Kentucky Countess

 The current August issue of Harper's Bazaar contains a feature on Lexington's internationally famous fashion icon, Countess Mona Bismarck (the only Kentuckian to be painted by Salvador Dali). 

The article is based, in part, on Dr. James Birchfield's Mona Bismarck in Art and Fashion (cited on p. 162), which accompanied an exhibition at the U.K. Art Museum in 1997.    Dr. Birchfield is Curator of Books for UK Libraries.  http://www.amazon.com/Kentucky-Countess-Mona-Bismarck-Fashion/dp/188200714X.  Dr. Birchfield is also the author of Clay Lancaster's Kentucky: Architectural Photographs of a Preservation Pioneer (University Press of Kentucky, 2007).

UK Libraries well represented at SLA International Conference

The Special Library Association (SLA) met in Chicago last week with over 3,000 information professionals from a variety of environments--academic, corporate, government, consulting--from over 30 different countries met to discuss future trends in technology, user needs, and information access in a variety of specialized subject areas.  Guy Kawasaki, co-founder of Alltop.com, an "online magazine rack" of popular topics on the Web, and previously the chief evangelist of Apple, opened the conference with a keynote address discussing the art of enchantment in relation to customer service and user expectations: http://www.guykawasaki.com/enchantment/audio-video/

For the past several years, Kentucky librarians have been particularly active at all levels of SLA--chapter, division, and association--and this year was no exception.  Peter Hesseldenz presented a poster session for the Business and Finance Division once again; this year's poster was titled “Working with Economics Faculty and Student.   In addition to serving as Membership Chair for the Academic Division, Jason Keinsley will continue as Lead Planner for the IT Division's many programs, continuing education courses, and networking events for the 2013 SLA Annual Conference in San Diego.

Valerie Perry remains active in the Food, Agriculture, and Nutrition (FAN) Division, and assisted the current FAN Division Chair with program planning and participated in various FAN Board activities.  Valerie is also currently the President of the Kentucky Chapter.  Alex Grigg is an association leader as well, and he is currently Chair-Elect of the IT Division and Treasurer of the Kentucky Chapter.

Stacey Greenwell continued her active involvement in SLA, serving as a candidate for the international Board of Directors of the association and chair of the association's new Technology Advisory Council.  She had several responsibilities as a Fellow of the association and as the inaugural chair of the Academic Division.  She also served as awards presenter at the opening general session for the second year in a row.

More information about the conference, including slides and photos, can be found on the Twitter archive: http://eventifier.co/event/slachicago

UK Libraries goes to the Movies

University of Kentucky Special Collections has a new exhibit, “Going to the Movies: Depression Era Theaters in Lexington” this summer. The exhibit includes images of Lexington’s seven major theaters during the 1930s, including the Kentucky, Strand, Ada Meade, Ben Ali, and State theaters.

Many of these images are drawn from the University’s Lafayette Studios collection. Acquired in the 1980s, the collection includes images ranging from Lafayette Studios opening in 1923 by Robert J. “Bob” Long and his spouse, Ida Nelson Long, to its closure in 1985 under the ownership of Chester Wainscott. It remains the most comprehensive visual catalogue of Lexington’s commercial history during the 20th Century.

Special Collections’ new exhibit also includes an interactive iPad display, offering patrons the opportunity to learn more about the movies displayed in the exhibit as well as the theaters of the time.  The exhibit is open to the general public and I hope you choose to stop by and visit.

Susan Foster-Harper Co-Authors Article

 Susan Foster-Harper, Emerging Technologies Librarian in the Medical Center Library has co-authored, Infectious Etiologies of Acute Otitis Media, to be published in the November 15^th issue of American Family Physician.  Clinical Inquiries provide answers to questions submitted by practicing family physicians to the Family Physicians Inquiries  etwork (FPIN). Answers are drawn from an approved set of evidence-based resources and undergo peer review.

Governor Appoints Alex Grigg to Kentucky State Advisory Council on Libraries

Governor Steve Beshear recently appointed Alex Grigg, Manager of the Lexmark Library, to the Kentucky State Advisory Council on Libraries as one of the Special Library representatives.  UK Libraries has managed Lexmark's Corporate Library and provided information services for over 20 years.

Regarding his new appointment, Grigg said, “I’m proud to be selected to serve on a council that seeks to help our state provide the best library services that it can.  Hopefully my eight year experience as a librarian from the corporate world and my volunteer experience with the Special Library Association at the state and national level can help inform that work.  I’m eager to get started in this new and exciting role.”

Special Collections Initiates Learning Lab for Undergraduates

Special Collections is pleased to announce the SC Learning Lab. The SC Learning Lab is a center of primary research, experiential learning, and training.  Targeting undergraduate students in the humanities, social sciences, and arts, the SC Learning Lab provides training in archival methods by pairing advanced undergraduate students with unprocessed or under-processed archival collections in their research area. 

The internship promotes undergraduate research, scholarship, and creativity and more fully integrates Special Collections into the teaching and research mission of the University.  Undergraduate students will be taught how to arrange and describe rare or unique collections in their area of research interest, while enhancing access through the production of guides, exhibits, or transcriptions. In addition to their training, the interns will create and present a poster, presentation, or exhibit, reflecting on the impact the internship had on their research.

Jen Bartlett Article to be published in College and Research Libraries

“Where Do We Go From Here?  Informing Academic Library Staffing through Reference Transaction Analysis,” by Jennifer Bartlett, Head of William T. Young Library Reference Services and Dr. Wade Bishop, UK School of Library and Information Science, has been accepted for publication in the July 2013 issue of College & Research Libraries (CRL), the scholarly research journal of the Association of College & Research Libraries.

Information about the article may be found in UKnowledge, UK Libraries’ online institutional repository, at http://uknowledge.uky.edu/slis_facpub/1/ and at the CRL website at http://crl.acrl.org/content/early/2012/05/07/crl-365.abstract.

UK Receives Large Transfers of Works Progress Administration Publications

UK Libraries is participating in an Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) grant with the Association of Southeastern Research Libraries (ASERL) to develop and catalog a complete collection of Works Progress Administration (WPA) publications.  Part of our responsibility as a WPA Center of Excellence (COE) in this ASERL program is to acquire any titles published by the WPA that we do not currently own. 

To that end, two libraries, the University of Missouri and the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, have transferred a large number of WPA publications to UK Libraries.  These transfers have allowed us to add both new titles to our WPA collection and add extra copies for archival preservation and digitization purposes. 

Missouri sent UK Libraries over 30 boxes of publications and Enoch Pratt Free Library expects to send at least a dozen boxes.   These publications provide a very complete picture of employment conditions in each state of the union during the Great Depression and will provide UK Libraries and other Southeastern researchers with a rich resource from a very critical period in our nation’s history.  We are very grateful for the generosity and cooperation of these two institutions.

Former Graduate Assistant in Federal Depository Unit Named Librarian at Indiana University

Stephanie Niemeyer, Graduate Assistant in our Federal Depository Unit (FDU) for FY 2010-11, was recently hired as Serials, Binding and Bibliographic Control Coordinator for the Herman B. Wells Library at Indiana University.  While at UK Libraries, Stephanie was responsible for receiving and processing publications from the Works Progress Administration (WPA), as well as all database maintenance work for our SuDoc collection, including binding. 

As part of UK Libraries’ commitment to the Association of Southeastern Research Libraries’ (ASERL) Collaborative Federal Depository Program and Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) grant, UK Libraries agreed to be a Center of Excellence  (COE) for the WPA.   Stephanie took the lead in evaluating this collection and any additions to it.   She also developed a manual for all of the WPA processes, including preparing the pieces for digitization.  This manual is about to become part of the ASERL IMLS grant documentation that we have been participating in since Sept., 2009.   Stephanie also created a LibGuide for the WPA collection in order to promote access to these materials.

Stephanie says that “….many of the projects I completed with you gave me the edge.  So far, the work I completed with you is translating well into the work I'm doing now. Thank you for all the experiences you provided me during my assistantship…”  Stephanie made a huge contribution to the ASERL COE work while at UK Libraries and we wish her the best as she launches her professional career.

ASERL Projects Highlighted in Recent Publication

 John Burger, Executive Director of the Association of Southeastern Research Libraries (ASERL), reports that the latest issue of the journal Collection Management includes two articles about ASERL programs.  One describes the Collaborative Federal Depositories Program:               http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01462679.2012.685831

The other describes ASERL’s cooperative journal retention program http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01462679.2012.685423  

Observations and Reflections:

Last week Deirdre Scaggs, Greg Casey and I had a very enjoyable visit with Judge Sara Combs at Fern Hill Farm in Powell County which she shared with her late husband, Governor Bert T. Combs. 

Judge Combs was the first woman to serve on the Kentucky Supreme Court.  She presently serves on the Kentucky Court of Appeals and is the first woman to serve as Chief Judge.

Next year will mark the 50^th anniversary of the conclusion of Governor Bert Combs’ administration.  The Combs administration is remembered for its courage in passing tax legislation to fund veterans’ bonuses and education and for an executive order banning discrimination in all public accommodations.

UK Libraries is pleased to be the home of the Bert T. Combs Collection.  The collection consists of over 130 boxes of papers, photographs, and audio-visual recordings. This collection primarily documents Combs' term as Governor of Kentucky from 1959-1963, but also covers, to a lesser extent, his other political activities as well. The Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History also houses interviews that were conducted with Combs on subjects such as his role in the lawsuit that led to the Kentucky Education Reform Act of 1990, and the political careers of such notable Kentuckians as John Sherman Cooper, Edward F. Prichard, and A.B. "Happy" Chandler.

                                                                                     

We look forward to highlighting the collection and Governor Combs’ accomplishments during 2013.

 Last week I also participated in a retreat held with Medical Center Library faculty and staff.  MCL has an excellent history of supporting medical education, research, and health literacy both on campus and throughout Kentucky.  The rapidly rising costs of medical library collections and budget challenges facing UK mean that MCL must be innovative and strategic in everything it does. 

I benefited from my conversations with the MCL faculty and staff and I look forward to working with them as they reinvent a medical research library for the 21st century.

Robinson Scholars Visit Special Collections:

On May 20th, the Robinson Scholars, a distinguished group of high school sophomores and juniors, came into Special Collections for a unique archives active learning experience.  The Robinson Scholars Program provides exceptional students from 29 eastern Kentucky counties with historically low college attendance with scholarships to the University of Kentucky upon high school graduation and completion of the program’s eligibility requirements.  

The program selects students when they are in the eighth grade to participate in various activities through their high school careers that help to provide academic support, social mentoring and college preparation. Part of that preparation includes bringing the students to UK during the summers to participate in camps that introduce them to the intellectual challenges of college life in a supportive environment.  

This year as one of their activities, the students completed an archival exercise on coal camps that was designed by Kate Black, allowing them to handle and begin to critically analyze primary source materials.  Sheli Saltsman led the exercise - Gail Kennedy, Ruth Bryan, and Deirdre Scaggs assisted.  Special Collections was thrilled to be able to work with the Robinson Scholar Program and to help make their college living camp a fun and educational success!

Undergraduate Summer Research in Louie B. Nunn Oral History Center:

Nunn Center director Doug Boyd was chosen to mentor a 2012 Bucks for Brains Summer Research Scholarship recipient.  The Bucks for Brains Summer Research Scholarship program provides undergraduates at UK with "hands-on experience in academic research, working alongside faculty." Since May, Desiree Willis, an undergraduate Secondary Social Studies Education major at UK (Junior), has been working in the Nunn Center as part of this faculty/student research program. 

The research plan developed for Desiree involves the new OHMS interface.  Desiree will develop models and workflows for using the new indexing feature of the OHMS system for presenting large collections of oral histories online and connecting oral histories in the OHMS system to related primary sources, also online. Desiree’s research will create the model for others to follow in utilizing the OHMS system for presenting oral history interviews online.

Desiree has been focusing her efforts on using the OHMS system to index three oral history collections in preparation for online access: 

Women Coal Miners (Entire Collection)

Colonel Arthur L. Kelly American Veterans: World War II (Select interviews)

Charles T. Wethington University of Kentucky Oral History Collection (Select Interviews)

Desiree has made great progress on these interviews, many of which we hope to have online by the end of summer.  She has been actively engaged in indexing our projects, and has become an integral part of the research process of fine tuning the OHMS system and its workflows.

More information about the summer program can be found here:  http://www.uky.edu/UGResearch/bucks_for_brains.html  

University Press of Kentucky Joins UK Libraries:

Interim Provost Tim Tracy recently issued the following announcement:  “Since last fall the university has been considering organizational changes that will align with our strategic priorities and improve operational efficiency and effectiveness.   As you know, one of my charges as Interim Provost is to evaluate the organizational structure of the Provost Office.   At this time, I am pleased to announce that the University Press of Kentucky (UPK) will become administratively part of UK Libraries effective July 1, 2012. 

 Both UPK and UK Libraries have made significant strides in digital scholarly publishing and the closer working relationship offers opportunities for even greater collaboration going forward that will benefit faculty, students, and researchers throughout Kentucky and the international scholarly community.”

Research libraries and university presses have merged at several universities throughout the United States.  UK Libraries welcomes our new partner in scholarly publishing and we anticipate a tremendous working relationship, especially in the area of digital scholarship.  The University Press of Kentucky is directed by Steve Wrinn who is nationally recognized for his leadership and creativity in scholarly publishing.

 You can learn more about UKP at:  http://www.kentuckypress.com/.  “The University Press of Kentucky has a dual mission—the publication of books of high scholarly merit in a variety of fields for a largely academic audience and the publication of books about the history and culture of Kentucky, the Ohio Valley region, the Upper South, and Appalachia. The Press is the statewide mandated nonprofit scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth of Kentucky, operated as an agency of the University of Kentucky and serving all state institutions of higher learning, plus five private colleges and Kentucky's two major historical societies.”

Welcome UKP!

Kate Black Announces Retirement:

After 26 years with UK Libraries, Kate Black will retire January 18, 2013.  Hired as Appalachian Librarian in 1986, Kate also worked from 1997 to 2003 in the Young Library Reference Department.  Since 2003 she has focused primarily on providing access to UK Libraries’ nationally recognized collection of unique Appalachian collections and working with classes and individual students to utilize unique historical and cultural resources within UK Libraries.

Observations and Reflections:

 It is very heartening to have young people engaged with unique primary materials.  Moreover, UK Libraries is fortunate to have an excellent collection of unique materials.  I remember well my first visit to Special Collections years ago to do research on coalmining in eastern Kentucky during the 1930s.  I could not believe that UK Libraries had such a wealth of information and that, more surprising, a student could use the original items! 

Moving forward we want to continue finding new and creative ways for UK students, as well as students throughout the commonwealth, to have access to these important materials that document our history and culture. 

We also continue exploring ways to improve learning spaces and access at our branch library locations.  This past week we met with Dean Mary John O’Hair in the College of Education to begin partnering on a renovation of the Education Library.  We are hoping to dramatically improve the learning environment in the library and to develop a closer partnership with Information Technology within the college.  Brad Carrington, Head of the Education Library, will be working closely with Dean O’Hair and her faculty and staff as this initiative develops. 

Like most initiatives at UK, this effort will need the support of donors for both UK Libraries and the College of Education.  Greg Casey, UK Libraries Director of Development, will be working with the College of Education to identify individuals and organizations that can help fund this important project.

Janet Stith Appointed to State Board:

 Governor Steve Beshear recently reappointed Janet Stith, Director of the UK Medical Center Library, to another term on the Kentucky State Advisory Council on Libraries representing institutional libraries.

Created in 1971, the State Advisory Council on Libraries advises the Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives on federal and state library development issues. 

Observations and Reflections:

As we begin the new fiscal year I want to thank all UK Libraries employees for their service this past year and for their hard work and patience as we move through fiscal challenges. 

UK Libraries continues to move forward and our faculty and staff are busily planning and implementing programs and services for our students, faculty, staff and citizens of the commonwealth.  Our faculty is also actively engaged in national discussions about the future of research libraries.

Many of our initiatives are supported by the generosity of our friends and donors.  Last week Greg Casey, Deirdre Scaggs, and I had the opportunity to spend time with UK Libraries Board members and other friends of UK Libraries in Washington, D.C. 

The Henry Clay Dinner of the Kentucky Society of Washington, D.C. was held on June 20 at the historic Willard Hotel.  The event honored four former Kentucky U.S. Senators; Wendell Ford, Marlow Cook, Jim Bunning, and former UK Libraries Advisory Board member Walter Dee Huddleston.

UK President Eli Capilouto hosted a table at the event that included Board members Bess Abell and Martha-Ann Alito and their spouses.  Also attending that evening was Advisory Board member Clay Ford.

On Sunday afternoon, June 24, Bess and Tyler Abell hosted a reception at Merry-Go-Round Farm near Potomac, Maryland for friends and supporters of UK Libraries and other UK Alumni in the area.  Board members Martha-Ann Alito, Anne Ritchie, and Sharon Horner also attended the reception overlooking the Potomac River.

Many thanks to Bess and Tyler for their very generous hospitality.

Stacey Greenwell Highlights Important Changes Coming to Young Library:

In fall 2009, UK Libraries began developing a vision for redesigning the second floor of the William T. Young Library to create a space complementary to the Hub that would serve better the needs of UK students, faculty, and staff. 

The planning process included a series of student focus groups and meetings with library faculty and staff as well as multiple campus partners. 

 We have continued refining that vision over the last several months, keeping in mind the needs expressed by students throughout the planning process. 

With President Eli Capilouto’s focus on increasing the quality of undergraduate education at the university, projects like this which enhance the student learning experience are a high priority.  Today, thanks to the support of UK Libraries donors who have responded generously to our annual fundraising campaigns, we now have the resources needed to begin makeingthis vision a reality.

The first phase of the renovation will include a redesign of the second floor reference area.  A section of the reference desk will be removed to create an open design which is more conducive to reference transactions and consultations.  A variety of seating, tables, and whiteboards will be added around the desk for instruction, collaboration, and study.  This arrangement will extend to the ready reference area to include open and enclosed consultation/small group spaces.

In the second phase, the former current periodicals and microform area in the south wing will be transformed to include three enclosed spaces for consultation, instruction, and group study.   The space will include a variety of seating arrangements for students to work independently or in small groups.  The space will be designed for students to work with laptops with the addition of power outlets and flat panel displays for connecting laptops.

We are finalizing the design and estimates for the project.  We anticipate the newly designed reference area could be complete by spring 2013.

Probst Family Gift:

UK Libraries has received a generous gift of more than 2,000 books focused in the area of German language and literature.  The gift was donated in memory of the late Gerhard F. Probst, Ph.D., by his family. 

 Gerhard F. Probst was a professor of languages and humanities at Transylvania University and Professor Emeritus at the Technical University of Berlin. He also co-founded the John F. Kennedy School in Berlin.

The new materials will augment UK Libraries’ already significant holdings in the area and bolster the number of German-language resources available to students and researchers.  Books included in the gift are currently being processed and added to the UK Libraries collections.

Heath Martin Makes Presentation at ALA:

Heath Martin, UK Libraries’ Director of Collections, gave a presentation entitled “How to Win Friends and Relocate Materials: The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Collection Moves” at the American Library Association (ALA) 2012 Annual Conference in Anaheim, CA. 

The presentation was delivered at the Collection Evaluation and Assessment Interest Group meeting of the Collection Management Section (CMS) of the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS), a division of the ALA.  Heath was also appointed to the ALCTS CMS Publications Committee for the 2012-2014 term.

Eric Weig Gives KDL Update:

 Last Friday Eric Weig, Director of Digital Library Services and the Kentucky Digital Library, gave a presentation to the Kentucky Virtual Library Alliance about the new Kentucky Digital Library interface and preservation repository.  The new site, which will go live in the fall, utilizes open source tools to present users with a unique way of searching archival collections that is an improved experience from other online digital collections. The beta site is available at http://eris.uky.edu.

The site serves multiple types of material including manuscripts, books, maps, photographs, oral histories and newspapers. UK Libraries continues to work on developing tools and services to assist archivists around the state in contributing content to the site.

Deirdre Scaggs Represents UK Libraries at D.C. Meetings:

 On June 25th, Deirdre Scaggs attended "Creating a Dynamic, Knowledge-based Democracy:

The passage of the Morrill Act and the establishment of the National Academy of Sciences and the Carnegie libraries" at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.  Among the sessions she attended were The Morrill Act and the Land-Grant Universities. The panel was comprised of five land-grant presidents and they discussed the pioneering role of Congress and the Federal government in challenging and partnering with the states to establish throughout the nation new universities build around the library and laboratory, not just the classroom and the classics. This week marks the 150th anniversary of the Morrill Act.

Later that day, Deirdre served on a panel of experts to address “Preserving the Senate’s Legacy.” Hosted by the Secretary of the Senate and the Senate Historical Office, the panel was held at the U.S. Capitol and was attended by staff of the senate.