Office of the University Librarian
Monthly Report--March 2006
Library
Outreach and Campus Interaction
Celia Walker and Melinda Brown met with Hillsboro High School librarians and International Baccalaureate students to set them up to use the library for their research projects.
Marshall Breeding met with Jane Landers and Mariza Soares on March 3 to talk about the procedures that can be used for producing the page images in future parts of the Ecclesiastical Sources for Slave Societies project.
Paul Gherman, Jody Combs, Cindy Franco, and Flo Wilson met with MIS and Center for Teaching staff to discuss current and continuing development and support for OAK.
Library-wide
Efforts and Events
Staff attended a forum to discuss progress toward the strategic goals and their opinions on how the process was going. Paul Gherman led the discussion with a PowerPoint presentation on specific achievements toward the goals and the next steps in the Strategic Plan. Staff were encouraged to submit questions ahead of time for discussion in the meeting, which was held in Buttrick 101. Thanks to Judy Carter for overseeing the technical end of the program, to Henry Shipman, who recorded the event, and to Pat Johnson and Angel Bruner, who took minutes.
Administration
and Staff
Many OUL staff completed the University's community survey.
Public Relations/Communication
Celia, Juanita Murray and Kathy Smith met with Alan LeQuire regarding his mother's papers (Louise LeQuire, former art editor for the Banner, local artist and teacher). The three also met with Jim Squires, who donated additional papers to Special Collections, and with a local judge who is planning to donate his papers.
Staff Development
Eleven staff attended a webcast entitled Emerging Learning Technologies: The 2006 Horizon Report.
A demonstration of the Primo online browser was offered to all library staff by Ex Libris' Oren Beit-Arie and Dan Trajman. Forty -five staff members attended the event, which was held in the Frist Nursing Annex on March 30.
Eleven staff attended a brown bag conducted by Marshall Breeding on March 16 regarding new databases in the library (the Art and Art History Database and the Cuban Slave Records).
Public Services
Flo Wilson met with F. Clark Williams and Jim Kramka, both from Student services, to discuss better ways of communicating with and seeking input from students across campus. They were helpful in suggesting several approaches-Student IT Leaders group, RA's in the dorms, the dorm-distributed weekly newsletter. Jody Combs and Flo attended the March meeting of the IT Student leaders group and solicited input from them. They were concerned about pay for printing; they suggested surveys (especially with prizes); we mentioned the upcoming LIbQUAL survey. They talked some about their difficulties in identifying and searching library resources.
Flo met with Michael Hime in Blair to discuss the changes in responsibility for OAK. He wanted to learn more about future plans and how the schools would have input into OAK's continuing development.
Flo met with Mandy Henk a couple of times to review the continuing work of the project team putting together a proposal for faculty delivery to faculty offices.
Flo reviewed the expanded Quality Enhancement Program proposal on information literacy, submitted to the QEP committee by the Library and the Center for Teaching. Melinda Brown led the library's effort in preparing the proposal with assistance from Sharon Weiner.
The Library's budget for 2006/2007 was approved and with it the exception request for a new system-wide geographic information systems and data services service. This request included a new GIS position, and Flo began discussions with members of the GIS task force concerning the appropriate description. Sharon Weiner has agreed to chair the search committee. Rick Stringer-Hye is gathering information on licensing of the necessary GIS software, training opportunities available in the near term, and surveying how support is currently provided so that we can put a plan into place this summer in advance of a new person being hired.
David Carpenter has asked to return to the Central Library, and a search for a new Management Library director will be underway soon. The Search Committee will be announced shortly.
Annex
Greg Weldy began his new Library Annex position on March 13th. Maureen returned and we were once again fully staffed.
1010 items were retrieved for patrons, exactly one less than last month. 429 photocopies were made; and another 248 faxed copies were sent to VU offices.
Library Messenger Service & GLB Mailroom
Greg Collins, from Vanderbilt Temporary Services, began as our temporary Library Messenger on Monday, March 13th. By month's end, he had received cross-training in both library truck and van routes; but also in basic GLB Mailroom functions.
Technology
Projects and Activities
The OpenWeb project continues to make a remarkable difference in the amount of activity on the TV News website and on the number of requests for videotape loans. This month alone, the number of page requests (excluding indexing spiders) on both the regular TV News site and the OpenWeb site doubled from the previous month. The number of new users registered also almostdoubled from 1,134 in February to 2,024 in March.
Television
News Archive
Meetings,
Activities and Professional Development
Celia attended two meetings for Volunteer Voices at the Brentwood Library. She, along with 3 other members of the project, presented information about the program to attendees of the Tennessee Association of Museums in Knoxville.