History of the LSC-North Harris Library

Present Time - 2000

Library adds SMS messaging as a means of providing reference to our students.

Archives receives a grant to digitize 6 linear feet of images from College Services. As soon as the work is completed, a name index to all images in the archives is begun.

Library opens Twitter, Youtube, and Facebook accounts. Our first Tweets and instructional tutorials are available through social network sites.

NHMCCD become Lone Star College System. North Harris become LSCS-North Harris.

Hurricane Ike causes damage to the campus, but not the library building. Campus is closed for two weeks until power restored.

New librarian Norma Drepaul, creates a wiki called Refmania, to house online policies, procedures, examples and discussions of reference situations.

Pradeep Lele becomes Library Director upon the retirement of Maryann Readal.

Hope Beggan, LSCS-NH Librarian, receives a Faculty Excellence Award. The second such award for a North Harris librarian.

Librarians and faculty collaborate to launch the Poet Laureate program. NHC's first Poet Laureate, David Bell, was chosen.

Library receives a grant from the McKay Foundation for its Children's Collection.

Library hosts a blog discussion of the online book "The Machine Stops." This was a Synergy event.  Media Department was reorganized. Audiovisual equipment became the responsibility of ITS and production became the responsibility of the Faculty Staff Center. Ordering of audiovisual ordering stayed with the library.  The Lone Star College System college libraries and the Harris County Public Libraries. open their collections to each other.

Library opens during December Mini-Term. First podcast on how to use the catalog was put online.

The Library team, The Library Cutters, wins the pumpkin carving contest. They win a breakfast for the library staff.

An interactive display and discussion of censorship was held for Banned Book Week.   Librarians become embedded as part of several LSC-Online courses.

Media begins using the Versacamm large format printer and completes the conversion of the Math Take a Teacher Home videos to DVD format.

Library Disaster Plan is completed.  A major weeding of the fiche and film collections was completed.  Karen Parker completes her library internship program.  Karen Parker replaces Pradeep Lele, who became the Faculty Staff Center Director.

Olia Palmer and Maryann Readal present at NISOD on collaborative library exhibits.

Poetry Clothesline Event was held to celebrate National Poetry Month.  Librarians write an article for the Advocate addressing the many problems with Estrada.

Librarians host Databases and Desserts Open House for faculty.

Houston Chronicle RSS Feed added to the Library webpage.

Library answers first Yahoo instant messenger message. The question: I need help with my English paper.

Virus wreaks havoc with the NH and district networks.

Library organized the first Constitution Day event which included a Bell Display, Signing of the Constitution, Recital of the Preamble and a Bell Ringing Concert.The library prepared for a Hurricane. Hurricane did not occur but college was closed for a week because of electrical problems and high water.  A new Periodicals Holdings List was published and put online.

Library unveils a redesigned website using the Estrada content management system.

The Harmonic Consortium catalog is implemented allowing the sharing of a common catalog with Harris County's Tomball and CyFair branch libraries, the Lone Star College System libraries and the Montgomery County Memorial Library System.

The first district-wide professional development event is held for support staff. The event is held at the District Training Center.

The library renews its Mission Statement and develops new Strategic Goals and Value Statements for 2006-2009

Pradeep Lele, Reference Librarian, receives the Faculty Excellence Award, first librarian to receive this award at North Harris.

New computers are installed in the research area.First district-wide professional development day for librarians is held at the District Training Center.  Master planning for college's next 20 years begins.

Library places second in the Christmas Door Decorating Contest and sponsors Christmas activity "Joyful Noise in the Library." An inventory of the circulating collection is completed.

Lone Star College-North Harris receives a $2.5M U.S. Department of Education Title V grant. With the grant, part-time librarians are scheduled to work at the Centers. In addition, the grant will provide funds to expand the collections at the Centers and NHC.

Library organizes Voter Registration for the Presidential campaign.  Library initiates pay-for-print at computer terminals. A magnetic sripe for printing is added to the Photo ID/Library cards.

The MLA citation project using MS Producer is placed on the web, the first audiovisual application used on the library's web site.  Representatives from the Lone Star College System Libraries, Harris County Public Library System and the Montgomery County Memorial Library System form the Harmonic Consortium in order to implement the sharing of the Horizon automation software between the three systems and to enable the borrowing of District Library resources by Tomball and Lone Star College–CyFair students.

"Wings Over the Library" event was held for National Library Week. A display of model airplanes and a paper airplane contest was held in conjunction with Physics classes.  Olia Palmer receives the Lone Star College System Writing Award for her article, "Not So SILI: Sociology Information Literacy Infusion as the Focus of Faculty and Librarian Collaboration," written with Professors Lynda Dodgen and Adrian Rapp and Sarah Naper. The article was published in Community and Junior College Libraries, Volume 11, Number 4, 2003.

Library sponsors college book reading and discussion group in conjunction with the play, Harvest Moon.  The online tutorial, Library Research Helper, is completed and a link is placed on the Library's main web page.

District libraries join forces to offer chat service over the holidays when the libraries are closed. Virginia Rigby receives a Foundation Mini-Grant to digitize the Advocate, the Lone Star College System American Federation of Teacher's newsletter.  An Introduction to the Library," an article written by Olia Palmer, Sarah Naper, Adrian Rapp and Lynda Dodgen appeared in Volume 25 Number 28 of the NISOD Innovation Abstracts. The article discussed the collaborative SILI (Sociology Information Literacy Infusion) project.

Library Director Maryann Readal, hosts a group of Library Directors from Russia and coordinates library visits and workshops for them during their four day visit to Houston. The group was sponsored by the Library of Congress' Open World program.

NHC begins using Marcive service for cataloging government documents.  NHC Library and College Relations prepared a 30th Anniversary Exhibit for Lone Star College System. The exhibit was displayed on all campuses and at major district functions throughout the year. The exhibit was archived in the library.

All librarians and Chris Gonzales, Circulation Assistant, presented at the Texas Library Conference in Houston.

The photo ID process moves from the Learning Center to the Circulation Desk. Storytime and tours for the Child Development School children began.

Maryann Readal receives the Lone Star College System Writing Award for her jointly written article with Lisa Schulze and Brenda Steuer "Instructional Support Professional Development", Academic Leadership. Vol. 8, Number 3.

Human Click, a live Internet chat program, was installed and reference chat service began. The library initiated its wireless LAN, offered 10 laptop computers for checkout, and added a Kurzweil scanner to a research computer for the visually impaired. The laptops, Kurzweil and wireless access were purchased with TIF grant funds awarded to the district libraries.

Reference librarian Monica Norem was awarded the first NHC librarian sabbatical.

The library staff completed an inventory of the circulating book collection in a record-breaking five days.

NHC librarians conducted a record 93 classes and tours in a single month, including 16 information literacy classes for the Sociology department. The library opened its new circulating CD collection.

Nineteen-year reference librarian Dr. Lynn Porter retired, noting that during her tenure the reference staff had increased from one to five full-time librarians, the library became fully automated, a new library had been built, and the world of electronic library tools and resources had bloomed and flourished. 

The new NHC photo Student ID card was introduced with a library barcode on the back of the card that can be used to check out materials at all Lone Star College System libraries and NHC learning centers. TexShare - a program of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission in partnership with academic and public libraries - spent a whopping $10,040,900 to provide access to 60 databases in virtually every discipline. 

The Media Center received a Jetta laptop computer and Phillips data projector from OLLU, bringing the complement of laptop computers and data projectors to three.  Media Center takes responsibility for Active Classrooms.

The library received a successful re-accreditation report from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

The library migrated from the Dynix library automation system to the Horizon system.  The district libraries implemented Remote Patron Access (RPA), which allowed for remote access to the library's electronic resources from any internet-connected computer.

The new library was dedicated by the Lone Star College System Board of Directors.  The library prepared for a site visit from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.

The library began cataloging Learning Center videos and other materials for checkout in the Learning Center using the library's circulation system

The library expanded its book collection by adding netLibrary, a collection of 4,000 online books.

The new library opened its doors to the college on January 24, 2000 with a historic passing of the final book from the old library to the shelves of the new library. The book was The History of the Lone Star College System: A Silver Anniversary Commemorative by Dr. Theresa McGinley.  The library received its own web address: http://nhclibrary.lonestar.edu.

The library developed web pages for Lone Star College System’s Southern Association of Colleges and Schools alternative Self-Study project as part of the District’s second ten-year SACS re-accreditation.

NHC library celebrated the 25th anniversary of its federal depository status with a Government Information Fair.

The library enhanced its electronic collection by subscribing to seven TexShare databases accessible to students and faculty from any computer on campus or at the Centers.

Remote access to the library's catalog is implemented using Dynix's Web Pac product.

Sarah Naper, Lane Johnson and Maryann Readal are awarded a $1500 Lone Star College System Minigrant to establish a pleasure reading collection. The library became a VITA (Volunteer Income Tax Assistance) site. Pac4Windows, the new graphical interface to the library's online catalog, is unveiled.

Land is cleared and foundation work began on the new library building. Library staff meets at Mercer Arboretum to draft new mission and goals for the library. 24 new TIFB (Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund Board) grant computers and 4 laserjet computers are installed in the library.

The College's 25th Anniversary and new building celebration is held. The first Library Dateline is published on the Web. An Internet class is offered to community members.  The Library Commission is reactivated.

The district libraries were awarded a $445,563 TIFB (Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund Board) grant to improve library technology and campus Internet connectivity.

Maryann Readal began as new Library Director.

LRC Executive Council (Libex) approved changing the district LRC's name to library.

Dr. Charles Jones retired as LRC Director.

Librarians begin teaching Internet Research classes. Monica Norem presents Mysteries of Research Revealed, a computer-aided tutorial, for a Texas Library Association poster session.

The library home page is developed and put up on the Web.

The first New Books List is published via email.

The Master Plan for the new library is presented.

The LRC's local CD-ROM network is implemented.

Network and Internet connections are enabled in the LRC.

The first LRC Dateline is published.

WESTLAW and First Search online databases are added to the library's electronic collection.

The Depository Library Collection receives its third inspection.

The LRC undergoes a major renovation project.

The LRC implemented the Dynix automated system.

West Campus LRC (Tomball) is opened. The South Campus LRC(North Harris) law collection is expanded to support the Legal Support Services Program.

Board of Trustees approved furniture and shelving bid for West Campus LRC (Tomball).

West Campus LRC (Tomball) Director is appointed. Continue automation exploration, including applying for a grant to join HALAN (Houston Area Library Automated Network).  Ordered, cataloged, and processed materials for opening day collection for West Campus LRC (Tomball).

RecarpetedSouth LRC Revised Job Descriptions for support staff.

Completed book retrospective conversion; removed South Campus LRC (North Harris) card catalog.

Submitted budget for Technical Center separate for the first time from the South Campus LRC (North Harris).  Awarded book jobber bid to Baker & Taylor replacing Brodart.

Revised Learning Resources policies.

Withdrew from Memorandum of Understanding with HALS as NHCC wished to continue study of automation options.

Groundbreaking for West Campus LRC (Tomball).

Dr. Michael Green appointed District Coordinator for Learning Resources Services.  Began retrospective conversion of nonprint materials.

The first computerized database, Dow Jones News Retrieval Service, was introduced in the LRC.  Mary W. Barnes retired: Dr. Charles F. Jones appointed South Campus LRC (North Harris) Director and College Coordinator for Learning Resources Services.

Implemented pilot program for bibliographic instruction East Campus LRC (Kingwood). After remodeling, opened computer lab in East Campus LRC (Kingwood).

Received inspection and evaluation on government documents collection from Joseph Paskoski, Washington D.C.

Received approval from NHCC Board of Trustees to submit Memorandum of Understanding to HALS.

The Learning Resource Center hosted the TLA District VIII conference.

Changed COM catalog from a one-line index to a full bibliographic format; merged nonprint circulation with book circulation on South LRC first floor; expanded Technical Center to occupy classroom A127.

Accepted as a member of UTXL (Texas Statewide Union List). The Texas State Library paid our OCLC Serials membership as well as first-year fees for record inputting to begin September.

Received from Tom Lovell, SBS Division Head, a donation of 3,000+ books of which the majority was cataloged for the East Campus LRC (Kingwood) with selected titles going to the South Campus LRC (North Harris).

Installed OCLC M300 Workstation.

Contacted HALS (Houston Area Library System) regarding membership in Automated Network; also profiled with two automation vendors.

Began dismantling South LRC card catalog; began conversion of PZ-classified titles to alternate P call numbers.  Opened East Campus LRC (Kingwood).

Policies and procedures were revised to include East Campus LRC (Kingwood).

The first quarterly production of the COM catalog was received, making a significant first step toward library automation.

The LRC's authorization for retrospective conversion of all its holdings from paper files to computer tapes, thereby creating its database for its COM catalog or ultimately a total online system, arrived by congratulatory letter from AMIGOS. Section 421 of the reorganized NHCC Policies and Procedures Manual defines the Learning Resource Center as a support service functioning for students and faculty and details not only its major components but also specific policies developed to enhance the College District's concept of resources sharing.

Taking advantage of the OCLC Interlibrary Loan Subsystem, the LRC complemented intracampus loan by extending resource sharing to other institutions in the community, region, state, and nation. The LRC's first ILL transaction was secured from Texas A & M University at the request of faculty member, Vernon Williams.

An AMIGOS conducted workshop assisted the Technical Services staff in cataloging and interlibrary loan via OCLC. This key training completed, the LRC was permitted application for retrospective collection conversion. Believing that a student's success in achieving academic objectives is significantly dependant upon access to materials, the LRC staff committed itself to producing a common catalog and, following extensive exploration, met with a COM vendor to set-up our tentative profile.

In order to approach acquisition of resources with the philosophy of developing one viable collection to serve the district's community of patrons, the LRC professional staff adopted divisional book allocations based upon such criteria as student enrollment in the subject area, circulation statistics in the subject area, average cost per book in the subject area, and new curriculum needs and on-going analyses of curriculum needs by department or division.  A Beehive Model 105 dedicated-line terminal -- in spite of AT&T strike delays--was finally readied for cataloging from OCLC's ten-million-plus title data base.

The NHCC Board of Trustees accepted the proposed concept of LRC reorganization so as to provide maximum district sharing of resources through their centralized acquisition, processing, and loan services.

NHCC officially became a member of AMIGOS Bibliographic Council, Inc. Amigos is the independent regional network located in Dallas that contracts with OCLC (Online Computer Library Center, Incorporated; a nonprofit library service and research organization.

Preparatory to multi-campus resource sharing, the LRC professional staff submitted for approval other policies relating to circulation, inventory, district learning resources budgets, and a District Learning Resources Commission.

With divisional analyses coming in from the qualitative analysis of the collection, the need for a more definitive collection development policy became apparent.  Asking the Learning Resource Commission to react in its advisory capacity, the LRC professional staff revised Section 430 of the NHCC Policy Handbook to include a discard policy.

The proposed LRC floor plan reorganization was accomplished with significant changes including the moving of the circulation desk to the first floor, the opening of the formerly closed periodicals stacks, consolidating of periodicals indexing with other reference materials on the second floor, and expanding the nonprint services.

An LRC Handbook, detailing each unit--Media, Public, and Technical Services--with accompanying job descriptions and procedural guidelines was distributed.Pursuant to our Self-Study for Reaffirmation of Southern Association accreditation and enlisting the Learning Resource Commission as a task force, the LRC undertook an in-depth, qualitative analysis of the resources collection.  Book purchases were expedited through the implementation of Brodart's On Line Acquisitions System (OLAS).

Installation of Checkpoint Security System was completed; losses reflected in the first full year's inventory following installation showed a total of 68% fewer unaccounted books than the previous year's statistics.

Spring 1981

Mary Barnes, newly appointed Director of the Learning Resource Center, received recognition from Dean of Instruction Joe Airola of the importance of the future growth of the Federal Depository for NHCC.