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St. Cloud State University
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Copy, reserve use increase
By Kristen Kubisiak
Published:
Monday, September 29, 2003
The bar, the movies, the mall, the metrodome, the coffee shop and the grocery store. These are places where students would like to spend what little money remains in their bank accounts after the drain of tuition and book expenses.
The copy shop, however, is one of the last places students want to drop their pittance pocket change, especially on copies of articles they will throw away after the fall semester.
The location of Copies Plus makes it a convenient resource for students. Class projects, campus organization posters, professional resumes and business card printing are all common uses for the store.
Yet, when professors send students there, more than likely they are going to find themselves separated from their hard earned money. Even though copies are often small in increments, the cost can quickly add up.
Carelyn Doerr, student manager of Copies Plus, said the most expensive student packet in the store is $27.27.
"But that is for about 40 or so articles," she said.
A 15-by-50 inch file cabinet, snugly positioned between paper-filled shelves and an employee computer work station, is home to what Doerr loosely estimated as hundreds of articles students will need copied this semester.
"There are probably about 60-70 professors who file packets each semester," said Zack Babel, a third-year student who has worked at Copies Plus for three years.
Doerr said that this year Copies Plus added an additional 14 classes to what was previously a 52-course list.
"This fall has been the busiest we have ever been since I have worked here," Babel said.
Although there has been speculation among students that professors' increased use of the file system at Copies Plus is due to budget cuts, Associate Vice President of Administrative Affairs Diana Burlison is skeptical.
"I don't think there is any connection," Burlison said.
Whatever the reason, many SCSU professors are no longer relying strictly on textbook information as their primary teaching tool. But students don't need to take an additional financial blow in order to get lecture notes or more up-to-date information from journal articles.
According to Pat Sauerer, library technician at the Miller Learning and Resource Center, since the building opened in 2000, many professors have been taking advantage of the free reserve system.
"Professors fill out forms to have articles, video or audio cassettes, and books - both personal and library-owned - on reserve," Sauerer, who has worked as a library technician for 15 years at SCSU, said. "The professors determine the check-out period these materials have. We have two-hour, one-day and three-day check-out periods."
Three binders full of yellow slips sit on the circulation desk.
Sauerer said these bound books contain about 300 request forms issued by professors.
"When the Miller Center first opened, the number of requests sky-rocketed," she said.
According to annual report information provided by Access Services Librarian Coordinator Melinda Dermody, the number of items professors put on reserve the fall of 2000 doubled from the year before in Centennial Hall.
In 2002-2003, the reserves boasted an additional 3,348 items and 39,083 check-outs. This is a 10,144 increase from the previous year, indicating more students were utilizing the reserve system.
An extension of the traditional reserve system, the e-reserve, is also becoming popular among students and faculty.
Greg Walz, e-reserves coordinator, has worked with the e-reserve nearly since its inception in 2000.
"When I was a student at SCSU, it was a special project that Plamen Miltenoff, Melinda Dermody, J.C. Turner and Chris Brown were working on," he said. "It is homegrown...a completely from scratch process."
According to Walz, the objective of the e-reserve team is to put information that cannot be found on InfoTrac or anywhere else in the library system, in electronic form, then turn it into a PDF and make it accessible to students via the server.
Students can access this information through the Miller Learning Resource Center home page by using their HuskyNet IDs and passwords. They can then save or print out the information, either at home or using money in their print accounts at the library.
All that professors need to do is provide the library with an e-reserve request form and their material will be added.
In 2002-2003, 1,689 items were put on e-reserve, a 262 increase from the previous year.
"It's all part of the changing idea of student access," Walz said.
Though Walz described the sudden interest in e-reserves as an anomaly, he said he believes it will continue to grow - in part because of student demand.
"There may not be enough copies on reserve so students request (that) their professors get more copies and they (professors) may just have it put on e-reserve instead," Walz said.
Walz said he wasn't sure why professors still require students to spend their money on copies when free alternatives exist, but he did have a guess.
"They may not know it's (e-reserve) out there right now," he said. "But once people know about it, I think they will embrace it more and more."
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