The Space, Physical Access & Staff
Driving onto the Northern Virginia Community College, you first notice the beautiful, serene campus surrounded by trees. The campus was not intimating in size and made me curious to see the campus’s library.
After parking, I walked down this beautiful trail to the building and found the library on the Lower Level. Accessing the library was easy with a ramp, and signage was typical. My first impression walking in was noticing the back wall of all windows that looked out to a parklike area. Anyone would love to study there with such a calm, peaceful view. Then as you walk into the library, you see the circulation desk front and center. The two staff were engrossed in conversation, and very few people were there. This campus is an older building built in the 1970s, and the library has that same feel. One impressive thing was that the whole middle of the library was set up for studying, with many tables, some specifically made to accommodate wheelchairs. Also, the library has 6 group study rooms available with collaboration stations & dry-erase boards.
NOVA Library entrance, Manassas, Virginia (Nagashima, 2022)
Services & Intellectual Access
Next to the extensive study area was a large section of periodicals and pleasure reading magazines. Conveniently these magazines were located next to the study tables. Located near the study tables were the computers and library catalog access computers. The layout of this academic library, albeit small, was designed with much thought. This academic library is true to what Rubin & Rubin describe as a true ” learning space” rather than just books for reference (2020, p. 171).
NOVA Library, Manassas, Virginia (Nagashima, S. 2022)
Being summer, I did not see any signage about programs, but the next thing I noticed was a couple of appealing displays of books focused on pleasure reading. One display had many manga books, and another displayed about space. Another display area read “Spring into Reading,” which did not have a particular theme to the books; also strange since it was the middle of July. It was pleasing to see that they had nice reading areas for studying and even big bean bag chairs for the students to enjoy.
NOVA Library, Manassas, Virginia (Nagashima, S. 2022)
Collections
As I perused the aisle of books, I was looking for diversity in their collection and noticed a section labeled foreign language Children’s Literature. I was pleasantly surprised to see Spanish, Korean, and Mandarin. Also nearby and easy to spot was a section of books helping individuals with TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language). The collection looked like a typical academic library collection, categorized by Library of Congress system.
NOVA Library, Manassas, Virginia (Nagashima, S. 2022)
Digital Access & Resources
The website for the library is not specifically for the Manassas location but is very resourceful and easy to navigate. The website encompasses many databases, research guides, the catalog, and LibChat, with chat available 24/7 to answer questions. One great benefit is that NOVA students and staff have reciprocal borrowing privileges with George Mason’s Libraries. Manassas location has one unique collection of digitized images from the dedication of the Manassas Campus. Another excellent online feature worth mentioning is their blog.
INTERESTING!
One very surprising thing was the massive project that I mentioned earlier. As you can see from the photo, they are giving away about two aisles of books! They even supplied boxes so you could carry them home. Clearly, they are making room for new books, but I was just surprised at the amount of weeding taking place at one time.
NOVA Library, Manassas, Virginia (Nagashima, S. 2022)
References:
Nagashima, S. (2022) NOVA Library. [Photographs of Northern Virginia College Library, Manassas Campus]
Rubin, R. E., & Rubin, R. G. (2020). Foundations of library and information science (5th ed.). ALA Neal-Schuman.
Wow, free books with boxes included! Awesome. You are right about the serene feeling with the park–like setting. I can see that from the picture you included. I am happy to see that this academic library also has a focus on pleasure reading and children’s literature. Even though it serves academia, I think we still need to provide those other services we have come to expect from a library.
Yes, I agree we should continue to provide services that the students grew up with in their public and school libraries. Would this help develop lifelong readers?
When reading this, I felt like it had more of a public library appeal to it than an academic library. But I think that is a good thing – it feels more cozy rather than rigid like some academic libraries do. Yay free books!
Yes, it did have the public library feel. There was an extensive collection of manga which was more significant than my public library!
That’s a huge amount of weeding! NOVA is primarily a commuter campus, did you get the impression that there were more online services for students that allowed them to get rid of so many books? I’m glad to hear that they had magazines since at least one of my site visits didn’t have any. It’s interesting that they have a foreign language children’s section. Do you know who it is meant to serve?
Such good questions, Kat! The online services are robust partly because of the pandemic, but I think they would retain their materials. My second thought is this campus isn’t used as much as the main campus library, which is about 30 minutes away. Parking is a problem there, but clearly, changes are being made. The children’s literature is probably for early education classes or certifications. So many childcare workers are diverse in this area, so is this just an excellent effort to establish diversity?
Wow, that is a lot of books to be weeding! I wonder what criteria they were using? Seems like this is a nice little library for a community college, though it’s a bummer it isn’t more updated (I imagine the funding just isn’t there). Do you know if there is a specific need for those foreign language children’s books? I find it surprising that you’d see that in an academic library rather than public one!
Yes, I think the foreign children’s books are for the early education classes. I am not sure why the weeding project was so massive, but hopefully, they are refreshing the library. Maybe a budget designated for collections is better than a budget for updating?
Interesting to compare this to my visit to the NOVA Annandale campus. They didn’t have any children’s materials in Annandale, as well as a much smaller periodicals section. I wonder why the collections differ across campuses? Do the patrons differ that much?
I was thinking the same thing but I would think it’s the same student base. Maybe there are more early childhood classes at my branch?
I agree this library gives off the feel of a public library with all of the displays-which is nice! It’s important to remind students to read for pleasure-which is something I’ve definitely missed these last few months. I love that they’re serious about the free books and include a way for you to take them home.
Yes, the manga section was greater than my library’s manga collection! It’s great for the students to have options for downtime!