Research and Publication Committee & Assessment Interest Group Workshop

ALAO RPC and AIG are pleased to share with you a sneak peek into our joint spring workshop that will teach you about Grant Writing and Research Planning to be held March 27, 2020.

The goal of this workshop is to help you build skills in efficiently and effectively developing and planning research in order to successfully apply for and be awarded grant funding. Guest speaker, Dr. Miriam Matteson, Associate Professor of Library Science at Kent State, will provide you with foundational knowledge on best practices involved in forming a research question and developing an achievable research plan. You will also have time for hands-on practice.

We look forward to you joining us to learn about how you can successfully apply for and be awarded grants in order to improve your library resources and services. Contact Elizabeth and Anna Liss with any questions. Stay tuned for future communications!

-Brittany Brannon, RPC Co-Chair, OCLC
-Ken Irwin, RPC Co-Chair, Miami University
–Elizabeth Sullivan, AIG Co-Chair, Oberlin College 
–Anna Liss Jacobsen, AIG Co-Chair, Miami University

Community & Two Year College Libraries IG News

During Fall 2019, the Community & Two Year Colleges Libraries Interest Group has focused on the library response to food and housing insecure students.  A Round Table at the Annual Conference kicked off the discussion and a November Sound Off provided an opportunity to continue the discussion.

A variety of resources are available to provide background including:

• Team Vittles — a group of Ohio librarians working on issues related to food insecurity issues.  An OhioNET webinar about the project called “But Do I Have to Cook?” is available.
• Hope Center for College, Community and Justice connects projects related to housing and food insecurity among college students and also shares success stories from affected students. Works with #realcollege to spread the story of the struggles, triumphs and realities of what it means to be a college student today.
• Book: Addressing homelessness and and housing insecurity in higher education 
• Article: “It’s a Feeling That One Is Not Worth Food:…” (Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics– a qualitative interview study of students and their experiences with food insecurity

–Julie McDaniel,  C2YCLIG Co-Chair, Sinclair Community College
–Karla Aleman, C2YCLIG Co-Chair, Lorain County Community College

Programming, Outreach, and Marketing IG News

PROMIG had a great roundtable turnout during the ALAO 2019 conference. Members shared programming strategies for engaging students, developing community partnerships, and tools to promote library services. Some of the highlights discussed were using the library space for collaborative campus exhibits as Oberlin has done with a recent installation to support the Dance Department. Librarians from Otterbein University shared plans for an upcoming coffee & sustainability program with a local coffee business. Other topics included successful program attendance through building partnerships with student organizations at Capital University, establishing meaningful connections with high school students during library visits at the University of Dayton, and promoting library services and programs with LibCal as used at the University of Toledo and other schools .

This interest group continues to grow with a current roster of 38 members. In addition to a listserv, the group will be starting a Slack workspace to organize ideas and submissions for an outreach & programming toolkit. The group is also discussing a collaborative webinar with the Scholarly Communications Interest Group as a Spring Workshop.

The proposal for the Ohio Inspiring Practices: Achieving Student Success in Undergraduate Education conference has been approved and 4 PROMIG librarians will lead a panel discussion on February 26th . Laura Birkenhauer (Miami University), Jessica Crossfield McIntosh (Otterbein University), Julie McDaniel (Sinclair Community College), and Shaunda Vasudev (Capital University) will present Meaningful Connections: Campus Literacy, Student Success and Libraries. More details and registration information can be found here.

–Eboni Johnson, PROMIG Co-Chair, Oberlin College
–Shaunda Vasudev, PROMIG Co-Chair, Capital University

Special Collections and Archives IG News

The Special Collections and Archives Interest Group met on October 18th at the ALAO Annual Conference for an informal roundtable discussion of future workshop ideas and how different academic special collections fulfill researcher reference and digitization requests.  Also, we are pleased to announce our 2019 Special Collections and Archives Interest Group annual meeting and workshop will be co-hosted with the Society of Ohio Archivists (SOA). We thank the following people in advance for their service to SCAig as members of this year’s Annual Meeting planning committee:

• Stacy Chaney-Blankenship, Rare Books, Manuscripts, and Artifacts, Ohio Wesleyan University
• William Modrow, Walter Havighurst Special Collections & University Archives, Miami University.

Look for a save-the-date early in the new year!

-Suzanne Reller, Special Collections and Archives IG Co-Chair, University of Cincinnati
-Rachel Makarowski, Special Collections and Archives IG Co-Chair, Miami University

STEM IG News

STEM IG had a very busy fall! After creating our mailing list we surveyed our members on the type of activities they would like to have access through STEMIG. Thus, we have updated our website, started a monthly STEMIG Newsletter, organized a Round Table at the ALAO Annual Conference, and organized a webinar on data curation as the first one in a regular series of webex seminars. Plans for the Annual STEMIG Spring Workshop are also well underway for Friday, March 20, 2020. More information to come!

–Matthew Benzing, Miami University, STEM IG Co-Chair
–Daniela Solomon, Case Western Reserve University, STEM IG Co-Chair

Support Staff IG News

The Support Staff Interest Group co-chairs are at work planning what will likely be a digital meeting for the coming year via a website, articles linked for written comments/discussion, and a Zoom date for verbal discussion. Topics to be determined.

–Erin Smith, SSIG Co-Chair, Case Western Reserve University
–Rob Withers, SSIG Co-Chair, Miami University