Bryant & Stratton College News

Joseph Dudley (Bryant & Stratton College) is contributing to ongoing collaborative term development discussions for the Homosaurus, an international controlled vocabulary project expressed as Linked Data and intended to enhance discovery of LGBTQ+ resources by serving as a companion to LCSH.

–Joseph Dudley, Bryant & Stratton College

Case Western Reserve University News

Daniela Solomon from Case Western Reserve University is part of the editorial team behind the newly released publication, Teaching and Collecting Technical Standards: A Handbook for Librarians and Educators. The book is geared towards educators and librarians in fields reliant on standards information literacy and it is published by Purdue University Press. Open access download and purchasing options are available here.  

–Marel Corredor-Hyland, Case Western Reserve University

Denison University News

Beronica Avila has been hired as the new Outreach and Engagement Librarian at Denison University. In this new position, Beronica will help bring fresh diverse and inclusive insight and initiatives to our current reference and outreach efforts.

Beronica received a Bachelor of Arts in Counseling Psychology from North Park University in Chicago, IL, and an MLIS and Certificate in Digital Curation from Dominican University, River Forest, IL.

She began her duties at Denison on August 1, 2023.

–Peggy Rector, Support Staff Interest Group Chair, Denison University

Oberlin College News

Alison Ricker, Science Librarian and Head of the Science Library, has retired after 40 years at Oberlin College. Alison served in multiple roles on the ALAO Board, including President and Newsletter Editor simultaneously for a short time, and received the Jay Ladd Distinguished Service Award in 2001.  The search for a STEM Librarian at Oberlin is underway.

–Alison Ricker, Oberlin College

The Ohio State University News

Ohio State Libraries wins Innovation in Instruction Award

The Ohio State University Libraries was awarded the 2023 Innovation in Instruction Award from the Library Instruction Round Table (LIRT) of the American Library Association. Created to recognize a library that demonstrates innovation in support of information literacy and instruction, this year’s award recognizes The Ohio State University Libraries’ “Meaningful Inquiry Workshop,” which provides teaching-focused professional development for instructors, including faculty, graduate teaching associates, instructional designers, and librarians/library staff.

A collaboration between University Libraries (Amanda Folk, Jane Hammons, and Hanna Primeau), OSU-Newark (Katie Blocksidge), and Writing Across the Curriculum (Christopher Manion), the MI workshop combines scholarship in the fields of education, sociology, psychology, and library and information science with pedagogical best practices to support instructors in creating equitable and inclusive learning environments for students. The goal of the workshop is to have conversations related to information literacy with course instructors while foregrounding persistent equity gaps in higher education, highlighting the need to make information literacy expectations transparent to students and moving it out of the hidden curriculum.

One of the key criteria for winning the Innovation in Instruction Award is the ability of the program to be adapted by other libraries and educators, and the Meaningful Inquiry Workshop and its facilitation team are an exemplar of that criteria. Over the past four years, we’ve work with almost 100 instructors across more than 20 departments and 3 campuses at Ohio State, as well as presenting elements of the workshop to educational developers at the POD Network Conference, fellow librarians at the LILAC Conference and the European Conference on Information Literacy, and writing studies professionals at the IWAC Conference. 

–Jane Hammons, ACRL Liaison, The Ohio State University

University of Dayton Libraries News

Dean Kathy Webb will retire at the end of December, concluding a distinguished 30-year career as an academic leader and faculty member at the University of Dayton. Read the full announcement.

New Employees

• Laura Barlow, University Archives Collections Processing Assistant.
• Liz Grauel, Digital Pedagogy Librarian and Assistant Professor.
• Mandy Shannon, Director of Teaching, Research and Engagement and Associate Professor.

New Roles

• Bridget Retzloff, Visual Resources Librarian and Assistant Professor in the Marian Library. She previously held the Digital Pedagogy Librarian position.
• Chris Tangeman, Special Collections Cataloger, effective September 18. Tangeman is currently an Interlibrary Loan Specialist.

Promotions

• Amanda Black, Director of Access Services and Building Operations.
• Kayla Harris, Director of the Marian Library and Associate Professor.
• Katy Kelly, Assistant Dean for Strategic Communication and Outreach and Professor.

–Katy Kelly, University of Dayton

University of Toledo News

The University of Toledo Libraries South Gallery

The University of Toledo Libraries South Gallery is a 375 square foot gallery space located on the first floor of the William S. Carlson Library on the main campus. The South Gallery opened in 2022 with its first year of programming dedicated to the university’s sesquicentennial celebration. Beginning in August 2023, the gallery will be used to fulfill a mission to showcase works from students, staff, faculty, and the greater Toledo community.

A regular schedule of six exhibitions is planned through April 2024. The first of these is a Local Artist Exhibit, followed by the inaugural UToledo Employee Art Exhibition, Art Student Showcase, a retrospective of the photography of Art Weber—Director of Photography at the Toledo Metroparks, an Undergraduate Film Festival, and a photography exhibit concentrating on the phenomenon of eclipses.

Accompanying the exhibits will be The University Libraries Carlson Conversations Lecture Series; this year, four lectures will cover a wide range of topics from history to astronomy to the paranormal. Such programming has proven successful at sustaining the library’s position as a cultural, as well as an academic, center on campus. More information on the gallery shows and lecture series can be found here.

–Gerald Natal, Past President, The University of Toledo