ILA/ACRL Newsletter, vol. 13, no. 2, July 2003
Contents
President's Piece
Spring Conference
Once again the Spring Conference was a great success thanks to the conference
planning committee chaired by Jane Campagna and the local arrangements committee
headed up by Mary Anne Knefel. For those who arrived early, the Thursday night
gala and tour was a real treat. After dinner at the historic Bricktown Brewery,
everyone boarded the Dubuque Trolley for a tour of the three academic libraries
that grace the city. With 95 attendees, we had a good turnout for an event on
Iowa’s east coast. Ralph Elliot, a Connecticut lawyer with First Amendment
expertise, provided a keynote address that engendered many questions and ongoing
discussion throughout the conference. It was valuable to hear a perspective from
outside the profession. Evaluations came back with very positive reactions to
the presenters and topics covered. The food even scored well on conference
evaluations! Congratulations to everyone participating in the planning and
presentation of the conference.
Strategic Plan
On July 9, the Executive Board met at Cornell College to begin formulating a new
strategic plan for our organization. Our goal was to arrive at a set of
achievable goals and objectives that would be closely tied to the strategic plan
of the Iowa Library Association. This first meeting was taken up with
identifying our goals and agreeing on some activities we can undertake in the
next two years to advance our organization. We will be making more concrete
steps towards this in the next few months. We identified responsibilities for
current committees and have recognized the need for two ad hoc committees. Many
of you will be hearing from us asking you to help support the activities that
will grow out of the strategic planning process.
Fall Conference
Be sure to catch the ILA/ACRL programs at the Fall ILA Conference, which will be
meeting October 15–17 at the Crowne Plaza & U.S. Cellular Center, Cedar Rapids.
ILA/ACRL Scholarship Recipient
Each spring ILA/ACRL provides a scholarship to attend our spring conference to a
new librarian. This year’s recipient was James O’Gorman from the O’Keefe
Library, St. Ambrose University. His comments are below.
“I was honored to receive this year’s scholarship. As a new academic librarian,
I appreciated the opportunity to meet other academic librarians and to discuss
with them the issues and dilemmas the profession is presently facing. Although I
took an indirect path to academic librarianship, my experiences thus far have
validated my vocational decision. To me the conference was like a working
vacation. I got to travel, relax a bit, and still had the good fortune to learn
some valuable information.”
ILA Fall Conference
Visit the ILA web site (http://www.iowalibraryassociation.org/)
for the latest information on the Fall Conference, to be held October 15–17 in
Cedar Rapids. This year’s theme is library leadership, “Planting the Seeds:
Growing Leaders for Tomorrow.” Speakers include: Mitch Freedman, immediate past
president of ALA; noted library consultant Maureen Sullivan will conduct a
pre-conference on leadership; and an invitation has been extended to Senator
Russell Feingold to speak on the USA Patriot Act.
The programs ILA/ACRL is sponsoring include:
Report from ACRL Chapters
Council
There were a good number of hearty Iowans who attended the ALA Conference in
Toronto. John Pollitz represented the Iowa chapter of ACRL at the Chapters
Council meeting Sunday morning. Here are some points that he took from that
meeting.
A Message from the Nominating Committee
Please consider getting involved with ILA/ACRL!
ILA/ACRL is seeking individuals who wish to get more involved in the
organization. Committees and elected positions will be finalized this fall for
the 2004 year. Committee membership and officer positions are for the calendar
year (January–December).
Please consider volunteering by completing the ILA/ACRL Volunteer Form located
on our website at http://www.iowaacrl.org/organization/volunteer.html
List of ILA/ACRL committees (two-year terms)
Plugging Holes in the Archives
The ILA/ACRL archives are held in the Special Collections Department of the
University of Iowa Libraries. Recently, it has come to the attention of the
Executive Board that there is a gap in holdings in that collection. If you have
any of the following, please send them to the address given below:
ILA/ACRL Newsletters:
Community College News
Hawkeye Community College
Jan Dellinger assumed the position of Director of Library Services at Hawkeye in
June.
Kirkwood Community College
Jerrie Bourgo, Kirkwood Community College library director, will retire on July
31, 2003. Arron Wings, who is currently library coordinator for the Kirkwood
campus library in Iowa City, will become the new director August 1. Nancy
Pickering was hired as an adjunct librarian this spring.
Southeastern Community College
Julie Russell began working as the learning resources coordinator at
Southeastern Community College in July. Julie will begin working towards a
library science degree with Texas Woman’s University this fall and has been
volunteering in the children’s section at the Burlington Public Library for the
past year.
News of the Iowa Private Academic Libraries
Briar Cliff University
Rachel Crowley, formerly of Morningside College, has now assumed the position of
Director of Library Services at Briar Cliff University. Rachel reports, “I am
extremely happy to be at BCU, and look forward to the new challenges and
opportunities this job provides. I will miss MSC, but I have a great staff here,
too.”
Drake University
Members of the faculty of the Drake University Libraries, with the assistance of
the Provost and university legal counsel, recently undertook several steps to
improve the management of the confidentiality of library patron records. The
Drake policy covering library confidentiality was revised in order to include
new procedural steps prompted by provisions contained in the USA Patriot Act.
All library staff who handle patron records received training on the revised
policy and procedures. To view the revised confidentiality policies go to the
following Web addresses.
For Cowles Library:
http://www.lib.drake.edu/geninfo/confidential2.html
For Law Library:
http://www.law.drake.edu/library/information/confidentiality.html
Morningside College
Diana Kaardal joined Morningside College's Hickman-Johnson-Furrow Library June 1
as the Circulation Manager. She recently moved to the Siouxland area with her
husband and children. Diana was formerly children's librarian/assistant director
at the Redwood Falls Public Library in Redwood Falls, MN. Diana will complete
her master’s in English literature from Minnesota State University—Mankato this
fall. Diana replaces Susan Trisler, who moved from the circulation position to
technical Services and is in charge of acquisitions and serials. Susan joined
the Morningside College library team in the fall of 1996 and has held various
part-time and full-time support staff positions over the last seven years. Susan
replaces Jane Svatos who retired in March of this year.
Currently, Morningside College is conducting a search for a new
Electronic/Technical Services librarian. See the Morningside College library web
page for the position description:
http://library.morningside.edu/
—Daria Bossman, Director of Library Resources
St. Ambrose University
John Pollitz, director of O’Keefe Library, has been named chair of the national
ACRL Membership Committee.
SAU-READ, a book discussion group for faculty, staff, and students led by
reference librarian Barb Kuttler, has continued to be popular. Now in its third
year, the group recently chose the reading selections for the upcoming year.
They can be viewed at
http://library.sau.edu/libgen/SAUREAD.htm
Mary Heinzman, Head of Reference, will be participating in the ACRL/Harvard
Leadership Institute for Academic Librarians, August 4–8.
Jennifer Davis, Head of Technical Services, is on the Implementation/Training
Team for QuadLINC, charged with facilitating the implementation of the new
online library catalog from Sirsi. QuadLINC is the shared online catalog for the
library consortium in the Quad Cities area. Tentative plans call for the new
catalog to be ready in March 2004.
Sarah Vowells, writer and commentator for “This American Life” on NPR, will
visit St. Ambrose University in September. She will give a presentation open to
the public and also have a display of her work at O’Keefe Library.
O’Keefe Library has implemented a program to provide for purchase of student art
work for the Library’s collection on an annual basis. Each spring a piece of art
by an outstanding senior art student at St. Ambrose is purchased and put on
display in the library. The art becomes part of the library’s permanent
collection.
News of the Iowa Public Academic Libraries
Iowa State University
The ISU Library is pleased to announce that Hilary Seo has accepted the faculty
position of Head of Preservation, beginning August 1. Hilary has been the Head
of Preservation at Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C.
Kris Gerhard, formerly the ISU Library’s Collections Officer has accepted the
position of Assistant Director for Technical Services. Ed Goedeken, Humanities
Bibliographer, has accepted the additional duties of Collection Coordinator.
The Board of Regents has formally approved promotion to Associate Professor and
granting of tenure to Kris Stacy-Bates, Science & Technology Librarian. Also
announced was the promotion to Full Professor of Kris Gerhard, Assistant
Director for Technical Services and Ed Goedeken, Humanities Bibliographer.
A search is underway for two Science & Technology Librarians, one in the subject
of Ecology, the other in Biology. See
http://www.lib.iastate.edu/libinfo/reptempl/empl_stu.html for more details.
Later this summer the ISU Library expects to open a search for two Social
Sciences & Humanities Librarians: a Subject Bibliographer for Fine Arts and an
Instructional Technology Librarian.
Bob Sickles, Science & Technology Librarian, has announced his retirement. At 35
years of service, Bob is the Library’s longest-serving faculty member.
The ISU Music Library’s collection has been fully incorporated into the Parks
Library.
The ISU Library’s Ingenta Gateway for patron initiated (unmediated) document
delivery service is now available to the public.
University of Iowa
The University Archives and the Information Commons in the Hardin Library for
the Health Sciences are joining forces to create a new online database with
historical information about the university's buildings. The Web site will trace
the history of such facilities as Calvin Hall, which was constructed in 1884 and
moved across Jefferson Street to its present location in 1905. A timeline has
not been set, but archives staff hope to have the first batch of building
records online late this summer. Records will include information about the
building's date of construction, its name and use history, and selected images.
The database will be linked off the archives' Web site when it is released.
The Special Collections Department recently created new space in the form of new
compact shelving units added to their basement storage area in the Main Library.
The installation replaced four ranges of old shelves with eight new ranges of
compact shelving. This addition yields approximately 144 new sections of storage
space, amounting to approximately 2016 linear ft. of new shelving for Special
Collections. The project enables the Special Collections staff to prioritize a
massive shift of materials, spread out collections that are currently severely
cramped, and provide space for continued growth. Plans are underway to maximize
the use of the space by moving manuscript collections, book collections, and
materials in the University Archives to best serve the needs of users of the
collections.
The MetaLib Implementation Team is at work preparing MetaLib (Ex Libris) portal
software for release to library patrons this fall. The portal, likely to be
titled “MyLibrary,” will enable cross-database searching and de-duplication of
results, patron-specified resource lists, and periodic alerts of new search
results.
Central Technical Services has set new records in cataloging materials. Mary
Monson, CTS Coordinator, writes:
“During the fiscal year July 2002-June 2003, staff in Central Technical Services
cataloged 62,830 new titles and facilitated the batch loading of an additional
5,310 cataloging records into InfoHawk. This is the highest cataloging output
recorded in the thirty years I have been informally keeping track for comparison
purposes. The 62,830 new titles represent a 26% increase over last year's
cataloging output. When you add in the batch loaded records, the total of 68,140
new cataloging records in InfoHawk is a 37% increase over last year. In
addition, 124,035 new volumes and pieces were added to the collection. This is a
13% increase over last year. All of this was accomplished while staff juggled a
variety of other tasks and special projects.”
Professional Staff Changes
Additions
Min Tian, Chinese Studies Librarian, effective 07/01/03
Promotions
Sandy Ballasch, Interim Head to Coordinator, Access Services, effective 04/1/03
The following promotions were effective 07/01/03:
Stephen Dew, Librarian III to Librarian IV
Jim Duncan, Librarian III to Librarian IV
Kathy Magarrell, Librarian I to Librarian II
Wendy Robertson, Librarian I to Librarian II
Brian Thompson, Librarian I to Librarian II
Departures
Eeva Nikkanen-Hoch, Business Library, effective 06/13/03
Janice Simmons-Welburn, Director, Central Public Services, effective 08/07/03
Newsletter Committee
Steve Ostrem (Chair), University of Iowa, 2004
Barbara Allen, University of Northern Iowa, 2004
Karen Dole, North Iowa Area Community College, 2004
Mary Heinzman, St. Ambrose University, 2004
Steve Johns, Iowa State University, 2004
Marcia Keyser, Drake University, 2004
Linda Nelson, Scott Community College, 2003
Arron Wings, Kirkwood Community College, 2003