Or do you simply want to sit back and relax in a comfortable armchair with a cup of frothy cappuccino and a favorite volume of poetry?

You can do all this and more at the U of L Libraries.

With 225 personal computer workstations linked to the Internet that are available to visitors, a coffee bar, copy center and all the traditional library trappings as well, today's university library system has definitely progressed from "Shhhh!" to "Wow!"

The U of L Libraries present any number of exciting challenges for Hannelore Rader, who was appointed university librarian and dean in 1997. In addition to the main Ekstrom Library on Belknap campus, her realm includes the Kornhauser Health Sciences Library; the Margaret M. Bridwell Art Library; Laura Kersey Library of Engineering, Physical Sciences and Technology; Dwight Anderson Memorial Music Library; University Archives and Records Center; and the Law Library, administered through the Brandeis School of Law.

Change and growth have been defining characteristics of Rader's service. To date:

• Library use has increased 40 percent over the past two years, at a time when national use of academic libraries is declining.
• Holdings have grown to 1.51 million volumes and more than 14,000 subscriptions. Databases provide access to thousands of journals, dissertations, newspapers and reference works.
• Financial contributions to the libraries have increased 60 percent over a two-year period.

Library visitors can also review articles on the university's recently acquired "World Biographical Index," find whether U of L has a particular book or if another Kentucky library does, or any number of other digital operations by logging on to the Kentucky Commonwealth Virtual Library (KCVL) at one of the library system's computer workstations. KCVL supports the university's campus-based students as well as those studying through distance-education classes and people who use university, college and public libraries across Kentucky.

Fostering Success

Rader says her staff members are "working harder than ever," but in fact they're in overdrive. They completed the system's first assessment plan and conducted its first user survey. They chair state and national committees, publish articles and are helping advance the system's strategic plans for the next century‹all while simultaneously meeting the daily needs of 23,000 students and 2,000 faculty on three campuses.

They also work with faculty in making the most of on-line resources in their teaching and research efforts. For example, Kornhauser Library's House Calls program sends librarians to faculty offices at U of L's Health Sciences Center to configure their computers to access on-line journals, the most efficient way to keep abreast of constant changes in the medical and allied health professions.

Rader and her staff strive to make the U of L library system user-friendly and to establish an environment that encourages its use. To do this, they have implemented many of the techniques that commercial book stores use to draw customers‹such as the popular coffee bar seen here. (Photos by Tom Fougerousse.)

The staff also offers personal tutoring sessions in accessing on-line information to university personnel, something that John DeFazio, a part-time faculty member in the family and community medicine department, found especially useful. He says that after a couple of hour-long sessions he now knows how to take full advantage of Kornhauser's vast reference network.

"They showed me how to access all the major textbooks and journals," he says. "It's a great service."

Despite their many accomplishments, Rader believes the librarians still have much more to do. Fully integrating the U of L Libraries with the academic enterprise is one priority because, she says, "In the next millennium, print and electronic information and handling information skillfully will bring success to teaching and learning."

While the library staff offers student workshops on library and information resources, in the best-case scenario faculty members integrate library and information work into their class assignments. Elaine Wise, chair of the humanities department and assistant professor of English, is experimenting with this concept in an upcoming class that combines English 102, Humanities 101 (Introduction to World Literature) and library skills.

"The class engages the students in three research modules‹personal research, research in society and academic research," she explains. "Part of the class, then, will be spent in the regular classroom and part in the library where students will learn how to use the web for research purposes."

Rader has appointed librarian liaisons for each academic department to help develop ideas for other ways to integrate the library into the classroom, as well as to investigate additional faculty and library collaborative opportunities.

On-Ramp to the Information Highway

The U of L library system‹once merely a repository of "static" knowledge‹has evolved into a point of access to a fluid, rapidly growing body of information from all parts of the globe. "Information literacy" is vital for faculty, staff and especially students, whose future jobs will be affected by the explosion of information in the workplace.

Everyone must "learn how to learn," says Rader in one of several papers she has delivered on the role of librarians in the information age. A person who is information literate recognizes when data is needed and can locate, evaluate, credit and use it responsibly and effectively.

Rader believes U of L can become both a national and international leader in this arena. The libraries' recently established information literacy program is already making its mark. Among the program's features is a popular, custom-designed information literacy classroom in Ekstrom with 25 multimedia workstations.

"Its primary purpose is library and information skills instruction," notes Rae Helton, the program's director. "With all its computers fully networked and connected to the Internet, the classroom permits us to conduct hands-on instruction in using electronic information resources."

A second multimedia center, the Metropolitan College Computer Lab, opened in Ekstrom last year. Its 30 workstations offer students an opportunity to experience the many dimensions of information technology, with one-on-one assistance provided by student consultants. More than 32,000 patrons have used the lab since it debuted, Helton says‹more than 10,000 in September 1999 alone.

"They were standing in line," Rader says. "We give them a lot of assistance, and they can do their research and studies here, so it's very popular."

In Touch With the Community

Rader has expanded the library system's impact beyond the campus boundaries by convening an information advisory council composed of Louisville business and community leaders. Her purpose? To help the school keep abreast of local information needs, share the libraries' expertise in information literacy and draw support from a wider base.

"The university library system is like the step-child of the school," says council member Martha Neal Cooke, co-owner of Hawley-Cooke Booksellers in Louisville. "It is expected to be there on the front burner for every department, but since U of L doesn't offer a degree in library sciences it doesn't have the alumni support the other departments might have.

"So we basically serve as a sounding board for Hannelore to bounce ideas off of as well as brainstorm with," she explains. "We help her come up with ways to attract the involvement of the business community, help her discern what the community needs from the university libraries and how to make them more accessible."

Rader also is pursuing membership in the prestigious Association for Research Libraries. This objective fits neatly with the university's Challenge for Excellence and university president John W. Shumaker's goal that U of L be recognized as a "preeminent metropolitan research university."

Those who know Hannelore Rader have no doubt she'll achieve this and the many other goals on which she sets her sights.

"She thinks outside of the box," notes Cooke, "and adds so much to the vision of where the university itself is trying to go.

"She's always pushing the library system to move to the next level‹and then goes out of her way to help it get there."

Nancy Gall-Clayton '80L is a Louisville freelance writer, playwright and attorney.