The UAA/APU Consortium Library is a robust organization that provides a variety of services to our users. Library faculty and staff assist students daily in many ways that aren’t tracked or measurable.  We identify and acquire physical materials and online resources throughout the year that support students’ curriculum and research. We categorize and keep this knowledge, and make it available in an organized and searchable manner. We also manage online resources, enabling students, faculty, and staff to find information on their own, either on- or off-campus.

Below are areas where we can track and measure how many students we directly assist, and how they use our resources that we create or curate for them.

Information Literacy Instruction:
During the 2024 Spring Semester, 35 separate Instruction Sessions for 508 students were taught by the Instruction and Research Librarians.

Library faculty in the Alaska Medical Library provided instruction to 387 students through a variety of modalities.

Archives faculty provided one instruction session for 15 students (focused on Rare Books).

Library Instruction for individual students:
During the 2024 Spring Semester, 1,530 individual questions were answered at the Information/Research Help Desk, either in-person, by phone, or online.

During this time period 102 students scheduled individual Research Consultations with subject librarians.

The Archives renovation project has greatly impacted the availability of archival collections (99% not accessible) and support provided by library faculty to students for using these primary source materials. The renovation was projected to last four months, but has run the entire academic year. During these extreme conditions, the Archives faculty provided 2 internships (40, 120 hours) for 2 undergraduate students; 2 reference transactions resulting in use of records; and 2 Rare Books requests.

Workshops:
Training Workshop for Learning Commons Tutors: 40 tutors attended (session included Instruction/Research Services and Access Services from the Library, plus Learning Commons and Student Success)

Usage, Library Resources:
Unique electronic items used Spring 2024: E-journal articles: 61,608; E-books: 5,489

Physical library materials: 3,253 checked out; 1,159 renewed; 1,260 holds placed; Reserve checkouts 1,176 and renewals 22

Locally curated guides to library resources
LibGuides (through the library site) 26,308
FAQs and others items 7,550

In the Blackboard Course shell during Spring 2024, the Library Resources link was viewed by 15,672 students.  There is a default link in the navigation menu of every Blackboard Course shell titled “Library Resources” that directs students to tailored, subject-specific library guides (LibGuides). This tool supports student success by providing access to library materials alongside other course information without leaving the Blackboard shell.

Building usage:
We have a daily average of 102 students studying in the building during the 1pm head count. This is a weekly average of 714 students and a monthly average (30 days) of 3,060 students. If you look at the week before finals, the daily average is up nearly 20% or 121 students.

We also track how many students are in the building during our after-hours study period. The Library is exclusively open to students, staff, and faculty from 8pm to midnight, Sunday to Thursday. From January 21 to April 25, there was a daily average of 43 students studying in the building during these late night hours. This is a Sunday-Thursday (5 days) average of 215 students and a monthly average (20 days) of 860 students. If you look at the last two weeks, the two weeks before finals, the daily average is up nearly 40% or 60 students.

UAA Graduate Exit Survey Results, Fall 2023
UAA has established a biannual survey of exiting graduates. The survey asks students about how well they believe they have achieved UAA’s core competencies, how welcomed and included they felt at UAA, and how well specific student supports met their needs.
The first report from the offices of Institutional Effectiveness and Institutional Research demonstrates that the Consortium Library is a key resource for UAA students.

While our UAA and APU university communities are our primary users, the Consortium Library is open year round, and open to the public. We are proud to consider the library the heart of the campus, and we hope that this snapshot into the services we provide conveys a greater understanding of the many ways library faculty and staff contribute to student success.

Report compiled by Jodee Kuden and Rebecca Moorman.
Data and details supplied by Jennifer McKay, Page Brannon, Arlene Schmuland, Ruth Terry, Lorelei Sterling, Christie Ericson, Jodee Kuden, and Rebecca Moorman.

Download Report