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Sizing Up the ORU Library

It's both larger, smaller than you may remember

By Laura B. Raphael

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Click Photo to Enlarge Every year, the Library Instructional Lab, located on the fourth floor of the Learning Resources Center, is home to 100+ workshops for students and faculty about how to use technology in academic research.

Click Photo to Enlarge Myra Bloom, bibliographic instruction and reference librarian, helps a student navigate the ORU library's extensive collection of electronic resources.

If it's been more than five years since you used the ORU library, you may be in for a sizable shock.

No, the books are still there... as are the winding staircases and the bright red-orange bookshelves. But today, the ORU library is different in several fundamental--and paradoxical--ways:

1. The library is much bigger.
   You won't find the library just on the fourth and fifth floors of the Learning Resources Center anymore. It's grown to include electronic information and resources from around the globe.
   
   "In a very real way, the ORU library has grown far beyond these walls," Dr. William Jernigan, Dean of Learning Resources, admits. "Students and faculty are no longer limited to what we have here on the shelves. We subscribe to many electronic databases where the latest research from different fields is published. You can find full-text articles at the library, something you can't do by just going on the Internet."
   
   (Curious about what the ORU library has in the way of electronic resources? Hop over to www.oru.edu/university/library/, click on "Guides" on the left menu, and go to "Electronic Resources Descriptions.")
   
   
2. The library is much smaller.
   The ORU library currently owns 9,000 electronic books alone, and the electronic journals and databases it subscribes to are comprehensive. For example, take just one: "Medline," the National Library of Medicine database, has 9 million references to 3,800 biomedical journals.
   
   Yet all of this information takes up no physical space at all. These bits of electronic data are smaller than small, an odd reality indeed for those of us accustomed to the tangible weight of books and journals in our backpacks.
   
   
3. The library is much easier to use.
   Conducting electronic searches can take mere moments, compared to the hours, days, or weeks of comparable paper searches common just a decade ago. Distance education students or commuter students need only a password and a computer to access valuable library resources from home, and looking for a specific book in the computer catalog is far easier than wrestling with ancient card catalogs. For resident students, it's even easier; all they have to do is log onto the ORU Web site from the dorm computer labs or their own personal computers, and they will find much of the library's resources.
   
   
4. The library can also be much more difficult to use.
   If you have ever received 2.5 million results in a simple "Google" search, you know that sometimes the more information you have, the harder it is to find what you really want. There are ways, however, to use the technology to your advantage, and the librarians at ORU know them. That's why every year they conduct more than a hundred classes and workshops for both faculty and students in "information literacy" techniques using the year-old Library Instructional Lab. The lab, funded in part through a technology grant from the Linden Root Dickinson Foundation, features 12 high-speed Internet computers on which students are encouraged to dig deep into the library's electronic resources.
   
   "We find that many students are not fully aware of what's available at the library," Myra Bloom, bibliographic instruction and reference librarian, says. "They are absolutely amazed at everything they can do here. No matter how much they already know, we can teach them something new about how to do electronic research."
   
   
5. The library isn't just for students and faculty.
   Technically, this was always true. But now it's easier than ever for alumni to use the ORU library, whether you're in Tulsa or Tampa Bay.
   
   For Tulsa-based alumni, simply pay a one-time $20 fee and get an alumni ID card, which is also good for entry to the ORU Aerobics Center. (For full details on the entire process, click here.) Even if you don't get a card, you can still come to the library itself during operating hours and use the electronic resources or browse the paper collections.
   
   For alumni far away from their ORU home, you still have access to numerous online library guides and collections of subject area Web sites that ORU librarians have compiled. Simply go to the "Academics" link on the ORU Web site (www.oru.edu), then to the "Library" link. Once there, you'll find a host of "Research Resources," including guides, quick reference resources, and more.
   
   And coming soon, even more help from seasoned ORU librarians. By the fall, some online guides will have an extra "Librarian's Corner" feature with extra information and tips for your research and knowledge.