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The University Libraries along with the help and support of the Office of Alumni Affairs are very happy to commemorate and celebrate the 50th anniversary of the O’Shaughnessy-Frey Library Center. Construction on this, the first library building on campus, began in fall of 1958 and the O’Shaughnessy Library opened in fall of 1959.  We are planning a series of events in the coming year to recognize this anniversary, including exhibits with some of the photos taken during construction and other memorabilia – many library staff have worked on digging through and selecting the historical materials that exist on the building and the library program over the years for our displays.

We have been given much and have been well supported by the university and its benefactors.  One of the goals of this celebration is to thank the community for its help as we’ve developed library collections and services over the years. 

With this anniversary in mind, the University Libraries will focus this year on assessment – in an effort to recognize the past and plan for the future.  During the last week, we have been conducting the LibQual survey of library service quality.  A highly regarded survey designed by the Association of Research Libraries, LibQual has been conducted 1,000 times with 500 different libraries around the country, giving us a good opportunity to benchmark ourselves against peers.  We’ve already received a very good response to the survey – we’ve had about 750 responses including hundreds of comments - which have been overwhelmingly positive.  We will be analyzing the results of the survey and publishing the data later this year, but we are very happy with the preliminary results.  A couple comments:

"You all do an incredible job -- from the Media Library to on-line chat and everything in between. I'm always amazed. Thank you."

"I believe that OSF creates a positive research and learning environment."

"UST Librarians are exceptional!"

"InterLibrary Loan services are a godsend."

"I get twice the amount of work done when I study in the library."

And one of my favorites: "The service is great; the employees of the lib. are passionate and that is what really matters to me."

The work we are doing with assessment will help us as we move forward with the development of the Information Commons – it is clear that the libraries continue to be important as physical spaces for learning, teaching and independent and group study.  We’ve seen dramatic increases in the numbers of students using our libraries – a year ago this month, we had the largest gate counts for any month since we’ve collected those statistics, and most likely for any month in the history of the libraries.  In 2008, we’ve had four more months during which we had the highest numbers ever for those months (February, April, June and September).

In addition to heavy use of our physical spaces, our research shows that our users now depend on our large collections of digital resources –

From a member of our faculty - “I use the library electronically constantly through the day every day. I am able to find the research materials I need. With five books in little more than five years, I believe the library is very much part of my personal success.”

“[the libraries have] awesome electronic resources and support”

“The library's website is the only one connected to the entire University that is very useful and always maintained.”

Together with our efforts to honor the work done by the libraries over the last fifty years, we hope that this new data will position us to support (and further develop) the proposals we have for the future of the libraries:

• to create learning spaces that meet the needs of today’s students,
  
• to create virtual spaces that incorporate the large collections of digital content and online services that are now available from the libraries
  
• to continue to re-envision the libraries’ organization in ways that allow us to accomplish our goals and support the goals of the university. 

So thanks for coming and I’d like to invite you to stay and visit, take a look at the online interactive timeline we are developing and consider adding your memories to the blog page that we’ve set up.  Many people have already written some lovely messages including their memories of working in and studying in this library building.  One person wrote:

“O'Shaughnessy Library is a social, magical, sacred and unique place on campus where dreams flourish….”

I hope that has been true for you as well - thanks for coming and we hope to see you again throughout the year as we celebrate the libraries at the University of St. Thomas.

- Dan Gjelten, Director of UST Libraries, October 29, 2008