March/April 2006

Library News

Library Renovation Planning

During March and April, library staff members devoted a significant amount of time to discussing and planning for a potential summer library renovation; although at the time the funding for the project was not yet certain.

Owen Spring Fling

The Walker Library staff once again enthusiastically supported an Owen social event, by creating and staffing a booth for the Owen Spring Fling. Brent Tenpenny, Elaine Hill, Nicole Tekulve, and Laura Norris served on our Spring Fling Committee to plan our contribution to this event. Other staff members participated by blowing up helium balloons and making preparations for the Spring Fling, or later staffing our library booth at the event.

Information Services

For March, we received a total of 267 questions at the information services desk. This is up from the 248 questions that we had during the same time period last year. This March, we had 61 directional questions, 181 reference questions, and 25 faculty research requests.

For April, we received a total of 273 questions at the information services desk. This is up from the 252 questions that we had during the same time period last year. This April, we had 61 directional questions, 194 reference questions, and 18 faculty research requests.

Amia provided a research consultation on a strategy/marketing project.

Collections

Rachel and Amia met to discuss the evaluation form for the electronic databases evaluation project. They also discussed workflow for the project, determining what aspects needed to be completed before others.

Amia met with Mary Beth Blalock to find out how she approaches training for new bibliographers in Central. Mary Beth provided excellent insight and also shared some of her handouts.

David, Deborah and Amia met with John Haar to discuss the invoice we received from EBSCO for charges from the previous year. Unfortunately, we had mistakenly been billed at a deeply discounted rate last year and EBSCO realized that they should have charged us a higher price for a number of our serials. This resulted in a large invoice that we had not anticipated having to pay in this fiscal year. John also provided advice about establishing guidelines for allocating funds among different bibliographers.

Amia and Deborah identified titles in the bound periodicals on the second floor to be transferred to the Annex for storage in anticipation of the renovation project this summer. They focused on sending titles that have ceased, are carried in print by another VU library, or older titles that provide a historical perspective on business.

Amia attended the Digital Library Steering Committee Meeting in late April to answer questions that the members might have about a proposed project to digitize a special collection of Owen distinguished speakers on videotapes. The group would like some more preliminary information before they make a commitment to this project.

Deb Sommer recommended the purchase of the 2 nd edition of The Encyclopedia of Statistical Sciences as a “major purchase” at the request of an Owen Faculty member.

Rachel notes that both the Hoover’s database and the D&B Million Dollar Database got facelifts in March, and the WML Information Services Staff are enjoying the new features. In April, Rachel set up a demo and trial for The Corporate Library’s Board Analyst database, which provides excellent corporate governance information.

Rachel collaborated with Amia to set up a Factiva training session on March 11 th. Since Factiva is now available campus wide through the Central and Walker Management Libraries, Rachel and Amia thought it would be helpful to the other librarians to do a session. Amia graciously agreed to do preliminary introduction to Factiva at 8:30 am by providing a brief content overview and discussing search techniques and special features. This was followed by an online demo by our Factiva trainer to demonstrate how the new enhancements, search engine, and features of Factiva work. Despite the early hour, there was good attendance, excellent questions, and breakfast was enjoyed by all.

Business Information Services (BIS)

• BIS client marketing contacts: 8 in March and 2 in April
• BIS client research projects: 3 in March and 3 in April

Instruction and Faculty Research Services

Course No.	Description	Instructor	Requestor	Attendance	Date
MGT599c	Online Exploration for Business Information	Huber/Baker	Prof. Bob Blanning	12	?
MGT459b	Healthcare Entrepreneurship Class	Baker	Profs. Liz Dishman & Harry Jacobson	19	3/12
MGRL 599c	The Entrepreneurial Challenge	Baker & Huber	Prof. Bob Blanning		4/4
-----	“Still Seeking Students”	Sommer	CMC	30	4/24
-----	Class of 2006	Sommer	Alumni & Development	100	4/26
(Legal Research Class)	Introduction to Business Research	Baker	Martin Cerjan	17	-----

In other instruction, marketing, and/or outreach activities, Deb:

• Met twice with Accelerator Planning Team to discuss the 2006 program
• Met with Susan Barone and Dawn Turton concerning incoming Owen International Students library orientation (coordinated with Owen IT).
• Met with an undergraduate business planning group
• Updated Reference Staff on Strategy Projects for MOD IV
• Finished drafts of six Research Guides
• Served as a Team Leader for Scholar’s Day to interview prospective students for scholarships

In support of Faculty Research Services, Deb:

• Completed ten in-depth Faculty Research Requests
• Worked with two faculty members to co-author an article
• Taught two faculty members how to use new Google Scholar features; how to set up alerts in Business Source Premier; IngentaConnect; Emerald; and how to use the “My Cited Articles List” in Web of Knowledge
• Showed two faculty members how to use PubMed
• Did three citation searches for the Owen Dean’s Office on candidates being interviewed for faculty positions at Owen
• Added 29 publications for four faculty members to the Faculty Research Database
• Met with Senior Associate Dean Blackburn about Owen Working Paper Series development; showed him the SSRN site, and discussed the benefits of Owen joining SSRN to post OGSM working papers.

Instruction or faculty research efforts by other librarians included the following:

• Rahn completed an in-depth research strategy outline for an Owen professor (04/30).
• Rahn Humber conducted an in-depth tour of WML, its staff and resources for Tracy Primich, the new director of the Science and Engineering Library. She also discussed BIS with Tracy (04/28).
• Rachel and Rahn co-hosted a tour of WML for the Resources Services Order Services staff on March 8 th.
• Deborah conducted a tour of the Walker Library for Peabody staff members, Karen Swoopes and Eli Moody.

Access Services

Access services staff breathed a sigh of relief on March 1 as one of the busiest MODs in recent memory came to an end. The first week of March brought in spring break and a weekend closure (March 3-4), allowing several staff members to take much-needed vacation time.

MOD IV began at a much less frantic pace than MOD III and Laura, Jeff and Brent were able to get all hard-copy and electronic reserves processed with plenty of time to spare. On March 7, Brent met with Liz Dishman, Director of Business Development (VUMC) and Executive Secretary, Betsy Amell to discuss Blackboard reserve postings for the Healthcare Entrepreneurship class Liz would be co-teaching in MOD IV. Nicole demonstrated her expertise with electronic reserves while processing the numerous documents for this class.

As part of an ongoing effort to enhance the Career Planning collection, Brent and Nicole met with Rahn Huber and Deborah Brooks on March 16 to discuss a proposed inventory project. Later, Brent worked with Julie Loder to produce a shelf list of the CPC/CPCR collection for Nicole to use in verifying holdings. At the end of this reporting period, the project was ongoing, but expected to be wrapped up in April.

Reference staff conducted two tours of WML during March to introduce staff members of other libraries to our facilities and staff. Brent offered brief comments to the groups regarding Access Services operations.

Several Access Services staff members succumbed to severe colds and flu during the month. As a result, some of their duties had to be taken up by others. Brent and Elaine, along with Rahn Huber of BIS, assisted with recording the minutes of two WML staff meetings while Laura was out sick.

Brent and Elaine met on March 24 to discuss procedures for the annual petty cash verification required by the university. Required documentation was filed the following week.

VU Print was down for approximately 24 hours beginning Tuesday, March 7 so that necessary maintenance could be performed. For that period, free printing was offered. The photocopy machines were also offline, however, so Dewey James converted one of those machines to cost-free printing during the downtime.

Dewey also installed a new photocopy machine on the 2 nd floor on March 23, replacing a machine that was several years old. The new high-speed digital machine is quite an improvement over the old analog copier it replaced. Nice features include a document feeder, sorter/collator and remote access to scanned documents.

We regretfully began the month with news that Evening Supervisor Jeff Madden would be leaving Walker in mid-May. Jeff and his family are moving to the Virginia Beach area to accept new employment opportunities. Jeff’s friendly demeanor and good humor will be greatly missed, as will his dedication to the job and the Management Library. We wish Jeff all the best in the future and hope he will stay in touch. Jeff’s last day was Friday, May 12 th. Since the evening position is active only during the academic year (9 months), interviews for Jeff’s replacement will not occur until mid-summer.

At the April 6 Access Services staff meeting, Elaine Hill announced that Student Worker Appreciation Week was coming up. After some discussion at the meeting, it was decided that we would have a potluck buffet for the students on Wednesday, April 26 th at noon. This event was well attended with both students and staff having an enjoyable time. Many delicious food choices were offered, including chicken fingers, snack trays, chicken cordon bleu, cheeses, cakes and cookies. During the week’s events, Nicole Tekulve presented each student worker with a certificate of appreciation. The library also presented our one graduating senior, Carla Wheeler, with a small gift and graduation card. Carla had worked with us a total of three years, and plans to pursue a law degree. We wish her much success in the future!

With summer renovation plans moving along, Laura Norris suggested it might be wise to begin collecting books that will be needed for course reserve in the fall. Plans are to move the circulating collection to the Annex during the renovation, so pulling the books beforehand seemed a wise course of action. Brent agreed this was an excellent idea and asked Laura to proceed. Laura consulted her files from previous years to determine which items were used annually for reserve. She also talked with administrative assistants and faculty members to determine their course reserve needs for the coming year. The items held for future reserve were charged out to the “workroom,” and Laura kept them on a book cart in her office. If the staff must move to temporary quarters during the summer, Laura will take the books with her so that she can continue processing the materials as needed.

Excitement of an unwelcome nature occurred twice during the month of April. On Friday, April 7 th, severe storms and tornadoes moved into the Nashville area. Earlier that day Brent sent an e-mail to the staff reminding them of emergency procedures to be followed during severe weather. Staff monitored the weather radio and weather.com online during the day. Tornadoes were sighted in the area around 3:00 pm, so the staff alerted everyone in the library to prepare to move to the basement parking garage on the lower level of the OGSM building. It was determined shortly thereafter that evacuation was necessary, so staff and students moved to the basement garage and the library was closed. Fortunately, no damage occurred around campus, but everyone was soon aware of the tragic consequences of the storm in other areas of Davidson County and Middle Tennessee.

The following Friday evening (April 14 th) significant damage occurred in the library when water from a stopped up drain in a 2 nd floor restroom overflowed into a staff office directly below. Nicole and her student assistant, Carla Wheeler moved quickly to prevent more serious damage from occurring. Nicole immediately notified the plumbing shop, then she and Carla opened the office and began moving items out. Damage occurred to carpeting and ceiling tiles on both the first and second floors, but the plumbing shop and housekeeping did an excellent job cleaning up the mess, drying the carpets, etc. The staff office had to be vacated, however. Hopefully, the recurring plumbing problems in that area will be addressed in the future.

Nicole continued working on the CPC inventory during the month of April. She also published the first issue of the new student newsletter and assisted Rahn Huber with a research project.

Laura continued to participate and take minutes for the Reserves Taskforce. She also worked with Marilyn Pilley in ILL to determine if there were any outstanding ILL items from the past. A careful review of the records determined that everything was up-to-date.

Brent and Jeff adjusted their schedules on several occasions as the student workers had to be away for exams, presentations and other year-end requirements. Brent coordinated the extended hour’s weekend for OGSM exams Friday and Saturday April 28-29. He and Elaine arranged for pizzas to be delivered on Friday night as part of our usual gift to the students during the stressful exam period.

Brent continued as the Walker Library representative on the Heard Library Circulation and Access Committee. That group met on April 5. He also chaired the monthly meetings of the Access Services Staff. Additionally, Brent evaluated the college work study students and met with them individually to discuss their work performance. He was involved in planning for shifting of collections that will remain in the building during renovations. That work was slated to begin in May. Brent also worked with Deb Sommer to update e-mail addresses in ACORN records for EMBA students.

March	April	Access Services Statistics
23	0	Articles linked in Blackboard for e-reserves
156	0	Pages scanned to PDF format for faculty e-reserves
0	0	Hard-copy items placed on Management Reserve
0	0	Hard-copy items removed from Management Reserve
0	0	Interlibrary loan requests for faculty
0	10	Books delivered to faculty for their use
	32	Articles delivered to faculty for their use (total of 501 pages)
358	514	Items charged
676	654	Items discharged
26	50	Items renewed
0	25	Holds placed
354	313	Reserves charged
24	18	Study rooms reserved

Note: There was no new Reserve or Blackboard activity in April due to the conclusion of the academic year.

Acquisitions & Technical Processing

Sylvia was in full swing with binding the periodical titles that were converted from print to electronic format. As a related project, Sylvia and the ATP student assistant shifted the current periodical shelves created new labels and posted signage alerting users to the project.

Deborah generated reports on fund expenditures and changes for Basic and Walker funds, and forwarded copies of the reports to David, Amia and Rachel. She also met with Rahn, Brent and Nicole to discuss follow up on the CPC collection withdrawals and initiation of an inventory of the collection.

Deborah attended the Owen Coffee Break where she learned that she had been nominated for Owen’s Unsung Hero award. (Congratulations Deborah!)

Impending renovation plans have altered the normal workflow for our technical processing area. Deborah and Sylvia met early this month to plan and prepare a strategy for handling our materials. As a result of that meeting we determined that:

• We should begin the summer binding schedule a few weeks earlier than usual.
• Coordinating with Amia Baker, we began working continuously on processing bound periodical titles identified for Annex transfers.
• We discussed the handling of our newspaper collection and which titles should be suspended for the summer
• We decided to shorten the timeframe of the New Book and new Reference bookshelves.
• We temporarily discontinued the process of sending microfilm to the Library Annex.
• In addition we discussed the possibilities of processing materials during the renovation and how to handle claims and reports. Sylvia also agreed to work a couple of weekends to get a head start on our processing

Deborah made adjustments in several funds to reflect reimbursements from Vanderbilt and Owen departments. The materials budget also benefited from the savings of converting our print journal titles to electronic format. This savings will be used to update several collections.

Deborah met with Tricia Siegfried, Shari Stanley and Paul Chaney of Owen to discuss invoices from Thomson Financial. There was discussion of the databases purchased by Walker and Owen. The master agreement contract governs both areas. Tricia Siegfried was interested in pursuing a “readable” contract other than the facsimile we were given. Shari Stanley and Deborah both spoke with a customer service representative from Thomson and the indication was that this replication was the only available copy of the contract. Tricia Siegfried determined that the next step was to ask for legal counsel to contact Thomson to pursue getting a better copy of the contract.

March	April	Collections Processing
253	250	Periodical issues processed
26	51	Reference serials processed
36	32	New Books processed
39	54	Pages of Looseleaf materials filed
18	85	Binding
21	20	Table of Contents packets compiled
19	35	Claims processed

March	April	Acquisitions Processing
13	0	Orders placed
4	2	Renewal invoices for Electronic databases

Technology

Rachel was very busy in March and April managing the electronic resources, providing technological support throughout the library, and communicating information technology news to staff. She also kept the staff informed about the upcoming New Sirsi WorkFlows Java Client Training Sessions that will take place sometime over the summer in her Friday Tech Update. Rachel also took detailed notes at the Primo demonstration and shared those with the staff for those who couldn’t attend.

As WML welcomes new members to the staff, Rachel trains them on a variety of applications needed to do their job. In March, Rachel trained Nicole Tekulve on the minutiae of Microsoft Outlook’s calendar and email components, provided an overview on basic tech and printer troubleshooting, gave an overview of the NetFix/Inform system, and explained who to contact (Rachel, LITS, or Owen IT) for tech problems that arise.

Rachel also met with Brent and Jeff to discuss the current room reservation system used in WML. There are many study rooms in WML and in the 8:10 Café, and in order to reserve these rooms, students must come into the library to reserve a room on a white board by the door. With the upcoming renovation and addition of study rooms, there will be no more room on the reservation whiteboard. Also, there are many online room booking systems available, and one in use already by the Owen school for classrooms. The policies for reserving and using the rooms has been controlled by the Owen Student Government Association, so WML will be in conversation with Owen IT and OSGA about updating the system.

Meetings , Projects, Presentations & Professional Development

Amia Baker

• Amia gave an introduction and demonstration of the Factiva database, which has been made available campus-wide, to all interested Heard Library staff on March 10. We then had a presentation by a vendor rep on the new features of the database.
• In April, Amia wrote a book review of the Handbook of Sports Economics Research for an upcoming issue of the Journal of Business and Finance Librarianship.
• Amia coordinated Walker Library’s participation in the Owen Spring Fling Celebration for the students and their families. We gave away helium balloons and candy to the children. Many thanks to all who participated in gathering the supplies, inflating the balloons, setting up, staffing the booth, and clean-up. A special thanks to those who were in the balloon-recovery unit!!
• Amia is part of the Reference Forum Planning Committee, along with Sue, Kitty and Amy. The Reference Forum held our first get together in April at the Peabody Library Fireside Room. This was an opportunity for people to get together and talk about issues that affect reference services and to get to know the other reference librarians across campus.
• Amia is part of the LibQual+ project team. The survey was administered in late March and April.
• Amia also attended the presentation by one of the music library director candidates .

Brent Tenpenny

In addition to his other activities, Brent c oordinated the New Orleans Public Library book drive for WML in April. Walker Management Library served as one of the collection sites for the Heard Library's initiative to collect books to be sold by the Nashville Public Library to benefit the New Orleans Public Library.

David Carpenter

• David attended interview sessions and presentations in March and April with candidates for the library director position at the Music Library.
• He attended many meetings with library and Owen staff, and other individuals during March and April devoted to pursue planning for the Walker Library renovation project.
• David represented WML at the annual meeting of the Academic Business Library Directors’ (ABLD) group, held this year in Iowa City, Iowa from April 19-21. The ABLD presentations and discussions all seemed admirably focused on presenting and discussing important issues and challenges facing business libraries.

Elaine Hill and Laura Norris

Attended the Administrative Assistant Seminar presented by Skillpath on March 15 th.

Rachel Vacek

• Rachel wrote an article for the Peabody Library March/April Newsletter. The article, which appears in the new column The Website Scout, was entitled “ SearchEngineWatch.com is More Than a Tool for Web Designers.” Both our library and the Peabody Library work collaboratively to support Human and Organizational Development faculty and students. Stacy Owens thought that if Rachel or someone else in the Walker Library periodically wrote a column, it might be a great opportunity to widen exposure to the valuable resources we offer to other libraries on campus, including Peabody.
• On April 3 rd and 4 th, Rachel attended the Instructional Technology Conference held on the campus of Middle Tennessee State University. Three featured speakers discussed the future of online learning, stressed the importance visual literacy, and shared results from the ECAR Study of Students and Information Technology, 2005, which surveyed over 18,000 students across the nation. In the study, students were asked about their information technology uses and skills, how technologies contribute to their undergraduate experience, and how IT adds to their learning. Rachel also attended many interesting sessions on open source web albums, web accessibility, podcasting, blended learning, and streaming media. She networked with other librarians, faculty, and technologists interested in and doing instructional technology.
• On April 6 th, Rachel listened to Michael Stephens give a wonderful webcast called Ten Top Technologies for Librarians in 2006.
• Rachel and Amia participated in a luncheon with prospective students for the Owen Graduate School of Management’s Welcome Weekend on Saturday, April 8 th.

Rahn Huber

• Rahn arranged for training with librarian Patty Lee (Eskind Biomedical Library) in support of her research assistance for an Owen faculty research project (03/07).
• She developed a suggested form for Collection Management decision making for the renovation project and submitted it to Amia Baker, Collections Coordinator (03/16).
• Rahn coordinated a Staff Development Committee meeting with Pam Brown on the SDC survey method (03/02).
• She accepted a position as Ex-Officio member of the Staff Development Committee's Meeting Management Task Force (03/15).

Additional Meetings, Committees, and Activities

• Circulation and Access Committee (3/1) -- Brent
• SDC meeting with Pam Brown about SDC survey process (3/2) – Rachel
• Meeting with Jody Combs (3/3, 4/24) – Rachel
• Meeting about Electronic Resources (3/3) – Rachel and Amia
• Webcast: Emerging Learning Technologies: The 2006 Horizon Report (3/6) – Rachel and Rahn.
• Reserves Taskforce Meeting (3/7) -- Laura
• Order Services Tour (3/8) – Rachel and Rahn
• Staff Development Committee (3/9, 3/23, 4/13, 4/27) – Rachel
• Factiva Training and Demo of New Features (3/10) - Rachel
• Technology Support Coordinators Meeting (3/14) – Rachel
• CPC/CPCR Collection Meeting (3/16) – Brent
• Vanderbilt Benefits Meeting (3/20) -- Nicole
• Room Reservation System Meeting 03/23) – Rachel, Brent, and Jeff
• Petty Cash Verification Meeting (3/24) – Brent and Elaine
• Owen Business & Technology Club Speaker: Author Peter Fingar, "Total Global Competition" (3/28) -- Rahn
• Heard Library’s Strategic Planning Forum (3/29) – Rachel, Brent, David, Deborah, Sylvia, and Rahn.
• Demonstration of Primo by ExLibris (3/30) – Rachel and David.
• Spiders (VU Web Developers) Meeting (3/31) – Rachel
• Intense Scrabble Match: Walker Management Library (Rachel and Laura) vs. Peabody Library (Eli and Bryan) (3/31) – WML had a near victory (lost by a mere 4 points), and are planning a rematch
• OGSM Spring Fling (3/31) – Rachel, Sylvia, and Deborah.
• Webcast: Ten Top Technologies for Librarians in 2006 (4/6) – Rachel
• The Board Analyst, Database Training Session (4/6) – Rahn and Deborah
• Meeting Management Task Force (4/6) -- Rahn
• Owen Spring Barbecue Lunch in the Courtyard (4/12) – David, Deborah, Amia, and Sylvia.
• Library Directors’ Welcoming Lunch for Tracy Primich (4/17) -- David
• Renovation Planning Meeting (4/18) – All WML Staff
• Digital Library Advisory Board – (4/18) David
• GIS Task Force (4/18) -- Rahn
• Webcast: Archiving and Preserving the Web (4/18) – Rachel and Amia
• GIS Task Force Meeting with Flo (4/18) – Rachel and Rahn
• Heard Website Update Project Team Usability Testing Session (4/19) – Rachel
• Meeting with Celia Walker about training (4/19) – Rachel
• Research Services Committee’s Reference Forum (4/20) – Rachel and Amia
• Journal Club Project Team Co-Chairs Meeting (4/20) – Rachel, Rahn, Kitty Porter, and Leslie Foutch
• Meeting with Dale Poulter about an SFX project (4/24) – Rachel
• WML Student Worker Appreciation Pot-Luck Party (4/25) – All WML Staff & Student Workers
• SLA Presidential Task Force on Executive Competencies and the Staff Development Committee -- Rahn
• Heard Library Committee on Collections- Amia
• Walker Library Acquisitions and Technical Processing Weekly Meetings - Deborah & Sylvia
• Walker Library Access Services Monthly Meetings
• Walker Library Weekly Information Services Meetings (Thursdays at 10:00)
• Walker Library Weekly Staff Meetings (Wednesdays at 3:30)
• Heard Library Directors’ Council (Mondays) - David