Case Western Reserve University News

Shelby Stuart and Stephanie Church wrote an article that was recently published in Against the Grain titled, “Let’s Get Technical — A Case (Western Reserve University) Study of COVID-19 e-Resource Usage and Free Access“.  The article highlights CWRU eresource usage during the Spring 2020 semester as well as the impact of publishers’ free access offers while considering the change in COUNTER reporting.

Anne Kumer, Stephanie Becker, and Naomi Langer had their proposal accepted for the Stanford Libraries Working Meeting on Archival Discovery and Delivery, where small groups are now working to develop a topic related to improving archival discovery and delivery into a written contribution of 5-10 pages for inclusion in a larger handbook compiled and published by the project. Their proposal is titled “Access is People: How Investing in Digital Collections Labor Improves Archival Discovery & Delivery”.

Stephanie Church gave a presentation in a JSTOR webinar on Wednesday, Sept. 16 titled “Creative ebook acquisition strategies during COVID-19”. She discussed KSL’s e-resource usage trends during the pandemic and the library’s strategies to control costs. The webinar can be viewed from JSTOR’s Webinars page.

Mark Clemente has been selected to receive the 2020 Staff Diversity Excellence Award! The Freedman Center for Digital Scholarship Team nominated him and a committee made up of CWRU Diversity Leadership Council members selected him to receive the award. Mark and other award winners were recognized at the Office for Inclusion, Diversity and Equal Opportunity Annual Diversity Achievement Awards on Wednesday, May 5th.

Daniela Solomon presented a poster at ACRL’s 2021 Virtual conference, April 13-16 titled “Benchmarking Open Access Publications from School of Engineering Faculty”. This study is benchmarking open access publications against the paywalled publications published by the faculties of CWRU’s School of Engineering over a ten-year period. Using Elsevier’s Scopus abstract and citation database and SciVal data, the study compares publication trends, citation impact, and collaborations impact. The study also helped identify open access engineering faculties champion, the local research topics most commonly published open access, as well as the preferred journals for open access publishing. The results are informative for the liaison librarian in engaging individual faculty or the school administration, provide a greater understanding of the engineering faculties’ knowledge of open access topics, and inform the library campus-wide advocacy efforts for open access policy. 

Charlie Harper researched and wrote a chapter on generative learning for Machine Learning, Libraries, and Cross-Disciplinary Research: Possibilities and Provocations, which was just released. This volume was one outcome of the IMLS-funded workshops on machine learning he’s attended at Columbia and Notre Dame over the past two years.

Erin Smith contributed the vignette on assessment titled “Vignette: I Like and I Wish” to The One-Shot Library Instruction Survival Guide, 3rd edition edited by Heidi Buchanan and Beth McDonough published by ALA.  The book was published on March 25 and the press release is available here.

Jena Styka‘s poster submission “A Space Odyssey: The Ongoing Journey to a Better Space Assessment” was accepted for presentation at the ARL Library Assessment Conference to be held October 26-28 in Rosemont, Illinois. It is her first professional submission so congratulations to you, Jena and well done! 

Jacey Kepich had a guest editorship and editorial piece for a special issue of Music Reference Services Quarterly dedicated to project management.  Earlier this year Jacey’s peer reviewed article on planning and implementing ANSCR was published online in this special issue. You can read her guest editorial piece, her peer-reviewed article, and links to the three essays, three articles, and an e-resource review which she edited for the special issue at this online link“

Anne Kumer, Stephanie Becker and Nora Blackman. They were all awarded an LSTA Metadata Mini-Grant from the State Library of Ohio, in conjunction with the Ohio Digital Network. Spanning nearly 100 years, the CPH Production Photographs, accessible online and numbering over 6,000 still images, offers an expansive look at the development of regional theater productions from the view of the audience, backstage, and during rehearsals. This grant will enable us to perform a legacy metadata cleanup making search and discovery more consistent across platforms, as well as discoverable on the larger web, where many researchers begin their searches. Depositing the production photographs, and later, other materials from the CPH collection, into DPLA, will give researchers unfettered access to a comprehensive catalog of theatre history, showcasing it alongside similar collections from the New York Public Library, University of Utah, and Tarrant County College.

Liz Bober was recently interviewed for an article in Elsevier titled “An evolving library role optimizes data to add value” which highlights her work in helping to improve CWRU’s international rankings. The article also includes her how-to guide on optimizing citation data in the ranking process.

Nora Blackman has some updates about two of our special collections: the MOCA Archive (Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland) and the Charles F. Brush, Sr. papers.

1) Over the course of several months in 2018-2019, Nora worked with the documentary team and MOCA staff to identify and describe resources for use in the recently released documentary film, Aggie.   The film focuses on Agnes Gund’s 2017 sale of Roy Lichtenstein’s Masterpiece and subsequent donation of the proceeds ($165 million) to start a fund for criminal justice reform called the Art for Justice Fund. Notoriously camera and publicity shy, Gund was a founder of MOCA and member of the philanthropic Cleveland Gund family.

2) Over the past year, Nora worked with representatives of JSTOR to participate in their pilot program to develop a platform for Open Access primary source materials – Open Community Collections  The partnership goals included learning how to integrate Special Collections archival collections alongside relevant books, journals and primary source materials on JSTOR.  Special Collections’ participation included sharing one of our oldest online collections, The Charles F. Brush, Sr. papers, digitized in their entirety in 2010.

–Brian C. Gray, Collection Management Interest Group Co-Chair, Case Western Reserve University

Cedarville University News

Julie Deardorff, Director of Library Collection Services at the Centennial Library, was recognized with Cedarville University’s 2020-21 Teaching Collaboration Award.  This annual faculty award recognizes inter-departmental collaboration and a commitment to integration and fostering a learning community in which different strengths are collaboratively joined to maximize the educational experience for students.  Her nomination noted her regular collaboration with the English Literature and Modern Languages Department to offer a Library Internship course and her work with other university departments and local libraries coordinating student independent studies in library science.  She was commended for being “always ready to assist a colleague or associate” and for the “excellent quality of her collaboration.”

–Joshua B. Michael, Cedarville University

Kent State University News

Kent State University Libraries digitizes 50 years of Black United Students’ publications

Historic publications from Kent State University’s Black United Students are now accessible in University Libraries’ digital archive. The Special Collections & Archives Department facilitated the professional digitization of 81 publications, which are now located at www.library.kent.edu/special-collections-and-archives/ksu-black-united-students-records.  

The publications, written and created by members of the Kent State organization over a span of 50 years, have undergone three name changes throughout their history: Black Watch (1969-1978), The Spectrum (1979-1989) and Uhuru (1989-2019).

Black United Students was founded at Kent State University in 1968 and has remained consistently active to the present. From its inception, members of the organization have advocated for the equality of Kent State students of color, including addressing fair facilities, budget allotments, student enrollment, faculty representation, academic programming, departmental organization and social justice concerns, among many other issues in its decades-long history. The KSU Black United Students archives have been heavily used by researchers around the world.

Kent State University librarian awarded grant to add books about Ohio

Kent State University Mary Hricko, Ph.D., library director at Kent State’s Geauga Campus and the Twinsburg Academic Center, recently received a Celebrating Ohio Book Awards & Authors (COBAA) Grant for $1002. The grant, which is sponsored by the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services and awarded by the State Library of Ohio, provides federal funding to expand collection development of books about Ohio and written by Ohio authors.

“The books we will receive from the grant not only showcase Ohio authors, but the selected titles will help readers uncover Ohio’s literary and cultural history,” says Dr. Hricko.

Most of the funds awarded through the COBAA grant will be used to add books to the library’s juvenile collection for the Middle Childhood Education Program at Kent State’s Geauga and Twinsburg campuses. The funds will also provide support materials for other instructional courses – many of which address diversity and inclusion issues – such as Ohio History, African-American Literature, Media, Power and Culture, and Introduction to Justice Studies.

Kent State University Libraries earns grant to benefit audio recordings from May 4, 1970 shootings

In spring 2019, Kent State University Libraries was selected by the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) to benefit from a $30,561 award through the Recordings
at Risk grant program, generously funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The grant provides funds to digitize more than 400 audio and audiovisual recordings from the May 4 Collection, which documents the Kent State Shootings and is housed and administered by Special Collections and Archives. Haley Antell, digital initiatives and outreach librarian, and VirginiaDressler, digital projects librarian, are the grant’s co-primary investigators.

Many of the materials included in the grant are recorded on legacy formats, such as magnabelts, that cannot be played or digitized onsite at Kent State. Through the grant, the recordings were sent to a vendor that specializes in historical AV formats. Prior to sending the more than 400 recordings to the vendor, each item was organized, labeled and extensive metadata was created. Finally, the materials were carefully packaged and sent to be digitized. Batches of the AV files were returned in digital format over the following months. The final batch was received in spring 2020.

An intensive workflow must be completed to prepare the digitized content for public use. This includes quality assurance, copyright analysis and creation of descriptive metadata to allow materials to be searched and browsed in the online environment. This extensive work to complete the grant objectives is expected to be finalized by May. As a result of this grant, approximately 300 of the newly digitized May 4 recordings are already available online and are currently accessible on Special Collections and Archives’ website at www.library.kent.edu/special-collections-and-archives.

–Cynthia Williams, Kent State University

Service Learning Librarian Blog Relaunched

The Service-Learning Librarian blog editorial team is pleased to announce the blog’s relaunch with its new host, University of Northern Iowa at https://sllibrarian.uni.edu. We envision Service-Learning Librarian, founded by Maureen Barry, as a hub connecting those in academic libraries supporting service-learning efforts on their campuses.

The editorial team: Anne Marie Gruber (University of Northern Iowa), Maureen Barry (Bowling Green State University), Jennifer Nutefall (University of Northern Colorado), Jenise Overmeir (Marymount University), and Olivia Ivey (American University).

Interested in contributing to the blog? Contact any team member or connect with us on Twitter: @sllibrarian

–Anne Marie H. Gruber, University of Northern Iowa

University of Dayton News

University of Dayton Libraries is proud to announce several promotions and new hires:

• Christina (Tina) Beis was promoted to Director of Collections Strategies & Services and Associate Professor.

• Ben Daigle will join as the new Director of Information Systems and Digital Access and Associate Professor beginning June 16. 

• Ione Damasco was promoted to Associate Dean for Inclusive Excellence, Engagement, and Operations, a new position at the Libraries.

• Tanya Ellenburg-Kimmet will join as the new Collections Processing Assistant on June 1.

• Kayla Harris, Librarian/Archivist in the Marian Library, was promoted to Associate Professor.

• Fred Jenkins, Associate Dean of Collections and Operations, will celebrate his retirement on June 30 as Professor Emeritus.

• Sarah Miller will join as the new Research Services Librarian and Assistant Professor on July 16.

• Zoe Plotnick joined the Access Services team as the Student Services Specialist in February. 

• Fran Rice, former Director of Information Systems and Digital Access, retired on April 30 and is now Professor Emerita. 

–Katy Kelly, University of Dayton

University of Toledo Raymon H. Mulford Health Sciences Library News

Visit the Health Science Campus Artist Showcase, which is sponsored by the Raymon H. Mulford Health Sciences Library at The University of Toledo. The art show is comprised of works in different media submitted by students, faculty, and staff in the health sciences to highlight their talents outside of their normal jobs. Typically, the artwork is physically displayed, and there is a reception with a special topics speaker, but the COVID-19 pandemic required rethinking how this year’s show would be presented. I am pleased with the result (mostly through the efforts of UToledo’s Event Coordinator, Alyssa Slottke), and thought I would share with my library colleagues in ALAO. This year we also included poetry along with the artwork. Take a break from your busy day and relax with some beautiful photographs, paintings, drawings, sculpture, and Haiku. Enjoy! https://sites.google.com/view/hscart21

–Gerald Natal, University of Toledo

Wittenberg University News

Thomas Library at Wittenberg University is pleased to announce that Katie Maxfield has joined our staff as the Digital Initiatives Librarian.  In addition to reference and instruction responsibilities, Katie will be maintaining and upgrading our current digital projects as well as working with faculty to spearhead new initiatives. Katie comes to us from Edmonton, Canada, where she recently completed her MLIS at the University of Alberta.  Her research interests include information behavior, scholarly communication, open access and open educational resources, audiovisual collections, and digital libraries.  In her free time, she enjoys choral singing, trying out new recipes, and dominating at board games.

–Alisa Mizikar, Wittenberg University