for chemical entities with an easy-to-use graphical
interface. Online full-text access to American Chemical Society journals
and certain other journals is also available.
Historical Abstracts and America: History and Life
are additional databases now accessible in Web-based versions from the
Research Tools pages.
For the fourth year in a row, Tisch Library will celebrate Children's Book
Week, a time for promoting reading to and by children. This year's theme,
"Plant a Seed, Read," matches nicely with our millionth-book celebration.
On November 17 youngsters from Eliot-Pearson and the Somerville Charter
School will attend a 10 a.m. reading by President DiBiaggio and members
of the Tisch staff. They will also take a pint-sized tour of the building.
Coordinating displays will be on view in the lobby from November 15-19.
It's an enjoyable time to be in the library, so please stop by!
On September 17, 1999, the University Archives will celebrate completion
of work on the John Holmes Collection with an afternoon of activities to
be held in Tisch Library.
Since it originated in the Music Department many years ago, the Music Library
has been in the basement of Cohen Auditorium. A branch of Tisch Library,
the Music Library has grown over the years to include all the available
rooms along its basement transverse corridor (Aidekman 024-027). Stuffed
from wall to wall, and having expanded from stairwell to stairwell with
burgeoning collections, it has reached a housing crisis.
BiblioTech Connections is published three times a year: in the fall, winter, and spring. It is also available at bibliotech.htm.
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