Dean's Award for Outstanding Performance and Service Awards

Last week also saw our annual celebration of the staff appreciation week and our staff awards ceremony. The three recipients of the Dean’s Award for Outstanding Performance are Scott Howard, Mary Spencer and Theresa Yocum. The nominators of these recipients were very articulate about the contributions each has and is making to the success of our libraries. The criteria for the award include:

· Exceptional dedication to the job
· Positive attitude about the job, the department and the UK Libraries as a whole
· Exceptional overall job performance
· Exceptional interpersonal relations with the colleagues and members of the University community
· Demonstrated initiative and creativity in the performance of duties and responsibilities

You can find the PowerPoint presentation from our celebration on the Staff Advisory Council’s SharePoint site. The list of service award recipients is included there as well. The list of those with 5 to 35 years of service to the UK Libraries is impressive. My thanks to each individual for their dedication and hard work.

Congratulations also to Scott, Mary and Theresa! Thank you for all that you do for the UK Libraries.

Graduating Library Student Assistants Celebration April 21, 2009

Without the assistance of our student workers, we would be unable to fulfill the Libraries’ mission. Each year we celebrate our graduating student assistants by asking them to choose a book from our collection that has a special significance. We place a book plate in the book and add a note to the bibliographic record honoring the student and listing their dates of employment. In addition, we ask supervisors to nominate outstanding students and select four who receive a certificate of recognition printed by our King Library Press and their names are added to a plaque in the Young Library Gallery. Congratulations to this year’s nominees:

· Michael Brewster (Fine Arts)
· Lauren Conley (Med Center)
· Aaron DeWitt (Storage)
· Brittany Eberle (Law)
· Sarah Hill (Science)
· Amy Laub (Young - Special Projects/Conservation)
· Shannon Younger (Young - Circulation)

And special congratulations to those selected as outstanding 2009 Library Student Assistants
· Martha (Mattie) Kountz (Med Ctr)
· Jeanette Vindell (Young Dean's Office)
· Lauren Conley, MCL
· Sarah Hill, Science

My sincere appreciation to Toni Greider for standing in for me and thanks to all of you who helped put this celebration together: Terry Brown, Jen Bartlett, Diana Feinberg, Kazuko Hioki, the Hospitality Committee (Kathy Farmer, Dawn Gaye, Mary Geyer, Toni Greider, Patty Hornback, Kathryn LeFevre, Sharon Ross, Mary Vaughn), Janet Layman, Jennifer Mattern, Lalana Powell, Lindsay Shuford, Kitty Taylor, Josh Monroe, and the student supervisors and the branches who sent the books.

Kudos

As the academic year winds down, we have experienced a strong showing of recognition for a variety of accomplishments of individual librarians or projects. This is further evidence of our success in making the good work of the UK Libraries more visible to our local and state communities as well as within our professional community. Please join me in congratulating those who have made these endeavors happen.

UK Libraries Business Liaisons Receive Thanaks in UK Perspectives

During last week’s UK Perspectives featuring President Todd and Becky Naugle, state director of the Kentucky Small Business Development Center, Dr. Naugle gave a nice complement to UK Libraries and the work of our business liaisons, Eeva Hoch and Peter Hesseldenz. They have worked very hard establishing outreach connections with the 17 centers around the commonwealth. It’s wonderful to see that work recognized in such a public forum. Listen to the brief interview at http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wuky/news.newsmain?action=article&ARTICLE_ID=1496231 Congratulations Peter and Eeva!

Mustaches of the Nineteenth Century Wins 2009 Best Archives on the Web Award

Mustaches of the Nineteenth Century, created by Jason Flahardy, won the Most Whimsical Archives-Related Website as part of the 2009 Best Archives on the Web Awards. Check it out at http://www.archivesnext.com/?p=270 Future posts to this blog are expected to give more detail on why the site was selected. Congratulations Jason!

New Web Site - Kyleidoscope -- Highlights the Kentuckiana Digital Library

UK Public Relations has issued a press release highlighting a new web site called Kyleidoscope which is a collaboration of the Kentucky Virtual Library, Kentucky Department of Education and our Special Collections and Digital Programs. The site is intended “to provide the state's K-12 educators and students convenient access to some of Kentucky's most unique resources that span history from 1750 to today.”“Kyleidoscope offers historical information organized by theme, instructional worksheets and historical details. Students will also have the opportunity to use digitized photographs and documents from Kentucky archives on the Web site. The site, which can be used in the classroom, provides a timeline of Kentucky's history divided into themes or eras. Each theme provides links to events that occurred during that period of time in Kentucky's history.” Read more about it in the full press release at http://news.uky.edu/news/display_article.php?artid=4634 Congratulations to Eric Weig and others in Special Collections and Digital Programs.

Nunn Center and WUKY Win Kentucky AP Broadcasters Award

The Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History in a special collaboration with WUKY won first place in the Best Sports Feature/Special category of the Kentucky AP Broadcasters Awards. The collaboration entitled “Mr. Wildcat” Bill Keightley featured a collection of interviews with the beloved UK basketball manager. Read the full press release here http://news.uky.edu/news/display_article.php?artid=4587 Congratulations Doug!

Stacey Greenwell Wins NextGen Librarian Award from Lyrasis

Lyrasis has announced the winners of its first annual 2009 NextGen Librarian award “created to identify and celebrate rising leaders in the library community.” Stacey Greenwell received the award in the Leadership category. Here is the full citation:

Nominated as “a true blended librarian” and “technology innovator.” As part of a training program on social networking, she made “house calls” to library staff to expose them to new tools and is part of the Second Life campus-wide group. A leader in the Special Libraries Association, she has been accepted to the Frye Leadership Institute.”

Congratulations Stacey!

Speaking Volumes Spring 2009

The spring 2009 edition of Speaking Volumes has been distributed to the branch libraries and is in the mail to community friends. The PDF is available at http://www.uky.edu/Libraries/page.php?lweb_id=527 This edition’s theme focuses on our efforts to achieve our Strategic Plan, Goal 2. Advance the role of librarians as valued partners in teaching and learning. Thank you to all of you who responded to our call for drafts and ideas for this edition:

• Gail Kennedy for UK Libraries Collaborate: General Education Reform
• Dana Lehman, MLIS graduate student and Bob Kraus for appearing in our uncaptioned front page photo with an undergraduate class
• Amy Osborne for Alvin E. Evans Law Library: Life-long Learning and Skills for Legal Professionals
• Eeva Hoch and Peter Hesseldenz for UK Business Librarians: Research and Resources for Kentucky’s Entrepreneurs
• Deirdre Scaggs and MLIS graduate student James Midkiff for Librarians Play Key Roles in Graduate Education: Earle C. Clements Graduate Assistantship

Please contact Jessica Hughes at 7-0500 ext. 2059 or JESSICA.HUGHES@uky.edu if you need additional copies of the newsletter or you can get copies in the Office of the Dean. If you know of people that would like to receive the newsletter please let Jessica know so that we can add them to the mailing list.

Quarterly Reports Posted

The division quarterly reports for the Third Quarter (January through March 2009) are now available in SharePoint under Office of the Dean, Quarterly Reports.

Lyrasis and NELINET

Lyrasis, the library network created out of the merger of PALINET and SOLINET, will expand further into the eastern United States by absorbing NELINET, which serves 500 member libraries and cultural heritage organizations throughout the six New England states and internationally. The Boards of Directors of NELINET and Lyrasis have approved a resolution to recommend NELINET join Lyrasis. The expanded Lyrasis would serve more than 4500 libraries and cultural heritage institutions in New England, the Mid-Atlantic, and the Southeastern United States. More information can be found at http://www3.nelinet.net/Lyrasis%20

Summer Schedule for the Dean's Update

Now that the academic year is drawing to a close, the Dean’s Update will be on an every other week schedule rather than every Friday.

Report of the WorldCat Local Special Collections and Archives Task Force

Since we are testing WorldCat Local, I would bring to your attention a recent report by the WorldCat Local Special Collections Task Force which was convened by OCLC “to make recommendations to improve discovery of special collections and archival materials in local implementations of WCL.” This report codifies a statement that I believe and that is becoming truer every day – “The rare books, manuscripts, archives, and other special collections materials in research libraries have become widely recognized as the hallmarks of distinction of individual academic libraries, as their general collections become increasingly homogenized through the acquisition of licenses content and digitized books.” The report goes on then to recommend ways that the discovery of special collections materials can be enhanced in WCL. There is also a response from OCLC to the recommendations of its task force. The report can be found here http://www.rbms.info/committees/bibliographic_standards/committee-docs/FinalReportWCLSpecCollTaskForce.pdf and OCLC’s response here http://www.rbms.info/committees/bibliographic_standards/committee-docs/OCLCResponseWCLTaskForce.pdf

Special Collections in ARL Libraries

The ARL has also just released a discussion report from its Working Group on Special Collections that “identifies key issues in the management and exposure of special collections material in the 21st century.” The report focuses on three areas:

1. “Collecting Carefully, with Regard to Costs, and Ethical and Legal Concerns
2. Ensuring Discovery and Access
3. The Challenge of Born-Digital Collections”

The report is available at http://www.arl.org/bm~doc/scwg-report.pdf