A sampling of new research on community college libraries

Community college libraries are a microcosm of the larger and more complex library world. The librarians who serve in these colleges must be ready to try anything to serve the diverse students, faculty, and staff who make up their users. As one indicator of the differences in serving these groups in a community college one could look at the American Association of Community Colleges (2019) website to see that 20% of the students served have identified disabilities, 29% are first generation college goers, and over 50% are racial minorities. So, this journal issue looks at the traditional library functions, i.e., collections and reference to see new ways of reaching the communities we serve.

Kanu Nagra from Manhattan Borough Community College writes about ways that we can market our increasingly electronic collections to those diverse users. He provides a review of the literature to show how other libraries have successfully increased their use and then provides a checklist for how to implement the work in your own institution.

One of the ways that we market our libraries and our collections is through our websites Mark Eaton and Carlos Arguelles write about how they assessed the usability of the Kingsborough Community College website. They get into the nitty-gritty of technical assessment, an important tool to use in improving the website for maximum use.

Sherrell Walker provides a view of one overlooked component of reference services in academic libraries and that is outreach. The case study of her activities at Borough of Manhattan Community College and the ways that she assessed her success are important to inform your own practice.

Finally, one different way to think about our collections is through the actual evidence of use that comes from studying marginalia. The article by Richard Mako is a departure for this journal but it illuminates in a very scholarly way, how books are engaged with by readers even those who may not be on a track to become professional academics. The phenomenon of electronic books showing what passages have been underlined by a user is similar. If only we could also see how they might use the words to make sense of the material, then we would have a glimpse of a mind at work.

I hope that you enjoy this smorgasbord and find something that will help your practice.

Nora Bird
University of North Carolina at Greensboro
[email protected]
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9595-3346