SUPPORTING ONLINE ADJUNCT FACULTY: A VIRTUAL MENTORING PROGRAM

Because of growing demand for online courses, staffing and faculty support issues can become major obstacles to growth and instructional quality. In 2004, Florida Community College at Jacksonville (FCCJ) was awarded an Effective Practices Award at the Sloan-C conference in Orlando, Florida for its Virtual Adjunct Mentoring program. This paper will provide the background, current program organization, and future directions of the program.

The Florida Community College Statewide Collection Assessment Project: Outcomes and Impact

A collection assessment project was conducted in 1998 of the twenty-eight community college library/Library Resource Center (LRC) collections in Florida.1 The evaluative materials provided to each of the institutions produced a number of outcomes. To assess the project’s impact, a survey was conducted in fall 2000. The impact study found that, in the opinion of library administrators, the Florida Community College Collection Assessment study had influenced the appropriation of additional funds, informed librarians’ collection development decisions, and affected the weeding of collections through the presentation of institution-specific collection assessment reports that were provided for each library. The major finding of the impact study was that the additional funding for community college library acquisitions, passed by the Florida legislature in 1999, was not wholly successful in the revamping of outdated book collections because many of the Florida community college libraries received only part or none of the funding. The utilization of the project data, the findings of the impact study, and other follow-up to the project are reported in this article.

Technological Change in the Workplace: A Statewide Survey of Community College Library and Learning Resources Personnel

It is a commonly held belief that technostress caused by change is affecting library personnel, although research on its impact in two-year colleges is practically nonexistent. This investigation examined how employees in Florida community college library and learning resource centers are dealing with technological change in their work environment. The results of the investigation indicated that staff are reacting positively. However, greater attention needs to be directed toward improving their inclusion in decision-making, revising job descriptions, and experimenting with alternative reward systems.

The Effects of High Median Age on Currency of Resources in Community College Library Collections

In 1998, a comprehensive study was conducted of the monograph collections of the twenty-eight public community colleges in Florida. This article reports the findings of that study with respect to median age and currency of resources. The rationale for the interpretation of the findings in the Florida Community College Collection Assessment Project is congruent with the philosophy that college collections should emphasize the instructional and curricular needs of students and, therefore, that the collections should emphasize current resources rather than retrospective depth. The findings on median age from the Florida Community College study serve as an example for the discussion of the implications of median age on currency of resources in college library monographic collections, especially in the professional, scientific, and technical fields. The major recommendation is a Continual Update Collection Management Model for college collections.