The Old Dominion University Libraries – The 2nd Library "Visit"

Being a student of Old Dominion University, I wanted to know a bit more about its academic library and archives, even if I couldn’t easily visit it in-person. Luckily, the library’s web page offered a lot of information regarding its services, staff, and collections.

The Website

The Old Dominion University Library’s page can be accessed from the university website’s home page, through a drop-down menu. To me, the main page seemed to be just a little bit cluttered—icons at the top left and right corners of the screen never go away when you scroll down, and they kind of crowd the screen. There are nice, high-contrast colors that of course match the university’s colors (blue and white), and thumbnail images give the page some life. Unfortunately, a lot of the text on the page is pretty small; I don’t have any visual impairments, but I feel like it will make the page harder to read for some.

Screenshot of the Old Dominion University Libraries home webpage (Coburn, 2022).

The library’s services are clearly noted, near the top of the page. Through the library, students can request interlibrary loans, they can reserve rooms for personal use, browse the library guides as well as the staff directory, and they can check out equipment—toward the bottom of the latter page, there is a link titled “Your Best Shot!”, displaying photographs taken by students with the university’s cameras, camcorders, and/or iPads (Old Dominion University, n.d.). Students are welcome to submit their photography whenever they want, within the parameters listed on the page.

The collections that are available to students include, but are not limited to material related to the arts and humanities, education, history, science and mathematics, and social sciences. These collections can be viewed online through databases or the library catalog. Naturally, all digital materials can only be accessed by ODU students, when they sign in with their MIDAS account. Once they’re signed in, they can view the available full online texts, including eBooks and academic journals.

The staff directory lists over 50 individuals, with job titles including art library supervisor, head of liaison services, and metadata database maintenance specialist (Old Dominion University, n.d.). The current Dean of University Libraries is Mr. Timothy Hackman. The name of the art library supervisor in particular stuck out to me: it was one of my classmates, Ms. Gay Acompanado! I found that pretty surprising and exciting.

Virtual events are also highlighted on the library’s page. ODU boasts what it refers to as its “virtual book display,” showing selections in honor of Native American Heritage Month (Old Dominion University, n. d.). Students are also invited to attend monthly virtual book club meetings via Zoom. All library-hosted events are listed on the online calendar.

The Building, Inside and Out

https://ww1.odu.edu/content/dam/odu/offices/university-marketing-communications/video/odu-2-learning-commons-tour.mov/_jcr_content/renditions/cq5dam.video.h264.mp4

For the purpose of being succinct, I wanted to focus on ODU’s Perry Library, listed online as the “Learning Commons @ Perry Library” (Old Dominion University, n. d.). The Perry Library is located on the main campus in Norfolk, Virginia, directly across from the university’s Engineering Systems building.

It seems strange, but the Perry Library resembles, to me, a modern airport building. The way the front entrance has a concave curve to it, the mix of brick and concrete, and the massive, blue-tinted windows just seem to remind me of the cross-country trips I used to take with my family, at least once a year. I’m probably alone in that observation, but I’d love to know if anyone feels the same way about how the building looks. On the outside, the Perry Library offers seating options—benches made of wood and concrete—lamp posts, and poles displaying banners for Old Dominion.

Perry Library Learning Commons, Lauren Bohenek ePortfolio (Bohenek, 2020).

The library building has a total of four floors. The large, wide windows give natural light and warmth to what might otherwise be a more sterile environment. The library’s interior isn’t totally cold or clinical, however. Students and visitors are free to lounge in plush, colorfully upholstered chairs, as they work and study; wood aisles and paneling add warmth and color; most of the flooring is carpeted; and the furnishing has a more modern style.

The library does have accommodations to allow ease of access for students and visitors. Students don’t need to climb up stairs to enter the library; there are three elevators scattered throughout; and there is one gender-neutral, handicap-accessible restroom on each floor. The catalog offers books in languages other than English (e.g. German, French, Spanish, etc.), as well as audiobooks. Visitors to the library website have access to the building’s floor plans, indicating the services and accommodations offered on each floor. Interestingly, a bagel stand is stationed near one of the emergency fire exits! Normally, I expect libraries to not allow food of any kind, but perhaps there are designated areas where students are free to eat while they read or study.

Collections

ODU’s library offers archival material in addition to books. Such material is easily accessible for students through the school’s Digital Commons. The homepage of the Digital Commons displays the current stats of the website’s traffic, which regularly updates itself to show users from all over the world, and what they are reading and/or downloading. The homepage also directs visitors to the commons’ discipline wheel. The wheel is segmented into ten broad categories, whose focus becomes more refined the further from the center they are. For example, one can look through essays, articles and projects from the discipline of Zoology, found under Animal Sciences, which itself is found within the Life Sciences segment. In total, there are works that can be viewed and downloaded from over 1,000 individual disciplines (ODU Digital Commons, n.d.).

Screenshot of the Discipline Wheel, ODU Digital Commons (Coburn, 2022).

Students can go online and browse the many databases available to them, through ODU. Databases are organized in alphabetical order, listed by general topic, such as Education and Library Science, for example. Students also have access to a variety of online journals and newspapers. Open access journals can be viewed through JSTOR, ROAD, Ulrichsweb, and the Digital Commons, among many others. Individual journals can be filtered by title, subject, or even by citation.

Online, students can also see what the library’s archives hold. Some archive items can be viewed online, but most of them have to be seen in-person. Hopefully I’ll have the opportunity to see the archives myself; maybe when I study on-campus during one of the summer semesters, I’ll get the chance to see what they offer.

Conclusion

The ODU Libraries’ website describes its vision for research and knowledge access as follows:

“Recognized as one of Virginia's premier research libraries, Old Dominion University Libraries are essential partners in teaching, research, and scholarly communication through expert, flexible, and entrepreneurial staff, access to information resources, and spaces that encourage reflection, exploration, and interaction. As collaborative leaders in the facilitation of information discovery, creativity, and innovation, the Libraries empower the ODU community to provide solutions to complex, real world problems” (Old Dominion University, n.d.).

I believe that the libraries manage to achieve their vision through the depth and scope of resources that are available to both on- and off-campus students. I was impressed by how much was available for access, through the libraries’ website. From what I was able to find, the accommodations provided for non-English speakers and for handicapped students were very nice, as well, of course there is always room for improvement. Research into other libraries showed me that there should be options to translate pages into languages other than English, just as one example.

I can’t wait to get the chance to see the libraries myself. I didn’t visit the university library at the school where I received my undergraduate degree, and that’s something that I’ve always sort of regretted. I hope that I’ll be able to rectify that sooner rather than later.

Resources:

Learning Commons @ Perry Library. (n.d.). Learning Commons Tour [Video]. Old Dominion University. https://ww1.odu.edu/content/dam/odu/offices/university-marketing-communications/video/odu-2-learning-commons-tour.mov/_jcr_content/renditions/cq5dam.video.h264.mp4.

Coburn, K. (2022). Old Dominion University Libraries website homepage, [Screenshot].

Coburn, K. (2022). The Discipline Wheel, ODU Digital Commons, [Screenshot].

Bohenek, L. (2020). Untitled, [photograph]. http://sites.wp.odu.edu/mlis-lbohe001/wp-content/uploads/sites/18073/2020/02/IMG_4849.jpg.