Office of the University Librarian
Monthly Report--April 2008
Library-wide
Efforts and Events
Library
Outreach and Campus Interaction
Sue and Melinda Brown met with Sandy Stahl, Associate Dean in the Dean of Students Office to discuss library orientations for incoming transfer students.
Communications
News
The Collections Committee discussed a revised proposal from Sage Publishing for their Premier Package. This three year offer was negotiated through the Information Alliance (Vanderbilt, UT and UK). While this proposal was more attractive than the earlier version last fall, the committee felt that in the current fiscal environment, a 17% increase in subscriptions, even providing for wider access to Sage titles was too expensive.
Evaluation of use statistics for a variety of subscriptions led to discussions with EBSCO about consolidating our 8 different accounts for various products into one Vanderbilt account. EBSCOhost administration allows for customization of individual products as needed, it appears the eight accounts simply accrued over the years as different products were ordered by various divisions.
Bill Hook and Dale Poulter participated in a conference call, and then a follow up call regarding the OCLC CCCT pilot project for coordinating off-site storage holdings. The project aims to develop a tool by which libraries can evaluate titles held in their storage facilities, and develop a shared plan for keeping sufficient copies without excessive duplication.
Spring storms revealed on-going leaks in the General Library Building. Previous work on the drains on the north side of the Central Library entrance to fix a leak in Divinity proved not to have solved that problem. Conversations with Plant Ops and Campus Planning will explore next steps, which may involve excavation of the foundation on both sides of the campus entrance. Repairs of the downspouts on the roof above the OUL office may have addressed the cause of the latest leaks in those offices.
Discussion of the privileges provided to library access card holders was reviewed. Concerns about the appropriateness of non-library users being in buildings after the buildings go into card access mode prompted these concerns. The Library Directors Council discussed the issue, and additional follow-up on the problem will happen in May.
The card office was able to generate VUprint use statistics by student category.
Statistics for the Fall of 2007 show that 78% of the undergraduates use VUprint. Of those 4700 undergraduates, 54 % spent less than $10 on printing, and 41% spent less than $5.00. 7% of all undergraduates spent more than $25 on printing.
Costs associated with toner cartridges and maintenance of the public printers have been under review. A new program with Brooks Technology (our cartridge vendor), which could save money on maintenance and perhaps simplify inventory issues, is currently being considered.
Public Services
Commons Service Exploration Team (C-SET)
http://wiki.library.vanderbilt.edu/committees/pmwiki.php/LDC/CommonsServiceExplorationTeamC-SET
C-SET completed its information gathering and analysis. Sue, Jodie Gambill, and Carlin Sappenfield began writing the report that will be submitted to Library Director’s Council (the project team’s champion). C-SET completed a great deal of investigative work in a short time period and Sue would like to thank all the team members for their contributions: Melinda Brown, Sara Byrd, Peg Earheart, Jodie Gambill, Rahn Huber, Ramona Romero, Carlin Sappenfield, Jacob Thornton, and Celia Walker.
The Vanderbilt Visions planning group met to prioritize project ideas for this year’s program offerings. The library’s programming for Vanderbilt Visions is an outgrowth of the Committee on Undergraduate Information Literacy (CUIL). The Vanderbilt Visions Executive Committee has invited us to create interactive options for the small Visions sessions, so our program will be quite different than it was last year. The projects that the planning group identified are:
- Meet the class of 1912 – Students will gather information about what it was like to be a Vanderbilt student 100 years ago (this should be a great opportunity to highlight what University Archives has to offer).
- Election 2008 – Students will explore where to find information about the presidential candidates beyond what the popular news media shows. This will also be an opportunity for the students to develop skills in evaluating the information they find.
- Geography of the Vanderbilt campus – This session is intended to help students get to know the campus better; it might involve the GPS unit (available for checkout from the Peabody Library) and paper maps in the Science & Engineering Library. It may involve a geocaching activity or a scavenger hunt.
- Wikipedia – This will be an interactive activity in which students will create or enhance an article about something at Vanderbilt (a building, an object, etc.) and will edit it as a group. This session is intended to help students understand how Wikipedia works, and also to get them looking at local resources for the information to include in their article.
We’ll be getting feedback during the development process from the VV executive committee and from student VUceptors. VUCeptors will choose from a selection of session topics, including those that the library has presented. We’ll submit our final version in mid-July and Visions staff will incorporate it into their website and will have it available in mid-August.
Census Information Center/GIS/Data Services
Jacob gave a tour of Peabody GIS facilities, including the Learning commons to Campus Planning Staff. He also received a tour of their facilities and resources.
He instructed a session for the School for Science and Math at Vanderbilt on GIS, plotting coordinates, and displaying data that the students collected themselves. The School for Science and Math is a group of accelerated Davidson County High Schoolers that meet once a week at Vanderbilt throughout their 4 or 5 years of high school.
Jacob attended a Census Information Centers conference in New Orleans.
Sue met with Hilary Craiglow and Amy Stewart-Mailhiot for a “data chat” on the 14th.
Statistics: Jacob conducted 5 GIS/data consultations and answered 17 reference questions (3 in person and 14 via email).
Sue answered 6 data reference questions (4 by phone, 1 in person, 1 email)
ILL/CCC/Faculty Delivery
Borrowing for Vanderbilt users remained brisk through the end of the semester, with over 1,373 requests filled in April. Lending also stayed busy, with over 1,599 requests filled for other libraries.
Requests for deliveries slacked off towards the last week or so of the semester. The unit filled 421 requests for Vanderbilt items (221 loans plus 200 articles), and delivered 114 interlibrary loans to campus users in April.
Work on permissions for Spring semester electronic reserves continued through April, and clearances for May and Summer ClassPaks picked up in April. The Medical School requested permission to print the lyrics of a number of songs in their Commencement brochure.
Merry Balthrop participated in the Seating Sweep, and Jim Toplon attended a TENN-SHARE Board meeting in April.
Meetings,
Activities and Professional Development
Paul and Celia attended a Volunteer Voices meeting at the Tennessee Library Association conference in Kingsport, TN.
Paul attended the annual meeting of the Center for Research Libraries in Chicago, the Spring meeting of ASERL in Charleston, a meeting of the Vanderbilt University Press Editorial Board, and a meeting at the Nashville Public Library to advise them on future services. Paul also attended several sessions for the Warren Center celebration of Warren’s book Who Speaks for the Negro.
Paul and Sue attended the Nashville Area Alliance Meeting at Trevecca Nazarene University. Sue will serve as the interim NALA contact person for Vanderbilt.
Sue attended three of the four Outreach Librarian candidate presentations, Sara Byrd’s presentation, all University Librarian candidate presentations and “meet & greets”. She also hosted breakfast with a group of student representatives for all three UL candidates.
Robyn, Lisa, Celia and Flo met to discuss and plan a retirement party for Paul.
Flo and Robyn participated in the Peepapalooza event.
OUL staff had an ice cream cake celebration in honor of Pat Johnson, Ava Wilson, Julie Blagojevich and Robyn Harris, our stalwart group of office and administrative support people.