King Library

Because I am in a distance program (everything is online), us students learn to rely on the online resources (databases, tutorials, etc.) and sources (articles, e-books, etc.) that our campus library offers for information and research. There is a lot available, and so far I haven't found myself struggling to find information in order to complete the papers, projects, and other assignments required in my courses. Anything that I needed to use physical resources for was accomplished by visiting my local public library branch. This is certainly a good thing, and has saved me from much hair-tearing.

But this really is no surprise. In order for any program (or any school) to be accredited, there need to be adequate resources available for students to perform the work required by the program (or school) for successful completion. I know, because I have looked over the accreditation criteria when I was working as part of a departmental committee on the program's self-assessment in preparation for SLIS's ALA re-accreditation next year. ACCSC, the organization that oversees the accreditation for the trade school where I work requires the same thing (funny enough, we're also preparing for a re-accreditation scheduled for next year). And the idea is logical; you can't require students to do things for a given program if you don't provide them with the (re)sources that will allow them to accomplish the assigned work.

So where am I going with this? Well, in my advanced reference class our first assignment was to answer a question made up by a classmate and provide them with both sources (print and other types) that would help them get the information they need to answer the question and some ideas on where to go to find more information. My question was from a classmate posing as a freshman college student looking to find information on Pompeii and Herculaneum. My professor told us that we could recommend print sources based on the available online information about them (such as in a catalog entry). Since the question I chose to work on was supposed to be from a college freshman (no college/university specified), I decided to use the academic library that I have access to--King Library. And because I could conceivably visit the library to look at print sources since I live within driving distance (rather than relying on the online catalog information which can be spotty), I did. This prompted my first ever on-site visit to my campus library.

Yes, I know. I'm able to travel to campus, and yet it took over three years before stepping foot in the library I know so well virtually. After visiting, I'm sorry that it took so long for me to go there. It's well worth going just to see it (if you're in to "library sightseeing"--yes, I am a library nerd). To give you a little background, King Library is not only the academic library for SJSU, it's also a branch of the San Jose Public Library system. So residents that go to SJPL can also get access to all that King Library has to offer. Lucky them! The building is a newer modern-looking building housing seven floors of resources for patrons (my undergrad campus library that I worked in was only a mere four floors and a basement). Escalators can take patrons beween the first four floors. There is one entire floor dedicated to reference sources. The first-floor circulation desk had a large counter on the wall above it; I couldn't figure out what the number stood for and there was no notation as to what it could be, but it was steadily climbing. The children's and teen areas looked interesting and I wanted to explore a bit; sadly, I was a woman with a mission on my visit so I couldn't linger and look around as much as I wanted to.

One thing that threw me off as I was looking for sources was that some of the collection is classified under the Dewey Decimal Classification system and the other part of the collection is classified under the Library of Congress Classification system. It took a minute to realize that the former is part of San Jose Public Library's collection, and the latter is the collection owned by SJSU. They must be able to keep it all straight, but I would find such a situation confusing. I can only imagine how much of a nightmare it would be to keep the different budgets straight.

To all SLIS students: if you're ever in the area and can visit King Library, take the opportunity to do so. It's fun being able to see the place from whence all our resources come, and I enjoyed seeing what a combination public/academic library looks like.