Fortunately, I had the day off for the holiday so I was able to spend part of the day at the Milo Johnson Library at Mt.San Jacinto College in San Jacinto. I spent about forty minutes there and it was fairly busy. The library is the main library for the community college and there is no other library on campus. Most of the patrons are students, but the library is open to anyone in the community.
The building is a large open one story structure. The circulation and information area is in the front on the library and there are students working at the information desk.
The basic layout of the library is an open area with a group of library desks and chairs Next to these are the stacks which contain the bulk of the collection. There is a periodical section and a couple of study areas.
The main reference area is on the south side part of the building. There are a couple of low stack which contain most of the reference materials. There is a reference desk and it is manned by a reference librarian the works all of the hours that the library is open.
There are two sets of computers. The main lab has about 20 computers and there is also a computer lab in the front which has another 16 computers. Each terminal has a small desk which can be used for writing and looking at materials. One of the nice things that the library has are live tutors which help students with most general education subjects. The tutors are available most of the hours that the library is open and are also available by appointment.
I ask the reference librarian if there are any workshops or help in using the reference resources. They have a brochure that any student can read. It has most of the resources and information about the library. She also explain that there are orientation sessions that are offered to new students. In the orientation students look up materials and are instructed on how to use the library to look up information. The orientation also gives the students instruction on how to use the computers and how to copy and paste and how to search on line as well as how to use Microsoft to write papers. The library uses the Library of Congress catalog and there is a section in the brochure on how to find materials in the various subject areas.
Anyone can use the internet at the library even non-students. There is a policy statement on the wall. Some of the policies are that the computers can be used for e-mail and for academic work only. It states that there is to be no social networking or facebook. Also it states that students have priority and when there are classes they have priority also. I have to say that during my visit that these policies were pretty much ignored. I would guess that almost all of the students were either on facebook or watching videos.
The reference area itself is very large and well stocked. There are dozens of specialty encyclopedias and history books, yearbooks, dictionaries and other standard reference materials including atlases and a good selection of local and California history. Another one of the nice things that this library has is a good collection of periodical and journals The current editions are in a reading area and there is another section that archives bound editions from prior years.
The library had a very impressive collection of online database, some of these include EBSCOhost , Encyclopedia Brittanica, Lexis, AccessScience and dozens of others. You need a password and used name to use them but the reference librarian can help if you are not a student. The library also has 1673 online periodicals and newspapers. You can find almost anything and view the full text version of the articles. I looked up some book reviews in Library Journal with the help of the friendly and helpful reference librarian.
The online catalog is easy to use but if you are not familiar with LOC it can be a little confusing to find materials at first.
My overall impression is that this is a great resource( though I think underutilized) for the students and the whole community in general. The librarian did not have the opportunity to work with any other patrons during my visit, but she was very approachable and friendly to me
I must agree with you the LOC interface is very confusing at first but I did get the hang of it after awhile. I also appreciate that their are orientation sessions to get used to the resources and brochures supplied any of that makes a huge difference when getting used to it.
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