Joshua Harris Hired as Library Tech Senior

Joshua Harris has been hired for the Library Technician Senior position focusing on electronic resources database maintenance, Collections and Technical Services Division. His starting date will be March 30. Josh will be relocating from Washington, D.C., where he has been Archives Manager of the Film and Audio-Visual Archives in the Department of Television and Film, Film Archives, at the National Geographic Society. In particular, Josh will focus on processing electronic materials for the Medical Center Library.

Research Toolbox Accepted into PRIMO

“Your Research Toolbox,” has been accepted into the ALA/ACRL Instruction Section’s Peer-Reviewed Instructional Materials Online (PRIMO) project, and added to the PRIMO database. Congratulations to Stacey Greenwell, Debbie Sharp and Roxanna Jones who created this tool to help our students! http://www.uky.edu/Libraries/Toolbox/

"Our Lincoln" Video

My thanks to Bob Crovo for finding this video of the recent Kentucky Humanities Council “Our Lincoln” program that was presented at the Kennedy Center earlier this month. Its three minutes will give you a good overview of what was a 3 hour performance. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUJhcANXBA8

New Releases from ARL

• Graduate Student and Faculty Spaces and Services, SPEC Kit 308 – this SPEC Kit “explores the variety of resources and services being delivered to or envisioned for graduate students and faculty by ARL member libraries. Recently, ARL libraries have begun to experiment with an enriched set of spaces and services to meet the complex teaching, learning, and research needs of graduate students and faculty. Some libraries have introduced small sanctuaries (study rooms or lounges) for graduate students and faculty as distinctly separate from undergraduate spaces. Others are providing new suites of services, such as dissertation support, curriculum design, and learning-object design. In some cases, the services are offered in collaboration with other campus units--perhaps the Faculty Development Office, the Learning Technology Office, or Campus Computing. The new services and spaces may be localized in a discrete area (sometimes called a "Research Commons" or "Faculty Commons") or opportunistically distributed across the library system.” The table of contents and executive summary from this SPEC Kit are available online at http://www.arl.org/bm~doc/spec308web.pdf
• Research Library Virtual Resources and Instructional Initiatives: Survey Results – “the results of a survey that explores ARL member libraries' innovations in virtual resource development and instructional programming. ARL libraries are setting a rapid pace for experimentation as they replace or supplement traditional information literacy classes with a variety of library engagements in classrooms, through course management systems, and in the virtual spaces inhabited by students and faculty. Respondents to this survey conducted by ARL during the late winter and early spring of 2008 described a widely varied landscape of instruction initiatives. … The complete survey responses are available on the ARL Web site, organized (1) by subtopics that emerged in the responses and (2) alphabetically by institution; see http://www.arl.org/rtl/roles/vrii/. Please note that key-word searching can be applied to the PDF of the complete survey results. A summary of the responses is also available as "Research Library Instruction Initiatives: Varied, Evolving, Shaped by Local Cultures," by Crit Stuart, in ARL: A Bimonthly Report, no. 261 (Dec. 2008): 5-8, http://www.arl.org/bm~doc/arl-br-261-vrii.pdf."
• Mobile Technologies, Mobile Users: Implications for Academic Libraries – “The implications of mobile technologies and mobile users for academic libraries is highlighted in the current issue of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) Bimonthly Report, no. 261.” http://www.arl.org/resources/pubs/br/br261.shtml
• The Global Economic Crisis and Its Effect on Publishing and Library Subscriptions: ARL Issues Statement to Scholarly Publishers and Vendors – “a statement on the current global economic crisis and its effect on publishing and library subscriptions. The ARL statement, which is aimed at scholarly publishers and vendors, reinforces some of the key points in a recent statement by the International Coalition of Library Consortia (ICOLC) and offers additional observations and recommendations from the perspectives of ARL member libraries.” http://www.arl.org/bm~doc/economic-statement-2009.pdf

Research Libraries and Digital Repository Services

From American Libraries Direct

Research libraries and digital repository services

The Association of Research Libraries Digital Repository Issues Task Force has released its final report on evaluating trends and contextualizing repository activities among ARL libraries. The Research Library’s Role in Digital Repository Services (PDF file) identifies key issues surrounding repository development, explores common strategies that libraries are using, and discusses issues where ARL and its member libraries should focus attention....Association of Research Libraries, Feb. 3

100 Web Tools to Help You Get Organized

From American Libraries Direct

100 web tools to help you get organized

Alisa Miller writes: “Turn to these internet tools to help you with such tasks as note-taking, bookmarking websites, highlighting important text during online research, creating mind maps, tracking time, keeping up with appointments, collaborating with others, and managing projects.”... Online College Blog

Google Book Search Goes Mobile

From American Libraries Direct

Google Book Search goes mobile

Marshall Kirkpatrick writes: “Google Book Search Mobile is a very handy new version of the Google site that lets users search through and read 1.5 million books on their phones’ browsers. The books are all scanned as images, but for the new mobile version Google has used OCR to grab the text on the pages.” This text-only feature will allow users to download printed material more quickly over wireless networks....ReadWriteWeb, Feb. 5; New York Times, Feb. 5

Kindle 2 Slims Down

From American Libraries Direct

Kindle 2 slims down, adds muscle, and talks

Amazon released the second iteration of its Kindle e-book reader February 9, a device that will hold up to 1,500 books, boasts 25% better battery life, and includes a “talk to me” feature that reads books aloud. The $359 Kindle 2 will ship February 24. Amazon has added buttons to make it easier to flip pages, and a new five-way controller facilitates note-taking and highlighting text. Kindle 2 definitions, pulled from the New Oxford American Dictionary, appear instantly at the bottom of the page. Amazon announced its new product in the auditorium of New York City’s Morgan Library. Gizmodo has a hands-on analysis....PC Magazine, Feb. 9; Ars Technica, Feb. 9; Gizmodo, Feb. 9

FDsys Goes Live

From American Libraries Direct

FDsys goes live

Miriam A. Drake writes: “The U.S. Government Printing Office hit the switch in early February and brought up its new digital system, FDsys, that will ultimately replace GPO Access. FDsys is an information management system that enables GPO to gather, process, preserve, archive, and make U.S. government information available to the public. It currently provides access to more than 154,000 documents. Document migration from GPO Access is expected to be completed by mid-2009 when the system will provide access to more than 300,000 documents.”... Information Today, Feb. 17

Project Information Literacy Progress Report

From American Libraries Direct

Project Information Literacy progress report

Project Information Literacy is a national study about early adults and their information-seeking behaviors, competencies, and the challenges they face when conducting research in the digital age. Based in the University of Washington’s iSchool, the progress report (PDF file) investigates how students on seven college campuses conduct research for coursework and how they conduct everyday research for use in their daily lives....Project Information Literacy, Feb. 4

University Purchases GradShare

A few days ago I saw this announcement in American Libraries Direct and clipped it for inclusion in my Dean’s Update.

An online community for graduate students
Steven Bell writes: “A potential source of help for grad students may be a new online community developed by ProQuest for graduate students called GradShare (in beta, of course). According to an interview with a GradShare spokesperson, ‘Gradshare will become a way for graduate students to use peer mentoring to get answers to questions that they’re either not comfortable asking their advisors or unable to ask their advisors.’”...ACRLog, Jan. 30; Chronicle of Higher Education, Jan. 29

Just a few hours later I saw this announcement that UK had become one of the first members of the new social network. http://news.uky.edu/news/display_article.php?artid=4343

Should be interesting to explore what the possible options for involvement there are for the Libraries.

New Digital Collection to be Created by ASERL

ASERL (of which UK is a member) has announced plans to create a new shared digital collection entitled “Intellectual Underpinnings of the American Civil War. This new online collection will contain 5,000 digital items from rare and special collections held by the 38 research libraries that belong to ASERL. The items will be online for public use by 2011, which is the 150th anniversary of the start of the American Civil War.” The full press release is available on the ASERL web site at http://aserl.org/documents/ASERL_Intellectual_Underpinnings_Civil_War.pdf

FoKAL Appoints First Committees

FoKAL (Federation of Kentucky Academic Libraries) has appointed its first three committees:

Advocacy – chaired by Stacey Nickell (West Kentucky CTC)
Terry Birdwhistell will represent UK on this committee

Information Literacy – chaired by Marcia Freyman (Bluegrass CTC)
Debbie Sharp will represent UK on this committee

ILL & Reciprocal Borrowing – chaired by Carolyn Tassie (Transylvania University)
Pat Wilson will represent UK on this committee

More information on the full membership and charge to the committees is available at the FoKAL wiki committees page at http://fokal.pbwiki.com/Committees

Reminder about Food and Drink Policy in the Young Auditorium

One of the challenges of working in a library is adhering to the same policies you want to apply to your users. I have noticed a deterioration in our own adherence to the “no food and drink” policy in the Young Auditorium. I once had to askPresident Todd not to take his coffee in and I’ll admit I have trouble adhering to the policy as well. I read this blog entry recently and thought it well captured the spirit of why we ask you, our faculty and staff, to adhere as well.

From Library Garden – http://librarygarden.blogspot.com/2009/02/open-letter-to-visiting-professionals.html
An Open Letter to Visiting Professionals
By Cynthia Lambert

Welcome!
Thank you for coming--we love to share our space and are happy to have you here. As in many libraries (and I suspect in yours), we have a policy here that states: No Food or Drink in the Library. We hate to tell our patrons no, but have no choice—this is a sensible policy as food and drink stain furniture and carpets and destroys library materials. In this age of the ubiquitous Starbucks cup, coffee cop is one of the worst parts of our jobs.

We try to enforce the rules fairly, but sometimes we do not see the offense. However, when you approach the public desk with a steaming cup of coffee in your hands, you should expect to be told about the policy. Please do not roll your eyes, sigh, or scowl—as you know, we are on the front-lines and just doing our job. When you follow-up with "I am here for the [Insert meeting name here]", please understand that is the library equivalent of a celebrity exclaiming ‘Do you know who I am’. It does not change the rule which we are duty bound to enforce fairly.

Please keep this in mind when visiting another library—we understand your desire to have coffee while at your meeting. We understand you are careful and are unlikely to spill. We do not want to tell you no. However, we can not make an exception for you. It is unfair. It makes our job harder. Please do not ask. You see, the other patrons do not know who you are.Thank you.

Next Dean's Update

The next Dean’s update will be February 27, 2009.

Virtual Resources and Instructional Initiatives: Snapshots of Library Experiments

“Virtual Resources and Instructional Initiatives: Snapshots of Library Experiments”

In the December 2008 ARL Bimonthly Report, there was an article by Crit Stuart, Director of the ARL Research, Teaching and Learning Program, about virtual resources and instructional initiatives. The subtitle of the article is Snapshots of library experiments. It's a quick read but has some interesting ideas and experiments that other libraries have underway related especially to collaborations with teaching faculty. You can find it online at http://www.arl.org/bm~doc/arl-br-261-vrii.pdf

LITA's Top Tech Trends

From American Libraries Direct

LITA’s Top Tech Trends

Greg Landgraf writes: “LITA’s traditional Top Tech Trends discussion played to a standing-room-only crowd January 25, although the event was briefly delayed by a fire alarm. Participants focused on four topics: the management of open-source software, the growth of geolocational technologies, linked data, and the effect of the economy on technology choices in libraries. The LITA Blog liveblogged the session, and the session was also streamed.”...AL Inside Scoop, Jan. 25; LITA Blog, Jan. 25; Ustream.tv

Did You Miss American Libraries' Digital Supplement?

From American Libraries Direct

Did you miss American Libraries’ digital supplement?

It was emailed in mid-January, but you can read it at the link above. It’s a 37-page Winter 2009 issue, hosted on ZMags and powered by page-turning software. Features include: discovering high-tech, high-touch LIS opportunities; ALA continuing education resources; ALA-accredited master’s programs; and three views on service learning in library education....

2009 Horizon Report

From American Libraries Direct

The 2009 Horizon Report

The annual Horizon Report is a collaborative effort between the New Media Consortium and the Educause Learning Initiative. Each year, the report identifies and describes six areas of emerging technology likely to have a significant impact on teaching, learning, or creative expression in higher education. Those cited this year are: mobile devices, cloud computing, geo-everything, the personal web, semantic-aware applications, and smart objects....Educause Connect, Jan. 20

General Education Reform Faculty Curricular Teams

I am very pleased to report that the Faculty Curricular Teams for the General Reform process have been appointed and that each team includes one of our librarians. These teams have been asked “to create a clear and usable template outlining the key elements or operational criteria and their relative weight that a course proposal must include in order to qualify as a part of the General Education curriculum.” Their deadlines are short – mid-March – and they are already fast at work. My thanks to those who volunteered to have their names put forward and those who have been selected to serve. In addition, the Faculty Council was instrumental in compiling the list of volunteers and having Stephanie Aken serving on the Senate Council was very effective in getting our librarians included. We’ll look forward to hearing more about their work as it proceeds.

· Intellectual Inquiry, Humanities – Brad Carrington
· Intellectual Inquiry, Physical, Natural and Mathematical Sciences – Jan Carver
· Intellectual Inquiry, Social Sciences – Shawn Livingston
· Intellectual Inquiry, Arts & Creativity – Meg Shaw
· Communications, Writing I – Rob Aken
· Communications, Writing I – Jen Bartlett
· Communications, Communication – Stacey Greenwell
· Quantitative Reasoning, Math, Logic and Stats Foundation – Sue Smith
· Quantitative Reasoning, Statistical Reasoning – Rick Brewer
· Citizenship, U.S. Citizenship – Kate Black
· Citizenship, Global Citizenship – Gordon Hogg
· Co-Curricular – Carla Cantagallo

The full lists can be found at http://www.uky.edu/GenEd/fac_curricular_team.php

Notable Kentucky African Americans Database Wins ALA Award

The University of Kentucky Libraries have been selected as the recipient of the 2009 Gale Cengage Learning Award for Excellence in Reference and Adult Library Services, a division of the American Library Association, for our submission of the Notable Kentucky African Americans Database. The Libraries will receive a citation, and $3,000, courtesy of the Cengage Gale Learning Company, to be given at the Annual RUSA awards ceremony, on Monday, July 13, at approx. 3 p.m. in Chicago, IL . Congratulations to Reinette Jones and Rob Aken!

Save the Date

On April 24th from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00, you’ll have the opportunity to visit the new Science Library as well as meet the new director of the School of Library and Information Studies, Jeff Huber. This reception will be sponsored by SAALCK (State-Assisted Academic Library Council of Kentucky) of which the UK Libraries is a member.

Nominations Open for UK Libraries' Awards

It's time to start nominating!! The Awards Jury would like to announce that nominations are now being accepted for two awards. Nominations for both the Dean's Award for Outstanding Performance (up to 3 awards given) and the Outstanding Student Award (up to four awards given) can be made by any library faculty or staff member, although self-nominations are not permitted.

We all work with highly talented and innovative people, so if you know a staff member or a student that deserves this honor, please nominate them. Feel free to collaborate with your colleagues on a nomination. You can access the nomination forms through this link:
https://libstaffsrv.uky.edu/Committees/Awards/default.aspx.

SOLINET/PALINET Merger Approved by the Membership

I am happy to share exciting news with you. Voting representatives of SOLINET and PALINET approved the merger of the two organizations with a ‘Yes’ vote of more than 95%. SOLINET members will now be able to collaborate with peers at diverse institutions throughout the Mid-Atlantic, the Southeastern US and nationally, working together to respond to constantly changing expectations of our users, wherever they may be. The effective date for the new organization, Lyrasis, is April 1, 2009. During the transition period, Lyrasis staff will be keeping you informed of our progress. Please visit www.mergerupdate.org for the latest information.

A Little Wager with the Dean of Libraries at Auburn University

My colleague at Auburn University, Bonnie MacEwan, is going to be the guest coach at the February 12th women’s basketball game between Auburn and UK. She has challenged me to a small wager on the outcome of the game. Of course, I have full confidence that our UK Wildcats will be victorious. If we are, Bonnie will be making a contribution to the UK Libraries for a book which will include the following inscription:

"In recognition of the Auburn's defeat against the Kentucky Women's Basketball team February 12, 2009."

Should out team fall to the Auburn Tigers, I will be making a similar contribution with inscription to their Libraries. Go Cats!

An Interactive take on Dante

From American Libraries Direct

An interactive take on Dante

Guy P. Raffa, associate professor of Italian at the University of Texas at Austin, has created an online readers’ guide to Dante’s Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. Called Danteworlds, it’s an interactive accompaniment to his book on The Divine Comedy from the University of Chicago Press. The online Danteworlds maps out Dante’s physical progress to Hell and beyond, combining classic images by Botticelli with new illustrations by Suloni Robertson (above). There are also audio snippets of Dante’s work being read in Italian....Los Angeles Times, Jan. 14

Assessing Student Information Literacy

From American Libraries Direct

Assessing student information literacy

While we all work diligently to improve students’ information literacy, it’s not always easy to assess students’ knowledge and retention. TRAILS (Tool for Real-Time Assessment of Information Literacy Skills) provides one possible solution. Created by Kent State University with funding from the Institute for Library and Information Literacy Education, this free online tool uses multiple choice questions based on both Information Power and Ohio’s 6th- and 9th-grade standards....AASL Blog, Jan. 20

Calling All Catalogers

From American Libraries Direct

Calling all catalogers

Nicole Engard writes: “I have been spending time these last few months working on a new web-based cataloging tool. It’s finally time! I’d like to invite you to sign up for free and try out ‡biblios.net, a community cataloging tool from LibLime. It is a web-based, original and copy cataloging tool with built-in federated search of any Z39.50 target and a large (30 million strong) shared database of catalog records. You can edit and contribute to the database without any restrictions.”...What I Learned Today, Jan. 20

Quarterly Reports Posted

The division quarterly reports for the Second Quarter (October through December 2008) are now available in SharePoint under Office of the Dean, Quarterly Reports. Just to pique your interest, here are few interesting facts from the reports:

• The division spent a good part of this quarter working on a project to update the Young periodicals area. After consultation with PNM and Binding, we started a project to check all the labels on the shelves and make sure they were for currently received materials. The student worker made two complete passes and cleared out almost 3 boxes of labels for materials which are no longer received. This clears the way for PNM to rearrange the area in January 2009. This also assists Binding in knowing whether they are waiting for items to bind or not. (CTS)
• Voyager patron loads for faculty and staff now are coming in with email addresses as part of the record. This will significantly reduce the number of printed notices that are created in Voyager and will better improve communications with our UK employee borrowers. (IT)
• With the addition of most UK faculty, staff and student email addresses to the system the CallSlip (a.k.a. BookExpress) email notification has been implemented. Users will now receive emails when their material has arrived. (IT)
• The University continues to push for all employees to discontinue receiving their remuneration statement in paper form. The University currently has had almost 5,000 employees opt out of their paper statements. When this number reaches more than 50% of the employees, then we will no longer receive any paper remuneration statements. This will save the University thousands of dollars each fiscal year. (Planning and Administration)
• The majority of reference transactions continue to be our walk up traffic at the desks but virtual reference is growing. During the last quarter 40% of our reference transactions were either by phone, email or chat. [Note: check out more detail on the changes that R&E is making in the full report] (R&E)
• And a few items from SCDP

o Daily Racing Form test database is available at http://kdl.kyvl.org/cgi/t/text/text-idx?page=simple;g=drf
o Finalized the redesign of the KDL oral history interface
o The William B. Keightley Oral History Project (first seven interviews) was placed online in October gathering 4,455 hits
o Project Archivist hired for the Athletics project to create a web presence for fans and researchers using archival material and oral historiesThe Kentuckian digitization project is scanned and ocr’d through 1975 and is slated to go live soon on Explore UK

Denise Hunter Hired as Library Tech

Andrea Denise Hunter, who goes by Denise, has been hired for the Library Technician position in Monographs Acquisitions, Collections and Technical Services Division. Since July 2005, Denise has been employed in the Learning Resource Center at Bluegrass Community and Technical College. She has a Bachelor of Music degree from Morehead State and has begun taking graduate classes in library science from UK. Her start date with the UK Libraries will be February 16. We wish her much success in her position.

Department Heads Minutes

The meeting minutes from the January 15th department heads’ meeting are now posted on the Department Heads SharePoint site.

Speaking Volumes Newsletter

The Libraries’ external newsletter, Speaking Volumes, is published twice a year and sent to our donors and friends. The newsletter is created by Jessica Hughes and Sharon Ross and often calls upon press releases written by our PR liaison, Whitney Hale. The PDF version of the newsletter is regularly posted on the Libraries website at http://www.uky.edu/Libraries/page.php?lweb_id=527 If you haven’t seen it lately, take a lot at the Fall and Spring 2008 issues online.

What Faculty Can Do To Help

Dean of the Graduate School and Interim Associate Provost for Undergraduate Education, Jeannine Blackwell, has sent a list of tips to all faculty and instructors of record who teach undergraduates. It has also been sent it to the advising network and to course coordinators of multi-section courses, who will share it with other graduate assistants. I’ve posted the list on our SharePoint site under Office of the Dean, Misc Documents.

ARL Appoints Lisa Carter as Visiting Program Officer

From a recent press release from ARL: ARL has appointed Lisa Carter as a Visiting Program Officer (VPO) to work with the ARL Special Collections Working Group, effective in January 2009. Lisa’s VPO assignment supports an ARL objective to promote collaborative integration and enduring access to comprehensive research collections and resources in all formats that could be used to advance research, teaching, and learning. Lisa’s primary responsibility is to collaborate with working group Chair Alice Prochaska, University Librarian, Yale University, to develop agendas, to facilitate the sharing of ideas that will advance the ARL objective, and to assist with planning and preparation for a conference in late 2009.

ACRL Updates its Scholarly Communication Toolkit

From American Libraries Direct

ACRL updates its Scholarly Communication Toolkit

ACRL has released an updated version of its popular Scholarly Communication Toolkit in a new format and with updated content. The toolkit continues to provide context and background by summarizing key issues to offer quick, basic information on scholarly communication topics. It also links to examples of specific tools, including handouts, presentations, and videos for libraries to adapt and use on their own campuses....

A New Technique for Photo Identification

From American Libraries Direct

A new technique for photo identification

Scientists at the Getty Conservation Institute in Los Angeles have developed a new method for authenticating historic photographs that will have broad implications for museum collections, art historians, collectors, and conservators. Each chemical printing process leaves behind a series of markers that collectively are as distinctive as a fingerprint. The GCI researchers have now identified the signatures associated with different photographic processes to provide a scientifically-based method for provenancing and authenticating a majority of 20th-century photographs....Getty Conservation Institute, Jan. 8

DNA Could Unlock Some Manuscript Mysteries

From American Libraries Direct

DNA could unlock some manuscript mysteries

Thousands of manuscripts produced in medieval Europe still exist today, but scholars have long struggled with questions about when and where many of them originated. Now a researcher at North Carolina State University is using modern advances in genetics to shed light on their origins. Assistant Professor of English Timothy Stinson is perfecting techniques for extracting and analyzing the DNA contained in the parchment pages in order to create a genetic database that can be used to establish the date and locale for particular manuscripts....North Carolina State University, Jan. 12

WorldCat on your mobile phone

From American Libraries Direct

WorldCat on your mobile phone

Now you can use your mobile phone to find materials in libraries near you—and help OCLC test a new pilot service. Available in the United States and Canada, this six-month pilot lets you try out mobile search of WorldCat libraries and suggest improvements or additional features. WorldCat has partnered with mobile-technology leader Boopsie and joined its growing array of search channels. When you download the Boopsie application to your phone, you get library search plus these additional channels. Start by typing this URL into your phone’s web browser: www.worldcat.org/m/....WorldCat Mobile

International Survey of Library Automation

From American Libraries Direct

International survey of library automation

Marshall Breeding writes: “This report describes the results of a survey that I conducted to gather data regarding the perceptions of libraries toward their automation systems, the organizations that provide support, and the quality of support they receive. It also aims to gauge interest in open source library automation systems. The survey attracted the most responses from libraries using Millennium, Unicorn/Symphony, and Horizon.”...Library Technology Guides, Jan. 18