Observations and Reflections

Thank you!  As 2012 comes to a close, it is a good time to reflect on what UK Libraries has been able to accomplish throughout the past year.  In the midst of some challenging budgetary times, we welcomed and served the largest incoming class of students in the history of the University of Kentucky.  We have integrated undergraduate students into the processing and study of our unique Special Collections through the creation of the SC Learning Lab.  In addition, we continue to adapt and expand our collections to meet the needs of a rapidly changing academic environment.  UK Libraries faculty, staff, and student employees have worked very hard to make all of this possible.

I also want to acknowledge the support of faculty and administrators across UK’s campus for their support for UK Libraries during the past year.  That support, along with support from President Eli Capilouto, Interim Provost Tim Tracy, and members of the UK Board of Trustees have been essential in keeping UK Libraries one of the leading public research libraries in the United States.

What is most exciting and encouraging to me is what we have been able to accomplish with the support of our friends and donors.  By this time next year, I anticipate we will be dedicating our newest learning commons on the second floor of the William T. Young Library.  We are in the process of replacing aging and inadequate furniture and equipment in Special Collections and the Medical Library with new infrastructure that will enhance research and learning.  None of this would have been possible without generous private support.

I am extremely grateful for the generosity of our donors and the work and support of the UK Libraries National Advisory Board.  I am anxious to explore new ways we will be able to serve our mission and impact the lives of current and future UK students. 

If you have not already done so, I encourage you to make a calendar year end annual gift to UK Libraries.  You can make a secure gift online via credit card by visiting our giving website http://libraries.uky.edu/Giving.  You may also contact Greg Casey, UK Libraries Director of Development, (greg.casey@uky.edu or 859.218.0707) and he will be happy to assist you. 

UK Libraries Provides Resources for New Entrepreneurs

Peter Hesseldenz, Patricia Hartman, and Andrea Spain recently attended “Romance or Ruin:  Musings on the Restaurant Biz,” a workshop sponsored by Business Lexington which was designed to inform new entrepreneurs about the ins and outs of starting a restaurant.  After a panel discussion, Peter, Patricia, and Andrea set up laptop computers and met with some of the new entrepreneurs to show them the resources that UK Libraries have to offer. 

Many of the attendees took time to discuss their business plan needs.  A few made appointments to talk later in more depth.  In preparation for the workshop, Peter, Patricia, and Catherine Price set up a LibGuide page specifically for the event – it can be viewed here:

http://libguides.uky.edu/content.php?pid=129926&sid=3362047

Mary Beth Thomson Named Senior Associate Dean

Beginning in January, Mary Beth Thomson will assume expanded administrative responsibilities within UK Libraries.  As Senior Associate Dean for Collections, Digital Scholarship, and Technical Services, Mary Beth’s responsibilities will include being in charge of UK Libraries in the absence of the Dean and representing UK Libraries at meetings when appropriate and as needed.  In consultation with the Dean, Mary Beth will plan for and provide administrative oversight during the preparation of the UK Libraries Strategic Plan and she will take a leading role in monitoring progress regarding UK Libraries strategic initiatives. 

In consultation with the Dean and the Associate Deans, Mary Beth will assist in preparing Executive Committee meeting agendas and monitoring progress of administrative initiatives as well as working with the Dean, the Assistant Dean for Finance and Administration, the Executive Committee and the Faculty Council, in the preparation of UK Libraries’ budget.

I want to thank Mary Beth for taking on these additional administrative responsibilities allowing me to focus more closely on specific strategic goals and development for UK Libraries.

Online Conference Proceedings on UKnowledge

You can find recorded proceedings of two conferences held at UK online, thanks to UK’s institutional repository, UKnowledge.  The first is for the Bale Boone Symposium organized by the Gaines Center for the Humanities.  The schedules for the Bale Boone Symposium from 2010 through 2012 are available online and the videos of the presentations can be accessed through the site. 

Adrian Ho

The proceedings of the Defaults in Morphological Theory Conference also reside on UKnowledge.  In addition to viewing the videos of individual sessions, visitors can download the presenters’ abstracts and slides.  UKnowledge tracks the download rates and keeps the presenters informed of the statistics regularly. 

 UKnowledge welcomes the opportunity to collaborate with UK colleges and departments to create online conference proceedings.  If you would like to inquire about this free library service, please feel free to e-mail Adrian Ho, Director of Digital Scholarship, or phone him at 859.218.0895. 

http://uknowledge.uky.edu/

Doug Boyd Presents at USC Shoah Foundation Meeting

Dr. Doug Boyd, Director of the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History was invited to participate in an international conference on the potential and challenges of opening digital eyewitness archives for research, education and the media – Preserving Survivors´ Memories - Digital Testimony Collections about Nazi Persecution. History, Education and Media.  

The conference took place November 20-22 at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin, Germany and was hosted by The Foundation “Remembrance, Responsibility and Future” (EVZ) together with the Freie Universität Berlin and in cooperation with the USC Shoah Foundation Institute, Los Angeles, USA.  Doug participated in a panel presentation and discussion Oral History in the E-Humanities Landscape and featured an in-depth discussion of the Nunn Center's creation and implementation of OHMS (Oral History Metadata Synchronizer) as a model for enhancing access to archived oral history.

http://nunncenter.org/tag/kentucky-oral-history/

UK Libraries Participates in GSP/GSA Day

On Monday, December 17, Stacey Greenwell and Shawn Livingston represented UK Libraries at UK’s annual Kentucky Governor’s Scholars Program/Governor’s School for the Arts (GSP/GSA) recruitment event.  UK welcomed nearly 300 prospective students and their families to campus at this full day event. 

This annual event seeks to recruit Kentucky Governor’s Scholars Program and Kentucky School for the Arts participants and is one of UK’s largest and most successful recruitment events.  UK Libraries provided information at a table and also led a tour of the William T. Young Library for prospective students and their families.

UK Libraries 2012 Holiday Luncheon

UK Libraries celebrated the end of the fall semester and the beginning of the holiday season with its annual holiday luncheon in the Student Center Ballroom.  UK Libraries employees, custodians, building operators, and everyone who plays a key role in the daily operation of UK Libraries attended.  Also, for the first time, we welcomed our colleagues from the University Press of Kentucky.

Thanks again to the holiday luncheon planning committee ( Jen Martin, Lindsey Callico, Shell Dunn, Megan Mummey, Peggy Phillips and Carrie Poll) and to Brittany Benningfield, Jessica Pearl French, and Ruth Bryan for providing seasonal music.  Special thanks as well to Lewis Warden for providing photographs of the festivities.

Happy Holidays!

New University Press of Kentucky Book Featured at Seminar in Young Library

To celebrate the release of "Contemporary Public Health," the UK College of Public Health has organized a seminar that will bring experts featured in the book to Lexington to discuss the current state of the field. "Contemporary Issues in Health and Healthcare Seminar," which is free and open to the public, will run from 9 to 11 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 8, at the gallery at UK's William T. Young Library.

James W. Holsinger Jr., M.D., Ph.D., former Chancellor of the UK Medical Center, is the Charles T. Wethington Jr. Chair in the Health Sciences at the University of Kentucky. He served as secretary of the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services from 2003 to 2005.

Nation of Nations wins Rumi Peace Award

Marjorie Guyon, the artist Nation of Nations was honored for her conception and execution of Nation of Nations by receiving the Rumi Peace Award at the Intercultural Dialogue Organization’s Sixth Annual Dialogue and Friendship Dinner held at the Boone Center on November 27^th.  The artwork was recognized for its bridging of local, regional, national and international lines by inviting the viewer into an inner journey of discovery across entanglements, separation and fear of the unknown.  The 10 panel artwork is currently on display in the University Drive Entrance to the William T. Young Library.

Changes Coming to Library Technologies and Reference

Library Technologies is moving website development into an environment supported more by automation and programming while being driven by user experience and usability testing.  Programmers will use an agile software development approach to develop tools and services to be delivered through the website and to mobile devices. This approach requires co-location of the programmers with a process owner who manages the usability aspect of the work.  This activity will be centered in Digital Library Services under the direction of Eric Weig.  Beth Kraemer will serve as process owner and coordinate user experience and interface design.

With this change in web services, key aspects of research information management will return to public services to more closely integrate support with reference and library instruction. Rob Aken will be moving to be a part of the Reference Department.  Rob has supported these activities by closely monitoring issues of consistency and functionality with the links to electronic products and management of the Springshare LibGuides services. 

The number of reference requests that UK Libraries receives continues to remain steady, and Reference is being contacted in an increasing number of ways: via text and LibAnswers in addition to chat, email, phone, and in person. As librarians continue developing more collegial teaching relationships with UK faculty and working more with integrating information literacy skills into the curriculum, we will continue to see more students contacting UK Libraries for reference assistance or consultation.

Reference requires additional faculty support to help with this demand as well as to provide assistance in teaching information literacy instruction sessions and developing instructional materials. It is very beneficial to have an experienced, senior librarian assist with this expanding teaching role.   Rob is an excellent reference librarian and his experience with electronic resources and his role in launching and maintaining Lib Guides have all been very important.  Rob’s move to Reference will bolster reference service, provide greater support for information literacy efforts, as well as support the creation of Lib Guides and other tools to provide students access to UK Libraries collections.  

UK Athletics/UK Libraries Partnerships

Dr. Carolyn Curry (3rd from left), President of UK Libraries Board at library fundraiser

Not only did UK Athletics play an essential role in the unique financing package for the William T. Young Library, but UK Athletics has long supported UK Libraries in many other ways.  UK welcomed a new head football coach to campus this week with the introduction of Coach Mark Stoops.  It is an exciting time for the Big Blue Nation and also a chance to reflect on the impact some of Coach Stoop’s predecessors have had on the university and especially on UK Libraries. 

Coach Bill Curry was a great friend of UK Libraries.  Dr. Carolyn Curry served as a member of the UK Libraries Board and Coach Curry himself gave generously to UK Libraries during his time at UK.  In the 1980’s, Coach Jerry Claiborne and Faye established an endowment in Special Collections to purchase archival material that preserve the history and culture of western Kentucky.  Faye also served as a volunteer in Special Collections. 

As we continue to build an endowment for the Big Blue Sports Archives you can already discover all sorts of informative materials pertaining to UK football history, including archival photographs, at http://exploreuk.uky.edu/

Observations and Reflections:

 I want to thank the branch librarians for the opportunity to join them at their meeting this week.  I really enjoy hearing first-hand about the initiatives underway throughout UK Libraries.  Our branch libraries have been going through major transitions the past several years but remain essential to the overall mission of UK Libraries.  Reducing and consolidating branch libraries are allowing the remaining libraries to provide more expanded service and a reduced cost.  For those academic areas within the university without a branch library, our academic liaisons continue to play a key role in assuring that we are providing the collections and the service that our students and faculty need across the campus.

  This week I also had the opportunity to attend the UKIT Cyber Infrastructure Symposium.  UK recently received a grant to significantly enhance the university’s high-performance computing capacity.  UKIT is an important partner with UK Libraries as we work together to provide students and faculty the latest technology for accessing the information they need.  We are planning for the preservation of, and access to, the incredible amount of data generated daily by UK faculty and students during the course of their research.

The University Senate Library Committee has been charged with assessing open access issues at the University of Kentucky.  We have several initiatives underway at UK Libraries, including UKnowledge, to help UK faculty move toward adoption of an open access policy.

Just last week the faculty at Georgia Tech University overwhelmingly voted to adopt an Open Access policy.  The new policy takes effect Jan 1, 2013 and can be found here:

http://library.gatech.edu/scdc/OA_policy_draft

The 2012 Victor and Carolyn Hammer Books Arts Lecture

David Esslemont, British-born printer and former director of the Gregynog Press at the University of Wales was the King Library Press Book Arts Event lecturer this past Wednesday in the Great Hall of Special Collections. 

Esslemont has been Artist-in-Residence at Grasmere in the English Lake District to prepare illustrations for an edition of William Wordsworth's "The Prelude" and also Artist-in-Residence at the Minnesota Center for the Book Arts.  He is now active as a printer, printmaker, and bookbinder in Iowa.

The King Library Press, founded in 1956, is devoted to the tradition of fine printing and produces books and broadsides. Typesetting, printing, and binding are all done at the Press and there are opportunities for apprentices. The Press is located in Special Collections in the Margaret I. King Building.

First UK Medical Librarian Featured

Tag Heister, Clinical Reference Librarian in the Medical Center Library, published an article on Alfred Brandon, UK’s first medical librarian.  The article appears in the fall, 2012 issue of Kentucky Libraries.  Heister notes that, “Hired prior to the 1960 opening o the University of Kentucky’s College of Medicine, Alfred  Brandon was charged with building a medical library from the ground up to support the colleges of medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, and nursing.”

Notable Kentucky African Americans Database

Reinette Jones

UK librarians Reinette Jones and Rob Akin spoke this week at the Martin Luther King Cultural Center as part of the African-American and African Studies Program Carter G. Woodson Lecture Series.  Reinette and Rob described their work with the The Notable Kentucky African Americans (NKAA) database. 

Rob Aken

 NKAA was originally a website with a series of individual web pages listing approximately 200 biographical entries on African Americans in and from the state of Kentucky. The site went live in September 2003. It consisted of one entry for each person arranged under the profession or activity in which they were notable, with references to sources of additional information.

“The Notable Kentucky African Americans (NKAA) Database, sponsored by the University of Kentucky Libraries, is the first database developed to provide biographical and historical information concerning

African Americans in a particular U.S. state. “ 

History of Printing in the Bluegrass

Dr. Jim Birchfield, Curator of Rare Books, UK Libraries, spoke on "Printmaking in the Bluegrass" at Transylvania University's Morlan Gallery on Tuesday, November 27th.  The talk was made in conjunction with the Morlan Gallery's exhibition of contemporary prints by artists in the region.    

Doug Boyd Shares UK Oral History Expertise

“Information in this day and age is rarely scarce, but often not collected and saved properly for future generations. However, one national project under the leadership of oral historian Doug Boyd, director of the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History at University of Kentucky Libraries, hopes to remedy that through the dissemination of best practices via the Oral History in the Digital Age (OHDA).”

“Funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and hosted online by Matrix at Michigan State University (MSU), OHDA currently contains around 70 essays by experts and leading practitioners around the country on best practices for collecting, curating and disseminating oral history; the "Thinking Big" video series; and links to nearly 200 best practices documents online.”

The full UK press release can be found here: 

http://uknow.uky.edu/content/uks-doug-boyd-schools-nation-oral-history-practices