UTech, Ja Annual Report 2017-18

University of Technology, Jamaica “Pioneering Past; Bright Future ” ANNUAL REPORT 2017-2018 18 ACADEMIC AFFAIRS DIVISION Cont’d. • Photographs on the historical milestones of CAST/ UTech. • Information, news articles, softcopies of posters and photographs of the Faculty of Engineering and Computing. Exhibits/Displays The following exhibition posters were completed and mounted for the period. • Modern Day Heroes • Observer articles written by UTech, Jamaica staff • Research Day- CAST/UTECH Milestones in celebration of UTech Jamaica 60th Anniversary Loans and Borrowing Activities The library continued to expand its digital access to content, and as a result loan of print resources continued to decline. However, the use of electronic databases continued to trend steadily upward. This was highlighted by the EBSCO Host databases which alone recorded over two million users for the period. A. Loans for the Period 2017-2018 During the year, the month of October recorded the highest number of book loans – a total of 3,067 loans. This was considered the peak of the semester, with students actively utilizing the Library. Most of these loans were books borrowed for the short term period of 7 days. These loans accounted for 1,369 of the total. This was followed by General lending loans of 971. The Reserved Material Collection or 4 hour loan recorded only 60 loans for the period. Also in place were the Reserved Overnight materials, which were loans for 13 hours. August was the month with the lowest loan figures recorded. The low figures of 405 for August were not surprising, as that month was the start of the Academic Year and most students would not have been borrowing materials from the library as yet. The months of May with 1,034 loans and July with 870 loans were also not surprising, as this would have been the exam period and summer session with low registration, respectively. B. Circulation Data Overall Circulation data showed that Reading Room usage for the period had declined when compared with the corresponding period of 2016- 2017. Staff Loans also declined by marginally. The downward trend in loans for print and the statistics for databases usage indicated that most clients were accessing the electronic resources. The records showed that clients had access to approximately 59 print journal titles and over 58,000 full text articles online. Library Awards and Recognition • The Calvin McKain Library was once again presented with the EBSCO Award for