• LOG IN
• 
  

• Categories

  • Academic Consulting Services
  • Administration
  • Collection Management
  • Curricular Technology
  • Enterprise Systems
  • Facilities
  • General
  • Links
  • LIS
  • MIIS
  • Photos
  • Research & Instruction
  • Resource Development and Services
  • Special Collections
  • Systems & Infrastructure
  • Uncategorized
  • User Services

• Tags

  Add new tag April 10 09 April 24 2009 Art Aug 15 2008 Aug 22 2008 Aug 29 2008 banner communication crafts December 5 December 12 exhibit Feb 6 09 Feb 13 09 Feb 20 09 Feb 27 09 hyperion Jan 9 09 Jan 23 09 June 5 2009 June 12 2009 library hours March 9 09 March 13 March 27 May 8 2009 May 15 09 May 22 09 May 29 09 MIIS nov 7 2008 November 14 November 21 2008 Oct 3 2008 Oct 17 2008 Oct 31 2008 Sep 5 2008 Sep 12 08 Sep 19 08 Sep 26 08 students technology Web 2.0 workshops

• Archives

  • June 2009
  • May 2009
  • April 2009
  • March 2009
  • February 2009
  • January 2009
  • December 2008
  • November 2008
  • October 2008
  • September 2008
  • August 2008
  • July 2008

• Recent Comments

  • Bryan Carson on Getting to Know Drupal
  • Ale on Getting to Know Drupal
  • Michele McHugh on Retirement of long-time colleague
  • arfandia on New WordPress Theme
  • Elin on Thank You!

• RSS

  Posts
  Comments

• Blogroll

  • Circulation Services
  • Digital Media Tutors
  • LIS Advisory Groups
  • LIS Suggestions
  • Middlebury Web Makeover
  • Monterey Focus: A Glance into MIIS Community
  • On That Note - The Middlebury College Music Library
  • One Dean’s View
  • Ron on Middlebury
  • Segue Decommissioning
  • Vitrual Worlds at Middlebury

Submitted by Doreen Bernier

June 10th was the opening day of “Exh!bited”, the LIS staff arts and crafts exhibit.

Special thanks to all the LIS artisans for their truly beautiful contributions. This was a great opportunity to showcase our special talents and interests and bring the community together - and also surprise and delight users and visitors.

 

The opening reception was graced with beautiful live music, courtesy of Dan Frostman.

 

Early arrivals enjoyed the only edible craft piece - chocolate dipped strawberries.

 

Included below are some photos from the reception.

 

The exhibit organizers, Morgan, Doreen and Elin, would like to thank Joseph for his invaluable assistance in setting up the space. Thanks also to Scott and Rachel for their contributions, and with thanks to all for taking the time out from your busy schedules to assist in bringing this exhibit to life.

 

The exhibit will run until June 26th.

NELINET June 10, 2009
“Rainy Day” Edition
JUST ADDED! NELINET IT Conference 2009: Open Source in Your Library October 9, 2009 – Olin College, Needham, MA       NELINET is proud to present its 5th Annual IT Conference, “Open Source in Your Library.” This exciting event will show you how libraries are implementing open source products for a variety of uses and will expand your understanding of the advantages of using open source products in libraries. Listen to our panel discussion delve more deeply into this topic and learn first hand about implementation and maintenance of open source products from those who are using them!  A fantastic group of open source innovators include:Dan Scott, Systems Librarian for Laurentian University, barista, library geek, and open source dabbler will be NELINET’s keynote speaker. You may know him from such projects as PHP (PEAR’s File_MARC package and PDO documentation), Apache Derby, and the Evergreen open-source ILS project. Karen Coombs, Library Journal 2009 Mover and Shaker, trend spotter and Head of Web Services at the University of Houston Libraries, will discuss how her library is using Drupal for its intranet and for a pilot project involving digital library materials. Joe Lucia is the University Librarian and director of Falvey Memorial Library at Villanova University. His advocacy for open source led his library to develop VuFind, an open-source discovery layer for library catalogs.         Conference Cost for Unlimited Members: $85   (Middlebury is an unlimited member)
Attention Accidental Webmasters! Accidental Webmaster Series: Just Enough MySQL - Just Enough PHP Starts July 14th – ONLINE SERIES In this six-week series, you will learn just enough PHP and MySQL to explore, understand and implement dynamic tools and content. Each week, you will take part in a 1.5-hour online lecture and discussion to introduce new concepts and techniques. Between online live meetings, you will work at your own pace to practice what you’ve learned, share ideas with colleagues and receive individualized guidance and feedback in Moodle, our open source online learning management system. Workshop Series cost: $150	Big Events! FREE SEMINAR How to Stay Relevant in Your Institution June 24, 2009 – NELINET, Southborough, MA Co-sponsored by the Boston Chapter of the Special Libraries Association           Introduction to METS July 7, 2009 – NELINET, Southborough, MA       SAVE THE DATE Robert L. Cunningham Annual Bibliographic Services Conference 2009 November 13, 2009 - College of Holy Cross, Worcester, MA

Large gifts from the late Professor Hiroshi Miyaji and from Robert and Take Dean have increased Middlebury’s Japanese Collection by 50%; we now have approximately 4500 items in the collection. (In addition, items containing some English as well as Japanese (including bi-lingual dictionaries) are in the regular stacks and video materials are in the video collections.)

While cataloging the new acquisitions, we recataloged the items already in the collection. The call numbers were changed from a non-standard system to the standard Library of Congress system used in the rest of the library. In addition the Japanese characters were added to the records so now the description contains both the romanized forms and the characters themselves. We hope these enhancements will make our catalog and our collection more usable and rewarding. Someday we may even be able to search MIDCAT using characters!

The Japanese Collection has extensive works of Japanese literature and works on Japanese literature, philosophy, religion, and history but also includes resources on almost any subject imaginable.<

For the first few weeks of the Japanese summer school, a significant selection of recently added titles is displayed in the New Book shelves section of the Main Library. Books we did not add to the collection or which have been removed from the collection will be displayed separately for sale beginning in late June; these books are chiefly duplicates of items already in the collection and may well be of interest to individuals.

The items on the new bookshelves are in call number order–even though bookjackets prevent the call numbers from being visible. If you or a patron needs to find a particular book, you need to partially remove the jacket to see the spine or to look in the back of the book where the call number is written in pencil. Note also that, although I say ‘back’ because we think of it as back, it is indeed the front of the book for Japanese and other languages written right to left.

–Cynthia Watters

After much conversation, we are pleased to announce the three teams that we are forming, and the membership of those teams. The teams are meeting next week to develop their plans and charges, at which point we can update everyone with more concrete information.

LIS Website
Jeff Rehbach -  sponsor
Elin Waagen- leader
Jim Beauchemin
Doreen Bernier
Jess Isler
Ian McBride
Carrie Macfarlane
Barbara Merz
Liz Whitaker-Freitas

Digitization
Terry Simpkins-sponsor
Mike Lynch-leader
Steve Bertolino
Arabella Holzapfel
Rachel Manning
Danielle Rougeau
Michael Warner
Scott Witt

Curricular Technology
Shel Sax - sponsor
Alex Chapin - leader
Joe Antonioli
Bryan Carson
Sue Driscoll
Adam Franco
Dan Frostman
Joy Pile
Mack Roark

 

 

 

 

Posted by Brenda Ellis

CQ Researcher is one of the resources the library subscribes to.  This week’s topic seems very relevant and timely for us. Quoting from their email announcement:

“Future of Books” by Sarah Glazer, May 29, 2009 Will traditional print books disappear?

The migration of books to electronic screens has been accelerating with the introduction of mobile reading on Kindles, iPhones and Sony Readers and the growing power of Google’s Book Search engine. Read more

Submitted by Elin Waagen

EXHIBITED! LIS Staff Art and Craft
A multi-media exhibit of art by LIS staff members
Main Library Atrium
June 10 - June 26
Mark your calendars for the EXHIBITED! opening reception on Wednesday June 10th at 4pm!
Please note new dates of the exhibit and the opening.

Submitted by Bill Warren

 

As many already know, Mary-Ruth Crawford has decided to retire from her position as Senior Bibliographic Searcher (and doyenne of the Library Acquisitions Department).  Her last day will be Friday 12 June. 

 

In her three decades of exemplary service, Mary-Ruth has become a library legend.  She is a consummate worker, a treasured resource—both professional and personal—and a cheerfully-humanizing presence among us. 

 

All who work or interact with Mary-Ruth in any way regard her with admiration and affection, and will feel a sense of wistfulness at her departure.  With her goodwill, optimism, and resolute spirit, to rely on, Mary-Ruth will undoubtedly enjoy the satisfying and fulfilling retirement to which her laudable career has entitled her.

You’ve probably heard Drupal mentioned in discussions about our new website, but you might not know what Drupal actually is. Drupal is a web-based Content Management System, similar to the software that our current website runs on, but also different in many ways. In this session, Ian McBride will discuss the things that makes Drupal unique, why we chose Drupal as a platform for our new site, and look at some examples of the ways we can extend Drupal to improve our website.  We’ll spend some time looking at an extension developed by Amherst College, the only other school running its entire web presence on Drupal, named Monster Menus which we’ll be using as part of the core functionality of our site.

This session requires no technical knowledge of our website, content management systems, or programming, but is a great opportunity for you to ask questions on those topics.

When:  Monday, June 15 from 3:30-5 pm
Where:  LIB 105

Submitted by Carrie Macfarlane

Please join us at next week’s workshop called “Looking at Library Research.” It’s part of the CTLR Pedagogy Roundtable Series.

Thursday, June 11
1:30 - 2:30 pm
Looking at Library Research, Library 230
Presenters: Brenda Ellis, Joe Toth, Andrew Wentink
Conveners: Carrie Macfarlane and Terry Simpkins

Has the way you do research changed over the past few years? Have you noticed a change in the research your students are doing? Finding information has become easier than ever, but sifting out the best information remains a challenge even for experienced researchers. In this roundtable we will examine some of the changes in the resources libraries provide and in how they provide them, as well as discuss how these mesh (or don’t!) with student and faculty expectations.

Submitted by Mike Roy

I’ve started a blog called (following Tim Spears’ lead ) “Another Dean’s View” and recently posted a piece about cooperative collection development inspired by a recent meeting with my colleagues from other library’s in the northeast. The piece is called “The Dream of a Single Library” . I’m hoping this might serve as a springboard for conversations about our views on the future of our library collection in particular, and library collections in general.

- mike

Summer Break 2009
May 16 - June 14,
Monday - Friday	8:30 AM - 5:00 PM
Saturday - Sunday	CLOSED

Submitted by Hans Raum

Earlier this month I attended the annual convention of the Rutland Railroad Historical Society, held at the Vermont Marble Museum in Proctor on May 2-3.  I accepted donations of historical material from three members and took photographs of several marble quarries and railroad bridges that I visited during one of the field trips.  The oldest item that was donated to the Rutland Railroad Archives that is part of our Vermont Collection was an 1851 annual report of the Rutland & Burlington Railroad, which was the earliest ancestor of the Rutland Railroad. 

The advent of railroads in Vermont was crucial to the economic development of the state, including the marble, granite, slate, lumber and dairy industries.

 

 

Heartfelt thanks to all of you in LIS for your good wishes and for Wednesday’s lovely send-off breakfast for the four of us!  I feel fortunate to have been able to work with you all these years.  With fond best wishes, Jean Simmons

 

Submitted by Carrie Macfarlane

Thanks to Jack Cuneo for leading this week’s LISterine Workshop on mashups, and thanks to all who attended.  Thanks also to Scott Witt for recording the session!  If you weren’t able to attend, you can watch the video; there’s a link in the LISterine blog.

Submitted by Elin Waagen

Please join your LIS co-workers for a Continental Breakfast Buffet to honor Jean Simmons, Jeannette Cyr, Patty Hornbeck & Mary-Ruth Crawford.
Main Library Panther Reading Room
Wednesday 5/27
8:30 am – 10 am

Bring your ID - the Libraries will not open until 10 am.
Please contact Carol, Michael W, Michele, Rick J, Brenda or Elin if you have any questions.
Hope to see you there!

1.    Various updates:

• Project Directory: Mike Roy and Chris Norris are in the early stages of designing a project directory for all of LIS that will will help raise awareness about the various projects that LIS is involved with and help clarify how these projects relate to specific departmental and institutional goals.  We are really looking forward to working with each area to compile a comprehensive overview of projects that can be shared within LIS and beyond.
• Goal setting : We hope to establish LIS-wide goals for the upcoming year by the of July. These goals should like to our mission, main things, and the projects (listed in our project directory, see above) can then be linked to these goals. We hope to offer better guidance and support in the formulation of goals.
• Teams . We will start with three teams: educational technology, LIS website, and digitization; training on teams to take place June 16th - June 19th. Stay tuned for more information.
• Early Retirement Program. We have been developing plans for how to keep LIS functioning and delivery quality services with a reduced number of people. We will be going to SRC very soon with a plan ; our focus is on a) redeployment  and b) stopping things.
• Web makeover: Lots going on as we move forward with this project. See http://go.middlebury.edu/webmakeover/ for the latest news, schedule, and opportunities to participate in this project.

2. Ron McKinnon gave a very nice presentation on the accomplishments of the Phoenix Project to date, and its future plans.

(If I left anything out, please feel free to add comments.)

Present: the usual suspects (Backus, Cutter, Peddie, Rehbach, Roy, Sax, Simpkins)

1) LIS Announcements - The group reviewed and edited emails to be distributed to LIS regarding ERP participants, “stopping things” and about the Segue sunset.  We agreed these will be sent as  separate emails.  Mike will also send a separate email to ERP participants to let them know that a general announcement will be distributed.

2) ERP celebrations - The college will be holding a college-wide celebration for ERP folks sometime in May or early June.   We discussed perhaps having some smaller LIS gatherings as well, since the larger one may feel slightly impersonal. Timing is an issue, since retirements are happening anytime from June to November.  Carol will be coordinating.

3) Goals/Projects - We talked more about what should happen to ideas coming out of the advisory group meetings, how we can keep faculty informed, and how we process them internally.  Shel will meet with Carrie Macfarlane and Bryan Carson to review the list of items compiled from this year’s advisory group meetings and discuss plans for tracking these ideas and their outcomes.  Jim Beauchemin should also be invited to this meeting.

4) Project Directory - Mike and Chris Norris are beginning work on this.  We talked a bit about the difference between a goal and a project, with a fair amount of semantic wrangling over nomenclature, but eventually we all came to the common understanding that for each LIS goal, there will be a series of projects and or other discrete steps enacted in support of achieving the goal.

5) MIIS/Midd new programs - Jeff is gathering information on  frequency and types of formal (as well as occasional/informal) communications between Midd and MIIS library and IT staff, at the request of Dave Donahue (who is tracking this for all areas across campus).  As Monterey and Middlebury explore joint academic program offerings, we’ll need to be assess how these will be supported by and/or otherwise impact LIS.

Submitted by Joseph Watson