New Mexico State University Library Newsletter

              New Mexico State University Library
Newsletter
Volume 7, Number 2
October 1992
Sandy Schilling, Editc
Learning Two Libraries
Donald Barclay
Reference Librarian
e-mail: dbarclay@lib.nmsu.edu
Frominformalobservation^tseemsrhatabout
half the students at NMSU believe Branson Hall
is permanently closed or soon will be. There was
at least one student who was under the impression
that New Library is where all the new books will
go, and another who was quite livid that the
College of Business was getting the brand-new
library all to itself.
Clearly, some re-education is in order. Library
users need to understand that New Mexico State
University has one library that is split between
two buildings. With few exceptions, materials
dealing with agriculture, business, engineering,
health, and science are in Branson Hall. Materials
dealing with arts, education, humanities, and
social sciences are in New Library. (Archives,
U.S. Government Documents, and Special
Collections will remain in Branson Hall.)
One tool that will help educate students and
faculty about the splitting of the library is the free
publication NMSU Library: A Guide to Branson
Hall and New Library. This guide contains maps of
both library buildings as well as detailed
What's in this issue ...
NMSU celebrates the Year of the Library ...
Library Associates	
New release of OLE software ,
Where to pick up books on reserve	
NM Newspaper Project	
Interlibrary Loan Goes Pony Express	
information about the kinds of materials contained
in each building. Copies of the guide can be
picked up at the reference desk in either library
building.
OLE, the NMSU Library online catalog, will
also help library users cope. The holdings of both
library buildings are accessible via OLE, and OLE
tells users whether a book is in Branson Hall or
New Library.
Even with these aids, the "basic users" who
make up 60% of the NMSU Library user
population will need help to become successful
users of the two library buildings. Basic users
tend to avoid electronic systems, so OLE will not
help them figure out what books are where. Even
worse, basic users tend not to talk to librarians, so
it is unlikely they will have the two-library system
explained to them or will be handed a guide to the
library. Because basic users areoften unsuccessful
in the library, they are less satisfied with the
library than are expert users and are more likely
to turn inbadly researched—or even plagiarized—
papers and projects.
The best solution to the problems basic users
will face with a two-library system is course-
oriented library instruction. Far from being a
tour, course-oriented instruction engages basic
users by instructing them in library materials and
library research skills needed for a specific,
pending class assignment. Under such
motivation, basic users are surprisingly
responsive to library instruction and quickly lose
some of their fear of libraries.
Course-oriented instruction cannot occur
unless faculty make time to bring their classes to
the library. Faculty and graduate assistants who
wish to schedule a course-oriented library
instruction session for any of their classes may do
so by calling Donald Barclay at 646-6171. Faculty
and graduate assistants who wish to develop an
effective library assignment for their classes
continued on next page