The Hub Featured in American Libraries Direct

Featured in American Libraries Direct 9/10/08

The Hub at the University of Kentucky

Stacey Greenwell writes: “At the University of Kentucky, we just launched a video about our information commons, the Hub. As part of a group focused on student and faculty support, the video was a collaboration between the library and the teaching and academic support center. The video takes a humorous look at what the Hub has to offer students. We worked with student actors over the summer (I paid them in vending machine snacks—which also made great props).” They have both a short (0:31) and a long (3:24) version....The Uncommon Commons, Sept. 3; blip.tv

In addition, UK PR created a video on the Young Library which can be seen at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MNe7rv7fYQ

Library Instruction Videos

Cornell University has created a series of library instruction videos and posted them on YouTube (www.youtube.com/user/olinlibrary) Our librarians have developed something similar which can be found in our Research Toolbox -- http://www.uky.edu/Libraries/FindIt/ Ours are DEFINITELY more entertaining! Good work!

Network in Young Library to be Upgraded

For some time we have been requesting funding and working with various areas on campus to plan for an upgrade to the network in the Young Library. While the wireless network was addressed last spring, we continued to work toward an upgrade of the wired infrastructure as well. With funding from the Provost, Campus Information Technology, and our own budget, that upgrade to some of the network equipment in the communications closets of the W. T. Young Library will begin this fall. Kelly will be sending out a more detailed message to the allyoung listserv.

Nancy Lewis Selected for Circles of Power Program

This leadership program for women faculty at UK began in fall 1998 and a number of the libraries’ faculty have participated. This program is “designed to enhance the leadership skills of women who have leadership interests and capabilities. Nancy Lewis has been selected for the program in 2008. Congratulations!

Library Diversity

I have posted two documents about the diversity of the Libraries faculty and staff. The first is the 2007 Minority Utilization Report for the Libraries which has just been received. This new report can be found in SharePoint under the Office of the Dean, Diversity. https://libstaffsrv.uky.edu/OD/default.aspx The reports from 2005 and 2006 are also there for comparison. This report is constructed for the entire university and the each college each year to report the current diversity of our staff. You will see for the purposes of this study (and based on national standards), we are now in the category of professional staff rather than faculty. This was not the University’s decision but rather a change in the national standards.

What the report says:

For the number of females on our staff – we have met our goals in all categories except service and maintenance
For all minorities – faculty and professional staff, we are currently at 4.2% and our goal is 9.1%
For all minorities – staff (office and clerical being our largest category of staff), we are currently 6.4% and our goal is 13.3%
For African-Americans – faculty and professional staff – we are currently 2.8% and our goal is 4.4%
For African-Americans – staff – we are currently 6.4% and goal is 11.0%

The second document I have posted is a summary of minority librarian information from the ARL Annual Salary Survey. This document – minority librarian data FY07 – reveals that while the number of African American librarians working in ARL has increased slightly, those working in our region, East South Central Region, (Alabama, Auburn, Kentucky, Louisville, Tennessee, Vanderbilt) has remained exactly the same – 22.

We continue to have much work to do to enhance the diversity of our entire staff. We must and will continue to focus on diversity as a key goal in the months and years ahead.

Spot Bonus for Jennifer Mattern

Jennifer Mattern (Circulation Department, Access & Delivery) initiated a project involving delinquent overdue fines in 2007. Jennifer coordinated with the Systems Librarian to run a comprehensive report of all patrons who owed fines of $20 or more (the point at which a patron is blocked by the system), then checked the Voyager accounts against University records and found a number of older fines without blocks, totaling over $40,000. Jennifer placed blocks on the eligible accounts and has since collected over $5,400. In conjunction with this project, she updated the status of lost items over five years old to “Lost-Library Applied” and sent lost item bibliographic records to collection managers for replacement consideration. She is continuing to work on contacting patrons to collect fines and set up payment plans.

Jennifer developed this project on her own initiative, and continues to look for ways that the fines and fees process can work more efficiently. Not only has she retrieved several thousand dollars worth of fines owed to the University, she has also made great strides in cleaning up many item and patron records. This effort helps all those looking for library materials, both library visitors and staff. Congratulations, Jennifer!

Fund to Support SLIS Students Who Work at the UK Libraries

The John Thomas Durham Graduate Student Fund was established by Mr. Henry Durham to honor his son, a 1997 graduate of UK’s School of Library and Information Science. Tom’s experience as a student worker in the UK Libraries while a student at the School of Library and Information Science provided a rich learning environment, and the Fund was established to provide enrichment experiences for SLIS students who are also employed at the UK Libraries. The income from the Fund is “used to support and enrich the experiences of School of Library and Information Science graduate student(s) working in the UK Libraries. Graduate student expenses may be partially or totally supported with the income from the Fund.” “Recipients and use of funds will be selected by the Director of the School of Library and Information Science in consultation with the UK Dean of Libraries.” Specifically, the funding is adequate to support some travel and workshop/conference expenses at this time.

The call for applications and the form for that application process have been sent out by the library school. I have posted the PDF ad and application process on our SharePoint site under Grants and Support.

Director, Library Desktop Support Position Posted

The faculty position of Director of Library Desktop Support, Information Technology Division, is scheduled to appear on the University's Online Employment System job list on Monday, September 29. The detailed job announcement will also post to the Libraries' website on Monday; the deadline for applications is October 31.

Search Committee for Director, Archives Formed

The search committee for the Director, Archives in Special Collections and Digital Programs has been formed. Laura Whayne will serve as chair of the committee. Other members of the committee are: Jen Bartlett, Doug Boyd, Reinette Jones, Judy Sackett (ex officio), and Carrie Wallis. I appreciate their willingness to serve.

Summary of Focus Groups Done by Web Advisory Committee

As part of planning for redesigning the Libraries’ website, the Web Advisory Committee conducted focus groups with library users. Their purpose was to learn how library patrons currently use our site, what works well and what needs improvement. The first sessions focused on undergraduate students. While the numbers are not large making it hard to draw any significant conclusions, the information uncovered is worth a look. A summary can be found in the FY08 Annual Report from the WAC which is on their SharePoint site at https://libstaffsrv.uky.edu/Committees/WAC/default.aspx and is titled “WAC report 2008.”

Department Heads Meeting Minutes

The meeting minutes from the September 10th department heads’ meeting are now posted on the Department Heads SharePoint site.

Netflix Model for Magazines

From American Libraries Direct

The Netflix model for magazines

Maghound is Time Inc.’s new service that lets the consumer choose which magazines to receive each month—with no hassles, at three prices (three titles for $5 a month, five for $8, seven for $10). This may not save the magazine industry, but it’s a good product for anyone who likes magazines. Assuming Maghound takes off, it will offer a pure look at what consumers want to read....Gawker, Sept. 16

When Google Isn't Enough

From American Libraries Direct

When Google isn’t enough

When you need to delve deep into a subject, sometimes Google just won’t do. What you really need is a research engine that explores the unindexed reaches of the Deep Web. For that, there’s now Infovell, “the world’s research engine.” This new subscription-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) engine scours through open-access repositories of information like PubMed Central and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Claims, but it also allows access to scholarly journals such as those from Oxford University Press, Sage, Taylor and Francis, Annual Reviews, and Mary Ann Liebert Publications. Infovell is available for a 30-day free trial....ReadWriteWeb, Sept. 18

Hakia Calls for Help

From American Libraries Direct

Hakia calls for help

Semantic search engine hakia announced September 22 an open call to librarians and information professionals to participate in a new program to unlock credible and free resources to web searchers. Currently, hakia is generating credibility-stamped results for health and medical searches to guide users towards credible web content. These results come from websites vetted by the Medical Library Association. Now, hakia is aiming to further its coverage to all topics, with the participation of other librarians and information professionals....Hakia, Sept. 22