The Library was very busy over the summer working on several projects with the aim of improving our physical collections, electronic resources, spaces, and services for our students, faculty, and staff. The most notable changes this semester are:

• Hawaiian-Pacific Collections, 2nd & 3rd-floors – The collections are now split between a reference (library-use only) collection and a circulating collection. The H-P Reference collection is housed in the Library’s Kapunawai Room, Learning Commons, 2nd-floor, main level, while the H-P (circulating) collection is upstairs. This change was prompted by confusion about the locations of books available for loan and those that are for library use only.
• Juvenile Collection, 2nd-floor – The Juvenile collection was moved to the 2nd-floor, main level, adjacent to the Best Sellers and ESL collections.
• Reference Collection, 3rd-floor – The Reference collection was downsized. Outdated titles were removed while some titles were relocated to the General collection.
• Current Periodicals Collection, 3rd-floor & online – New titles were added to the Flipster online magazine collection and some print and electronic titles were canceled due to low usage.
  • Canceled (print)
    • Cooks’ Illustrated
    • Fine Cooking
    • Journal of College Science Teaching
    • Make: Technology on Your Time (suspended by publisher)
    • National Wildlife
    • Sky & Telescope
    • Teaching English in the Two Year College
    • Utne Reader
  • Canceled (Flipster)
    • Astronomy
    • Mac Life
    • Vanity Fair
    • W Magazine
    • Writer’s Digest
  • New titles (Flipster)
    • The Art Newspaper
    • New York Review of Books (available 10/1/19)
    • Real Simple (available 10/1/19)
    • Simply Gluten Free (available 10/1/19)
    • Simply Vegan (available 10/1/19)
• Microfilm Collection, 3rd-floor – The Microfilm collection (yes, we still have one) was downsized to focus on local publications such as the Honolulu Advertiser and the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. See our Periodicals List  for titles and date coverage. Gaps in coverage are due to a persistent problem with “vinegar syndrome” which affects acetate-based film. If you want to find local newspaper articles before the mid-’90s or early ’00s, microfilm is still the way to go since the newspapers haven’t been digitized. We also have a new digital microfilm scanner to assist you in your historical research.
• Online Databases – We monitor usage stats for our electronic resources and use this information in our renewal decisions. Due to low usage, the following databases were discontinued.
  • Credo View  (ending 8/31/19)
  • JoVE Science Education (ended 5/5/19)
  • Today’s Science  (ending 10/31/19)
• New Space for Students, 3rd-floor – Yes, we made more space for students upstairs! How did we do this? The collection changes that I described above along with the continued growth of our e-book and e-journal collections and online research databases results in fewer print books being purchased each year. As time progresses, some existing print titles become outdated and are weeded during our annual reviews. This summer, with the assistance of O&M, we removed a range of shelving near the Reference Desk, 3rd-floor. We’ve rearranged the furniture just a bit for now, but we are exploring ways to make the best use of the additional space we’ve created.  Let us know if you have any ideas!
• New Online Appointment Scheduler  – We are piloting a new online booking system to make an appointment with a librarian. You or your students can book appointments with a librarian from our calendar at https://lcchawaii.libcal.com/  The link can also be found by going to www2.leeward.hawaii.edu/library/ and clicking Ask A Librarian. Online booking availability is limited during this testing phase. You can also book an appointment with a librarian the traditional way in-person, by phone, or by email. The innovation with our new online appointment scheduler is to offer students a way to book appointments in advance with a librarian.

I welcome your comments and questions on any of the changes I’ve outlined above. More changes are coming to the Library in the near future, but I’ll save that for another post. Until then, have a wonderful Fall semester. The Library is ready to serve Leeward’s students, faculty, and staff in 2019-20!