American Samoa Community College

II.B.1. The institution supports student learning and achievement by providing library, and other learning support services to students and to personnel responsible for student learning and support.  These services are sufficient in quantity, currency, depth, and variety to support educational programs, regardless of location or means of delivery, including distance education and correspondence education.  Learning support services include, but are not limited to, library collections, tutoring, learning centers, computer laboratories, learning technology, and ongoing instruction for users of the library and other learning support services. 

The Library Program Director works collaboratively with faculty to ascertain curriculum needs, where faculty requests are encouraged and purchases are made accordingly throughout the academic year. In addition, the library works with faculty to provide students with access to course reserves (textbooks, course notes, instructional handouts, etc.) from a broad spectrum of disciplines, as well as provide faculty requested Library Tours for courses, emphasizing student information literacy on how students can access EBSCO HOST databases, do a scholarly or professional journal article search, retrieve and save it, and use the citation feature available to this process to complete course research assignment and requirement.1, 2, 3

 The institution assesses the effectiveness of its Library and Learning Support Services through the Divisional Assessment Program Review.  The results allow the Library Division to improve its services through qualified personnel, maintenance of materials to support student learning, provide training for users of the library, access to the library, and have articulations with other institutions for library support services. The institution assesses the effectiveness of its library and learning support services through qualified personnel and allocation of resource for improvement.

Services to students and all library users are continually improved as a result of the annual library user surveys. Each staff member has specific duties and responsibilities, yet all serve on a need basis the Circulation Desk, Reference Desk, Pacific Collection Desk, General Collection Desk, and Education Resource Center Desk. Data from recent surveys and library statistics confirm the library is meeting its user informational needs favorably each semester.

The Library further evaluates its services through daily work area observations and the use of an automated daily attendance Exit Gate count for library patrons. Further there is a sign-in Roster at the first floor Reference Desk and Special Collections (Samoa and Pacific Collections room) and at the second floor ERC room Library Associate Desk. When signing in to a particular library collection area, users are asked to also show a valid library card or current College identification, and state their declared or undeclared academic program and purpose of visit whether it is to do internet research, email, typing an assignment paper or other tasks.

All library collection and work areas including the cataloging and processing work room evaluate services by recording daily statistics. This data is compiled and highlighted by the library program director into an institutional required Library Bi-weekly Report submission and subsequent Library Quarterly Report and End of Year Summary Report, which is uploaded to ASCC’s Compliance Assist. There is ongoing reporting and evaluation of library activities and services.4

The library has a collection of approximately 40,000 volumes that includes a subscription to ninety periodicals and some online databases for full-text professional and scholarly articles, reference books, journals, and newspapers for student and faculty research. In addition the library has an elevator that is in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The library is also designated as a federal depository library, and houses federal government publications. The library owns DVDs, CDs and audios, and videotapes for instructional purposes. The Follett Automation System is currently available at the ASCC Library.5

Library User skills are documented and assessed through user surveys and student performance on class based library assignments. Selected courses require library research and information retrieval skills which indicate levels of student proficiency.
Each library work area and library user tour has library Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) in place that guides each library staff member on respective area duties as well as providing library user tours.  All library staff are involved in providing faculty requested tours or instruction.

The Library further meets this standard by informing library users verbally and through handouts at the Circulation Desk, Reference Desk, ERC Desk, and through the Library Tour(s) Brochure Handout materials and per faculty request Library Guided Tour that online tutorial and databases are available for research.

The technology resources on campus are adequate for current needs with closer collaboration among Academic Affairs and service divisions to assure that students receive the appropriate level of support.

ASCC library is a member of the American Samoa Library Consortium that includes American Samoa Historic Preservation Office, Feleti Barstow Public Library, Kanana Fou Theological Seminary, Manua High School Public Library, Ofu Community Center, Polynesian Photo Archives, Tafuna Juvenile Correctional Center, and KVZK-TV Station.

Card catalog and Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC) provide information and easy access to the location of books. There are computers with Internet access and computer software for students and faculty.6

The library collection consists of books, periodicals and electronic resources to assist library patrons’ research needs in the following Collection Areas:

  • The Reference Collection is located on the first floor of the library. This collection consists of Encyclopedias, Almanacs, Dictionaries, Atlases, Handbooks, and other reference materials. The Magazine collection is also located in the Reference area of the library. The Reference Collection area also contains ten student desk top computer carrels with a printer, located at the adjacent Circulation Desk, to facilitate student learning and research, as well as ten study-tables.
  • The General Collection for patron check-out is located on the second floor of the library and consists of Non-fiction and Fiction Books. This collection also contains the Biography, Large-Print, Juvenile, Paperback, and Spanish Language collections. The General Collection area also contains 12 study-tables and five individual study carrels.
  • The Education Resource Center (ERC) room is located on the second floor of the library and contains educational books and periodicals in support of the B.Ed. Elementary Degree program and teacher education courses. The ERC room is equipped with eight student desk top computers and two printers to facilitate student learning and research, as well as three study-tables and three individual study carrels.
  • The Special Collection Room, also called the Samoa and other Pacific Islands Collection, is located on the first floor and contains books, periodicals and materials on Samoa and other Pacific Islands, Pacific CD-ROMs, and materials from the South Pacific Commission.  The library’s Rare Book Collection is also located in this room. The Special Collection area is equipped with a fax/photo-copy machine and three study-tables. ASCC research publications are also available in the Special Collection Room. The Special Collection Room also provides access to the Samoa Studies Institute archives via ASCC’s website.

In addition to the College’s collection materials, books may also be borrowed from the Feleti Barstow Public Library, University of Hawaii Libraries, University of Guam Library, and College of Micronesia Library through a Memorandum of Understanding interlibrary loan program with each of these affiliate libraries.7

1 - Reference 2014-2015 Bi-weekly reports
2 - Template for faculty supplemental course material order request
3 - ASCC website main page search library link http://ASLC.FollettDestiny.com
4 - Institutional Data Set 0011
5 - ASCC Catalog 2014-2016. page 30
6 - Reference ASCC website main page search library link http://ASLC.FollettDestiny.com
7 - Reference copy of MOUs