Preparations are already beginning for the 2019 Annual Conference! We will return to
Katy Mathuews, Vice President/President Elect
Nationwide Hotel and Conference Center on October 17 and 18, 2019. If you are interested in serving on the Conference Planning Committee, please contact Katy Mathuews at mathuews@ohio.edu or vicepresident@alaoweb.org.
Join us for the CMIG round table at the ALAO annual conference. We will discuss both the changing landscape of collection management and future professional development needs that CMIG might fill. As new co-chairs, we are looking forward to meeting current and potential members and learning more about how CMIG can best serve you.
We have also started a CMIG listserv to facilitate communication on collection management issues in Ohio. All are welcome to join: https://www.alaoweb.org/page-776215
–Sean Kennedy, co-chair, Collection Management Interest Group, University of Akron
–Fred Jenkins, co-chair, Collection Management Interest Group, University of Dayton
Click this link http://tinyurl.com/SaraK-CGuest to join. Join us for either one or both sessions. No registration required; no recording will be made. Chrome is the optimal browser.
Questions? Contact: Sara Klink sklink@starkstate.edu or Julie McDaniel Julie.mcdaniel@Sinclair.edu
–Sara Klink, Community & Two Year College Libraries IG Co-Chair, Stark State College
–Julie McDaniel, Community & Two Year College Libraries IG Co-Chair, Sinclair Community College
The Instruction Interest Group (IIG) is pleased to announce that Lindsay Miller (Miami University) is the IIG’s new co-chair! The IIG will shortly begin planning our annual Spring Workshop, and we’ll be looking for new members of our workshop planning committee, so stay tuned for a call for participants. The Instruction IG will also be hosting a roundtable at the ALAO Annual Conference, so we encourage IIG members and non-members alike to attend. At our roundtable discussion we’ll be giving a recap of our previous spring workshop, soliciting ideas for our next spring workshop, and exploring the topic of reflective instruction. We hope you can join us!
-Mandi Goodsett, Instruction IG Co-Chair, Cleveland State University
–Lindsay Miller, Instruction IG Co-Chair, Miami University
The Special Collections and Archives Interest Group (SCAig) is pleased to welcome Suzanne Reller, Reference/Collections Librarian at the University of Cincinnati’s Archives and Rare Books Library, as incoming co-chair for the 2018-2020 term. Suzanne will serve as SCAig co-chair with Nick Pavlik, Curator of Manuscripts at Bowling Green State University’s Center for Archival Collections, whose term will conclude at the end of the 2018-2019 academic year.
SCAig will be hosting a roundtable discussion at the ALAO annual conference during the IG Roundtable hour, which will focus on the actions archivists and special collections librarians can take to cultivate success and convey value within and beyond their institutions. All conference attendees are welcome to join us! We also would love to hear your ideas for future SCAig workshops and meetings.
For more information on SCAig, contact the co-chairs at scaig-chairs@alaoweb.org.
–Nick Pavlik, SCAig Co-Chair, Bowling Green State University
–Suzanne Reller, SCAig Co-Chair, University of Cincinnati
The Scholarly Communications Interest Group continues to identify ways to keep members engaged with and informed on current scholarly communications issues. Initiatives we have been pursuing include:
If you are interested in learning more about any of these initiatives or the SCIG, please contact the co-chairs, Mark Clemente (mxc813@case.edu) or Carla Myers (myersc2@miamioh.edu) for more information.
–Carla Myers, SCAIG Co-Chair, Miami University
–-Mark Clemente, SCAIG Co-Chair, Case Western Reserve University
This is an exciting time for the STEM Interest group of ALAO. After years of discussing the need for an interest group that focusses on the unique aspects of librarianship in the areas of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics we are happy to announce that we have gone live and will be participating in this year’s ALAO conference by sponsoring a roundtable! Come by and see us as we discuss future plans for our new group.
Also in the works is our Spring Workshop – STEM Solidarity: Sharing Solutions that Work, May 24th at the State Library of Ohio. We will be looking for groups or individuals who want to present on topics that impact STEM librarians, with an emphasis on problems you’ve solved and how your experiences might help librarians in other institutions. Stay tuned for an official Call for Proposals, and in the meantime if you have any questions contact us at stemig-chairs@alaoweb.org.
–Matthew Benzing, STEM IG Co-Chair, Miami University
–Ian, STEM IG Co-Chair, The University of Akron
Consultants get paid a great deal of money to tell organizations (including libraries) what their customers want and need, but sometimes it’s cheaper and more effective to ask them yourself.
Here at the Business, Engineering, Science, and Technology Library (BEST) at Miami University we did a recent study on how our students were utilizing our facilities.
We planned to create a survey and then do some interviews with students. Students who filled out the survey would get entered in a drawing to win one of two $40 3D Printing Gift Certificates. Since we had the equipment and materials at hand this saved costs for us. We promoted the survey and the giveaway through posters, table cards, digital signage and the library website.
The survey gave us a lot of good basic information about students’ study habits and use of the libraries (everybody loves whiteboards!), but we wanted some in-depth information also. In the survey we asked students if they would volunteer to be interviewed in exchange for a chance to win…you guessed it, another $40 3D printing gift certificate.
We wanted to video record the interviews for future reference. Each of the interviewers were free to come up with their own recording methods. I recorded one student using my Ipad on a stand, and the other I used in or library’s video recording studio. I learned a lesson that day: test your equipment thoroughly! The iPad video was fine, but the studio video cut out about 3/4ths of the way through. Better yet, don’t be like me and think that you can master any technology without help (Me need help? I’m a librarian! Lord of all of information! Of course I can figure it out.) Ask someone who has experience.
To be able to compile our interviews into a useful format we knew that we would have to create transcripts. There are expensive services that will do this for you, but if you have unlimited funds you must not work in a library (and if so why are you reading this?). We did the work ourselves. It was tedious, but one nice by-product is that we were forced to pay careful attention to the students’ words.
In the end we learned even more about our students and their needs (food is always a concern, as is space to spread out, and access to electricity), and gained some valuable experience along the way.
–Matthew M. Benzing, STEM IG Co-Chair, Miami University
The current membership of ALAO includes a total of 368 members consisting of 326 regular members, 3 retiree members, and 39 student members. We are excited to welcome our newest members!
New Members since June 1, 2018:
–Maureen Barry, Membership Chair, Wright State University
ACRL 2019 is on the horizon! Registration is now open for this exciting conference, with Early-Bird Registration closing on February 8, 2019, and Advance Registration closing on February 22, 2019. The conference itself will run April 10-13. ALAO members are able to register for the ACRL 2019 conference at the ACRL member rate, even if you are not an ACRL member. Simply use your ALAO member number when registering to get the rate; your ALAO member number can be found in your profile on the ALAO website.
ALAO will host an event for ALAO members on Thursday, April 11 at Zocalo from 5-7 p.m. Please keep an eye out for additional information as we get closer to ACRL 2019. We look forward to see everyone there!
Updates from ACRL Chapters Council
-Katie Blocksidge, ACRL Liaison, The Ohio State University at Newark/Central Ohio Technical College
Registration Now Open for 2018 Digital Scholarship Colloquium – The Digital and Democracy
On November 1-2, 2018, Kelvin Smith Library will be hosting “The Digital and Democracy” Digital Scholarship Colloquium bringing together the vanguard of professionals using digital tools to advance democracy. The colloquium will delve into how research can be used for the advocacy of communities experiencing disruption and inequality and in all the points that touch a person’s life, including, healthcare, housing, environment, social justice. The program will feature the country’s top scholarly work and digital tools used to scale the heights of democratic power and influence.
More Information: http://library.case.edu/dsc2018/
Student, academic, and nonprofit rates available! Purchase your tickets today: https://community.case.edu/KSL/rsvp_boot?id=388357
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Kelvin Smith Library is pleased to announce a new library staff member:
Jose Diaz joined us as Associate Director of Academic Engagement Services.
Previous Position: Head of Humanities and Social Sciences Cohort, The Ohio State University Libraries
–Corina Chang, Case Western Reserve University
Centennial Library at Cedarville University would like to announce several changes in positions that occurred this summer. Joshua Michael has been appointed Dean of Library Services, following Lynn Brock who had served in that role for 43 years. Lynn is continuing to work in the library in a step-down position as archivist.
Josh had previously served as the library’s Director of Public Services. The library welcomed Kari Siders to that role in July 2018. Kari formerly served as the Director of Library Services at Southern State Community College.
In addition, Jessica Elder, Brian Humphreys, and Lauren Cannon joined the library’s staff this summer. Jessica started in June as a Digital Services Specialist in the library’s Digital Commons. Brian began as the library’s Staff Cataloger in July. And finally, Lauren started in August as our Collection Services Technical Assistant.
One final position change: Joe Fox, Instructional Services Librarian, left the library to become the Head of Reference and Instruction at Charleston Southern University and to serve as CSU’s Digital Learning and Web Services Librarian
–Joshua Michael, Cedarville University
The National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NNLM) has awarded a Professional Development Grant to the Greater Midwest Region (GMR) for the upcoming Midwest Chapter of the Medical Library Association Annual Conference 2018. The award will make it possible to bring Jim Beattie and Dr. David Frenz to Cleveland and offer the CE Program, Think Like a Doctor: Biostatstics and Informatics for Medical and Health Professionals. Ohio Health Sciences Library Association (OHSLA) members and the Midwest Chapter of MLA invite attendees to “shake up some old ideas, rattle some new cages, and roll with the good times.” For more information about the conference and continuing education opportunities head to the conference website.
–Heidi Beke-Harrigan
From the collections at Marian Library, University of Dayton Marian blog discusses the Guadalcanal Rosary. Read more here
-Brother Andrew Kosmowski, SM, University of Dayton
WSU Libraries received 1.1 million dollars in State Capital Funding monies for carpet replacement and modernization of furniture and study areas. Improvements should be complete by May of 2019.
–Sue Polanka, Wright State University
On April 27, the ALAO board met at OhioNET. At this meeting, board members discussed
Katy Kelly, President
the following items:
The next ALAO board meeting will take place at the board retreat on July 20, 2018, at OhioNET. At the board retreat, we transition from the 2017-18 board to the 2018-19 board.
-Katy Kelly, President, University of Dayton
ALAO election results are in! We welcome the following newly elected members to the Board:
Vice President/President-Elect
Katy Mathuews
Secretary
Angel Mootispaw
Membership Chair
Maureen Barry
Board Member-at-Large
Melissa Bauer
Heidi Beke-Harrigan
Ann Marie Smeraldi
I want to take a moment to thank each of these ALAO members for their willingness to serve on the Executive Board, as our organization is strengthened by having new people step into leadership roles.
I also extend my thanks to the other members of the Nominating Committee:
Katy Mathuews
Brianna Miller
Evan Meszaros
And many thanks go to Derek Zoladz and Ryan Scott from the ALAO Web Team for their excellent work managing the logistics of the election as well.
For members who missed running for elected office this year, but would still like to serve and engage with ALAO, there are many opportunities to get involved. Please take a look at some of these options:
ALAO volunteer form: https://goo.gl/forms/BhIOMVXMxoEd4Hvr1
Interest Groups: https://www.alaoweb.org/igs/index.html
Committees: https://www.alaoweb.org/committees/index.html
-Krista McDonald, Past President, Miami University Hamilton
Three updates from the Conference Planning Committee:
-Eric Resnis, Vice President/President Elect, Miami University
The ALAO Research and Publications Committee is pleased to announce that Mandy 
Shannon of Wright State University Libraries is the winner of the 2018 Research grant. This funding will support her proposed research project regarding how individual research assistance from a librarian affects overall student success.
Congratulations, Mandy!
-Heidi Gauder, Co-Chair, Research and Publications Committee, University of Dayton
-Eboni Johnson, Co-Chair, Research and Publications Committee, Oberlin College
ALAO Newsletter 