ALAO Newsletter

Sue Polanka, Wright State University

Happy 2013! At the November Board meeting the ALAO Board decided our new year’s resolution would be to improve the ALAO website. Plans and activities are underway to make this happen. The Board created a Wall Wisher account (http://padlet.com/wall/alaoweb) to collect feedback from members on the current ALAO site. The February Board meeting discussions will focus on the website and plans for conducting usability studies and a redesign. If you have feedback on the ALAO website, please feel free to share it with me or another ALAO Board member.

Last November, the Board voted to present OhioLINK with a plaque commemorating their 20 years of shared service. The plaque said “special recognition and appreciation to OhioLINK for transforming the Ohio library community. Celebrating 20 years of shared service, 1992-2012.” Betsy Blankenship presented the plaque to Gwen Evans at the OhioLINK Two Year Directors meeting in December. A letter, written by the ALAO Board was also presented with the plaque. Gwen Evans thanked ALAO in an email, stating:

Dear Sue and members of ALAO —
I felt so privileged, on behalf of OhioLINK, to receive the ALAO plaque commemorating OhioLINK’s twenty years of outstanding service to the library community in Ohio. As a new Executive Director, I am of course standing on the shoulders of giants — not only the enormously dedicated staff in the central office over the last twenty years, but the academic library staff in Ohio who had the vision to imagine OhioLINK and the expertise and cooperative spirit to sustain it. ALAO’s activities and membership in turn play a vital role in the development of the academic library community and have a direct impact on OhioLINK, and it is a special honor for our organization to receive recognition from ALAO. I am fully aware of just how much individual and institutional effort it takes from academic libraries in the state to make OhioLINK into a successful organization, and I hope together we can spend the next twenty years continuing to build the best statewide academic library environment in the nation.
With humble gratitude,
Gwen

ALAO elections are right around the corner. I’d like to thank everyone who volunteered to run for office and wish the best of luck to all of the candidates. Please get out and vote for the future leadership of ALAO.

Betsy Blankenship, Ohio State University Marion

I’ve busy working with my committee on the 2013 ALAO conference and the many details. We are making progress and hope to have more information out soon. We will be visiting the conference site on March 1.
I’ve also begun to plan for the annual ALAO Leadership Retreat to be held, July 15-16, 2013. This is an important time for newly-elected officers to get oriented to their new positions and for the board as a whole to plan for ALAO activities, review our mission and objectives, and to develop new goals for the coming year. I hope that many of you consider running for an office; the board is a great place to participate in ALAO!
I’m still working on compiling past ALAO awards winners. If you’ve won an award of any type and want to let me know when it was and what it was for, please feel free to email me at blankenship.5@osu.edu. In the process of identifying award winners, I’ve been reviewing past ALAO Newsletters. How fascinating it has been to see how our Interest Groups have developed and became official. It was great see how the Diversity Committee evolved from an interest group and began awarding the student diversity scholarship. Did you know that the Support Staff Interest Group (SSIG) was our first officially recognized interest group?

Brian Hickam, Benedictine University (IL)

Once again, it is election time for ALAO. Below is a current list of candidates. Please be aware the call to vote will be coming soon. We encourage all members to participate!

President-ELECT: Eboni Johnson*
Treasurer: Don Appleby*
P.R. Coordinator: Sheryl Gannon, Alisa Mizikar
Board Member-at-Large: Debra Andreadis, Julia Gustafson, Marsha Miles, Karen A. Plummer, and Suzanne Smailes
*Running unopposed

ALAO is looking ahead to reviewing our web presence. Membership chair, Alison Ricker coordinated Wallwisher comments about the website. Members of the Communications Review Committee, Melissa Bauer, Katie Gibson, and I will use these comments to inform a usability study, launching later this spring. The population we sample will be manageable (perhaps two or three dozen individuals), representative of the various types & sizes of institutions, and, otherwise, randomly chosen. The goal is to have any website redesigns complete before mid August. The usability study will also inform any changes that made be made to improve policies, procedures, scheduling, communications, etc.

Thanks to everyone who paid membership dues in the past quarter, with special welcome to these new members who joined recently:

• Carrie Girton, Miami University – Hamilton
• Douglas Anderson, Marietta College
• Heather Crozier, Owens Community College
• Ian McCullough, University of Akron
• Kari Jones, Southern State Community College
• Janice Anderson, Malone University
• Jennifer Hicks, Miami University – Middletown
• Jessica DeCaro, National College
• Jolene Miller, The University of Toledo
• Mandy Shannon, Wright State University
• Marsha McDevitt-Stredney, State Library of Ohio
• Susan Gilfert, retired

Our current membership now stands at 390, a bit of increase over the number reported at our Annual Meeting. We still have a very high number of individuals (557) in the database with a status of lapsed or expired membership. Based on input from attendees at the Annual Meeting, some 50 individuals were removed from the roster, but there is more work to be done. Can you help as a Membership Liaison for your institution? Please contact me (alison.ricker@oberlin.edu). I would love your ideas for boosting membership and to identify previous members who have retired and/or left librarianship or the state, so we can maintain a database that more accurately reflects current membership. Thank you.

ACRL Update
Katie Blocksidge, Ohio State University Newark

The ACRL Executive Board and staff spoke about upcoming initiatives. Mary Ellen Davis described the process for being part of the ACRL Assessment in Action Program, while President Steven Bell spoke about his chapter visits, and gave a shout out to Ohio. Trevor Davis, Vice-President, described his initiative as focusing on student financial literacy alongside Money Smart Week; look for a program at the upcoming ACRL conference.

2015 will mark the 75th anniversary of ACRL, and celebrations will be in order.

The ACRL webinar pilot will continue through October. This pilot allows ACRL chapters the opportunity to view two free webinars per year, and includes archived webinar recordings. Our chapter will host rebroadcasts of two ACRL webinars later this spring: The Crisis in Academic Libraries (and Why This is the Best Thing Ever) and Fair Use in Your Library after Georgia State. Keep an eye out for more information!

A huge thank you to Katy Kelly (University of Dayton) for attending Chapters Council at ALA Mid-Winter and taking excellent notes!

Collection Management Interest Group
Julie Deardorff, Cedarville
The Collection Management Interest Group will sponsor a workshop on Friday, March 22 at the State Library of Ohio in Columbus. E-Books in Ohio: What’s a Librarian to Do? will provide an opportunity for librarians to share their successes and challenges with ebooks and to discuss their questions and concerns. What ebook opportunities are on the horizon through OhioLINK? When is it necessary to strike out alone with ebook collections? Have Ohio libraries had success with patron driven acquisition of ebooks?

Registration details will follow soon.

If you have questions about the workshop, please contact a member of the CMIG workshop planning committee: Kathleen Baril (Ohio Northern), Kevin Messner (Miami), Phil Flynn (Wright State) or Julie Deardorff (Cedarville).

Curriculum Materials Center Interest Group
Stefanie Bange, Wright State University
Registration will open soon for the CMCIG Spring Workshop, to be held at University of Cincinnati on Friday, May 17th. Our theme is “Common Core Unraveled”. We will have several speakers on hand to break it down for us: a representative from Battelle for Kids will lay the groundwork about what Common Core is and what the Vertical Progression Guides are; a rep from INFOhio will demonstrate what INFOhio has created to make Common Core easy for students and teachers alike; a professor from Wright State will talk about applications of Common Core in the classroom. We will finish the morning with a tour of the CECH and then head to the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center for lunch and a tour. It should be a wonderful day! Keep an eye on the CMCIG blog for registration information.
If you would like to be included on the CMCIG Listserv, contact:
Stephanie Bange
email: stephanie.bange@wright.edu
phone: (937) 775-2050

Post your programs/projects/questions for others and be the first to learn about breaking information relevant to CMCs!

Distance Learning & Instruction Interest Groups
Lauren Wahman, University of Cincinnati Blue Ash College

The Distance Learning Interest Group (DLIG) and the Instruction Interest Group (IIG) are excited to announce a collaborative spring workshop for this year! The workshop is scheduled for Monday, June 3 and will be held at Miami University’s Voice of America Center in West Chester, Ohio. Check the DLIG and IIG blogs for more details as they become available. We hope to see you there!

Diversity Committee
Diane Kolosionek, Cleveland State University

Applications for the ALAO Diversity Scholarship

The ALAO Diversity Committee is currently accepting applications for the ALAO Diversity Scholarship, which is awarded annually to a library school student residing in Ohio with a demonstrated commitment to diversity. A qualified candidate will: (1) be a full-time or part-time student enrolled in or recently accepted to an ALA-accredited MLS program, either on campus or via distance education, for the fall term following the call for scholarship applications; (2) currently live in Ohio; and (3) demonstrate the following: (a) potential in the field; (b) leadership ability; and (c) diversity in one or more ways, including, but not limited to: race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, life experience, physical ability, and a sense of commitment to these and other diversity issues.

The $1,500.00 scholarship will be applied directly to the recipient’s bursar account for tuition at his or her academic institution. The student also will receive a complimentary registration for ALAO’s Annual Conference and a year of mentoring by a selected ALAO Member.

Complete information and the scholarship application are available at:
http://www.alaoweb.org/committees/diversity/scholarship-guidelines

The deadline for applications is Friday, March 15, 2013.

Professional Development Committee
Alisa Mizikar, Wittenberg University

The Professional Development Committee was excited to have ten very strong applications for the 2013 Continuing Education Grant. Ultimately, two proposals were selected for funding. The PDC is pleased to announce the recipients for this year’s grant. Katie Foran-Mulcahy of University of Cincinnati – Claremont College will be attending ACRL Immersion ’13: Practical Management for the Instruction Coordinator at the ACRL 2013 Conference in Indianapolis. Kenneth Irwin of Wittenberg University attended the Code4Lib conference recently held in Chicago.

Research and Publications Committee
Mark Eddy, Case Western Reserve University
The ALAO Research & Publications Committee was very pleased to receive five applications for our 2013 Research Grant Award program this past December. The committee is in the process of reviewing applications, and we look forward to announcing the awards in mid-March.

Special Collections and Archives Interest Group
Stefanie Hunker, Bowling Green State University
Save the date for our first annual Spring Workshop on outreach by Special Collections and Archives.
Date: May 10
Location: Ohionet
More information will be coming soon. We hope to see you there.

Support Staff Interest Group
Ginna Witte, Cincinnati State
The Support Staff Interest Group has spent the past couple of months getting organized. We’ve updated and streamlined our portions of the ALAO website. We also created a Facebook Group so that SSIG members can meet each other and share resources online. This spring we’re looking forward to creating an opportunity for ALAO members to view (for free!) 2 previous ACRL webcasts. The session on Fair Use and its impact on library functions should be particularly useful to SSIG members. Stay tuned for more details . . .

Technical, Electronic, and Digital Services Interest Group
Jennifer Bazeley, Miami University

Institutional change and succession planning will be the theme of this year’s Spring workshop to be held in mid-May. More information will be available soon.

I thought this quote from our Leadership Retreat to be very appropriate right now:

“I have never accepted what many people have kindly said, namely that I have inspired the nation. It was the nation and the race dwelling all around the globe that had the lion heart. I had the luck to be called upon to give the roar.”
– Sir Winston Churchill

Sometimes it’s hard to think of yourself serving on a committee, working with an organization, helping an institution. You might feel inadequate, too constrained by the demands of your job, your life, or your personality to step forth and say yes or provide a voice. As Winston Churchill said, most of us never feel that we do what people say we have done – lead, inspire, mentor, encourage. But in reality, that’s how ALAO succeeds and survives, with ordinary people coming forth and saying “yes, I’ll do something.” The opportunities to serve in ALAO are numerous: many of you have enjoyed serving in various offices and positions over the years. I have been, at one time or another, an Interest Group co-chair, Membership Chair, PR/Outreach Coordinator, Board Member- at-Large and served on several conference committees as well as other committees just as important. I found each to be unique and enjoyable. I started small, as an interest group co-chair, and was so shy at first, afraid to speak or offer opinions at meetings. But gradually I found that everyone was fun and friendly, and that we had important work to do. The boards I served on made some really important decisions, created new services and supported new initiatives. It’s cool to look back and say, ‘Hey, I helped make that possible.’ So, now it’s your turn. We have an election coming up. We need people to run for various offices, especially Vice-President/President-Elect and to serve on committees. Please step forward and say yes to serving. Is it your time to be called upon to give the roar?

Bryant & Stratton College Cleveland Downtown Campus
Joseph Dudley is now serving on the editorial board of the Technology, Colleges, and Community (TCC) Proceedings, published electronically each year.

Cedarville University
Greg Martin, formerly Curriculum Materials Center Librarian at the Centennial Library, became the Collection Services Librarian on July 1. His primary responsibility is the creation and management of the library’s new online institutional repository, DigitalCommons@Cedarville. Greg was also selected to serve on the ALA/YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults committee.

Sharon Kerestes joined the Centennial Library faculty on August 1st as the new Curriculum Materials Center Librarian. Sharon served as the Librarian/Media Specialist for a number of schools in the Columbus and Dayton areas, most recently the Westerville City School District, before accepting her current position.

Kent State University
The School of Library and Information Science (SLIS) at Kent State University welcomes Tomas A. Lipinski, J.D., LL.M., Ph.D., as its new director. Lipinski most recently served as executive associate dean and professor at Indiana University School of Library and Information Science, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. He had previously been director of the Master of Library and Information Science (M.L.I.S.) degree program and professor at the School of Information Studies, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where he also was co-director (and founder) of the Center for Information Policy Research (CIPR). For more see www.kent.edu/slis/news/newsdetail.cfm?newsitem=15E7CE34-EC81-9BA7-AB8840D1556A96B8

OhioNET
OhioNET will present Everyday Advocacy workshop and conference on April 25.
Ruth Milligan, communications consultant at Articulation, Inc. and co-curator of the TEDxColumbus events, will lead our morning workshop to help you frame your everyday library stories to resonate with power and effectiveness to your local community leaders. The afternoon will be filled with sessions from your library colleagues, inspiring you to think about the ways you currently advocate everyday and helping you to aspire to new techniques.
More information and a link to registration can be found at http://www.ohionet.org/everyday-advocacy.

The Library Leadership Ohio 2012 Institute was developed by former attendees, former mentors and the State Librarian to awaken, inspire, and engage library leaders from all types of institutions. LLO 2012 was held at the Deer Creek State Park Lodge and Conference Center in Mt. Sterling, Ohio July 25 – 27, 2012 and facilitated by Ivy Library from Charlottesville, VA.
The Class of 2012 has the distinction of being the first to undertake projects as part of their leadership experience with the Institute. These projects are working to examine and help address some of the many challenges and opportunities that libraries face, including alternate funding, changing spaces, community collaboration, digital initiatives, statewide marketing, and utilization of social networking applications; there is also a library think tank group. As these projects develop, their reports, recommendations, and results will be made available to all at http://libraryleadershipohio.org/about/projects.

Wright State University
Mandy Shannon has joined the University Libraries at Wright State University as a Social Sciences and Humanities Librarian. She most recently worked in the reference department of the Washington-Centerville Public Library in Centerville, OH, and has previously taught as an adjunct instructor in Political Science. Mandy will be working the Communication, Political Science, and Social Work departments as well as the ESL, International Studies, LEAP (Learning English for Academic and Professional Purposes), and Women’s Studies programs.

Andrew Harris has been hired as a Metadata Librarian. Andrew joined the library in January. He holds a Masters in Library and Information Science from the University of South Carolina. Andrew most recently worked for the University of Alabama as an Archival Technician in their Special Collections Library.

University of Toledo
Jodi Jameson, librarian at the Mulford Medical Library and instructor in the College of Nursing was accepted as a Senior Member in the Medical Library Association’s Academy of Health Information Professionals. The academy is a credentialing program that recognizes librarians in the health sciences for the time and effort invested in their professional development in areas such as continuing education, publishing/presentations, service to professional organizations, and more.

Crosetto, Alice & Garcha, Rajinder. (2012). Death, Loss, and Grief in Literature for Youth: A Selective Annotated Bibliography for K-12. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press.

Dudley, Joseph. (April 2013) Maintenance and Development of the Library Web Portal at Bryant Stratton College Cleveland Downtown Campus Presentation at the TCC 2013 Worldwide Online Conference.

Franks, Jeffrey A. (2012). Consult Me First: Building Consultative Relationships between Top-Level and Mid-Level Library Managers. In Robert Farrell & Kenneth Schlesinger (Eds.) Managing in the Middle. Chicago: American Library Association.

Franks, Jeffrey A. (2012). The Poor Administrator and You: Survival Tips for the Mid-Level Manager. In Robert Farrell & Kenneth Schlesinger (Eds.) Managing in the Middle. Chicago: American Library Association.

Gray, Brian (2013). Using Google Voice and Chat for reference at the Kelvin Smith Library. In Beth C. Thomsett-Scott (Ed.) Implementing Virtual Reference Services: A LITA Guide. Chicago, IL: ALA TECHSOURCE.

Gray, Brian. (2013). Web-scale discovery leads to new efficiencies. Presentation at the 2013 ALA Midwinter Conference.