COMPREHENSIVE STANDARD CS P25:

The institution provides facilities, services, and other learning/information resources that are appropriate to support its teaching, research, and service mission.

Collin County Community College District (CCCCD) provides libraries, media collections, and services, instructional design centers, open computer labs, and distance learning facilities that are highly regarded by faculty and students.

The 2002 Service Assessment Report of the Learning Resources Center (LRC) (Reference 1) found that LRC facilities, services, and resources appropriately and successfully address CCCCD’s institutional strategic goals and the overall mission of the College. Appropriately, the LRC’s strategic goals are derived from the District’s strategic goals (References 2, 3).

CCCCD’s commitment to LRC excellence is informed and guided by the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Standards for Community, Junior, and Technical College Learning Resource Programs (Reference 4).

The core of the physical facilities supporting CCCCD’s teaching, research, and service mission is the Learning Resources Centers housed at each of three campuses (Reference 5). The Spring Creek Campus LRC is a 54,000 square-foot building seating 400. The Central Park Campus LRC is a 20,000 square-foot complex seating 185. The Preston Ridge Campus LRC is a 10,000 square-foot temporary facility seating 140, but will be replaced by a new 50,000 square-foot LRC.

Libraries provide in-person services, such as reference, circulation, interlibrary loan, and bibliographic instruction. Increasingly, library services are extended via the Web to support distance learners, with remote access to full text resources, county library catalogs, reference assistance, e-reserves, and tutorials.

Student Digital Media Workshops provide students with access to the most current hardware and software, allowing them to create multimedia CDs and Web materials for course assignments. The more than two hundred library computers are replaced frequently at CCCCD, and new enhancements such as portable wireless networks and District-wide fiber optics are the College standard.

Extensive media equipment and services are also devoted to learning and instruction at each campus and at the Courtyard Center for Professional Development. “Wired” classrooms have become the standard for CCCCD. Many classrooms include combinations of multimedia podia, “smart boards,” data projectors, wireless laptops, and high-speed computer labs. Media collections include over twenty thousand videos, CDs, audiotapes, DVDs, and multimedia items. CCCCD utilizes an intercampus videoconferencing network, produces cable television programming, and offers satellite down linking at each campus.

The Teaching/Learning Center (TLC) (Reference 6) is an instructional design center serving the entire District. Since its inception in 2000, more than half of CCCCD’s full-time professors and over one hundred associate faculty have used the center to create online courses, conference presentations, instructional materials, and teaching Web sites. In part due to TLC efforts, during Fall 2003, CCCCD professors were offering sixty-five online courses.

The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board On-Site Review Team visit of March 2000 found that “CCCCD library facilities are excellent. The team was impressed with the availability of equipment, online databases, and connections to public libraries” (Reference 7).

The LRC Faculty Survey (Reference 8), conducted District-wide in March 2003, found that professors across all divisions strongly agreed with the statements that the libraries have the books, journals, media, and computer equipment to serve their needs. Students District-wide agreed that the libraries have the books, journals, media, and computer equipment needed to be successful in their courses (Reference 9).

CCCCD students ranked their libraries significantly higher than did other community college students state-wide in the Noel-Levitz 2-year College Student Satisfaction Inventory (Reference 10). This survey item received the highest positive difference of the 95 items surveyed.

Supporting Documents: