ALAO Interest Group Events

ALAO’s interest groups are gearing up to finish the academic year with lots of great events! ALAO has 12 active special interest groups that have formed to discuss concerns, issues, and new trends related to academic librarianship in Ohio. Keep an eye on the ALAO events page for spring and summer events brought to you by our interest groups!

Joining an interest group is a great way to participate in leadership events and network with fellow librarians and library staff. For more information visit the ALAO website https://www.alaoweb.org/igs/index.html. 

–-Sara Klink, Interest Group Coordinator, Stark State College

Interest Groups Seek Co-Chairs

Two of our Interest Groups are seeking co-chairs for two-year terms starting July 2022 through June 2024. You are encouraged to reach out to either co-chair regarding IG activities and the opportunities they offer. They can meet with you remotely with any questions you have.

Assessment Interest Group (AIG)

The purpose of the ALAO Assessment Interest Group is to provide a vehicle to discuss and share issues and developments pertinent to assessment in Ohio academic libraries. Topics of interest would include assessment of library impact and value, organizational performance, collections, student learning outcomes, rubrics, user attitudes and behaviors, as well as effective research methodologies, techniques for data analysis, and data visualization. Interests potentially overlapping those of other ALAO interest groups, e.g. information literacy or collection assessment, will be pursued in collaboration with those groups. Please contact Jeanna Purses at jpurses@lec.edu with your questions.

Scholarly Communication Interest Group (SCIG)

Members of this group will work to identify, address, and promote scholarly communications issues that impact libraries and higher education including copyright, licensing, Open Educational Resources, Open Access, digital scholarship, and more. Please contact Cindy Kristof at ckristof@kent.edu with your questions.  Cindy would like to extend her gratitude to previous co-chair Drew Balduff for his dedicated service.

–-Cindy Kristof, Scholarly Communications Interest Group Co-Chair, Kent State University

Collection Management Interest Group (CMIG) News

CMIG will have a virtual meeting (probably 90 minutes – 2 hours) in late spring or summer. The focus will be on introducing the topic of “read & publish journal deals” to those that are not familiar with this fairly new model or those that want to learn more. Generally, the publication costs transition from traditional journal subscriptions (read) to publishing costs (OA authoring of articles). In this session, we would include a discussion of the logistics and effects on institutions that do not publish much content but still need access to read the content. Do these deals work for all institutions? If publishers transition to this model as the only option, what does it mean for “read-only” institutions?

Send any suggestions of comments to Brian Gray and Kevin Messner.

–Brian C. Gray, CMIG Co-Chair, Case Western Reserve University
–Kevin Messner, CMIG Co-Chair, Miami University

Community & Two-Year College Libraries Interest Group (C2YCLIG) News

Join us for an end of the semester sound off!

Friday, April 29th @ 10:00 AM via Webex

Email c2yclig-chairs@alaoweb.org for more information. 

–Megan Mamolen, C2YCLIG Co-Chair, Lakeland Community College
–Ragan Snead, C2YCLIG Co-Chair, Northeast Ohio Regional Library System

Special Collections and Archives Interest Group (SCAig) News

The Special Collections and Archives Interest Group (SCAig) is currently in the process of planning its spring workshop, tentatively scheduled for May 2022. Miriam Intrator of Ohio University and Rachel Makarowski of Miami University have joined the co-chairs on the planning committee, who would like to thank them for their time and assistance!

In November 2021, SCAig issued a survey to its members on workshop format and topic preferences. Based on the results of that survey, the workshop will be virtual, and revolve around the theme of diversity, equity and inclusion, and digital preservation. The planning committee will be reaching out to potential speakers soon!

–-Henry Handley, Special Collections and Archives IG Co-Chair, University of Dayton
–Josh Zeller, Special Collections and Archives IG Co-Chair, Mount St. Joseph University

Sustainability Interest Group (SUSIG) News

The Sustainability Interest Group has held two events so far this year. In January, we partnered with TEDSIG for a discussion event in which we used design thinking to explore how libraries can respond to climate change.

In February, we held a Craft Party in which we promoted recycling by learning how to make woven art pieces with old CDs (see the picture below!).

Looking forward, for our Earth Day event at the end of April we’ll be hearing a presentation from Ginny Boehme, Science Librarian at Miami University, who will talk about some of the sustainability and environment-related projects she has worked on with faculty and students.

–Kim Hoffman, SUSig Co-Chair, Miami University
–Bethany Spieth, SUSig Co-Chair, Ohio Northern University