Distance Learning Interest Group
Kathleen Pickens-French, Miami University Hamilton

ALAO’s Distance Learning Interest Group (DLIG) Spring Workshop, “INOV8: Strategies & Models for Distance Library Services”, was held on May 11th at Miami University’s Voice of America Learning Center in West Chester, Ohio. The workshop boasted 44 attendees representing a variety of institutions from across the state of Ohio. Our 2012 DLIG Visionary, Ken Burhanna, kicked off the day with “A Strategic Action Plan for Distance Learning Support”. He was followed by an engaging session on Quality Matters that was led by Janet Hurn, the Interim Director of E-Learning for Miami University Regionals. During lunch, many attendees joined Miami University Middletown’s Beth Tumbleson in taking advantage of the sunshine by stretching their legs on an optional nature walk through the adjoining park. After returning from the short hike, attendees settled in for the concluding Best Practices session, facilitated by Jessie Long (Miami University Middletown) and led by panelists Lauren Wahman (University of Cincinnati Blue Ash), Rob Snyder (Bowling Green State University), Rob Zai (Northern Kentucky University), and Ken Burhanna (Kent State University). The collaborative character of the workshop led to the creation of a starter “Best Practices” list, viewable from the DLIG blog at http://distancelibrarians.wordpress.com.

Diversity Committee
Diane Kolosionek, Cleveland State University

Diversity Scholarship Award
The ALAO Diversity Committee is pleased to award the 2012-2013 Diversity Scholarship to Carissa Thatcher. Carissa is a student in the Master of Library and Information Science program at Kent State University. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Information Technology from Franklin University. Carissa is the Learning Resources Center Manager for the South Campus of Southern State Community College. She previously managed Southern State’s Fayette Campus Learning Resources Center. The ALAO Diversity Scholarship awards Carissa $1,500 towards her tuition, free registration for the ALAO annual conference in October, and a year of mentoring by an ALAO member.

The Committee appreciated the quality of this year’s scholarship applicants, but Carissa’s demonstrated commitment to diversity and her collection development work at Southern State Community College were especially impressive. In her application, Carissa described how she took the initiative in her position as Learning Resources Center Manager to acquire materials on different countries, cultures, religions, governments, and sexual orientations and to promote these materials to the campus community. Now she is developing an African-American section of the Appalachian collection. Carissa stated that “African-Americans played a significant role in Appalachian culture and our collection does nothing to celebrate that fact. Hopefully, this section will be the start of a rich collection that is devoted to the world of diversity.”

Congratulations to Carissa! The Committee is confident that she will be a strong leader and advocate for diversity and inclusion in libraries.

Instruction Interest Group
Lauren Wahman, University of Cincinnati, Blue Ash College

Spring Workshop
The Instruction Interest Group’s (IIG) spring workshop, Energizing Library Instruction: Pedagogical Voodoo to Animate Classroom Zombies, took place on Monday, June 4 at Ashland University.

John Burke and Beth Tumbleson from Miami University Middletown presented Inside Job: Embedding Librarianship in the LMS, an informative and thoughtful presentation that provided workshop attendees with encouragement and great ideas to take back to their home institutions.

Sara Klink and Mary Beth Messner from Stark State College presented Check Your Librarian’s ID: Instructional Design Basics for Library Instruction. Their project clearly demonstrated how collaboration with colleagues can produce some amazing modules that will definitely enhance student learning.

From The Ohio State University, Anne Field and Brian Leaf’s presentation Active Learning on the Go: Digital Storytelling Using Mobile Devices gave workshop attendees the opportunity to engage and participate in the topic while learning from each other.
Overall, we had a great turnout (approximately 50 attendees) and great presentations! We also announced the debut of the IIG Blog, which can be found here: http://alaoinstructionig.wordpress.com/

New IIG Co-Chair, 2012-2013
We are happy to announce that Katie Foran-Mulcahy, University of Cincinnati, Clermont College, will be our new co-chair starting July 2012. Kathryn Venditti, current senior co-chair, has completed her appointment and will now be the Interest Group Coordinator.

Research and Publications Committee
Mark Eddy, Case Western Reserve University

The RPC is very pleased to announce awards for the 2012 research grant program. We are delighted to provide research support for our four recipients and wish to extend hearty congratulations to each of them! Our award winners are,

Ann Marie Smeraldi (Cleveland State University) – $200
Project Title: Conducting a Usability Study to Uncover the Best Way to Teach Discovery Tool Searching

Stacy Brinkman (Miami University) – $250
Project Title: Next-Generation Collection Management: Using Augmented Reality Mobile Applications to Automate Shelf Reading and Inventory Control

Maureen Barry (Wright State University) – $350
Project Title: What is the subject librarian’s role in a service-learning course?

Jacqueline Johnson (Miami University) – $200
Project Title: Cephas Burns: Bridges of Hope

Our committee was thrilled this year to receive an unprecedented number of proposals (nine in all!), each of which represents important contributions to library and information science research. The RPC would like to sincerely thank each of our applicants for their participation in the grant program, and we look forward to hearing more about their exciting research projects!

TEDSIG
Elías Tzoc, Miami University

On Friday, May 11th 2012, the Technical, Electronic, and Digital Services Interest Group (TEDSIG) hosted its Spring Workshop at OhioNET. The workshop was on “Technical & Cataloging Skills” and was attended by 31 librarians in total.
The first presentation “From Cataloger to Metadata-er, training library staff for today’s projects” by Diane Kajganich, Jacob Koehler, and Catalina Oyler. The presenters talked about professional development activities at the Five Colleges of Ohio to help technical/cataloging staff adapt to new technology and digital projects. They offered the perspective of librarians coordinating development efforts as well as from a library staff member who took part in the training for two recent projects at the Five Colleges, the Next Generation Library grant, which created over 30 digital collections, and the adoption of Summon discovery service.
The second session “From Microfilm to Digital Images: The National Digital Newspaper Program” by Jenni Salamon and Phil Sager. Jenni talked about the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP) and the Ohio’s contribution to the project. Phil discussed the nuts and bolts of the training, workflow, technical specifications and metadata requirements that transform microfilmed newspaper pages into dynamic digital objects available on the Library of Congress’ Chronicling America and Ohio Memory -a CONTENTdm-hosted digital library.
The third session “Batch Cataloging: Improving Access to Your Collection” by Roman S. Panchyshyn. Roman began talking about the primary causes of the shift in batch loading MARC records into the local catalog at Kent State, main reasons included the increasing number of electronic resources purchased locally with available MARC records packages and the need for redeployment of systems staff for other projects. He also talked about the training they did for technical services staff in learning new skills such as batch processing software and scripting language. Last, he shared a checklist process that they developed, which provides the library with a consistent framework for managing individual batch cataloging projects.

The presentations files are available at:
http://www.alaoweb.org/Default.aspx?pageId=776286

TEDSIG is also pleased to announce that our incoming co-chair for 2012-2014 for TEDSIG will be Sharon Purtee, from the University of Cincinnati Health Science Library.