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February 2006Library NewsWelcome to Nicole TekulveWe are pleased to announce that Nicole Tekulve joined our staff on February 22nd to become our new Weekend Supervisor for Access Services. Nicole has worked as a student assistant in the MTSU Walker Library, and most recently as a staff member in the Smyrna Public Library. She is familiar with access services procedures in both academic and public libraries, and has valuable skills including experience with SIRSI Workflows. She graduated from MTSU in December 2005 with a Bachelor of Liberal Arts degree. We are very pleased to have Nicole with us, and happy to have all our staff positions currently filled. Library Renovation Project UpdateOn February 6th, Amia and David sent out a brief survey to Owen faculty briefing them on the initial library renovation plans, and asking for their input - in particular, how often they used the print issues of periodicals in the library, and which serials they felt were "core business titles" important to keep available within the library (not stored in the Library Annex). David and Amia met with Dean Bradford and Tricia Siegfried (OGSM Administrative Officer) on February 15th, presenting Dean Bradford with a detailed report (accurately but unimaginatively) entitled "Report to Dean Bradford on the Proposed Renovation of Walker Management Library." The Report included information on the use of the library and its collections; responses to the initial renovation proposal; recommendations for revising and improving the initial renovation proposal; and an appendix created by Amia, listing the various discrete collections in the Walker Management Library, briefly noting their importance and characteristics. Many thanks to everyone who helped us collect data for use in the report to Dean Bradford (including Flo Wilson, Brent Tenpenny, Deborah Brooks, and Julie Loder). Both of the following illustrations were included in the report, constructed with data from the 2004/2005 academic year. We found this information to be interesting in contrasting use of the library facility with the use of the library collections by Owen and other Vanderbilt users.
Dean Bradford apparently read this report very carefully. The following week he sent David a list of follow-up questions related to information in the report. David provided detailed answers to the Dean's questions on February 28th. Visit to University of LouisvilleAt Paul Gherman's invitation, David represented the Heard Library at the dedication of a substantial expansion of the University of Louisville 's William F. Ekstrom Library on February 20th . Here is a link to some information about that library's building project: http://library.louisville.edu/ekstrom/building/floor.htm. At the dedication ceremony, the library's new Robotic Retrieval System (RRS) was demonstrated, and was quite impressive. The RRS is described as: "a temperature and humidity-controlled environment that can hold up to 1.2 million volumes. Each item is inserted with a chip that allows the robot to locate the particular bin containing that item. The robot retrieves the bin and delivers it to the service counter where an attendant will pull out the appropriate item and give it to the patron." Pictures of a similar Robotic Retrieval System at Somona State University can be seen at: http://libweb.sonoma.edu/about/ars.html. The University of Louisville library expansion also includes impressive new, high-tech library instruction rooms, a large auditorium, and a Starbuck's coffee shop. Search for New Walker Management Library Director to BeginDavid Carpenter met with library staff on February 22nd to inform them about his plans to eventually return to his former position as Head of Reference at the Central Library. Flo Wilson will form and lead a search committee to begin a search for a new library director, with an announcement of the position vacancy to be posted in March. David will remain as Acting Director of WML until that search is completed and a new library director is hired. Information Services (Amia Baker, Coordinator)For February, we received a total of 328 questions at the information services desk. This is down from the 433 questions that we had during the same time period last year. However, as with last month, it is important to note that last February there was a Strategy class assignment involving the entire first year MBA class that dramatically increased the number of reference questions we received during that time period. Of the 328 questions from this February, we had 84 directional questions, 225 reference questions, and 19 faculty research requests. In other reference related matters, the team discussed again the need to emphasize the ethical use of our electronic resources among our users. Rachel drafted a statement for the new website and we discussed how to proceed from that point. Ideally, we would like to include a statement about the ethical use of library resources in the Honor Code Statement that the Owen students sign upon entering the program. Deb mentioned this to Owen administration last year and we would like to follow up with them to possibly have it included with this year's incoming class. Because the upcoming library renovations will require that we transfer some of our collections currently housed on the 2nd floor, the information services team has decided that more of our meetings will be devoted to collection-related matters in the coming weeks. Reference team members held many individualized consultation sessions this month:
Collections (Amia Baker, Coordinator)February was a very busy month for Walker Library in regards to our collections. The SEMAT project team (David, Deborah, Amia and Brent) met or spoke with other individuals in the Heard Library system to gather information for our report to Dean Bradford on the use of our collection and how renovations to the library might affect its use. We met with Peg Earheart to discuss whether the Annex would be able to accommodate the proposed transfer of some of our collections. Julie Loder provided assistance by running several reports from SIRSI. Dale Poulter supplied us with information about using the weeding database on the Staffweb. Thanks also to Flo Wilson for her support and counsel regarding the final report. David and Amia met with Dean Bradford in mid-February to present the results from the collection analysis and to make recommendations based upon our findings. The report was received well and the project will be moving on to the next phase, which will involve reducing the size of some of our collections held on the 2nd floor. Amia met with Roberta Winjum and Marshall Breeding to discuss preserving a small collection of videotapes of the Owen Distinguished Speaker Series from 1973-2001. They both offered some really good suggestions and they developed a plan for moving forward. Thanks to Sue Davis who referred Amia to Roberta and Marshall. Laura was busy trying to get the textbooks ready to be put on reserves for Mod IV. This initiated many requests for books to be purchased, which involved Amia and Deborah. Rachel Vacek organized a demo of the D&B Million Dollar Database's new interface, which will be much more user-friendly. The price of the resource will not change with the new interface. The Information Services team also discussed additional packages to the database, as well as cost for just Owen versus campus-wide access. At that time, the team decided to just move forward with the new interface, which will take place over Spring Break in March. Deb Sommer recommended purchase of the new, second edition of The Encyclopedia of Statistical Sciences (major purchase) at the request of an Owen Faculty member. David suggested that we consider acquiring the electronic version of this reference work instead of the paper edition. He submitted a request to Central Library's Electronic Services Committee to see if a trial of the e-version of this title could be set up. If seen as an important acquisition for the Vanderbilt libraries after the trial, information will be shared with the Collection Committee to see if a cost sharing arrangement can be worked out with interested Vanderbilt libraries. Business Information Services (Rahn Huber, Manager)
Rahn made three new BIS client marketing contacts. She worked on four BIS client
research projects.
Instruction & Faculty Research Services (Deb Sommer, Coordinator)
In other instruction, marketing, and/or outreach activities, Deb Sommer:
In support of Faculty Research Services, Deb: Access Services (Brent Tenpenny, Manager)February was another busy month in Access Services. Use of the materials and services at the circulation desk was heavy. This continued a trend started in January, which proved to be one of the busiest months in recent memory. Inclement weather, illness and student absences, at times placed a strain on remaining staff who were required to work additional hours in order to provide adequate coverage for all operating hours. Two of our student assistants, Charles Guilamo and Walter Menjivar deserve special mention for their dedication to the library during the snowy weekend of February 10-11th. Charlie and Walter opened, closed and provided desk coverage when staff members were unable to make it in or were delayed due to icy roads. During the early part of the month, Brent continued to be involved in the planning process for proposed library renovations. He participated in several strategy meetings with Peg Earheart, Julie Loder and members of the WML SEMAT Committee. During these meetings, valuable information was garnered that helped David and Amia meet their goal of submitting a proposal to Dean Bradford by February 15th. The Search and Selection Committee for the term LA III position (weekend supervisor) met on the last day of January, and agreed to offer the position to Nicole Tekulve. Nicole accepted our offer with a start date of February 22nd. Brent adjusted his schedule in order to work with Nicole during her first weekend at WML. She quickly picked up on procedures, and was confident enough to open the library on her own Sunday, February 26th. The Access Services Department and WML staff hosted a farewell party for Charles Leek on Friday, February 17th. Charles had served as our temporary weekend supervisor since October 2005, and had been a great help during the interim period following Jeff Madden's transition into the Evening Supervisor's position. Charles' last day at WML was Sunday, February 19th. We were happy to hear that Charles had a couple of job possibilities waiting for him the following week, and we wish him well in his future endeavors. With Brent's increasing duties, committee assignments, etc., the need for additional front desk supervision of student assistants became evident. Brent asked Laura Norris if she would be willing to take on some student supervisory and training duties, and she felt it was something she would like to do. Laura assumed these duties as of February 6th, and will be responsible for supervising the students in Brent's absence or when he is occupied with other work-related matters. Jeff remains responsible for student supervision during the evening hours, and Nicole late in the week and on weekends.Access Services Statistics
* Jeff Madden also notes for the circulation statistics that he temporarily loaned a library tree and a large plant for use at the Miller Light booth in the Owen's Marketing Madness Event, just outside the library in the lobby, on Thursday, February 16th. Acquisitions & Technical Processing (Deborah Brooks, Manager)As reported earlier, Deborah was very busy helping to gather information, and offering advice toward, an immediate, limited assessment of WML's collection in support of planning for the library renovation project. Sylvia enjoyed a much needed week of vacation during February. Collections Processing Statistics
Acquisitions Statistics
Technology (Rachel Vacek, Electronic Resources Librarian)Rachel was busy as usual managing the electronic resources, providing tech support in-house and to library patrons, and continuing her work on the library's new website. She kept the staff informed in her Friday Tech Update regarding changes in the public workstation, database and software installations, and reports from the various technology-related meetings she attended throughout the month. Rachel met with Professor Rich Oliver to discuss an Intel case CD from the mid 1990s that he put on reserve for his students. She installed ATLAS.ti on two public workstations for Professor Torsten Ringberg. She also collaborated with Owen IT to install the SDC Platinum database in the 2nd Floor Computer Lab for Professor Ron Masulis. Meetings, Projects, Presentations & Professional DevelopmentAmia Baker, Sue Erickson, Amy Limpitlaw, and Kitty Porter met to begin planning events for the Reference Forum. Amia is serving as a member of the LibQual+ project team. David Carpenter met with various OGSM administrators during the month, including two meetings with Dean Bradford; meetings with Tricia Siegfried (OGSM Administrative Officer); and a meeting with Kelly Christie (OGSM Director of Academic Programs and Student Services). He had three meetings with Flo Wilson, to share information and discuss issues related to the library renovation project, and to discuss beginning the search for a new WML Director. Elaine Hill arranged and helped prepare the refreshments for our farewell party on February 17th for part-time Weekend Supervisor, Charles Leek. Elaine also helped coordinate the ordering of pizzas for OGSM students on February 24th while the students were spending many hours in the library studying for MOD 3 exams. (Note: Pizzas were eaten in the OGSM lobby, and not brought into the library.) Rahn Huber's work on the Staff Development Committee (SDC) continued to be time consuming. She also served on the SDC Subcommittee for Meeting Management training. With that subcommittee, Rahn helped to write the Project Team charge, which was forwarded to the Strategy and Planning Council for approval. The latter group is now selecting members for the Project Team. The SDC also received survey feedback from library management and committee heads which the committee is reviewing for future action. Rahn compiled survey results to add the entire SDC, in seeing how responses were ranked. At Amia's request, Rahn Huber coordinated the weekly Information Services meeting agenda for a week. She suggested improvements to the Information Services agenda template-agreed to by IS meeting attendees. The new format has been adopted for future use. Rahn worked with Deborah Brooks on updating the Consultation Room Use Policy. Deb Sommer helped Amy Stewart-Mailhiot on a business statistics related question. Deb also assisted Rahn on a BIS question on Media/Advertising. Deb compiled information on study rooms at other business schools for David Carpenter, so that he could include the information in a report to Tricia Siegfried (OGSM Administrative Officer) to support a funding request for the WML renovation project. Rachel Vacek, like Rahn, was also busy with Staff Development Committee work. Rachel and Ann Ercelawn collaboratively wrote the Journal Club Project Team Charge for the Staff Development Committee. Thanks to Sharon Weiner for feedback on the charge. Additional Meetings, Committees & Activities
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