Because of increased daily responsibilities for staff in covering for vacancies, it is a greater challenge to take on special projects or keep up with trends and changes in technology in the library field. Technologies the Libraries have utilized to increase services to users, such as Illiad and Go for the Gold programming and maintenance, already consume significant automation personnel resources. Further advances, such as online journal access and maintenance, active server pages for the Library web, or a new integrated library system may require a shift in staff resources. Not only with the Libraries need to promote ways of attracting new staff with technological skills, but staff development opportunities are needed to train current staff in emerging technologies. The number of book and bound journal volumes has increased by 20 percent since the Libraries' last major addition in 1994.
User space is also increasingly inadequate.
The student population has increased by over 20 percent since the 1994 addition. The current non-workstation seat count is less than 900. ACRL guidelines recommend a study seating capacity at 25 percent of a student population for a residential campus and 20 percent for a commuter campus. Current seating in Carrier Library is at only six percent of the student population. As an indication of the growing importance of online resources during the decade, the number of electronic titles in the collection increased from 28 CD-ROMs in 1994 to over 9,000 titles in 2000.