Saturday, November 20, 2010

UK Libraries Weekly Review
November 19, 2010


Happy Thanksgiving:

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.  It focuses on family, friends, and good food.  As importantly, it also provides an opportunity to remember all the things for which we might be thankful.

I am thankful that I have the opportunity to work at UK Libraries with such good colleagues.  As I visit other university libraries around the country, I appreciate even more the people and facilities that we have here at the University of Kentucky.

I am also thankful for all those who support UK Libraries through their donations and other help.  We are very fortunate that so many people around Kentucky and throughout the United States are willing to help us meet our goals of providing excellent collections and services to our students, faculty and staff.

I hope that you enjoy your holiday break next week.


UK Libraries Medical Librarian Recognized for Service to the Profession:

Frank Davis, Medical Center Library, has been approved for membership in the Academy of Health Information Professionals (AHIP) at the Distinguished Member level.  AHIP promotes lifelong learning and exemplary professional performance by recognizing achievements in continuing education, teaching, publishing, research, and other contributions to the profession.


Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral history Receives State Award:

The Kentucky Historical Society (KHS) honored outstanding achievements in the field of Kentucky history at the 2010 Kentucky History Celebration on Nov. 5 at the Old State Capitol in downtown Frankfort.

Among this year’s winners was the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History at the University of Kentucky for the project, “From Combat to Kentucky—Interviews with Student Veterans.” The web-based oral history project captured the stories of student-veterans who served on active duty in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. Participants shared their wartime experiences and stories about the difficult transition from military life back to civilian life.  To listen to interviews from this project, visit http://www.nunncenter.org/c2ky/.


Doug Boyd Addresses Library of Congress American Folklife Center Board and staff:

On November 4, 2010 Dr. Doug Boyd, Director of the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History addressed the Library of Congress Folklife Center board and staff about technologies developed by UK Libraries to deliver oral history online.


Personnel:

Roland Taylor, Library Technician in the Serials section of Acquisitions, Collections and Technical Services Division, has left UK Libraries after 22 years. We wish him the best.


Weekly LibGuide Feature:

This week’s LibGuide selection is a brand new guide by Heath Martin on French and Italian Studies, http://libguides.uky.edu/content.php?pid=76549.  Heath incorporates graphics, tutorials and a variety of resources to make this guide effective.


The UK Libraries Weekly Review is also available as a blog:  http://uklibrariesbirdseye.blogspot.com/    

Thanks to Beth Kraemer, Sue Smith, and Janet Stith for their contributions to the Weekly Review.


Terry Birdwhistell
Dean of Libraries

Friday, November 12, 2010

Weekly Review

Informal Chat with Provost:

Faculty, staff, faculty and students are cordially invited to attend an informal chat with Provost Kumble Subbaswamy Friday, November 12, from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. in 230 Student Center. This is an opportunity for members of UK's community to talk with the Provost about a variety of issues in an informal setting.

Jointly sponsored for employees and students by the Staff Senate and University Senate, this is the first in a new series of informal chats with administrators across campus.


King Library Press Showcased in The Hub @ WT’s:

The Hub @ WT’s in the William T. Young Library is currently featuring two continuous video presentations on the work of the King Library Press.

The presentation visually explores the history of the King Library Press. The Press was founded in 1956 by Curator of Rare Books Carolyn Hammer as a creative laboratory for the book arts and a venue for demonstrating historical printing methods. Well-equipped with a variety of presses and other materials largely donated for its use, the King Library Press continues to explore the graphic arts, paper making, marbling, bookbinding, and illustration. The images included in the Hub’s presentation show the people, the equipment, and the products that make the Press so important and unique. In addition to the visual history, the presentation displays the exquisite art that has been made in the King Library Press.

The success of the King Library Press, part of the Special Collections Library, is the result of the work of Dr. James D. Birchfield, Curator of Books at UK Libraries and Dr. Paul Holbrook, Director of the King Press.


Weekly Tech Tip from UK Libraries Desktop Support:

Have you checked out the "My Site" section of SharePoint? This feature is new to us since moving to the campus SharePoint server. When you are on a SharePoint page, look in the upper right of the screen for the links to My Site and My Links. My Site has some Facebook-ish features, allowing you to upload a picture and a personal description. You can also store documents in My Site, either for your own use or for access by others at UK. The My Links section lets you bookmark your division or committee SharePoint site, for easier access. These bookmarks travel with you if you log in from a different computer.


Play Features Oral Histories from the Louie B. Nunn Center:

In honor of Veterans Day, the UK Department of Theatre presented "Bringing it Home: Voices of Student Veterans," at the Buell Armory. Another opportunity to see the play will be Friday, November 12 at 8:00 p.m. The event is sponsored by the UK Veterans Resource Center, the Department of Theatre, and the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History. The play is free and open to the public, but seating is limited. Reservations are required by emailing ukbihtix@gmail.com.


Weekly LibGuide Feature:

The featured guide this week comes from Gwen Curtis. The Maps LibGuide provides access to the extensive map collection housed in the Science Library on the 4th floor. This guide highlights both print and electronic resources.

http://libguides.uky.edu/content.php?pid=52957&sid=388147


Wednesday Fire Alarm Evacuates William T. Young Library:

The fire alarm Wednesday at 10:00 a.m. was evidently set off by dust created during the process of cleaning out an elevator shaft. The building was evacuated safely thanks to the preparation and execution of safety plans by Mary McLaren and the entire faculty and staff within the Young Library.

It was very impressive to see the large number of students outside the building early on a Wednesday morning following the evacuation. The Young Library plays a central role in teaching and learning at UK and the presence of so many students is a good reminder of the important role we play in their academic success.


Thanks to Beth Kraemer, Sue Smith, Mary McLaren, and Deirdre Scaggs for their contributions to the Weekly Review.

Terry Birdwhistell
Dean of Libraries

Friday, November 5, 2010

UK Libraries partners with Judaic Studies Program for Hebrew Journals Pilot Project:

• The Collections and Technical Services Division (CTS) of UK Libraries, in collaboration with Dr. Oliver Leaman and the UK Judaic Studies Program, has announced it will participate in the JSTOR Hebrew Journals Pilot Project. The project, resulting from the ongoing efforts of the University of Haifa Library and the National Library of Israel to digitize, preserve, and expose core journals published in Hebrew, is intended to better meet the needs of scholars throughout the world engaged in scholarship in the Hebrew language. The journals involved in the pilot project include:

o Horizons in Geography: covers all aspects of geography in Middle East and surrounding areas

o Megamot: a behavioral sciences journal publishing in disciplines such as psychology, sociology, social work, and other fields

o Tarbiz: a leading Jewish Studies journal

o Zion: a journal of history, published by the Historical Society of Israel

• The CTS and the Judaic Studies Program will provide feedback to JSTOR about the digitized journal content—including issues of display, navigation, and preservation—in order to help make scholarly resources in Hebrew more accessible to students and researchers in the future.

• JSTOR is a not–for–profit service that provides a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive of more than 1,000 academic journals and other scholarly content.


Weekly LibGuide Feature:

• UK Libraries’ faculty and staff currently have 142 published LibGuides on a variety of topics. Our first featured guide, created by art librarian Meg Shaw, highlights the Lucille Little Fine Arts Library's collection of Artists’ Books. It is a wonderful guide which demonstrates how LibGuides can be used in a variety of ways, not simply for the traditional subject guide. http://libguides.uky.edu/artistsbooks


Landscape Scenes of Kentucky Showcased in Archival Collection:

• The Stereoscope, "Gems of Kentucky Scenery," by Carpenter and Mullen Collection, is now available for research. The collection consists of twenty-one albumen process stereograph cards of various landscape scenes of Kentucky. The Collection was processed and the finding aid written by Sarah K. Piester under the supervision of Jason Flahardy.

• A complete finding aid and images are available on the KDL: http://kdl.kyvl.org/cgi/f/findaid/findaid-dx?c=kyead;cc=kyead;q1=stereoscope;rgn=main;view=text;didno=2010av006


University Senate Council Sponsoring Three Town Hall Meetings:

• The Senate Council decided that it would be helpful to solicit faculty opinions regarding the most important qualities for selecting UK’s next president, and that it would be best to have such input available as soon as possible. Therefore, the Senate Council is sponsoring three “town hall meetings” in which faculty are invited to attend and offer opinions on what UK needs in its next president.

• Town hall meetings will be held at the following times/dates/locations:

o Friday, November 5, 9 – 10:30 am (Willard Medical Education Bldg., MN 263 – use elevators outside Medical Center Library)
o Monday, November 8, 1:30 – 3 pm (Auditorium, W. T. Young Library)
o Tuesday, November 9, 4 – 5:30 pm (Center Theater, Student Center)


Weekly Tech Tip from UK Libraries Desktop Support:

• URL shorteners: Long URLs are not only impossible to remember or type, they can also break across lines in an email causing the link to fail. There are several free websites that you can use to create short URL re-directs, to use in email or print publications. One example is http://bit.ly/. Just paste your long URL in the box on the main page, and the site will generate a much shorter alternative that will re-direct back to the original page. You don't need to create an account, although if you do then you can track "hits" to your short URL or even create a more memorable custom URL rather than an auto-generated code.


University Senate Library Committee Holds First Meeting of 2010-11:

• Dr. Tracy Campbell, Professor of History, was elected Chair of the University Senate Library Committee during its first meeting of the year. Other members of the committee are:

• Blair Kidwell – BE/Management
• Richard Andreatta – HS/Rehabilitation Sciences
• Thomas Zentall - PSY
• Terry Conners - AG
• Brian Murphy – ME/Internal Medicine
• Beverly Hilton - LI
• Armando Prats - AS
• Margaret Bausch – ED/Special Ed & Rehab Cnsl
• Terry Birdwhistell, ex officio

Charter - Senate Rules 1.4.2.4
The Senate's Library Committee (SLC) is charged with the responsibility for recommending to the University Senate policies to promote the educational interests of the University as a whole with respect to the Libraries, the faculty body of which is equivalent to the faculty of a college (GR VII.A.1). The SLC is responsible for consultation and advising with faculty of the Libraries or the Dean of Libraries, on such matters as are referred to it by the by the Libraries faculty, by the Dean, or by other University personnel, which pertain to improving the effectiveness of the Libraries as a part of the broad academic program of the University of Kentucky.


Harlan Hubbard’s Paintings Added To The Kentucky Online Arts Resource:

• After a lot of persistence, photographing, listing, fact checking, digitizing, converting, writing, composing, contacting owners of paintings, recontacting owners of paintings, and finally, persuading owners of paintings to sign agreements, Harlan Hubbard’s paintings are finally a part of the KOAR, the Kentucky Online Arts Resource.

• Betty Lyn Parker, at the J.B. Speed Museum in Louisville, worked with Meg Shaw for over a year to achieve this result. The paintings are selected from the exhibit at the Hopewell Museum that I created during my sabbatical and include works from the exhibit that predate 1950, the cutoff for KOAR inclusion.

• Although individuals are not credited in KOAR, the photographs and biography are Meg’s work, and the information about the paintings comes from the Harlan Hubbard Image Collection database compiled by Meg. This is a major step forward in the inclusion of Harlan Hubbard in the canon of Kentucky artists, and provides vital information to researchers about the cultural life of the commonwealth.

• To see the results of all this effort, click on http://www.koar.org/simpleSearch.page.do and type the word hubbard in the search box.


Richard Maiti Joins Digital Library Services:

Richard Maiti has been hired as a grant-funded Server Administrator/Programmer I in Digital Library Services, Library Technologies Division. In addition to extensive computer programming experience, he has a B.S. in Computer Science, a Masters of Applied Computing, and an MBA. Richard began his position in UK Libraries November 1.


Assessment In and Around UK: Using Rubrics for Assessment of Information Literacy Learning Outcomes, by Debbie Sharp and Judy Wiza (Sizzle: What’s Hot in Assessment (Volume 2, Issue 7, October 2010)

• Information literacy is the set of critical thinking skills necessary to locate, evaluate, and use information effectively. Because information literacy skills are important for students’ success in their college coursework, in the workplace, and for lifelong learning, information literacy has been included as part of the University’s new Gen Ed courses. Teaching faculty help their students achieve information literacy in their chosen fields through collaboration with librarians who provide instructional sessions and online research guides. When students learn the difference between scholarly and general interest sources and learn how to search databases to find scholarly resources, they produce better assignments.

• During the spring 2010 semester, UK librarians developed rubrics to assess each of the Libraries’ information literacy learning outcomes. With the collaboration of faculty and instructors in 18 classes of primarily first year students, the Information Literacy Coordinator designed brief assignments which were completed by 318 students and assessed using the rubrics.

• Although the number of assignments evaluated was relatively small when compared to the total number of first year students at the University, some useful findings emerged from the assessment data. It appears that many students come to the University without any information literacy skills gained during their secondary school experience and consequently, instruction must be offered at a very basic level. We discovered that although most first year students are computer literate, their knowledge does not extend to online databases beyond Google, and they generally do not understand how to begin a research project.

• It also became clear from the data that librarians must be very selective in choosing what can be taught in one 50 minute session, the standard amount of time librarians are allotted for teaching information literacy for each course. Focusing on a few key concepts allows students to more readily learn and use the information presented in the session. Where possible, the Libraries will make use of online tutorials and other basic instructional materials to cover core content consistently for all first year students so that later courses can build on the core content.

• The rubrics have been revised slightly and an assessment of information literacy outcomes on a larger scale will take place during the fall semester.


The UK Libraries Weekly Review is also available as a blog: http://uklibrariesbirdseye.blogspot.com/

Thanks to Meg Shaw, Beth Kraemer, Heath Martin, Sue Smith, Katie L.B. Henningsen, Judy Sackett
Debbie Sharp and Judy Wiza for their contributions to the Weekly Review.


Terry Birdwhistell
Dean of Libraries