IUPUI Library

While visiting Indianapolis, I stopped by in the IUPUI (Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis) Library It serves a mostly commuter population of 21,000. The main library is five stories, the lower level containing the archives, an auditorium and student lounge with vending machines. The first floor has the Teaching & Learning Cetner and the IUPUI Office for Professional Development, Library administrations and some meeting rooms. The second floor is the main floor of the library with circulation and the reference area, which includes an Academic Commons, reduced reference stacks, current periodicals, micorforms, and government documents in compressed shelving. The Academic Commons consists of numerous computers - regular single service stations, an area for multi-media, and a couple of areas with wavy partitions, tables with computers for groups, with movable tables, chairs, and white boards for working. This was largely funded by local businesses interested in technically savvy workers. There was also a special philanthropy library on this floor and the grad student at the reference desk had gotten a MA in philanthropy studies and showed me that they are offering the first PhD program in the field. The third and fourth floors were quiet areas with book stacks, four areas of 28 computers each with a computer consultant on the fourth floor. There were faculty offices (library and university), banks of carrels, all having electrical outlets and various other connections available. Grad carrels were out in the open, but had lockable cabinets. Every floor had comfy seating areas. Almost all the computer needed login access.

Reference Question from UN Diplomat

I don't know how to title this. On one hand it was a wonderful personal adventure, on the other it was the ultimate answer to a reference question, it also talks to trust and serendipity. I just want to share the story with friends and colleagues who might appreciate it.

Yesterday afternoon I got a phone call at the Reference Desk from a woman who asked if we had a student ride service. She needed a ride for her husband, a UN diplomat, from Kalamazoo to Charlevoix or at least Cadillac ASAP. I spent some time trying to find a service like that for her, we even called one of our students, but found nothing. Before I could call the woman back, her husband called - he has just started the job at the UN, and just ended his job with Newsweek, so his credit cards don't work. I started thinking, maybe I could give this interesting person the ride. I left numbers with a colleague for safety's sake and went to pick him up at the airport. He provided the most delightful two and a half hours of conversation I've had in a long time.

Michael Meyer started as a banker, was bored, wrote a list of what he'd really like to do - travel, meet people, be on the edge of change, and realized that he could be a foreign correspondent. The next day he requested an application to the journalism program at Columbia.

Mike was working for Newsweek when in 1988 he applied to be the East European correspondent. Someone else got the job, but decided that would not be a good career move, as nothing much was happening there, so Mike took the position. He traveled extensively throughout Eastern Europe during the times of change. He even visited Latvia in 1991, the year of the barricades and eventual freedom. So you can imagine we had a lot to discuss. He is now writing a book titled 1989: The Year the World Changed (or something like that). In writing his book he is going through foreign policy memos and is amazed at how wrong Condoleezza Rice was about the Soviet Union back then. As a journalist he could see that there were real changes happening.

At one point he took over a year off to live in Kosovo and worked with the UN peace keeping mission. Then back to Newsweek, the European office, then focused on technology issues in the mid 90's. I'll have to read some of his articles (276 for his name and Newsweek in ProQuest).

Three weeks ago he started working for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as head of communications. (Thank goodness I had just read an article about Ki-moon.) Mike's job is to find the "voice" for Ki-moon, some way to communicate his ideas to the world. While we were driving, Mike got a phone call from someone at the UN, who was upset about an article that had just appeared in the journal Foreign Policy, criticizing Ki-moon's first six months at the UN. Mike knows the editor of Foreign Policy and promised to get out a letter to the editor soon. Later he got a text message that it wasn't in the journal, but on a blog. Mike had warned them that the six month mark was coming up and to be prepared for criticism.

Turns out that Mike has been on the Council of Foreign Relations for the last ten years. I have been in their office in NYC, because one of my Latvian teachers - Janis Kreslins - worked in the library there. They publish the journal Foreign Affairs. I just lucked out that I knew something about most of the things we talked about.

Mike's wife Suzanne is a champion of using games for educational purposes. He described A Force More Powerful, a game of nonviolent strategy. Mike recommended the book Everything Bad is Good for You that talks to this. In our brief phone conversation Suzanne mentioned that she is working with a major foundation, and that funding for libraries has recently come up. Must be why she thought to call us.

Anyway, the time flew by and I've got an invitation to lunch in NYC, a tour of the UN, and an introduction to the General-Secretary, if he's in his office. The chances of collecting on that are slim, but just thinking about the possibility is fun.

I didn't consider this to be going the extra mile (or 300 miles) in answering a reference question, but a wonderful adventure.

Best of ACRL in Baltimore

The best presentations had little to do with libraries, but the two keynote speakers I had the privilege to hear were outstanding. Michael Eric Dyson, a scholar who has written on the effect of Hurricane Katrina on the Black community, has refuted Bill Cosby, analyzed rap, and more, just about rapped his whole speech. I was amazed and wondered what David Isaacson would have made of him. His sense of the language was incredible, he covered many relevant topics to librarians and he explained the linguistic complexity of Ebonics. This was entertaining and informational all at once.

John Waters, director of movies like Hairspray and Polyester, though I only have seen his Pink Flamingos, was entertaining and edgy. Most would think this was too outlandish for librarians, but he knew he was talking to one of the most liberal minded groups ever – at least in the sense that we fight hard to protect everyone’s freedom of speech. Waters has definitely been one of those to test the limits. He suggested some ways librarians could increase the interest in libraries – by disrobing (no one would believe it happened), padding crotches, translating books into Ebonics, if kids are on drugs – act like we are on drugs. I found myself laughing a lot, though not everyone at my table was laughing, so even among librarians, this was a bit edgy. I found his talk refreshing, like refreshing your palette between courses, this refreshed my mind between serious conference presentations.

Before I get to the nitty-gritty, I have to say the session that excited me the most personally and has gotten me dreaming pipe dreams, was a session on information literacy in the Arab countries. I went to see if I could glean some ideas for our international students, but instead, I am ready to take off and work in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. One of the presenters was Carol Hansen, my mentor at the Immersion program a few years back, who was just getting ready to go to UAE. She presented with a colleague from Zayed University in UAE, and another colleague from the American University in Cairo. After the session a man from a Midwest college was talking about being asked to set up a library in UAE for an engineering college being set up by his school. These places are looking for librarians, and Dubai sounded like a very interesting place to go. Wonder if I could talk my son into going?r (I think they usually ask for a 3 year contract, so it might be after he’s done with high school.)

Otherwise the most exciting session was from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign on the things they have done to appeal to the millennials. Whenever I have heard Lisa Hinchcliffe speak, she has impressed me, and this was no exception. Their undergrad library is full to capacity and beyond, starting from the second half of the semester. Their circulation statistics have gone up tremendously. What are they doing?

• Learning Commons – with coordinator
• Combined four service desks – circulation, reference, media booking, and ??? (have to check)
• Gaming nights
• Purchased games and game consoles (Playstations, X-boxes)
• 75% of the games are out at any one time
• Have chosen to get a few less books
• Check out laptops, MP3 players and more
• Videos and DVDs out of closed stacks -open circulation
• Priority to digital formats – who uses print reference sources willingly?
• Quiet study areas are in other libraries, but students have self designated the lower level as quiet

These are all good ideas, but the thing that amazed me the most, was that from idea to implementation takes about 2 to 3 weeks for them. They are not afraid to try things, change policies, and if they don’t work, they go back, and move on. The only real example of things not working was that when they combined the service desks, they thought they didn’t need a real chain of command, and that responsibilities would work out for themselves and they didn’t.

There were many, many good ideas presented in panels, papers, poster sessions, exhibits, and just in talking with people. The rest I will try to organize into categories.

Web 2.0/ MySpace/ FaceBook/ Second Life

• Create a library search box that students can put on MySpace or Web CT
• Use FaceBook to offer lib help to specific classes
• Use student blogs to advertise what student life is like at WMU
• Librarians can search and respond to any research issues
• Get involved with Second Life – even if it isn’t used for traditional reference yet, we need to know how to maneuver in it

Tutorials

• Trends: shorter, modular, point of need, more interactivity, assessment component, gaming elements
• Use multimedia creation software, team approach, oustource parts, get grant support
• Trends in use – course requirement, links from course mgmt systems, distance learning, marketing to select groups, point of need “push” marketing

Reference

• Side by side reference, sometimes with 2 computers, so students can do with you
• Reference blog – a special blog to keep track of reference questions – keeps statistics, lets you see how students and your colleagues are answering questions, lets you add ideas, makes it easier for repeat questions (open source)

Information Literacy Assessment

• South Dakota continues to refine their Info Lit Exam and we could still be beta testers
• James Madison seems to be another one to check out
• SAILS – seems ready for prime time according to a poster session

Subject Guides

• Portland State has created Topic Watch guides for business & film studies
• Composed of RSS feeds (news blogs), podcasts, webinars, federated search, some programmable websites, new book lists

International

• Get involved with Study Abroad programs – help prepare students

Miscellaneous

• Creative commons – new term I learned for open publication license

Michigan Academy Annual Meeting 2007

Michigan Academy of Science Arts and Letters Annual Meeting
Library and Information Science Section
Friday, March 9, 2007
Held at Ferris State University, Big Rapids, MI

Presider: Aparna Zambare, Central Michigan University

SESSION 1

Material requests in an electronic environment. Joe Badics, Eastern Michigan University Library
Badics reported how they have phased out paper forms for acquisitions at EMU, and analyzed the requests received. 80% are for books, 78% requests were filled. The most interesting analysis concerned who was requesting materials. Art and history were the most active, 50% of the requests came from 4 people (or some other very small number.) Only 42 our of 736 faculty are requesting materials and only 30 students out of thousands. Many departments are not requesting anything. Another side note – people don’t use reserves much.

Trends in Online Library Tutorials. Maira Bundza, Western Michigan University

Consumer Health Websites as a Platform for Teaching Evaluation of Internet Content in a Library Instruction Course. Robin M. Sabo, Central Michigan University
50% of adults are not health literate, and since looking for health issues is the third most common use of the Internet, maybe librarians can help. In the Introduction to Library Research class, Sabo has students evaluate health websites, such as www.lasikathome.com hoax site. There are public initiatives for improving information literacy as well as health literacy.

Teaching the Evidence-Based Practice Model in an Academic Health Sciences Library. Elizabeth Retzel Bucciarelli, Eastern Michigan University

Process of Constructing Medical Strategic Information Sources Use Value: Applications to Brussels (Belgium) and Lyon (France) Universities hospitals Setting. Samuel Tietse, University of Lille3 (France)
This librarian from France shared his research on the information sources used by medical professionals. One of the most often used was online contact with colleagues.

Googleocity: Information at the Speed of Chaos. Rhonda Fowler and Susann deVries, Eastern Michigan University

Sharing the New, Cool and Useful: WSU’s Emerging Issues Forum. Michael C. Sensiba, Wayne State University
This was the most interesting session on a way to keep librarians aware and on top of rapid and profound change. Using a commercial website Squidoo as a tool, Michael posts materials on this site for pre-discussion reading, which helps focus the discussion, and allows those who were unable to attend to still get the information. Discussions have been held on Social Networking http://www.squidoo.com/eifsocialnetworking/ , Viral Marketing & Libraries http://www.squidoo.com/eifviralmarketing/ , Citation Management http://www.squidoo.com/eifcitationmanagement/, and the next one will be on Second Life.

Why Should My Library Be Involved in the Institutional Repository? Ruth Helwig, Central Michigan University

Digital Commons Inspires Chapbook Project For Urban High School Poets: A Wayne State University Libraries Community Outreach Program. Lothar Spang, Wayne State University, and Deborah J. Tucker, Wayne State University
These librarians talked about an outreach project, where they encouraged at risk kids to write poems and then format them for in print and digital publication. Students were proud of their work, wanted a print copy and were interested in keeping the rights to their work.

LUNCH KEYNOTE
Challenges of Undergraduate Education – Mark Harris, Ferris State University

SESSION 2

PromptCat or Brief: Using Vendors Records in the Acquisitions Process. Randle Gedeon, Western Michigan University
I learned what we are doing in our own institution!

Teaching Our Teachers Part Two: Identifying, Ranking, and Assessing the Acquisition of Core Competencies for Instruction Librarians. Sarah Fabian, Eastern Michigan University

Patron privacy are we serious? Daniel Fidel Ferrer, Central Michigan University

Venturing off the island: Librarian involvement in the campus community. Jennifer Starkey & Angela Kelleher, Alma College

Faculty Status and Collective Bargaining: Panel Discussion of Professional Issues for Academic Librarians. Panel Presentation: Daniel Ferrer, Central Michigan University, Scott Garrison, Galen Rike, and Dianna Sachs, Western Michigan University

Notes from Charlottesville

Barbara and I are enjoying our time in the town of Charlottesville, which in some ways is very similar to Kalamazoo – the airport is about the same size, the university is a large part of the town and economy, and downtown consists of a pedestrian mall anchored by an hotel – the Omni, where we are staying. The first night I was talking on my cell to my son and looking out of my hotel room window, across the open atrium, I saw lights beyond the trees and people circling around. Turns out they have put an ice arena there and a hockey game was going on. Looking for dinner, Barbara and I left the hotel and found ourselves in a bustling pedestrian mall – full of restaurants, bars, galleries, book and gift shops. Later I talked to friends who live here and they said that their downtown mall almost died too, but they didn’t give up, drew in the hotel, opened a movie theater, the skating rink, and people started coming, restaurants opened, and now it is very much alive. The university is about a mile away, but the merchants have paid for a free trolley service to bring students downtown. We used it to get to a reception at the university library and found it is well used.

I have to admit I didn’t know anything about the University of Virginia before coming here, so the following is just a miniscule window to the place, but I have to say I really liked what I saw. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson (called Mr. Jefferson by UVA folks), and his influence is still felt today. He designed the first buildings – two rows of buildings with a huge Lawn in between. The buildings alternated between two story “pavilions” and one story rooms for students. Faculty lived on the second floor of the pavilions with classes below. Each pavilion has its own unique set of columns and friezes, and there is a fenced walkway along the rooftops connecting all the pavilions, so the faculty could visit without dealing with the student riff-raff. Jefferson loved visual games, so there are some unique things about the spacing too. Behind each pavilion were two sets of gardens, set off by snaking brick walls – an upper garden for flowers, the lower for animals. Today, the pavilions still house upper level administrators, and the student rooms are the most prestigious place to live on campus, or on the grounds, as they say here. There is a tough competition for these rooms that have their own fireplaces, and a stack of university provided wood outside, but they have no air conditioning or bathrooms – students have to go outside and use a group bathroom. The rooms are awarded by a point system based on university involvement. When students graduate, they gather by the Rotunda (former library) – at one end of the Lawn, come around the sides of the rotunda and march eight abreast down the Lawn to the amphitheater where graduation is held. So graduation is called “Walking the Lawn” around here.

I had to look up the quick facts. It is usually ranked first or second best public university by US News & World Report (though their state funding is down to 12%) and in the top 25 universities in general, usually comparable to the University of Michigan. They have 20,000 students, of which 4700 are grads, and 1700 are in law or medicine.

The Libraries are a happy place. They have numerous libraries scattered around campus, but we got to see three that are next to each other. The reception was at the Harrison Institute – a new special collections library that has a reception building above ground, but the collection is housed underneath the lawn and is marked by a few skylights that are visible above ground. I missed the reception, as I was having dinner with some family friends that teach at UVA, so I just took a quick look around and was duly impressed – similar to the underground set-up at Cornell.

Alderman Library is the Humanities & Social Sciences graduate library. I was most interested in seeing their Information Commons set-up, though I don’t think they call it that. As you walk in the door into the large main hall, you see it is divided into 4 areas: the café, the comfy seating area, the computers, and the circulation/information/reference desk. We talked to the circ students and they explained that they will answer simple reference questions if they are asked and know them, otherwise they are handled by the reference people. There is also an IT consultant available to answer technical questions at most times. There was a small ready reference collection by the desk. The reference room with a reference collection comparable to ours was off of the main hall. At the other end of the main hall was a passage to the Scholars Lab. This is a new area with high end computers, scanners and other equipment. It is used by students and faculty to create digital projects. My friend Dr. Benjamin Ray had worked with this lab to scan and XML code the transcripts of the Salem witch trials and had used the GIS system to locate the proximity of the accusers and accused. Barbara and I talked to the woman working there and she explained that is was a joint effort between the library and IT. Specialized IT help was split between this lab that mostly helps with digitizing and GIS projects, while the scientific software experts went to the science library. The quiet study area was two stories below in the former rare book area – with dark paneling, comfortable furniture, and old style feel like in our Meader Room.

The Clemons Library is the undergraduate library and we just had time to peek in the first floor main room. The room was full and bustling and Barbara and I thought it rather loud. The room was one large open space with different pods for computers, comfortable chairs, and tables. Along one wall were booths with padded seating and a table for working. As you walked in, there was a circulation/information desk – which acted as both circulation and reference. In the middle of the room was an IT consultant’s desk, which was not staffed at the time (8:30pm), and the reference person complained about them constantly changing their schedule. On one side was a Reserves desk.

My faculty friend said everyone was very happy with the library. They get books delivered to their offices, and he talked of a Tool Kit, which I later found out was a home grown course management software, that lets faculty create their own online coursepacks/course reserves. They have also negotiated for lower prices on journals with the help of lawyers.

More stories about New Orleans in general

I was not aware that New Orleans is also suffering drought. How ironic. They’ve had 30 inches less rain than usual since Hurricane Rita, according to my cousin. This produces various effects, besides the burned out yards, that were previously so lushly green. There are visible holes in the ground in places. The roads are buckling, as the underlying earth dries out, the road surfaces drop unevenly creating some amazing pot holes.

Lots of little things just haven’t been a priority. Many road sign are missing, so I was often unsure what street I was on or was crossing. Along St. Charles Street I was pleasantly surprised that many of the stately live oaks have survived – lost some branches, but still standing, but driving home at night I noticed a lot of the street lights were missing. I can't imagine what it was like when there was no power and the roads were full of debris.

My cousin took me around his property one day. What was once a jungle is quite bare, but with plenty of piles of brush and debris. Many trees were lost, including one they were hoping would come down. Only a couple of big trees are left: two cypresses and a pine – all of them leaning the way the wind pushed them.

One spot was especially bare, where the tornado had touched down. I didn’t realize the hurricane was full of tornadoes too. A shed was destroyed, and the garage, which was partially falling in, had the roof totally cave in, though the walls were kept up by vines.

The four foot swimming pool has totally evaporated in this drought. My cousin showed me where the roof of the house next door had blown into the yard and onto the fence. Surprisingly the maze of gardenia bushes seems to have survived.

The amount of clearing they have had to do is amazing. He has gone through four chain-saws and has had numerous relatives and friends help. The downed trees were a factor in not getting robbed, as no one could get to their house.

The house itself sustained roof damage, so it leaked through and damaged many things. The small back porch that was crushed by a fallen tree has been replaced by a more substantial back porch, which is now full of plants, but also an area for the cats. One of the rooms upstairs has been redone – in lilac with a sky blue ceiling. The ceiling has been raised to the roof – giving a more spacious feel.

One morning I helped my cousin and his lady inventory her Barbie and other collectible doll boxes. With the damage to the original boxes, the dolls will have lost their value. So I was describing Barbie doll boxes – year, edition, item #, value, like cataloging books. I actually got a bit intrigued, but not enough to try a hand at collecting something like this myself.

The other thing that I am sure has suffered in this post Katrina period is relationships. I saw that with my cousin. The stresses of loss, instability of jobs and life, lack of services, finances, dealing with insurance, FEMA, and tons of paperwork can be overwhelming and put a strain on the best of relationships.

Just a quick example about finances: they have bee allotted $15,000 for clean-up of their yard and that has long since been spent. My cousin has put in all his savings, small inheritance, bonus, and paychecks. She has spent all of her insurance money, savings, and cashed in CD’s. And there is a lot more to be done. I wish them well.

Lance was lucky - some roof damage, but no water got into the house, though the refrigerator had to be hauled out to the side of the road, and I'm sure there was damage outside. So I saw the range from a little damage, to major damage, to total loss.

ALA - Exhibits

I spent quite a few hours in the exhibits, including time getting a few signed books and picking up quite a few free galley proofs (the pile is in the Reference office for anyone to read, but please return them.) Below are notes on some things that were related to my work and may impact our library as a whole.

Russian/International/Multicultural materials
I’ll have to talk to Bettina on how we are developing our international and multi-cultural collection that supports various programs and could support internationalization across the curriculum.
East View – we can have a minimal selection plan with them. I will have to talk to Dasha Nisula, and maybe some of the local Russian community, what we should order.
Russia Online is another one of the major vendors for Russian materials. They had an interesting encyclopedia of Russian military equipment and tour books for Ukraine.
SpeakEasy http://www.speakeasyspanish.com/ provides a series of books called Survival Spanish. We have been talking in the International Ed. Council about the need for courses that teach a professional enough of a language, to be able deal with clients, without learning all about the grammar, etc. Speak Easy has been teaching courses to health care workers, bankers, construction folk, and many others. The course materials have evolved into books and CD’s. I’ve talked to Maria about this.
Multicultural Books and Videos (in Michigan!) – I picked up the main catalogs from this company, that covers Arabic, Chinese, Farsi/Persian, French, German, Haitian-Creole, Hmong, Italian, Korean, Languages of India, Polish, Portugese, Romanian, Russian, Somali, Spanish, Tagalog, Turkish, and Vietnamese, with dictionaries available in more languages, and contacts to get to materials in even more languages.

Other things to possibly order
PREP Publishing has a series of Real-Resumes for X (various different fields) http://www.prep-pub.com/
AskART.com was an interesting American art database.
College Prowler publishes guides and grades for 200 top colleges and some regional guides based on student evaluations. I think we should get a few, at least the ones for UofM, MSU, Chicago schools, Ivy League, Big 10. http://www.collegeprowler.com/

Chat Reference
Tutor.com has an Ask a Librarian service http://tutor.com/products/aal.aspx that can work in tandem with our own – they would cover hours we were not available.
QuestionPoint is still out there from OCLC to help provide 24/7 reference.

Audio Books
Playaway is a new system of listening. It works like an I-pod and all the controls are right on the book.
NAXOS carries a lot of classics.

Systems
There were many vendors offering RFID services. I stopped to talk to just one of them. They showed me how a chip that looks like a regular paper sticker is inserted into each book – like our current bar codes, and is used for inventory purposes as well as much quicker check-out, allowing self-checkout. I saw the check-out stations and they reminded me of the self-ticketing machines in airports. I did not ask about price, because I knew it would be high, but this vendor said he had a library that found that their RFID system paid for itself in two years. (Must have been a small library.)
Koha, an open source ILS system? We have other experts here at ALA, and we probably have too much invested with Endeavor, but it was interesting to see an open source system available for library use. Plus, LibLime, the vendor helping people adapt Koha, is based in Athens, OH, an old stomping ground of mine.

Random items
Drop boxes – I asked a drop box vendor about students using it as a garbage bin, and was told that doesn’t occur very much. Some boxes even have slots for liquids or small objects to fall through in a separate space from the books. Prices from this one company ranged from $1700 - $6000 per drop box.
I asked MLA vendors to pass on my request for abstracts in their indexing. They seemed surprised and thought the esoteric subject headings they add were adequate.
Google had a much more substantial booth than last year – showing services to librarians that they could use. I learned more about their services like Book Search, Google Earth, Google News, etc. and I picked up a couple of CD’s with downloads of some of their services. I liked the way they had us fill out a quiz – to see if we knew the details of their services, and only after we had verified our answers with someone, we could get a prize.
I briefly talked to a representative from Family Search, one of the three large genealogy search services from Utah, but the only one that is free. http://www.familysearch.org/
I stopped by at the Endeavor booth, but got an inexperienced rep. I just wanted to see where they have gone with their federated searching (now called Discovery: Finder). I know others are researching federated searching and ERM for us, so I didn’t dwell on it.
Rebuild New Orleans Public Library – the most heart wrenching experience at a booth was talking to the people from the New Orleans Public Library. They do not expect to see NOPL back to “normal” during their work careers. There is no longer a tax base for them to get funding, and a small percentage of the staff (I think it was something like 40) are trying to run all current open branches. I bought a T-shirt and buttons to support them.