ALAO Newsletter

Joseph Straw, Marietta College

As government Relations Liaison, I represented ALAO at National Library Legislative Day (NLLD) in Washington D.C. We we were fortunate this year to have Missy Creed the winner of the ALAO Legislative Day Travel Award attend the conference with the Ohio delegation. I would like to extend a thank you to ALAO for supporting our travel to this important event.

On May 5, myself and Missy attended a useful set of briefings organized by the American Library Association’s (ALA) Washington Office. We attended the briefings as part of the Ohio delegation which was made of nine people made up of academics, public librarians, and lobbyists from library affiliated groups. William Morris of the State Library of Ohio headed the state delegation and did an excellent job in distributing informational packets and arranging meetings with congressional staffers. The attendance of academic librarians was up from last year with close to 20 in attendance. Still, the overwhelming majority of the over 300 attendees came from public and school libraries.

The briefings included presentations by Barbara Stripling, president, ALA; Keith Michael Fields, executive director, ALA; Amanda Wilson, president, District of Columbia Library Association (DCLA); and Senator Angus King (I-ME). Many of the presentations focused on broad issues like access, e-books, telecommunications, net neutrality, and funding for library based literacy initiatives. Some of the specific legislative focus highlighted continued funding for the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA), open access to federally funded research as provided in the Fair Access to Science and Technology Research Act (FASTR), and the USA Freedom Act that amends some of the privacy and phone data collection practices of the Patriot Act. Summaries and talking points for all the issues covered at NLLD can be found at the ALA Washington Office website at: http://www.ala.org/advocacy/advleg/nlld .

After the briefing sessions, a reception was held by ALA in the Hart Senate Office Building for Senator Pat Leahy (D-VT) and Representative James Sensenbrenner (R-WI-5)honoring them for leadership, support, and legislative advocacy. Senator Leahy was present for the honor, while a staffer accepted the award for Representative Sensenbrenner. During the award presentation, particular emphasis was paid for their recent bi-partisan support for the USA Freedom Act.

May 6 was legislative day proper and was occupied by activities on Capitol Hill. The day began with the Ohio delegation meeting for a strategizing breakfast in the cafeteria of the Longworth House Office Building. During the day, I met with staffers for Representatives Brad Wenstrup (R-OH-2), Marcy Kaptur (D-OH-9), Tim Ryan (D-OH-13), and Bill Johnson (R-OH-6). The issues that were discussed included LSTA, FASTR, the USA Freedom Act, Net Neutrality, E-Rate, and funding for the Federal Depository Library Program. Later in the afternoon, myself and most of the delegation met with a senior staffer for Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH)and talked on many of the same issues. Other advocates from the state went individually and together and hit a large portion of Ohio’s congressional delegation.

Certainly it felt good to join together with other librarians and advocates to make our voices heard through the forum of the NLLD event. I will continue to monitor these issues as they progress through the legislative process. Without question a major thanks needs to be extended to the ALA Washington Office for their great work on putting together the conference and in representing the interests of the library profession on a full-time basis.

Missy Creed, The Ohio State University

The 2014 National Library Legislative Day (NLLD) hosted by the American Library Association was held in Washington, D.C. on May 5th and 6th with a pre-conference on Sunday, May 4th. The days were jammed packed with information and enthusiastic public, special and academic librarians as well as library trustees, other library personnel and supporters from all over the country. All participants came in strong support of all types of libraries.
On Sunday, I attended the pre-conference at the Washington offices of ALA. Their conference room was packed and extra chairs needed to be brought in. Stephanie Vance gave a great four point talk on how we need to present our issues to legislators. The four points were know what you want (be specific), know who you are talking to (what gets them up in the morning and keeps them up at night), know how to talk with them ((SPIT – Specific, Personal, Informative and Trustworthy/Timely) and follow up (invite them to your library or follow them on social media). On Monday, the day was full of briefings, covering topics including E-rate & WIA to Privacy & Surveillance, Net Neutrality & Open Access, School Libraries & Early Learning, and Copyright. All sessions prepared us for our Congressional visits by giving us the necessary information. On Tuesday the Ohio delegation met with our senators and representatives to ask for a continuation of funding for the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) at the $180.9 million level. We also spoke about access to digital content. Bill Morris, Governmental Affairs Coordinator, from the State Library of Ohio provided the delegation with packets of information on LSTA Funds in Ohio, Access to Digital Content, Ohio Public Libraries Work, OhioLINK, and INFOhio. The packets were dropped off at offices of the representatives we could not meet with and supplemented our in-person visits. We were well received at all the offices.
Overall, the three days in Washington were very informative and exciting! I would definitely go to National Library Legislative Day again. As ALAO’s 2014 National Library Legislative Day Award recipient I encourage all ALAO members to visit http://www.ala.org/advocacy/advleg/nlld to learn more about NLLD and to sign up for the District Dispatch, The Official ALA Washington Office Blog. Also I would encourage everyone to consider applying for this awesome opportunity in 2015.

Mandy Shannon, Wright State University

The Assessment Interest Group hosted its first spring workshop on April 24 at the OCLC Conference Center in Dublin. Statewide interest in assessment is clearly strong: with 45 attendees, the workshop was sold out. The day-long workshop included plenary speaker Lynn Silipigni Connaway, roundtables on assessment plans at four different universities, breakout sessions on outcomes-based assessment and structured project management, and an opportunity to discuss the challenges of assessment. A wide variety of interests and schools were represented at the workshop. The day was a great start to our interest group’s foray into spring workshops and we look forward to featuring different areas of assessment at future workshops.

Sarah Murphy, Coordinator of Assessment at OSU Libraries will be Chair of the AIG during the 2014-2015 academic year. Mandy Shannon, Social Sciences Librarian at Wright State University will be Vice-Chair. Other Planning Committee members include:
Laura Ponikvar, Image and Instructional Services Librarian, Cleveland Institute of Art
Christine Bonner, Head, Library Reference and Instruction Services, Ohio Dominican University Library
Eric Resnis, Instruction Coordinator, Miami University

Want to contact the members of the Assessment Interest Group? We’ve got a new listserv. The address is aig@alaoweb.org.

Cheryl Ghosh, University of Cincinnati

On April 4, 2014, the 2014 Spring ALAO Curriculum Materials Center Interest Group (CMCIG) workshop was hosted at The Ohio State University – Newark Campus. The workshop theme was “Keeping Pace: Changes & Trends in Curriculum Materials Centers (CMC’s)” and the day’s itinerary included two guest speakers, a round table, lunch, a business meeting and a tour of “The Works: Ohio Center for History, Art & Technology”.

To start off the program, Cindy Gayer, a guest speaker from Cedarville University, presented a very informative presentation entitled, “#whatised TPA?: An Overview of the National Teacher Performance Assessment”, followed by Diane Schrecker’s presentation entitled, “Marketing CMC’s and Library Resources Using Pinterest”, just as equally informative and engaging! Next, Susan Scott, Director of the OSU-Newark Library, led us to the OSU-Newark Instructional Center for a tour, which was followed by a round table discussion entitled, “Remaining Relevant/Reaching out-CMC Programs & Events to Connect you with Your Community”. Lunches were delivered and the business meeting began, during which time Deidra Herring, Education Librarian from OSU, volunteered to serve as the CMCIG Co-Chair, alongside Sharon Kerestes, the current Co-Chair. Then, we were off to The Works: Ohio Center for History, Art & Technology, a “hands-on” museum for all ages!

A total of 23 attendees participated in the workshop coming from four different states, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. From the evaluations, the program was informative, engaging, and “the day went too quickly”, I totally agree!

Diane Kolosionek, Cleveland State University, Diversity Committee Chair

The Diversity Committee’s Spring Workshop was held on Friday, April 25, 2014, at OHIONET in Columbus. This Eracism Workshop was facilitated by Simone G. Polk, Assistant Vice President for Student Services at Wright State University. Ms. Polk engaged workshop attendees with thought-provoking discussion and participative activities about diversity, inclusion, racism, discrimination, and assumptions and stereotypes. She shared valuable tools for tolerance and for building an inclusive workplace. The day ended with a “Closing the Circle” activity in which participants celebrated their similarities and differences. Thank you to Ms. Polk and workshop attendees for an outstanding experience!

Katie Foran-Mulcahy, University of Cincinnati Clermont College

The Instruction Interest Group hosted their sold-out spring workshop at Stark State College in North Canton on Friday, May 30th, 2014. Michelle Millet (Immersion Faculty and Director, John Carroll University Library) delivered the keynote mini-workshop, entitled, “Doing It Backwards and Closing the Loop: Information Literacy, Backwards Design, and Assessment.” Other sessions included Teaching Techniques & Technology Tools Lightning Rounds and Teaching with a Discover Layer Panel Discussion, involving eight librarian-presenters from around the state, including Melissa Bauer, James Castrillo, Joe Fox, Vera Lux, Kristen Peters, Christine Sheetz, Debbie Tenofsky, and Derek Zoladz.

Beyond the workshop, we encourage ALAO members to get involved in IIG by blogging for us. Since February, we’ve published four posts from guest bloggers about diverse topics like library instruction marketing, senior independent study projects, gamifying library orientations, and discovery layers. Think you have what it takes to blog for IIG? Check out our blog information page (http://alaoinstructionig.wordpress.com/blog-for-us/) and use convenient web form to submit a blog proposal.

The 2013-2014 IIG Planning Team is comprised of co-chairs Katie Foran-Mulcahy and Sara Klink, plus Melissa Bauer (also named IIG Co-Chair 2014-2016), Julia Gustafson, Dana Knott, and Kristen Peters.

Mark Eddy, Case Western Reserve University

The ALAO Research & Publications Committee finalized awards for the 2014 Research Grant Program this past March. Out of a pool of six applicants, the committee selected three proposals for award grants.

Our 2014 grant winners are,

Shannon Marie Robinson — Fine Arts Liaison Librarian — Denison University
An award of $505 (full funding) for a research project entitled, The Information Needs of Dancers in Higher Education

Rocki Strader — Associate Professor and Authorities Librarian, Western Languages Cataloging Coordinator, Database Maintenance Coordinator — Library Tech Center, The Ohio State University Libraries
An award of $497 (partial funding) for a research project entitled, The cataloging of sound recordings in the United States: a chronological account

Jane Wu — Systems Librarian, Associate professor — Otterbein University
An award of $497 (partial funding) for a research project entitled, A Comparative Study of Information Literacy Education In Three Chinese Academic Libraries

The RPC would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank all of the applicants for participating in this year’s program. We look forward to hearing more about their exciting research in the coming months. Thanks very much to everyone!

Ginna Witte, Cincinnati State Technical & Community College

SSIG hosted its Spring workshop on Wednesday, May 21st at Ohio University Lancaster. The workshop sold out all available 50 spots and had a long waiting list; we’ll definitely have to look for a larger space for next year. Presentations covered a wide variety of topics including library outreach, student workers, RDA basics, ALA’s National certification program, stress reduction, and communication strategies. 82% of our attendees rated the workshop to be either “Very Good” or “Excellent” and 85% indicated they would want to attend the workshop again (1 person responded maybe and all others did not answer the questions). At the conclusion of the day, we raffled off a scholarship to this year’s Ohio Library Support Staff Institute; congratulations to our winner, Amanda Snyder of University of Northwestern Ohio.
Derek and I are extremely grateful for the help provided by our two planning committee members, Jamie Bloss of Kent State Geauga and Myra Justus of Cincinnati State, for Ohio University’s generosity in providing the space for the workshop, and for OLSSI’s kind scholarship donation.

Sharon Purtee, University of Cincinnati

TEDSIG’s spring workshop will be held from 10:00 until 3:00 on Wednesday, June 11 at the Ohionet office. It is jointly sponsored with SCAIG. Titled “What is that and how do I catalog it?,” the morning program will explore national issues that are affecting local practice regarding RDA and special format cataloging. The afternoon will provide attendees an opportunity to participate in in-depth demonstrations of cataloging special format items while working through RDA principles and concepts. They may also bring problem items and ask for assistance from the presenters and other attendees. Cost for the workshop including lunch is $30.00 for ALAO members and $35.00 for non-members.

TEDSIG is also working to identify a co-chair for the up-coming year.

Bowling Green State University

Bo Butler has been hired as the Manager of Northwest Ohio Regional Book Depository. Bo has worked for Bowling Green State University Libraries for ten years and has been a student supervisor for eight years. Bo has many years’ experience in collection management, project supervision, and is proficient in various forms of library technology.

Bryant & Stratton College, Cleveland

Joseph Dudley has assumed coordination and quality control responsibilities for QuestionPoint participation across the college’s four-state​ campus system (Ohio, New York, Virginia, and Milwaukee).

Case Western Reserve University

Amanda Koziura was hired as Digital Learning & Scholarship Librarian, Digital Learning & Scholarship Team, on March 3, 2014.

Melissa Hubbard was hired as Team Leader, Scholarly Resources & Special Collections Team, on March 24, 2014.

Kelvin Smith Library organized and hosted the “First National Personal Librarian & First Year Experience Library Conference” on April 7-8, 2014. The inaugural event focused on all aspects of the first year experience and the personalization of outreach and services for incoming students. More than 150 librarians from 70 colleges and universities were in attendance from across the country and Canada.

Save the date! Join us to build the future of special collections at “Acknowledging the Past, Forging the Future,” a groundbreaking national colloquium on October 21-22, 2014. Organized by Kelvin Smith Library and presented in collaboration with River Campus Libraries at University of Rochester, Vanderbilt University and Washington University in St. Louis, the two-day event will feature some of the most distinguished voices in the field, including opening keynote speaker, Sarah Thomas (Harvard University); closing keynote speaker, Mark Dimunation (Library of Congress); Stephen Enniss (University of Texas at Austin); Alice Schreyer (University of Chicago); and Jay Satterfield (Dartmouth College). For the latest information, visit http://library.case.edu/spcoll.

Kent State University

The School of Library and Information Science at Kent State University will host the 11th annual conference of the Document Academy on Aug. 7-9, 2014. The Document Academy is an international network of scholars, artists, and professionals in various fields who are interested in the exploration of the concept of the document as a resource for scholarly, artistic and professional work. The theme of DOCAM’14 is Documents Without Borders. Keynote speaker is Barbara Bickart from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, an interdisciplinary video artist whose work is project-based. Her projects are informed by the disciplines of media studies, performance and documentary practice and take the form of video installation, video performance and experimental documentary. Her address for DOCAM’14, titled “Monuments, Memory, and the Art of Found Choreography,” presents WHEN, an ongoing series of large-scale video installations that explores the histories of institutionalized violence that persists in our national landscape in the form of landmarks and monuments. It documents the pilgrimage of visitors to these sites, illuminating the resonance of the past through the found choreography of visitors in the present. The keynote presentation will include screenings of WHEN: Memphis, WHEN: Philadelphia, and WHEN: Kent State.

For complete details about the conference and a link to registration, visit http://www2.kent.edu/docam14/index.cfm.

Ohio University, Lancaster

The Hannah V. McCauley Library is pleased to announce that Paul Clayton Campbell has been hired as our Instructional Librarian and Instructional Designer. Paul looks forward to increasing the library’s role in information literacy instruction as well as working with faculty to develop and cultivate best practices for e-pedagogies. Although he was born and raised in New Mexico, Paul completed his MLIS with Kent State University while working full time as a library assistant at Alden Library at Ohio University (main campus). Upon graduation from Kent State University Paul was hired as the Reference & Instruction Librarian at a small university in New Hampshire where he developed a library instruction program for first-year students. While in New England he participated in many different avenues for professional development and service including being elected to the New England Instruction Group leadership. We are thrilled to add Paul to our team!