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IRIS Management Group Quarterly Reports, January 2006

 

Collections

Catherwood Library: We completed the selection of 17,120 volumes from the collection for storage in the Annex in order to provide surge space for faculty offices while the Ives West Wing is renovated beginning in 2006.  The entire remaining third floor open stack collection was shifted to accommodate three years of growth until the renovation project is completed in 2009.

Collections, Reference, Instruction, & Outreach (CRIO): Olin Selectors (with strong CRIO representation) continue to work on the Annex move, the first stage of which targets low-use monographs published between 1931 and 1960. In October, November, and December, selectors completed reviewing pick-lists of targeted monographs from floors 7, 5, 2, 4, and level B—at total of 71,679 titles—to determine which can move and which should stay on-site. Lists for floors 6 and 3—a further 33,491 titles—will be completed in January.

CRIO selectors have also participated in the review of the Olin stacks for rare and medium-rare materials, which is proceeding in tandem with the Annex move. CRIO collection development staff and student workers continued work on Project Missing, a joint CRIO-Collection Maintenance initiative to locate books in the Olin and Asia stacks that have been reported lost. Around 20% of the “missing” titles have now been accounted for. A few remaining books in the Asia stacks will be searched in January to complete the project. See the online report for details.

Several CRIO selectors attended public sessions of the Janus Conference on Research Library Collections, held at Cornell October 9-11. Kizer Walker, the department’s Coordinator for Collections served on the Janus planning committee and is member of the proponent group on open access repositories that emerged from the conference.

CRIO selectors and subject specialists continue to meet with faculty in the departments to discuss issues surrounding scholarly communications and to promote CUL’s role in providing alternative channels for dissemination and preservation of the scholarly record. 80-90 departments were targeted for visitation by the CUL Priority Implementation Team working on scholarly communications issues; around10% were reached in the fall semester. See Sarah Thomas's October letter (PDF) to deans, directors and department chairs about the initiative.

Sarah How and Virginia Cole attended the Frankfurt Book Fair and made valuable contacts that will enhance our European collections. Following the Book Fair, they attended the Frankfurt University Library's Fifth Scientific Symposium, this year on Open Access. Sarah also attended the Readex Symposium and Workshop in Vermont and shared information about their important new Serial Set product with the staff after she returned.

Fine Arts Library: Continued working on KC Parsons materials. A CRP graduate student has been trained to do the initial searching. MW will meet with Eileen Keating and Elaine Engst in January to discuss where to house these materials (primarily U.S. city planning studies and reports). 17,000 monographs marked and shifted to the Annex. Native American materials from the Huntington Collection started arriving at the FAL. Sarah How initiated a review of the reference collection, searching and recommending up-to-date editions of some reference classics.

Hotel/Management Library: Both Hotel and Management are flagging books for offsite.  These books will be moved in January. The Hotel Library menu collection was move to RMC.  Hotel will continue to maintain the menu collection database. Worked with Hotel faculty & Program in Real estate to purchase SNL Datasource – Real Estate (e-resource.) Will be adding electronic full text titles to the Hospitality and Tourism Index Cancelled Research Insight CDROM, superseded by other e-resources.

John Henrik Clarke Africana Library: As a result of a gift of $500.00, Africana Library was able to purchased 32 films from the Blaxploitation era of the 1970s. These films will support the instruction in ASRC 100.4, Black Identity in Cinema, and ASRC 508, Black International Visual and Literary Cultures, and will enhance the teaching and research of faculty and students throughout the University. Added one poster/map to the collection, and placed existing oversized maps in an open public area. Continuing stacks inventory.

Facilities

Annex: Construction is completed. A new card access security system is currently being installed.

Asia Collections: Planning for the redesign of Room B59 to be named “The IL Hwan Cho and Soon Ja Cho Room,” a room for graduate students and faculty in Asian Studies to support the study of Asia and will also be used for library meetings.

Catherwood Library: Work was begun on soundproofing the breakout rooms in the library created from the Phase IIa construction.  We found that noise escaping from those rooms on the first floor (adjacent to silent study space) disturbed other students.

Collections, Reference, Instruction, & Outreach (CRIO): Planning for a re-designed office suite for the CRIO merger continues.  Staff representatives have met regularly with CUL Facilities staff and architects from HOLT to participate in the needs-analysis and preliminary designs for the department.  A sequence for space shuffling (that includes several staff/departments in Olin/Uris) has been determined, but a definite timeline has not been unveiled.

Fine Arts Library: Scaffolding on the N. side of building was erected in order to make dormer repairs. Unfortunately, this led to the illegal entry of the Fine Arts Library on two separate occasions. It is estimated that at least six boxes of books were stolen (according to an eye witness account). Working with the campus police, a covert camera was installed and an investigation is ongoing. Also, locks have been installed on all N. side windows. Front and emergency door keys were stolen from the FAL. Key changes were made to seven doors. Toured the facility with John Hoffmann, Lee Cartmill, Charlie Pomada (AAP facilities), and Peter Turner (AAP Assistant Dean). The group noted many problems including extreme cases of chipped and peeling paint around the windows, leaky skylights, a broken ceiling joist (requiring the displacement of 48 shelves of books), stacks that need securing, and a thread- bare carpet throughout much of the library. The college will work with the library in trying to resolve some of these facility issues. The fourth annual pre-thesis student art show was installed, featuring the work (in a variety of media) of 31 Cornell seniors. Worked with Xin Li and John Hoffman on the allocation of funds in support of fundamental staff furnishings.

Hotel/Management Library: Copasetic.

John Henrik Clarke Africana Library: Open up one classroom in ASRC to accommodate students who wanted to study outside of the library during study and final exam weeks. Securing signage for emergency exit door, and map area. Got the approval to get an additional computer to be used for reference. This will be housed at the service desk. Is targeted to be installed before the start of the spring 2006 semester. Will be getting custom made shade for librarian’s office door. (Door is completely glass, shade provides privacy.) 

Research and Assessment Services: We had meetings with Facilities about changes to 215 to accommodate Peter Hirtle moving in.

Services

Annex: Users can now request that a microform title be scanned and delivered via the My Document Delivery service. The Annex will continue to fill requests for delivery of physical copies of microfilm or fiche through the Library-to-Library service.

Asia Collections: With the National Coordinating Council on Japanese Library Resources (NCC), we sponsored a talk on Nov. 7th by Yuki Ishimatsu (Head of Japanese Collections at the E.A. Library, UC Berkeley) concerning the Japanese Historical Maps database. Held a Chinese and Japanese Legal E-resource mini-workshop with Law Library colleagues at the Law School on October 20th.

Catherwood Library: We are storing faculty records in the Kheel Center for those who must move from the Ives West Wing into smaller quarters on the third floor of the library beginning late spring 06.  This is in preparation for renovation of the faculty wing.  Those records will be stored on a temporary basis and returned to their owners when ILR takes possession of the renovated space in 2008 or 2009.

Collections, Reference, Instruction, & Outreach (CRIO): Demand for Library instruction continues to grow in CRIO.   After a 10% increase from the previous academic year we’ve seen a 26% increase so far for this academic year. We’re closely monitoring the impact on service schedules and updating workshop plans for spring.  Kizer Walker traveled to Berkeley in November to meet with the library team that coordinates the Mellon Institute on Undergraduate Research on behalf of Information Fluency Priorities Team, IT3. The CRIO coordinators developed a “partnership model” matrix for CU administrators which delineates examples of collaborative efforts among CRIO and non-CRIO staff for effective outreach to academic departments. Two students did a survey of CL3 class use as a class project and the preliminary results showed overall user satisfaction at nearly 90%. Virginia Cole attended the Virtual Reference Desk conference and returned with information on service trends and software that will be very useful as we develop digital reference services. To assist staff in continually building reference skills and knowledge of information and research resources, we provided over a dozen group sessions in our staff-training program this fall and numerous one-on-one training and coaching sessions for new staff. Lynn Thitchener presented a well-received talk on the cooperative model with the information service point in the Olin circulation desk and cross training of staff in Reference and Access Services at a Public Services Forum entitled: "Models of Public Services:  Separation, Unification, and Diaspora."

Fine Arts Library: Implemented the new Library to departmental office delivery service. Presented approximately 9 library instruction sessions. Answered numerous reference questions, helping students (primarily) gather information for their papers.

Hotel/Management Library: Management Library ratings in the Johnson School Fall 05 student evaluations for ‘ease of access to business information resources’ and ‘quality of instruction by library staff’ remain high and improved over Fall 04 scores. Bloomberg upgraded the dual panel monitor on their workstation.

John Henrik Clarke Africana Library: For the second semester, we extended our closing hour to midnight for study week. Added vendacard printer. Videotaped 30 events sponsored by ASRC.

Research and Assessment Services: For Assessment Services, Linda Miller completed the PDF version of the Annual Statistical report and the print version is almost ready.  She attended the December 19 meeting of the Council of Librarians to discuss the report, the process, and suggestions for next time. The File Format Media Migration Pilot Service is continuing in quiet mode – responding to periodic requests.

Staff

Annex: Lonnie Hinckle and Diane Schumacher joined the Annex moving project as part of the processing team.

Asia Collections: Adnan Malik’s last day as South Asia Curator was November 7th; Bronwen Bledsoe accepted the offer of the S.A. Curator position and will start April 1, 2006.  Two candidates have interviewed for the Southeast Asia Curator position. David Wyatt leaves that position at the end of December.

Catherwood Library: Paulette Manos, Public Services Assistant IV in reference, resigned effective 1 December 05 to become Assistant Director for Alumni Affairs at the ILR School.  A search is underway for her replacement.  Donna Schulman, Librarian at the Lenz Library in New York serving the ILR Extension Division staff in the city, is now formally part of the Catherwood staff.  She will be working with Suzanne Cohen and Deb Lamb-Deans to develop new and innovative services to strengthen our outreach initiatives for staff in the ILR Extension Division statewide.

Collections, Reference, Instruction, & Outreach (CRIO): Liane O’Brien joined CRIO as an administrative assistant.  Liane works 20 hours per week.  Her office is located in 106 Olin.  She has been a great asset to the department already. She will be hiring a student n January. The search for a new Director of CRIO is proceeding slowly. The position posting was re-written, and submitted to print publications, with a deadline extended to the end of February 2006.

Fine Arts Library: A CRP graduate student received training on how to search Worldcat for records pertaining to city planning documents (the KC Parsons collection/gift). Worked with Margaret Webster and Lance Heidig on an instruction program that targets faculty who want to take advantage of digital media and use electronic images in the classroom. Also worked with Lance Heidig and representatives of the Luna Support team on raising the visibility and accessibility of digital image resources on the Library Gateway. Hosted a bowling party for the FAL’s student assistants at the Helen Newman lanes on 10/28.

Hotel/Management Library: Susan Kendrick, the new Public Services Librarian in Management joined us October 31st. On August 1st, Angela Horne assumed added responsibility for business information instruction and now serves as the Associate Department Head in Management.  In addition to this new role she will continue to oversee the reference and access services functions.  Angela will also supervise Susan Kendrick.  In the Nestle Library, the Circulation / Reserve Supervisor, Linda Beins, accepted a position as Head of Reference and InterLibrary Services for the Finger Lakes Library System.  A search for a Circulation supervisor is in progress.  With Linda's departure, Thad Dickinson will oversee Reference and Access Services at Hotel.  His new title is Head of Reference and Access Services. Mihoko Hosoi will take responsibility for Instruction at Hotel.  She will continue to oversee the Hostline, fee-based service, and Hotel's Reference FAQ project. Her new title is Head of Instruction and Research Services.  These changes give these individuals the opportunity to develop new skills and expertise in new areas.  I appreciate their flexibility and willingness to take on these assignments.

John Henrik Clarke Africana Library: Saah Nue Quigee successfully completed his 90-day probationary period.

Preservation and Collection Maintenance:
Adam Swanson- Conservation Technician
Saw Htoo- Annex Moving Project
Paw Pha- Annex Moving Project
Richard Paige- Annex Moving Project
Wendy Thompson- Annex Moving Project
Ken Tiddick- Annex Moving Project

Other

Collections, Reference, Instruction, & Outreach (CRIO): The CRIO coordinators have been working carefully with Liane and staff from IRIS accounting to monitor the merged CRIO budget. Maureen Morris worked with Kizer Walker and other staff to create a unified web site for CRIO.

Fine Arts Library: M. Walker, as president of the Western New York Chapter of the Art Librarians Society (of North America), hosted a one-day meeting of the association here at Cornell, at which Thomas Hahn gave a very well received and much appreciated presentation on the Wen Pulin Archive of Chinese Avant Garde Art. After the chapter meeting, the group traveled to WorldWide Books, a distributor of art exhibition catalogs, for a tour and reception.

Hotel/Management Library: Don compiled and posted the results of the academic business library ‘database access’ survey. Coordinating a visit from a librarian from Nanyang Technical Univ. (Singapore) with regard to the Cornell-NTU degree program. The Business Information Group has submitted a draft charge to the Reference & Outreach committee. Don participated at EBSCO’s business advisory group meeting.

John Henrik Clarke Africana Library: Provided critical data about the CU Library to help the Africana Studies and Research Center secure Title IV grant. Took part in November Ithaca School Teacher’s training day. Developed collection development guide.

Preservation and Collection Maintenance: Save America’s Treasures grant awarded for conservation of the Native American Collection. Annex Book move began 11/14; 31,223 volumes moved from 11/14-11/30

Research and Assessment Services: We held the final Digital Preservation Management Workshop for 2005 (Oct 30-Nov 4). We published the October and December issues of RLG DigiNews.

IRIS Design/Library Communications: We designed and built the following sites:

We designed a number of posters, brochures, bookmarks, post cards, and other materials including:

  • Janus conference
  • Native American Collection publicity
  • CUL holiday card
  • Publicity for new library services, events, and exhibits.

We are on the CommonSpot Training committee that is working on developing training for CUL staff.