Annual Report 2010   Tags: annual report  

Welcome to the FY10 Annual Report for the Dudley Knox Library (covering Academic and Fiscal Year October 2009-September 2010).  Here you will find highlights of our activities during the NPS Centennial Year—another exciting and busy year of library service to the Naval Postgraduate School and greater national security community.  You will find additional details throughout the report, in individual departmental reports, and our strategic planning update and dashboard.

The Dudley Knox Library is people/portal/place linked together into a dynamic learning environment that supports the instructional and research needs of the students, faculty and staff of the Naval Postgraduate School.   Our patrons consistently score the Library in the 90^th percentile for customer service and responsiveness to their needs.

With the full support of NPS leadership and faculty, the Library has leveraged a global information explosion, coupled with unprecedented economic challenges, into an opportunity to aggressively transition from mostly print collections and services for “onsite use/users” to a dynamic mix of online scholarly content and patron-centric virtual services that are available anytime/anywhere.  At the same time, Library facilities, furnishings, and technology are being upgraded and transformed into the flexible onsite/virtual information and learning spaces that our patrons require—for “open” or “classified” purposes—whether in Monterey or elsewhere in the world. 

DKL partnerships and collaboration with NPS faculty and students help us understand their specific information needs.  Librarians work closely with faculty to identify subject-specific resource requirements by preparing Library Impact Statements for NPS New/Academic Program Reviews and they create targeted reports that support various NPS accreditation efforts.  The emphasis on assessment, open communications, and continuous improvement ensures that the Library provides access to the right mix of contemporary and historical content, coupled with just-in-time interlibrary loan services, to support NPS instructional and research requirements. 

 For example, after years of unsustainably high journal price increases (averaging >9% per year), we analyzed and shared usage statistics with faculty and collaboratively made decisions to cancel more than $150,000 worth of high cost/low use subscriptions.  We leveraged those cost savings (along with funds from Library and several NPS Departments plus consortial purchases with other Navy and federal libraries) to add more than $500,000 worth of e-books, journal backfiles, and E-resources that support new subject areas as well as our growing PhD programs (http://libguides.nps.edu/perpetual). 

 DKL librarians provide in-depth consultations, instructional workshops, and customized tutorials on how to identify and use scholarly academic resources effectively.  They teach information literacy skills to students including how to: evaluate information resources; identify a thesis topic; conduct literature searches; and capture and format bibliographic citations for NPS capstone projects.  Librarians create and use in-person, web-based, and virtual services to reach patrons in the Library, in faculty classrooms, or around the globe.

 DKL reaches out to patrons—anytime/anywhere—with Ask-A-Librarian,
text messaging, blogs (http://gretaslinks.blogspot.com/), listservs, email, in-person, via online tutorials, and with a robust website of linked online tools.  In 2010 we put a particular emphasis on reaching out to distance learning students and were able to reach a much larger contingent that in previous years.  We are constantly exploring and testing new technologies such as mobile applications, cloud computing and open source software with the purpose of improving services to patrons. 

 DKL created and maintains one of the largest NPS websites and librarian-created content is featured on the Dudley Knox Channel of the NPS Video Portal. We provide assistance virtually as well as from 4 service points in the Dudley Knox Library building (Circulation/Interlibrary Loan/Course Reserves; Reference/Research Assistance; Restricted Resources and Services; and Special Collections and Archives).  We are using “the cloud” for information discovery and delivery (WorldCat Local) and building physical and digital special collections and archives to present and preserve NPS scholarly, institutional, and historical information for a global audience.

 DKL technical staff provides the many critical behind-the-scenes metadata, systems, and support services that facilitate and promote discovery of and access to our myriad resources, including the growing body of NPS-created institutional, student, scholarly and historical publications that we collect, make accessible, and preserve.  DKL puts the patron first and our focus on public service is documented in high customer satisfaction ratings/comments, thesis/publication acknowledgements, and many oral/written thanks from patrons.

 We are recognized team players within the NPS community—piloting, testing and participating in numerous NPS enterprise-wide initiatives (WASC and other accreditation/review teams; web content management system; eHelpDesk; Kuali Financial System; and SLDCADA to name a few).  Library staff is academic and experimental – active participants in local, regional, and national professional associations and committees.  We host and participate in talks, meetings, conferences, and training opportunities that improve our staff knowledge, skills, and abilities while simultaneously sharing our best practices with others.  Finally, we routinely collaborate with our Navy higher education, military, and academic library colleagues to leverage ideas and resources. University Librarian, Eleanor Uhlinger, was named 2009 Federal Librarian of the Year in recognition of her leadership taking DKL in new and exciting directions.

 Thanks to support from leadership, patrons and a dedicated staff, DKL is meeting the challenges of the 21^st century and supporting the NPS mission.  Dudley Knox Library is busier than ever with no limit to how far we will go in 2011 and beyond.