ALAO Newsletter

Sheryl Gannon (Heidelberg College) SSIG Chair

SSIG held their 2008 Spring Workshop on May 16, 2008 at Heidelberg College in Tiffin, OH. Polishing Your Library Gems: Support Staff had a total of 50 attendees. Attendees were greeted by a continental breakfast of fresh fruit and pastries. The keynote speaker, Kristen Lindsay from Heidelberg College started the workshop off with a wonderful presentation, “How to Make Yourself Sparkle: Having a Positive Attitude at Work”. She shared many strategies that will help participants stay positive in their places of work.

SSIG’s incoming Chair, Judy Verdi from Washington State Community College, gave us a whirlwind tour of how to create a quick flyer using Microsoft Word. Two other SSIG program committee members, Mary Ayres from Southern State Community College and Judy Orahood from Ohio Wesleyan University, presented a session on Getting Published. Lindsay Kagy, from Heidelberg College, relaxed the group with a very popular session on Chair Yoga. Many participants responded that we should repeat this type of session at EVERY ALAO event.

Dr. Daryl Close, from Heidelberg College, presented two sessions on Excel, one Introductory and one Intermediate that were very well received. Dr. Dave Bush, also from Heidelberg College, presented a Historical Snapshot on the Johnson’s Island Prison Camp. Of the 50 attendees, 21 were not ALAO members and became members with their paid registrations.

I want to take this opportunity to personally thank all the people who helped plan this workshop. The SSIG Program Planning Committee consists of: Sheryl Gannon, Heidelberg College; Bobbi Bishop, Heidelberg College; Bill Stoddard, Otterbein College; Judy Orahood, Ohio Wesleyan University; Mary Ayres, Southern State Community College; Judy Verdi, Washington State Community College; Kathy Burns, Southern State Community College; ReBecca Griffith, Southern State Community College; Brian Hickam, the University of Toledo; and Gaynelle Predmore, Bowling Green State University. I would also like to thank Deberah England for making sure the table cover arrived at Heidelberg’s Library in time for our workshop and Peggy Rector for providing the promotional items.

It was announced that next year’s SSIG Spring Workshop will be held at the campus of our incoming Chair, Judy Thompson-Verdi, which is Washington State Community College in Marietta, OH.

If you would like to be a part of the Program Planning Committee for the 2009 Workshop, please contact either the outgoing chair, Sheryl Gannon at sgannon@heidelberg.edu or the incoming chair, Judy Thompson-Verdi at jthompsonverdi@wscc.edu .

The Ohio Library Support Staff Institute (OLSSI) is almost here!

The 2008 Ohio Library Support Staff Institute will be July 27 – 29, 2008 at the University of Toledo. OLSSI has planned outstanding programs, interesting lectures, and fun activities for participants. The conference is titled The Hidden Treasures of Libraries: Support Staff.

Grab the opportunity to network with peers, be exposed to new job-related skills and knowledge, and gain a sense of community and support from other library assistants throughout the state and region!

Classes include:

• Audiobooks, eBooks, Music, & Video: Digital Downloads Without Pirating!
• No Need to Draw Yer Cutlass! How Facebook Can Work for Libraries
• Putting the Rrrrrr in PublisheR: Making a Brochure from a Template
• Sail Ho! WorldCat Local and Resource Discovery
• Charting the Frontier of the Internet: Web 2.0

To register & find out more, visit us online at: http://www.olssi.org/

Ann Raney (University of Dayton), Co-chair

On Friday, May 23^rd , OHIONET graciously hosted the 20^th Annual CMCIG Spring Workshop, Virtual Education Collections: Issues and Best Practices. Twenty-six individuals attended, including four K-12 library media specialists.

In her session, “Best Practices for Developing a Digital Collection”, Anne Gilliland, OhioLINK emerita, shared information on and challenges of acquiring, cataloging, circulating, and maintaining electronic resources gleaned from her fifteen years of OhioLINK service. She also offered insights about future OhioLINK acquisitions.

Cynthia DuChane, INFOhio Project Coordinator, discussed the collaborative P-16 transition project between INFOhio and OhioLINK, and Mary Conroy, OHIONET’s Electronic Resources Coordinator, provided a brief history of OHIONET and highlighted some of their continuing education workshops, library and technical support services, and future database acquisitions.

During her very lively “Children’s Literature Online” session, Mary Cummings, Shawnee State University, shared her research on “children’s literature that lives on the web”. Mary demonstrated commercial multimedia resources (TumbleBooks, BookFlix), free multimedia resources (Starfall, Storyline Online, Storybook Web), text only free resources (Children’s Books Online, International Children’s Digital Library, Literature for Children), and free podcasts and other audio files (Light Up Your Brain, iTunes and iTunesU).

Ann Raney, University of Dayton & CMCIG co-chair, asked members to check their CMC’s links on the interest group’s universities’ web page list (http://www.alaoweb.org/igs/cmcig/ohiocmc.php) and send corrections to Ann.Raney@notes.udayton.edu . If you have other CMCIG web page changes and corrections, send them to Ann.

Greg Martin, Cedarville University & CMCIG co-chair, updated members on the CMCIG’s online CMC Directory project (http://cmc.library.uakron.edu/cmc/index.html ). Following a discussion of other available directories, the group voted to revise the current database. Greg will work with the ALAO webmasters to design an updated “Ohio CMC Directory”. When the site becomes available, the CMCIG coordinating committee will contact Ohio CMC staff and encourage them to enter their data. You may send comments about or suggestions for the revised directory to marting@cedarville.edu .

The group chose A. Carolyn Sanders, Central State University, as the 2008-2009 CMCIG co-chair, and Kathy Yoder, Bowling Green State University, as the CMCIG co-chair elect.

To view more CMCIG Spring Workshop photos, click this link

http://cmcig.blogspot.com/2008/06/cmcig-spring-workshop.html

Diane Schrecker of Ashland University, agreed to host the 2009 spring workshop.

Additional information about the CMCIG projects, listserv, and blog is available on the CMCIG web page (http://www.alaoweb.org/igs/cmcig/index.php).

Deberah England (Wright State University), TEDSIG Co-Chair

TEDSIG held their annual Spring Meeting on May 2, 2008 at OHIONET with 36 in attendance. The topic of the day was “Institutional Repositories: Tools and techniques for setting them up and filling them up.” After a brief TEDSIG business meeting, Timothy Robson, Deputy Director of Case Western Reserve University’s Kelvin Smith Library, talked about the set-up and governance of institutional repositories (IR’s). Robson’s talk emphasized the key to success with an IR is collaboration and commitment from both the library and the university.

Thomas Hayes, Head of Digital Library Programs at Case Western, explored how to acquire content and involve faculty and community in the IR. Hayes stressed to make the case for IRs, you need to emphasize the benefits, dispel confusion and fears, get the university community involved, and if desired, provide financial incentives. The third speaker of the day, The Ohio State University’s Metadata Librarian, Maureen Walsh, discussed basic metadata issues focusing on OSU’s experiences with their Knowledge Bank IR. The final session was an “IR Question and Answer” session, in which all the speakers fielded questions from attendees.

During the business meeting TEDSIG’s new mascot, TEDS, made his debut. Speaker Maureen Walsh, a TEDSIG Discussion and Steering Committee member who proposed the idea of a TEDSIG mascot, was presented with the very first TEDS. Door prize winner, Tina Valerius of Capital University, also received a TEDS and a gift certificate to Barnes and Noble. TEDSIG Co-Chairs, Deberah England of Wright State University and Rocki Strader of The Ohio State University would like to express their appreciation to all involved in making the 2008 Spring Meeting a success.

Ione Damasco (University of Dayton), Chair

The Diversity Committee is pleased to award the annual Diversity Scholarship for 2008-2009 to Ms. Sanjyot Selkirk. Selkirk is currently enrolled as a graduate student in the Kent State University SLIS program in Columbus. Her scholarship includes tuition, complimentary registration for the annual conference in October, and a year of mentoring with a selected ALAO member.

The Committee was impressed with the overall quality of this year’s applicant pool, but Ms. Selkirk’s record of strong academic achievement and her demonstrated commitment to diversity in both her personal and professional activities ensured her position as the Committee’s choice for this year.

Although Ms. Selkirk is a relatively new student in the field, she is no stranger to the needs of libraries. She is currently employed at OCLC, where she works as a Metadata Specialist and also serves on the OCLC President’s Inclusion Council, created to support inclusive thinking that will improve solutions for libraries and the diverse groups they serve. Her impressive volunteering activities have included working for a literacy initiative in Mumbai, India, aimed at helping women from low-income families improve their basic math and literacy skills. An international student herself, Ms. Selkirk also helped create and lead the first international student safety program for the Office of International Education at The Ohio State University, which continues to be used today to educate incoming international students about campus safety.

Congratulations to Ms. Sanjyot Selkirk! The Committee is confident she will be a strong advocate for diversity and inclusion in academic libraries. We hope to see you at the annual conference in October!

ALAO is a chapter of American College and Research Libraries (ACRL). Read what’s happening with our fellow ACRL chapters in the Spring 2008 ACRL Chapter Topics newsletter.

See: http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/aboutacrl/acrlchapters/chaptertopics/ctv29n1.pdf