SIUC facility moves to 79th place overall

Dean of Library Affairs David Carlson said Morris Library’s 19-spot jump in this year’s national ranking of North American research facilities more accurately reflects the library’s stature relative to other research libraries.

The Association of Research Libraries ranks its 123 members annually according to the total volumes held, number of volumes added, total current serials, total expenditures, and the number of professional staff and support staff.

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This year, Morris Library vaulted from 98th to 79th overall.

Previous rankings did not include the number of Morris Library’s electronic serials when counting total serial subscriptions, which resulted in an abnormally low figure. The current figure accurately reflects the total number of serials, Carlson said.

Last year’s ranking showed Morris Library with17,467 serials. The current ranking puts the figure at 26,430, which is an increase of 34 percent.

Martha Kyrillidou, director of statistics and measurement for the Association of Research Libraries, said while electronic serials are considered part of a library’s total serial subscriptions, a separate survey for electronic resources is being developed for next year.

“Electronic serials didn’t exist 10 years ago,” Kyrillidou said. “People want to track that separately.”

The rise of electronic serials and the Internet is part of a sea change in the area of research leading some to question the need for physical libraries, Kyrillidou said.

Kyrillidou is confident that research facilities like Morris Library will always be needed.

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“Libraries act as a quality filter for information,” Kyrillidou said.

One of the stated goals of Southern at 150, SIUC’s vision of what the University should look like in the year 2019, is placing Morris Library among the top 50 in publicly supported research facilities.

Carlson said accomplishing that goal means committing resources to the criteria used by the ARL to develop its ranking of top libraries.

“Our most critical area of need is the number of staff,” Carlson said.

The number of professional and support staff at Morris Library declined from 154 in 2002 to 147 in 2003.

SIUC expects to complete a $41 million renovation of Morris Library by summer 2007. As the work progresses and materials are re-located to storage facilities, additional staff will be needed to retrieve and deliver those materials as researchers request them, Carlson said.

The SIUC administration is currently considering a proposal that would add two additional civil service staff members and a van to deliver materials from off-site storage.

The renovation will not necessarily boost the library’s standings in the ARL ranking, but it could make the campus more attractive to prospective SIUC students, faculty members and private donors.

“There is an explicit link between investing in library resources and benefits to the user,” Kyrillidou said.

Great research libraries are a tradition in North America, Kyrillidou added.

“Many people from other countries tell me that you can only do real research in America,” Kyrilldou said.