ALAO Newsletter

Sue Polanka, Wright State University

One of the most important jobs for the ALAO Past-President is chairing the Nominating Committee. This
committee has the honor of presenting a slate of candidates to the membership for election in March. Positions that will be open for election include: Vice President/President Elect, Secretary, Membership
Chair, and 3 Board Members-at-Large.

Being on the ALAO Board is a very rewarding experience both professionally and personally. Board members have the opportunity to establish relationships with academic librarians across the state, vote on important initiatives within the organization, and see firsthand how ALAO supports members through workshops and the annual conference, scholarships, awards, and special events.

2014 is a big year for ALAO, our 40th anniversary. What a great time to get involved in shaping the future of the organization. I hope you will consider accepting a nomination for one of our open positions or perhaps nominating yourself or one of your colleagues.

For more information on the nomination process please contact myself or one of the committee members: Diane Kolosionek (Cleveland State), Alison Ricker (Oberlin) and Liz Richardson (Kent State).

Alison Ricker, Oberlin College

ALAO’s member roster looks healthy, at first glance, with 1004 names total in all categories. But – and it gives me a bit of a lurch – 617 of those folks are in the Expired Membership column. Gracious, where have they all gone? Of the 371 Active Members, nearly 130 have membership renewal dates in the next several weeks. Are you one of those folks? Please be aware that you get no reminder for renewal in the U.S. Mail. Our membership system is completely reliant on automated messages from the ALAO website (which we’ve tried to edit in a compelling and personal manner – but they are unavoidably recognizable as automated messages). If you have turned off email notifications from the ALAO system, you will get no renewal reminders or even a thank you message when you do renew. I am very sympathetic to the urge to turn off email, but suggest that you to keep your email notifications on and forebear any annoyance, so we can keep in touch!

Renewing ALAO dues takes just a few minutes online. If you want to pay by check, it’s best to begin the process online and follow the directions for sending a check, once you have reviewed your membership profile. You are welcome to ignore the online process completely, if that is your preference – the important thing is to continue support of your professional organization, so that we can provide professional development opportunities that enhance academic library service in Ohio. Your membership also supports ALAO grants, scholarships, and research and advocacy travel awards for members, and helps to honor outstanding colleagues. Thank you for being an ALAO member.

Dues: $30 Regular membership; $10 Student or Retiree membership.

Payable to ALAO, online or mailed to:
Alison Ricker
Science Librarian
Oberlin College Science Center
119 Woodland St.
Oberlin OH 44074

Don Appleby was the 30th recipient of the Jay Ladd Distinguished Service Award. He received his recognition and a plaque at the annual conference last month.

The Jay Ladd Distinguished Service Award honors the memory of Jay Ladd, a founding member of ALAO in the early 1970s. This award recognizes an individual who has been an ALAO member for at least 5 years, and who has promoted academic libraries and librarianship not only on his or her own campus, but also within the state. The award also recognizes someone who has provided leadership in the promotion of ALAO through service such as committee membership, executive board office, or interest group office.

Don was recognized as a key member of both the ALAO Board and the Conference Planning Committee. On the ALAO Board, Don has served as a Board Member at Large and is currently the ALAO Treasurer. As Treasurer he keeps the CPC and Board fiscally in line. His role on the conference planning committee is to coordinate all of the audio/visual equipment for the entire conference – speakers, vendors, posters, and the keynote. This also means that he works with the venue staff to coordinate their resources with ours. He accomplishes all this with just the help of 1 or 2 student volunteers. At the University of Akron, Don is a Library Specialist at the circulation desk and the building manager for the Bierce Library. He is the advisor to the University’s chapter of Circle K and also reads to children from the University’s Center for Child Development and he never misses commencement exercises.

This year we had 5 nominations, each of whom was very deserving of the award. Congratulations to each of them for being nominated and thank you to all who the time to nominate their colleagues.

• Don Appleby, University of Akron
• Ione Damasco, University of Dayton
• Brian Gray, Case Western
• Diane Kolosionek, Cleveland State
• Lauren Wahman, University of Cincinnati Blue Ash

Sue Polanka, Past President and Chair, Awards Committee

Cheryl Ghosh, University of Cincinnati
Sharon Kerestes, Cedarville University

The CMCIG’s sponsored session at October’s ALAO Annual Conference, Crash Course on the Future of College and Career Readiness: Ohio’s P20 Initiative and the New Common Core, was well-attended. Presenters Paula Nespeca Deal, eLearning Specialist at INFOhio, and Anne Marie Smeraldi, First Year Experience Librarian at Cleveland State University, did an excellent job providing an overview of Ohio’s College and Career Readiness initiative and the Common Core standards. They also shared practical ideas for utilizing INFOhio and other resources to enhance information literacy skills instruction. Ms. Smeraldi shared her method for assessing freshmen information literacy skills and the strategies she has employed to connect with these students and improve research skill levels.
Save the date, the CMCIG Spring Workshop will be on Friday, April 4, 2014, at the OSU Newark Campus! A theme and sessions titles are beginning to take shape, one presentation will be about the new Ohio Educator Assessment (OEA) process and how it affects the work of CMC librarians. Another session will be about how Curriculum Materials Centers are connecting to students via social media. Come, meet, and learn from other Curriculum Materials Center librarians from around the state.

Rob Snyder, Bowling Green State University

Do you know a “Distance Learning Visionary”?
The Academic Library Association of Ohio (ALAO) recognizes the need to encourage and spotlight pioneering individuals, particularly those who offer their colleagues new and innovative practices that can be adapted and implemented in their home institutions. As such, ALAO’s Distance Learning Interest Group (DLIG) is excited to announce that nominations are now being accepted for the 2014 “Distance Learning Visionary.” Benefits of winning include:

• Honor of being named the 2014 Distance Learning Visionary.
• Recognition at the 2014 ALAO Annual Conference Luncheon, as well as on the ALAO Website, ALAO Newsletter, & the DLIG Blog.
• Award of $150.00 presentation grant for sharing distance learning strategies, applications, or research with attendees of the 2014 DLIG Spring Workshop. Please note that the funds are contingent upon the grantee presenting in person, remotely, or via pre-recorded session.

Nomination applications should include a 250-500 word essay that demonstrates the nominee’s contributions to e-learning, as well as a short presentation proposal that suggests what the nominee might share with colleagues striving to succeed in the technology-driven environment of online learning. Links to relevant supporting materials are encouraged; self and group nominations are permitted.

For complete details and submission guidelines, please see the DLIG blog at http://distancelibrarians.wordpress.com/dlig-visionary/ or email the DLIG Co-Chairs at ohiodlig@gmail.com.
Applications are due by December 20th, 2013.

Diane Kolosionek, Cleveland State University, Diversity Committee Chair

ALAO Annual Conference
The Diversity Committee sponsored a successful session at the 2013 ALAO Annual Conference titled Programming Prowess: Transform Your Library with Engaging Events. Katy Kelly, Communications and Outreach Librarian at the University of Dayton, presented the session. Katy shared many great ideas for engaging the diverse intellectual, cultural, and social interests of your community. Her presentation is available at: http://ecommons.udayton.edu/roesch_fac_presentations/19/

During the Awards Program at the Annual Conference, I acknowledged this year’s Diversity Scholarship winners, Robert Millspaugh and Conrad Pegues. I also recognized Diana Nichols, Cataloger/Journalism Librarian at Ohio University, for serving as the ALAO mentor to last year’s Diversity Scholarship winner, Carissa Thatcher.

The Diversity Scholarship award includes a year of mentoring by an ALAO member. Kathleen Baril, Collections and Electronic Resources Librarian at Ohio Northern University, will serve as the ALAO mentor to Robert Millspaugh. Allen Reichert, Electronic Access Librarian at Otterbein University, will serve as the ALAO mentor to Conrad Pegues. Thank you to Kathleen and Allen for graciously agreeing to serve as mentors!

Joseph Straw, Marietta College, Government Relations Liaison

The ALAO website has been updated to include an advocacy section. This portion is the last item at the top of the page and has a menu option for “Legislative Updates” where the latest updates on issues of importance for academic libraries will be posted. The main part of the site has basic information about the ALAO Government Relations Team and a link describing the Legislative Day Travel Award. In updating the website, I would like to again invite ALAO members to become part of the Legislative Advocacy Network across Ohio. Advocates serve as grassroots voices for legislation that impacts academic libraries. For any interested members please contact:

Joseph Straw, Government Relations Liaison
Marietta College
js001@marietta.edu

Sara Klink, Stark State College

The Instruction Interest Group is focusing on creating an active online community this year. Our planning committee has decided to include additional projects in their charge rather than just focusing on the spring workshop. Our first project is to make our current IG blog more dynamic. We recently put out a call asking ALAO members that showed interest in participating in the Instruction Interest Group, to submit proposals to develop and write instruction focused blog posts. Topics we are looking for include:

• Innovative uses of instructional tools (particularly those related to new technologies)
• One-shot instruction ideas
• Keeping instruction interesting
• Collaborating with departmental faculty
• Assessment (of one-shot sessions, of the program, of librarian teachers)
• Impact of the revision of ACRL’s IL competency standards on instruction
• Teaching and learning with web scale discovery

Interested parties may submit proposals through this link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1ncWdHPW_9-Wx9xhGSaOwJE4Hi0x0vQorgk0SVcuMGBI/viewform

In other IIG news, we are currently in the planning stages for our spring workshop which will be held at Stark State College, in North Canton this May. Please stay tuned for details.

As our group works to develop new activities and programs we encourage you to keep an eye on our blog, participate in discussions and share your instruction ideas with the community!

Mark Eddy, Case Western Reserve

The ALAO Research and Publications Committee celebrated our 2013 RPC Research Grant Program at the 2013 Annual Conference luncheon. Our single award of $944.50 went to a cohort of three Ohio University researchers in support of a project entitled, Informed Instruction: A Needs Assessment Model for Library Workshop Implementation. Certificates were awarded at our luncheon to each co-researcher,

Hilary C. Bussell
eLearning Librarian / Subject Librarian for Political Science & Public Administration
Ohio University

Christopher S. Guder
Reference & Instruction Librarian
Ohio University

Jessica Hagman
Reference & Instruction Librarian
Ohio University

The committee would like to thank the ALAO Executive Board for their continuing support of our program. Special thanks also from the committee to Alisa Mizikar for designing and providing us with award certificates and RPC conference flyers. THANK YOU!!!!

The committee recently announced our 2014 Research Grant program, and will begin reviewing applications after December 17th. Additional program announcements will go out very soon, and here also is further information on the 2014 program – http://www.alaoweb.org/committees/researchpub/2014-research-grant

The RPC also provided a discussion panel session event at the 2013 Annual Conference entitled, Got IRB?: What to Know When Planning Human Subject Research Projects. The program was well attended, and we received high marks in our session evaluations. All evaluators marked the session as “Excellent” or “Outstanding” for presentation quality, with many comments indicating that our audience learned a great deal about the IRB process, and that they very much appreciated our session. The committee would like to take this opportunity to thank very sincerely our panelists for a truly wonderful session, and the time each of them took to help us plan, travel to, and execute this session. It was a great group, and I think we all had a really good time!

Stefanie Hunker, Bowling Green State University

The SCAIG had a productive annual conference! We had a visited table, an outstanding impromptu brainstorming session (about the next year’s activities, our online presence, and a little bit of focus group-ishness) with some of our members/interested parties who happened to stop by our table and stayed to talk. We also had a possible joint spring workshop idea(s) discussion with TEDSIG Co-Chairs, Sharon and Aimee.

In addition, we sponsored a very interesting session, Outreach and Engagement for Special Collections through a Gallery Exhibit by Melanie McGurr and Mary-Allen Johnson from OSU, which was a nice follow-up to this year’s spring workshop.

We also noted that there were several presentations/roundtables on special collections/archives topics at conference this year. We are very happy about that!