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Archive for January, 2009

Behind Closed Doors

Posted in Uncategorized ★ The Essentials
January 27th, 2009 by Doreen Bernier

Submitted by Lynn Saunders

Have you ever wondered what’s in those locked shelves in Government Documents? Well part of what is there is very early volumes of the Serial Set from the 1800’s. Here is an explanation of the U.S. Serial Set. “The U.S. Congressional Serial Set, commonly referred to as the Serial Set, contains the House and Senate Documents and the House and Senate Reports bound by session of Congress.”

Middlebury has been a US depository since 1884 and we have documents dating back to the early 1800’s. Some of the more interesting documents include the reports of the Lewis and Clark expedition, the handsomely illustrated reports of early expeditions in the American West and Alaska, Commodore Perry’s expedition to Japan which opened up trade relations with Japan, and scores of volumes relating to the U. S. Civil War. Below are copies of several hand colored plates from one of those early volumes.

fish5 fish3 fish2

Researchers from the college community as well as the area come to use these documents in their work. Raymond Hudson is a local researcher who has used our early collection a number of times over the years. Mr. Hudson lived in the Aelutian Islands for many years and now writes books about the area. He stopped by recently to donate the latest book that he has edited, An Aleutian Ethnography by Lucien M. Turner. You can also find Mr. Hudson’s book, Family after all : Alaska’s Jesse Lee Home. Volume 1, Unalaska, 1889-1925 on our shelves.

So when you walk by those locked shelves in Government Documents, you can think about all the history that is housed there. I always get a thrill when I am looking at one of these volumes that dates back to the early 1800’s, some with hand colored plates. I wonder about what life was like then and by reading some of the entries, you can get a sense of that history.

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Oscar Online

Posted in Collection Management ★ The Essentials
January 26th, 2009 by Patricia Hornbeck

Submitted by Patty Hornbeck

Just in time for the 81st Academy Awards — for those of you who are interested — the newly revamped Web site of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was officially launched earlier this month.

Thanks to the work of graduate interns Brendan Smith and Brendan Owens, a portal to the lecture archive which allows much better access is now online at go/dla. Marlena Evans and Kristin Geoghagen have been cataloging the recent lectures in CONTENTdm.

The Film and Media Culture Department will offer a public screening of Revolutionary Road on Sunday, March 15. The screenwriter, Justin Haythe (Midd ‘96) will be on hand to introduce the film and engage in a Q-and-A about it after the screening. The film won a Golden Globe Best Actress prize for Kate Winslet a week or so ago, and now has an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

Increasingly, films purchased on DVD are coming with a digital copy for the purpose of transferring to a PC, Mac, iPod, etc. We’re investigating what the options for these are, and how other libraries are dealing with them.

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NITLE Liaisons’ Update – January 20, 2009

Posted in LIS Administration ★ The Essentials
January 26th, 2009 by Doreen Bernier

This update describes NITLE events and other opportunities now available to participating institutions and their faculties and staffs, including five targeted programming packages to help campuses advance specific institutional goals as well as several newly scheduled conferences, online series, and workshops. Deadlines for involvement in the opportunities listed in today’s update range from January 23 – July 31, 2009.

Table of Contents

== Participating in the NITLE Network ==

1. Targeted Programming for Campuses

2. Just-in-Time Program Units: Price Lowered

== Professional Development Events ==

1. Major conferences, fall 2009

2. Information Services Camp: four additional workshops available

3. Special Topics: online event series

4. New Workshop-To-Go Topic: Grassroots Video

5. Three new Workshops To Go scheduled

== Community-based Collaboration ==

1. Building Stronger Collaborative Relationships Across NITLE Institutions: An IT and Library Staff Collaboration Retreat

== News and Announcements ==

1. New Network participant

2. New market posted in the NITLE Prediction Markets

== Publications of Interest ==

1. Prediction Markets for Emerging Technology – An Interview with NITLE’s Bryan Alexander

== Deadlines ==

1. Events

===== Update =====

== Participating in the NITLE Network ==

If you have any questions about participating in the NITLE Network, please contact us at any time by sending a note to participate@nitle.org.

1. Targeted Programming for Campuses

In the current economic climate, colleges and universities are pushing themselves to do more with less and to use their resources more strategically than ever to advance their missions. By focusing on specific institutional goals, your campus can leverage its participation with NITLE to make gains in efficiency, promote the effective use of digital technology on campus, and create opportunities for networking, collaboration, and cost-sharing. To take advantage of these targeted programming packages, please send an e-mail message with the name of the package to participate@nitle.org.

* Leverage the NITLE Network: Connect your campus with others in the Network for collaboration and shared problem-solving (9 program units/10 program-unit value)

* Advance Your Institution (Instructional Technology Solutions): Build the expertise, effectiveness, and capacity of your instructional technology unit (13 program units/15 program-unit value)

* Advance Your Institution (Information Services Solutions): Keep pace with evolving user needs and expectations while containing costs (13 program units/15 program-unit value)

* Develop Your Mission Sustainably: Support campus innovators or promote specific initiatives with less impact on your institution’s budget and the environment (two options at 13 or 25 program units/15 or 28 program-unit value)

* Promote Digital Teaching across Campus: Invest in pedagogical innovation that uses digital technology to engage current and prospective students and helps them learn (two options at 54 or 58 program units/61 or 65 program-unit value)

Find out more at http://www.nitle.org/www/site/advancing_institutional_goals.

2. Just-in-Time Program Units: Price Lowered

In response to the current economic situation, NITLE has reduced the price of program units purchased “just in time” to $100 per program unit from the previous $125 price.

Guidelines on purchasing and using program units to access NITLE events are available at http://www.nitle.org/www/site/purchasing_program_units. Questions about program units may be sent to participate@nitle.org.

==

== Professional Development Events ==

A full list of NITLE events lives at http://www.nitle.org/www/events. Register participants online from the event web page, or send an e-mail to participate@nitle.org with the event title and registrant’s name, job title, and e-mail address.

1. Major conferences, fall 2009

* Virtual Conference for Instructional Technologists

In a rapidly changing technological environment with a dizzying array of available solutions, instructional technologists who are connected to a strong professional network that understands their particular challenges are better placed to support faculty and drive pedagogical innovation forward. This virtual conference for those who provide direct support and assistance to faculty members offers these “front-line” staff members an opportunity to connect with peers, develop approaches to shared problems, and cultivate robust and supportive professional relationships.

Date: August 19, 2009, 11:30 AM – 6:00 PM Eastern. Location: Delivered online, primarily via multipoint interactive videoconferencing (MIV). Registration Deadline: Friday, July 17, 2009. Price: 3 program units. Webpage: http://www.nitle.org/www/events/923-instructional-technologists-a-virtual-conference.

* Geospatial Technologies in the Liberal Arts

In the spirit of doing more with less, geospatial practitioners in the NITLE Network have expressed strong interest in a professional forum for mutual assistance, training, and communication. This event will provide participants an opportunity to find out about the variety of practices for GIS support and administration that are being developed and followed by colleagues at peer institutions. Participants will share best practices for GIS administration and use, consider the complementary role of modern web-mapping applications and server-based technologies for map and data delivery, and contribute to the development of an on-going community of support for geospatial technologies within the NITLE Network.

Dates: September 25 – 27, 2009. Location: Skidmore College (Saratoga Springs, NY). Registration Deadline: Friday, July 31, 2009. Price: 7 program units. Webpage: http://www.nitle.org/www/events/920-geospatial-technologies-in-the-liberal-arts.

* A fall 2009 conference on teaching and learning centers will be announced in February. Please stay tuned!

—

2. Information Services Camp: four additional workshops available

NITLE thanks these NITLE Technology Fellows for their help in planning the Information Services Camp: James Gehrt (Mount Holyoke College), Eric Luhrs (Lafayette College), Jin Guo (Washington College), Mary Glackin (Mount Holyoke College), and Bob Puffer (Luther College). To see the bios for each contributing Technology Fellow, please visit or subscribe to the Camp blog at http://campnis.blog.nitle.org/. The Information Services Camp blog provides a one-stop shop for all Camp-related information, including updates on surveys, calls for proposals, and other pertinent program information. New workshops include:

* Leveraging Multimedia Production Resources for Maximum Result

When it comes to managing and delivering multimedia production services and/or support, frugal creativity is the order of the day. This half-day workshop will explore newer methods, tools, and best practices for creating or revitalizing an environment for multimedia development and support, emphasizing quicker, easier software solutions, maximizing physical resource return, and exploring student staffing philosophies.

Date: Tuesday, June 2, 2009 (half-day morning session). Location: Smith College (Northampton, MA). Registration Deadline: Monday, April 13, 2009. Price: 2 program units. Webpage: http://www.nitle.org/www/events/922-information-services-camp.

* Project and Change Management for Information Services

Technology operations on campuses are growing: more servers, more services, more inter-dependence of technologies. But in the current economic environment campuses must focus on how to do more with what they have. Participants in this workshop will be introduced to the fundamental elements of project management and how they relate to resource-scheduling and planning so that they can manage campus projects effectively and efficiently.

Date: Wednesday, June 3, 2009 (full-day session). Location: Smith College (Northampton, MA). Registration Deadline: Monday, April 13, 2009. Price: 4 program units. Webpage: http://www.nitle.org/www/events/932-information-services-camp-3.

* Delivering Online Services to Mobile Devices

As devices like the iPhone, Blackberry, and handsets based on Android grow in sophistication and market share, providers’ assumptions about how users will access online services need to change. At the same time, institutions must make careful choices about where, when, and how to focus their efforts to deliver applications to mobile devices. This workshop will provide a context for making wise choices about mobile computing projects, and will equip participants to educate their local campus on the uses, potential, and context of these rapidly maturing technologies.

* Date: Wednesday, June 3, 2009 (full-day session). Location: Smith College (Northampton, MA). Registration Deadline: Monday, April 13, 2009. Price: 4 program units. Webpage: http://www.nitle.org/www/events/931-information-services-camp-2.

* Metadata for Digital Collections

Institutions are increasingly creating, archiving, and publishing digital documents and information. Understanding the standards and best practices for digital-collections metadata is critical to developing systems and processes for managing these growing archives. This hands-on workshop will provide participants from both library and information technology backgrounds with an understanding of metadata for digital collections, including skills for creating descriptive metadata, information for mapping metadata and for metadata transformation, and skills used to manage metadata in digital collections.

Date: Thursday, June 4, 2009 (half-day morning session). Location: Smith College (Northampton, MA). Registration Deadline: Monday, April 13, 2009. Price: 2 program units. Webpage: http://www.nitle.org/www/events/936-information-services-camp-4.

—

3. Special Topics: online event series

With NITLE’s Special Topics program series, participants can connect and learn with colleagues across the Network directly from their campus offices and engage around specific areas of shared interest. These events are delivered online via multipoint interactive videoconferencing (MIV). An overview of available series live at http://www.nitle.org/www/site/special_topics_series_overview. Series that are new or have new instances as of this update include:

* Special Topics in Information Services

This series helps information services leaders and staff members make wise investments in enterprise systems and projects. These sessions for spring 2009 will focus on email and calendaring and on digital repositories. If you have questions about the series, or if you would like to propose topics for future instances, please contact Eric Jansson at eric.jansson@nitle.org.

 – Google Apps for Education. Friday, February 20 & 27, 2009.
    2 program units. Event takes place over two sessions.
    Registration Deadline: Friday, February 6.
    Webpage: http://www.nitle.org/www/events/911-special-topics-in-information-services

 – Digital Repository Strategy. Thursday, March 26, and April 2 & 9, 2009.
    3 program units. Event takes place over three sessions.
    Registration Deadline: Friday, March 13.
    Webpage: http://www.nitle.org/www/events/914-special-topics-in-information-services-4

 – Manakin, The DSpace Interface Toolkit. Wednesday, April 8, 2009.
    1 program unit. Registration Deadline: Friday, March 27, 2009.
    Webpage: http://www.nitle.org/www/events/913-special-topics-in-information-services-3

* Special Topics: Update on Emerging Technologies

Three opportunities to consider the latest developments in the digital world and their impact on liberal education. Bryan Alexander, NITLE Director of Research, will provide an environmental scan of the past month, sketching out developments from across the digital world, and present use cases and applicable examples. Resources will be shared, and discussion interwoven throughout the session. If you have questions about this series or would like to contribute your observations about developments in the environment, please contact Nancy Millichap at nancy.millichap@nitle.org.

  — Wednesday, March 4, 2009. 1 program unit.
     Registration Deadline: Friday, February 20, 2009.
     Webpage: http://www.nitle.org/www/events/937-special-topics-update-on-emerging-technologies

  — Wednesday, April 8, 2009. 1 program unit.
     Registration Deadline: Friday, March 27, 2009.
     Webpage: http://www.nitle.org/www/events/938-special-topics-update-on-emerging-technologies-2

  — Wednesday, May 6, 2009. 1 program unit.
     Registration Deadline: Friday, April 24, 2009.
     Webpage: http://www.nitle.org/www/events/939-special-topics-update-on-emerging-technologies-3

* Special Topics in Spatial Analysis and Mapping

In response to participant interest, this series has been extended through April 2009, with instances scheduled monthly. If you have questions about this series or would like to propose a GIS-related topic for presentation, please contact Sean Connin at sean.connin@nitle.org.

 – Creating Cartograms: Making Geographic Areas Speak Volumes. Thursday, February 26, 2009.
    1 program unit. Registration Deadline: Friday, February 13, 2009.
    Webpage: http://www.nitle.org/www/events/917-creating-cartograms-making-geographic-areas-speak-volumes

 – Visualizing the Solid Earth Using Virtual Globes Such As Google Earth. Tuesday, March 17, 2009.
    1 program unit. Registration Deadline: Friday, February 27, 2009.
    Webpage: http://www.nitle.org/www/events/918-visualizing-the-solid-earth-using-virtual-globes-such-as-google-earth

 – Creating a Digital Footprint In Google Earth: The “AUGE” Experience. Tuesday, April 21, 2009.
    1 program unit. Registration Deadline: Friday, April 3, 2009.
    Webpage: http://www.nitle.org/www/events/919-creating-a-digital-footprint-in-google-earth-the-auge-experience

* Special Topics for Instructional Technologists and Their Colleagues

In March, this continuing series will feature Janet Simons, Instructional Technologist, Hamilton College, and Tamra Hjermstad, Instructional Technology Consultant, Mt. Holyoke College, who will lead a discussion about the ways in which they are working with faculty members to help them integrate digital video in the curriculum. Those who wish to propose topics for this series should contact Nancy Millichap at nancy.millichap@nitle.org.

  — Digital Video in the Curriculum. Friday March 6, 2009.
     1 program unit. Registration Deadline: Friday, February 20, 2009.
     Webpage: http://www.nitle.org/www/events/853-special-topics-for-instructional-technologists-8

* Special Topics: Teaching Tools for the Global Age

In addition to the two listed below, six more events in this series are under development and will take place from May – November 2009. Events will address a critical challenge for higher education: to graduate students able to cope in a world that is at once increasingly globalized and increasingly fragmented. If you have questions about this series or would like to propose a topic for presentation, please contact Michael Toler at michael.toler@nitle.org.

  — Technology and Less-Commonly Taught Languages. Thursday, March 19, 2009.
     1 program unit. Registration Deadline: Friday, March 6, 2009.
     Webpage: http://www.nitle.org/www/events/926-special-topics-teaching-tools-for-the-global-age

  — Virtual Voyages: Using Technology to Convey a Sense of Place. Thursday, April 9, 2009.
     1 program unit. Registration Deadline: Friday, March 27, 2009.
     Webpage: http://www.nitle.org/www/events/927-special-topics-teaching-tools-for-the-global-age-2

—

4. New Workshop-To-Go Topic: Grassroots Video

Between YouTube and cell phone cameras, digital video has gone through a populist revolution. It’s now easier to make, share, and remix videos on a shoestring budget, and campuses are finding many uses for digital video, such as ethnographic research, student-generated video projects, campus tours, and research presentations. This hands-on workshop will examine the entire process of video production from shooting to sharing. Participants will learn about the array of inexpensive video devices for video capture, editing, publication, and sharing. Participants will leave with the ability to create, edit, and post their own video. Full description: http://www.nitle.org/www/wtgs/48-grassroots-video.

To request a Workshop To Go, please consult our Workshop To Go catalog (http://www.nitle.org/www/wtgs), and our guidelines for hosting Workshops To Go (http://www.nitle.org/www/site/hosting_workshops_to_go), which include details on hosting options and associated fees. (Note that eight workshop topics are available for online delivery: see http://www.nitle.org/www/site/hosting_workshops_to_go#pilot.)

Questions? Please contact Rebecca Davis at rebecca.davis@nitle.org, who will be happy to discuss your options with you and help you select the workshops and hosting options most appropriate to your institution’s needs.

—

5. Three new Workshops To Go scheduled

* Teaching with Learning Management Systems: Moodle. For faculty members and instructional technologists from Birmingham-Southern College and other participating institutions who are interested in developing learning-centered strategies–anchored in and integrated with their own pedagogical practices–for using the Moodle learning management system.

  — February 20, March 4, March 20, 2009. Event takes place over three hour-long, online sessions.
     Host Institution: Birmingham-Southern College (Birmingham, AL)
     Location: NITLE MIV Auditorium
     Registration Deadline: Friday, January 30, 2009. 3 program units.
     Webpage: http://www.nitle.org/www/events/925-teaching-with-learning-management-systems-moodle

* Visual Literacy: Using Images for Teaching and Learning. For faculty, technologists, and librarians from Millsaps College and other participating institutions who are interested in learning how to find digital images in Flickr and other collections and in considering copyright issues associated with reusing such images.

  — Wednesday, May 6, 2009
     Host Institution/Location: Millsaps College (Jackson, MS)
     Registration Deadline: Friday, April 3, 2009. 4 program units.
     Webpage: http://www.nitle.org/www/events/921-visual-literacy-6

* Multimedia Narrative: Communicating with Stories. For faculty, technologists, and librarians from Lewis and Clark College who are interested in effective writing for multimedia, video-based narratives.

  — Monday, May 18 – Tuesday, May 19, 2009
     Host Institution/Location: Lewis and Clark College (Portland, OR)
     Participation reserved for members of the Lewis and Clark community.
     Webpage: http://www.nitle.org/www/events/924-multimedia-narrative-7

==

== Community-based Collaboration ==

1. Building Stronger Collaborative Relationships Across NITLE Institutions: An IT and Library Staff Collaboration Retreat

This retreat will take place April 24 – 26, 2009 (5:00 p.m., Friday – 12:00 p.m., Sunday). Location: Centre College (Danville, KY).

For Instructional Technologists, HelpDesk Support Personnel, Network and Security Staff, and Librarians who support the academic and technology environment for faculty interested in participating in NITLE programs and projects. Participants will meet their counterparts at other liberal arts institutions, share best practices in setting up and supporting technology, and learn more about NITLE initiatives and how each campus team can better plan for and support faculty interested in participating in NITLE programming. Sessions will be led by peers at fellow institutions with an emphasis on hands-on, practical advice about project design and implementation with limited resources. The retreat will have four tracks of peer-led sessions (instructional, helpdesk, network, and library) but will also provide campus teams opportunities to plan projects together. Detailed agenda to be available in March online at http://nitle.centre.edu but will include sessions on collaborative communication tools, copyright, network storage and virtualization, helpdesk assessment and metrics, software deployment, digital asset management, digital repositories, and classroom/lab/space design.

Guidelines for Participation: Travel, lodging, food, and program expenses are covered by NITLE’s Southern Advisory Council Instructional Innovation Fund supporting this retreat. To sign up for the retreat, please fill out the form at http://nitle.centre.edu. Preference will be given to NITLE participating institutions in the Southern Region with remaining spots filled on a first-come, first-serve basis. Please indicate on the form if you are interested in sharing at or willing to lead any of the sessions.

Retreat Coordinator’s Contact Information: Keeta Martin Holmes, Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning, Centre College, 600 W Walnut St, Danville, KY  40422; keeta.martin@centre.edu; 859-238-6294

==

== News and Announcements ==

1. New Network participant

Please join NITLE in welcoming Converse College (Spartanburg, SC | http://www.converse.edu/) to the NITLE Network. To see a complete list of institutions currently participating with NITLE, please visit http://www.nitle.org/www/institutions. If you have questions about participation in the NITLE Network, please send a note to participate@nitle.org.

2. New market posted in the NITLE Prediction Markets

“Google will close one more service by 1 April 2009.” Trading on this market is open. To have your say, sign up to trade at http://markets.nitle.org.

The NITLE Prediction Markets (in beta) provide a collaborative, distributed, game-like tool for exploring and reflecting on emerging technologies for higher education. Questions? Please contact Grace Pang at grace.pang@nitle.org.

==

== Publications of Interest ==

1. Prediction Markets for Emerging Technology – An Interview with NITLE’s Bryan Alexander

Gerry Bayne, Host of EDUCAUSE Now, interviewed NITLE’s Bryan Alexander about the NITLE Prediction Markets at 2008 Fall Task Force Meeting of the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI). Listen to the podcast here: http://connect.educause.edu/blog/gbayne/cnipodcastpredictionmarke/47954.

==

== Deadlines ==

1. Events

This list represents professional development events with registration deadlines within approximately four weeks. A full list of events (sortable by registration deadline) is available at http://www.nitle.org/www/events. Online registration is available, or contact participate@nitle.org.

* Grassroots Video. Deadline past: limited seats may be available. Program Date & Time: January 28, 2009, 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM Eastern. Delivered online via MIV. 1 program unit. http://www.nitle.org/www/events/855-special-topics-in-digital-teaching-7.

* Language and Culture: Finding, Assessing, and Exploiting Online and Media Resources for Language Teaching. Registration deadline: January 23, 2009. Program Dates: March 13 – 15, 2009 (6:00 PM, Friday – 12:00 PM, Sunday, Central). Grinnell College, Grinnell, IA. 7 program units. http://www.nitle.org/www/events/827-language-and-culture.

* Tablet PCs In and Outside the Classroom: What Difference Do They Make? Registration deadline: January 23, 2009. Program Date & Time: February 6, 2009, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM. Eastern. Delivered online via MIV. 1 program unit. http://www.nitle.org/www/events/852-special-topics-for-instructional-technologists-7.

* Web-Mapping. Registration deadline: January 30, 2009. Program Date: March 3, 2009, 9:00 AM – 4:30 PM. Eastern. Kenyon College, Gambier, OH. 4 program units. http://www.nitle.org/www/events/909-web-mapping-7.

* Instructional Technology Leaders Conference. Registration deadline: January 30, 2009. Program Date: March 27 – 29, 2009 (5:00 PM, Friday – 12:00 PM, Sunday, Eastern). Ursinus College, Collegeville, PA. 7 program units. http://www.nitle.org/www/events/826-instructional-technology-leaders-conference-3.

* NITLE Summit. Registration deadline: January 30, 2009. Program Date: March 29 – 30, 2009 (2:00 PM, Sunday – 5:00 PM, Monday, Eastern). Philadelphia, PA. 5 program units. http://www.nitle.org/www/events/871-nitle-summit-2.

* Call for Proposals, Mapping for Sustainability (April 23 – 25, 2009, University of Redlands, Redlands, CA). Proposal submission deadline: January 30, 2009. Call for proposals: http://tinyurl.com/map-for-sustain-cfp. Submit proposals electronically: http://tinyurl.com/MapSustainCFP. Conference registration deadline: February 27, 2009. Event web page: http://www.nitle.org/www/events/824. Contact: Sean Connin, sean.connin@nitle.org.

* Special Topics in Digital Teaching. Registration deadline: February 13, 2009. Program Date & Time: February 25, 2009, 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM. Eastern. Delivered online via MIV. 1 program unit. http://www.nitle.org/www/events/856-special-topics-in-digital-teaching-8.

* Digital Video in the Curriculum. Registration deadline: February 20, 2009. Program Date & Time: March 6, 2009, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM. Eastern. Delivered online via MIV. 1 program unit. http://www.nitle.org/www/events/853-special-topics-for-instructional-technologists-8

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RefWorks for Atwater Commons

Posted in ★ The Essentials
January 26th, 2009 by Carrie Macfarlane

Carrie Macfarlane and Bryan Carson led a RefWorks workshop at Atwater Commons  last week.  We invited students to bring laptops so that we could install the RefWorks plug-in called Write-n-Cite, which inserts footnotes in Word documents.  Each student left the workshop ready to start saving references. One student provided this feedback on RefWorks: “I will [use RefWorks] because it’s a tool that can help you not only in college but outside school as well.”

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Collection Management Policies for Reference and Music

Posted in Collection Management ★ The Essentials
January 26th, 2009 by Judy Watts

Submitted by Judy Watts

Carrie MacFarlane, Jean Simmons, Cynthia Watters, and I are currently hard at work pounding out guidelines that describe and define the Reference Collection. This hasn’t been done in some time. Changes in technologies, the shift to digital formats, new curricular developments, and the need to serve students and faculty in the libraries and around the globe, not to mention the budget, are forcing us to examine everything from what should be acquired, to formats, to deselection and retention policies. We expect to have a draft ready soon so that other Reference Librarians can go over it with a fine-tooth comb.

Joy Pile is going through the same process for the Music collection. In each case we must establish the purpose and scope of the collection to guide our acquisition decisions. Then, we must enumerate and define factors to apply to each title under consideration, e.g., anticipated use, authority, audience level, cost, alternative sources for the information, and platform stability for digital sources. Our policies also must inform selectors of the procedures to follow to place requests for new resources. Finally, we’ll look at how we assess the effectiveness of the collections, and describe the process for removing items from the collections.

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Periodical use survey

Posted in Collection Management Uncategorized ★ The Essentials
January 19th, 2009 by William Warren

Submitted by Bill Warren

 

For reasons that are surely obvious to everyone, we have had to cut the current year’s library acquisitions budget by 5.5%.  It is entirely possible the budget will have to be reduced even further next year.  Consequently, we are looking for ways to save money as we never have before.  A still-substantial portion of our budget is devoted to print journals, so one possibility might be to cancel our subscriptions to some titles.  Obviously, if we have to resort to this, we would like to cancel titles that are relatively expensive, and get little or no use.

 

We have quickly mounted a use survey of most of our currently-received periodicals—current issues, bound volumes, and microform.  Some popular titles, like Time and Newsweek, are exempted, since we know they are very heavily used.  Since virtually all our subscriptions are non-cancelable once the year has started, the soonest we could make any cancellations is for the 2010 subscription year.  Unfortunately, we will not have enough time to do as complete a study as we would like.  Ideally, a study should cover at least one complete academic cycle:  fall and spring semesters, winter term, and summer school, in order to encompass all the courses given during the year.  To be really useful, a survey should extend for more than one year, since many courses are not offered every year.  Since we have to make our subscription commitments for 2010 in September 2009, we obviously would not be able to include even one fall semester in a survey intended to identify titles for cancellation for 2010.  In fact, we might not be able to adequately cover summer school, since we would need time to compile and digest results, consult, and reach decisions.

 

Notwithstanding this time drawback, it still seems worth doing.  If we found we had to make cancellations for 2010, we would have at least some use information, which would surely be helpful in making decisions.  And we could certainly keep surveying and accumulating information for the future.  If, as seems likely, hard times are with us for a while, we may well have to make cancellations in subsequent years, and as much use information as we can gather would definitely be beneficial.

 

So, for the foreseeable future, we are asking users not to return journal issues, bound volumes and microforms to their homes, but rather to leave them on strategically-placed carts or designated shelves, where they will be tallied by staff members before being re-shelved.  While this will render less-than-perfect information, to the extent we can induce users not to conscientiously re-shelve journals (arranging them in chronological order and assiduously replacing the layer of dust on the top issue in the pile, as some folks have been known to do), it will provide some illumination.

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Three LIS Coworkers Going to DC

Posted in ★ The Essentials
January 19th, 2009 by Doreen Bernier

Submitted by Shawn O’Neil

Margey Mastik-Quinn, Shel Sax and myself are heading down to Witness/participate the 2009 Inauguration. Margey is heading down with her husband and I am heading down with my daughters and some friends.

I and some other community members around the New York/Vermont area were asked by WPTZ channel 5 to blog this event. Here is the blog, if you are interested in following our exploits, take a look.  

http://wptzinaugurationblog.wordpress.com/

 

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The Circ Team is blogging

Posted in User Services ★ The Essentials
January 19th, 2009 by Elin Waagen

Submitted by Elin Waagen

During the past year, Circulation Services expanded the use of shared departmental mailboxes, folders, calendars and wiki pages to include a departmental blog. This proved to be an easy to use, easily searchable format for staying current with frequent updates – and reduced the barrage of inter-departmental email considerably.
In the past few months we expanded the use of the blog to include updates and reminders to Circ student staff at all branch locations. Circ staff post updates/info on the Circ blog as needed and student employees read – and comment on the blog – when they arrive on shift, rather than being inundated by work related email when not at work. We utilize categories to make content relevant to the home branch of the student employee, making it easy for staff to push out updates.
If you have any reminders, updates or information relevant to any/all of the Circ desks, Circ staff and/or Circ student employees, please pass it along – we’d be happy to post it on the Circ blog.

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Trends in Library and Information Services?

Posted in ★ The Essentials
January 19th, 2009 by Elin Waagen

Submitted by Elin Waagen

Some interesting reading…

Ten Technology Trends

The Future of the Internet

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Update from Database Applications & Systems

Posted in Enterprise Technology & Infrastructure ★ The Essentials
January 19th, 2009 by Chris Norris

Submitted by Chris Norris

Here are some of the projects and tasks that DAS staff members have been working on during the past month…

Mike Schuster
- Created a spec for Bookstore Upload / Course Listing Bookstore Links
- Researched problem Off Campus Study was having pushing Admissions applications
- Corrected problems with Bread Loaf, Language School, and Off Campus Study decisions processing reports, reports were broken due to System 9 upgrade
- Created SSB web package to allow residential systems coordinator to delete room draw preferences, reorder preferences, and activate/inactivate room draw applications
- Processed Fall 2008 course response form data
- Updated Feb’s MNET email addresses to “preferred”
- Fixed problem with LS & BLSE Financial Aid online web applications where bad data entry selection of dates in dropdown boxes would cause applications to get an Oracle error
- Modified custom p_assign_boxes database procedure to allow mail boxes to be assigned to students during winter term
- Worked with Liz Whitaker-Freitas and Marcy Smith to develop documents needed by Monterey staff when developing/requesting new reports

Liz Whitaker-Freitas
- Supporting Hyperion BI+ for functional & technical users
- Troubleshooting Admissions Decisions reports
- Coordinating roles to groups migration by Velaris

Ian McBride
- Added service to check GO addresses nightly
- Worked with Adam to develop web service for MiddTube
- Wrote WordPress plugin for MiddTube
- Developed Middlebury theme for WordPress
- Added a service to the Directory to automatically redirect to a user’s homepage
- Added a video icon to CMS home page news items with videos
- Developed home page for the New England Review site in WordPress
- Began investigation into Single Sign On applications
- Continued work with the Platform and Design/IA groups for the Web Makeover
- Finally launched News Portal at http://go.middlebury.edu/news!

Travis Stafford
- Created 7 new alumni event forms
- Tested WordPress CFORMS upgrade
- Upgraded all the Wordpress blogs and cforms to the new version of CFORMS (13 blogs / +/- 50 forms)
- Completed porting over all the cat standard ecommunicate forms to CFORMS
- Minor changes the New England Review ecommerce form
- Troubleshot\Fixed issues with the CCAL Fundraising ecommerce form
- Added new functionality to the BLM application to show Counts by indicator flag for Banner-ListManager admins
- Added self service component to the BLM project for subscribing\unsubscribing to Newsletters and List Manager lists
- CFORMs support/training for various departments
- General support and HEAT tickets

Rob Pekor
- Rolled late graduates to Alumni
- Started developing and creating tables to hold Harris Online Directory data
- Started creating scripts to load initial data for Harris Online Directory
- Started very preliminary development of process to send updates to Harris
- Corrected problem with Phonathon SSB data selection page, page would error on multiple individual years selected, problem has been corrected and is now in production
- Created new function to retrieve a list of regions for a particular person
- Corrected problem in AIA relating to updating ask amounts, if an ask amount never existed before for a person, the SSB page would not update the value, problem has been corrected and is now in production
- Created list of people that currently have access to AIA
- Corrected issue with view for the Banner List Manager relating to the indicator for students

Chris Norris
Staffing
- Participated in telephone interview for open DBA position
Projects
- Reviewed Phoenix BIA reports and summary
- Worked on spec for remote DR web presence
- Participated in CA fundraising strategy meeting
- Refined Banner-ListManager project spec with DAS staff
- Completed work with CA and Communications on Organic Garden giving form
- Met with DOC and PS staff regarding new ER web presence
- Met with technical/functional staff regarding eCommerce options for “pay-for-print”
- Met with Communications staff to plan for upcoming Newsletter projects
- Met with Career Services staff to plan for upcoming Newsletter projects
- Participated in various Web Makeover team meetings
- Met with HR staff regarding Web Makeover requirements
- Met with PHC staff regarding Web Makeover requirements
- Met with PS staff regarding Web Makeover requirements
Systems Administration
- Ongoing monitoring and problem resolution of online services
- Resolved service outages for Banner and Hyperion
- Resolved server config issue for GoogleEarth version of campusmap
- Updated TouchNet server config to support additional web servers
- Upgraded SubmissionManager web application for BLWC
- Configured new GO rewrite rules
- Ongoing tuning of GSA to improve search results
- Renewals of College-owned domain names
- Met with SNS staff regarding HSF config options
Help & Support
- Provided support to CFA staff for artsmail Newsletter IA
- Provided support to HR staff for middleader Newsletter buttons
- Reviewed President’s Holiday Card for pre-sending issues for Communications
- Updated Middlebury’s United Way web presence (campaign stats)
- Updated AbroadView.org web presence (footer)
- Provided various support for CMS editing, HEAT tix, and ad-hoc help calls
Vendor Related Activities
- Participated in Sun-Guard/SCT Banner DBA weekly status calls
- Participated in Velaris Hyperion SysAdmin weekly status calls
- Continued contract re-negotiation with Hyperion SysAdmin vendor (Velaris)
- Worked with DavisProjectsforPeace.org external web vendor to grant direct database access
- eCommerce call with alumni online community vendor (Harris) to define IMA requirements
- Coordinated redirect request from MIIS staff with www.MIIS.edu web vendor (NeptuneWeb)

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Emergency Preparedness

Posted in Uncategorized ★ The Essentials
January 9th, 2009 by Doreen Bernier

Let’s all start 2009 off right be taking a moment to think about emergency preparedness.  Do you know what to do if a student walks up to you and says “There’s somebody lying on the floor over there, they seem to be passed out or something.”  If it’s been a while since you’ve thought about the appropriate response to this and many other situations, please take some time to brush up on your readiness.

Being prepared to act on behalf of the College in an emergency is a personal responsibility of which we should all be mindful.

Let’s all start 2009 off right be taking a moment to think about emergency preparedness.  Do you know what to do if a student walks up to you and says “There’s somebody lying on the floor over there, they seem to be passed out or something.”  If it’s been a while since you’ve thought about the appropriate response to this and many other situations, please take some time to brush up on your readiness.

Being prepared to act on behalf of the College in an emergency is a personal responsibility of which we should all be mindful.

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Us vs. Them?

Posted in ★ The Essentials
January 9th, 2009 by Michael Lynch

Submitted by Mike Lynch

Stephen Abram has a nice post on his blog Stephen’s Lighthouse called Compare and Contrast. It links to two powerpoint presentations from Lee Rainie at the 2009 CES Consumer Electronics Show. One is Baby Boomers in the Digital Age and the other is Teens and the Internet.

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2010 Census is coming!

Posted in Uncategorized ★ The Essentials
January 9th, 2009 by Doreen Bernier

Submitted by Lynn Saunders, Government Documents

 

The Vermont State Data Center sponsored a workshop to discuss and review some websites and the upcoming 2010 Census. The State Data Center (SDC) Program is a cooperative program between the state and the Census Bureau to make data available locally to the public through a network of state agencies, universities, libraries, and regional and local governments.

 

In early December the State Data gathered together a group of statistical users to talk about the upcoming 2010 Census. At the present time the Census Bureau is gearing up by hiring individuals to check addresses and to work in the Vermont office which is located in the Burlington area. They are also looking for community volunteers and groups to help with making sure that the count is complete. I have posted some literature in the staff room about Census 2010.

 

One significant difference in the 2010 Census will be that there will be no long forms handed out. The information that was gathered in the long form then is now being gathered by the American Community Survey (ACS) (http://www.census.gov/acs/www/).  The ACS is a department of the Census Bureau that surveys the population on an ongoing basis to provide more recent information than is available from our Decennial Census. This method of gathering information is going to be problematic for small states like Vermont. The surveys used to get the sample information are sent out to certain parts of each state each month in a rotation. In small states the sampling area is so small that the information has to be gathered for a longer period of time in order to get enough samples so that the people answering the questions can’t be identified. The effect for small states is that the statistics that they use will only be available every 5 years, while larger states will have new statistics every year. When applying for grants, larger states will have an edge because their statistics will be more up to date than the smaller states.

 

Our State Data Center has been in contact with the Census Bureau to try and work out this problem. The director of the Vermont State Data Center, Will Sawyer, had a personal meeting with the head of the Census Bureau. Although nothing is scheduled to change immediately the Census Bureau is considering the problem and potential fixes.

 

We also reviewed how to use American Fact Finder and the State Data Center’s website, Vermont Indicators. Vermont Indicators is very useful for finding compiled statistics for the state. They also have historic data which can be easily accessed by the click of button. Vermont Indicators can be found at http://maps.vcgi.org/indicators/.

 

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NYT: Nine Web sites IT pros should master in 2009

Posted in Uncategorized ★ The Essentials
January 9th, 2009 by Mary Backus

http://www.nytimes.com/external/idg/2008/12/31/31idg-Nine-Web-sites.html?em

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University of South Carolina Library Degree Program

Posted in ★ The Essentials
January 9th, 2009 by Doreen Bernier

Submitted by Brenda Ellis

The University of South Carolina School of Library and Information Science plans to begin a Master’s program for a regional “cohort” of students in the New England region. This is an expansion of a program that was previously conducted in Maine. The program is proposed to begin in the fall semester of 2009; beginning students may also be admitted to the program in spring 2010 and fall 2010.

 

Classes will be presented as an interactive online program utilizing a variety of technologies. Attendance on the home campus of the University is not a required part of the program. Students admitted to the program will have several on site experiences at a location(s) in New England, including (but not limited to): a beginning orientation, portfolio preparation and state association meetings.

 

For more information, contact: Tilda Reeder, Admissions Coordinator, Student Services Office:  tildareeder@scu.edu

 

The University of South Carolina is located in Columbia; phone number for the School lo Library and Information Science: 803-777-3858.

 

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Staffing Update

Posted in User Services ★ The Essentials
January 9th, 2009 by Adam Dobucki

Submitted by Adam Dobucki

Please join me in congratulating Petar on his promotion to Senior Technology Specialist.  Petar’s contributions to the Helpdesk, his troubleshooting skills, development of the student consultant staff, and dedication to excellent service make this promotion very well deserved.  Since our vacant position remains frozen, Petar will shift a portion of his time to working with Brian Foley in the support of public computers, computing labs, and classrooms.  Petar will continue to be an active member of the Helpdesk. Congratulations Petar! 

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