September Library Office Notes


ANNOUNCEMENTS

HR NEWS

IT NEWS

FACILITIES

EVENTS AND TRAINING


ANNOUNCEMENTS: University Librarian Note
In the next issue of Friendscript, the Library’s newsletter for donors, we will be including several connected stories about our building project. This will be the first effort to try to give some sense of the energy and ideas we hope to convey about the project. We will also continue to work on processes to engage the Library, the campus and our donors with the project. Read more…
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: DRIVE Faculty Search Workshop
Jake MacGregor, Organizational Development and Training Coordinator

The Diversity Realized at Illinois through Visioning Excellence (DRIVE) Faculty Committee will provide a Faculty Search Workshop from 10:00 – 11:00 a.m. on Tues, Sept. 11 in 106 Main Library. Our presenter will be Linda Smith. Please attend if you are a faculty search chair or diversity advocate (or could be in an upcoming search). Search committee members are also invited to attend.

The goal of this session is to provide tools and strategies that promote diversity in faculty hiring. The information and conversation provided will aide search chairs and diversity advocates to proactively engage in efforts to increase the diversity of our overall faculty population.
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: The Library’s Collection Management Practices Over the Last Decade
Tom Teper, Associate Dean for Collections and Technical Services

In the spirit of the message I posted in June 2018 outlining our various efforts at print retention via the CARLI Last Copy Program, the HathiTrust Shared Print Program, and the BTAA’s Shared Print Repository, I thought it would be helpful to review some of the University Library’s collection management practices and the path that led to this point. This is especially important in light of the many collection management activities anticipated in the coming years related to the Library Building Project.

As I noted in that earlier message, approximately 10.5-million of the Library’s 14-million volumes are printed books and journals representing approximately 5.95-million-unique titles.

Over the last decade, the Library engaged in a number of activities geared toward rethinking the Library’s space on campus and how services are provided to our patrons. Critical to that effort was the availability of space for the storage of our collections and the personnel, practices, and policies that allowed us to effectively manage collections while being respectful of scholarly needs on campus.

As to space, the Library was a very different organization in the year 2000. Nearly 90% of our materials expenditures were dedicated to printed titles then. The shift of acquisitions from print to electronic delivery during the following years (a response, in part, to changes both in the publishing industry and patron demand) significantly changed the volume of physical material that entered the building. However, it did not change the fact that decades of acquisition without building adequate storage left the Library managing collections in the Main Stacks that often exceeded 150% of capacity in places. It did not address decades of accumulated backlogs in general collections, the cramped quarters in departmental libraries and reading rooms, or the quantity of duplication within the collections.

Space & Personnel
The construction of the first module of the Oak Street Library Facility marked a significant change. The availability of sound storage for the Library’s holdings in the successive modules meant that significant steps could be taken to address capacity issues within the Main Stacks and the 40+ departmental libraries scattered across campus. It also resulted in the emergence of early efforts at mobilizing personnel to process large bodies of material in a systematic manner, as teams of personnel were created and commitments of staff time and dollars were levied upon all Library units to help ingest materials into the temporary staging area at Hort Field Lab (“Faux Oak”) and eventually into Oak Street.

These actions set the stage for later efforts focused on how we would manage our collections. The presence of adequate storage afforded some breathing room, but the process of handling so many items led to further conversations about how we handled and managed such bodies of material. While the highly-decentralized model employed during the early stages of the Oak Street move worked, it evolved into a more centralized process with teams of staff in Oak Street and, eventually, Collection Management Services tasked with processing materials in mass. This led both to greater consistency and efficiency, supporting not only the processing of materials for Oak Street but follow-on efforts that sought to vastly reduce the significant accumulated quantities of uncataloged backlogs in our general collections (more on that below).

Policies & Practices
As Oak Street continued to grow, changes in the broader academic community began to exert influence on how the Library operated. As Peggy Johnson wrote in Fundamentals of Collection Development and Management, “society shapes libraries far more than librarians do.”[i] Between 2000 and 2015, aforementioned changes in publishing and patron expectations led to a decline in print acquisitions. Simultaneously, changes in educational practices led to a rethinking of the role that libraries serve as a “third place” for our users—providing not only access to collections but access to study space and a broader array of services.

In this environment, the Library embarked on a New Service Model (NSM) program. Following a library-wide call for suggestions about possible directions, the Library charged well over a dozen different teams. The NSM program led to a significant rethinking of library operations, including: consolidating back-office acquisition and processing activities; rethinking the number, size, and arrangement of service points on campus and in the Main Library building; and introducing efforts to homogenize services and bring an increasing level of consistency to our public service operations.

With respect to library collections, significant expenditures were made to support processing backlogs, moving and consolidating collections, and acquiring digitized backfiles of journal content. During this time, the Library faced a crisis in its Rare Book & Manuscript Library (RBML) when a mold outbreak forced its closure and the cleaning of the entire collection. The follow-up response included securing funding to replace the existing HVAC system in a project that also doubled the size of the RBML vault, a process made possible, in part, with the relocation of lower use general collections both in the Main Stacks and to Oak Street.

By the time the NSM program was completed and other shifts took place, the Library halved the number of operational units, processed nearly 100,000 backlogged items (primarily in non-Western languages) that were uncovered in the course of consolidating over a dozen units, and processed nearly one-million items for Oak Street. What we also did was to open up existing spaces for new functions (Media Commons, Scholarly Commons, and Grainger IDEA Lab and CARE operation), enhanced services and spaces (200 Reading Room; Literatures and Languages Library; Undergraduate Library; Social Sciences, Health, and Education Library; and History, Philosophy, and Newspaper Library), and, in some cases, turned spaces back over to the campus (all of the Geology, Labor, Physics, and Biology libraries and parts of the Chemistry and Vet Med libraries).

During this time, we also remained true to our history as a great institution with a strong commitment to collections, reaching the milestone of delivering 14-million locally-held volumes to our users, despite utilizing policies that allowed the Library to deduplicate content in keeping with the State’s procurement and property management laws.

The policies that governed many of the decisions relating to the management of general collections include:

Retention Policies in the Digital Age
https://www.library.illinois.edu/staff/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2017/07/Retention_Policies_in_the_Digital_Age.pdf
This policy has remained unchanged since its initial approval in 2001. With the notable exception that the State Procurement Code was amended to permit sale of surplus collections (rather than being limited to just transfer or disposal), the policy remains in effect and without amendment. It remains a keystone for managing the Library’s collections.

UIUC Library Withdrawal Policy and Procedure
https://www.library.illinois.edu/staff/administration/collections/policies/withdrawalpolicyandprocedure/
Originally approved by the Library’s Collection Development Committee in 2010, this policy has also remained unchanged since its initial passage. In it, one can find existing policies that govern how we make many decisions about which materials from our collection may be withdrawn and what procedures are utilized to ensure that they are properly accounted for and handled. Prior to the approval of this policy, the Library had no contemporary policy governing withdrawal or the procedures around it.

Although much of what I have detailed in this message is documented in a 2017 report of the Collection Management Working Group, that report (available here: https://www.library.illinois.edu/staff/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2018/01/Collection-Management-WG-Report-2017.docx) pre-dated the Library’s latest efforts to begin rethinking the Main and Undergraduate libraries. Consequently, some of the recommendations may require revisiting. Something in that report that also requires revisiting and, perhaps, expanding in light of additional developments is Appendix A: Rethinking the Management of Our Physical Collections. While the report made initial efforts to do so in the section entitled “Bringing Some Principles to Collection Storage,” the emergence of shared print programs, retention agreements, and broader discussions of the “collective collection” suggest that the Library should engage in a discussion about what this means for us in light of the Library Building Project. I anticipate that we will start engaging in some of those discussions as the Library Building Project gets off the ground with a significant amount of that discussion happening in a working group focused on managing the Library’s collections.

If you have any questions about these programs, please do not hesitate to contact me.
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: Student Data Visualization Competition
Do you know any students who like to transform data into knowledge? Do they make graphs, infographics, or interactive dashboards? Tell them to show off their work! Undergraduate and graduate students can enter their best data visualization for a chance to win $500. Visit go.illinois.edu/viz-competition for more information and to submit (deadline: September 23). If you don’t know any students who would be interested, but you know some faculty who might, please let them know! We want to spread the word as much as possible.
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: Updated UGL Hours and Services
The Undergraduate Library has updated its hours and services for Fall 2018 based on a series of user assessments conducted over the past academic year. The most noticeable change is that the UGL will be open late nights this Fall, but not offering 24-hour service during most of the semester.

The UGL will be increasing staff availability for technology and consultation services across all hours, with many of these services being advertised through UGL’s new BookIt! marketing campaign (visit http://go.library.illinois.edu/bookit).

Grainger will continue to be open 24/5, starting September 10, and the Funk ACES Library will match UGL’s new closing time of 2:30 a.m. Sunday-Thursday. Full details on UGL’s new hours, service updates, and new student programming are available at http://publish.illinois.edu/undergradlibrary/.
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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 meetings minutes of CAPT (including work group reports) are posted at:
https://www.library.illinois.edu/staff/committee/content-access-policy-technology-capt/
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: Recognizing Excellence

Please forward journal editorships or editorial board membership, elected and invited external service appointments, honors, and awards information to Heather Murphy.
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HR NEWS: Faculty and AP Searches
Below is a summary of current academic searches as of August 27, 2018 (click on the graphic below to enlarge). A more comprehensive listing is sent via LibNews each month.

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HR NEWS: Departures

  • Jim Hayden (July 13, 2018)
  • Kathryn Butterworth (July 20, 2018)
  • Millie Wright (August 13, 2018)
  • Sheeladevi Senguttuvan (August 17, 2018)

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HR NEWS: Vacancies

  • Library Specialist: CAM – Music Cataloger, interviewing
  • Library Specialist: CAM – Music & Microfiche, interviewing
  • Library Specialist: LLL – Western European language specialty, interviewing
  • Library Specialist: CAM – Slavic/Central Asian language specialty, interviewing
  • Library Specialist: SSHEL – On second MR, interviewing
  • Library Specialist: CAM – Russian language specialty, interviewing
  • Library Specialist: CMS – Oak Street Facility, waiting on MR
  • Library Specialist: CAM – South Asian language specialty, waiting on MR
  • Office Support Specialist – Mortenson Center, posting soon

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HR NEWS: New Employees

  • Full time at CAS: Jenna Zeidler

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IT NEWS: Upcoming Changes to Campus Email and Calendaring

Summary

Campus is in the process of migrating email, contacts, and calendars, which use Exchange services, to a new version called Microsoft Exchange Online (Office 365). The Library’s scheduled migration date is Wednesday, September 12, and all library faculty and staff accounts, email distribution lists, and shared mailboxes will be migrated. Graduate and undergraduate student employees will be migrated with their academic unit. We expect the migration to have minimal impact—all data will be copied over and Outlook should start syncing to the new service automatically.

When will the migration happen?
Mailboxes will be switched to the new version on Wednesday, September 12 at 2 a.m. In most cases, by the time you arrive for work, everything will have reloaded for you.

What will be migrated?
All current Exchange data will be copied to the new version, including:

  • Messages in your Inbox (including subfolders), Sent items, and other email settings like signatures, rules, alerts, and categories
  • Scheduled events in your Exchange calendar
  • Tasks and reminders
  • Contacts in the address book

After the migration is complete, you’ll probably have to restart Outlook or other preferred mail client. In some cases we may have to remove and re-add accounts to Outlook—no data will be lost.

What’s new
The new system is faster and offers some improvements in the web and mobile clients such as the ability to create online meetings with Skype for Business and Office 365 Groups. Additionally, Webmail will have a new URL. Access email online at https://outlook.office365.com instead of webmail.illinois.edu.
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IT NEWS: More Campus Systems to be Protected by Two-Factor Authentication (2FA)
In support of better security, campus is continuing to expand the use of Two-Factor Authentication (2FA).

Beginning fall 2018, graduate students, faculty, and staff will be required to use Duo 2FA for services such as Compass 2G, Box, Exchange/Office 365, learn@illinois, and more. This includes most applications using Shibboleth authentication.

To learn more about 2FA or opt in as an early adopter, visit https://techservices.illinois.edu/2fa.

Illinois uses the Duo 2FA service to help protect data with Two Factor Authentication.

1. Check. Are you enrolled with Duo? Visit https://verify.uillinois.edu/ to find out, enable your device (mobile phone), and set preferences.
2. Sign up. After enrolling and confirming devices, opt-in by completing the form at https://go.illinois.edu/2fa-optin.

If you have any questions, please contact the Library IT Help Desk.
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FACILITIES: Facility Project Updates

  • ACES Funk Library – Interior Signs Installing main wayfinding signs – lower level through 5th floor – F&S Sign Shop fabricating signs.
  • Main Library – F&S – North, South & East Stairway “renovation” – stair tread cleaning and wall/ceiling painting F&S funding approved. F&S Building Services Workers – Flooring Crew working on south stairs – August 2018.
  • Main Library – 1st Floor Central Service Point – Phase I remodeling given OK to proceed by Illinois Historic Preservation Agency – further review and approval will occur as architect completes designs. Architect contract in final signature process.
  • Main Library – Elevator Upgrade – E5 (east) summer 2018. The project is a Campus wide multiple elevator upgrade project. The elevator cabs and controls for E5 elevator will be upgraded to provide reliable transportation throughout the Main Library. E5 is out of service. Completion scheduled for mid-August 2018.
  • Main Library Rooms 230 & 244 Remodeling – F&S shops completing punchlist items. Completion – August 2018.
  • Music and Performing Arts Library – Roof Replacement Roof replacement of the portion of the building over the library. Complete.
  • Ricker Library – Flooring Replacement – Floor polishing is complete. Reinstall furniture, fixtures and collection complete. F&S shops working on punch list items.
  • Ricker Library – Shelving Complete.
  • Undergraduate Library – Room 289 Conversion Furniture to arrive August 27, 2018, Library IT and F&S electricians working on AV installation – August 2018.
  • Undergraduate Library – Tech Desk and Media Commons Reconfiguration – Tech Desk and reconfigure the Media Commons staff area – complete.

For a complete list of projects in planning and construction, please see:
https://wordpress.library.illinois.edu/staff/facilities/
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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: Creative Connections
Thursday, September 6 – Martha Degutis – 3-D snowflakes
12:00 – 1:00 p.m., 428 Main Library

Wednesday, September 26 – Megean Osuchowski and John Laskowski, Library Website Scavenger Hunt
12:00 – 1:00 p.m., 314 Main Library
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EVENTS AND TRAINING: NISO Two-Part Webinar
Using Analytics to Extract Value from the Library’s Data

NISO Two-Part Webinar, Part One
Analytics Behind the Scenes
Wednesday, September 12
12:00 – 1:30 p.m., 428 Main Library

Faced with a highly diverse combination of externally and internally collected data (web visits, gate counter, collection usage, subject analysis, budgets, space use, reference help interactions, etc.), academic libraries have rapidly mastered the value and use of analytics. Whether analyzing prospective subscription packages to determine their value for an institution’s research activities or reviewing usage data drawn from the local digital repository, libraries want to extract meaning from the increasing volume of library data. What does that data look like? How should that data be managed? And in what combinations is that data most enlightening?

Confirmed Speakers:
Suzanna Conrad, Associate Dean for Digital Technologies & Resource Management, University Library, California State University, Sacramento
Steven Braun, Data Analytics and Visualization Specialist, Northeastern University Libraries
Corey Harper, Data Scientist / Sr. Tech. Researcher, Elsevier Labs

NISO Two-Part Webinar, Part Two
Actionable Data Analysis
Wednesday, September 19
12:00 – 1:30 p.m., 428 Main Library

We have the data and the report. Looking beyond the simple statistical report (how many individuals attended a program or searched a database), what might be best practices in using that data in support of long-term planning and decision making? What types of trends do libraries believe they might be seeing? Wrestling with library data should yield significant insights about the institution’s needs. Libraries and those who serve them will benefit from understanding how data is being wrangled, mixed, and interpreted.

Confirmed Speakers:
Emily Guhde, Director of Library Assessment, Georgetown University Library;
Rachel Lewellen, Head of Assessment and Program Management, Harvard Library;
Dr. Frankie Wilson, Head of Assessment, Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
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EVENTS AND TRAINING: Player Piano Reveal
Saturday, September 22
School of Music Auditorium and the Music and Performing Arts Library (MPAL)
1:30 – 3:00 p.m.

Save the date! Join us for a lecture in the School of Music Auditorium about player piano technology and history. Featuring Catherine Hennessy-Wolter, PhD in Musicology from Illinois in 2016, and Mel Septon, restorer of automatic musical instruments.

A reception and demonstration of MPAL’s renovated Steinway Duo-Art reproducing piano will follow immediately afterwards in MPAL.
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EVENTS AND TRAINING: Virtual Panel: Global Publishing Trends
Thursday, September 27
10:00 – 11:00 a.m. (Central Time)
Register at https://tinyurl.com/yajmdf4o.

Workshop Description
Panelists from the publishing industry will discuss how emerging market, technological, regional, educational, and other trends are impacting the global publishing landscape. This discussion will contextualize emerging publishing trends across several sectors and regions for interested scholars, educators, and professionals.

Featuring expert panelists:

  • Joanna Bazán Babczonek (Project Manager, International Publishers Association (IPA) )
  • Maria Bonn (Associate Professor, School of Information Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  • Darrell Gunter – Director, STM (International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers, North America and Director of Membership)
  • William Kopycki (Director of Cairo Office, Library of Congress Overseas Offices)

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EVENTS AND TRAINING: Save the Date – Scholarly Commons Open House
Tuesday, October 9
4:00 – 5:30 p.m., Room 220, Main Library

Have you ever wondered what services are offered in the Scholarly Commons and who our partners are in the Library and on Campus?  Drop by Room 220 on October 9 between 4:00 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. Lightning talks from our partners will start at 4:30 p.m., and the prizes will be announced for the Data Visualization Competition (https://www.library.illinois.edu/sc/events/viz-competition). All of campus is invited to this event, and library staff is particularly invited. Please join us!
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EVENTS AND TRAINING: Save the Date – Digitization in Baltic Studies Online Workshop
Thursday, October 11
10:00 – 11:30 a.m. (Central Time)
Register at tinyurl.com/balticdigworkshop.

Workshop Description
The Slavic Reference Service will host a workshop addressing the current state of digitization and digital collections in the area of Baltic Studies. This year marks the 100 year anniversary of the Baltic States: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. In honor of this occasion, this workshop will discuss the many ways in which memory institutions from these countries have worked to make their unique collections available to their patrons, diaspora communities, and the public in general through the use of web technologies. The workshop will include expert panelists from institutions that collect and digitize materials from the Baltic countries and diaspora communities who will discuss their activities in the field.

Featuring expert panelists:

  • Geoff Willard, Hannah Frost, Michael Angeletti (Digitization Services Team, Stanford University)
  • Aap Tepper (Senior Film Archive Specialist, The National Archives of Estonia’s FOTIS database)
  • Sandra Leknickienė (Deputy Director General for Development of Information Resources and Services, The Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania)

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If you would like to submit content for the October issue of Library Office Notes, please submit it to Heather Murphy or Tom Teper by Friday, September 21, 2018.