ACRL Update
Katie Blocksidge, Ohio State University Newark

The ACRL Executive Board and staff spoke about upcoming initiatives. Mary Ellen Davis described the process for being part of the ACRL Assessment in Action Program, while President Steven Bell spoke about his chapter visits, and gave a shout out to Ohio. Trevor Davis, Vice-President, described his initiative as focusing on student financial literacy alongside Money Smart Week; look for a program at the upcoming ACRL conference.

2015 will mark the 75th anniversary of ACRL, and celebrations will be in order.

The ACRL webinar pilot will continue through October. This pilot allows ACRL chapters the opportunity to view two free webinars per year, and includes archived webinar recordings. Our chapter will host rebroadcasts of two ACRL webinars later this spring: The Crisis in Academic Libraries (and Why This is the Best Thing Ever) and Fair Use in Your Library after Georgia State. Keep an eye out for more information!

A huge thank you to Katy Kelly (University of Dayton) for attending Chapters Council at ALA Mid-Winter and taking excellent notes!

Collection Management Interest Group
Julie Deardorff, Cedarville
The Collection Management Interest Group will sponsor a workshop on Friday, March 22 at the State Library of Ohio in Columbus. E-Books in Ohio: What’s a Librarian to Do? will provide an opportunity for librarians to share their successes and challenges with ebooks and to discuss their questions and concerns. What ebook opportunities are on the horizon through OhioLINK? When is it necessary to strike out alone with ebook collections? Have Ohio libraries had success with patron driven acquisition of ebooks?

Registration details will follow soon.

If you have questions about the workshop, please contact a member of the CMIG workshop planning committee: Kathleen Baril (Ohio Northern), Kevin Messner (Miami), Phil Flynn (Wright State) or Julie Deardorff (Cedarville).

Curriculum Materials Center Interest Group
Stefanie Bange, Wright State University
Registration will open soon for the CMCIG Spring Workshop, to be held at University of Cincinnati on Friday, May 17th. Our theme is “Common Core Unraveled”. We will have several speakers on hand to break it down for us: a representative from Battelle for Kids will lay the groundwork about what Common Core is and what the Vertical Progression Guides are; a rep from INFOhio will demonstrate what INFOhio has created to make Common Core easy for students and teachers alike; a professor from Wright State will talk about applications of Common Core in the classroom. We will finish the morning with a tour of the CECH and then head to the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center for lunch and a tour. It should be a wonderful day! Keep an eye on the CMCIG blog for registration information.
If you would like to be included on the CMCIG Listserv, contact:
Stephanie Bange
email: stephanie.bange@wright.edu
phone: (937) 775-2050

Post your programs/projects/questions for others and be the first to learn about breaking information relevant to CMCs!

Distance Learning & Instruction Interest Groups
Lauren Wahman, University of Cincinnati Blue Ash College

The Distance Learning Interest Group (DLIG) and the Instruction Interest Group (IIG) are excited to announce a collaborative spring workshop for this year! The workshop is scheduled for Monday, June 3 and will be held at Miami University’s Voice of America Center in West Chester, Ohio. Check the DLIG and IIG blogs for more details as they become available. We hope to see you there!

Diversity Committee
Diane Kolosionek, Cleveland State University

Applications for the ALAO Diversity Scholarship

The ALAO Diversity Committee is currently accepting applications for the ALAO Diversity Scholarship, which is awarded annually to a library school student residing in Ohio with a demonstrated commitment to diversity. A qualified candidate will: (1) be a full-time or part-time student enrolled in or recently accepted to an ALA-accredited MLS program, either on campus or via distance education, for the fall term following the call for scholarship applications; (2) currently live in Ohio; and (3) demonstrate the following: (a) potential in the field; (b) leadership ability; and (c) diversity in one or more ways, including, but not limited to: race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, life experience, physical ability, and a sense of commitment to these and other diversity issues.

The $1,500.00 scholarship will be applied directly to the recipient’s bursar account for tuition at his or her academic institution. The student also will receive a complimentary registration for ALAO’s Annual Conference and a year of mentoring by a selected ALAO Member.

Complete information and the scholarship application are available at:
http://www.alaoweb.org/committees/diversity/scholarship-guidelines

The deadline for applications is Friday, March 15, 2013.

Professional Development Committee
Alisa Mizikar, Wittenberg University

The Professional Development Committee was excited to have ten very strong applications for the 2013 Continuing Education Grant. Ultimately, two proposals were selected for funding. The PDC is pleased to announce the recipients for this year’s grant. Katie Foran-Mulcahy of University of Cincinnati – Claremont College will be attending ACRL Immersion ’13: Practical Management for the Instruction Coordinator at the ACRL 2013 Conference in Indianapolis. Kenneth Irwin of Wittenberg University attended the Code4Lib conference recently held in Chicago.

Research and Publications Committee
Mark Eddy, Case Western Reserve University
The ALAO Research & Publications Committee was very pleased to receive five applications for our 2013 Research Grant Award program this past December. The committee is in the process of reviewing applications, and we look forward to announcing the awards in mid-March.

Special Collections and Archives Interest Group
Stefanie Hunker, Bowling Green State University
Save the date for our first annual Spring Workshop on outreach by Special Collections and Archives.
Date: May 10
Location: Ohionet
More information will be coming soon. We hope to see you there.

Support Staff Interest Group
Ginna Witte, Cincinnati State
The Support Staff Interest Group has spent the past couple of months getting organized. We’ve updated and streamlined our portions of the ALAO website. We also created a Facebook Group so that SSIG members can meet each other and share resources online. This spring we’re looking forward to creating an opportunity for ALAO members to view (for free!) 2 previous ACRL webcasts. The session on Fair Use and its impact on library functions should be particularly useful to SSIG members. Stay tuned for more details . . .

Technical, Electronic, and Digital Services Interest Group
Jennifer Bazeley, Miami University

Institutional change and succession planning will be the theme of this year’s Spring workshop to be held in mid-May. More information will be available soon.