MEMORANDUM
TO: William Louthan, Provost
FROM: Theresa S. Byrd, Director of Libraries
DATE: January 11, 1999
SUBJECT: REPORT TO THE TRUSTEES FOR JANUARY 1999
FIVE COLLEGES
The Five Colleges of Ohio Consortium is an integral part of the work
of the OWU Library System. The Consortium was recently awarded a $50,000
AT&T Learning Network Teaching and Technology grant to develop
a web-based tutorial to teach students information literacy skills.
The Consortium also plans to apply for a $600,000 to $700,000 grant
to introduce information literacy campus-wide. The campus-wide initiative
would include holding faculty workshops and a retreat for instruction
librarians. Through a grant provided by the Mellon Foundation, the
Consortium’s government documents personnel continue to work
on cataloging original and historical government publications. At
their recent meeting, the audiovisual personnel in the Consortium
discussed the teleconferencing project between Denison and Kenyon
and they received a demonstration on how to use the Innovative Interfaces
(III) automation system to book media. Moreover, the Collection Development
Committee is looking at launching a cooperative collection development
initiative and plans to analyze the collections for strengths and
weaknesses using the Innovative Interfaces (III) software. The sharing
of resources among the CONSORT libraries continues to grow. In the
1997-98 academic year, the libraries lent each other one-third more
titles than in 1996-97 (28,618 compared to 21,56l).
OWU library personnel attended the following Five College’s
meetings:
- Theresa Byrd attended the Five College Directors’ Meetings.
- Chuck Della Lana attended the AV/Media Subcommittee Meetings.
- Danielle Clarke attended the Information Literacy Planning Subcommittee
Meetings.
- Joy He, Terry Maloney-Rose, and Judy Orahood attended the Government
Documents Subcommittee Meetings.
- Terry Maloney-Rose attended the Collection Development Subcommittee
Meetings.
- Judy Orahood attended Cataloging/Systems Committee Subcommittee
Meetings.
OHIOLINK
Through our membership in OhioLINK, many new web-based databases
and electronic journals have become available to us. Some of the new
databases include: ABI/INFORM Global, AIDSLINE, America: History
and Life, Anthropological Literature, Applied Science and Technology
Abstracts, Archives USA, Art Abstracts, ARTFL, Avery Index to Architectural
Periodicals, BioethicsLine, Biography Index, Biological Abstracts,
Biological & Agricultural Index, Book Review Digest, Business
and Industry, CancerLit, CINAHL, Compendex, Contemporary Women’s
Issues, Cumulative Book Index, Education Abstracts, ERIC, Essay &
General Literature Index, HarpWeek: the Civil War Era, HealthSTAR,
Hispanic American Periodicals Index, Historical Abstracts, History
of Science and Technology Databases, Index to Legal Periodicals and
Books, Library Literature, A Matter of Fact, MLA Bibliography, Newspaper
Abstracts, Ohio Capitol Connection, Oxford English Dictionary, PAIS
International, PsycINFO, Social Issues Researcher, Sociological Abstracts,
and Statistical Universe. Among the new web-based electronic
journals, we now have access to the 47 MUSE (humanities, social sciences,
and mathematics) titles from John Hopkins and expect to have access
soon to more than 225 Springer-Verlag (science, mathematics, engineering,
and medicine) titles.
NEWS FROM THE LIBRARIES
Services
During fall semester, library staff members conducted 64 course-related
instructional sessions. Additionally, the staff provided three Beeghly
Library tours for student tour guides, ten tours for new students
and their parents, one session on how to use the library for a Big
Walnut High School class, and another session on library services
for visiting Japanese teachers. Over a six-month period, the Technical
Services staff added 4,463 items to the library’s collection
and 291 of these items were gifts.
To better serve our users in an electronic campus environment, plans
are underway to introduce "ASK-A-LIBRARIAN," an E-mail Reference
Service. This service is designed to make the Beeghly reference librarians
available to students in dormitories and to faculty members in their
offices. With the E-mail Reference Service, students, faculty, and
others can post questions on the library’s home page and receive
a response within 24 hours. This service will be widely publicized.
Paul Burnam, Public Services Librarian, is organizing focus groups
to evaluate the library home page. Dr. Paul Kostyu, Journalism, has
agreed to moderate the groups. We plan to have two focus group sessions
composed of students, one of faculty, and another with administrators.
To assist faculty and students in using our web-based electronic
resources, Tom Green, Associate Director and Head of Public Services,
prepared two handouts that list and describe all of the databases
that the OWU libraries own. The list of these electronic resources
can also be found on our home page at http://www.owu.edu/~librweb.
Chuck Della Lana, Audiovisual Services Manager, has prepared the Audiovisual
Center’s newsletter for distribution to faculty. In this newletter,
he advertises services, new equipment purchases, and procedures for
ordering equipment. Carol Holliger, the Serials Manager, is in the
process of establishing an office on the lower level of the library
to provide students and faculty with assistance in using periodicals.
Chris Yates, Assistant Chief of Circulation, with the assistance
of Danielle Clarke, Public Service Librarian, developed two interesting
exhibits for the library: "One Hundred Best Books of the Century"
and "Banned Books." Also, Kay Schlichting, Curator of the
OWU Historical Collection, created a display for the National Colloquium
on "OWU and Gender." The Academic Affairs Committee of WCSA
conducted a student opinion poll on library hours and noise in the
library. We are reviewing the results of this survey.
Susan Cohen, Curator of the United Methodist Collection, and Director
Theresa Byrd have been involved in meetings with the East and West
Ohio Conferences on the subject of the East Ohio Conference’s
archives moving from its temporary home at the Methodist Theological
School of Ohio to Ohio Wesleyan. Such a move would result in the East
and West Ohio Conferences’ archives being merged and permanently
housed at OWU. Although the West Ohio Conference has had several names
over the year, the archives have been housed at OWU since 1859.
Staff Development
At the October library staff meeting, Barbara MacAdam, the Head of
Educational and Informational Services at the University of Michigan
and the 1996 Miriam Dudley Instructional Librarian Award winner, spoke
on "Information Literacy: An Issue for all Library Staff."
This was an opportunity for library staff members to gain a common
understanding of information literacy from a leading practitioner.
Fall semester the reference personnel were involved in cross-training
activities to enable staffing diversification and to guarantee excellent
service to students and faculty at all times. Additionally, personnel
in all departments and branches of the OWU Library System are involved
in developing a procedure’s manual for their respective areas.
Bonnie Mahle was a student in Information Systems’ Access and
Excel I and II courses. Danielle Clarke received training in Eudora
through Info Systems. Theresa Byrd and
Danielle Clarke attended an Ohionet Web Supersearcher Workshop. Deborah
Carter Peoples began taking courses towards a master’s degree
in library science from Kent State.
University Committees and Professional Activities
The librarians serve on several college committees. Theresa Byrd
and Paul Burnam are members of the Teaching and Learning Committee.
Danielle Clarke is a member of the Committee on Admission and Financial
Aid. In addition, she served on the search committee to hire a Curriculum
Resource Center Library Assistant and she received training for the
Sexual Assualt Non-Student Hearing Panel. Paul Burnam was appointed
Affirmative Action representative on the search to hire a Humanities-Classics
faculty member. Also, Tom Green was appointed Affirmative Action representative
on the search to hire a Chemistry faculty member.
As for professional activities, OWU library personnel attended the
Academic Library Association of Ohio’s annual meeting. Theresa
Byrd attended OhioLINK’s Private College Directors’ Meeting.
Dr. Byrd also has been asked to serve on a Review Team to evaluate
the DePauw University Library System. Tom Green represented Ohio Wesleyan
at a GLCA Technology Advisory Group meeting. Tom Green attended the
annual conference of the Great Lakes Information Technologists for
Education and Research (GLITTER) held at Hope College. Marsha Zavar
was elected to represent the independent college members of OhioLINK
on the Inter-Campus Services Committee. Danielle Clarke applied to
be a participant in the Association of College and Research Libraries’
Institute for Information Literacy entitled Immersion ’99, which
is a highly competitive national program and limited to 80 librarians.
The Library received a $1000 donation from Dr. Donald Lateiner for
the Millennial Fund.
