Computer Science Program Review December 15, 2008 A. Introduction
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- Database Number and type of titles indexed
- Factiva Over 8,000 news and business information sources.
- MathSciNet Over 2,000 journals, includes algorithms, mathmatical logic, and combinatorics. Some non-English language sources.
- ScienceDirect Over 1000 scholarly computer science journals, imany in full-text
Computer Science Program ReviewDecember 15, 2008 A. IntroductionThe library serves the computer science curriculum through its collections, reference, circulation and document delivery services. This report serves as a statistical review of current resources and services. Overall, the collection has grown significantly thanks in large part to the addition of several significant online collections. Use of the various library services has trended downward over time in response to a general decrease in computer science enrollment as seen in Table 1. Nevertheless, use of the library on a per student basis has remained roughly the same as its 2003 level, when the library did its last full review of its support for computer science. Table 1: Number of Computer Science students
B. CollectionsCollection development for computer science is primarily intended to support the curriculum of the College of Arts & Sciences’ Computer Science program. The curriculum is based on recommendations developed by ACM and IEEE, the top two computing organizations for computing professionals. The collection attempts to cover the ten subject areas in the recommendation, including: algorithms and data structures, architecture, artificial intelligence and robotics, database and information retrieval, networking and communications, numerical and symbolic computation, operating systems, programming languages, and software methodology and engineering. The collection specifically supports teaching and student assignments for undergraduate students, graduate students, and College faculty in support of instruction. Emphasis is placed on materials supporting core courses and includes both theoretical foundations and practical applications. The collection also supports to a lesser degree the research needs of related disciplines and general computer references useful for all undergraduate students. Computer Science students and researchers primarily use the portion of the library’s 250,000 volume print collection that falls in the Library of Congress call number classifications QA 75.5–92 (computer science) and TK 5105-7895 (telecommunications). Table 2 describes the collection within these call number ranges in more depth. Materials of interest to computer science students may also fall into other classifications such as social aspects of information technology (CB, HM 851, T58), cybernetics and artificial intelligence (BF 311, Q 300), mathematics overall (QA) and legal and security issues (KF, HF, HV, Y). Also, various disciplines may have computer topics specific to their subject area and so associated with their call numbers. Table 2: Library Computer Science Collection (FY 2007- 2008)
The library currently has approximately 5,197 items in the two primary QA and TK classifications. This represents a 55% increase over the 2,320 items held as of the last complete library computer science program review in 2003. One of the major reasons for this increase in collection size is the addition of substantial electronic book databases and collections. M  aterial types
The computer science collection consists of several types of materials including books, journals, and media. Materials such as journals and media represent a small portion of the entire collection but have a big impact on the library’s support of academic programs. One of the biggest changes in the collection since the 2003 review is the greatly increased availability of Internet resources. Many of these online resources are monographic in nature and compose a large part of the library’s book collection. Books Collection efforts for books and other monographs focus on basic theoretical works, handbooks and topical overviews, and some hot topic and popular application guides. It is important that the library have a strong core book collection of current titles. Books provide the basic theoretical background for computer science as well as in-depth information on specific practical topics needed by majors. Circulation records show that books on topics such as programming and current PC applications, are particularly popular even though online information is often available for these subjects. T  he book collection has steadily increased in size over the last five years. Two major developments have contributed to this increase. First, was a 10-fold increase in the computer science book allocation in 2000. While the actual amount allocated fluctuates with the university budget, an average of about $4,000 is provided for computer science book purchases. Unfortunately, the price of books rises each year at a rate higher than the general rate of inflation and so the purchasing power of the allocation decreases over time. The average price of technology books averaged about $80 in 2007-08, equivalent to purchasing about 50 books at the current allocation level.
The second factor impacting the book collection size has been the addition of several significant online collections. In Spring 2003, the library subscribed to Safari Technical Books providing access to over 2000 books from presses such as Microsoft, Sun, Cisco and Prentice Hall. O’Reilly is a particularly well-respected publisher of handbooks on current computer technologies including networking, databases, operating systems, programming, and the Internet. The downside of this collection is our lack of control over its contents. Individual titles are regularly dropped and new ones added. This can be an advantage for topical and time-sensitive materials but cannot substitute for maintaining a permanent collection of library-owned titles on core theoritical and application topics. It should also be noted that students anecdotally have indicated their preference for print handbooks to assist them during programming assignments. Apparently it is easier to search through and keep a book open to a topic while they are working on a computer project. The second major online acquisition was the subscription to ACM’s Guide to Computing Literature in 2006. This collection includes books, conference proceedings, doctoral dissertations, master theses and technical reports. However, while the Guide has over one million entries, only a subset of these, usually the most recent, are available in full-text. Nevertheless, this is a valuable and reliable collection of well-respected literature that covers theoritical and recent developments in the computer science field. The library also acquired ACM’s Digital Library in 2006. While this collection is mostly valuable for its journal content, it also contains all of ACMs conferenc proceedings. Conference proceedings are a particularly important source of information on recent developments in the field and specifically address a need the Computer Science program has frequently expressed in the past. Most of the contents of the Digital Library are available in full-text. The age of the collection is an important determiner of relevance. In the rapidly changing world of computer science practice and research, access to current information sources is very important. A Fall 2000 study of the library’s collection found that only about 10% of the computer science books were less than 5 years old. The most recent study in Fall 2008 found that almost 60% of the computer science collection have been added since 2000. Even more striking is that just over 40% of the collection has been added between 2005 and 2008. A  significant factor in the age of the collection is the adoption of onine resources. Tables 3 and 4 contrast the age of the traditional print book collection vs. the online collection of electronic books. Obviously, the lions share of the Internet resources if very recent, m ostly since 2005. However it is interesting to see that the electronic collection also extends back further in time, back to material from the 1950s. In fact, if one broadens the definition of telecomminications, the online collection includes material on telegraphy back to the 1880s.
Serials and periodicals The fast-paced development of new technologies in computer science makes journal sources particularly valuable. The number of print computer science journal titles in the California State University San Marcos library is limited due to low funding. Currently the serials budget for computer science supports subscriptions to very few print titles. These titles include several popular and current industry news sources as well as few key topics including:
The most significant addition to the journal collection has been the subscription in 2006 to the online ACM Digital Library and the ACM Guide to Computing Literature. Previously, the library had subscribed to the 22 core ACM journals going back to 1992 when the library started. The Digital Library provides access to all the ACM journals, transactions and magazines going back over 50 years. In addition, access to Computing Reviews, conference proceeding series, and journal articles published by affiliated organizations is provided. A significant portion of the Digital Library content is in full-text. The Guide to Computing Literature provides access to over 1000 additional journal titles; however, not all of these articles are in full-text. The addition of these ACM online subscriptions has met most of the computer science program’s requests for journals and conference proceedings. However, one of the most requested publishers, IEEE, is not available in these sources. IEEE is the other major computing organization and publishers a number of significant journals in this field. Fortunately, several of the library’s aggregator databases do include at least some of the IEEE titles. Several of the library’s aggregator databases provide significant access to computer science literature. These databases include ScienceDirect, and Academic Search Premier. The most important source of electronic computer science journals is the ScienceDirect database, which carries over 1000 scholarly, computer science-related titles. While several other database aggregators have significant computer science offerings, they are unclear on their collection standards and may have unpredictable retention of individual titles, which makes it difficult to consider these sources as permanent parts to the collection. Magazines for Libraries1 is a standard source for identifying key journals recommended for library collections. Organized by subject area, the journal recommendations are targeted for school, public and academic libraries. Of the 43 recommended academic-level journals for computers, information science and computer engineering areas, the Cal State San Marcos library collection has 33 titles, including all five of the basic academic journals recommended. Seven of the 10 recommended titles that the library does not carry are IEEE journals, indicating that this association is an important publisher that the library should consider adding. The electronic databases in the computer science area are indexes to periodical and newspapers articles, many of which include full-text. ScienceDirect has the strongest support with a balanced collection of scholarly journals and reliable full-text. The top databases that support the computer science curriculum are listed below. Table 6: Databases with Computer Science Content
Government Documents Government documents are collected through the federal depository program with occasional individual purchases. The library is a 10% selective depository library, up from 9% in 1999. Selection is based on the curricular needs of Cal State San Marcos, but the federal depository collection is available for local community use. The nearby Vista Branch of the San Diego County Library is also a selective depository and available for referral. Extensive use of freely available and taxpayer supported federal websites has become the backbone for federal and state access to students, faculty and community users of the library. Selected official State of California publications are collected on a depository basis and access to the California State Government web site provides material for students. Government documents of interest to computer science are mostly in the area of policy and security. Congressional hearings and federal agencies such as the Office of Technology Assessment are the main producers. Gifts Gifts are accepted and screened for compliance with general library collections policy. The library has received several generous gifts from retiring professors in the last five years. A 2006 donation provide over 20 titles that filled several gaps in the computer science collection. However, while gifts are appreciated, they often contain dated material which is not useful for the computer science collection. Textbooks Textbooks are not accepted except in rare cases. Language Material is collected in English. Off Campus Access to Collections Students have access to the library’s electronic resources and finding aids off-campus as well as on campus. The library maintains Internet links to other Web sites, research guides that support specific courses, and general information guides to help with library research. The library’s search engines include GetIt links that guide the users to full-text sources. Augmenting the locally held collection is the regional consortia of University Libraries, the San Diego Circuit. Using the Circuit, students have access to a combined union catalog of five million titles representing the University of California San Diego, San Diego State University, and University of San Diego, as well as Cal State San Marcos. Materials are delivered to the campus within 24 hours on weekdays. As a net borrower, the library funds this service to provide material that is out-of-scope or that the library would otherwise not be able to purchase. Students have access to an electronic reserve system for material electronically scanned and placed on reserve by the course professor to supplement textbook readings. Interlibrary loans of articles, books, dissertations, and microforms can be requested and delivered electronically or by mail. C. SERVICES The Library offers several services to support the Computer Science Program. Library Hours Library open hours during the semester: Monday to Thursday: 8:00am–9:00pm Friday: 8:00–5:00 Saturday and Sunday 1:00pm–5:00pm
Hours reference desk is staffed per week: 54 hours Instruction The Cal State San Marcos library is recognized nationally for the quality and extent of its library instruction, which is incorporated into many courses on the campus. Library instruction is designed so students graduate as information literate students. They will know when research is needed, and will know how to access, evaluate, and use information. They will understand and apply ethical and legal standards in their use of information. Only one computer science faculty asked for instructional support during the review period. In January 2007, a course guide was created to support the CS112 class. The CS112 guide received about 160 visits during that semester. Although no faculty have asked specifically for library instruction since the creation of the guide, it continues to be used with 230 visits in the 2007-08 school year and 118 visits during 2008 fall semester. Research Consultation Research consultation for library users is based on a two-tiered system. Students trained in library research methods assist library users with general questions. They provide general assistance most hours the library is open. Reference librarians are on call to provide expert research assistance and are available during most of these hours also. Students may also schedule appoints with reference librarians in their subject specialty for in-depth research assistance. Since 2003, online forms of reference have also become available. The Meebo instant messaging services has been particularly heavily used since it was introduced in spring 2008. In spring 2007, an online subject guide was created for computer science to provide basic guidance in finding and using library resources for this subject area. The subject guide has received increasing use since its creation. It had 314 visits the first semester it was published, 1600 visits during 2007-08, and 900 visits during fall 2008. The subject guide is located at: http://library.csusm.edu/subject_guides/computer_science/ Book Circulation The number of books checked out by students and faculty varies significantly each year. Overall circulation has decreased to roughly 85% of 2003 levels, a trend that is comperable to the decrease in computer science enrollment over the same time period. However, circulation of traditional books has actually increased in relationship to the number of checkouts per student. In FY 2003-04 an average of 1.4 books circulated per students. In FY 2007-08, the rate had increased to 1.7 circulations per students. This finding is also interesting in regards to the greatly increased availability of resources online. It can be concluded that students and faculty continue to find print books useful even as they increase their use of Internet resources. 
Reserve Readings The use of reserves has been remarkably consistent over the last 5 years. Instructors in an average of 20 Computer Science courses each year placed materials on reserve in the Library. Typically, about 70 items were placed on reserve each semester. Circulation of reserve items averages around 250 checked outs each semester. Electronic reserve services has been available since 2000 but it is seldom used by computer science faculty. In Fall 2005, one computer science faculty member used electronic reserves for one item. That item received a remarkable 533 circulations during that semester. Media Materials The Media Library has 78 computer science videos. Use of these videos has been extremely heavy. The videos have circulated over 1,000 times in the last two years. Four videos, in particular, are the most circulated computer science titles for all formats, averaging over over 100 circulations during the two year period 2005-2007. Three of these titles deal with the history of computers and one with artificial intelligence. ILL activity reports I ILL requests have declined in the last five years, from a total of 54 requests in 2003-04 to 25 requests in 2007-08. Part of this decline is undoubtedly due to the reduction in enrollment in the computer science program, which has fallen to about 70% of its 2003-04 level. However, since ILL activity is down about 50%, enrollment alone doesn’t account for the entire change. Another, more positive, factor is the greatly increased availability of online books and journals for computer science, particularly since 2005. While it is hard to directly compare these two measures, it’s safe to assume that at least some of the decline in ILL use is due to students and faculty better able to meet their needs using materials in the library’s own collection. F  or the past five years, most interlibrary loan requests have been for journal articles, roughly 2 to 1 journal articles vs. books. Over 80% of the requests have been for journal articles in the last two years.. That has changed significantly from loan activity prior to 2003 which emphasized books. At least some of this change is due to the efforts to improve the library’s book collection.
The majority of ILL requestors are students – both graduate and undergraduate. Turnaround time can be critical for this population since students often need to receive materials quickly in order to meet their assignment deadlines. The ILL service’s average turnaround time varies from year to year but has averaged about 4.88 days in the last five years. This is a significant improvement compared to the 5.5 to 9 days reported in the 2003 program review. 1Magazines for Libraries. (2008) New York: Bowker. Directory: assessment assessment -> Medical Radiography Program assessment -> Pelan pentaksiran kursus assessment -> Atlanta Report assessment -> Type: T/f objective a-1 assessment -> Curriculum Team assessment -> Report submitted by the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (suhakam) to upr info assessment -> Marshall university assessment -> Version: 19 November 2015 assessment -> 2016 mea mathematics and English Language Arts/Literacy Measured Progress/eMPower™ME assessment -> Macroeconomics Machine-graded Assessment Items Module: Macroeconomic Measures of Performance Download 56.76 Kb. Share with your friends:
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nterlibrary loan (ILL) services provide a valuable way to acquire titles the library doesn’t own, particularly material that is out-of-scope for our collection. A review of titles requested via interlibrary loan is conducted yearly for suggestions of books and journals to add to the collection.