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Section IV: Programs
SACS Comprehensive Standard for Library and Other Learning Resources 

IV-32.  The institution provides facilities and instructional support services for the library and other learning resources that are appropriate to its courses or programs and adequate to support its mission and its effectiveness for learning.

JUDGMENT OF COMPLIANCE

Yes, East Tennessee State University is able to provide a portfolio of evidence supporting compliance.

STATEMENT OF RATIONALE FOR JUDGMENT OF COMPLIANCE

At East Tennessee State University, other learning resources are broadly defined to include those facilities and instructional support services that support all aspects of the university's mission (ETSU Mission), including degree programs, special student services, technical and training programs, research, and public service.  Services that ensure our faculty and staff are adequately trained in and using current library and information technologies are recognized as a component of learning resources at ETSU.  A large part of technology instructional support for ETSU students is integrated into and available from our general education curriculum (SACS Standards II-9, IV-16).  The integration of technology education into our curriculum is both sufficient and necessary to ensure that students receive effective training that is appropriate for our degree programs and our mission (SACS Standard IV-13).  In addition, a variety of other instructional support services for students are provided by the ETSU Division of Academic Affairs, Division of Student Affairs, and Quillen College of Medicine and are documented in SACS Standard II-10.  Instructional support services offered through our libraries and the ETSU Office of Information Technology are considered here.

Library Facilities and Instructional Support Services

The library system for East Tennessee State University offers a large number and diversity of facilities for use by its students, faculty, and staff, including:

• ETSU Sherrod Library,

• James H. Quillen College of Medicine Library,

• specialized collections of the Archives of Appalachia,

• services to extended campus locations in Greeneville, Kingsport, and Bristol (ETSU Extended Campus Library Services), and

• web-based access to 32 academic and public library holdings and services (ETSU Accessible Libraries).

In January 1999, ETSU opened a new central library designed and built according to Tennessee Higher Education Commission (THEC) space standards (ETSU Central Library Facility Plan, Revised Edition).  These standards were found to be both  appropriate to ETSU's instructional programs and adequate to support the teaching, research, and service missions of the university (ETSU Mission Statement).  It became increasingly clear to the university community during our last major self-study (Report of the ETSU Institutional Self-Study for SACS) that a new library facility was needed.  The emphases of our mission, the growing needs of an expanding student base, new developments in technology, and increasing extended campus and distance learning programs were not adequately served by a library constructed in 1930 and last renovated in 1966.  The ETSU Campus Master Plan for 1992 included library expansion as a recommendation.  After approval of planning funds by the Tennessee Board of Regents (TBR), designs for a new library were developed with assistance from Dr. David Kaser, a nationally recognized consultant on library buildings.  The design for the library has been submitted for the 2001 American Institute of Architects/American Library Association Library Building Awards, and the custom furniture is featured by the company on its web site (Brodart Company).  The new Sherrod Library is a state-of-the-art facility that realizes even more than the initial recommendations, including (ETSU Sherrod Library, Floor Plans):

• 192,000 square feet, with the capacity to hold 800,000 volumes and seat 1800 students,

• multiple public-use computer stations distributed throughout the building,

• two multimedia classrooms,

• a media center,

• group and individual study rooms on each floor,

• 420 individual study carrels, and

• a 24-hour study facility with access restricted to ETSU students and staff.

The new Sherrod Library also serves as home for the Archives of Appalachiaand as the primary base for support of web-based access to other libraries and of services to our extended campus locations.

Sherrod Library follows Association of College and Research Libraries Guidelines for Instruction Programs in Academic Libraries, which delineates the following:

• program design, including statement of purpose;

• program policies;

• course content;

• class and program evaluation and assessment; and

• human resources and institutional support.

Sherrod Library's reference services follow the Reference and User Services Association's Guidelines for Information Services.  A reference librarian with the title and responsibilities of instruction librarian heads the library instruction program (Sherrod Library Instruction Program).  Modes of instruction include scheduled class lectures, workshops, and tours as well as individual point-of-use instruction through reference in the library, at remote sites, and at user's homes through telephone and e-mail.  Instruction may take place in two library classrooms equipped for instruction in electronic as well as traditional resources or in other service areas of the library.  Instruction also takes place through instructional television and at distance education facilities.  Standards for providing facilities and support services to extended campus and distance education programs are based on the Association of College and Research Libraries Guidelines for Distance Learning Library Services. A dedicated extended campus librarian coordinates services for these programs, providing reference, library instruction, document delivery services, and coordination of online access.  All databases, electronic journals and books, research guides, and other online resources are available to all ETSU faculty, staff, and students, regardless of location (ETSU Extended Campus Library Services).

The ETSU James H. Quillen College of Medicine (COM) Library, located on the Veterans Administration campus, supports the teaching, research, and service missions of the COM (Quillen College of Medicine Library, Mission).  The COM library consists of 24,600 square feet, and has approximately 116,000 volumes in its collection (125,000-volume capacity), a student computer lab (22 workstations), 96 individual study spaces, and two group study rooms.  Numerous network ports are available for student access to the internet.  The reference department has seven public workstations, public access copiers, and scanners for the benefit of library users (Quillen College of Medicine Library, Computers, Photocopying).

The COM library staff offers special orientation programs for new students and faculty, along with regular library instruction programs for faculty, staff, and students of the COM (SACS Standard IV-33; Quillen College of Medicine Library, Info-bit of the Week).  Individual instruction in the use of the library and computer access also is available, on demand, to ETSU students, staff, and faculty.  In addition to providing traditional library services on campus, a dedicated outreach services librarian provides services to rural health care workers in 17 upper east Tennessee counties.  Services provided by the outreach librarian include document delivery, staff training in database search techniques, and basic reference service (Quillen College of Medicine Library, Outreach Services).

Information Technology Facilities and Instructional Support Services

The ETSU Office of Information Technology (OIT) provides a wide variety of support programs (OIT Instructional Support Overview) and is responsible for management of all technical hardware facilities and computer software support available on the ETSU main campus, off-campus, and extended campus sites.  Technical capabilities discussed in this report include the campus network, cable television, satellite downlinking, desktop videoconferencing, and multimedia classrooms.  Training and support services are provided by the Academic Technology Support (ATS) division and the OIT Student and Faculty/Staff Help Desks.  Further elaboration of student facilities and services is included in SACS standards II-10 (student support services and programs), IV-2 (distance education), IV-13 (use of technology), and IV-33 (user access to instruction).

The campus network, completed in the past three years, now provides an asynchronous transfer mode ethernet backbone connecting all buildings on campus, with at least one network connection in every classroom and at least one per student in every dormitory room.  A regional internet service provider (MountainNet^®) supports the network connectivity in the residence halls and is under contract with ETSU to provide services at reduced rates to the homes of students, faculty, and staff.  The current status of the network is always available so users can determine whether problems are individual or network related (Current Status of the ETSU Network).  Network connectivity at distant sites is maintained at the same quality as main campus sites.

The OIT manages two cable television systems at ETSU, and also provides satellite downlink capabilities.  One satellite dish, with Ku and C band reception capability, is available, and this signal generated can be transported to classrooms on campus using the cable television coaxial system.  One commercial entertainment cable system serves every dormitory room, the ETSU University School, Sherrod Library, and approximately 50 classrooms.  Currently, there are no pending requests for additional connections to this cable service, which we interpret as evidence that service is adequate.  The second cable system is a distance education system that serves the main and all extended campus classrooms, including sites in Bristol, Kingsport, and Greeneville.  This cable system uses a two-way audio, one-way video system over microwave for connection to the off-campus sites.  However, this technology restricts the level of interaction and is not considered adequate.  An experimental implementation of a new system, based on a Polycom^® system over dedicated internet protocol bandwidth is currently underway.

Computer access for students is extensive on the main campus, with 1,050 dedicated student computers available in 10 open computer labs and 48 departmental labs (ETSU Computer Services, Student Computer Laboratories; ETSU Profile System, Academic Departments).  Every extended campus site has a student computer lab with full network capabilities. The OIT directly operates five of the open computer labs on the main campus, providing staff charged with assisting students one-on-one with any computer problems. 

Premier teaching facilities on campus are six multimedia classrooms and six multimedia lecture halls, which were designed and are maintained by OIT.  The multimedia classrooms built within the last year include five located in the most-used instructional buildings on the main campus, and one classroom on the Kingsport campus.  Rooms were entirely remodeled (ETSU Physical Plant) and integrated audiovisual and electronics systems were installed.  Each system consists of a ceiling-mounted LCD projector, Smart Board, ceiling-mounted speakers, Dell desktop computer, Macintosh computer, audio tape player, videocassette recorder, digital video disc player, remote mouse, touch panel, document camera, audio amplifier, and a thin-screen monitor.  Every student seat in the classroom has both ethernet and electrical power connections.  In addition, each classroom is provided with mobile equipment, including a digital still camera, digital video camera, slide-to-video projector, laser disk player, audio conferencing equipment, and integrated services digital network (ISDN) video-conferencing equipment (Multimedia Classrooms at ETSU).  The six multimedia lecture halls are being renovated and updated, but currently offer a ceiling-mounted LCD projector, Dell desktop computer, and a document camera.  New equipment is being installed in these lecture halls, based on faculty needs and the desire to standardize equipment as much as possible.  Plans for the coming year are to renovate and equip three to five more multimedia classrooms and six additional multimedia lecture halls, based on a budget of $814,000 provided by a portion of the student general access fees.  Our goal at ETSU is to have all classrooms on campus outfitted as multimedia classrooms (Work Group on Campus Policies and Procedures for Instructional Equipment and Classroom Environment Report).  This effort is monitored annually as required by our university strategic goals and performance funding initiative to continue increasing the number of multimedia classrooms (Performance Funding Annual Report for 1999-2000, Institutional Strategic Planning Goals).

Desktop video-conferencing capability has recently been introduced on the campus by the OIT, and currently is available in the multimedia classrooms.  The use of "Internet Protocol" (IP) video, rather than the existing ISDN system, is currently being investigated.  Earlier experiments with IP-based systems were not viable, owing to the amount of traffic on ETSU's internet link.  Therefore, work is now underway to expand the bandwidth of the ETSU internet connection.  We anticipate that this change will increase use of video-conferencing, especially for the purposes of bringing guest speakers electronically to classrooms.  Workshops on NetMeeting and its document-sharing applications currently are offered by academic technology services.

As stated earlier in this report, ETSU ensures the appropriateness and effectiveness of education in technology by integrating that instruction into our general education curriculum and proficiency requirements (SACS Standards II-9, IV-16).  However, in addition to this curricular support, the ETSU Office of Information Technology also offers a diversity of instructional support services and programs designed for student, faculty, and staff (SACS Standard IV-13) that are easily accessible (SACS Standard IV-33).  Much of the student training and assistance provided by OIT personnel occurs on an individual basis in the open computer labs and through the Student Help Desk(SACS Standards IV-13, IV-33).  The Faculty and Staff Help Desk,also operated by OIT, offers the same individualized assistance as the Student Help Desk.  Formal training for ETSU faculty and staff is managed and provided by the ETSU Academic Technology Services division of OIT (SACS Standard IV-13).

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