Committee and Working Group Appointments

The Committee and Working Group appointments for FY10 have been completed. My thanks to all of you would volunteer for serve. Our committee structure is an important part of the decision making of our libraries. You can find the full list on SharePoint, Office of the Dean, Commitee Information, FY10. This year we had more voulnteers than we could accommodate, so if you did not receive an appointment, please know that I appreciate your willingness to serve.

White Paper Status and Updates: Authentication

In order to improve our environment and the security of our staff and patrons, we will be moving to some form of enhanced security requiring authentication for at least some of our computers. Toni and Pat will develop a plan (in concert with their divisions) for where openly accessible computers will reside and where those requiring authentication will reside beginning with the Young Library and Little Fine Arts Library. Further branch library consideration will follow successful implementation in Young/Little. Branches are asked to begin to identify what would be open computers and what would be authenticated.

White Papers Status and Updates: Computer Allocation

Division response to the IT allocation of computers proposal was due on 7-10-09. The EC will finalize those decisions at its meeting on 7-20-09. Implementation has already begun with the removal of some of the public computers in isolated areas. Implementation will continue after 7-20-09. External contractors are reviewing allocation of printers and will make recommendations. IT will then make a recommendation to the Associate Deans about printer allocation. There will be a period of time for division comment and response before printer allocation is finalized. During the year head, IT will initiate discussion of interest among faculty for laptop/docking station in lieu of desktop computers. The next computer lease renewal will occur in FY11 which could accommodate any changes. IT will also initiate a review of the laptop loan program for students including policy for length of check-out and renewal.

White Paper Status and Updates: Hours for WTYL

We have reached a decision to continue with 24/5 hours for the FY10 academic year. Funding for these hours will come from carry forward funding from last fiscal year. The Student Government Association will not be asked to contribute to funding this. The funding and hours decision will be revisited for the FY11 academic year. We will continue to collect statistics on usage throughout the academic year ahead.

White Paper Status and Updates: Services to Colleges

Two first steps have been determined from the white paper review and open forum discussion. The Agricultural Information Center working group was launched in June 2009 to determine a new design for that service point and its related areas. The Walker wireless for branches has been added to the equipment request list; individual systems will be purchased as funds become available this year.

White Paper Status and Updates: Services in WTYL

The Research Commons Working Group will be launched in August 2009. The inclusion of audiovisual materials and microforms in Book Express will be investigated by the Access and Delivery and Collections and Technical Services Divisions. A&D and R&E will be meeting in July/August to discuss service delivery. Final decisions will then be made for the academic year ahead.

White Paper Status and Updates: King Library Press

The King Library Press is a valued service and component of the UK Libraries. It is funded largely by a small endowment, modest general funds, and volunteer support. The endowment for the King Library Press has been affected by the recent economic downturn but has enough funding to continue its signature programs. As a result of the white paper review, the King Library Press will continue with its current programs and activities.

White Paper Status and Updates: KY Newspaper Preservation

One of the next steps for the Newspaper Program is a review of the collections policy for all newspapers – Kentucky and beyond – and including those newspapers which are purchased for the purpose of preservation. Work is continuing to develop a next steps proposal specifically for the preservation portion of our newspaper program and to include the formation of an advisory council on preserving born digital news.

Spot Bonus for Jennifer Mattern

In the recent rekeying project for Young Library, Jennifer Mattern (who is responsible for key oversight for the group study rooms, faculty study rooms, doctoral student study rooms, and several meeting rooms) had to contact each of the faculty and graduate students who have been issued keys to study rooms, post signs on each study room door alerting occupants of the change, and make arrangements for them to pick up their replacement keys. As many faculty and graduate students are not on campus during the summer, she is continuing to issue new keys and collect the old ones. Thus, key distribution for Jennifer will continue well into the fall semester. Further, as the first point of contact for many building tenants who needed or had problems with their new keys, she communicated almost daily with Mary McLaren and Sherree Osborne to alert them of problems and additional key requests. Congratulations Jennifer!

Summer Celebration for Tenure and Promotion

Our summer celebration to honor our newly tenured and/or promoted colleagues has been scheduled for August 12, at 3:00 p.m. in the Young Library Gallery. Remarks will occur at 3:30 p.m. Please join us in celebrating the promotion and tenure of Jan Carver and Kazuko Hioki!

Amazon to distribute Michigan's Digitized Books

From American Libraries Direct

Amazon to distribute Michigan’s digitized books

The University of Michigan will make thousands of books that are no longer in copyright available as reprints on demand under a new agreement with BookSurge, part of the Amazon.com group of companies. As individual copies are sold, BookSurge will print and bind the books in softcover form. Maria Bonn, director of the UM Library’s scholarly publishing office, said the reprint program includes books digitized both by the university and through its partnership with Google. The initial offering on Amazon will include more than 400,000 titles in more than 200 languages....University of Michigan, July 21

Article on Hubbub Published in C&RL News

Former Hub employee, Alice Wasielewski, has published an article on the annual K Week event, Hubbub, in College & Research Libraries News. The article appears in Vol. 70, no. 7 (July/August 2009) and is available online at http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/publications/crlnews/2009/jul/hubbub.cfm