Standard 7. Library and Other Information Resources - Projection
There will continue to be major changes in the Department of Information Technology; the library will continue to be funded in ways that allow for incremental growth of materials and services; and Instructional Technology will increasingly be absorbed into uses of the new Angel LMS, with more centralized services being integrated with IT and the Library and less need for a separate office of Instructional Technology.
Information Technology
The college has made great progress in 2008 to define directions for information systems and for teaching and learning systems. The direction has been supported by operational planning for systems implementation across all divisions and financial planning to support the projects. An IT subcommittee of the Strategic Planning Committee, working with an IT Strategic Plan, will serve to define a shared vision for technology at Stonehill, and the reorganization of the department along with greater delineation of responsibilities, best practice procedures, and improved training of student assistants will improve and expand our IT services.
As the core college information systems migrate to Banner, we will reallocate funding previously used for consulting toward Sungard maintenance costs. Licensing and consulting for email services, the LMS implementation, and network design and support also depend on reallocation. IT will increase the availability of online help and training as well as expand the opportunities for in-class or in-person support. The staff will continue to learn new applications and expand the skills of student help desk assistants. Overall, Information Technology is focusing on training staff to manage and support critical systems and services so that the College is not reliant on external vendors.
Stonehill recognizes that readily available information in the Banner system will improve the delivery and evaluation of services and enable enhanced decision-making. The Luminis portal will improve both quality of services and access to them, will provide single sign-on to a variety of applications, and will enable expanded collaboration tools for courses and other groups.
Finally, as the College expands its bandwidth and increases access to technology tools, IT will improve policies and educational materials related to appropriate use of technology and will continue to enhance wireless access.
MacPháidín Library
The Library has offered annual growth in its materials and services over the last decade. With level-funding in FY2010, there will be little growth, though reallocation within the library's budget should minimize the impact on operations. The staff structure will remain stable, and staff will be teaching more as we develop the College's information literacy program. We do not anticipate any major expansion of the library in the foreseeable future. Budgets permitting, we will continue to update furniture layouts to meet growing requirements for video use and to improve the library classroom. We also anticipate an additional enhancement to wireless capability.
The library will continue to draw on data and observation in evaluating the quality of collections, to make the most effective use of periodicals funds, to monitor the perceived adequacy of services, and to measure the use of materials and space. Assessment of the College's information literacy efforts should be considerably improved through the use of iSkills. Greater integration of instruction with the first-year program and with upper-division courses will also provide opportunities for evaluating the immediate effectiveness of library instruction. In addition, the college will need to develop an appropriate measure to evaluate the effect of information literacy programs-both those of academic departments and those of the Library-on learning outcomes.