Membership Report

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.

Posted in Vol. 31 no. 1 (March 2013) | Leave a comment

Interest Groups & Committees Updates

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

Diane Kolosionek, ALAO Diversity Committee Chair, and Carissa Thatcher, Recipient of the 2012-2013 ALAO Diversity Scholarship

Diane Kolosionek, ALAO Diversity Committee Chair, and Carissa Thatcher, Recipient of the 2012-2013 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.

Posted in Vol. 31 no. 1 (March 2013) | Leave a comment

Betsy’s Bits

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?

Posted in Vol. 31 no. 1 (March 2013) | Leave a comment

People and Libraries News

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 ShannonMandy 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.

Posted in Vol. 31 no. 1 (March 2013) | Leave a comment

Publications and Presentations by our Members

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.

Posted in Vol. 31 no. 1 (March 2013) | Leave a comment

President’s Report

Sue Polanka, Wright State University

On October 25th and 26th our membership gathered for the 38th annual conference in Wilmington, Ohio. We had a great turnout for the preconferences and full day conference events. I’d like to thank the conference planning committee members for their hard work, dedication, and positive and fun attitudes throughout the planning stages. It was a pleasure to work with each member of the committee. We received 122 evaluation forms from the conference. ALL 122 rated the overall conference as excellent or good. This in great part due to the efforts of the CPC, which included:

Don Appleby, University of Akron
Barbara Bishop, Heidelberg University
Deberah England, Wright State University
Gwen Evans, OhioLINK
Meghan Frazer, Ohio State University
Sheryl Gannon, Brown Mackie College
Jeff Hartsell‐Gundy, Miami University
Eboni Johnson, Oberlin College
Katy Kelly, University of Dayton
Diane Kolosionek, Cleveland State University
Krista McDonald, Miami Univ. Hamilton
Joan Milligan, University of Dayton
Alisa Mizikar, Wittenberg University
Jerry Natal, University of Toledo
Aaron Olivera, Ohio State University
Sue Polanka, Wright State University
Peggy Rector, Denison University
Kathryn Venditti, Ashland University

And our webmasters – Melissa Bauer from Kent State and Karen Plummer, University of Akron.

We had amazing support from our vendors this year as well. Twenty eight vendors registered this year for a total sponsorship of $16,200. Thanks to our vendors, we were able to keep registration under $100 for members, we were able to add 2 preconferences, bring in 3 keynote speakers for the conference/preconference, and support 8 faculty and administrators from Ohio to be part of our panels. Thanks to Alisa Mizikar and Jerry Natal for coordinating this effort.

A number of individuals also received grants, scholarships and awards at the conference. The Jay Ladd Distinguished Service Award was given to John Burke, Miami University Middletown. A special recognition award was given to OHIONET for their ongoing support of ALAO. The full list of award and scholarship winners are listed in the awards portion of this newsletter. Congratulations to all of our recipients.

This year we decided to give away door prizes and large raffle items to attendees instead of providing a small gift to each attendee. The ALAO CPC would like to thank the vendors, exhibitors, academic institutions and individual ALAO Members who donated door prizes for the conference. There were over 120 door prizes given away by our loyal supporters.

Door Prize Donors for the 2012 ALAO Conference were:
Appalachian Gateway Center at Southern State
Ashland University Poetry Press
Big Grass Farm Designs
Brown Mackie College
Corvis Recycling LLC
Denison University
Diane Kolosionek
Disney Educational Productions
Learning Express Library
Oberlin College
OhioNET
Southern State Community College
University of Akron Press
Wittenberg University
Wright State University

Our raffle items included an iPad, Google Nexus, and two $100 Visa gift cards. Winners of those prizes were:
iPad – Brian Gray, Case Western Reserve University
Google Nexus – Amy Werring, Southern State Community College
Visa Gift Cards – Karen Oye, Case Western Reserve University and Diane Schrecker, Ashland University

Brian Gray had this to say about his iPad: “I would like to thank ALAO for the wonderful door prize at the recent ALAO Annual Conference. My wife teaches 6-8 graders. The next week she used it as an election polling station so that her students could experience the process of voting for a President. The conference was wonderful and inspirational, and the door prize just an unexpected bonus. Thank you, Brian Gray”.

We did ask a question in the conference evaluation about raffle prizes or keepsake items and the vote was pretty even. 47% said yes, go with the raffle item and 53% wanted the keepsake. We will leave this decision to future conference planning committees. Thanks to all of you who still use your ALAO staplers. This was clearly a favorite keepsake as many mentioned it in their evaluation.

Interest Groups
I am very pleased to report that all seven of the ALAO Interest Groups are currently active. Thanks to ALAO members who stepped up to chair two of our interest groups, we now have revitalized the Collection Management Interest Group (CMIG) and the Support Staff Interest Group (SSIG). The Co-Chairs of the CMIG are Phil Flynn, Wright State University and Julie Deardorff, Cedarville University. The Co-Chairs of the SSIG are Ginna Witte, Cincinnati State Technical & Community College and Derek Malone, Ohio University.

Respectfully Submitted,
Sue Polanka
President, ALAO

Posted in Vol. 30 no. 4 (Dec. 2012) | Leave a comment

Vice President’s Report

Betsy Blankenship, Ohio State University Marion

I had the pleasure of attending a wonderful annual conference on October 26 and an equally pleasurable pre-conference on October 25. If you didn’t attend one of them, you missed some really great programs. Kudos to the planning committees – I know how hard they work to make it a success. That being said, I am still working on plans for the next conference, including finalizing my committee. New volunteer names came my way after the conference, so I want to review them before getting moving.
I want to say thanks for all the great nominations for the Jay Ladd Award; it was so hard for the committee to decide (I’m sure Past President Brian Hickam will agree). Please be sure to send in your nominations for next year!!
I’ve been on a quest to compile lists of all the winners of the various awards ALAO has awarded over the years; some we no longer give out but others have a long history. We were able to compile a complete President’s list so far (yay!). 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.

Posted in Vol. 30 no. 4 (Dec. 2012) | Leave a comment

John J. Burke Receives the 2012 Jay Ladd Award

Brian Hickam, Benedictine University and Betsy Blankenship, Ohio State University Marion

The 2012 Jay Ladd Distinguished Service Award was given to John J. Burke, Library Director, Associate Librarian, Gardner-Harvey Library at Miami University Middletown. This award “recognizes an individual who: (1.) has been an ALAO member for at least 5 years; and (2.) 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” (alaoweb.org). In late summer/early fall the Past-president sends out a call for nominations. The Awards Committee is comprised of the Past-president, President, and Vice-president/President-elect.
John has been an active member of ALAO since 1997, serving as President 2004 to 2005. Through his work as a member and chair of the Support Staff Interest Group, the Research and Publications Committee, & other committees and his various presentations at ALAO workshops, annual conferences, and regional and national conferences, John has inspired many to get involved in our association. He spearheaded an ALAO Communications survey that led to improvements in the ways board members communicate issues and events with the general membership. John encourages his Miami University staff to be involved and has mentored many at other institutions. He created and currently moderates an embedded librarian listserv, a result of some of his research interests. Please consider nominating someone for the 2013 award.

Posted in Vol. 29 no. 4 (Dec 2011) | Leave a comment

2011/12 ALAO Honors and Awards Given at the Annual Conference

Carissa Thatcher

Your $30 annual membership fee supports a number of scholarships, grants, and awards to ALAO members. We presented eleven awards during the annual conference this year. Congratulations to all of the award winners.

Student Presenter Grant
Carissa Thatcher (Southern State Community College)

Support Staff Presenter Grant
Emily Brubaker (Heidelberg College)

Emily Brubaker

ALAO Diversity Scholarship
Carissa Thatcher (Southern State Community College)

ALAO Continuing Education Grant
Bridget Faricy (University of Toledo)

Distance Learning Visionary Award
Kenneth Burhanna (Kent State University)

Research Awards

Maureen Barry

  • Maureen Barry (Wright State University) – $350
    Project Title: What is the subject librarian’s role in a service-learning course?
  • Stacy Brinkman (Miami University) – $250
    Project Title: Next-Generation Collection Management: Using Augmented Reality Mobile Applications to Automate Shelf Reading and Inventory Control
  • Jacqueline Johnson (Miami University) – $200
    Project Title: Cephas Burns: Bridges of Hope
  • Ann Marie Smeraldi (Cleveland State University) – $200
    Project Title: Conducting a Usability Study to Uncover the Best Way to Teach Discovery Tool Searching

OHIONET Staff


Jay Ladd Distinguished Service Award
John Burke, Miami University Middletown (See article below)

Special Recognition Award for Service: OHIONET

Posted in Vol. 30 no. 4 (Dec. 2012) | Leave a comment

Membership Updates

Alison Ricker, Oberlin College

Help us reach out to your colleagues!
The Membership Liaison network is undergoing a fantastic renewal, with your help. Please contact aricker@oberlin.edu and volunteer to be a membership liaison. I will send you a list of members at your institution and some suggestions of how to promote ALAO Membership at your library. Participation on every campus is ideal!
Did you know that membership renewal notices are sent by email only? Your membership renewal notice might be queued up and ready to send to you, at this moment. I hope you have chosen to receive those automatic renewal reminders -they are a bit of a nuisance in one’s inbox, but it’s the most cost-effective way of reaching our members and it keeps our costs as low as possible.
Be proactive and login at alaoweb.org to check your membership details and email settings. Not sure of your password? Go directly to http://www.alaoweb.org/Sys/ForgottenPasswordRequest

Posted in Vol. 29 no. 4 (Dec 2011) | Leave a comment