May Library Office Notes

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ANNOUNCEMENTS

HR NEWS

EVENTS AND TRAINING


ANNOUNCEMENTS: University Librarian Note
I am writing to update the Library on a number of administrative changes. Prior to the appointment of a new dean, I must carefully balance decisions that support organizational effectiveness with decisions that retain the flexibility my successor will need. In general, the act of balancing these two priorities will postpone permanent or long-term commitments (again, out of deference to the next dean) while making shorter commitments to ensure we continue to function well. Read more…
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: Library Building Project Update – 5/1/2022
Tom Teper, Associate Dean for Collections and Technical Services

This update marks four years since the first Library Building Project Update was posted on May 1, 2018.

Project Meetings for April 2022

During the month of April, representatives from the University Library, University Administration, and Facilities and Services met with members of our Architecture/Engineering (A/E) Team on April 6th and 28th. These meetings included:  reviews of progress on Wiss, Jenney, Elsesnor’s (WJE) evaluative work associated with drainage and water penetration in the building, a meeting in order to discuss and evaluate variances to the campus building standards, and a discussion of campus communications standards related to building projects.

Project-Related Meetings Scheduled for May 2022 (as of 4/28/2022)

The following meetings include both scheduled project meetings (with project designation of U20118) as well as additional meetings that involve select representatives of the A/E, F&S, and University Library.

  • At present, there are no meetings scheduled for May 2022.

Other Activities

As noted, the University Library, F&S, and other campus partners have been working with (WJE) on the site analysis. The preliminary draft report was submitted to F&S on April 22, 2022. We will share more details about the findings in the coming weeks, but preliminary reports indicate that there are few concerns identified. Indeed, the water protection systems and “design of the below-grade waterproofing system at the base and walls was advanced for this period of design. It consists of two general strategies for managing water:”. More information about WJE’s work is located here: https://www.library.illinois.edu/specialcollectionsbuilding/news/.

Personnel within the Library held preliminary discussions centered on pursuing a grant opportunity that would off-set some project costs. Further information will be forthcoming if this develops. The anticipated submission date is in early Fall 2022.

Efforts to barcode and improve inventory management continued over the last month. The Special Collections Division is continuing work related to their opening exhibit.

Proposed Project Schedule

The kick-off meeting included a review of the proposed project schedule from the point that “conceptualization” began on July 21, 2021 through what is called “substantial completion” of construction work. Those dates in the future become increasingly speculative. At present, the schedule is as follows:

a. Conceptualization

  • 07/21/2021 work session
  • 08/12/2021 submission date
  • 08/26/2021 est. Concept review meeting

b. Schematic Design

  • 11/09/2021 submission date
  • 11/23/2021 est. SD review meeting

 c. Design Development

  • 01/22/2022 submission date
  • 02/04/2022 est. DD review meeting-BOT Preparation

 d. Construction Documents 50%

  • 03/31/2022 submission date
  • 4/14/2022 est. 50% CD review meeting

 e. Construction Documents 95%

  • 07/04/2022 submission date
  • 07/18/ 2022 est. 95% CD review meeting
  • 08/18/2022 100% CD completion

f. Bidding/Award

  • 08/18/2022 Advertise for Bids
  • 08/25/2022 Pre-bid /Pre-pricing meeting
  • 09/30/2022 Bid Opening – To be confirmed
  • 01/04/2023 Notice Proceed

g. Board of Trustees approval (required on if individual contract is over $2,500,000.)

 h. Construction – Start/End *

  • 01/05/2023 – 05/29/2024 

Communications

The Senate Committee on the Library and the University Library co-hosted another open town hall-style discussion on April 28th, 2022. Tom Teper provided an update on the building project’s status. David Ward and Sara Holder presented on efforts associated with integrating services from the Undergraduate Library into other units throughout the library. Over 160 individuals registered for the townhall; approximately sixty individuals attended. There is also a reddit Ask Me Anything (AMA) scheduled for May 2 from 1-3pm in this sub: https://www.reddit.com/user/UIllinoisLibrary/comments/uewx2m/the_university_library_will_host_an_ama_on_may/.
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: AP Promotion Program Coming Soon!
The 4th year of the Library’s Academic Professional (AP) Promotion Program will launch this month, with the call for AP self-nominations planned for May 16, 2022. APs are strongly encouraged to discuss their interest in promotion with their supervisors.  A letter of support from one’s supervisor is not required but helps strengthen the case for promotion. More information about the program is available on the AP Promotion Process Page. In addition, virtual office hours will be held on the following dates for APs and supervisors to answer questions about the program, eligibility, and developing statements and letters:

  • Tue, May 24, 11AM-12PM
  • Mon, June 6, 2PM-3PM
  • Wed, June 22, 2PM-3PM

Reminders about these office hours will be announced on LibNews with Zoom links as we get closer to the dates.
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: 9th Annual Image of Research – UR Edition Competition
Congratulations to this year’s award winners:

  • 1st place ($300): Mit Kotak, “3D Visualization of Binary Black Hole Merger”
  • 2nd place ($200): Jaylon Muchison, “Too Cool to Cry”
  • Honorable mentions ($50 each): Bhavya Pardasani, “Evolution of a Milky Way-like Galaxy and its Satellite Galaxies” and Neha Arun, “Pink, Green, and the Cure to HIV”

The winners were chosen by an interdisciplinary panel who judged entries on 1) connection between image, text and research, 2) originality, and 3) visual impact.

Many congratulations to Mit, Jaylon, Bhavya, and Neha!

You can view all of this year’s submissions online and all of the submissions will be on display Thursday, 4/28 at the Undergraduate Research Symposium in the Illini Union Ballroom from 9am-4:30pm. We hope you will stop by to see all of the submissions and to celebrate the amazing undergraduate research that is happening by our undergraduates at Illinois.

Also, entries will be on display on the digital signage in the Main and Undergraduate Libraries and our primary social media accounts – so be on the lookout! [Library Instagram: imageofresearch_ugr and the Office of Undergraduate Research Instagram: ugresearch_ui.] Second, all images will be archived in the institutional repository, IDEALS. You can view all of the past winners: https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/handle/2142/49052

With many thanks to this year’s judges: Sanga Sung, Janis Shearer, Eric Kurt, Merinda Hensley, and Natasha Mamaril (Program Director, Illinois Scholars Undergraduate Research (ISUR) Program, The Grainger College of Engineering). The Image of Research at Illinois was inspired by the Image of Research competition at the University of Illinois at Chicago. The 2022 competitions are supported by a gift to the Scholarly Commons from Mrs. Mardell J. O’Brien.
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: Did You Know? A Monthly Factoid from Library Assessment
The University Library couldn’t serve the campus and the diverse user population without our graduate student assistants and graduate hourly employees. Many of them are graduating in May, including the Library Assessment Graduate Assistant Lindsay Taylor who is the creator of many of the “Do you know?” Library Assessment Factoids during the past two years. As a farewell, we invited Lindsay to create a factoid of her choice. Happy Graduation Lindsay!

As the last factoid before graduating and ending my time as the Library Assessment GA, I created a circle packing visualization of my work over the past two years from my work log. It can be difficult to describe what one does, but this graph shows my experience of library assessment in overlapping rings of the tools, data, and projects where I spent the most time. My supervisor Jen-chien Yu told me when I applied to be the Library Assessment GA that loving spreadsheets is key to enjoying this role and that’s true: I spent almost 200 hours in Excel alone! My favorite part of this assistantship was creating factoids – like this one! Factoids usually start in Excel, sometimes moving over to Tableau for ideas. I analyze and graph the data we have collected to find the underlying story. That story becomes the core of the factoid. Then comes the fun part of adding colors, shapes, and more! Though I’ve always been a creative person, making these factoids has been a rewarding challenge for me to work with a variety of data (qualitative and quantitative), to pull a clear message from the data, and to communicate visually.
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) Task Force Meeting Minutes
Minutes from past DEIA Task Force meetings are online on the Task Force web page.
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: Collection Development Committee Notes
The most recent meetings minutes of the CDC are posted at:
https://www.library.illinois.edu/staff/committee/collection-development-committee/
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: Content Access Policy & Technology Meeting Minutes
The meeting minutes of CAPT (including workgroup reports) are posted at:
https://www.library.illinois.edu/staff/committee/content-access-policy-technology-capt/
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: Recognizing Excellence

Please share your award, recognition, or grant! To initiate a request for publicity, employees (or their supervisors) should submit this Awards/Recognitions/Grants Publicity Request Form.
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HR NEWS: Filled Positions

  • Alex McHattie – Library Specialist – Music and Performing Arts Library – 5/16/2022
  • Chad Lewis – Grants and Contracts Coordinator – Business and Human Resources Service Center – 5/16/2022

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HR NEWS: Departures

  • Elonda Towns – Acquisitions & Cataloging Services – retiring 5/31/2022

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HR NEWS: Vacancies

  • SR Audio, Video, and Emerging Technology Specialist (ITTA) – Library IT – final interviews
  • Facility Operations Coordinator – Facilities – final interviews
  • Coordinator, Grainger Engineering IDEA Laboratory (ITTA) – Grainger Engineering Library Information Center – final interviews
  • Multi-level Application Integration Developer – Library IT – interviews in progress
  • Library Specialist – Communications Library – interviews in progress
  • Accountant II – BHRSC – posting soon

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HR NEWS: Searches in Progress

  • Visiting Archives and Literary Manuscript Specialist – Rarebook & Manuscript Library, AP – Caroline Szylowicz, Chair
    Kick-off held January 27, 2022. Live on the job board with a closing date of May 1, 2022.
  • Visiting Residency Librarian (Three positions), FAC – Carissa Phillips, Chair
    Kick-off held March 23, 2022. Live on the job board with a closing date of May 13, 2022.
  • Assistant/Associate Director of Advancement Position, AP – Javonda Pelman, Chair
    Kick-off held March 28, 2022. Live on the job board with a closing date of May 20, 2022.

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EVENTS AND TRAINING: Staff Events Calendar
To see the most up-to-date staff events calendar, please visit https://uiuc.libcal.com/calendar/staff.
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EVENTS AND TRAINING: Engineering Change in Libraries: A Pathway for Meaningful Action
The aim of Engineering Change in Libraries is to understand the Other and mobilize our libraries to provide more effective and equitable services and programs to underserved communities. Inspired by Dr. Agnes Kaposi, a catalyst for change and 31st Annual Mortenson Distinguished Lecture, Engineering Change is organized into two components: (1) the lecture (setting the context) and (2) a two-session workshop for library staff and stakeholders to engineer change in libraries in a process of understanding the Other and planning globally to create change locally.

THE LECTURE

An engineer of change, Dr. Agnes Kaposi (Engineer, Educator, Holocaust survivor, Author of “Yellow Star-Red Star”, recipient of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire), and 31st Annual Mortenson Distinguished Lecturer), brings nearly a century of perspective as she tells her life story and the role of information as a source of power/control resulting in otherness, exclusion, propaganda, dislocation, as well as transformation in engineering change. A conversation, moderated by Dr. Valerie J. Matsumoto (George and Sakaye Aratani Endowed Chair on the Japanese American Incarceration, Redress, and Community, UCLA), connects Dr. Kaposi’s experiences with those of other marginalized and dislocated groups worldwide, such as Japanese Americans, to identify similarities and differences across time and locations, in order to understand the Other and rethink some of the most pressing issues that libraries face in promoting equitable communities in our information-intensive and networked society. The 31st Annual Mortenson Distinguished Lecture took place on November 8, 2021. Watch recording at https://mediaspace.illinois.edu/media/t/1_ms3b4hao.

THE WORKSHOP

Engineer change in libraries in an international workshop to learn and plan globally to create change locally. Library staff and stakeholders are invited to attend a two-session workshop to understand the Other by learning from each other’s experiences and challenges, connect as a community of practice, engineer meaningful action, and implement the solution while supporting each other in their journeys to engineer real change in their libraries and communities.

Each interactive workshop, a pathway/process to engineer change in libraries, focuses on a specific area of action. It is presented in two 1.5-hour sessions, with the second session occurring two months following the first one, and virtual open consultation hours midway. The first session begins with a speaker introducing the topic; followed by group discussion of local experiences, brainstorming, and prioritizing an issue to be addressed; then collectively, participants develop an action plan that they will apply at their library. During a two-month period participants implement their action plan locally and have an opportunity to ask questions and obtain input midway through the process. After two months, the participants reconvene in the second session as a community of practice to reflect and improve on their action plan, as needed.

To understand the need to engineer change from one story of the Other/persecuted, participants are encouraged to listen to the recording of the Lecture.

WHO should attend?

  • Library personnel, particularly those with responsibilities for public libraries, community libraries, school or academic libraries
  • Educators, researchers and students in university departments of librarianship and cognate disciplines
  • Library trustees, friends and volunteers
  • Government officials, policy makers, and others responsible for libraries
  • Library stakeholders

HOW LONG are the workshops?

  • 1.5 hours per virtual workshop session
  • Each workshop is made up of 2 sessions, two months apart, with optional virtual open consultation midway

WHEN are the workshops, and WHAT is the focus of action?

  • Inaugural Workshop on Dislocation
    Feb 15, 8:00-9:30 am CT session 1
    March 15, 8:00-9:30 am CT open consultation
    April 19, 8:00-9:30 am CT session 2
    FREE registration <click here> for Inaugural Workshop on Dislocation.
  • Workshop on Propaganda
    March 1, 4:00-5:30 pm CT session 1
    April 5, 4:00-5:30 pm CT open consultation
    May 3, 4:00-5:30 pm CT session 2
    FREE registration <click here> for Workshop on Propaganda.

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EVENTS AND TRAINING: Incomprehension Workshop with Ann Morgan
May 3 at 10 AM

Register for FREE at: https://go.illinois.edu/MC-event-regn

Event Description:
An interactive online session exploring how embracing not knowing and focusing on the things we don’t understand in a text can enrich and broaden our relationship with reading, culture and ourselves. It draws on an approach to reading developed during Ann Morgan’s 2012 quest to read a book from every country (https://ayearofreadingtheworld.com/).

Biography: Ann Morgan is an author and editor based in Folkestone, UK. In 2012, she set herself the challenge of reading a book from every country in a year, recording her quest on the blog ayearofreadingtheworld.com. The project caught the imagination of readers around the globe, many of whom continue to correspond with her about books. In addition to widespread international media coverage, the quest led to a TED talk with more than 1.8 million views and the non-fiction book Reading the World. Nearly ten years after her original quest, Ann continues to blog, write and speak about international literature, as well as building a career as a novelist. Her debut novel, Beside Myself, has been translated into eight languages and optioned for TV. Her next novel, Crossing Over, was published as an Audible Exclusive in 2019. She is Literary Explorer in Residence of the Cheltenham Literature Festival for 2022 and 2023.

Ann Morgan was the 26th Annual Mortenson Distinguished Lecturer (2016), UK-based author, TED speaker, Royal Literary Fund fellow and editor.

For more information, please visit:
-Author’s Website: https://annmorgan.me/
-Author’s Blog inspired by her year-long journey through a book from every country in the world: https://ayearofreadingtheworld.com/
-Featured TED Speaker (September 2015) ‘My year reading a book from every country in the world’: https://www.ted.com/talks/ann_morgan_my_year_reading_a_book_from_every_country_in_the_world
(Transcript also available online)

Event posted online at: https://www.library.illinois.edu/mortenson/other-events/
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EVENTS AND TRAINING: Hangout
May 24 at 9am

Please see the email (with a Zoom link) from Lucretia Williams via LIB-NEWS. Complete and submit the Library Hangout Suggestion and Volunteer Form if you have a topic to share.
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If you would like to submit content for the June issue of Library Office Notes, please submit it to Heather Murphy or Tom Teper by May 20, 2022.