Office of the University Librarian
Monthly Report--September 2006
Library
Outreach and Campus Interaction
Paul Gherman met with Matt Hall, Jeff Vincent and Betty Nixon to discuss Vanderbilt's position on Net Neutrality legislation. He also met with Mike Schoenfeld along with other University faculty and staff to talk about Vanderbilt's involvement in the planning for a new Museum of African American Arts and Culture to be built on the Bicentennial Mall.
Tracy Primich, Rahn Huber, and Flo Wilson met with representatives of the University's Office of Technology Transfer and Enterprise Development. Tracy and Rahn had prepared a proposal for working with OTTED on an information needs survey; they will be exploring ways in which the Library might help with information/research support for the Office.
Library-wide
Efforts and Events
Joell Smith-Borne was hired in a Library Annex temporary position. Her first day was Tuesday, September 5th.
Leonor van Cotthem returned to the Annex on Sept. 25th to work with Professor Helguera and Kathy Smith on the Helguera Collection.
Reports from the Vanderbilt Community Survey were distributed to the libraries and work units. Unit heads will be working with their staff to review the results.
Holling Smith-Borne joined the library staff as the director of the Music Library in August. He met with a number of OUL staff, being oriented to the Heard Library system.
Recruiting for the GIS coordinator position continued through August and September. Brian Christens provided training and orientation sessions for Rick Stringer-Hye, Sue Erickson, Amy Stewart-Mailhiot, and Flo Wilson. Candidates were reviewed and two were interviewed. A new coordinator, Jacob Thornton, was selected and will begin work October 31.
Public Relations/Communication
The library hosted a lecture by Professor Robert Barsky in the Peabody Library Fireside Reading Room. Approximately 30 people attended the lecture, which focused on immigration.
Celia Walker and Kathy Smith met with two potential donors
of in-kind gifts and picked
up more papers from Clara Hieronymus, former art critic for the Tennessean
Staff Development
A Web cast was held on September 27, Tales from a Librarian-Instructional Designer Partnership: Sharing Resources and Knowledge to Support Course Development. Four librarians attended the event.
Electronic
Resources and Collection Development
Collection Development
We activated campus-wide access to Campus Research, the successor to Westlaw Campus. We have acquired the law segment of the database, which is targeted to undergraduates and graduate students researching law-related issues. The Law Library discontinued its subscription last spring because the database is not designed for legal specialists. Central, Law, and Divinity agreed to share the cost of the new subscription, Central paying 75%, Law 20%, and Divinity 5% of the annual cost.
We were, however, unable to reach agreement on a multi-library subscription to LexisNexis State Capitol. A Medical Center administrator originally requested that Law acquire the database. Though Law, Biomedical, and Central expressed some interest, none considered State Capitol to be a significant resource for their patron communities. Thus we could not agree on an arrangement to share the $3,881 cost.
In conjunction with TENN-SHARE, we are negotiating a renewal of our subscription to Wiley Interscience, which includes virtually all ejournals published by Wiley. Almost all VU libraries have agreed to convert their individual Wiley journal subscriptions to electronic-only as part of the renewal.
Public Services
Several librarians participated in a meeting to talk about information literacy developments on campus. The meeting was coordinated by Melinda Brown; Sharon Weiner addressed the activities that Peabody has undertaken. Representatives involved in instruction from several of the libraries attended along with Paul and Flo. Representatives from the A&S dean's office, Center for Teaching, and the Writing Studio were also participants. A decision was made to continue a group meeting to address undergraduate research needs several times per year; Melinda will coordinate. A group for talking about graduate research support will also be formed.
Annex
University Archives staff brought three University of the South librarians to the Annex on Sept. 8th, and Annex staff meet with them briefly too.
343 photocopies for Inter-Library Loan patrons were produced.
75 faxed copies were sent to local patrons.
Television
News Archive
Meetings,
Activities and Professional Development
Paul attended the TEL (Tennessee Electronic Library)steering committee to discuss how we approach the legislature concerning increased funding for TEL. He also attended the NALA (Nashville Area Library Alliance) board meeting.
Marshall gave the kenote presentation for the Wyoming Library Association Annual Conference in Gillette, WY on September 29th.