If you haven’t been to the O’Shaughnessy-Frey Library lately, consider stopping in to see our Media Resources Collection, now featured in a prominent location at the north end of the Reference Room on the first floor (across from Coffee Bené).
The University Libraries provide access to 32,000 video resources for the students, faculty and staff of the University. Of those, about two thirds are available anytime/anywhere via the internet to UST users in streaming formats. The rest (nearly 10,000) are DVD and VHS formats which have been collected over the years and which have been in O’Shaughnessy Frey Library’s collection since 2002. This popular and high quality collection, all of which is cataloged and searchable via the Media web page, continues to be heavily used by faculty and students for scholarly purposes (and for fun).
The collection has moved a couple of times in an effort to make it more visible and to make access as easy and quick as possible. During the fall semester of 2013, we created a new space for the collection to give it prominence on the first floor of OSF. The walls of the new space are glass and do not extend to the ceiling of the room – creating a quality of visibility, natural light and openness. It is also relatively easy to alter, if, in the future the need for a collection of physical objects becomes less critical.
This first floor location was possible for the video collection since much of the print reference collection has diminished in size due to the availability of online subject encyclopedias and other reference content. The first floor will continue to have plenty of space for students to study, for the new books and leisure reading area, and of course, the coffee shop at the south end of the room.
Having this collection on the first floor of the library also makes it possible for us to use our staff more efficiently, given that our service points are now concentrated on one floor. Looking for efficiencies in staffing and organizational structure continues to be a one of the libraries’ most important goals.
It is also a high priority goal for us to design and develop spaces throughout the library for student learning, study and community, and to address needs for both individual and group work, quiet and more active space, social spaces, nooks and crannies, and all the varieties of needs our users have. There is enough room in this wonderful building to accommodate people, books, periodicals, events, hot coffee and videos – stay tuned as we continue to create the academic library of the 21st century!
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