Stewart Library Annual Reports

STEWART LIBRARY ANNUAL REPORT FY2025

STRATEGIC GOAL 1: ACCESS, RETENTION, AND COMPLETION

Make substantial contributions to the WSU access, retention, and completion goals through affordability initiatives, student support services, and responsive, student-centered instructional practices.

Outcomes

• Increase the adoption of OER and other no- and low-cost course materials by 10% annually. (Excellent progress).
• By the end of FY2025, develop and implement a plan to assess the impact of OER/course materials and technology lending initiatives on student success. (Good progress).
• By the end of FY2026 create an information literacy (IL) strategic plan that addresses the scaffolding of IL instruction across the curriculum. (Good progress).
• By the end of FY2027, establish peer learning and other specialized student supports in composition and other key general education, developmental, and gateway courses. (Early-stage progress).

Highlights

• The library awarded $58,490 to seven OER grant projects in 2024. The completed projects are projected to save 3,347 students $534,894. Since 2020, a total of 54 grant-funded OER projects has saved students an estimated $4.16 million, with a projected annual savings of $2.1 million moving forward. For every dollar invested in the OER grant program, students are projected to save approximately $16 in AY26 and $21 in AY27.
• The library continued to expand the textbook library with additional purchases of both print and electronic books. Books in the print collection were checked out more than 2,000 times and there were 4,380 views of electronic books and articles on course reserve.
• Library personnel conducted 14 syllabus reviews, with 4 reviews leading to an OER grant or adoption of library-purchased resources to create zero- and low-cost courses.
• The Resource Sharing and Course Materials department worked with the bookstore and the Affordable Course Materials Task Force to improve the accuracy of the textbook adoption list. More faculty reported their use of OER and no-cost course materials. In Fall 2023, 258 course sections reported using OER and/or library resources. That number increased to 805 course sections in Fall 2024.
• In Spring and Summer 2025, the Teaching and Information Services Department collaborated with the English Department to develop a new ENGL 2010 curriculum and embed librarians in a structured, deliberate, and consistent program of information literacy education. The curriculum is supported by a new library-funded OER textbook. The embedded information literacy instruction is a major step toward replacing the required information literacy class as a result of state mandated changes to the general education curriculum.
• The library obtained funding to purchase 50 laptops to replace outdated and damaged ones and was able to keep more laptops in service for an entire semester check out period. This means that checkouts declined, but we had fewer turnaways. In Fall 2024, we had 29 unfulfilled semester laptop requests. In Spring 2025, we fulfilled all 358 semester laptop requests.

STRATEGIC GOAL 2: PERSONAL CONNECTIONS AND ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE

Enhance student connection to the WSU community and promote high impact educational experiences through personalized research help and instruction, student employment, and library programming, service, and spaces.

Outcomes

• Engagement with the library, as measured by building use, in-person and virtual service use, in-person and virtual program attendance, and other forms of engagement (internships, volunteering, etc.) will increase by 2% per year (Excellent Progress).
• The percentage of in-depth research consultations with students will increase by 5% per year (Excellent Progress).
• The percentage of in-depth curricular or research consultations with non-library faculty will increase by 5% per year (Excellent Progress).
• The percentage of students who receive specialized information instruction in their majors will increase by 5% per year (Progress unclear because of inconsistent data reporting).
• By the end of FY2026, complete an assessment of student safety and belonging in the library. By the end of FY2028, address areas of concerns and assess for improvement. (Early progress).

Highlights

• The library continued to partner with the Student Success Center and other campus groups to co-sponsor speakers and cultural events that provide opportunities for students to create community on campus. These events also support the library's community anchor mission goals by providing opportunities for community members to attend educational events and interact with students. Highlights include continuation of popular letter writing and crafting events and several book displays and exhibits to support campus programming during cultural heritage months. 900 people attended these events.
• Two OER student interns edited and supported eight OER resources created by WSU faculty, providing a high impact educational experience for the students while supporting a key affordability and student retention initiative.
• The Teaching & Information Services (TIS) department revived their involvement in the library’s online chat reference service in Fall 2024 and developed a pilot program to revive in-person research assistance beginning in Fall 2025.
• TIS collaborated with Access & Discovery Services to overhaul the reference collection during Spring 2025 with the goal of making it more relevant to modern campus needs and increasing usability and usage.
• The leisure reading collection, established in October 2022, continues to support student well-being by providing popular fiction and nonfiction books through a leasing program. 315 books were checked out in FY25.

STRATEGIC GOAL 3: COMMUNITY ANCHOR MISSION

Contribute to the well-being and strength of the campus and local communities in which we are embedded.

• The library will establish and/or deepen one community-based partnership annually, as measured by documented engagement through meetings, convening, and/or formal programming. (Excellent progress)
• By the end of FY2028, Special Collections and University Archives will have increased the number of collections, including oral histories, documenting traditionally underrepresented populations, by 20%. (Excellent progress)

Highlights

• Special Collections and University Archives expanded its Ogden at its Core project, which is documenting the history of religious minority congregations in northern Utah. New partners in the project include the Ogden Buddhist Church, and the Congregation B'rith Sholem Synagogue.
• The library hosted a highly praised exhibit by artist Sheila Nadimi, Deep Mapping Eagle Village, about the site of the Intermountain Indian School in Brigham City in Fall 2024.
• We improved access to the Special Collections and University Archives (SCUA) book collection, which includes unique and rare books related to the history and culture of Northern Utah. Part of that collection had been cataloged in the Dewey Decimal System, while the rest used the Library of Congress Classification (LCC) system. This year, we completed a 2-year project to re-classify the Dewey books into LCC (26,045 items). This enhanced the organization and findability of the collection and improved shelving efficiency, which will provide space for the collection to continue to grow.

GOALS AND STRATEGY DEVELOPMENT FOR 2025-2026

• Pilot changes to the information literacy instruction program and launch a new research help service in light of the end of the general education information literacy requirement.
• Finalize metrics and methods and complete an initial assessment of the impact of grant-funded OER projects on affordability and student success.
• Develop a space and service plan that incorporates findings from the 2025 needs assessment, in collaboration with campus partners in Academic Support Centers and Programs, the computer labs, and the Digital District.
• Complete a student survey of belonging in library spaces.
• Align collection development priorities with a stable base budget that addresses annual publisher price increases.
• Get to know our new partners in Academic Support Centers and Programs and identify pilot projects where our mission and services overlap productively.

DATA APPENDIX

Trends

1. Library Collection Size
   Trend: Changes in the underlying data definitions for books led to an increase in both physical and electronic book titles in our collection. Budget cuts led to cancellation of both print and electronic serial titles, as well as fewer licensed streaming media titles. Since 2024, we have had to shift from a large package to a smaller subset of streaming media titles.

   Collection type	FY2023	FY2024	FY2025
   Physical Book Titles	296,531	287,456	329,914
   Electronic Book Titles	592,742	648,287	665,599
   Print Serial Titles	4,699	4,427	4,268
   Electronic Serials	128,779	137,788	125,219
   Physical Media	37,656	27,884	27,911
   Electronic Media	1,874,952	203,798	182,322
   Databases	397	443	1448

2. Collection Circulation/Usage
   Trend: The usage of print materials declined from last year, but that is likely because previous circulation reports included the circulation of equipment. These items were removed from reporting this year, reflecting a more accurate count of the use of the library's physical book and media collections. The usage of digital books and media increased dramatically this year, which might reflect a change in reporting from publishers and streaming media vendors. It might also reflect a greater use of ebooks because of the library's efforts to license more adopted course materials or a data error from one of our vendors. We will watch this trend closely.

   Circulation/Usage Type	FY2023	FY2024	FY2025
   Total Physical Circulation	12,327	13,774	9,148
   Total Digital/Electronic Book and Media Usage	64,965	64,693	854,264
   Total Electronic Serial/Journal Usage	266,705	316,359	270,299

3. OER Grant Program and Cost Savings
   Trend: The OER grant program's impact, measured in Return on Investment (savings per dollar invested) continues to increase as more OER are adopted and used for multiple semesters.

   OER Grants	Pre-2021 projects	2021-22 Grants	2022-23 Grants	2024 Grants	2025 Grants*	Total
   # Projects awarded	1	16	18	7	12	54
   Funding awarded	$ 33,580	$ 99,104	$ 123,326	$ 58,491	$ 87,585	$ 402,086
   Total student enrollment*	7,397	13,711	6,612	2,118	5,430	35,268
   Projected annual savings	$ 655,290	$ 375,332	$ 465,505	$ 342,279	$ 296,552	$ 2,134,958
   Estimated cumulative savings**	$ 1,997,190	$ 918,164	$ 605,519	$ 342,279	$ 296,552	$ 4,159,704
   * Student enrollment calculated from fall semester of the grant year through Fall 2024. 2025 enrollment data not yet evaluated. ** Calculated by multiplying enrollment by cost of materials replaced with OER.

    

   Fiscal Year	Projected ROI total savings/total invested
   2025	$ 10.30
   2026	$ 15.70
   2027	$ 21.00

4. Textbook Lending Library
   Trend: Total size of the collection and circulation is increasing.

   Year	# Books Added	Cost	Checkouts
   FY22	554	$ 43,700	926
   FY23	461	$ 31,585	1,429
   FY24	208	$ 14,455	1,820
   FY25	127	$ 8,627	2,006

5. Interlibrary Loan
   Trend: The number of items lent to other libraries decreased because we cleaned up our library holdings information so that only our print subscriptions are shown as available for lending. There was a slight decrease in the number of items received and lent to WSU patrons, suggesting that cancellations of low use journal titles have not led to an increased demand for ILL materials.

   Interlibrary Loan category	FY2023	FY2024	FY2025
   Total interlibrary loans and documents provided to other libraries.	3,222	4,105	2,030
   Total interlibrary loans and documents received.	1,771	1,769	1,548

6. Equipment Lending
   Trend: We reduced the number of hotspots because of cost and because 50 LTE devices reached end of life at the end of the fiscal year. Checkouts continue to increase and we seem to have found a balance in meeting long- and short-term needs.

   Device	# of devices	FY25 change in # of devices	Checkouts	FY25 change in # of checkouts
   Semester laptops	351	+115	904	-665
   1-week laptops	10	–	365	+299
   Semester hotspots	98	+8	375	+75
   1-week hotspots	22	+7	included in above total	included in above total

    

   Semester Laptops	Total Requests	Fulfilled	Turnaway
   Fall 2024	460	431	29
   Spring 2025	385	385	0
   Summer 2025	115	115	0

    

   One-Week Laptops	Total Requests	Fulfilled	Turnaway
   Fall 2024	114	114	0
   Spring 2025	67	67	0
   Summer 2025	59	59	0

    

   Hotspots	Total Requests	Fulfilled	Turnaway
   Fall 2024	92	92	0
   Spring 2025	213	210	3
   Summer 2025	213	210	3

7. Library Help and Research Consultations
   Trend: There was a decline in the number of library help transactions (basic assistance in using library, finding a book, navigating library resources, etc.), but this is likely due to a change in the definition of what counts as library help. Previously, directional questions were included. There was a 101% increase in the number of in-depth research consultations.

   Type of Research Help	FY2023	FY2024	FY2025
   Library and Research Help Transactions	1,124	3,182	2,421
   In-Depth Research Consultations	371	245	493

8. Library Visits (Gate count)
   Trend: The total annual gate count decreased slightly from the previous year, but the gate count for a typical week (using the third week of September) was substantially higher (7,949 versus 6,963). This warrants further investigation and monitoring of trends in library visits during different times of the semester.

   Year	Gate count
   FY2020	265,431
   FY2021 (COVID closure)	31,954
   FY2022	173,198
   FY2023	206,108
   FY2024	255,884
   FY2025	244,209

Peer Comparisons

Data for all peer comparisons are provided in the Association of College and Research Libraries Benchmark Survey. They have not yet updated the survey results from FY24, so we will report on these next year.