Omega Library Services
The Omega Library Reserve exists to assist
faculty, staff, and students in fulfilling the Institution's Academic
Mission by providing access to developmental and collateral reading
material that support the curriculum and the Course of Study. For this
reason, the purpose of the library is to acquire and store materials and
provide library services, which relate directly to a Course Bibliography
Reserve for the Course of Study and the general collection needs in the
Omega/ACRSS field of study. Priorities in the acquisition,
classification, and shelving of volumes are determined by the Faculty
Library Oversight Committee based on the specific needs of the degree
program.
Since dissertation research is restricted to general subjects related to
the program's field of
study, the Omega Library Reserve provides students with the data necessary
to do a
comprehensive literature review for a quantitative research proposal.
Primary data is to be
gathered through field research using social research instrumentation.
Normally, Candidates
for the Doctor of Philosophy at Omega Graduate School will do quantitative
social scientific
research which requires the gathering of primary data through
instrumentation and hypothesis
testing through statistical analysis. The comprehensive nature of the
literature review would
include the normal electronic searches on Internet data bases and a current
awareness search of
journals and existing dissertation research.
The Library does not make an effort to provide exhaustive resources for
qualitative research. In
cases of atypical research subjects related to qualitative research which
requires an exhaustive
literature review, students who demonstrate a subject matter mastery of
foundational literature
on their subject are guided to the Library of Congress, The Bodleian
(University of Oxford),
The British Library (London) or Inter-Library Loan to complete an
exhaustive review for a
special privilege research direction.
Omega/ACRSS has institutional status with the Bodleian Library, the
graduate library of the
University of Oxford. With this status, Omega/ACRSS is able to recommend
students for
Reader status at this library. Reader status allows students who attend the
Omega Reading and
Research Seminars offered at the University, to do research in the Bodleian
Library and relevant
dependent libraries. Reader status is granted by the Bodleian Library on
the recommendation of
the Faculty Senate.
In addition to the cooperative library network available in Tennessee,
Omega Graduate School
students have access to the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. and the
Bodleian Library
at the University of Oxford with some five million volumes. Relevant
dependent libraries at the
University are available on a needs basis. In addition to the research
facilities in Omega,
England, students with special needs have access to the 18 million volumes
of the British
Library, London.
The Omega Library Reserve is a key-access facility with seven day a week,
twenty-four (24)
hour availability to matriculated students, Omega Alumni Fellowship
members, and Omega
Society of Scholars members. Qualified individuals may receive access
information from the
Director of Library Services or the Supervisor of Graduate Research.
Whenever feasible, the Course Reserves Library seeks to establish
cooperative relationships with
other libraries and agencies. This cooperation with other existing
libraries or agencies,
however, is not meant to be a substitute for adequate library facilities at
Omega/ACRSS. It is
only an acknowledgment that, normally, one library can not serve the total
needs of faculty
research and the student's dissertation process. Library staffs are in
process of converting the
database to a comprehensive computerized catalog for the collection of more
than 60,000
volumes. The Omega Library Reserve houses a Course Bibliography Reserve
with stacks
arranged by general course support areas in the humanities and social
sciences as well as a
general collection to support the field of study. These are shelved in the
various reading rooms
of the Study Centre for user friendly access. The concept of the library is
not staff-intensive. By
utilizing current technology for online services, a Central Computer
Catalog System, and a
course specific shelving process, the library staff can devote more time to
processing new
material and the shelving process. The 24-hour key access requires the
library be organized in a
manner that is user friendly. The nature of the Library and the policy of
"goodness of fit" with
the curriculum, together with the no lending/reading room model for a
specialized curriculum,
makes the Course Reserves Library user friendly. The course specific
shelving concept has been
difficult for some to grasp. For this reason a five member faculty
committee has coordinated
the collection with the assistance of a technical staff for processing
acquisitions for the Central
Computer Catalog System.
The library is under the supervision of a faculty Library Oversight
Committee appointed by the
Chancellor and the professional library staff. All teaching faculty and
academic staff of the
Graduate School have functions within the library: computer accessions,
computer assisted
research, classifications, reading room supervision, and research
assistance. Accession and
Cataloging services are performed under direct supervision of the
professional library staff.
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