Friday, September 24, 2010

AIC Participates in Ag Roundup:

• UK Libraries Agricultural Information Center showcased their new LibGuides at their Ag Roundup exhibit during September 15-18. The Ag Roundup is the major College of Agriculture outreach event held each year and is an excellent opportunity for the AIC to reach over 3000 attendees. During the 4 day event, attendees included:

• 800 staff from throughout the state for Staff Appreciation Day

• 550 Rotarians & LFUCG Officials and 150 high school student recruits for Rotary Day

• 700 attendees for the campus Student/Faculty/Staff Picnic

• 173 Kentucky State Legislators, Farm Bureau Officials, Agriculture Development Board members, and Tobacco Task Force members for Ag Leadership Day

• 1,000 alumni for department reunions and the closing Roundup festivities before kickoff on Saturday

• AIC participants included graduate interns Alison Steedman (exhibit creator) and Jackie Hawes, as well as Amelie Charron and Valerie Perry.


Bourbon, Thoroughbreds, and Digital Curation:

• UK Libraries Digital Library Services were featured in a Chronicle of Higher Education this week. The full story can be found at http://chronicle.com/blogPost/Bourbon-Thoroughbreds-and/27107/?sid=pm&utm_source=pm&utm_medium=en


Jennifer Bartlett Invited To Speak At National Conference:

• Jennifer Bartlett has been invited to speak at the 6th Annual Back in Circulation Again Conference, a national conference for circulation managers and staff sponsored by the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Library and Information Studies Continuing Education Services. This year’s conference will be held October 1-2 in Madison, Wisconsin. Jennifer will be speaking about “Academic Libraries: Managing Faculty and Student Expectations at the Circulation Desk.” More information about the conference is available at http://www.slis.wisc.edu/continueed-backincirc.htm.


Widgets for Research at the Engineering Library:

• The Engineering Library is always looking for new ways to reach College of Engineering researchers. Over the past few months, the Engineering Library has added some new portals on the Shaver Engineering website. This includes a LibGuides widget and a widget for the very popular interactive Knovel® eBook collection. These should improve user accessibility. The Engineering Library has also posted a Facebook badge where patrons can keep abreast of events such as upcoming IEEE Explore workshops. Finally, they added an Ask-the-Librarian button which goes directly to Engineering Library staff to improve accessibility for engineering consults. A big thanks to Library Web Admin for helping make all this happen!

• Visit http://www.uky.edu/Libraries/sel to see the new widgets in action.


Public Computer Access Working Group:

• This working group has been formed to consider the issue of public computer access and develop a draft policy for non-UK community member computer access. The group will examine UK benchmark libraries and other university libraries as appropriate to determine their approaches to public use computers, examine the current UK Libraries' policy on public computer use, and develop a draft policy and procedure which ensures fair and equitable use of computers to all users.

• Working group members include: Kevin Campbell, Jan Carver, Alex Grigg, Laura Hall, Roxanna Jones, Jen Martin, Valerie Perry, Kelly Vickery, and Shawn Livingston (Chair).


Weekly Tech Tip from UK Libraries Desktop Support:

• Setting up an Outlook Rule is a nice way to filter incoming email messages from lists or groups that you maybe don't need to read right way. Busy lists can clutter your inbox and make other more important messages harder to find. Sending listserv messages to a separate box reduces clutter and also keeps those messages collected together for later reading. See http://bit.ly/d9zyRg for a nice video tutorial about how to set up an Outlook rule.


Mary Molinaro Named to IT Committee:

• President Lee Todd has appointed Mary Molinaro to the University of Kentucky Information Technology Coordinating Committee.

Friday, September 17, 2010

Weekly Review

Little/Gaines Artist Series To Expand:

• The Lucille C. Little Fine Arts Library and Learning Center and the Gaines Center for the Humanities launches the second season of the popular collaborative artists series, which showcases the work of Kentucky artists and brings together artists in the same or different genres or mediums. This year six Little/Gaines Artists will team up with one or more collaborators in visual, literary, musical or dramatic arts to stage unique exhibitions as part of this series presented at the Niles Gallery, located in University of Kentucky's Little Fine Arts Library. The Little/Gaines Artist Series will begin with artist Ed Franklin at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 21. http://uknow.uky.edu/content/littlegaines-artist-series-expand


Shawn Livingston Receives Carol J. Parris Mentoring Award:

• Shawn Livingston, Director of UK Libraries’ Information Services, received the 2010 Carol J. Parris Mentoring Award at this week’s Kentucky Library Association Annual Conference. The award recognizes “outstanding service to the future of the library profession” by mentoring one or more Kentucky librarians or library workers. Congratulations to Shawn on this honor.


Intellectual Achievement Medallion Nomination Call:

• The University of Kentucky Libraries invites nominees for the 2011 Libraries Medallion for Intellectual Achievement which recognizes Kentuckians who have attained high intellectual achievement. Nominations for the honor will be accepted through Sept. 30.

• The Libraries Medallion for Intellectual Achievement, one of UK's most prestigious awards, was created to recognize high intellectual achievement by Kentuckians, and to encourage education and promote creative thought. Final selection of the recipient of the Libraries Medallion Laureate is determined by majority vote of UK Libraries National Advisory Board. Created in 1990, the medallion recognizes those who produced a contribution of lasting value. Past recipients of the award include Wendell Berry, James Still, Bobbie Ann Mason, Thomas D. Clark, Laman A. Gray Jr., Guy Davenport and George C. Herring. http://uknow.uky.edu/content/intellectual-achievement-medallion-nomination-call


Terry Birdwhistell
Dean of Libraries

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Dream

Had a dream that UK Libraries began selling gum and mints at the circulation desk of each library location. The "revenue stream" push is officially in my head!

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Weekly Review 9.10.10

Director of Archives Search Committee Named:

• Shawn Livingston, Chair
• Katie Henningsen
• Miranda Hines
• Robert Shapiro
• Kopana Terry

I would like to thank everyone who volunteered for this important assignment.


2010 Kentucky Women Writers Conference:

UK Libraries is a sponsor for the 2010 Kentucky Women Writers Conference that begins Friday evening, September 10 and goes through Sunday, September 12. The conference includes workshops, seminars, and free events.

Diane Ackerman will be Saturday evening’s featured presenter in Memorial Hall and will be introduced by UK Libraries Associate Dean Stacey Greenwell. Diane Ackerman's works of nonfiction include the bestseller, A Natural History of the Senses and, most recently, The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story, narrative nonfiction about one of the most successful hideouts of World War II, a tale of people, animals, and subversive acts of compassion.


210 KLA/SMA Joint Conference, September 15-18, 2010, Louisville, Ky.


Terry Birdwhistell
Dean of Libraries

Friday, September 3, 2010

2010 Phonathon:

Each year, UK Development conducts phonathons seeking gifts for UK Colleges. The 2010 UK Libraries Phonathon is underway and during the early weeks of calling, it has raised nearly $12,000. These fundraising calls are made by current UK students who express their appreciation for UK Libraries and for the support from private donors. Much of this early success has come from donors who have not given to UK Libraries in several years. In the coming weeks, students will be calling our most loyal supporters to invite their much needed and much appreciated gifts. At the conclusion of phoning, we anticipate the result will be another successful UK Libraries phonathon, thanks to the support of our generous donors.

Hope you have a great holiday weekend!


Terry Birdwhistell
Dean of Libraries