Directors and Heads of Libraries – Page 3

Students suggest a monthly tour for each library, claim many students don’t know how many libraries there are or how to navigate their favorite. Liz Sullivan is already on it with a great system to make it happen.
A few of them suggested that the Science Library should remain open until midnight–one hour makes a big difference in study patterns, they say. Alison will take under consideration.
Better signage!!! App to navigate Terrell (suggests contacting Iago Mendez [student] to write one)
Music in the Libraries. Thanks for Tiny Ref Desk concerts. How about pop up chamber groups in Terrell? Jazzariah’s was a big hit as an idea, too–but VH is having trouble booking talent…. Contact Prof. Docter.
Audio guide to campus architecture? Idea floated to Director of Facilities. Possible Winter Term project using good info from our exhibit on the same topic
- Possible to add QR codes to signs to trigger 1-minute explanation of building and then directions to accessible entrance (two birds/one stone)?
Put a counselor’s office in the library.

Budget. Not tamed, but mischief managed. We are still in a demand-driven acquisitions environment–and this will be the new reality, but we will survive this year and, with more manageable cuts for the next few years. Review of all approval plans, more DDA and EBA in our future; tighter collection development plans to be discussed when new AD arrives.

HR: Paul Heyde has accepted the AD for Collections and Resource Services position and begins May 16! Rebecca will continue through June 30 for transition.

Stats: Stats task force created tentative list, with Valerie for review. Stakeholders will hear more soon.

Department check-ins

Tech services – Bindery, to continue with HF
Archives – digitizing materials from Wilson Bruce Evans Home; Shirley Graham Du Bois exhibit remaining at CPL another month, Ken is getting gate counts; MCT to DC for National Assoc University Women, celebration on Apr 22. Read all about it in new Library Perspectives!
Science – will contemplate SLAB suggestion (difficult to get student staff to cover the added hour); withdraw/discards for old editions/serials
Con – Changes to the Prep area that included student workstation moves and other updates are now complete. Budget questions re: Harrassowitz materials are being explored. Debbie provided a bit of advice to Tom Lopez on WOBC media shelving options for material including ca.600 linear feet of LPs. WOBC studios will operate remotely during Wilder renovations this summer and ultimately they will move to the 4th floor of Wilder once this phase of the renovation is complete.
Special Collections – very busy with instruction sessions, letterpress studio requests; Carnegie Room will be occupied by exiled administrators during Cox renovations this summer. This has stalled move of some medium rare books to a seminar room there. EV working with donor in LA on letterpress/type gift

Time to update the Libraries safety/disaster plan. VH suggests small team of interested staffers to update the most recent/forgotten plan, working with Claudia in Facilities and then organizing info sessions for class. (Maybe Ed, Michael P. and Sara H?) Need to ask them.

LLT email – OK to set so anyone can email; RB will investigate who can change the setting

NEORLS workshop? During LLT–registration also sends you archive access for later viewing http://mms.neo-rls.org/Calendar/moreinfo_responsive.php?eventid=67355

Library Leadership Notes: 3/25/22

Matt Koperdak July 19, 2022 March 25, 2022 Leave a Comment

23 March 2022

Agenda items & Notes on Decisions, Actions, and Responsibilities

Journal stacks project in Terrell (Tim)
- Met yesterday with stakeholders (stackholders?) Ashley, Cameron, Megan, Tim. Selina. Moving wall project to make space for art library journals.
  - Is the quality of scanning in JSTOR now sufficient to de-accession some print art journals?
- We may gain space from titles that are now part of OhioLINK agreements.
- Valerie asked about Euclid access (mathematics titles). See https://projecteuclid.org/browse “Access to content on Project Euclid is available under several distribution model options determined by the participating publishers. At this time, we are unable to offer access to all content on Project Euclid via a single purchase.” https://projecteuclid.org/subscriptions-and-access.
Budget update and reports on trimming recurring costs. OCLC costs will be shifted to the operating budget. Hosting fees for databases might also be shifted to the operating budget. In this way, we can get a clearer picture of our materials budget apart from ‘utilities’ costs.
Copyright policies: Megan speaking to Elizabeth Hamilton today about whether there will be an institutional copyright policy.

Library events. Staff are always encouraged and welcome to attend (as part of their work) lectures, workshops, and other programs sponsored by the libraries. As has been the case in the past, OCOPE members should let their supervisors know ahead of time. OCOPE members are also welcome at events scheduled after the work day.
Rolling out the Strategic Directions document as a guide for planning in departments–at the next PanLibrary Forum.
Performance evaluations (A&PS) – Waiting to see the final version of the form from HR. Rebecca needs to review the language. Are all job descriptions up to date? Please check yours and talk with your supervisor, if not.. Job descriptions/evolving job responsibilities will be a topic of discussion with Maggie Nieves(see below).

Blackboard Library resources push this summer. We need to note the subject librarian with contact info, for every class. We can then expand by providing LibGuides for the discipline or even the particular topic. VH will ask the General Faculty Library Committee about working with OCTET/CIT to grant the Library access to Bb courses without having to ask each prof individually.
HR Matters
- Associate Director for Collections and Resource Services
- Head of Conservatory Library retirement
- Acting Head of Conservatory Library
- 1-year term librarian for Conservatory Library
- Bookkeeper/Budget Analyst
- HR meeting with supervisors of OCOPE staff to go over the current contract/rules and to discuss how to evolve job descriptions collaboratively as libraries and responsibilities evolve; two meetings, one hour each
- The final frontier…..space for collections We’re out of space. The Space Addendum report is out there. OCL Facility Planning will get underway in the summer.
Better World Books withdrawal procedures. How do we mark general books when deaccessioned? Special considerations for high-value books (special collections and art library) should be discussed with the new AD for Collections. VH recommends microstamp for withdrawals in special collections; One stamp only for general collections–consider stamping over accession/shelfmark number in pencil; DMS and Con will coordinate for consistent procedures, after discussing with the new AD.
VH to ask Bill Ruth for 6 months of a dumpster service–small dumpster with lid for summer journal weeding.

Library Leadership Notes: 3/16/22

Matt Koperdak July 19, 2022 March 18, 2022 Leave a Comment

Agenda items & Notes on Decisions, Actions, and Responsibilities

CELA move-in dates (varied…beginning in late March–through May). Valerie will remind each office down there to invite library staff down for a “get to know you” visit.
Faculty Subscription Review and recurring costs budget–ongoing project, cancellations are real and necessary if we are to live within our FY23 budget. Thank you for working with your faculty on this sad task.
Strategic directions roll out (final draft is dated March 1st). Valerie will do a little presentation on it at upcoming PanLibrary Forum, launching it into the various departments and units for their exegesis and enlivening of it as they think about goals and projects for the summer and coming academic year.
PanLibrary Forum spreadsheet for agenda items (committee, kudos, reports?)–April 6. LC is developing a kudo katching platform for all to express admiration or support.
Divisional Area Coordinators? (DACs) discussions: Valerie is having meetings with each of the DACs, introducing the Strategic Directions documents and letting them know more about the state of the library’s budgets in the face of reductions. Also trying to get conversation/action going in areas of open access and OER.
Annual reviews and goals are based on the fiscal year: A&PS staff will hear more about this soon. HR has form, but rollout expected soon.
April 12th – National Library Workers Day. Planning recognition/appreciation gift.
National Library Week April 3 – 9
Supply room update at PanLibrary forum–already announced via Lowdown
Recent discovery: CIT supplies paper and toner for public printers. Make sure you aren’t paying for public printing please.
Digitization upgrades–Heath and 3D task force coming up with list
Art library Sensitizer works! Just plugged it in.
ER&L (Electronic Resources & Libraries) week – Selina and Tim attending; Tim is presenting. Go Tim!

Library Leadership Notes: 3/9/22

Matt Koperdak July 19, 2022 March 10, 2022 Leave a Comment

Agenda items & Notes on Decisions, Actions, and Responsibilities

Storage update

Two interior doors in Carnegie will be card swipe in the near future to improve security. Room 129 will be cleared for Library triage space. Talk of future of Carnegie…Libraries need a different solution for offsite collections facility (see Strategic Directions document)

Receiving room update

Lots of noise and ruckus right now. Shelving moving into swing space in Moffett. Moffett is overflowing. Brad is working on it. Late May expected date to move back in. It’s going to be great when we get back in there!

Student staff budget update with thanks

Thank you to everyone for trimming or rethinking student budgets to conform to our needs and means. New service models may may rely more on FT employees. Library hours should not be cut without serious evidence-based support and communication with faculty and administration.

Spring break hours

Should be up to date. Please check and change if not correct.

Facilities master plan RFP (VH) This summer! RFP has gone out to consulting firms.They have our Strategic Directions document and the Director of Facilities says we’ve already done half their work. Yay team.

Library Space report discussion and Oberlin Group document (VH)

The Library of the Future (chronicle of higher ed) discussion concerning use of libraries by other units on campus. VH will schedule.

All In For Oberlin video underway (again) Need a student voice. Send storyboard to LLT. Heath, Kathy and Valerie are leading this effort to create a 1min video for April 28.

Distinctive collections will do show & tell for planned giving donors in mid May

Preparing 7’ presentations per collection for donors in zoom presentation. We have asked Runxiao, Ken, and Crystal and Caleb for this round. Hopefully, this will become a series!

Art Library: Cute St. Patrick student exhibit. Come see! Students using lots of books for projects Increased class visits. Kay and Barb –two weeks intensive training all their student assistants.

Special Collections: Requests for instruction in Special Collections are going up! Especially letterpress studio visits.

Science: Fun encounter with studio art class investigating their projects using the Science Library. Nice interdisciplinary engagement.

Con Library: Much instruction. Crystal’s instruction requests going up.

Main: bell hooks read in went pretty well yesterday

Tech Service: LC to discuss change from LCSH Slaves to Enslaved people and others.

Archives: Seeking an undergrad intern for the summer. Endowed position.

Library Leadership Notes: 3/2/22

Matt Koperdak July 19, 2022 March 7, 2022 Leave a Comment

Agenda items & Notes on Decisions, Actions, and Responsibilities

Student wages: We are looking at FY19 to compare with what’s been requested for in FY23. COVID-era numbers don’t reflect what we had before the pandemic. And this is the moment to re-assess and plan for the post-COVID next normal. Tracy and Erin will be meeting with everyone who has student employment lines in the budget.

Streaming video responses: A memo from the college attorney will have the language staff can use for responses to faculty requests. It is a risk-averse statement or to put it differently, Oberlin honors Intellectual Property law, emphasizing that our institution and the scholars and artists who work here depend upon this law. As scholars, Oberlin faculty have a vested interest in understanding Intellectual Property law and the TEACH Act and having a clear institutional policy for work with copyrighted material. Although exceptions were made during COVID19 those accommodations no longer exist. Videos can be watched in room 403 of Terrell. Art has laptops to lend with DVD drives in them. Faculty are disappointed but more understanding once they understand the rules for copyright.

Statistical task force: Tracy is working with Liz who has been charged with collecting stats for the libraries. We will have clear statements of what we track; transparency in stats collection; procedures, compliance, and responsibilities; and a snazzy public dashboard with quarterly updates on our website. What do we want to know beyond ACRL/IPEDS? Think afresh! Important for us to be able to show 1) use of collections, 2) use of space, 3) interactions with students, faculty, community, 4) outreach/events/social media, etc. We will be communicating with all stakeholders and aim for a Start date July 1, 2022.

PanLibrary Forum today: Spreadsheet in Google Sheets for everyone to contribute to as we build agenda for each monthly meeting. Please use!.

Thank you Rebecca for agreeing to be interim AD/Head of Tech Services and Welcome to LLT!

Search committee for AD/Head of Tech Services will reconvene next week.

Deb Campana will be retiring at the end of this FY. 🙁 (much wailing and gnashing of teeth)

Library Leadership Notes: 2/23/22

Matt Koperdak July 19, 2022 February 24, 2022 Leave a Comment

23 February 2022

Agenda items and Notes on Decisions, Actions, and Responsibilities

OBIS slowdown is affecting public service & tech services

ACTION needed: Seriously needs to be addressed. How can we elevate this concern and get action? Hosted not better; worse. Could prioritizing OBIS internet/networking channels resolve the problem (as was the case for sound streaming resources once upon a time)? Ask Nathan Broom? VH will ask Michael.

Reactions from faculty re: subscription memo

ACTION: Liaisons please send lists to your faculty. Faculty reactions are as expected–”we need everything!”

Bring OER/Textbook conversation to GF Library Committee. Note: Science and Art have been buying textbooks for years.

Statistics: Folder in box called Statistics (are these the Sarah files; Ken will share link with VH to figure this out?). We need to systematically prepare for ACRL/IPEDs stats plus any other data/evidence-based info we might want to highlight.

VH will charge a Task Force to get our statistical gathering policies and procedures in place: Will ask Alison/Ken/Elizabeth/Tracy/Selina. Goal: clear statement of what we track; transparency in stats collection; procedures, compliance, and responsibilities; and a snazzy public dashboard with quarterly updates.. What do we want to know beyond ACRL/IPEDS? Think afresh! Communicate with all stakeholders and aim for Start date July 1, 2022. Barb said Art faculty suggested counting bBlackboard article downloads as use of library resources by students. Faculty could do this with a link to the article or by turning on “statistics tracking” for PDFs. These stats for pdf reads for each class should be available to faculty. But Tracy will ask CIT if they can give us that info (how many pdf articles opened or downloaded across all Blackboard classes as a measure of library use?).

Strategic Directions

Great feedback from many sources and a stronger document is resulting. Alison asks for rethinking of data mgmt/data literacy idea in report. Changed.

Search: Search for AD for Collections and Resource Services extended. Narrowcasting underway to ask for applications. More news on this to follow.

Budget

Projections in for FY22. FY23 and FY24 continue reductions. Diminishing purchasing power has been articulated to the deans and will be more forcefully highlighted in the strategic directions document.

Student numbers for budget needed by today. We will do the numbers to see if any reductions are needed and let you know.

Miscellaneous:

Special collections cataloging is now being done by Diane, in SC/UA. Yay!

Gov Docs: Cecilia and others are reviewing. Possibility of reclassing any gov docs that we keep? Megan Cecilia, and Tim working on this with subject librarians. Need to move from the 4th floor sooner rather than later. VH suggests that they move to Carnegie–boxed or on shelf (some discussion). Probably not enough space in Receiving Room. VH to check shelving in Carnegie for space. At issue is the length of time it takes to get permission to deaccession these items. We need to make progress by end of the summer. Possible removal of 4th floor shelving could make room for study space. Tim and Megan to take these ideas back to Cecilia and others for possible solutions.

Con Library: Cleaning and reorganizing Con Preparations and Circ Desk areas to maximize space. Lots of repurposing and cleaning. More efficient now! Share picture at PanLibrary forum! First tiny ref desk concert, March 1; will also include a pop up exhibit in Con Special Collections reading room featuring women composers!

Receiving Room Update: move to swing room has occurred. Remodeled receiving room should be ready by May. CIT folks will be in group study rooms until end of May. Otherwise CELA is opening in late March. They will have welcoming receptions for library staff.

OhioLINK will be paused/suspended starting 3/11/22 for the next 7 weeks. A message will be going in the Digest asap with messages from liaisons as well, going to their faculty members.

Sierra logins to review. Alison R. will remove student staff logins, if they are marked D on the spreadsheet.

Good news: Printing is fixed in the Science Library!!! Thanks to Tony Ryno in CIT who worked until midnight so the Mac lab would be ready for a class on Wednesday.

Library Leadership Notes: 2/16/22

Matt Koperdak July 19, 2022 February 16, 2022 Leave a Comment

16 February 2022

Agenda items & Notes on Decisions, Actions, and Responsibilities

Avalon access: how do we find it, may we find it, and then those LP jackets

Whereas Avalon is working well for the most part, we need to consider next steps:

Can we create a “media center” where public facing collections may be found?
Yes, it is possible for Reserve or individual playlists to be loaded (one-offs with urls that may need to come down for copyright reasons) but there is public-facing content we own that is ready to be out there even if only served to an Oberlin IP address.
Michael & Megan (w/3D committee) will explore how such streamable content can be made readily available and findable.
At this time supplemental content (album covers, programs, etc.) should be able to be seen but cannot. Avalon team is working on it this week in hopes of incorporating changes by the PanLibrary Forum in March.
Online Media Collections webpage exists (media.lib.oberlin.edu) but only lightly populated at this time and without direct links. Need policy as to what goes there and how we publicize them. This would be an excellent place to list the ConAudio database, too. Contact Michael about identifying public facing projects that we should be linking there.

We also need a collection development policy for what media belongs in Media Center/Avalon. Ask 3D group to consider the issue.

Avalon (media.lib.oberlin.edu)

The Avalon streaming media server is up and running with some films for courses and playlists for the Con, but it’s not ready for a full public reveal. There are a few technical issues – we need help displaying supplemental files (e.g. album covers, concert programs, etc.), and the question of what collections belong in Avalon. The 3D task force will consider what materials (e.g. films, music, oral history interviews, audiobooks, etc.) belong in Avalon (born digital files, digitized items from our collections), how to provide access (fully open, on campus access only, by course), and how to promote the server/center, as part of its charge.

Website tweaks and changes in general. Guidelines for website changes and further development are available but for those who need assistance: is the Web Team still who should be contacted?

Do we have? In a way. Ask ACE team to look at this as well.
Webteam can set you up as a collection manager, you can add content.
Webteam will meet with the Student Advisory Board in near future to go over their design/access concerns.

Budget situation has changed from what was posted in Sierra. We need to stop purchasing earlier in the fiscal year to stay within the new budget number. Please do not order anything but the most necessary (Spring reserves; faculty insistence, class needs, cool medieval manuscript–kidding!) Approval plans have to stop for this year—desperate needs for single titles should be ordered through GOBI if really needed. Next year will be clearer to all from the beginning (thanks to Erin). We will also distribute the funds in Banner properly based on past patterns. And remember, we still have 420k in endowments–spend them! Erin will hold regular budget meetings with unit heads in FY23..

Since FY 2020 the libraries have cut about 10% from our overall budget. Our mandate was to cut 15%, so we are not done–but we will know our numbers better next year.

Strategic Directions doc: It’s before the LLT and LC now. Send comments today by 2pm. VH will then send to the GF committee, Student Advisory board and all library staff before going to the Deans. VH shared comment concerning One Oberlin reference with LLT. LLT argued that, like it or not, making reference to it will strengthen our hand. VH will fiddle a little with it.

Air handler in Tech Services of Terrell: new system is going into tech services across from the water fountain. Shelves between AES and DMS may need to come down

Student worker needs for FY23: Tracy will be asking the student supervisors subcommittee for student hours predictions for FY23.

All Tech Services team plus Barb meeting in near future to brainstorm solutions to her need to move ~650 linear feet of serials this summer.

The process to become a virtual FDLP Gov Docs depository is underway. We will retain far fewer materials, including some from the WWII era. Cecilia and selected liaisons (Megan, Tim, Alison, Eboni, Michael M) are reviewing item numbers and holdings. Discarding of print gov docs begun during the pandemic continues, along with discards of microfiche, and cdroms.

Search update: the search for AD/Head of Tech Services has failed. The search committee will meet this Thursday to decide next steps.

The demise of Slack: LLT will now use Google chat instead of Slack (while we hope and pray for Microsoft teams, says VH)

Good news: Winter term book arts classes were a huge success; Douglass Day Transcribathon participation was a success! Steamboat Willie Apollo event tonight.