In response to a good suggestion from Rachel Vacek, WML staff and student assistants contributed categories of information about themselves for a new "Faces of the Library" bulletin board, as a means for both our student workers and staff members to learn more about each other. Rachel collected and compiled the information for the new bulletin board. Photos will be added next month.

Thanks to Deborah Brooks and Laura Norris, who volunteered to cover the public service desks so that the library could maintain the announced hours of service when the Dean of the Owen school graciously allowed staff to leave early to begin their Thanksgiving holiday.

For November, we received a total of 370 questions at the information services desk. This is down from the 418 questions that we had during the same time period last year. In November 2005, we had 95 directional questions, 255 reference questions, and 20 faculty research requests. Compared to last year, we had 12 fewer directional questions, 46 fewer reference questions, and 10 more faculty requests.

The information services team received numerous reference questions from Owen students in the Business Plan class again this year. The students had a wide variety of topics and had some difficult, in-depth research questions. The students were very appreciative of the help they received with these requests and the information services team received many compliments from satisfied patrons.

Amia, David, and Deborah (along with Mary Ellen and Monica Sanchez) met with the Blackwell's Library Services representative John Laramore on November 9th to discuss the possibility of changing our approval plan from Yankee Book Peddler to Blackwell's. John agreed to provide further information so that we can compare the coverage and cost of Blackwell's approval plan against our current approval plan service with YBP. We have received the approval plans comparison information and will be evaluating it in the near future.

On November 15th, the WML collections team met to discuss how to allocate funds for next year. Thanks to Deborah for providing a wealth of information about how the funds have been allocated in past years.

Rahn and Deborah have made good progress on updating our Career Planning Collection. The collection is being weeded and they are determining which titles need to be updated. Older items that have been removed from the collection have been placed in our book sale and have been hot items among our students.

Course Number	Description	Instructor	Requestor	Student Attendance	Date
MGT554B	Developing a Business Plan	Sommer & Baker	Germain Boer	29	11/16

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

• Developed a handout on Demographic Resources (can be developed further as a Research Guide)
• Attended Finance Curriculum Session
• Developed Staff Workshop Survey (not administered – waiting for WML input)
• Met with Tami Fassinger about EMBA Strategy Projects on Reserve (policy & update)
• Is working on a guide to using the Bloomberg Terminals (one for students/one for librarians)

In support of Faculty Research Services, Deb completed:

• 15 updates to the Faculty Research Database
• 5 in-depth Faculty Research Requests (1 hour or longer)
• 3 calls to ISI to get statistical data for faculty member

BIS Client Development Meetings: 5
BIS New Clients: 2
BIS Client Research Work: 1
BIS Vendor Development: Investigated and discussed potential, additional Business Source Premier account serving BIS with David Carpenter.

As is the case every year, November was a month of heavy activity as students prepared for exams and the end of MOD II. Public service activities became the primary focus for staff and students.

As we began the month, we officially welcomed Jeff Madden (pictured on left) as our new Evening Supervisor. Jeff had worked with us in a term position (weekend supervisor) since July. He had also worked in Access Services, in a temporary position, in 2003. Jeff had already mastered many of the procedures required in his position, so the transition was very smooth.

On Friday and Saturday, November 11th and 12th, the Owen School hosted Discover Weekend for potential students of the class of 2008. Access Services staff assisted in creating a welcoming atmosphere for visitors. Welcome signs were posted on the doors, and the turnstile was opened.

Technical and equipment problems continued to pop up from time to time during the month. Some downtime was experienced with VU print, and problems with slow printing of PDF documents created some backlogs at the printers. Routine maintenance was performed on the color laser printer, but several service calls were required for both the Kilimanjaro (main floor) and Matterhorn (2nd floor) printers.

Wireless mice and microphones used in Owen seminar rooms were in heavy demand during November. Access Services staff were kept busy dealing with various issues relating to this equipment (batteries, damage, etc.), and we discovered that some of the equipment was either lost or broken. Danny Sulkin provided us with three new wireless mice and a new microphone for the Averbuch Auditorium. As a result, fewer problems were noted by the end of the month. We replaced three dry-erase boards in library study rooms. The boards being replaced had become badly scratched, and next to impossible to completely erase.

During the afternoon/evening of November 15th, severe weather was prevalent in the Middle Tennessee region. When the first reports were received via our weather radio, Brent sent out a message to the staff asking them to be alert to the possibility of severe storms and tornado warnings. A strong line of thunderstorms did enter the Nashville area in the early evening, and a tornado was sited within Davidson county around 6:00 pm. The library was closed for about one hour, while staff and patrons evacuated to the basement parking garage. Fortunately, no damage occurred close to campus, but the situation did highlight the importance of monitoring weather reports, and taking appropriate action as needed when severe weather is in the area.

Brent sent out a request to all faculty and faculty support staff asking that MOD III reserve and Blackboard requests be submitted as early as possible due to the upcoming holidays and break. He made sure that we were all aware that borrowing privileges equal to those for faculty were granted to all library staff on November 10th. This change met with enthusiastic approval among WML staff members.

Brent submitted 2004/05 charge and turnstile statistics to David for his meeting with Dean Bradford on November 10th. David, Laura, and Brent met on November 8th to discuss faculty delivery requests and related issues. Laura continues to make weekly runs to the Cashier's Office to provide adequate change for circulation desk operations.

24	New pages scanned for Blackboard
17	Pages scanned/edited
12	Links activated/moved
376	Items circulated (initial charge)
25	Items renewed
298	Reserves charged

Deborah and Rahn continue to meet to discuss our Career Planning Collection. Decisions regarding withdrawals have been made and the information has been sent to Technical Services for processing. We are making progress in weeding and determining the procedures needed to make this collection a viable and important part of the job search process at Owen.

Deborah met with David to discuss the materials budget and share information on how the funds were allocated for this fiscal year. Deborah provided David an estimate on what increases in the materials budget should be projected for the next fiscal year.

310	Periodical issues processed
37	Reference serials processed
6	New Books processed
24	Pages of Loose leafmaterials filed
15	Volumes processed for the Bindery
22	Volumes processed for the Library Annex
44	Table of Contents packets compiled
21	Claims processed, Ebsco titles claimed on Ebsconet

25	Orders placed (10 via web form/15 regular orders)
1	Renewal invoice for Electronic databases

Technologically speaking, a significant event took place within WML or the month of November - the approval and financial support from Dean Bradford to order two new duplex printers for WML. Two of our public printers (Kilimanjaro and Matterhorn ) were almost eight years old and the cost for maintenance for them was ever increasing. Both library staff and WML patrons were more than frustrated with the unpredictability of Kilimanjaro's stability. The fact that we can replace these aging printers was very good news indeed.

Just like clockwork, the Technology Support Coordinators met at Baker for their monthly discussion of various happenings in LITS. Rachel was again made aware of the continual problems the rest of the campus has with email, and the status of ITS's efforts towards remedying the problem.

Rachel attended a web seminar, New Learning Technologies and Emergent Practices in Higher Education, on Tuesday, November 8th. Many trends were discussed, including learning management systems, blended or hybrid learning, ePortfolios, wifi, video conferencing, podcasting, gaming, instant messaging, and social software. Presenters talked about how students today are “always on” and using technology for methods of self-expression.

Also in November, the GIS Task Force sent their final report to Flo Wilson and Paul Gherman to propose that the current GIS service in Peabody be continued and expanded. The proposal included staffing and equipment recommendations as well. A crowd of 28 people attended the GIS Brown Bag on Wednesday, November 30th. Rick Stringer-Hye, Rachel Vacek, and Brian Christens (Director of Vanderbilt's Census Information Center ) showed maps, GIS websites, and spoke about the fundamental principles of GIS, how GIS services are being utilized in peer libraries, and resources already available at Vanderbilt, such as data repositories, GIS labs, and the various GIS services that are currently being provided. The new GIS (Geographic Information Systems) resource guide is linked off the Heard Library website "Resource Guides" and will be advertised in an upcoming staff newsletter as well as in the Heard Library's news ticker.

• Amia enjoyed several days of vacation at the beginning of the month. WML staff enjoyed the fudge she brought back from vacation! Amia had one individual reference consultation with a student working on a class project. She also spent a considerable amount of time researching corporate governance ratings and figuring out how students can access this information for an upcoming class assignment by using Bloomberg.
• Amia and Rachel met to discuss the possibility of renewing our Walker Weblog. Rachel believes it would be better to have a new blog incorporated into the new website rather than to revive the old blog. They discussed some preliminary guidelines that they will recommend be implemented with the new blog.

• Attended College of Arts and Science Dean Richard McCarty's "State of the College" presentation to Central and Science and Engineering Library staff. His presentation covered enrollment trends, faculty recruitment, new academic programs, and building projects. (11/03)
• Along with three other library directors, joined three of the interviewees Science/Engineering Library Director Candidates for lunch, as well as attending the Heard Library directors' group meetings with each of them, and also attending candidate presentations. (11/07,11/16,11/17,11/28 & 11/29)
• Met with OGSM Dean Bradford to discuss the levels of use of the library, as well as space allocation for the library's collections, study space, and staff offices and work areas. Dean Bradford has hired an architect to make recommendations for renovations and changes in space utilization for certain areas of the OGSM building. (11/10)
• Met with Lisa Shipman and Julie Blagojevich to discuss the WML budget. (11/11)
• Met twice with Barry Dombro (Director of Information Systems for OGSM) to develop a proposal for purchasing two new public printers for the Management Library. (11/18)
• Represented the WML at the Owen Student Government Association's Owen Pride Curriculum Meeting. The meeting brought up many interesting suggestions, and the group made plans to tackle some immediate goals. (11/15)

• Attended a presentation by Joe Cook, Chairman of the Board, Amylin Pharmaceuticals.
• For the GIS Brown Bag on November 30th , Rahn answered questions from participants about the project and its progress.
• Attended the official launch of the Owen Chapter of the Broad2Broad Network , with a speaker and evening event for networking.
• Led the task of creating the staff survey that will be sent out shortly from the Staff Development Committee.
• Met with Suruchi Sharma to coordinate and assist in developing the Owen Career Tip of the Day (via Owen Daily News) to help students and promote the WML Career Collection. Rahn asked Deborah Brooks to join her and Suruchi in this effort.
• For the update of our Career Planning Collection (CPC), evaluated the initial group of CPC materials, and participated in discussions and agreements with Amia and Deborah on how to handle going forward with this project, ensuring that the process will now be quicker based on accomplishing these tasks. Rahn is compiling inventories and pricing for updates for the Vault Guides and the JobBank series of books so that the CPC can be updated and strengthened.

• For the Circulation and Access Committee, Brent volunteered to serve on the Reserves Subcommittee with Mandy Henk of the Law Library. Mandy and Brent planned to meet in early December to discuss system-wide issues relating to both electronic and hardcopy reserves. They will submit a report to the CAC during the January 4th meeting.
• The Vanderbilt Community Giving Campaign ended on November 2nd. For the second year, Brent served as the liaison for WML, and reported good participation among the staff for the current campaign.

• In addition to her other activities listed previously and below, Rachel met with Brent Tenpenny on November 14th to discuss WML Circulation Policies on our library's web pages.
• She also continued maintenance of the current WML website and various electronic resources and made some progress on the new website.

• Introduction to e-Procurement Training (11/01) - David and Elaine
• Circulation and Access Committee (11/02 & 11/30) - Brent
• Research Services Committee (11/03) - David
• New Learning Technologies and Emergent Practices in Higher Education webinar (11/08) - Rahn, David, and Rachel
• Technology Support Coordinators Meeting (11/08) - Rachel
• Staff Development Committee Meeting (11/10) - Rahn and Rachel
• Digital Library Advisory Board Meeting (11/11) - David
• Owen Coffee Hour (informal conversations with faculty and students) (11/16) - David, Rahn, Laura, and Rachel
• Owen All Staff Meeting with Dean Bradford (11/18) - Brent, Laura, David, Sylvia, Rahn, Rachel, and Amia
• Java Workflows Open House (11/29) - Deborah, Sylvia, Brent, David, and Amia
• GIS Brown Bag (11/30) - Rahn, Rachel, and David
• Collections Committee Meeting (11/15) - Amia
• Communications Committee Meeting (11/15)- Deb
• Science/Engineering Library Director candidate presentations - Rahn, David, Rachel, and Amia
• WML Weekly Information Services Meetings (Thursdays @ 10:00) - All Information Services staff WML
• Weekly Staff Meetings (Wednesdays @ 3:30) - All WML staff
• WML Weekly Acquisitions and Technical Processing Meetings (Fridays @ 2:00) - Deborah and Sylvia