june14_b.indd C&RL News June 2014 318 Natalia Fernández and Jane Nichols Booxter and LibraryThing Making cultural resource centers library collections visible and accessible Like other academic libraries, Oregon State University Libraries (OSUL) diligently reaches out to a wide variety of campus groups as part of its mission to develop user-focused services that contribute to stu- dent success.1,2 Outreach to student groups focuses on equipping “students with tools and resources needed to succeed in and out of the classroom” and is intended to enhance their “evolving personal, social, emotional and academic endeavors”—all goals held in common with student service units.3 OSUL focuses some of its outreach ef- forts on The university’s Cultural Resource Centers (CRCs) to meet these goals as well as embracing diversity as part of OSU’s drive to excellence.4 Campus cultural centers have long sup- ported ethnic minority students to adjust to and succeed at predominately White institu- tions (PWIs), higher education institutions with a 50% or greater White student body.5 Such institutions may carry a history of hav- ing been historically White prior to the out- lawing of segregation and are differentiated from colleges and universities focused on ethnic minority students, such as historically Black colleges and universities.6 Ethnic minority students value cultural centers for widely varying reasons such as comfortable places to just “hang-out” to venues that bear the weight of cultivating a welcoming institutional climate at PWIs.7 A cultural center’s campus presence demon- strates a “responsible and culturally sensi- tive position toward diversity, creating an environment that acknowledges, respects, and enhances multiculturalism.”8 OSU’s CRCs play similar roles on campus. As the liaisons to OSU’s CRCs our out- reach efforts connected us to the director of the office of diversity development, who oversees them. The director asked for as- sistance with developing a common library system as a strategy to promote intra-center visibility. This is when OSUL’s outreach efforts were called to go beyond typical instruction services.9 We describe a creative solution resulting in a library system for OSU’s six CRCs: Asian & Pacific Cultural Center (APCC); Centro Cultural César Chávez (CCCC); Lonnie B. Harris Black Cultural Center (BCC); Native American Longhouse Eena Haws (NAL); Pride Center (PC); and the Women’s Center (WC). Discussion of need and development of solution In prior years, OSU’s CRCs developed their own library collections ranging from ap- proximately 400 to 1,800 books each, many of which were donated. The collections are accessible to anyone who visits the CRCs. Visitors are primarily students, some faculty and staff, and occasionally local commu- Natalia Fernández is Oregon multicultural librarian e-mail: natalia.fernandez@oregonstate.edu, and Jane Nichols is digital humanities coordinator, social sciences and humanities librarian at Oregon State University, e-mail: jane.nichols@oregonstate.edu © 2014 Natalia Fernández and Jane Nichols ACRL TechConnect June 2014 319 C&RL News nity members. None of the libraries used a formal classification system, and there was no uniform circulation policy or system in place. Because adding the CRCs’ collections to OSUL’s system was not feasible, we had to develop a creative solution based on the center’s needs. The director wanted an in- ventory management and circulation system that was low cost as well as easy to both use and administer. She also wanted a discovery system that allowed for all of the libraries to be intellectually linked and accessible online, raising the collections’ visibility to the OSU community. After researching several options, we elected to use a combination of Booxter as an inventory management and circulation system and LibraryThing as the discovery tool. Booxter is an easy to use, inexpensive software for Macs. An individual account costs $30. The software is similar to a per- sonal ILS system; each book’s record within a Booxter collection includes fields to track circulation. LibraryThing is a free web-based soft- ware. It is donation-based, with an average donation of $25. We set up an account and shared the username and password so it can be accessed online by all of the CRCs. The combination of Booxter and LibraryThing met the CRCs’ needs. Project implementation Although the end goal was for the CRCs to have a system independent of the OSUL, as librarians, we were able to provide assis- tance in the system set up and staff training. To begin, we met with the CRCs’ student staff to explain the project goals and our expectations for their level of involvement. We organized the various elements of the project and then trained the students to implement the following eight steps: 1. Organize each library. 2. Set up a Booxter account for each center. 3. Input all book information into Bo- oxter. 4. Set up a LibraryThing account. 5. Upload Booxter information into the LibraryThing account. 6. Develop circulation policies. T h e C R C s’ p hy s i c a l l i b r a r i e s a r e i n t e l l e c t u a l l y l i n k e d t h r o u g h a s h a r e d LibraryThing account at www.librarything.com/profile/OSU_Cultural_Centers. View this article online for more detailed images. C&RL News June 2014 322 7. Create library manual. 8. Train all cultural center student staff. The first step was to organize each of the libraries. Within each center a designated student or two worked to label each of the books with the center’s contact informa- tion and Library of Congress call number. We trained the students to locate the call numbers and ISBN information and input it into Booxter. Next, the office of diversity development purchased four Booxter ac- counts and a student worker from the office set up an account for each center. We practiced on a free version of the software to train ourselves and to create a set of instructions for the students to input each book’s information into Booxter. While the students worked on the Boox- ter portion of the project, we created a pri- vate LibraryThing account to test the system by uploading books, using various tags, and creating a profile. Once we established the workflow, we created a live account for the CRCs and then met with each center to up- load the individual Booxter libraries. Booxter features the ability to export book data into a CSV file, which c a n t h e n b e uploaded into LibraryThing. LibraryThing uses a book’s ISBN number t o l o c a t e a book’s publi- cation informa- tion and jacket c o v e r w h e n available. If a book does not have an ISBN n u m b e r, t h e book’s infor- mation can be manually en- tered. W e m e t with the CRCs director to establish a basic set of circulation policies, including a check-out time of four weeks, renewals, holds, and the requirement of an OSU ID for check-out. We then created a library manual describing the library poli- cies, the check-out and check-in instructions, and the steps on how to add a new book to the library. We met with each of the centers’ staff to review the manual and train them to check-out/check-in books. The instructions were created so any staff member can check books in and out. There are four check-out and check-in steps. The steps include using the check-out system in Booxter; physically labeling the book as checked-out on a small tag inserted in the back of the book; manually noting in LibraryThing that the book is checked-out; and, finally, sending a confirmation e-mail to the patron. To check-in a book, the same steps are repeated, but the check-out infor- mation is deleted. The steps take about five minutes to complete. Example check-out/check-in Step 1: Using the check-out/check-in system in Booxter Booxter is a program specifically designed for individuals to manage their personal collections; each book’s record includes fields to track its circulation. June 2014 323 C&RL News To designate the books within each library in the shared LibraryThing account, each cultural center is tagged by its common acronym, for example, the Pride Center is tagged “PC.” And, to note if a book is checked-out, the tag “checked-out” is added to a book’s record. We use the following Booxter fields: Lent Out, Lent To, Lent To E-mail, Date Lent, and Date Due. To keep track of additional infor- mation not accommodated by these fields, the Notes field is used to note whether a patron is a student, faculty, or staff member; the patron’s phone number; and the name of the cultural center staff member who assisted the patron. To check-in a book, all of the patron’s personal information is removed. In the notes field the check-out and check-in dates are kept along with the patron’s status. These are kept for statistical pur- poses. No personal patron information is kept after a book is checked-in. Step 2: Physically labeling a book as checked-out / checked-in A small tag is pasted onto the inside back cover of each book. The tag features a table with the following columns: Due Date, Staff Initials, Checked-In Date, Staff Initials. With this tag the patron can easily check for the book’s due date, and this tag can act as a physical record of a book’s circula- tion history. Step 3: Manually noting in LibraryThing that a book is checked-out/checked-in LibraryThing is not set up to note whether or not a book is checked-out. Instead, we use the “tags” field to tag a book’s status as “Checked-Out.” Anyone searching the CRCs LibraryThing library can click on the tag to see what is checked-out. To check-in a book, the tag is simply deleted. Step 4: Sending a confirmation e-mail to the patron We created a Gmail account for all of the cultural centers to use. We also drafted e- mails for check-out, check-in, as well as for overdue books. CRC staff are required to use these templates by filling in the book and patron information. Once sent, a copy of the e-mail is moved into the appropriate “library” folder. Sent e-mails can assist with tracking usage. Lessons learned There were a few key lessons learned with this project. Most notably, the project took over two years to complete; however, depending on staffing, the project could conceivably be completed in about six months. Libraries interested in this solution can modify the timeframe to match their needs and those of the centers involved. Also, a project such as this likely only needs one librarian; we collaborated due to our distributed liaison model with the CRCs. CRCs student staff schedules and turnover extended the overall length of the project. The students at each cen- ter have several duties keep- ing them occupied through- out the academic year. To work with their busy sched- ules, it was crucial to make sure they were on track and were completing the various project steps. Student turn- over meant determining who the new contacts were and additional time spent to train new students. The other lesson learned was the tremendous benefit of having consistent administrative support for the project from the office with oversight over the CRCs. The director of the diversity development office was the main contact (continues on page 335) June 2014 335 C&RL News Getting out into our campus community and attending diversity events and trainings led some students, staff, and faculty to feel more welcome in the library. Sharing our stories, supporting each other’s work, fos- tering respect, and understanding are key to building cultural competency and a strong, just community. Notes 1. D. Adkins and I. Espinal, “The Diversity Mandate,” Library Journal 129 (April 2004): 7. person throughout the project. She was able to make over-arching decisions and organize staff trainings. Next steps and closing thoughts In fall term of 2013, we piloted the library circulation policies and procedures with the APCC, CCCC, NAL, and PC. We trained the center staff and asked them to market the existence and availability of the libraries so that the campus community could begin using the books with the new system. To further market the collections, each center will add the LibraryThing widget to their center’s homepages, which will act as a direct link to the LibraryThing account for potential patrons to browse the collections. The next steps are to determine if chang- es need to be made to the policies and pro- cedures; address the need for an overdue policy; assess the circulation statistics; and schedule annual inventories. To complete the project, BCC and the Women’s Center will be added within the next year. While the project research and implementation took about 80 hours, the maintenance of the system should be minimal. A project such as this is applicable be- yond cultural resource centers. Any group such as a student organization or depart- ment who wishes to make their library collections accessible could potentially use the Booxter/LibraryThing combination. This project offers a creative and innova- 2. F. Brook, “Call for an Anti-Racist Ap- proach in Librarianship,” (June 3, 2013, web log post), retrieved from www.thebookaneers. com/2013/06/call-for-anti-racist-approach -in.html. 3. K. H. Hill, Diversity and multicultural- ism in libraries (Greenwich, CT: JAI Press, 1994). 4. L. Mestre, Librarians serving diverse populations: Challenges and opportunities (Chicago: Association of College and Re- search Libraries, 2009). tive solution that enables OSU’s CRCs to manage and promote their collections and allows OSU Libraries to extend its services and embed librarians throughout campus. Notes 1. Emily Love and Margaret B. Edwards, “Forging inroads between libraries and aca- demic, multicultural and student services,” Reference Services Review 37, no. 1 (2009): 20-29, http://www.emeraldinsight.com /journals.htm?articleid=1771179&show=ab stract. 2. OSU Libraries and Press, OSU Librar- ies and Press Strategic Plan 2012-2017, http://osulibrary.oregonstate.edu/flipbook /strategicplan/. 3. Love, 21. 4. Oregon State University, OSU Strate- gic Plan, http://oregonstate.edu/leadership /strategicplan. 5. Encyclopedia of African American Education: Pr edominantly White Insti- tutions, 2010, N-Z. doi: http://dx.doi. org/10.4135/9781412971966.n193. 6. Ibid. 7. Lee Jones, Jeanett Castellanos, and Darnell Cole, “Examining the Ethnic Minority Student Experience at Predominantly White Institutions: A Case Study,” Journal of His- panic Higher Education 1, no. 1 (2002): 19- 39, http://jhh.sagepub.com/content/1/1/19. abstract. 8. Ibid. 9. Love, 21. (“Booxter and . . .” cont. from page 323)