Interest Groups News

Posted on September 15, 2016 by anitaslack

Assessment IG News

Please save this date for the AIG Spring Workshop:  Friday, April 27. More details will be forthcoming soon.

ALAO Annual will soon be here!  Two offerings you might be interested in:

AIG Sponsored Session: 9:55-10:40am

Measuring the User Experience in Libraries: What it is, why it is important, and how we can do it – presented by Joshua Ethan Sanchez from Michigan State University.

This session is a basic introduction to assessing the user experience within libraries both big and small. We will explore what the user experience in libraries is, why measuring the user experience is important to our work, provide examples of assessment techniques, and demonstrate the impact that UX work can have on our users.

ALAO Informational Roundtable:  10:45-11:30am

Your co-chairs, Eric Resnis and Melissa Engleman, will lead a lively discussion regarding the AIG and its course in the coming year.  We want to hear about your professional development needs regarding assessment, and what types of offerings you would like to see. Please stop by!

Eric Resnis, Miami University, 
Melissa Engleman, Denison University, Assessment Interest Group Co-Chairs

Distance Learning IG

DLIG @ ALAO 2016

The Distance Learning Interest Group (DLIG) will be sponsoring 1 session at the upcoming ALAO Annual Conference, 10/28/16.  If you like fun and are passionate about developing students’ information literacy understanding and skills, then attend our sponsored session:  Which Path Will You Take?: Building a “Choose Your Own” style interactive research tutorial by Jessica Long, Miami University – Middletown.  Participants will learn how gamification engages student learning as well as the technical steps of building a “Choose Your Own Adventure” tutorial for use on your campus.
In addition, DLIG members are invited to join our Round Table Discussion to get acquainted and discuss best practices, current challenges, and on-going projects of distance librarians in Ohio.  For more information contact the new co-chairs:  Beth Tumbleson, tumleb@miamioh.edu or Kristin Cole, kcole@muskingum.edu

Beth Tumbleson, Miami University
Kristin Cole, Muskingum University Distance Learning Interest Group Co-Chairs

Instruction Interest Group News

The Instruction Interest Group (IIG) is pleased to announce that Research Services Librarian Mark Eddy at Case Western Reserve University’s Kelvin Smith Library is IIG’s new co-chair.  IIG is also happy to share that Paul Clayton Campbell has joined the IIG planning committee. Paul is an instructional librarian/instructional designer at Ohio University-Lancaster. The IIG will shortly begin planning for its Spring Workshop. Stay tuned for details at ALAO’s Annual Conference.

Dana Knott, Columbus State Community College,
Mark Eddy, Case Western Reserve University, Instruction Interest Group Co-Chairs

Support Staff IG News

Chasity Gragg and Natalie Winland have been elected co-chairs of the Support Staff Interest Group for the 2016-2017 term. They will be hosting a round table discussion group at the Annual ALAO conference in Wilmington on October 28, 2016. Topics to be covered are support staff concerns, best practices for student workers and save the date for the SSIG workshop on March 15, 2017. SSIG will be sponsoring Joshua Michael’s (Cedarville University) session, “What Can the Library Do for You? Redesigning our New Student Orientation to Match Goals and Patrons.”

Chasity Gragg along with Katy Mathuews, Janet Hulm, and Patrick Koga (Ohio University) will be presenting, “Safeguarding the Collection: Procedures for Pest Prevention and Response.” Ensuring well-maintained print library collections is important for a positive user experience. Library staff developed a pest inspection and response procedure to ensure the integrity of the physical collection. The presentation will share an overview of the procedure and best practices for detecting and responding to pest issues.

The Support Staff Interest Group is excited to be presenting a workshop for Support Staff at the State Library of Ohio on March 15, 2017 from 10:00 am-3:00 pm. The keynote speaker for the workshop is Freedom Rider, Dr. David Fankhauser. He is a professor of Biology & Chemistry at the University of Cincinnati-Clermont College and Civil Rights Activist.

Natalie Winland, University of Cincinnati-Clermont College
Chasity Gragg, Ohio University, SSIG Co-Chairs

Technical, Electronic, and Digital Services IG Summer Workshop Recap

The Technical, Electronic, and Digital Service Interest Group (TEDSIG) held its workshop at the University of Akron’s Bierce (main) Library on August 12, titled “Streamlining Technical Services Workflows with MarcEdit.” Terry Reese, Head of Digital Initiatives at the Ohio State University, lead the workshop on how to use MarcEdit to streamline typical technical services workflows, especially pertaining to cataloging, file loading, and electronic resources. The workshop nearly filled to capacity, and was very well received. Terry Reese, who created the open-source MarcEdit tool, began the day with a general introduction to MarcEdit. He then explained various MARC tools within the program, and concluded the day with instruction on how to edit data with an editor program built into MarcEdit. He provided hands-on exercises and answered questions from participants.

TEDSIG wishes to thank the University of Akron Bierce Library for hosting the event, and Don Appleby, Michael Monaco, and Aimee DeChambeau for their invaluable assistance.

ALAO TEDSIG is accepting Nominations for its “TEDDY” Award

The TEDDY award recognizes Distinguished Service by an ALAO member in the fields of Technical, Electronic, and Digital Services. It recognizes an individual’s significant contributions to the technical, electronic or digital services fields.  Contributions may include service, innovative practices, presentations, publications, and leadership in the profession.  The TEDDY is awarded annually at the ALAO Conference.   The award includes two waivers to a future TEDSIG event and TEDS, the TEDSIG mascot.

Nominees must be current ALAO members, who have worked in or are currently working in an Ohio academic library in the area of technical, electronic, or digital services.

To nominate a colleague, please send an e-mail directly to r.wisneski@csuohio.edu or calabrcm@miamioh.edu

Deadline for nominations is October 21, 2016.

Rich Wisneski, TEDSIG Co-Chair, Cleveland State University
Cara Calabrese, TEDSIG Co-Chair, Miami University of Ohio, TEDSIG Co-Chairs

Posted in Vol. 34 no. 3 (Sept 2016) | Tagged | Leave a comment

Conference and Professional Development Announcements

Posted on September 15, 2016 by anitaslack

Fall Ohio IR Day 2016

The Fall Ohio IR Day 2016 will take place on Oct 5th at the State Library of Ohio from 10:00am-2:00pm.  The schedule will include a featured speaker, lightning round presentations, and birds of a feather discussions.  Please bring your lunch or go to a nearby restaurant.

The focus of our meeting will be tools, tips, and tricks to streamline your workflow.  Our featured speaker will be Bill McMillin, Digital Metadata Librarian from the University of Cincinnati Libraries, who will be presenting Garbage Reconciliation: Data Cleaning and Linking.   This session will demonstrate how OpenRefine can clean messy data.  Once the data has been cleaned, he will discuss reconciliation services and how you can use them to turn strings into things.

We are currently looking for Lightning Round speakers.  Have you been working a cool project that you would like to demo?  Have you figured out a way to speed up your workflow? Are you using a new tool that might be helpful to others?  Please sign up to present!  Presentations should be about 5-7 minutes long.

Registration and lightning round signups are now open.
Elisabeth Shook, Wright State University, Second Year Board Member

New to Libraries Network News

The New-to-Libraries Network, in collaboration with the Northeast Ohio Regional Library System, is offering a free professional development event titled “Building Your Professional Online Presence” on September 24thfrom 3-5pm at the NEO headquarters in Hudson, OH. Registration for the event is here. After the event we’ll have a casual networking social at the Malted Meeple. We hope you can join us!
Mandi Goodsett, Cleveland State University

Northern Ohio Digital Commons+ User Group meeting

Kent State University Library, Kent, Ohio
Friday, November 18, 2016

Save the date! The second meeting of the Northern Ohio Digital Commons+ User Group will be held on Friday, November 18, 2016 at Kent State University.  The meeting is open to all libraries in northern Ohio who use Digital Commons as their Institutional Repository or who are interested in using Digital Commons.

The day’s agenda will include

  •  lightning round presentations
  •  networking opportunities
  •  a presentation of interest to anybody interested in Digital Commons, Ohio        history, and wine!
  •  and more

A schedule of events and registration form will be posted soon. Check here for more information.

We look forward to meeting with you!

Virginia Dressler
Digital Projects Librarian

Stephanie Gaskins
Library Operations Coordinator

Elizabeth A. Richardson
Document Delivery and Institutional Repository Manager
Elizabeth A. Richardson, Kent State University

Posted in Vol. 34 no. 3 (Sept 2016) | Tagged | Leave a comment

People and Library News

Posted on September 15, 2016 by anitaslack

Ashland University News

Please join Ashland University Library in welcoming Anita Slack to the AU Community. Anita is a reference and instruction librarian and will be the library liaison for Dietetics, Nursing, Health Sciences, Communication Studies, English, and Journalism & Digital Media.

Anita comes to us from Ursuline College, where she served as a Reference & Instruction librarian for three years. In addition to her Masters of Library and Information Science, she also possesses a Bachelor and Master of Arts in English with a concentration in literature and writing. Prior to Ursuline, Anita was an Information Services Librarian at Vincennes University.
Janice Marotta, Ashland University

 

Bryant & Stratton College, Cleveland News

Joseph M. Dudley (Bryant & Stratton College, Cleveland) co-presented “Developing Shared eBook Collections” with Paul Mitchell (Bryant & Stratton College, Eastlake) at the BSC system office in Buffalo, NY, to an audience of librarians from across the BSC four-state system on August 30, 2016.  The presentation noted Grigson’s (2011) position that standard library cataloging is not the most efficient way to market library eBooks (“Making e-book collections visible to readers”) and then detailed the work being done by the BSC Ohio librarians to create subject-focused mini collections, drawn from BSC’s existing eBook collection, which can be posted to LibGuides pages and shared across multiple library sites.  The presentation concluded with an invitation to BSC librarians outside of Ohio to share their subject expertise by contributing to the project.
Joseph M. Dudley,  Bryant & Stratton College, Cleveland, ALAO Webmaster

 

Case Western Reserve University News
Beloved Music Librarian Stephen Toombs Passes

On August 17, 2016, Stephen Toombs, director of the Kulas Music Library at Case Western Reserve University, passed away. Toombs, survived by Jean, his wife of 31 years, and a brother, sister and two nieces, is known for his selflessness to the music community at CWRU. “For me, his defining characteristic was quiet generosity,” says David Rothenberg, chair of the Department of Music. “While never calling attention to himself, he worked tirelessly to help our faculty and students make use of the resources in our music library. He was an invaluable resource and will be missed dearly.”

Toombs began at Case Western Reserve University in 1988, serving as the research services librarian for the performing arts (music, dance and theater) and classics, responsible for developing the collections, providing reference services and instruction in library resources, as acting as the library’s liaison to those departments. He was also a professional lutenist and played baroque guitar, with a special interest in chamber music and song of the 17th century.

Kelvin Smith Library Welcomes Mark Clemente

Cleveland native Mark Clemente returned to his hometown after spending at MIT in their scholarly communications role. He has joined CWRU’s Kelvin Smith Library as the new Digital Learning and Scholarship Librarian, providing education and support on scholarly publishing, copyright, open access and research data management.

KSL Celebrates 20 years

Kelvin Smith Library is celebrating 20 years this October! Events slated for the anniversary include:

A Night with Tom Bachtell: KSL will host the famed The New Yorker caricaturist in a talk at 4:00 on Monday, October 10, followed by a light reception.

“Innovating a Career in Games”: Phillip Orbanes [CIT ’70], who is the founder of Winning Moves Games and was senior Vice President for Research and Development at Parker Brothers, will be delivering a speech at Kelvin Smith Library on Friday, October 14, from 2o-3:30 p.m. Orbanes has written books about the board game Monopoly and the history of Parker Brothers. .

Open House: The Homecoming Open House centers around gaming, in honor of guest speaker Phillip Orbanes.In addition to games tailored around KSL resources and services, the event includes refreshments, prize drawings, tours and more.
Rachel Trem, Case Western Reserve University

 

Cleveland Institute of Art News

Laura M. Ponikvar, who was previously the Instructional Services and Image Librarian, is now the Library Director of the Cleveland Institute of Art’s Jessica R. Gund Memorial Library.

 Jackie Lagunzad has also joined the library staff as our new Library Assistant.
Laura M. Ponikvar,Cleveland Institute of Art

 

Defiance College News 

Defiance College has added some Ohio primary source documents to its DC
Memory website.  What would become Schauffler College was founded in
Cleveland in 1886 and moved to Oberlin in 1954.  After Oberlin closed
its theological department, Schauffler’s archives came to Defiance
College.

Defiance digitized two of Schauffler’s publications, The Bible Reader
(1892-1905) and The Schauffler Memorial (1906-1930), as well as a
collection of tracts advertising Schauffler’s graduates’ work with
European immigrants in the Cleveland area and beyond.  These
publications provide primary source material on American attitudes
towards immigrants in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Besides these documents, others related to Schauffler’s history are
also available, such as yearbooks and Commencement programs.  Here is
the link to the Schauffler material that has been digitized:
http://goo.gl/k6ITbD   Once on that page, you can select a
subcollection, such as publications, yearbooks, etc.  For further
information, contact the Library staff:
http://library.defiance.edu/c.php?g=334196&p=2244562
Barb Sedlock, Defiance College

 

Denison University News

Denison University is pleased to announce a quartet of new librarians:

Amy Elliott joined us as Humanities Liaison Librarian last September. She has her M.A. from the University of Connecticut and her M.S. from the University of Tennessee. Her past gigs include OCLC (the worldwide library cooperative), Georgia State, Boise State, Pellissippi State, the University of Tennessee, and the University of Connecticut.

Melissa Engleman has been our Assistant Director for Education & Research since January 2016. Melissa’s M.S.L.S. is from the University of Kentucky, and her M.A. was earned at Murray State. Melissa brings library and teaching experience from Murray State, the University of Minnesota, the University of Wisconsin, and Credo Reference.

Yiming Guo is our new Sciences Liaison Librarian. With his Ph.D. from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and his M.L.I.S. from McGill, Yiming brings a breadth and depth of experience. He joined us on August 18 and is originally from China, but has lived and worked in North America for 12 years, including Saskatchewan, Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, Missouri, and Iowa.

Stephanie Kays, our Fine Arts Librarian, received her M.A.S. and M.L.I.S. degrees from the University of British Columbia. Stephanie has been working in libraries since 2001, and at Denison since late June. She has plied her trade at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, the Tate Gallery in London, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, the University of Oregon, and Wright State University.
BethAnn Zambella, Denison University

 

John Carroll University News

Cindy Lenox, Business Librarian at Grasselli Library & Breen Learning Center received the 2016 Distinguished Member Award from the Business and Finance Division of the Special Libraries Association.
Cindy Lenox, John Carroll University

 

Marietta College News 

Jeffrey Cottrell is the new Serials Assistant at Marietta College.  He comes to Marietta College’s Legacy Library from the library at West Virginia University at Parkersburg.
Douglas Anderson, Marietta College

 

OHIONET News

David Green Honored with OPAL Service Award

(from http://www.ohionet.org/blog/2016/09/david-green-honored-opal-service-award)

The 2016 OPAL Conference recently held at the Roberta A. Smith Library on the Muskingum University campus culminated in a recognition of OhioNET staffer David Green with the OPAL Service Award.

The OPAL Service Award recognizes efforts “above and beyond” normal commitments made to the consortium.  This year, David worked with the newly-created OPAL Community of Interest for Website Revision to produce a brand-new website for the OPAL consortium.

David joins a long and illustrious list of past award winners (http://opal-libraries.org/calendar/past-conferences).
Christine Morris, OhioNET

 

Ohio Northern University News

Bethany Spieth has joined Heterick Memorial Library at Ohio Northern University as the Instruction and Access Services Librarian. She is originally from Beavercreek, Ohio, and holds a BA in German and Creative Writing from Ohio University, as well as an MLIS from the University of Illinois. She is so excited to be back in Ohio and part of the amazing Ohio library community.
Jennifer Donley, Ohio Northern University

 

Ohio University News

Paul Campbell has been hired on as the Subject Librarian for the Social Sciences at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio.  In this position he will be the subject liaison for political science, psychology, and public administration.  He began this new position on June 20, 2016

His previous position was with Ohio University Lancaster as the Instructional Librarian/Instructional Designer.  And prior to that, he was the Reference & Instruction Librarian at Franklin Pierce University in New Hampshire.
Paul Campbell, Ohio University

 

Southern State Community College

Southern State Community College Librarian, Angel Mootispaw, has accepted the responsibility of Distance Education Coordinator the institution. Her title will remain Librarian but her job will now be a balance between distance education and library functions. Her role in the library will focus primarily on the oversight of Collection Development, Acquisitions, and Cataloging.
Angel Mootispaw, Southern State Community College, ALAO Secretary

 

The Ohio State University, Lima Campus News

Reference librarian, Calvin Cleary, and library director Tina Schneider co-authored a book chapter that came out just recently in the ACRL publication The Small and Rural Academic Library:  Leveraging Resources and Overcoming Limitations. 

Schneider, T. and Cleary, C. (2016).  Strengthening the small library: creating opportunities for archives development. In K. D. Kendrick and D. Tritt (Eds.), The small and rural academic library: leveraging resources and overcoming limitations(pp. 23-38). Chicago: ACRL.
Tina Schneider, The Ohio State University, Lima Campus

Posted in Vol. 34 no. 3 (Sept 2016) | Tagged | Leave a comment

Vice President/President Elect Report

Posted on June 10, 2016 by anitaslack

Roundtable proposals for the 2016 ALAO conference. The conference will be held

O15513 Kristy McDonald

Krista McDonald

on Friday, October 28th at the Roberts Centre in Wilmington, OH. The theme this year is “User Experience: Exceeding Expectations By Design”. More information and submission guidelines are available on the conference website:

http://www.alaoweb.org/conferences/conference2016 

The deadline for submitting poster and/or roundtable proposals is June 24th.

To submit a proposal, use the online submission form available here: http://bit.ly/25eq3UL

If you have questions, please contact Carrie Girton program@alaoweb.org.

________________________________________________________________

The conference planning committee was excited to receive a slate of excellent presentation proposals this year covering a wide variety of topics. Acceptance letters will be sent shortly as the committee is completing the final steps in the selection process for the conference program. Thanks to everyone who submitted a proposal for helping us offer an excellent conference this year and also for your patience as we finalize the program.

Please visit the conference website at: http://www.alaoweb.org/conferences/conference2016 for additional information.

Posted in Vol. 34 no. 2 (June 2016) | Leave a comment

Past President Report

Posted on June 10, 2016 by anitaslack

One of the most important responsibilities for the Past President and the Nominating

Eboni

Eboni Johnson, Past President

Committee is to put together a slate of candidates for the spring election.  I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t at all worried about this task during my 3-year term on the board. But the old folks used to say, “If you ready, you ain’t gotta get ready.” So I used this wise advice to start identifying possible candidates last summer — about eight or nine months before our recent spring election. We had group of really terrific candidates; I wish everyone could have been elected!  I’m so happy to welcome the following people to next year’s Executive Board:

  • Vice-President/President-Elect
    Katy Kelly
  • Secretary
    Angel Mootispaw
  • Board Member-at-Large (3 positions)
    Meghan Frazer
    Shelly Miller
    Gerald Natal
  • Membership Chair
    Katy Mathuews

I hope that everyone who wasn’t elected this time will consider standing for election next year.  And if you haven’t considered running for an office, think about it! ALAO is a wonderful organization to participate in, whether you are new to the profession or have a few years’ experience.  There are opportunities to be involved in interest groups or committees, to serve on the board, or even to volunteer to help with a specific task or project. Go to the ALAO website and click on the “Get Involved” link — fill out the volunteer form to indicate where you would like to serve.  Trust me, we will find a place for you!

Posted in Vol. 34 no. 2 (June 2016) | Tagged | Leave a comment

Member Survey Guides ALAO Planning

Posted on June 10, 2016 by anitaslack

At the April 8, 2016 meeting, the Membership Chair reported 351 regular members, 4 retiree members, and 20 student members. Results of the recent Membership Survey were also shared. With a response rate of approximately 44%, survey respondents were fairly representative of the overall membership. The chart below describes the place of employment of the survey respondents as compared to the overall membership.

  Survey Respondents Percent Membership Percent
Public, Four Year

78

43%

158

38%
Private, Four Year

74

41%

142

34%
Public, Two Year

17

9%

49

12%
Private, Two Year

2

1%

6

1%
Special

1

1%

15

4%
Other

9

5%

46

11%
Total

181

  

416

  

Several themes emerged from the responses. The annual conference was cited frequently as one of the valuable membership benefits and was the most preferred format for professional development. This is perhaps due to the networking opportunities provided by the organization. In fact, the opportunity to network with colleagues was the most valued benefit of ALAO membership. However, there were several suggestions to offer a variety of topics and formats for engagement with ALAO. The ALAO Executive Board has used this feedback to explore online workshop options with varying topics. More timely and editorial communication in the form of the website, newsletter, and social media were also suggested. The survey results will also be used to inform future planning for annual conference location, interest group workshop planning, and membership communication.

Katy Mathuews, Membership Chair, Ohio University

 

Posted in Vol. 34 no. 2 (June 2016) | Tagged | Leave a comment

National Library Legislative Day, May 2-3 2016

Posted on June 10, 2016 by anitaslack

As Government Relations Liaison, I attended National Library Legislative Day (NLLD) in Washington D.C. Once again, I would like to extend my appreciation to ALAO in supporting my travel for this important advocacy event.

On May 2, I attended a series of day long briefings prepared by the American Library Association’s Washington Office. The sessions were held in the ballroom of the Liaison Hotel located on New Jersey Avenue about three blocks from the U.S. Capitol Building. I was part of the Ohio delegation made up of 13 people that included academics, public librarians, businessmen, trustees, and educational lobbyists. Public and school librarians were the overwhelming majority of attendees, with academic librarians being a clear minority with about 20 participating. This year, Missy Lodge from the State Library of Ohio headed the Ohio delegation and did a fine job in coordinating the statewide activities during the two days of the conference.

The briefings including presentations by Ann Ewbank, chair, ALA Committee on Legislation; Keith Michael Fields, executive director, ALA; Julius Jefferson, president, District of Columbia Library Association (DCLA); and former Congressman Rush Holt (D-NJ-12). The focus was mostly on broad issues like copyright, broadband access, telecommunications regulation, school libraries, e-books, LC classification changes, and free access to government research (FASTR). As in prior years, much of the legislative focus revolved around continued direct federal funding for libraries through the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA), and the Innovative Approaches to Literacy Program (IAL). At this years conference, particular emphasis was given for the confirmation of Dr. Carla Hayden as the next Librarian of Congress. Summaries of the issues covered at NLLD can be found at the ALA Washington Office website at: http://www.ala.org/advocacy/advleg/nlld . Later in the day, a reception for attendees was held in the Hart Senate Office Building.

May 3 was legislative day proper and was spent entirely on Capitol Hill. During the morning, myself and the rest of the delegation met with staffers for both Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Rob Portman (R-OH). In the afternoon, I met with staffers for Representatives Bill Johnson (R-OH-6), Jim Jordan (R-OH-4), and Marcia Fudge (D-OH-11). The issues covered in the meetings included LSTA, IAL, e-rate, net neutrality, FASTR, privacy law reform, the Marrakesh Treaty, and the confirmation of Carla Hayden. Beside my efforts, other Ohio advocates got out and reached most of the state’s congressional delegation. As always, a big thanks needs to go out to the staff of the ALA Washington Office in organizing NLLD and in their full-time lobbying mission on behalf of libraries.

Joseph Straw, Government Relations Liaison, Marietta College

Posted in Vol. 34 no. 2 (June 2016) | Leave a comment

2016/17 ALAO Diversity Scholarship Award

Posted on June 10, 2016 by anitaslack

The ALAO Diversity Committee is pleased to award the 2016/17 Diversity

rogers_pic

Dierric Rogers

Scholarships to Dierric Rogers. We were very impressed by her demonstrated and potential for contributions to the profession. The Diversity Scholarship includes $1,500.00 for tuition, free registration to the ALAO Annual Conference, and a year of mentoring by an ALAO member.

Dierric will be attending Kent State University this year in their Library and Information Science program, and received her bachelor’s degree from University of Cincinnati. She is currently employed part-time by the Bexley Public Library, as a library associate, as well as secretary for the Columbus City School.

Her supervisor at the Bexley Library reports that Dierric is confident, jumping right in to help when staffing was low, professional in her approach to her work responsibilities, and supportive with new staff, helping coach them as they start in the library.

Dierric has demonstrated her potential for leadership in the profession, with her supervisor mentioning her great contributions to the team she works with. Her potential contributions to the field for diversity is evidenced by her exceptional ability to connect with library patrons from diverse backgrounds and interests, partnering with them to achieve their goals. She reports that she is looking forward to her new career and the opportunities for leadership and contributing to the profession.

Past awardees include Kristen Zajac (2016, Euclid Public Library) and Stephanie Everett Dawson (2015, Akron)

Eileen Theodore-Shusta, Diversity Committee Chair, Ohio University

Posted in Vol. 34 no. 2 (June 2016) | Tagged | Leave a comment

Continuing Education Grant Recipient Report

Posted on June 10, 2016 by anitaslack

Thanks again for awarding me a continuing education grant to help fund my attending last month’s Electronic Resources & Libraries (ER & L) Conference in Austin, TX.

The conference took place April 3-6, 2016, and consisted of a number of sessions on a variety of topics, including: managing e-resources and licensing; user experience with e-resources; emerging technologies and trends; and collection development and assessment. Some of the sessions that were of particular interest for me concerned making data-informed decisions in digital resources, implementing data-driven approaches to electronic resource management, and exploring data visualization tools to more effectively present statistical information to constituents. These, and other sessions complemented many of the responsibilities I currently have in regards to collection development and electronic resource management, and initiatives underway to highlight data-driven decision making in light of increasingly tight materials budgets.

In my own presentation, “When Numbers Don’t Lie: Telling Not-So-Good Assessment Stories to Faculty and Administrators,” I discussed methodologies in presenting and discussing budgetary and statistical matters pertaining to electronic resources with faculty and administrators, including matters that highlight fiscal challenges. The presentation was well-received, and provided me with a lot of useful feedback to explore the topic further.

Richard Wisneski, TEDSIG Co-Chair, Cleveland State University

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Conference and Professional Development Opportunity Announcements

Posted on June 10, 2016 by anitaslack

Are you a new information professional or library school student in Northeast or Southwest Ohio? Consider joining one of the regional New-to-Libraries Network groups to gain professional development experience and network with colleagues throughout Ohio. For more information and alerts about upcoming events, see our website:  or our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/New-to-Libraries-Network-Northeast-Ohio-1712458555701325/?fref=ts

Mandy Goodsett, Cleveland State University

IFLA Professional Development Satellite Meeting in Cleveland. Aug 10-12

Transforming Libraries: What does this mean for continuing professional development and workplace learning?” The program is now online for the “Transforming Libraries: What does this mean for continuing professional development and workplace learning?” conference.  This IFLA Satellite meeting will be held in Cleveland, OH, on August 10-12, just prior to the IFLA 2016 WLIC in Columbus, Ohio.  The meeting will provide a great opportunity to explore how librarians can support the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals and the Lyon Declaration, strategies for planning for new library sectors and programs, what continuing professional development should look like in a modern workplace, and librarians as leaders in their organizations.

The preliminary program, registration information and contact details, available on the satellite conference website

Katie Blocksidge, The Ohio State University at Newark/Central Ohio Technical College

Posted in Vol. 34 no. 2 (June 2016) | Tagged | Leave a comment