Always Innovating
Research and Innovation
Walter Rowe, University Librarian, spent some time fixing security strips to the library’s volumes, remembering, “Back then, strips weren’t like they are now, they’d cut you. I was always bleeding.” Looking back, Rowe is surprised by the lack of technology in the old library. “I thought it was neat we had print-outs. I thought I was a big computer guy because I could type a key punch card.”
Manual check-out procedures gave way to a library punch card system designed by IBM. Not only was the punch card system unwieldy, it was exceptionally loud. Rowe recalled the “trip-hammer key-punch machines. Those things were awful.” A test revealed that the machine emitted almost ninety decibels of machine-gun sound when operating. “You’d leave at the end of the day and have a headache.” Special Collections’ Paul Camp had another take on the machine, “It was miraculous, wonderful.”
In 1982, USF tested the LAMBDA (Local Access to and Management of Bibliographic Data and Authorities) system, along with several other state institutions. The computerized system was “designed for sophisticated searches of material,” according to USF library assistant director of technical services Art Kechersid. Four years later, in 1986, the Florida State Legislature selected the Library User Information Service (LUIS), an Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC) developed at Northwestern University in 1980 as an electronic patron interface to the real-time circulation module NOTIS (Specht, 2017), to computerize access to the collections of the State University Libraries. The decision at state level began a conversion process that required USF Tampa Library personnel to bar-code 450,000 volumes (Huse, 2005). University libraries in Florida were among the early adopters of NOTIS and LUIS, embracing the new system before NOTIS became a for-profit organization at Northwestern in 1987 (Specht, 2017).
John Keeth, University Librarian, recalled early days of technology adoption, “We had one computer for the whole department. Art Ketchersid, who was assistant director, used to always be talking about, ‘One of these days everyone’s going to have a computer at their desk,’ and we just laughed. To us, that was completely unrealistic.”
Websites for use by the general public and search engines to help navigate a growing collection on internet content first began to emerge around 1993 (History of the Web, n.d.; (History of the World Wide Web, 2024). By this time USF Libraries were doing email reference service to improve remote access to library collections and services (Frank, 1998). In 1995, the Tampa library charged a Virtual Library Planning Committee with the development of a plan for a virtual library. That team became an implementation team in 1997, enacting a plan to purchase online databases and cross platform search services (Metz-Wiseman, M. et al., 1999). The Implementation team also kickstarted the digitization of Special Collections, receiving an award from USF Foundation to facilitate the work, and then a $3 million donation from A. Bayard Angle to ensure that the USF Libraries “stay on the cutting edge of technology” (Huse, 2005).
Also in 1997, the USF Tampa Campus library was awarded a grant to become a distanced learning and reference referral center for the state, supporting students and faculty in their distanced coursework via a variety of methods, including email, telephone hotlines, online instruction tools, course reserves, interlibrary loan, and electronic resources (Huse, 2005; University of South Florida Tampa Campus Awarded Grant, 1997; Metz-Wisemen, et al., 1996).
Part of staying on the cutting edge of technology is always assessing, re-evaluating, and constantly improving what’s been done. The USF Libraries have been quick adopters of new technologies aimed and improving libraries services, like online interlibrary loan request managements systems, integrated collections searches, and online archival management systems. Three years after it was unveiled, the original 1995 website for the Libraries was aging. In 1999 Libraries’ faculty undertook usability testing to understand what USF faculty and students needed from the website with the aim of improving access to electronic resources, library collections, and services (Allen, 2002). Under the oversight of communication managers and webmasters the Libraries’ website has since undergone several overhauls.
When a prebuilt solution couldn’t be found to suit the needs of the Libraries and its users, then new solutions were made. In 2008, based on a report from a Digital Collections Task Force, the Libraries undertook to create their own solution to providing a cross platform search between Libraries digital collections (Greenberg, Lewis, & Bernardy, 2010).
The Libraries has also sought to stay on the cutting edge of research needs at USF. When interdisciplinary use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) grew by 1999, the Libraries established a Geographic Information Systems Research and Data Center within the environment of the evolving “virtual library” (Abresch, 2003). When scholars on campus began considering Open Access (OA) publication as a method to both improve the impact and reach of disciplinary scholarship and to provide common spaces of discourse for niche disciplinary specialties, the USF Libraries began publishing its first OA journal in 2007: Numeracy (Borchert & Fielding, 2014). By 2009, the USF Libraries had begun expanding its support of OA publication and self-archiving by expanding the OA journal platform to a full digital institutional repository (Borchert & Fielding, 2014).
Today, the University of South Florida Libraries continue to support research at USF through reassessing and improving, collaboration across units on campus, launching new initiatives, developing targeted collection plans, and building online research portals and information resources. For example, the Florida Environment and Natural History (FLENH) initiative brings accessible, data-driven, research materials to students and scientists at USF, and around the world. USF Libraries Workshops for Researchers delivers instructions on a range of tools and topics from Libraries’ experts and guest speakers in support of the research activities of all disciplines. Digital Commons @ USF combines the Institutional Repository, collecting USF created scholarship and research activities, with Digital Collections scanned and made accessible from USF Libraries’ Special Collections. In 2024, the USF Libraries launched the Broader Impacts Team initiative that collaborates with faculty to improve the impact and success of grant proposals by coordinating specialized services and expertise to find custom solutions and enhance the impact of and public engagement with research projects
References
Abresch, J. (2003). Geographic Information Systems Research and Data Centers. In Building a Virtual Library (pp. 52–64).
Allen, M. (2002). A case study of the usability testing of the University of South Florida’s virtual library interface design. Online Information Review, 26(1), 40-53. https://doi.org/10.1108/14684520210418374
Borchert, C. A., & Fielding, J. (2014). Scholar Commons @ USF: Sharing Knowledge Worldwide. The Serials Librarian, 66(1–4), 161–173. https://doi.org/10.1080/0361526X.2014.879638
Frank, I. (1998) E-mail reference Service at the University of South Florida: A well-kept secret. Art Documentation: Journal of the Art Libraries Society of North America. 17(1). 10.1086/adx.17.1.27948927
Greenberg, M., Lewis, B. I., & Bernardy, R. Jr. (2010). “CORAL: USF Libraries Digital Collections Prospectus” Available at: http://works.bepress.com/markigreenberg/9/
The History of the Web. (n.d.). Timeline. https://thehistoryoftheweb.com/timeline/
History of the World Wide Web. (2024). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_World_Wide_Web
Huse, A. (2005) Chronology of the University of South Florida. https://works.bepress.com/andrew_huse/1/
Lewis, B. & Greenberg, M. (2011) Change or Perish: Implementing Aeon in the University of South Florida Tampa Library’s Special Collections. The Oracle: Semiannual advice and good tidings from Atlas Systems. https://cedar.wwu.edu/library_facpubs/40
Metz-Wiseman, M., Neville, T., Hanson, A., Grohs, K., Silver, S., Sanchez, E., & Doherty, M. (1999). Building a virtual library: How the University of South Florida Libraries did it. College & Research Libraries News, 60(4), 267-270. doi:https://doi.org/10.5860/crln.60.4.267
Metz-Wiseman, M., Silver, S. Hanson, A., Johnston, J., Grohs, K., Neville, T., Sanchez, E. & Gray, C. (1996). The USF Libraries Virtual Library Project: A blueprint for development. Washington, D.C., ERIC. ED418704. http://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED418704
Specht, J. (2017). The NOTIS History Webpage. Library Technology Guides. https://librarytechnology.org/history/notis/
The university of south Florida Tampa campus library awarded grant. Information Outlook. 1997;1(12):8. https://www.proquest.com/trade-journals/university-south-florida-tampa-campus-library/docview/197378609/se-2?accountid=14745