Office of the University Librarian
Monthly Report--January 2008
Library
Outreach and Campus Interaction
Paul Gherman met with the Center for Teaching Advisory Board.
Library-wide
Efforts and Events
The ASERL Mass Digitization Committee met via conference call.
Administration
and Staff
Budget
In January, we tried to finish off the Library's budget proposal for 2008/2009. Efforts were made to understand the budget constraints that the deans are operating under and to figure out how to better communicate to them and to the university the needs of the Library. Pressure on the budget from planning for ongoing operations costs of the new Archives Annex required special consideration. New guidelines from the Provost's Office were incorporated into the budget proposal.
University Librarian Search
The search for a new University Librarian continued with a fair amount of activity. The search committee met and reviewed applications, and members talked with potential candidates. There was a special listening session with the 40 students who are Ingram Scholars to hear their concerns and thoughts about the Library. The committee is making good progress, and an update on their progress was posted to the search website.
Library Directors Deliberations
The Library Directors met several times and concluded that not all libraries could afford to forego regular fine income in the year to come. Some libraries will be making a transition to not charging fines for normal overdues for next year. Library Directors also decided to conduct another seating sweep this spring in which we would count how many people are in the libraries during particular times and what spaces they are using. The project team that conducted this effort last spring will be reconstituted to pursue this year's sweep.
Annex
After an interview process, university officials awarded the Archives Annex project to Wieck Construction, the firm that remodeled the Management Library. Several meetings were held during the month to continue the project planning and to determine the Library's shelving needs in the new facility.
Public
Relations/Communication
An open house for University of Tennessee School of Information Sciences distance students and alumni was offered at the Peabody Library. We hope the program will increase awareness of practicum and employment opportunities at the libraries. Plans are underway to offer another open house next semester in the Central Library.
In January, 54 articles were posted to the Staffnews blog. Jodie Gambill and Celia Walker provided training for the new system to library directors and administrators.
Technology
Jody Combs discussed development of Primo version 3 and beta test plans for Primo version 2 with Ex Libris.
Jody met with Robert Barsky to discuss a monograph for the Ameriquests journal site; Tom Dillehay and Jane Landers to discuss a joint IMLS grant proposal; and John McClure, Bill Hook, and Chris Benda to discuss hosting an electronic journal, “Homiletics.”
Work continued on the DiscoverLibrary rollout into production.
Public Services
Interlibrary Loan
Demand for interlibrary loan increased sharply in January. The unit filled 1,229 requests for Vanderbilt borrowers and 1,405 requests for other libraries.
Faculty Delivery
The volume of delivery requests continued to grow in January. The unit delivered 553 requests for Vanderbilt items and 168 interlibrary loan requests.
GIS and Numeric Data Services
Jacob Thornton completed a series of updates to the GIS website including new maps, an updated list of campus GIS resources, a new page referencing online GIS tools, and several other updates to existing pages.
GIS statistics:
4 research consultations
1 directional question
2 equipment-related questions
24 reference questions
Sue conducted 2 data consultations and handled 4 data-related reference questions.
Copyright Clearance
After the last copyright clearances for ClassPaks were completed, the unit turned its attention to processing permissions for electronic reserves (OAK).
Meetings,
Activities and Professional Development
Jody Combs and Jason Battles co-authored “Building a Web-Based Laboratory So Users Can Experiment With New Services.” The article appeared in Computers in Libraries .
Paul Gherman, Bill Hook, Roberta Winjum, Jody Combs, and Betsy Phillips (Vanderbilt University Press) recently toured Ingram Digital and Lightning Source outside of Nashville , TN.
Sue Erickson attended the ALA Midwinter Conference sessions on LibQual, ARL Statistics, and instruction.