February Library Office Notes


ANNOUNCEMENTS

HR NEWS

IT NEWS

FACILITIES

EVENTS AND TRAINING


ANNOUNCEMENTS: University Librarian Note
The campus launched a finalized strategic plan at a “Strategic Plan Launch” event today. With the launch, the campus will have a complete and final version of the strategic plan that will guide us through 2023. The Library is well-positioned to begin its own planning, leveraging the campus plan. Read more…
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: Library Catalog Transition
Last month, AUL for Digital Strategies Chris Prom provided preliminary details about the Library’s transition from Voyager/VuFind to Alma/Primo:

The migration of the new system is expected to be completed by July 2020.

The ILS (Integrated Library System) Coordination Team, tasked with coordinating the implementation, had its inaugural meeting on January 22. Updates will be shared via LIB-NEWS and future issues of LON.
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: Library Advancement
Scott Koeneman, Assistant Dean of Libraries for Advancement

You may have seen some changes to the first floor of the Main Library. Specifically, the new, permanent exhibit showcasing each of the 14 millionth volumes in the north-south corridor and the donor wall in the alcove just outside of the Marshall Gallery. Both are designed to recognize the Library’s many friends and donors and to raise the visibility of the impact of giving to the Library.

The millionth volumes exhibit, paid for with a gift by alumnus and Library Friend Paul Lisnek, was in recognition of the collection reaching 14 million volumes and inspired by University President Edmund James, who, in 1912, called on the Board of Trustees to accumulate, “…at least a million of books as rapidly as possible…” and that the state “…spend a million dollars to build a new building to house the collection.”

The donor recognition alcove (below), paid for with donations, is part of our efforts in the “With Illinois” campaign. Designed and built by Taylor Studios in Rantoul (including Shawn Hensley, husband of our own Merinda Hensley), it is inspired by the Library itself. The shape and glass panels reflect the entry into the Marshall Gallery, the wood tones reflect the historic panels in the Great Stairway, and the tree (beyond representing the tree of knowledge) is part of the iconography that can be found all over the Library, particularly in the exterior stones above the main entrance.

Donor Wall

Our hope is that these will not only recognize the value of supporting the Library, but will remind the many visitors we receive that supporting the Library is both important and meaningful.

If you haven’t seen these, please do take the time to. And, feel free to reach out to any of us in Library Advancement if you have questions.
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: Library Building Project Update – 2/1/2019
Tom Teper, Associate Dean for Collections and Technical Services

Committee and Working Group Updates
The kick-off meeting for the Programming the Main Library Building WG was held on December 19, 2019. Kirstin Dougan is chairing the working group, and more information on the working group and its efforts can be found here: https://www.library.illinois.edu/staff/committee/the-library-as-catalyst-project-programming-the-main-library-building-wg/.

Once this group is kicked off, we indicated that there would be several library-focused “salons” aimed at soliciting input on the conceptual model and evolving plans from members of the University Library. At the time of posting, two of these salons have been held already.

The kick-off meeting for the Managing the Library’s Collections Working Group was held on January 7, 2019. Paula Carns is chairing that working group, and more information on the working group and its efforts can be found here: https://www.library.illinois.edu/staff/committee/the-library-as-catalyst-project-managing-the-librarys-collections-wg/.

Following a meeting between Tom Teper and the Assessment Committee, the chairs of both working groups met with Jen-Chien Yu and myself to discuss opportunities for the Assessment Committee to support some of their work. Among other things, both groups are looking at data needs that will help inform their work.

The framework under which these and other working groups directly associated with this project will work is posted here: https://www.library.illinois.edu/staff/committee/the-library-as-catalyst-project-a-framework-for-working-groups-and-input-solicitation/.

Consultants
Kris Kiesling visited town from December 5 – 7, 2018, meeting extensively with members of the Library’s Special Collections Division and some of their constituents. The Division recommended that we engage a consultant to assist in thinking through some of the operational ramifications of the proposed consolidation of services and furthermore, recommended that we work with Kris. In mid-January, Kris submitted a draft of her report to the Library. The Special Collections Division is currently reviewing the draft for any editorial needs.

Contracts and Firms
The University Library is still awaiting authorization to release the name of the architectural firm identified to assist with programming activities. Once final paperwork is signed, we will release the name of the firm(s) identified, schedule kick off meetings, and begin work with the firm.

Communications

  • Monthly Updates – As you know, there are now monthly updates about the Library Building Project distributed via LibNews. These will be posted in a separate section of LON. The intent of both is to ensure open communication of specific information related to the Library Building Project.
  • Quarterly Updates – The third Quarterly Update for the project is scheduled for March 13, 2019, from 3:00 – 4:30 p.m. in 66 Main Library. We anticipate that the live stream provided by Eric Kurt and Jason Metz from the Media Commons will be available for this one as well.
  • Website – The Library Building Project has a website located at: https://www.library.illinois.edu/library-building-project/. Here you can read about the vision behind this program, seek answers to many of the Frequently Asked Questions that might arise, and read about upcoming events or project news. You can also submit additional questions to the project team at librarybuildingproject@library.illinois.edu.

Facilities
The assigned project coordinator from F&S is Dennis Craig. Dennis has been involved in numerous projects across the University Library. He also serves as the Campus Historic Preservation Officer. Although the dates have already shifted in the table below, we are approaching the highlighted portion of the Library Programming and Conceptual Design activity associated with this project. The PSC Kick-off Meeting was penciled in for November 28, 2018; however, it is on hold pending final signature on the contract. It is likely to be held in February or March 2019. Once the project is kicked off, it will start approximately seven-months of work associated with this phase of the project. The dates in the chart below will change based on the final contract approval and actual scheduling of the kick-off meeting.

Library Programming and Conceptual Design

Long-Term Project Schedule
Jeff Schrader and Tom Teper met with Dennis Craig on November 20, 2018 in order to more fully flesh out the long-term schedule for this project. While there are many moving parts and dependencies that will impact the dates going forward, we believe that we can flesh out a reasonable approximation that will take us through the currently anticipated completion date in 2024. Our hope is to have a more up-to-date, long-term project schedule in early 2019.

Outreach and Engagement
Dean Wilkin has continued conducting much leg work with respect to outreach and engagement with key stakeholders and faculty on campus. Meetings since last month’s update have included times with leadership in departments such as History, English, and Classics. In addition to these more intimate sessions, Dean Wilkin presented to the Senate in mid-November 2018, covering the broader aspects of the proposal. Later in the month, the Senate Committee on the Library also held an open session for any members of the faculty to discuss their hopes and desires for this project.

As noted in the last Quarterly Update, the Library began holding “Salons” for non-Library faculty on campus to discuss some of their hopes, desires, and fears associated with the Library Building Project. The five salons were held between October–December 2019. Each event began with providing some background on the scope of the project and led into discussion about the project as well as the potential impact and benefits of the proposed program. As the salons progress, a summary report will be distributed more broadly.

Presently, we have salons scheduled for Library personnel throughout January and February 2019. We have salons scheduled for February and March 2019 with graduate students. The invitation for all of these are scheduled to be sent on February 1, 2019.

We are also entering in preliminary conversations about holding a couple focus groups for various undergraduate students.

Finally, we will be working in the spring to find opportunities for broader townhall type discussions.
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: Grant Announcements for External Fundraisers
NEH Grants
There are no pending IMLS deadlines at this time.

03/12/2019 – Institutes for Advanced Topics in the Digital Humanities
Output: Conference/Institute/Seminar

04/10/2019 – Fellowships
Output: Book, Article, Digital Material & Publications, Archaeological Report, Translation, Edition, Other Scholarly Resource

04/10/2019 – NEH-Mellon Fellowship for Digital Publications
Output: Digital Materials & Publications

05/15/2019 – Infrastructure and Capacity Building Challenge Grants
Output: Buildings, Equipment, Digital Infrastructure

05/15/2019 – Preservation and Access Education and Training
Output: Preservation Courses or Curricular Materials, Conservation Graduate Programs, Preservation Workshops, Fellow Positions in Conservation

05/15/2019 – Research and Development
Output: Web Resources, Report, Computer Program

06/12/2019 – Digital Projects for the Public
Output: Game/Simulation, Web Resources, Mobile App, Virtual/Augmented Reality, Curricular Materials

07/16/2019 – Humanities Collections and Reference Resources
Output: Digitized Collection, Web Resources, Catalogs, Databases, Encyclopedias

09/19/2019 – Humanities Connections Planning Grants
Output: Curriculum, Community Partnerships, Faculty Development, Teaching Resources

09/19/2019 – Humanities Connections Implementation Grants
Output: Linked Courses, Curriculum, Community Partnerships, Faculty Development, Teaching Resources

10/15/2019 – Dialogues on the Experience of War
Output: Curriculum, Community Partnerships, Discussions Groups, Facilitator Training

12/04/2019 – Scholarly Editions and Translation Grants
Output: Book, Translation, Edition, Music edition

12/04/2019 – Collaborative Research Grants
Output: Book, Digital Material & Publication, Other Scholarly Resource, Themed issue of peer reviewed journal, Conference, Workshop
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: The Savvy Researcher
The Savvy Researcher workshops begin the second week of classes and run until mid-April. All are welcome, including library colleagues for professional development purposes. To help get the word out across campus, please forward the following blurb to your departments:

THE SAVVY RESEARCHER
Join us for hands-on workshops that will help you improve your research and information management skills. Upcoming sessions include:

  • Drowning in Citations and PDFs? EndNote Can Help!
  • Introduction to Tableau Public – Hands-On Training
  • Introduction to Data Management
  • Using Multimedia in Your Research
  • Network Analysis in the Digital Humanities
  • Messy Data? Clean it up with OpenRefine!
  • Dissertation to Book: Basics of the Revision and Publishing Process
  • When Excel isn’t Enough

And much more! For more details and registration: http://go.library.illinois.edu/savvyresearcher.

Please note: All workshops are requestable and most sessions held in the Main Library, Room 314 unless otherwise noted.
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: Library Tip of the Month
The Library sends a monthly email to new faculty at Illinois during the fall and spring semesters. These emails introduce many of our services and resources to this important audience.

You can view the January LTOTM at https://emails.illinois.edu/newsletter/199724.html.

If you have ideas for future emails, please feel free to share them with Heather Murphy.
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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: AP Promotion Plan
Greg Knott, Assistant Dean of Library for Business Operations

I am pleased to announce that the Academic Professional Promotion Plan is now being implemented and underway.

Academic Professionals who are interested in seeking promotion under the new AP Promotion Program should submit their self-nominations by 5:00 p.m. Friday, March 1 at https://forms.illinois.edu/sec/9020893.

More details about the program can be found at the Library’s AP Promotional Process web page.

In addition, there will be office hours:

  • 3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m., Wednesday, February 13 in 428 Main Library
  • 9:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m., Wednesday, February 20 in 323c Main Library

More open sessions or office hours will be added based on interest, and communicated to LibNews.

In the meantime, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me directly. Thank you to everyone who has given input and helped in making this plan come to reality.
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HR NEWS: New Employees

  • Ana Rodrigues, RBML (March 1)

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HR NEWS: Vacancies

  • Library Specialist – Grainger, interviewing

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HR NEWS: Title Change

  • MJ Han change to Head, Acquisitions and Cataloging Services

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HR NEWS: In Memoriam

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IT NEWS: SCARS AWS Transition
Over the past year, the repository developers have teamed up with the Library’s Infrastructure Management and Support group to migrate Medusa’s underlying infrastructure — that is the servers, storage, databases and network connections, used by Medusa, the Illinois Digital Library, and the Illinois Databank — to the cloud using Amazon Web Services (AWS). After a year of experimenting with several different services and strategies and retrofitting our applications to adapt to new object storage systems, we’re happy to announce that the transition is near complete!

Our go live date for the new infrastructure is tentatively set for Monday, February 18th. At that time, our current production URLs (medusa.library.illinois.edu, digital.library.illinois.edu, and databank.illinois.edu) will be redirected to point to services running in AWS. The production services will be set to read-only mode during the weekend before we go live to perform a final data synchronization. There may be some brief service interruptions on the 18th while the URLs are being redirected, but otherwise there should not be a significant change in your interactions with Medusa, the Databank, or the Digital Library.
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FACILITIES: Facility Project Updates

  • AFMFA F&S – $40M Campus Wide Requests:
    • Main Library – Reading Room Renovation and 220 Conceptual Design Schematic Design/Design Development Submittal arrived January 16, 2019 and draft conceptual design for room 220 arrived January 23, 2019.
  • 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 50% construction documents review meeting upcoming.

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: ACRL Webinar: Academic Library Impact: Strategies for Designing New Research
Monday, February 4
1:00 – 2:00 p.m., 106 Main Library

Are you interested in conducting research on library contributions to student learning and success? Join us for a webinar to learn about using ACRL’s 2017 report, Academic Library Impact: Improving Practice and Essential Areas to Research to design a new research project.

The report, developed for ACRL by OCLC Research, investigates library contributions to student learning and success. It surveys existing literature in the field and outlines six priority areas for new research. In each priority area, it highlights exemplary existing studies and suggests new research questions.

During this live discussion, the chair and vice-chair of the Value of Academic Libraries Committee and a co-author of the Academic Library Impact report will share strategies for effectively using the report in planning new research. They will also briefly discuss ACRL’s current round of Academic Library Impact Research Grants and how to apply (the deadline is April 25, 2019).
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EVENTS AND TRAINING: Sixth Annual University Library Research Showcase
Tuesday, February 5
1:00 – 4:00 p.m., 220 Main Library

Library Research Showcase

The University Library invites the campus community to the Library Research Showcase in Room 220 of the Main Library from 1:00 – 4:00 p.m. on February 5. The showcase will highlight recently completed and ongoing research within the library, emphasizing its impact on the university, the professional disciplines of our many researchers and beyond.
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EVENTS AND TRAINING: NISO Webinar: Wrestling with Access and Authentication Control
Wednesday, February 6
12:00 – 1:30 p.m., 428 Main Library

This session will examine various aspects of access and authentication controls in the context of digital information resources. Is there a scalable approach that can satisfy the needs of both corporate as well as academic environments? If not, how can technology be engineered or leveraged such that the nuanced needs of all may be met? What trade-offs might need to be recognized and negotiated? Are there satisfactory answers to the questions that have arisen with regard to privacy and data exchange? This session will bring together a number of industry experts to discuss the challenges and opportunities.
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EVENTS AND TRAINING: LLAMA webinar “How to Establish a Meaningful and Productive Mentoring Relationship”
Wednesday, February 6
1:30 – 3:00 p.m., 428 Main Library

While it might seem logical that mentoring comes intuitively to experienced professionals, the actual experience of participating in a productive, mutually-fulfilling mentoring relationship requires approaching it with intention and a toolkit of skills. The Library Leadership and Management Association (LLAMA) will present How to Establish a Meaningful and Productive Mentoring Relationship.This webinar will provide proven strategies for making the most of a mentoring relationship based on research and experience, and will explore the skills and practices that are needed the most when serving as a mentor.
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EVENTS AND TRAINING: Abraham Lincoln’s 210th Birthday Celebration
Tuesday, February 12
4:00 – 6:00 p.m., 246 Main Library

Lincoln's Birthday

Join the Illinois History and Lincoln Collections and the History, Philosophy, and Newspaper Library to celebrate Abraham Lincoln’s 210th birthday! Enjoy light refreshments, try your hand at Lincoln-themed trivia, view of pop-up exhibit featuring selections from the IHLC’s holdings, including several new acquisitions, and explore library resources related to the life and legacy of our 16th president.
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EVENTS AND TRAINING: Creative Connections
Thursday, February 14
12:00 – 1:00 p.m., 428 Main Library

Wednesday, February 27
12:00 – 1:00 p.m., 428 Main Library
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EVENTS AND TRAINING: Spring Exhibition Opening, “Making Mr. Darcy: Cultural Context for a Regency Gentleman”
Thursday, February 21
3:00 – 5:00 p.m., 346 Main Library

Making Mr. Darcy
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EVENTS AND TRAINING: “Borderline” 1930 Silent Film with Paul and Eslanda Robeson
Sunday, February 24
3:00 p.m., Foellinger Auditorium

Borderline

The Sousa Archives is sponsoring a special premiere performance of Renée Bakers’ new film score composed for the newly discovered silent movie, Borderline, as part of this year’s Black History Month. Read more…
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If you would like to submit content for the March issue of Library Office Notes, please submit it to Heather Murphy or Tom Teper by Friday, February 15, 2019.