IACRL Newsletter

Volume 33, Number 2 Fall 2010

This issue is also available in .pdf format.

Stay informed! Check out the IACRL web site: http://iacrl.net

David H. Carlson to Receive Illinois Academic Librarian of the Year Award from the Illinois Library Association

David H. Carlson, Dean of Library Affairs at Southern Illinois University Carbondale’s Morris Library, has been selected as the 2010 Illinois Academic Librarian of the Year. The award is presented by the Illinois Association of College and Research Libraries (IACRL) Forum in recognition of outstanding contributions to academic and research librarianship in the state.

Dean Carlson has been active in the Illinois library community since coming to Morris Library in 2001. He previously served as Director of Libraries at Bridgewater State College ( Massachusetts) from 1994-2001, and was Executive Director of the Triangle Research Libraries Network in Chapel Hill, North Carolina from 1991-1994.

The IACRL Awards Committee noted Dean Carlson’s accomplishments in a number of spheres. He led the Vision and Leadership Team, planning the transition that formed CARLI out of the ILCSO, IDAL and CCMP organizations in 2005. He has worked with the Illinois State Library on a number of projects and actively participates on the Council of Directors of State University Libraries in Illinois (CODSULI). He has held national offices with the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), and as Chair of the SPARC scholarly communication Steering Committee has been a strong advocate for the NIH Public Access Policy and the Federal Research Public Access Act (FRPPA).

He oversaw the $60 million major renovation of Morris Library at SIU-Carbondale – the largest capital project ever undertaken at SIUC – which included the addition of 50,000 additional square feet of space. He has also spearheaded numerous Open Access activities at SIUC and created the campus’ open-access institutional repository.

Several letters of support noted Carlson’s major contribution to the profession in leading the successful campaign to secure a reversal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s (AAAS) decision to stop supplying content from the journal Science into the JSTOR scholarly archive. As a result of his instrumental leadership, AAAS and JSTOR were able to reach an agreement that continues to assist global library users and researchers seeking to access important scholarly content.

This award will be presented during the awards ceremony at the Illinois Library Association Annual Conference at Navy Pier in Chicago, September 29, 2010 at 11:00 a.m.

A Message from the President Elect

Elizabeth Clarage, CARLI

Greetings to all in the Illinois Academic and Research Libraries community!

Doing more with less, or what seems to be the more accurate statement doing the same with less, is now what passes for the natural state of things in most libraries. This affects us all - management and librarians alike. What most of us do is try our best, and our best is quite remarkable!

Within the past five years, three Illinois academic libraries have won the ALA Excellence in Academic Libraries that is given “to recognize academic librarians and staff who work together as a team to develop academic libraries that are outstanding in furthering the educational missions of their institutions.” (ALA website) Other colleagues have won state and national awards that recognize their contributions to the profession. And, those that have not yet received accolades contribute mightily to the wealth of knowledge available in the state.

In these times of uncertain budgets, we all have something to contribute to the library profession. Our individual experiences and knowledge once shared make the collective stronger. There are many opportunities to share within the state of Illinois, such as at the ILA and IACRL conferences, by working within IACRL or other state organizations, or by sharing what we may have available at our own institutions, an example being the professional lecture series that are open to the public. By sharing among ourselves, we make the profession stronger and everyone benefits. There are other ways to share including writing or sharing a moment to help a colleague with a problem. Sometimes all it takes is a moment to think, “Yes, others would find this interesting too,” and then take the time to communicate the information or news. If you do have something to share, one way to do so is through the IACRL email list – if you are not yet a member, please consider joining. The URL is http://www.iacrl.net/mailinglists.html.

Hopefully this year, all IACRL members can take a moment to share, and thus, continue to build the academic librarian community in Illinois.

Later this month at the Illinois Library Association’s Annual Conference in Chicago our colleagues are sharing their expertise with presentations on topics that include cooperative preservation, information commons, community health information, the 2010 Census, special collections, RDA, and online versus print reference. We also have our annual luncheon meeting and I hope that many of you will be able to attend and share this experience. If not, I hope that you’ll be able to share in another way this year!

We Want You(r) Input

Libraries, as they plan for change and growth, have always held as a high priority the incorporation of response to the needs and desires of their patrons. In this same manner, we—the IACRL Publication Committee—would like you—the consumer—to help us determine the future directions of the IACRL Newsletter. We’ve moved to an online format. Now we propose to take a look at the purpose and general utility of the information we pass along. It would be helpful to this committee if you could take a few minutes to let us know (just email khovde@niu.edu, or any of the other committee members listed in this issue) what you like, what you don’t like, and/or suggestions (realistic!) for the kind of material you think would be helpful to the Illinois academic library community as it heads for the “teens” of the twenty-first century.

IACRL Executive Committee

Standing Committee Chairs

Hunt Dunlap, Awards Committee
Western Illinois University

Jane Treadwell, Conference and Continuing Education
University of Illinois at Springfield

[To be named], Membership Committee

Hunt Dunlap, Nominations Committee
Western Illinois University

Karen Hovde and Jana Brubaker, Publications Committee
Northern Illinois University

Academic Librarians at ILA

Lindsay Harmon, American Academy of Art

“Libraries Out Loud,” the 2010 ILA Annual Conference, will be held September 28-30 at Navy Pier in Chicago. This year’s conference has a special focus on partnerships, and academic librarians from throughout the state will be offering programs that highlight their collaboration with each other and with their communities. Support your colleagues by attending these sessions!

For complete conference information, visit the ILA website.

CARLI News and Events

Margaret Chambers, CARLI

Join us around the state or online, for one of the many events we have planned this fall.

Registration is open for “Collections Management in the Digital Age: An Ithaka/JSTOR Forum” co-sponsored by CARLI, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, and Ithaka/JSTOR. The forum will be held on Thursday, October 28, at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Attendance at the forum is free, and open to all library staff in Illinois and the surrounding areas.

Forum sessions will focus on new tools for librarians and faculty including usage statistics and trends, JSTOR content development, changing faculty attitudes and perspectives, and a discussion of what to withdraw from print collections in an increasingly digital world. Presenters will include Michael Spinella, Executive Vice-President, Ithaka and Managing Director, JSTOR; Jason Philips, JSTOR Director of Outreach; and Ross Housewright, Ithaka S+R  Research Analyst.

What matters? Metadata! Shareable metadata, preservation metadata, data dictionaries, OAI-PMH, EAD, METS, MODS, Dublin Core, and everything in between. Whether you're a cataloger or digital librarian, an archivist or administrator, if metadata matters to you (and it should!), join CARLI’s Digital Collections Users’ Group online this fall for a series of informative workshops and discussions on a variety of metadata-related topic.

The Metadata Matters Webinar Series will feature presenters from CARLI libraries discussing metadata concepts and practices important to digital libraries, digitization projects, archiving, and digital preservation. These 1-hour sessions, conveniently held on Tuesdays throughout the fall, are perfect for people looking to get their feet wet with metadata creation, or more experienced librarians wanting to get a better understanding of real-world practices and tools to streamline metadata workflow.

Plan to attend one of two hands-on Tutorial Creation Workshops for online library-related tutorials November 5 and November 12. These workshops, offered by the I-Share Instruction Team, are designed for librarians with limited time and resources for creating online tutorials. Attendees will learn the best practices of online tutorial creation, view and discuss example tutorials, workshop an individualized tutorial script, and practice screencasting with one-on-one assistance from members of the Instruction Team. The workshops will be held at Dominican University and the CARLI Office.

The I-Share Cataloging and Authority Control Team will offer two MarcEdit Workshops , on October 25 at Chicago State University, and October 26 at Illinois State University, Normal.

The I-Share Resource Sharing Team Fall Forum will be held on October 20 at the University of Illinois at Springfield. Planning is underway for presentations and discussions on the I-Share Universal Borrowing Policy Standardization and implications for libraries’ local policies; and how to use Return Rate Reports to create library policy.

Other events planned this fall include a monthly webinar series on collections analysis topics presented by the Collections Working Group, as well as two webinars on cataloging topics from the I-Share Cataloging and Authority Control Team.

Watch the CARLI calendar (http://www.carli.illinois.edu/calendar/calendar.php) for registration and information about all upcoming workshops, training sessions, forums and meetings. Join the CARLI Announce listserv at http://www.carli.illinois.edu/email-lists.html to stay current on all the latest news from CARLI.

Spotlight on E-Resources

Ursula Zyzik, Saint Xavier University

Popular software tools allow creating and updating media rich online guides relatively easy. Collectively, these guides constitute a powerful database of authoritative resources selected by hundreds of librarians and shared freely on the Internet.

Increasingly, publishers and database producers become leading creators of editorial content to web-based learning tools and thus are valuable sources of authoritative information for students, instructors, librarians and scholars.

Proquest’s Discovery Guides, written for a college audience, capture the core issues and scholarship of a topic in a consistent format. As ProQuest’s website states:

Discovery Guides brief you in the basics of a subject and offer recent insights, while providing the technological tools to enhance your understanding.

Each Discovery Guide links to CSA products that help you find pertinent information, discover publishing opportunities, identify scholars, and create a personal database.

Each guide provides a Review essay of the topic, Key Citations, Visual Resources, Glossary and Scholarship. The authors/editors of each Discovery Guide are experts in the field and the resources cited are from the Proquest databases.

The Discovery Guides are published monthly highlighting a hot topic from one of the four categories: Arts and Humanities, Natural Sciences, Social Sciences and Technology. The series has currently 120 published guides all available on the Internet. Some examples include: Performing Identity in the Digital Age; Forgive Us Our Trespasses? The Rise of Consumer Debt in Modern America; Adelard’s Questions and Ockham’s Razor: Connections between Medieval Philosophy and Modern Science; Not Continental Drift but Plate Tectonics.

Unlike the typical library research guides, the Discovery Guides are comprehensive introductions to the topic with 30 or so cited references and a complete glossary of key terms and phrases. One of the most valuable features in many of the guides is the listing of prominent experts and scholars selected from the Community of Scholars database.

Each Discovery Guide has a podcast version available for download through iTunes and other services, making the resource more useful to those who learn with audio formats. Each guide is also available in PDF for easy printing. The series can be searched by keywords or browsed within categories. Unfortunately, there is no RSS feed provided, making frequent visits to the site necessary to check for updates.

Librarians and students should find the Discovery Guides a valuable addition to their research tools.

Librarians on the Move

Karen Hovde, Northern Illinois University

Christopher Bulock and Barbara Levergood have joined the faculty at Southern Illinois University’s Library and Information Services. Christopher is Assistant Professor and Electronic Resources Librarian. He received his MSLS from the University of California, Los Angeles and a BA in Cognitive Science from Occidental College in LA. Prior to moving to Illinois he served as an Electronic Resources Intern at Occidental College. Barbara is Associate Professor, Government Information and Cartographic Resources Librarian at SIU Edwardsville’s Library and Information Services. She comes from Goettingen University, Goettingen State and University Library, Goettingen, Germany, where she served in various capacities over the last six years. Prior to that she was the Electronic Documents Librarian at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Barbara holds a Ph.D. in Linguistics, an MSLS from the University of Texas at Austin, and a BA in linguistics from the University of California, San Diego.

Deana Greenfield has joined the library faculty at National-Louis University in Chicago, specializing in archives/special collections and instruction.

Roosevelt University welcomes Katy A. Hite as Reference/Instruction & Distance Learning Librarian. Katy graduated from Dominican University and began at Roosevelt in June.

Joan Schuitema has moved from the University of Illinois at Chicago as Catalog Librarian to the position of Coordinator of Technical Services at Northeastern Illinois University.

Brian Hickam will join Benedictine University at the end of September. Previously at the University of Toledo, he will be Assistant Director, Springfield Campus.

Heather Snapp graduated in May 2010 from the GSLIS program at UIUC, and has just started a six-month internship at Parkland College Library as part of the NILRC community college grant.

At the Saint Francis Medical Center College of Nursing Library in Peoria, IL, Leslie Menz has been promoted from Library Technician to Librarian.

Olivet Nazarene University has three new librarians: Ann Johnston. Technology Librarian (Graduate and Continuing Studies), Kyle Olney, Access Services Librarian, and Judson Strain, Reference Librarian.

Ursula Zyzik, Associate Librarian, Saint Xavier University, is a new library trustee on the Board of Trustees for the Indian Prairie Library District. The library includes the three large communities of Darien, Willowbrook and Burr Ridge, making an interesting combination of district library issues. Ursula finds her new role both satisfying and rewarding, and (in the spirit of the message from IACRL’s President Elect) encourages other academic librarians to consider this kind of community service.

And a bevy of retirements—

Diane Fox, retires as Public Services Librarian from Olivet Nazarene University

Joan Fiscella. retires as Principal Bibliographer at University of Illinois at Chicago (July)

Carl Lorber, Professor, Head of Reference Services and Business Librarian since 1988 (MLS, UIUC) and Johnson Kuma, Professor and Librarian for Biological Sciences and Technology since 1993 (MLS, St. Johns University) retire from Booth Library, Eastern Illinois University.

Gary Denue, Associate Dean at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville’s Library and Information Services, has recently announced his retirement after serving in various leadership roles throughout his nearly 30 years of service to the university.

John W. Berry, Executive Director of the Network of Illinois Learning Resources in CommunityColleges (NILRC) retired on July 31, 2010. Berry, an ALA Past President, had been NILRC Executive Director since 1996. He continues his work as Professor of the Practice of Library and Information Sciences at Dominican University and Chairman of the Ernest Hemingway Foundation of Oak Park.

Patricia Woodworth, Director of Library Services and Academic Support Center, John Wood Community College, retires at the end of August after 18 and a half years, first as librarian and then as the Director of Library Services. She had previously worked at Great River Library System as a circulation clerk, and then as head of Interlibrary Loan.

We’ll leave you with a quote from Pat Woodworth.

“Illinois, despite its poor fiscal policies and deficit, is still a great state to be a librarian. I’ve seen many changes in libraries during my last 40 years as a professional librarian and as a para-professional. I know that things have looked bleak before, but due to the dedication, ingenuity, and determination, all types of libraries in Illinois will keep on doing what they have always done.”

Best of luck to all of you in your new endeavors.

SYNERGY: A Successful Program Suspended

Ellen K. Corrigan, Eastern Illinois University

In early August 2010, Illinois State Library Director Anne Craig announced the suspension of Synergy, the Illinois Library Leadership Initiative, and other continuing education programs during FY11, citing the need to use federal LSTA funding toward core operations such as delivery services.

Sponsored by the Illinois State Library, the Shawnee Library System, and the Illinois Library Association, the purpose of Synergy has been to recruit Illinois librarians with leadership potential and nurture them into library leaders. Developed as a statewide library leadership initiative in 2002, founders chose the name Synergy (defined as the cooperative action of two or more forces that produce a combined result greater than the sum of the individual parts) to convey their vision for the program—a vision that continues to be achieved with each successive group that emerges empowered and committed to lead.

Each year 30 individuals—holding various positions in public, academic, school, and special libraries as well as library schools and organizations—are selected from a competitive pool of applicants to participate in a yearlong process. The program takes place over the course of a calendar year, and includes attendance at three intensive three-day sessions (led by organizational development consultants Becky Schreiber and John Shannon of Schreiber Shannon Associates, who have facilitated library leadership institutes across the United States and Australia) as well as mentoring by established leaders in Illinois libraries. Through interaction at these sessions and communication during the interim, the members form a “cohort” whose bonds may last well past the end of the formal Synergy period.

The program has cultivated something of a mystique, as Synergists typically refrain from divulging much about the experience, for a variety of reasons—the uniqueness of each participant’s experience, the confidentiality of their cohort members, etc. But in keeping with the program’s stated objectives, librarians engage in an ongoing assessment process, reflecting on their own strengths, weakness, and values before examining and evaluating the external environment, ultimately resulting in a vision of librarianship.

While participants take different ideas away from Synergy, many participants feel the same about the impact the program has had on their careers, describing the experience as “eye-opening” or “life-changing.” According to Lian Ruan, Director/Head Librarian of the Illinois Fire Service Institute Library and a 2004 participant, “The intensive training in isolated settings has changed my perspective about leadership, library management, and myself.” Stephanie Bonjack, from the 2007 cohort, identifies “the ability to recognize and engage with a variety of personality types” as one of the skills she acquired. “Holding a position of leadership demands that you work with everyone, not just like-minded colleagues. For me that required a conscious mental shift,” she added. Learning to see the big picture was another significant outcome for Bonjack, who asserts that “putting your work into perspective within your unit, your organization, and your profession is so helpful in determining what is meaningful or has value. It also helps you see … if you are contributing in a way that satisfies you.”

In addition to strengthening personal and professional leadership skills, Synergy develops a professional network by establishing relationships within and among annual cohorts. Over the last nine years, the Synergy program has affected the lives of approximately 270 participants and 40 mentors, as well as countless other library colleagues and patrons who have benefited from the leadership lessons learned at the institute. (Academic librarians from at least 35 institutions have accounted for roughly 20% of participants.) Preliminary findings of a study by Sue Stroyan of Illinois Wesleyan University, a past Synergy mentor, indicated that Synergists have had a major impact on Illinois libraries—conducting research, taking leadership positions, and so on. Synergy’s influence has spread beyond Illinois as some former participants have moved on to jobs in other states and countries. Bonjack was one of two librarians at VanderCook College of Music when she participated in Synergy, and she attributes landing her current position as Head of the Music Library at the University of Southern California in part to her experience: “Without Synergy, I don't think such a leap would have happened,” she observes.

Synergists reacted to the announcement of the imminent suspension with sadness, but also with characteristic leadership spirit. Within a week of the announcement, alumni were communicating online about how to carry on leadership development in the state. Members of the current cohort are similarly spurred on. Frances Whaley, a librarian at Illinois Valley Community College, feels that the program’s discontinuation raises the level of expectations for her group to become highly accomplished leaders. She also expresses optimism about Synergy’s uncertain future, declaring, “I believe that the leaders of the ISL truly value the investment in this unique library leadership initiative and they chose to continue it as long as possible.  This gives me hope that Synergy will return in 2012 and more librarians will be as fortunate as I to join the esteemed ranks of Synergists.”

Illinois State Library News

Patrick McGuckin, Illinois State Library

Every year the Illinois State Library receives Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) federal funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. For many years we used LSTA funds to administer a popular competitive grant program for different types of libraries and our library systems. A number of college and research libraries applied for and benefited from these grants, which were designed to promote creativity and help libraries address specific local needs.

In the summer of 2009, after the Illinois General Assembly made significant cuts to per capita grant programs operated by the State Library, Secretary of State and State Librarian Jesse White decided to shutter the competitive LSTA grant program for FY10 and use LSTA funds to restore some of the money cut by lawmakers.

One year later the state of Illinois’ fiscal problems continue. As much as we would like to offer a competitive LSTA grant program in FY11, the state’s fiscal condition shows no signs of improving anytime soon. As a result, we will once again shutter the LSTA competitive grant program and use LSTA funds to help fund programs such as delivery and critical resource sharing services .

Other LSTA funds we have received over the years have been used to provide statewide continuing education (CE) programs to the library community. These programs include Synergy, the Illinois Library Leadership Initiative; the Small Public Library Management Institute; the Institute for School and Public Librarians; and the On the Front Lines Conference. LSTA money has also been used to provide 15 scholarships each year to students entering library school.

State Library Director Anne Craig announced in August that the State Library may need all available LSTA funding to preserve delivery of materials, maintenance of the catalogs at the state’s regional library systems, and the Talking Book libraries. As a result, we have made the difficult decision to also put our traditional CE programs and scholarships on hold during FY11, excluding programs already underway and scholarships already announced. One State Library CE program, ILEAD U, is operated with a three-year Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian competitive award; ILEAD U will continue through 2012.

The State Library believes funding must be available throughout FY11 to support delivery, the catalogs and the Talking Book Centers. Our patrons have made it clear to all of us that prompt delivery of library materials is their paramount concern. And if our catalogs cease functioning, there will be no materials to deliver. Secretary White is focused on ensuring that resource sharing is supported for the duration of this fiscal crisis and beyond.

Recent Publications by Academic Librarians in Illinois: Fall 2010

Compiled by Tracy Ruppman, Loyola University Chicago

Anderson, Byron. Alternative Publishers of Books in North America. 7th Revised and Enlarged ed. Gainesville, FL: Counterpoise Books, 2010. Print.

Blobaum, Paul M. "Update: Resources for Supporting the APA Publication Style." Journal of Hospital Librarianship 10.2 (2010): 197-200. Print.

Daugherty, Robert Allen. "Library Leadership and Management Association." Encyclopedia of Library and Information Sciences. Eds. Marcia J. Bates and Mary Niles Maack. 3rd ed. ed. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2010. Print.

Douglas, Jeffrey. "Gems on the Prairie." Illinois Library Association Reporter 28.3 (2010): 10-3. Print.

Greene, Courtney, Missy Roser, and Elizabeth Ruane. The Anywhere Library : A Primer for the Mobile Web. Chicago: Association of College and Research Libraries, 2010. Print.

Jensen, Dell, Richard Narske, and Connie Ghinazzi. "Beyond Chemical Literature: Developing Skills for Chemical Research Literacy." Journal of Chemical Education 87.7 (2010): 700-2. Print.

Jensen, Lauren A. "Extend Instruction Outside the Classroom: Take Advantage of Your Learning Management System." Computers in Libraries 30.6 (2010): 76-8. Print.

Kohut, David R., and Olga Vilella. Historical Dictionary of the "Dirty Wars". 2nd ed. Lanham: Scarecrow Press, 2010. Print.

Lewis, Krystal M., and Peter Hepburn. "Open Card Sorting and Factor Analysis: A Usability Case Study." The Electronic Library 28.3 (2010): 401. Print.

Quinn, Aimée C., Tanya Finchum, and Charles E. Malone. "Government Documents Collection and Management." Encyclopedia of Library and Information Sciences. Eds. Marcia J. Bates and Mary Niles Maack. 3rd ed. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2010. Print.

Stephens, Michael. "The Hyperlinked School Library: Engage, Explore, Celebrate." Access 24.1 (2010): 5-8. Print.

IACRL Newsletter, Volume 33:2, Fall 2010

General Editors: Jana Brubaker and Karen Hovde
Managing Editors: Lindsay Harmon and Tracy Ruppman

IACRL Publications Committee
Jana Brubaker (Co-Chair), Northern Illinois University | Ellen K. Corrigan, Eastern Illinois University
Hunt Dunlap, Western Illinois University | Lindsay Harmon, American Academy of Art
Karen Hovde (Co-Chair), Northern Illinois University | Lauren Jensen, Monmouth College
Tracy Ruppman, Loyola University Chicago | Ursula Zyzik, Saint Xavier University

Please send news to the IACRL Publications Committee, c/o Jana Brubaker, NIU Libraries (jbrubake@niu.edu).

Send address changes to ILA, 33 W. Grand Ave., Suite 301, Chicago, IL 60610 (ph: 312-644-1899; ila@ila.org)

The Illinois Association of College and Research Libraries is an Illinois Library Association forum and a chapter of the Association of College and Research Libraries.