October 11, 2005
NEWSLibrary offers access to tools to enhance projects
For countless years, the library has helped many Mesa Community College students conduct research with an ample supply of books, computers and periodicals; or has it? For the most part, both students and teachers agree that the library is sufficient when they use them. However, not everyone is on the same page.
Teachers have a mixed opinion on the library’s resources.
“Personally I have not had a problem, but I have had students who have had issues with finding information on certain topics,” Amelia Wilson, a four-year veteran of the reading department, said.
Wilson added that she feels ESL students need more resources. For some students, an assignment becomes a quest for information rather than an in-depth look at the material itself.
“The resources are OK, but the computers are hard to manage. Some information is harder to find than others,” Esther Miller, an MCC student said.
On the other hand, first year English teacher Debra Twitchell said, “I have had no problems. The resources are great! The small university I taught at last year was definitely not as good as ours.”
“Improvement of the library resources is an ongoing process. The library faculty selects materials for the library collection on an ongoing basis. Included in these selection duties is the selection of materials that support MCC courses and materials to support brand new courses,” MCC Librarian Zoe Luter said.
The library also seeks input from faculty on the quality of resources, Luter continued. Statistics are important to seek funding for additional resources, look at possible gaps in the collection.
“Mesa Community College absolutely has enough resources. Every item the library purchased aims to support the MCC curriculum in every possible way. They are very careful so as to ensure the resources acquired meet the research and educational needs,” Luter said.
The main library at Southern and Dobson has a lot more books and other research material available than the MCC Red Mountain campus. Mesa Community College at Southern and Dobson has over 77,000 books, 34,000 e-books, 530 paper periodical subscriptions, over 50,000 electronic periodical subscriptions and over 580,000 periodicals on microform. The library at MCC Red Mountain has over 6,300 books, 34,000 e-books, over 95 paper periodical subscriptions and over 50,000 electronic periodical subscriptions.
Another MCC student said, “The resources are exceptionally good, and I have not had any problems.”
Along with the resources students can use at MCC, they also have access to the circulating materials at the libraries in the Maricopa school district. If that isn’t enough, there is also the Inter Library Loan (ILL) service, which provides students, faculty and staff access to materials not available at the Mesa Community College or any of the other Maricopa Community Colleges. This service allows student to have the resource that he or she cannot access delivered to their campus.