City College of San Francisco - California Competes

STANDARD II.C
I. Overview of the Standard II.C Report:
Library & Learning Support Services
Student learning and success are supported by the collections of materials; the curriculum offered by
the Library and the Learning Assistance Department (LAD); and the services and facilities provided by
Library and Learning Resources (LLR) and other units constituting learning support services—the Learning
Assistance Center (LAC), Broadcast Media Services (BMS), and student computer labs. The Committee
found that the breadth and variety of library and learning support services across the District make
important contributions to instructional and co-curricular programs. Outstanding examples include: (1)
the Library’s exhibitions and programming that support the curriculum and enrich the College with intellectual,
aesthetic, and cultural activities; (2) library reference/research assistance and service to off-campus
students; (3) Language Center facilities and services; (4) student success courses/workshops and tutoring
and learning support services offered by the LAC, including the leadership that LAC staff have provided
on the Basic Skills Subcommittee to address the needs of basic skills students; and (5) the leadership taken
by Library staff to establish an information literacy graduation requirement, as well as the Library’s information
competency/research skills workshops and learning opportunities.
Several of the units of library and learning support services typically receive some of the highest ratings
on student satisfaction surveys administered by the Office of Research, Planning and Grants. In addition,
external reviewers have singled out some of the Library and Learning Support Services departments
for awards, including the prestigious Association of College and Research Libraries (a division of the
American Library Association) Award of Excellence in 2002 and the ACRL-EBSCO community college
award for excellent programming (June 2005), awards to the Language Center’s website, and the 2002-03
Learning Support Centers in Higher Education Award for Excellence to the Learning Assistance Center
for its website.
The institution has made significant progress in expanding the quantity of, variety of, and access to many
library and learning support services by (1) collaborating with academic and vocational programs and
other campus departments to plan and develop services (e.g., library faculty offering faculty technology
training as part of the FLEX professional development days, the Technology Learning Center’s workshop
series, etc.); (2) creating a distance learning library position; (3) providing more services and resources
online with student-centered websites; (4) creating new facilities, such as computer labs with upgraded
equipment and connections to the College network; (5) providing a dependable intra-campus library
delivery system to facilitate access to library materials; and (6) planning for two new campus buildings
that will contain libraries, computer labs, and tutoring centers, where either none or an inadequate number
have existed. Concerted efforts have been made by staff in all the library and learning support services
units to better utilize their staff and resources to improve services for students and to focus on outcomes.
Several areas are in need of improvement. The College needs to develop strategies for more consistently
providing adequate funding to maintain an up-to-date library collection, particularly in areas where the
currency of information is crucial to the quality of the program (e.g., health and medical programs, computer
science and technology, etc.). The continuing state budget limitations have also had a significant
impact on the hours of operation for the Rosenberg Library and Learning Assistance computer labs as
well as the maintenance and replacement of the equipment and furnishings in library and learning support
services facilities. The College should establish a regular cycle for replacing computer lab equipment.
While the library and learning support services departments have used evaluations by student and staff
extensively, these programs should establish a regular cycle for assessing needs and satisfaction among
faculty, students, and staff.
CITY COLLEGE OF SAN FRANCISCO
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