January Library Office Notes


ANNOUNCEMENTS

HR NEWS

EVENTS AND TRAINING



ANNOUNCEMENTS: University Librarian Note
It’s “budget time” again, as we prepare to report to the Provost on our work and make our annual budget request. As we’ve discussed throughout the year, budgetary relief has created a number of significant opportunities. I want to provide a brief update on those here, and to give you a status report on the annual budget process. Read more…
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: Library Building Project Update
Check back next month.
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: 2019 Downs Intellectual Freedom Award and iSchool at Illinois Alumni Reception
Invitation to all alumni and friends of the iSchool at Illinois and supporters of Intellectual Freedom who are attending the January 2020 ALA Midwinter meeting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

You are invited to attend the reception for the recipient of the 2019 Downs Intellectual Freedom Award and iSchool at Illinois Alumni reception. The reception takes place on Saturday, January 25, 2020, from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. in Room “Liberty C” at the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown (MAR) 1201 Market St., Philadelphia, PA 19107.

The recipient of the 2019 Award, to be presented in January 2020, is the Education Justice Project (EJP) for its defense of the First Amendment rights of incarcerated individuals. More information on the recipient to be honored in 2020 can be found at the following website: https://ischool.illinois.edu/news-events/news/2019/11/2019-downs-intellectual-freedom-award-given-education-justice-project. As in the past, Libraries Unlimited provides an honorarium for the recipient and cosponsors the reception along with the iSchool. Direct any questions to Terry Weech.
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: ILS Coordination Team Report
Michael Norman, Discovery Services Librarian and ILS Coordinator

In the last few weeks, the ILS Coordination Team has received access to the new test instances of Alma (BackEnd) and Primo VE (the new Library Catalog). Both systems still are not fully formed yet. We are busily working with CARLI and Ex Libris to finalize the configuration of Alma/Primo VE for our Library, including implementing many of the settings we were able to test during the Vanguard Test Phase this past summer and fall. There are several important new developments for both systems coming in January and February 2020 that we still need to employ including finalizing the settings in fulfillment (circulation) for the Library and with the other 90 I-Share libraries for resource sharing of materials; incorporating a new metadata editor for cataloging and resource management; and, in February 2020, a new release for the Primo Central Index (Central Discovery Index going forward) will need to be added into the Library Catalog (Primo VE).

On January 16, 2020, the ILS Coordination Team will be showcasing Alma and the new Library Catalog (Primo VE) at a library-wide information session from 10:00 to 11:30 a.m. The session will be live and broadcasted out as a Zoom interactive video conference session. Tune in to see Alma and the new Library Catalog in action; we will do live demos of both systems. We will also provide an updated timeline for the remaining implementation phases leading up to Go-Live in June 2020. There will be an internal launch of the new Library Catalog and we’ll be asking for everyone’s help in testing it; we want everyone to explore and give us feedback to improve the system. For those who can’t participate, the Zoom session will be recorded and posted to the ILS Coordination Team website for later viewing.

For additional information and the latest news about the implementation of Alma and the new Primo VE Library Catalog, see the monthly ILS Coordination Team report at: https://www.library.illinois.edu/geninfo/discoveryservices/ils-coordination-team/
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: Grant Announcements for External Fundraisers
Please refer to the December Library Office Notes for a list of grants.

As always, if you are interested in all grant opportunities across disciplines, feel free to subscribe to the OVCR’s list at https://groups.webservices.illinois.edu/subscribe/19149.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Heidi Imker.
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: Did You Know? A Monthly Factoid from Library Assessment

As part of the Undergraduate Library’s 50th Anniversary celebration, we asked students to write down what they liked about the UGL. Overwhelmingly students said they loved the UGL as a place to be with friends (Social Spaces, 25%) and to study (22%).
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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 December LTOTM at https://emails.illinois.edu/newsletter/248001.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: Departures

  • Gregg Knott – Resignation, BHRSC

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HR NEWS: Filled Positions

  • Brian Agnoletti – Distribution Clerk, Facilities (January 6)
  • Matthew Freund – Distribution Clerk, Oak Street Library Facility (January 6)
  • Jennifer Vargo Hauser – Library Specialist, ACES (January 6)
  • Monica Carroll – Engineering and Physical Sciences Liaison and Innovation Librarian (January 16)
  • Kathryn Risor-Heise – Senior Director of Advancement Operations (January 16)
  • Shelby Strommer – Collections Care Coordinator (February 16)

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HR NEWS: In Memoriam

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HR NEWS: Vacancies

  • Library Specialist with Asian language specialty – ACS
  • Library Specialist with Spanish and Portuguese specialty – ACS
  • Grants & Contracts Specialist/Coordinator – BHRSC
  • Office Support Associate – BHRSC

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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: Library Recognition Event
January 15, 2020
8:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m., Illini Union

The Library will host the annual Library Recognition Event on Wednesday, January 15, at the Illini Union. We will be closing all libraries from 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on the morning of January 15th for this event.

The event will begin at 8:30 a.m. that morning. We will have a breakfast, service recognition awards, civil service and AP award ceremonies, some networking time, and a lunch that will last until 1:00 p.m. We encourage everyone to attend. Those who do not wish to attend should work with their unit head to request a vacation day (or half-day) or make arrangements with their unit head to work in the unit that morning.

Please mark your calendars now and plan to attend this event. We promise a great meal, good conversation, and some light-hearted fun.

To register and view agenda, please go to: https://uiuc.libcal.com/event/6121597.

Honorees for years of service, new employees and retired employees as follows:


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EVENTS AND TRAINING: NISO Webinar – Talking to Your Organization’s IT Group When You’re Not an IT Person
January 22, 2020
12:00 – 1:30 p.m., 428 Main Library

Libraries may not always be blessed with their own dedicated information technology unit. Those lucky enough to have such internal access are in a better position to discuss complex issues, such as those surrounding identity management and authentication. But what if you or your colleagues are dependent upon an external IT group, one that has different professional priorities? What might be the best tips and tricks for communicating library needs and concerns to those IT groups? They may be using the same vocabulary but associating a different definition with the terminology. This event will be a roundtable discussion between professionals with the intent of easing those exchanges in order to reach shared goals.
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EVENTS AND TRAINING: Library Consultation Working Group Town Hall – Special Collections Research Center
January 22, 2020
3:00 – 5:00 p.m., 314A Illini Union, 1401 West Green Street, Urbana
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EVENTS AND TRAINING: Behind the Scenes: A Conversation with the Curators of Divine Madness
January 24, 2020
3:00 – 5:00 p.m., Rare Book & Manuscript Library, 346 Main Library
Dr. Cait Coker, Siobhan McKissic, Ruthann E. Miller, & Ana D. Rodriguez
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If you would like to submit content for the February issue of Library Office Notes, please submit it to Heather Murphy or Tom Teper by January 24, 2020.

December Library Office Notes


ANNOUNCEMENTS

HR NEWS

IT NEWS

FACILITIES

EVENTS AND TRAINING



ANNOUNCEMENTS: University Librarian Note
Check back next month for a new Note from Dean Wilkin.
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: Library Recognition Event
The Library will host the annual Library Recognition Event on Wednesday, January 15, at the Illini Union. We will be closing all libraries from 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on the morning of January 15th for this event.

The event will begin at 8:30 a.m. that morning. We will have a breakfast, service recognition awards, civil service and AP award ceremonies, some networking time, and a lunch that will last until 1:00 p.m. We encourage everyone to attend. Those who do not wish to attend should work with their unit head to request a vacation day (or half-day) or make arrangements with their unit head to work in the unit that morning.

Please mark your calendars now and plan to attend this event. We promise a great meal, good conversation, and some light-hearted fun.
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: Library Building Project Update
Check back next month. And, plan on attending the next Quarterly Library Update Meeting for more information (watch for meeting details via LIBNEWS).
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: ILS Coordination Team Report
Michael Norman, Discovery Services Librarian and ILS Coordinator

The Alma/Primo VE implementation is progressing into the 2nd Test Phase for both systems. The Library received the Alma Test Instance on October 23rd. It was in a read-only state through November 6th and it has now been released to the ILS Coordination Team to start the configuration and customization work to re-establish the settings we instituted during the Vanguard Test phase of the implementation. By mid-December, we will have the configuration we want and then we will be ready to show the Alma system to the Library in January. Currently, Ex Libris is running a little behind schedule in releasing our Test Instance of Primo VE. We were supposed to gain access to this test instance on November 11th. Within the next 2 weeks, we should get access to the fully functional Primo VE Discovery layer, work to return the configurations to the previously determined settings during the Vanguard Test Phase, and then the ILS Coordination Team will do an internal launch and showcase the new Primo VE instance to the Library after January 2, 2020 for everyone to explore.

Timeline for introduction of Alma/Primo VE going forward into the Spring Semester, 2020:

Library-wide Alma/Primo VE information session: To see both Alma and Primo VE in action, there will be a Library-wide information session on January 16th, 2020. It will be a live onsite session from 10 to 11:30 am in Room 106 but we will also broadcast the presentation out as a Zoom interactive video conference session as well. The session will be recorded and posted to the ILS Coordination Team website as well for later viewing.

Alma/Primo VE Early Adopter Test Stage: Starting in January 2020, we will kick off the Alma/Primo VE Early Adopter Test Stage as well. We are pulling individuals from departmental and unit libraries into learning the Alma Back-End work functional areas and have this team of early adopters help us continue the testing of data migrated and mapped over from Voyager to Alma. These sessions will start on January 8th and continue through the end of January 2020.

Library-wide Training on Alma/Primo VE: Starting in February/March 2020, we will start offering Library-wide training sessions of Alma and Primo VE to get everyone familiar and ready to use both systems before the Go-Live date in June 2020. Stay tuned for announcements after the first of the year for these hands-on training sessions.

For more information about the Alma/Primo VE implementation, see the full monthly report of the ILS Coordination Team at: https://www.library.illinois.edu/geninfo/discoveryservices/ils-coordination-team/ 
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: Grant Announcements for External Fundraisers
As always, if you are interested in all grant opportunities across disciplines, feel free to subscribe to the OVCR’s list at https://groups.webservices.illinois.edu/subscribe/19149.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Heidi Imker.

01/15/2020 – University of Illinois – Campus Research Board

01/15/2020 – Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections
Output: Preservation Supplies/Equipment, Reports on Preventive Conservation

01/15/2020 – National Digital Newspaper Program
Output: Web Resources, Digitized Newspapers

01/16/2020 – NHPRC – Access to Historical Records: Major Initiatives (Preliminary)

02/01/2020 – IMLS – Collections Assessment for Preservation Program

02/05/2020 – Public Scholar Program
Output: Book

02/13/2020 – Summer Seminars and Institutes for Higher Education Faculty
Output: Conference/Institute/Seminar

02/13/2020 – Summer Seminars and Institutes for K-12 Faculty
Output: Conference/Institute/Seminar

03/04/2020 – University of Illinois – Campus Research Board

03/04/2020 – Institutes for Advanced Topics in Digital Humanities
Output: Conference/Institute/Seminar

04/08/2020 – NEH-Mellon Fellowships for Digital Publication
Output: Digital Material & Publications

05/15/2020 – NEH Research and Development
Output: Web Resources, Report, Computer Program

05/15/2020 – NEH Preservation and Access Education and Training
Output: Preservation Course or Curricular Materials, Conservation Graduate Program, Preservation Workshop, Fellow Positions in Conservation

05/15/2020 – NEH Infrastructure and Capacity Building Challenge Grants
Output: Buildings, Equipment, Digital Infrastructure

06/19/2020 – NEH Digital Projects for the Public
Output: Game/Simulation, Mobile App, Virtual/Augmented Reality, Website

07/15/2020 – NEH Humanities Collections and Reference Resources
Output: Digitized Collection, Web Resources, Catalogs, Databases, Encyclopedias

08/20/2020 – NEH Fellowship Programs at Independent Research Institutions Output: Fellowships

09/16/2020 – NEH Humanities Connections Implementation Grants
Output: Linked Courses, Curriculum, Community Partnerships, Faculty Development, Teaching Resources

09/16/2020 – NEH Humanities Connections Planning Grants
Output: Curriculum, Community Partnerships, Faculty development, Teaching Resources
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: Did You Know? A Monthly Factoid from Library Assessment

The University Library recorded 322,962 initial circulations during Fiscal Year 2019, which shows a 2% increase from Fiscal Year 2018 (316,273). Academic libraries use “initial circulations,” which does not include reserves and loanable technology or e-book usage, as an important metric to assess the use of a physical collection. During FY18, the Library recorded the second highest number of initial circulations among BTAA libraries (#8 among 116 ARL university libraries).
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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 November LTOTM at https://emails.illinois.edu/newsletter/238589.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: Departures

  • Kathie Veach – Resignation, BHRSC (November 18)
  • Megan Ozeran – Resignation, Scholarly Commons (December 15)
  • Carole Kopp – Retirement, BHRSC (December 31)
  • Eileen Schroeder – Retirement, BHRSC (December 31)
  • Candice Woodrum – Resignation, BHRSC (December 31)

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HR NEWS: Filled Positions

  • Brenda Brown – Office Support Associate, BHRSC (November 11)
  • Carrie Lingscheit – Office Support Specialist, RBML (December 9)

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HR NEWS: Vacancies

  • Library Specialist – ACES
  • Library Specialist with language specialty – ACS
  • Grants & Contracts Specialist/Coordinator – BHRSC
  • Distribution Clerk – Facilities
  • Distribution Clerk – Oak Street Library Facility

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IT NEWS: IT Accessibility Liaisons in the Library
The Technology Accessibility Review Committee (TARC) was formed and charged with the duty of finalizing and implementing the policy. One of the initiatives started by the TARC is called the IT Accessibility Liaison (ITAL) program. The purpose of this program is to establish point-people in all campus units to serve as resources for digital accessibility. We have had 4 staff participating in this program from the Library since it started in February, and 2 additional staff members have been participating this fall.  The goal is to enhance our accessibility expertise within our Web Team and SCaRS development team so that we can deliver an accessible virtual experience to our patrons through our websites and repository applications and so that we can provide that expertise to the Library.

If you would like to engage the team for an assessment of a website, application, or product, please email help@library.illinois.edu. The team had training in building accessible email as well. If you would like any of your mass distribution email templates reviewed, feel free to request an assessment of those also.
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IT NEWS: No Change Period
Library IT will observe a no-change period leading up to and through final exams. IT will make no changes to production services between 12:01 a.m. Monday, December 9, through 11:59 p.m. on Friday, December 20. Changes may still be made if necessary for stability or security, but as many changes as possible will be deferred until after the new year.
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FACILITIES: Update
Tim Newman, Assistant Dean for Facilities

Progress continues within the Reading Room (Room 200) and with the 1st floor information desk. Both projects are still on schedule.

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: Brownbag: Illinois Experts: Exploring Your Faculty Profile
December 4, 2019
12:00 – 1:00 p.m., 314 Main Library

Presenter: Mark Zulauf, Coordinator for Researcher Information Systems
Please register for this event
This is a brownbag so feel free to bring your lunch!

Since the Publications by University of Illinois Library Faculty database is being retired, the Research and Publication Cmte would like to invite you to a brownbag where you can learn more about Illinois Experts and how to setup your profile and add publications. All are invited and we would like to especially encourage Library faculty to update their Experts profile.
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EVENTS AND TRAINING: NISO Webinar – Where Does It Live?

Finding the Space: Redesign and Re-Allocation, Part One
December 11, 2019
12:00 – 1:30 p.m., 428 Main Library

String Collections On and Off Campus, Part Two
December 18, 2019
12:00 – 1:30 p.m., 428 Main Library

Particularly in the humanities where the scholarly monograph is of critical importance, where and how scholars may access books is a sensitive issue. How should libraries be communicating with their communities about issues of access, convenience and responsiveness when it comes to the printed volumes that may take up so many valuable square feet of the library’s physical plant? Automation and off-site storage represent a wonderful benefit to institutions, but do researchers feel their needs have been slighted? How best to engage with the community on sensitive issues of preservation and best practice?
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If you would like to submit content for the January issue of Library Office Notes, please submit it to Heather Murphy or Tom Teper by December 13, 2019.

November Library Office Notes


ANNOUNCEMENTS

HR NEWS

IT NEWS

FACILITIES

EVENTS AND TRAINING



ANNOUNCEMENTS: University Librarian Note
I recently attended two meetings as a representative for the Big Ten Academic Alliance and the University. These meetings related to negotiating “transformative agreements” in academic publishing, and I found myself surprised by the progress of work in this area–sufficiently surprised that I thought it would be helpful to initiate discussions here about the implications of this progress. Read more…
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: Library Building Project Update – 11/1/2019
Tom Teper, Associate Dean for Collections and Technical Services

Committees and Working Groups – Programming the Main Library
In September, the Programming the Main Library Working Group concluded its series of scheduled meetings with all units projected to be part of the Main Library Building post-construction. Intended to provide an open setting in which any attendees can learn about the project, voice concerns, and provide additional input into the process, members of the working group heard impressions about the project and its vision, learned about perceived strengths and weaknesses, and generally sought to develop a better understanding of how the proposed models would influence further discussions. Next steps in this process include beginning analysis of the feedback.

During September, members of the working group reviewed and submitted comments on the preferred scenario received from JLK and brightspot.

Kirstin Johnson chairs the working group, and more information on its efforts can be found here: https://www.library.illinois.edu/staff/committee/the-library-as-catalyst-project-programming-the-main-library-building-wg/. Questions or comments can be directed to the group at any time.

Committees and Working Groups – Collection Management Working Group
Taking over from the Managing the Library’s Collections WG, the Library’s standing Collection Management Working Group met in September to begin digesting recommendations from the project WG and integrating some of the recommendations into its broader operations.

The Managing the Library’s Collections Working Group’s final recommendations are here: https://www.library.illinois.edu/staff/committee/the-library-as-catalyst-project-managing-the-librarys-collections-wg/. Ongoing communications about the Collection Management WG’s work will be forthcoming.

Committees and Working Groups – Special Collections Research Center (SCRC)
The Special Collections Research Center (SCRC) Working Group continued meeting through October, and as the month wrapped up met with JLK and brightspot on October 31, 2019. The preferred scenario is expected on November 21, 2019.

Additionally, this working group developed an updated FAQ for the Library Building Project website that specifically addresses aspects of the Special Collections Research Center.

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/.

Committees and Working Groups – Library Consultation Working Group (Campus Level Cmte)
The LCWG held a townhall on October 10, 2019 in the Illini Union. This well-attended, open forum solicited further feedback and comments from the community about the project and the overall directions outlined for the Main Library that would be included in further project development.

After the final submittal of the Special Collections Research Center preferred scheme on November 21, 2019, the LCWG will meet to discuss the recommendations and to plan next steps for soliciting further feedback from the campus community.

Contracts and Firms – Main Library and Special Collections Research Center
The University Library is working with Chicago-based Johnson, Lasky, Kindelin (JLK) Architects and brightspot to develop the program for the Library Building Project. More information on JLK Architects, including information on other projects they have helped develop, can be found on the company’s website: http://www.jlkarch.com/. Brightspot Strategy’s website can be found here: https://www.brightspotstrategy.com/.

Following the March 14, 2019 kick-off meeting for the Main Library and the June 19, 2019 kick-off for the Special Collections Research Center, activities moved forward at a reasonable pace with JLK and brightspot personnel. To date, the University has received a final submittal for the Main Library Building and expects to receive the final submittal for the Special Collections Research Center on November 21, 2019.

Communications

  • Monthly Updates – Monthly updates about the Library Building Project are 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.
  • Library Quarterly Updates – The Library’s next Quarterly Update is scheduled for December 12th, 2019 from 3:00 – 4:30 p.m. in 66 Main Library. We anticipate that the live stream provided by the Media Commons will be available at this location: https://go.library.illinois.edu/livestream.
  • 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 Schedules
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 and is serving on the feasibility study being conducted related to the instructional facility that may be situated adjacent to the Main Library as well as initial work related to the Special Collections Building.

As noted earlier, the University Library recently received approval to work with JLK Architects and brightspot strategy. Based on the kick-off date of March 14, 2019, the schedule below represents the most current estimated project timeline for this phase, and it has shifted from last month’s update.

Library Redevelopment Plan Programming and Conceptual Design Study (U18083):

In addition to the Main Library Building project, Dennis Craig prepared a schedule for the first phase of the Special Collections Research Center’s Programming Study. This schedule will be adjusted to accommodate changes in the project schedule; The final report is now expected on November 21, 2019.

Undergraduate Library – Special Collections Facility Programming Study (U19112):

Long-Term Project Schedule
Following the completion of the initial Programming and Conceptual Design phase, the schedule below represents a best guess as to the project schedule through December 2024.

Library Redevelopment – Design/Bid/Build (U20XXX):

Outreach and Engagement
Nothing pending.
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: Academic Professional Promotion Program
Greg Knott, Assistant Dean of Library for Business Operations

The University Library will offer the Academic Professional (AP) Promotion Program again for eligible APs this coming spring. This is the 2nd year of the two-year pilot program, which was developed to provide more career growth and recognition for Library APs. The AP Promotion Program is intended to be largely self-driven by the AP, in that each individual can choose if and when to seek promotion via self-nomination.

The call for self-nominations will go out on LibNews in early January right after the winter holidays and will be due March 2. In the meantime, APs interested in promotion are strongly encouraged to:

    • Discuss their promotion readiness with their supervisors
    • Review the AP Promotion Program Description for important information about eligibility, promotion criteria, and the promotion process
    • Review the AP Promotion Process page for helpful resources such as sample nominations/letters of support and career development resources
    • Attend office hours to ask questions about the program and seek guidance from the AP Peer Review Promotion Advisory Committee and the BHRSC. Office hours are:

Monday, December 2 from 3 – 4 p.m. in Room 308
Monday, December 9 from 10 – 11 a.m. in Room 308
Tuesday, January 7 from 11 a.m. – 12 p.m. in Room 308
Tuesday, January 21 from 3 – 4 p.m. in Room 308
Tuesday, February 4 from 3 – 4 p.m. in Room 308

APs who are interested in promotion are strongly encouraged to be proactive in reviewing the promotion eligibility and criteria. Please talk with your supervisor, and attend office hours as early as possible in the time leading up to and through the self-nomination period for help understanding the promotion criteria and getting your questions answered so that you can make a strong case for your promotion.

Please keep an eye on LibNews, Library Office Notes (LON), & the AP Promotion Process page at https://www.library.illinois.edu/staff/ap-promotional-process-page/ for additional information.

Questions can also be emailed to the program coordinator, Jake MacGregor, at jdmac@illinois.edu. Jake will direct questions to the appropriate contact.
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: AFRO-PWW Series Wins Award
The AFRO-PWW series, produced under the Publishing Without Walls imprint of the Illinois Open Publishing Network at the University Library, has been recognized with an Open Publishing Award for Open Publishing Models. The Open Publishing Award is a new award recognizing achievements in online open access publishing. It is sponsored by the Coko Foundation and features a judging panel from across major open access scholarly publishing initiatives. The AFRO-PWW Series features open access works of digital scholarship related to African American Studies, and is produced in partnership with the Department of African-American Studies and Historically Black Colleges and Universities as part of the Publishing Without Walls Mellon grant program.
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: Introducing the Illinois Digital Heritage Hub Website
Joshua Lynch, Visiting Metadata Services Specialist for the Illinois Digital Heritage Hub

In late September, the Illinois Digital Heritage Hub (IDHH) launched a new website and search portal. The IDHH is a statewide initiative for harvesting digital collections metadata from institutions around Illinois and for providing this metadata to the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA). The project is a collaboration among the Chicago Public Library, the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries of Illinois (CARLI), the Illinois State Library, and the UIUC Library. As of October 2019, 150 institutions contribute more than 315,000 records to the IDHH, numbers that are almost certain to grow.

The IDHH website helps realize the project’s goals of increasing awareness of contributing institutions’ collections and providing greater access to these collections through a one-stop portal to more than 315,000 digital objects from across Illinois. The site also provides a recognizable IDHH web presence for the purpose of providing essential information to folks interested in learning about the project. The site includes resources for several user groups, including new and current contributing institutions and staff, educators and learners, and local history enthusiasts. Site visitors can dive into collections with keyword searches or may browse by options in one of several categories, including Illinois History, Notable Illinoisans, Illinois Communities, Collections by Format, and Partner Institutions. The site also provides documentation and guides for institutions who wish to begin contributing, or for current partners who want to provide new collections or refine their metadata. Additionally, users can save their favorite items to lists that persist on their web browser and may be downloaded for greater convenience.

The IDHH has a strong connection to UIUC. The UIUC Library provides a significant portion of the IDHH’s metadata records directly from its Digital Collections. Moreover, the UIUC Library contributes leadership, staff, and other resources to the initiative. Tim Cole and Tom Teper serve on the IDHH Board. Tim Cole convenes the Organization Model Working Group and provides essential guidance in the development of the IDHH’s technical infrastructure. Myung-Ja Han convenes the IDHH Metadata Working Group and laid the groundwork for harvesting and normalizing metadata records from the contributors network. IDHH Metadata Services Specialists have worked tirelessly to kickoff, sustain and grow the initiative. From 2016 to 2018, Hannah Stitzlein helped onboard contributing institutions, develop metadata standards, and assessed initial providers’ metadata. Joshua Lynch, the current metadata services specialist, has worked with the DPLA and others around the UIUC library and at the IDHH to develop the IDHH website and portal.

Additional features for the IDHH site will be added in the coming months, including improvements to the browsing options, curated topics, and exhibitions. Future development will depend in part on user feedback, and the IDHH invites site visitors to provide their thoughts anonymously in a four-question online survey. We look forward to hearing what people think and are excited to continue building the site and to help broaden the IDHH project. If you have any questions or suggestions, please contact Joshua Lynch.
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: Remodel of Room 220 in the Main Library
With the Provost’s $1M commitment to the renovation of 220, we can officially launch the effort. Given the Building Project, we will continue forward, but more in line with a major “refresh” rather than a major “renovation”. This strategy will ready the space for the arrival of the Scholarly Commons, but also leave behind an uncustomized home for another unit should the Scholarly Commons relocate as the Building Project plans progress. Ultimately, we believe this approach gives us maximum flexibility, allows the Scholarly Commons to evolve in long-intended ways, and will stimulate ideas as everyone continues to consider opportunities with the new Building Project.

Details, as they stand now, were shared on LibNews on October 14, 2019. If you missed that email or want more information, please don’t hesitate to reach out to Karen Hogenboom or Heidi Imker.
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: Library Staff Support Committee (LSSC) Contact & Comment Form
Are you a Library staff member? Do you have questions, comments, concerns or ideas to share about Library happenings? We’re listening! You can reach us by email at lssc@library.illinois.edu or submit feedback anonymously. Visit the LSSC Web page for more information, including meeting minutes and agendas.

We look forward to hearing from you!
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: ILS Coordination Team Report
The most recent report of the ILS Coordination Team is posted at:
https://www.library.illinois.edu/geninfo/discoveryservices/ils-coordination-team/.
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: Grant Announcements for External Fundraisers
As always, if you are interested in all grant opportunities across disciplines, feel free to subscribe to the OVCR’s list at https://groups.webservices.illinois.edu/subscribe/19149.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Heidi Imker or Kathie Veach.

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

01/15/2020 – University of Illinois – Campus Research Board

01/15/2020 – Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections
Output: Preservation Supplies/Equipment, Reports on Preventive Conservation

01/15/2020 – National Digital Newspaper Program
Output: Web Resources, Digitized Newspapers

01/16/2020 – NHPRC – Access to Historical Records: Major Initiatives (Preliminary)

02/01/2020 – IMLS – Collections Assessment for Preservation Program

02/05/2020 – Public Scholar Program
Output: Book

02/13/2020 – Summer Seminars and Institutes for Higher Education Faculty
Output: Conference/Institute/Seminar

02/13/2020 – Summer Seminars and Institutes for K-12 Faculty
Output: Conference/Institute/Seminar

03/04/2020 – University of Illinois – Campus Research Board

03/04/2020 – Institutes for Advanced Topics in Digital Humanities
Output: Conference/Institute/Seminar

04/08/2020 – NEH-Mellon Fellowships for Digital Publication
Output: Digital Material & Publications

05/15/2020 – NEH Research and Development
Output: Web Resources, Report, Computer Program

05/15/2020 – NEH Preservation and Access Education and Training
Output: Preservation Course or Curricular Materials, Conservation Graduate Program, Preservation Workshop, Fellow Positions in Conservation

05/15/2020 – NEH Infrastructure and Capacity Building Challenge Grants
Output: Buildings, Equipment, Digital Infrastructure

06/19/2020 – NEH Digital Projects for the Public
Output: Game/Simulation, Mobile App, Virtual/Augmented Reality, Website

07/15/2020 – NEH Humanities Collections and Reference Resources
Output: Digitized Collection, Web Resources, Catalogs, Databases, Encyclopedias

08/20/2020 – NEH Fellowship Programs at Independent Research Institutions                Output: Fellowships

09/16/2020 – NEH Humanities Connections Implementation Grants
Output: Linked Courses, Curriculum, Community Partnerships, Faculty Development, Teaching Resources

09/16/2020 – NEH Humanities Connections Planning Grants
Output: Curriculum, Community Partnerships, Faculty development, Teaching Resources
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: Did You Know? A Monthly Factoid from Library Assessment

 

 

 

 

 

A “Reference Question” is defined as an “information contact that involves the knowledge or use of one or more information sources by library staff” (ISO 2789). While many academic libraries have reported a decline in reference services for the last decade, these continue to be important at the University Library. During the fiscal year 2018, the library provided the most reference and consultation interactions (62,868) among all BTAA libraries and more than many other peer institutions (#14 of 116 ARL university libraries).
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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 October LTOTM at https://emails.illinois.edu/newsletter/238589.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: Departures

  • Nicole Ream Sotomayor, ACS (September 27)

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HR NEWS: Filled Positions

  • Megan Johnson – Library Specialist, Grainger (October 21)

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HR NEWS: Vacancies

  • Library Specialist – ACES
  • Library Specialist – Grainger
  • Office Support Specialist – BHRSC
  • Office Support Specialist – RBML

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HR NEWS: Title Change
As many of you are aware, Lucretia Williams has been promoted as Kim Matherly’s replacement. Her reclassification to Administrative Associate was completed earlier this month, the final step in that process. Congratulations to Lucretia!
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IT NEWS: Purchasing/Vendor Risk Assessment
As part of assessing any purchase of cloud services or software there are a number of criteria that should be evaluated for suitability to your needs and your unit’s tolerance for risk. These items include the solution’s physical location and access control, authentication and authorization, data types involved, criticality to business process, and disaster recovery/business continuity.

Technology Services Office of Privacy and Security has published a survey to assist with this evaluation (https://go.illinois.edu/vendorrisk). It is recommended to submit this survey as early in your assessment as possible to engage the campus security team. If this survey has not been submitted for a solution that is pursued for purchase, the purchasing process will require that it be completed at that time. Library IT is available to assist with these assessments, and we have a direct relationship with the Technology Services Office of Privacy and Security through our resident IT Security Liaison.

Please submit a ticket to help@library.illinois.edu if you would like us to help with a Purchasing/Vendor Risk Assessment.
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FACILITIES: Update
Tim Newman, Assistant Dean for Facilities

  1. Reading Room (Rm 200) – Please pardon our dust and the noise, as construction has started on the flooring replacement, and a temporary wall has been erected to mitigate and control dust. Work is starting on the north end of the room and by January it is expected to move to the south end. Completion of the entire room is expected by end of April.
  2. Main Library Information Desk – The 1st floor information desk is progressing on schedule, with completion by January. Framing is complete and utilities will be installed over the next month.

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: Step Into Virtual Reality
Grainger Engineering Library Idea Lab and the Residence Hall Libraries invite you to STEP INTO VIRTUAL REALITY!  Learn how VR works and play-test Oculus Go, Oculus Quest, Valve Index, and Microsoft Hololens. This workshop is open to all U of I students, staff, and faculty. The workshop will be held on Monday, Nov. 11th from 4:00 – 5:00 p.m. in the Student Dining and Residential Programs Building (aka “the Ike,” 301 E. Gregory Drive, Champaign) Room 2003. Please register at go.illinois.edu/StepIntoVR.
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EVENTS AND TRAINING: One Book One Campus Book Club Discussion
Want to discuss this year’s One Book One Campus selection, Heads of the Colored People by U of I alum Nafissa Thompson-Spires?  Residence Hall Librarian Laura Poulosky will facilitate a book club discussion open to U of I staff, faculty, students and the general public on Wednesday, Nov. 13th from 7:30 – 8:30 p.m. in the Student Dining and Residential Programs Building (aka “the Ike,” 301 E. Gregory Drive, Champaign) Room 2005.
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EVENTS AND TRAINING: NISO Webinar – Implementing Linked Library Data
November 13, 2019
12:00 – 1:30 p.m., 428 Main Library

Libraries have individually labored at the creation, conversion and re-use of data housed at their institutions and in their systems. This session will look at next steps for enlarging those efforts by linking data from multiple initiatives in an effort to broaden its value and functionality to the community. Current initiatives include prototyping efforts aimed at creating new suites of tools as well as enabling libraries to draw from newly unified taxonomies and vocabularies. Pick up on the practical tips and strategies needed to build on modules created by other information professionals!
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EVENTS AND TRAINING: Frederic Goudy & H.G. Wells: The Time Traveler’s Typeface
November 15, 2019
3:00 – 5:00 p.m., 346 Main Library

Typographic Collaboration between Goudy and Wells

Graphic designer Rex Parker will speak about Frederic Goudy’s typographic collaborations with his wife Bertha and with the English author H.G. Wells. Works designed and printed by the Goudys from the Rare Book & Manuscript Library’s collections will be on display at the event. This event is free and open to the public; all are welcome.
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If you would like to submit content for the December issue of Library Office Notes, please submit it to Heather Murphy or Tom Teper by November 22, 2019.

October Library Office Notes


ANNOUNCEMENTS

HR NEWS

FACILITIES

EVENTS AND TRAINING



ANNOUNCEMENTS: University Librarian Note
Check back next month for a new Note from Dean Wilkin.
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: Library Building Project Update – 10/1/2019
Tom Teper, Associate Dean for Collections and Technical Services

Committees and Working Groups – Programming the Main Library
In September, the Programming the Main Library Working Group concluded its series of scheduled meetings with all units projected to be part of the Main Library Building post-construction. Intended to provide an open setting in which any attendees can learn about the project, voice concerns, and provide additional input into the process, members of the working group heard impressions about the project and its vision, learned about perceived strengths and weaknesses, and generally sought to develop a better understanding of how the proposed models would influence further discussions. Next steps in this process include beginning analysis of the feedback.

During September, members of the working group reviewed and submitted comments on the preferred scenario received from JLK and brightspot.

Kirstin Johnson chairs the working group, and more information on its efforts can be found here: https://www.library.illinois.edu/staff/committee/the-library-as-catalyst-project-programming-the-main-library-building-wg/. Questions or comments can be directed to the group at any time.

Committees and Working Groups – Collection Management Working Group
Taking over from the Managing the Library’s Collections WG, the Library’s standing Collection Management Working Group met in September to begin digesting recommendations from the project WG and integrating some of the recommendations into its broader operations.

The Managing the Library’s Collections Working Group’s final recommendations are here: https://www.library.illinois.edu/staff/committee/the-library-as-catalyst-project-managing-the-librarys-collections-wg/. Ongoing communications about the Collection Management WG’s work will be forthcoming.

Committees and Working Groups – Special Collections Research Center (SCRC)
The Special Collections Research Center (SCRC) Working Group continued meeting through September, and as the month wrapped up began preparing comments for the Part 2 Conceptual Design received from JLK and brightspot on September 25, 2019. Comments on this submittal are due on October 4, 2019.

Following this comment period, JLK and brightspot will work on development of a preferred scheme due to the campus on October 25, 2019.

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/.

Committees and Working Groups – Library Consultation Working Group (Campus Level Cmte)
Members of the campus’ Library Consultation Working Group met in September to discuss the preferred scenario for the Main Library Building. Comments from this working group were sent to JLK and brightspot via our campus liaison.

As this part of the project moves toward conclusion, the LCWG plans to hold a townhall on October 10, 2019 in the Illini Union. This open forum is intended to solicit further feedback and comments from the campus community that will be included in further project development.

As the timelines for the two consulting reports on the Main Library and the Special Collections Research Center diverge, the group is planning on continuing under a slightly different membership and charge in order to ensure that members who are interested can continue participating with a more particular focus on the final parts of the Special Collections Research Center project.

Contracts and Firms – Main Library
As noted in earlier updates, the University Library is working with Chicago-based Johnson, Lasky, Kindelin (JLK) Architects and brightspot to develop the program for the Library Building Project. More information on JLK Architects, including information on other projects they have helped develop, can be found on the company’s website: http://www.jlkarch.com/. Brightspot Strategy’s website can be found here: https://www.brightspotstrategy.com/.

Following the March 14, 2019 kick-off meeting, activities moved forward at a reasonable pace with JLK and brightspot personnel on-site to lead three days of visioning activities focused on the Main Library Building. These sessions took place on May 14 – 16, 2019, and follow-up calls/discussions have been held with members of project leadership and the firms on May 22nd and 24th. These Main Library Building-centered activities are occurring as part of the Validation, Programming, and Space Planning Activities in the schedule below. The Library received 50% documents from JLK and brightspot in early June and responded with comments ten days later. We received 75% documents in early July and responded with comments in the middle of the month. On July 26th, the firms submitted three different sets of drawings outlining options for conceptual plans. The drawings were all posted in 220 from Tuesday, July 30th through Friday, August 2nd. Comments on these three versions were all recorded and conveyed to JLK and brightspot along with comments from the Programming WG in order in order to be taken into consideration as they developed a Final Preferred Scheme that was delivered on September 6th, 2019. A final call involving the consultants and campus leadership is scheduled for October 3, 2019. When this is concluded, the consultants will finalize their document with the Final Preferred Scheme.

Contracts and Firms – Special Collections Research Center
As noted in previous updates, the Library established a contract with JLK and brightspot for the Special Collections Research Center that would parallel the Main Library process. That contract was established in early June and a kick-off meeting was held with JLK and brightspot representatives on June 19, 2019. Following this kick-off meeting, a series of calls were held with members of the Special Collections Division and members of the Library’s administration. The input received helped shape a Part 1 Draft Report Submitted that was received on August 9, 2019. Comments from members of the working group, the Special Collections Division, and the Library Consultation Working Group were compiled and submitted to the firms in late August. Members of the Special Collections Research Center WG attended a meeting with the firms on August 30th intended to review the comments and clarify anything that was uncertain. By September 25, 2019, the consultants submitted a conceptual design with two scenarios. Comments are in the process of being gathered and will be submitted to the consultants in anticipation for a call prior to the consultants beginning work on developing a Final Preferred Scenario.

Communications

  • Monthly Updates – 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 Library’s Quarterly Update was held on September 9th, 2019 from 4:00 – 5:00 p.m. in 66 Main Library. Dean Wilkin discussed budget and other topics relevant to the Library at large, and Tom Teper discussed the building project. The next Quarterly Update will be scheduled, and we anticipate that the live stream provided by the Media Commons will be available at this location: https://go.library.illinois.edu/livestream.
  • 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 Schedules
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 and is serving on the feasibility study being conducted related to the instructional facility that may be situated adjacent to the Main Library as well as initial work related to the Special Collections Building.

As noted earlier, the University Library recently received approval to work with JLK Architects and brightspot Strategies. Based on the kick-off date of March 14, 2019, the schedule below represents the most current estimated project timeline for this phase, and it has shifted from last month’s update.

Library Redevelopment Plan Programming and Conceptual Design Study (U18083):

Library Redevelopment Plan Programming and Conceptual Design Study

In addition to the Main Library Building project, Dennis Craig prepared a schedule for the first phase of the Special Collections Research Center’s Programming Study. This schedule will be adjusted to accommodate changes in the project schedule; however, we anticipate seeing the completed report in late-October 2019.

Undergraduate Library – Special Collections Facility Programming Study (U19112):

Undergraduate Library – Special Collections Facility Programming

Long-Term Project Schedule
Following the completion of the initial Programming and Conceptual Design phase, the schedule below represents a best guess as to the project schedule through December 2024.

Library Redevelopment – Design/Bid/Build (U20XXX):

Library Redevelopment – Design/Bid/Build

Outreach and Engagement
Nothing pending.
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: Know Your U
Greg Knott, Assistant Dean of Library for Business Operations

President Killeen recently notified all University employees of a new program titled “Know Your U”. The intent of this program is to provide eligible staff with ways to discover and experience, during the normal workday, the initiatives, research, academic programs, history and infrastructure of the University. Details for this program can be found on the Know Your U website at: https://humanresources.illinois.edu/know-your-u/.

Full program details can be found on the website including FAQ’s for employees and supervisors. Additionally, an approved activities calendar lists numerous campus activities available to use within this program.

Employees who wish to utilize this program should work with their supervisor to gain prior approval before attending an event. Approval may be subject to the operational needs of the unit. The employee and the supervisor will be required to track attendance.
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: New IOPN Publication
The Illinois Open Publishing Network has published a new book, the second under its Windsor & Downs imprint. Edited by Dean Kevin Hamilton of Fine and Applied Arts, Illinois 150: The 21st Century Research University and the Public Good commemorates the Illinois 150 conference, a celebration of interdisciplinary research at Illinois on the occasion of the university’s 150th anniversary. Across six disparate themes, leading scholars from at home and abroad reflected on what research is most needed today to sustain our world. For this publication, a few outstanding students contributed reflective reports on the conference’s six parallel symposia. Also included are abstracts and other visual documentation of the event.
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: Graduate Student Exhibition Contest
The Library Exhibitions Committee is sponsoring a contest open to all graduate students who work in any of the university libraries. The contest opens October 21, 2019; proposals are due November 11 by 5:00 p.m. The winner will be notified by December 4, 2019. To enter the contest, please submit a proposal for an exhibit that promotes a library resource or highlights a special subject or collection within the library. One winner will be selected by the Exhibitions Committee to build and display an exhibit in the Marshall Gallery* of the Main Library in April 2020. The winner will receive a prize of $200 and will have an allowance of $100 for printing costs. The student is expected to follow preservation concepts. For a complete list of contest regulations, visit https://www.library.illinois.edu/staff/committee/exhibitions-committee/. Scroll down to Graduate Student Exhibition Contest. For more information, contact the exhibitions committee excom@library.illinois.edu.

*The Marshall Gallery is located in the first floor foyer by the east entrance of the main library.
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: Ongoing Illinois Participation in the Google Book Search Project
Mary Laskowski, Head, Collection Management Services

It’s been a long time since we started up our work with Google and the Big Ten Academic Alliance (then CIC) as a partner in the Google Book Search Project (https://www.btaa.org/library/book-search/introduction). As we have many projects going, and many new faces in the Library, I thought this would be a good opportunity to remind everyone of the work we’re doing in this area.

  • We began in 2009/2010 with a project to digitize federal government documents using Google’s sheet-fed scanning process (freeing up physical space in the process as these items didn’t return to the shelves) to obtain high-quality scans for these public domain materials. When opportunities to digitize more federal documents present themselves, we continue this work.
  • Since that time we have sent monthly shipments of volumes to be scanned non-destructively (returning to our shelves). Originally most of the material to be scanned came out of the main stacks, then from the Oak Street Library, and currently a combination of both. In earlier years we also worked with a number of departmental libraries, particularly Funk ACES, to send items for scanning from the collections.
  • Our monthly shipments in recent years have focused largely on material published pre-1923 so that the content is in the public domain, and therefore fully accessible online.

The University Library deposits our Google-scanned content into the HathiTrust Digital Library (https://www.hathitrust.org/digital_library). Material which is not able to be scanned by Google is often scanned locally through the Internet Archive scan center located in the Main Library, and those scans are also deposited in the HathiTrust Digital Library.

We also worked with the State Library on a project to digitize State of Illinois publications.

Curious as to what scanned content gets used?

The Illinois items with the highest usage in HathiTrust are:

United States. Bureau of the Census. (1975). Historical statistics of the United States, colonial times to 1970. Bicentennial ed. Washington: U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Bureau of the Census. (https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uiug.30112104053548)

United States. Army Service Forces. Special Service Division., United States. Navy Department., United States. War Department. (1943). A short guide to New Zealand. Washington, D.C.: War and Navy Departments. (https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uiug.30112101024682)

(Thank you to Angelina Zaytsev at HathiTrust)
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: ILS Coordination Team Report
Michael Norman, Discovery Services Librarian and ILS Coordinator

Where are we at with the Implementation of Alma and Primo VE?
To see a Progress Report of the ILS Coordination Team activity since March 2019, see this document in Box: https://uofi.box.com/s/m19dqmfczn6lqgakefly9cgcfz9xqopl.

On September 18th, we submitted the Library configuration form for the 2nd Test Phase of the setup of Alma/Primo VE. This submission also included the Migration Form data, the Primo VE workbook, and the updated configuration form data for the setup of the Fulfillment/Circulation options. We were able to reduce the number of libraries down to 32 individual locations (from a total of 92 in the Vanguard Test Phase) and lower the total number sub-locations to 382 (down from 815 in the first test phase) in this setup in Alma/Primo VE. This will make the migration of the Voyager data easier to map over to Alma and also makes it more manageable to configure both systems and cleanup the defunct locations from Voyager. We did create a locations archive for legacy data to ensure migration of that information too.

The CARLI Office and Ex Libris Implementation Project team will work with all this data to produce the next Alma/Primo VE Test Instances for our Library and also for the other 90 libraries in the I-Share consortium. The target date for the Library to get this 2nd Test Instance is mid–October 2019 (around October 15th). We have been told that the five Vanguard libraries may get our test instances earlier than the rest since they have already loaded and mapped our data previously.

Soon after we get the 2nd Test Instance of Alma and Primo VE and we add back in the changes and configurations we made to Primo VE during our testing phase, we will share the Test Instance of Primo VE with the Library to begin initial examination of the system and demonstrate how we will integrate it into Easy Search Bento and the Library’s various search environments. Starting in November 2019, we will start to have multiple information sessions going forward about Primo VE, particularly concentrating on the different ways Alma and Primo VE handle and access electronic resources (as it is very different from the way Voyager and VuFind promotes e-journals, databases, and e-books). Watch for an announcement about those Primo VE information sessions to occur starting in November and stretching into the Spring 2020.

Pulling from the progress report mentioned above, here is a more detailed schedule for training of both Alma and Primo VE:

Around October 15th, the Library should receive the next Test Instance of both Alma and Primo VE.

After October 15, 2019, we will introduce Alma and Primo VE to the Library. We will identify early adopters (possibly from each of departmental libraries and functional units) to work with Alma after we get access to the next instance of the system.

In late October 2019, we will make available the Library’s Primo VE Discovery instance and let everyone start to get familiar with the different structure, displays, views, search scopes, integration with the I-Share Consortium holdings and the My Account features.

In late October, after we get access to the new Alma instance, the functional units, including Acquisitions, Cataloging, Preservation/Conservation, Digitization, Oak Street, InterLibrary Loan, and Resource Sharing will begin introducing and training all workers on Alma.

Also, starting in late October 2019, we will have many information sessions on accessing and using the Library’s Electronic Resources Collection going forward into the Go-Live and Final Implementation period of June 2020. We need to show the major differences of how electronic resources are represented and utilized in Alma and Primo VE. This is so extensively different than what we are used to currently in Voyager, VuFind, Easy Search, and SFX Link Resolver. We will enlist a group from Public Services people (Kelli Trei, Piper Martin, Sara Holder, Bill Mischo, and Wendy Shelburne) to help educate all in these areas.

After the beginning of the year in 2020, we will have weekly/biweekly information sessions about the public facing services including fulfillment, circulation, requesting, reading room scheduling functions, course reserves, user management of new patrons, permissions and clearances to use the various components of Alma, authentication, resource sharing of materials in I-Share, interactions with OCLC WorldCat and InterLibrary Loan, and the interoperability of Alma and Primo VE (what can be done where). We will create a roving team that works with each individual library to visit and work through all possible scenarios that might be encountered at individual circulation desks when working with the patrons.

Vanguard Test Instance of Primo VE Inactive for the next few weeks
As of the third week in September, our Primo VE has been inactivated until they reload all of our Voyager and SFX data again (to occur sometime over the next 2-3 weeks). This means a lot of our testing has been suspended for a little while. We do still have access to a generic version of Primo VE (limited view of about 65,000 records). This data is “not” UIUC Library data but pulled randomly from various source records. If you want to see this SandBox version, go to this site at: https://sandbox02-na.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/search?vid=01CARLI_UIU:01CARLI_UIU&lang=en.

The eventual UIUC Library version of Primo VE will be very different from this CARLI Sandbox instance above but you can start to see the structure of Primo VE (default settings out of the box) and the various search results pages when you click through the results.

Until we get access to the second Test Instance of Primo VE, if you want to see fully operational versions of Primo VE in action, I’d recommend going to these two libraries who have already implemented Primo VE:

Colorado School of Mines

Carnegie Mellon University

Primo VE results in Easy Search Bento:
We did have a WebEx information session with Josh Weisman and the Ex Libris API team on September 18th to discuss some of the performance issues we have been having with the Primo Search API and the inability to pull in bibliographic data and electronic resource holdings information into Easy Search Bento through these API calls against Primo VE. When the Library goes live with Primo VE in June 2020, we will lose access to the VuFind catalog at that time as well. We will need to replace the online catalog data we currently receive from VuFind with data from Primo VE to successfully replicate the service we provide currently to users. From information in our discussion with Josh Weisman, there may be multiple options to pull this bibliographic and e-holding availability from either Primo VE or Alma directly or maybe a combination of API calls against both systems to gain the relevant information to populate Easy Search Bento going forward.

Unfortunately, we will not be able to immediately test some of the suggested options revealed during the call as we will not have access to an active Alma/Primo VE for another 2-3 weeks. Hopefully when we do regain access and can start to re-test some of these API calls, we can have better results pulling this needed information from Primo VE into the Easy Search results.

To see an example of the XML data that is pulled back from these API calls against Primo VE (search on Journal of Academic Librarianship), see this document in Box: https://uofi.box.com/s/6f4y3mywr5z73z7f7g8xjnd6uihsdu1b.

And, also a SRU call (search term: ethics) against Alma as well: https://uofi.box.com/s/ftc86js6xof7qv6oqr0hcyh91couap3z.

Training Opportunity at the Great Lakes Ex Libris User Group Conference on October 17th and 18th in Chicago
Thanks to Tom Teper and the AULs, funding has been granted to a group (Stephanie Baker, Willy Kries, Megean Osuchowski, John Laskowski, Zoe Revell, Janelle Sander, Paul Goguen, and Michael Norman) to attend the Great Lakes Ex Libris User Group Conference in October. These sessions will be held jointly on the Northwestern University and Loyola University campuses. There are some really good information sessions regarding both the Alma and Primo VE systems and we should learn some helpful training for our configurations of both systems. For more information on the conference see: https://elglug.wordpress.com/glug-2019-conference-schedule/?frame-nonce=2aef37f9c2.
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: Grant Announcements for External Fundraisers
As always, if you are interested in all grant opportunities across disciplines, feel free to subscribe to the OVCR’s list at https://groups.webservices.illinois.edu/subscribe/19149.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Heidi Imker or Kathie Veach.

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

10/16/2019 – University of Illinois – Campus Research Board

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

01/15/2020 – University of Illinois – Campus Research Board

01/15/2020 – Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections
Output: Preservation Supplies/Equipment, Reports on Preventive Conservation

01/15/2020 – National Digital Newspaper Program
Output: Web Resources, Digitized Newspapers

01/16/2020 – NHPRC – Access to Historical Records: Major Initiatives (Preliminary)

02/01/2020 – IMLS – Collections Assessment for Preservation Program

02/05/2020 – Public Scholar Program
Output: Book

02/13/2020 – Summer Seminars and Institutes for Higher Education Faculty
Output: Conference/Institute/Seminar

02/13/2020 – Summer Seminars and Institutes for K-12 Faculty
Output: Conference/Institute/Seminar

03/04/2020 – University of Illinois – Campus Research Board

03/04/2020 – Institutes for Advanced Topics in Digital Humanities
Output: Conference/Institute/Seminar

04/08/2020 – NEH-Mellon Fellowships for Digital Publication
Output: Digital Material & Publications

05/15/2020 – NEH Research and Development
Output: Web Resources, Report, Computer Program

05/15/2010 – NEH Preservation and Access Education and Training
Output: Preservation Course or Curricular Materials, Conservation Graduate Program, Preservation Workshop, Fellow Positions in Conservation

05/15/2020 – NEH Infrastructure and Capacity Building Challenge Grants
Output: Buildings, Equipment, Digital Infrastructure

06/19/2020 – NEH Digital Projects for the Public
Output: Game/Simulation, Mobile App, Virtual/Augmented Reality, Website

07/15/2020 – NEH Humanities Collections and Reference Resources
Output: Digitized Collection, Web Resources, Catalogs, Databases, Encyclopedias
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: Did You Know? A Monthly Factoid from Library Assessment

Graphic Representing the Results of the Faculty Survey

How do Illinois faculty value the University Library and the librarians and staff? The 2019 faculty survey found that 63% of the faculty participated in the survey felt that the librarians and the library contribute to student success. The faculty also highly valued that the library “Pays for the resources they need” (94%), “Supports graduate research” (82%) and “Supports undergraduate education” (79%).

For more information about the survey, please visit https://www.library.illinois.edu/staff/assessment/libsurv/ithaka-sr-faculty-survey-2019-faq/.
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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 September LTOTM at https://emails.illinois.edu/newsletter/233395.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: Departures

  • Howard Ding, Scholarly Commons (August 16)
  • Eva Miller, RBML (September 6)
  • Jamie Carlstone, Acquisitions & Cataloging Services (September 20)

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HR NEWS: Filled Positions

  • Kara Hagen – Library Operations Associate, Conservation (September 9)
  • Elisabeth Paulus – Library Specialist, Ricker Library (September 16)
  • Emilee Matthews – Head, Ricker Library (November 16)
  • Bethany Anderson – Natural and Applied Sciences Archivist (November 16)
  • Monica Carroll – Engineering and Physical Sciences Liaison and Innovation Librarian (January 16)

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HR NEWS: Vacancies

  • Library Specialist – Grainger, interviewing

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HR NEWS: In Memoriam

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FACILITIES: Update
Tim Newman, Assistant Dean for Facilities

As a new semester has started, the Facilities Team wanted to remind everyone of a few general procedures and policies:

1. For any facility related request(s) such as, furniture needs, key request, event setup, general maintenance, and remodel, or when not sure, please submit a request through OTRS. This way all of facilities can track the request and ensure that we are providing the best customer service for you. The link can be found through the staff website on the main library page or clicking here: https://otrs-prod.library.illinois.edu/otrs/customer.pl.

2. For shipping/delivery, please bring any shipments to Shipping/Receiving the day prior. We make daily deliveries starting at 8:00 a.m., as well as, multiple deliveries throughout the day. We try to accommodate rush orders, but request at least a day’s notice. Additionally, for any packages being shipped FedEX or UPS, please have them by noon at the shipping/receiving desk at the Main Library.

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: EDUCAUSE online course on learning analytics
Please join us for an EDUCAUSE online course on learning analytics (3 sessions). We will be viewing all sessions in Main Library Room 308.

Session 1: Laying a Strong Foundation for Learning Analytics
Wednesday, September 25, 2019, 12:00  – 1:30 p.m.

Session 2: Policy, Procedures, and Ethics for Learning Analytics
Wednesday, October 2, 2019, 12:00  – 1:30 p.m.

Session 3: Infrastructure and Tools to Support Learning Analytics
Wednesday, October 9, 2019, 12:00  – 1:30 p.m.

More information about this online course can be found here – https://events.educause.edu/courses/2019/learning-analytics-building-a-solid-foundation-for-success/agenda.

Host: Jen-Chien Yu
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EVENTS AND TRAINING: Webinar – October Copyright: A Creative and Poetic Approach to Creative Commons Copyright License Education
October 3, 2019
1:00 – 2:00 p.m., 308 Main Library

This webinar will present an innovative and interactive library instructional workshop offered at the University of Denver University Library designed to educate and empower graduate students, faculty, and staff on using and understanding Creative Commons (CC) copyright licenses. The presenters will discuss the purpose and scope of the library instructional workshop which covered licensing, remixing, and hosting. Webinar participants will experience the collaborative activities of the library instruction workshop including creating an openly licensed poem and webinar participants will leave with materials and ideas to engage patrons and students in the CC conversation.

Jenelys Cox is an Institutional Repository Manager for the University of Denver University Libraries. She collects, archives, and showcases faculty and student scholarship. Her work includes supporting the research lifecycle, consulting on copyright and licensing, facilitating the publishing process for open access faculty and student journals, and maintaining data on university publications. Her areas of interest include scholarly communications, open access, open education resources, metadata & resource description, equity in access to information, and usability.

Nicolas Pares works in instructional design and faculty development at the University of Denver. Nicolas is also an Adjunct Faculty member in the Colorado Community College System where he teaches applied linguistics and other language teaching courses. Nicolas is an Open Education Ambassador to Colorado through OTN and he is pursuing an MLIS.

CopyTalk webinars are brought to you by ALA, specifically the Copyright, Legislation, Advocacy, and Education (CLEAN) committee. We are a fun group.

Host: Sara Benson
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EVENTS AND TRAINING: Radical Illini: Conversations on Student Activism
October 4 – 5, 2019

Flyer for Radical Illini Event

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EVENTS AND TRAINING: NISO Webinar – Value – Add to Cataloging Efficiency and Effectiveness Revisited
October 9, 2019
12:00  – 1:30 p.m., 428 Main Library

Cataloging of materials is not the workflow that it was fifty years ago. The skill sets and tasks associated with application of metadata in the 21st century demand new techniques and tools. What might this entail? Ought there to be different elements included in the metadata? Should there be more application of automated processes? What opportunities for value-add are there for service and content providers? How might these changes improve the success of the user experience? This session will explore the possibilities of revisiting cataloging activities with an eye to enhanced efficiency and effectiveness. A cross-section of views from multiple stakeholders will form the substance of this event.
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EVENTS AND TRAINING: Library CCFD Open House
October 15, 2019
10:00 a.m., 106 Main Library

Go DoNUTS for Charity-That’s right we’re bringing back the coffee and donuts charity open house featuring some returning favorites and also some new faces. Come learn about some great local organizations you can support while enjoying free coffee and donuts. Tuesday, October 15th at 10 a.m. in Library 106.

CCFD is a really important opportunity to give back to our community and spread some good in the world. I hope we can get broad participation across library units this year. So please join me in considering a gift to any of the more than 700 designated charities to whom you can contribute. It’s easy to give via payroll deduction. Together, we can make an incredible impact.

Consider the impact a donation makes and how far your dollars go:

  • $2 per pay period can plant 50 trees to help reduce carbon dioxide in our atmosphere.
  • $10 per pay period provides gold, silver and bronze medals to Special Olympics athletes.
  • Your $100 donation will fund research toward a cure for cancer.

Charities appreciate the Illinois CCFD because it saves them time and money so more dollars go to services. There’s something for everybody in the CCFD, and it’s one of the best ways to give to the nonprofits you care about. Visit the CCFD website to find a cause you’re passionate about and give today! Your giving makes a difference.
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EVENTS AND TRAINING: Collaborative Collection Development – A Conversation with Vendors and Program Representatives 
October 16, 2019
11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m., 308 Main Library (or online)

Open to all LIS graduate students and colleagues interested in this subject matter.

Register at https://forms.gle/jyzhGfVu6qF6u9Er5.

Panelists:

  • Barbara Albee – Account Services Manager for IA, IL, OR, WA, WI (EBSCO Information Services)
  • Amy Lana – Sales Profile Coordinator & Senior Collection Development Manager (GOBI Library Solutions from EBSCO)
  • Bill Sherfey – Regional Sales Manager (Harrassowitz)
  • Edward Miner – Field Director (Library of Congress Office, Nairobi, Kenya)

The panelists have been asked to address the following questions:

1. How do you work with librarians and academic libraries (emphasis on the process of working with subscription packages, approval, and cooperative collection development plans)?

2. What types of technical support do you provide for selectors, acquisitions and cataloging departments?

3. What trends are you seeing in your respective areas (emphasis on publishing trends)?

4. What tips and suggestions do you have for LIS students (future selectors) and library staff?

Hosts: Joe Lenkart and George Gottschalk
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EVENTS AND TRAINING: 2019 All Employee Expo
October 17, 2019
10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m., Illini Union Rooms A, B, & C

The All Employee Expo will be held October 17, 2019 at the Illini Union Rooms A, B & C from 10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. Representatives from campus, community, and affiliated organizations will provide information about benefits, services, programs and other related topics. There is no charge for admission.

This is an approved event for Civil Service employees. Civil Service employees may take up to one hour to attend the Expo, operations permitting and with prior supervisory approval.

This event is hosted by the Staff Advisory Council, Council of Academic Professionals, and Illinois Human Resources.
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EVENTS AND TRAINING: Open Access Week 
The Scholarly Communication & Publishing Unit will be celebrating Open Access Week during October 21 – 25. Specifically, there will be two Savvy Researchers that week and an ACRL Webinar.

  • Savvy Researchers on Open Access Resources, with the opportunity for faculty to earn $200 for providing a review of an Open Textbook Network (OER) will take place on Monday, October 21 at 12:00 p.m. in Room 314 & Wednesday, October 23 at 2:00 p.m. in room 314.
  • Sara Benson will be presenting an ACRL Webinar celebrating Open Access Week titled: Open for Students and Educators: Open Educational Resources Level the Playing on Tuesday, October 22 from 1:00 – 2:00 p.m.

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EVENTS AND TRAINING: Of Jealousy, Women Warriors, & Spin-Offs: Secondo Tarentino’s Bradamante gelosa
October 24, 2019
3:00 – 5:00 p.m., 346 Main Library

Ima

Join us, October 24, from 3:00 – 5:00 p.m., for a special lecture by Eleonora Stoppino, Professor of Italian and Medieval Studies, on Della Bradamante gelosa by Secondo Tarentino. The Rare Book & Manuscript Library recently acquired an extremely rare first edition of this epic poem, of which only two other copies have been identified worldwide. The poem, composed in ottava rima, narrates the romantic adventures of the fictional Christian knight heroine Bradamante, who is the cousin of Orlando in the famous Orlando Furioso. The book, featuring five half-page woodcut illustrations, will be on display. This event is free and open to the public; all are welcome.
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If you would like to submit content for the November issue of Library Office Notes, please submit it to Heather Murphy or Tom Teper by October 18, 2019.

September Library Office Notes


ANNOUNCEMENTS

HR NEWS

IT NEWS

FACILITIES

EVENTS AND TRAINING



ANNOUNCEMENTS: University Librarian Note
We now come to an important juncture in our 2019–2023 strategic planning process. Many of you will recall that we kicked off our effort last December: the campus plan was imminent, and we launched our process with a focus on contributions from our divisions. The first phase of our planning process was capably led by co-chairs Clara Chu and Merinda Hensley, with major contributions by Jen-Chien Yu, and I would like to thank them again for their outstanding work. Clara, Merinda and Jen, along with members of the Library Strategic Planning Team (LSPT), produced a strong document that shaped our spring retreat. The outcomes of the retreat helped members of the Library’s Executive Committee and the AULs to refine and complete the strategic planning document. I am pleased to share that final document with you today. We must use that document to shape our work and the ways that we communicate to our constituencies. Read more…
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: Library Update
John Wilkin, University Librarian and Dean of Libraries

We are long overdue for a Library Update and it occurred to me that our upcoming Library Building Project Update would be a good opportunity to combine two important events.

Please join me for a general Library Update on September 9 at 4 p.m. in 66 Main Library. I’ll kick off the hour with a brief update on the budget as well as planning and hiring. After answering any questions you might have, I’ll turn things over to Tom who will share the latest information about the building project.

Should you not be able to be there in person, the Library Update will be livestreamed (and recorded for future viewing) thanks to the Media Commons:
https://go.library.illinois.edu/livestream.
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: Library Building Project Update – 9/1/2019
Tom Teper, Associate Dean for Collections and Technical Services

Committees and Working Groups – Programming the Main Library
In August, the Programming the Main Library Working Group kicked off a series of scheduled meetings with all units projected to be part of the Main Library Building post-construction. Intended to provide an open setting in which any attendees can learn about the project, voice concerns, and provide additional input into the process, members of the working group heard impressions about the project and its vision, learned about perceived strengths and weaknesses, and generally sought to develop a better understanding of how the proposed models would influence further discussions.

Earlier in the month, members of the working group reviewed and submitted comments on the three scenarios received from JLK and brightspot. Presently, the working group’s membership is continuing to meet with units and is preparing to engage in further conversations around the preferred scenario to be received in early September.

Kirstin Johnson chairs the working group, and more information on its efforts can be found here: https://www.library.illinois.edu/staff/committee/the-library-as-catalyst-project-programming-the-main-library-building-wg/. Questions or comments can be directed to the group at any time.

Committees and Working Groups – Collections Management Working Group
Taking over from the Managing the Library’s Collections WG, the Library’s standing Collection Management Working Group met in mid-August to begin digesting recommendations from the project WG and integrating some of the recommendations into its broader operations.

The Managing the Library’s Collections Working Group’s final recommendations are here: https://www.library.illinois.edu/staff/committee/the-library-as-catalyst-project-managing-the-librarys-collections-wg/. Ongoing communications about the Collection Management WG’s work will be forthcoming.

Committees and Working Groups – Special Collections Research Center (SCRC)
The Special Collections Research Center (SCRC) Working Group continued meeting through August, in large part to develop and submit comments on the Part 1 Draft Submittal received on August 8, 2019. As August came to a close, JLK and brightspot integrated many of the comments received into a Final Part 1 submittal that was discussed with members of the working group and project leadership on Friday, August 30th.

As this phase of the project wraps up, the working group will engage with JLK and brightspot as needed to help develop a Part 2 Draft Report that focuses on Conceptualization & Design, Programming, and Phasing. Presently, this Part 2 draft report is expected to be received by the Library on September 25th with all comments to be gathered and sent back to the consultants via F&S by October 2nd, 2019.

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/.

Committees and Working Groups – Library Consultation Working Group (Campus Level Cmte)
Members of the campus’ Library Consultation Working Group met in late August to discuss the Part 1 Draft Submittal on the Special Collections Research Center. Comments from this working group were sent to JLK and brightspot via our campus liaison.

As the timelines for the two consulting reports on the Main Library and the Special Collections Research Center diverged, the group is planning on continuing under a slightly different membership and charge in order to ensure that members who are interested can continue participating with a more particular focus on the final parts of the Special Collections Research Center project.

Stress Management Workshops
The final installments of Michele Guerra’s Stress Management Workshop were held on August 6th. The Staff Development & Training Committee sponsored this series following the overwhelmingly positive feedback received after Michele provided an overview of stress management resources at the March 13 Building Project Update. The series ended up hosting approximately eighty-six attendees from the Library.

Thanks to Jake, Zoe, and the Staff Development & Training Committee for taking the lead on this.

Contracts and Firms – Main Library
As noted in earlier updates, the University Library is working with Chicago-based Johnson, Lasky, Kindelin (JLK) Architects and brightspot to develop the program for the Library Building Project. More information on JLK Architects, including information on other projects they have helped develop, can be found on the company’s website: http://www.jlkarch.com/. brightspot strategy’s website can be found here: https://www.brightspotstrategy.com/.

Following the March 14, 2019, kick-off meeting, activities moved forward at a reasonable pace with JLK and brightspot personnel on-site to lead three days of visioning activities focused on the Main Library Building. These sessions took place on May 14 – 16, 2019, and follow-up calls/discussions have been held with members of project leadership and the firms on May 22nd and 24th. These Main Library Building-centered activities are occurring as part of the Validation, Programming, and Space Planning Activities in the schedule below. The Library received 50% documents from JLK and brightspot in early June and responded with comments ten days later. We received 75% documents in early July and responded with comments in the middle of the month. On July 26th, the firms submitted three different sets of drawings outlining options for conceptual plans. The drawings were all posted in 220 from Tuesday, July 30th through Friday, August 2nd. Comments on these three versions were all recorded and conveyed to JLK and brightspot along with comments from the Programming WG in order so that they may be incorporated into a Final Preferred Scheme expected to arrive on September 6th, 2019.

Contracts and Firms – Special Collections Research Center
As noted in previous updates, the Library established a contract with JLK and brightspot for the Special Collections Research Center that would parallel the Main Library process. That contract was established in early June and a kick-off meeting was held with JLK and brightspot representatives on June 19, 2019. Following this kick-off meeting, a series of calls were held with members of the Special Collections Division and members of the Library’s administration. The input received helped shape a Part 1 Draft Report Submitted that was received on August 9, 2019. Comments from members of the working group, the Special Collections Division, and the Library Consultation Working Group were compiled and submitted to the firms in late August. Members of the Special Collections Research Center WG attended a meeting with the firms on August 30th intended to help review the comments and clarify anything that was uncertain.

Communications

  • Monthly Updates – As you know, monthly updates about the Library Building Project are 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 Library’s Quarterly Update is scheduled for September 9th, 2019, from 4:00 – 5:00 p.m. in 66 Main Library. Dean Wilkin will discuss various issues associated with the Library, and we will have time to discuss the building project as well. We anticipate that the live stream provided by the Media Commons will be available at this location: https://go.library.illinois.edu/livestream.
  • 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.
  • ITHAKA Faculty Survey – The ITHAKA Faculty Survey is complete. For those that are interested in viewing some of the feedback received as part of that survey or others conducted as part of Library Assessment, please go here: https://www.library.illinois.edu/staff/assessment/libsurv/.

Facilities Schedules
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 and is serving on the feasibility study being conducted related to the instructional facility that may be situated adjacent to the Main Library as well as initial work related to the Special Collections Building.

As noted earlier, the University Library recently received approval to work with JLK Architects and brightspot Strategies. Based on the kick-off date of March 14, 2019, the schedule below represents the most current estimated project timeline for this phase, and it has shifted from last month’s update.

Library Redevelopment Plan Programming and Conceptual Design Study (U18083):

Library Redevelopment Plan Programming and Conceptual Design Study Chart

In addition to the Main Library Building project, Dennis Craig prepared a schedule for the first phase of the Special Collections Research Center’s Programming Study. This schedule will be adjusted to accommodate changes in the project schedule; however, we anticipate seeing the completed report in late-October 2019.

Undergraduate Library – Special Collections Facility Programming Study (U19112):

Undergraduate Library - Special Collections Facility Programming Study Chart

Long-Term Project Schedule
Following the completion of the initial Programming and Conceptual Design phase, the schedule below represents a best guess as to the project schedule through December 2024.

Library Redevelopment – Design/Bid/Build (U20XXX):

Library Redevelopment - Design/Bid/Build Chart

Outreach and Engagement
Nothing pending.
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: AP Promotions
John Wilkin, University Librarian and Dean of Libraries

I am delighted to announce the following seven Academic Professionals who were promoted, effective August 16, 2019, under the first year of the new AP Promotion Program:

  • Susan Braxton, promoted to Senior Associate
  • Jamie Carlstone, promoted to Associate
  • Quinn Ferris, promoted to Associate
  • Krista Gray, promoted to Associate
  • Eric Kurt, promoted to Senior
  • Tracy Popp, promoted to Senior Associate
  • Seth Robbins, promoted to Associate

The AP Promotion Program is designed to enhance career recognition and advancement opportunities for Academic Professionals working in the Library. I would like to thank everyone who played a role in helping this new program become a reality, especially those who served on the initial Task Force to Create Promotional Paths for Academic Professionals, the AP Promotion Implementation Team (APPIT), and the current AP Promotion Peer Review Advisory Committee, as well as members of the Library Committee of Academic Professionals (L-CAP) and the Business & Human Resources Service Center (BHRSC).

Please join me in congratulating Susan, Jamie, Quinn, Krista, Eric, Tracy and Seth!
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: Copyright Chat Channel Videos
Sarah Benson, Copyright Librarian

I am creating a series of videos branded the Copyright Chat Channel. The first three are:

  1. The Campus Open Access Policy, available at go.illinois.edu/OpenAccessPolicyVideo. This video can be shared with new and more senior faculty to alert them to the campus OA Policy.
  1. 4 Copyright Tips for Grad Students, available at go.illinois.edu/CopyrightforGradsVideo. This video is aimed at graduate students who are writing a dissertation or thesis.
  1. Fair Use, available at go.illinois.edu/FairUseVideo. This video could be useful to anyone wishing to learn more about fair use in an academic context.

Please share these videos!
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: INHS Bulletin on IOPN
The Illinois Natural History Survey Bulletin published its first new article on the Illinois Open Publishing Network (IOPN) on August 19, 2019. The Bulletin has been published continuously since the late 1800s, including work of Illinois Natural History Survey (INHS) authors and others on topics ranging from amphibians to Zygoptera. It was well established, widely held, and indexed in Biological Abstracts, but the cost of print publication had become prohibitive. In April 2017, the Scholarly Communication and Publishing Team and Prairie Research Institute (PRI) Librarian presented at PRI on open access publishing and the IOPN. Although uptake wasn’t immediate, continued publication of the Bulletin became a priority for INHS under Director Eric Schauber in 2019, and the PRI Communications Coordinator referred the INHS Publications Committee to the University Library. The IOPN offered a low-input, low-barrier option for continued publication of the Bulletin, supporting online submission and management of peer review as well as dissemination. This is a significant step for INHS and for IOPN as the Bulletin is the first STEM title to join them. The first article to be published via IOPN is a showcase for University Library services, as there is a related dataset published via the Illinois Data Bank. Additional articles are under review or in press.

Nowak, Jennifer, Andrew Sweet, Jason Weckstein, and Kevin Johnson. “A Molecular Phylogenetic Analysis of the Genera of Fruit Doves and Allies Using Dense Taxonomic Sampling.” Illinois Natural History Survey Bulletin 42 (August 15, 2019): 2019001.
Relevant sequence alignment and phylogenetic tree files are available from the Illinois Data Bank (DOI: 10.13012/B2IDB-9797270_V1).
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: Non-Acquisition Purchases
Kathie Veach, Manager for Research Administration

Since we are starting our new academic year, and we are likely to have many new employees, I thought it might be a good time to remind everyone of the policies and procedures for non-acquisition purchases.

It is illegal for the University to do business with vendors for goods and/or services without a means of payment in place. What this means is, that a form of payment either from the Library Business Office or from Acquisitions must be secured PRIOR to the delivery of the goods and/or services. If an invoice comes in after the goods or services are delivered without a means of payment in place it is illegal for the University to pay the invoice. Subsequently the invoice MAY NOT BE PAID.

Paying the invoice and then submitting for reimbursement is not a viable work around. The University scrutinizes reimbursement requests for this type of activity. Reimbursement requests of this nature will be returned by the University without payment.

Only Purchasing and Sponsored Programs Administration (SPA) may legally obligate or provide authorization on behalf of the University 
(i.e. only these offices may sign paperwork, contracts, or agreements for the University).

Assistance for securing payment for non-acquisition items may be obtained from the Library Business Office by contacting Candy Woodrum, Carole Kopp, Kathie Veach, or Susan Edwards.
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: REDCap Help at Scholarly Commons
The Illinois Health Science Institute (IHSI) will have office hours this semester in the Scholarly Commons to help researchers interested in using REDCap, a tool for securely creating and managing research surveys and databases. Details about consultation hours and about REDCap are here: https://www.library.illinois.edu/sc/redcap/.
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: Savvy Researcher
The fall sessions of the Savvy Researcher workshop series will start at the beginning of September. You can view the entire schedule on the Savvy Researcher calendar, which should be complete by September 1. A quick reminder that all of our workshops are requestable: http://go.library.illinois.edu/workshoprequest.

As always, library staff are encouraged to attend workshops as professional development.

Please make sure to forward information about the Savvy Researcher to any campus partner/department/college/school/unit that you think would be interested. We also have a poster outside Room 314 with the titles and descriptions of the workshops as well as ½ page flyers with the names of the workshops. Stop by the Scholarly Commons anytime after September 1 to pick some up for your learners.

If you have questions or comments, please contact Merinda Hensley at mhensle1@illinois.edu.
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: ILS Coordination Team Report
Michael Norman, Discovery Services Librarian and ILS Coordinator

Alma/Primo VE Information Sessions
The ILS Coordination Team held three information sessions in July and August on the implementation schedule of Alma and Primo VE and highlighting screenshots of the various areas in the Alma and Primo VE systems including Acquisitions, Cataloging, Fulfillment, and Discovery. The sessions were well attended with about 100 participants over the three events. Also, over the months of June to August, representatives from the ILS Coordination Team attended Division Team meetings to update about the progress of the implementation, showcase the Team’s exploration and testing of the two new systems, explain some of the ongoing problems and issues with the implementation, and highlight the ongoing schedule for the next 10-11 months of the implementation period. We got good questions and feedback from all the sessions and look forward to working with some of the suggestions made over the past three months.

You can view the PowerPoint presentation at: https://uofi.box.com/s/qidbg400ndcmkquozq1mmapaf2f60z20.

Starting in mid-September, there will be additional information sessions, particularly about the way electronic resources are represented both in Alma (Backend) and Primo VE (Discovery layer). Watch for those announcements.

Ongoing Timeline for Implementation of Alma and Primo VE
We are currently finishing the migration forms and starting the configuration forms for the 2nd Test Phase of the implementation. Being part of the Vanguard Test Phase of five initial libraries helped the Team see where new decisions needed to be made in building up the structure in Alma and the display of Library holdings in Primo. For this phase, we are able to reduce the number of physical library locations from 92 down to 31 separate libraries and archive over 400 outdated sub-locations of libraries that have merged or closed over the past 17 years. We have been doing cleanup of patron circulation categories and decreasing the circulation matrices down to a more manageable number (it was highlighted on a recent CARLI conference call that the University Library had over 73,000 unique circulation policies in place in Voyager). We should be able to get this number down to 25-30 circulation policies in Alma.

On September 18th, we will submit the University Library’s configuration form to help set up the Alma structure regarding Acquisitions, Catalog, Electronic Resource Management, Fulfillment/Circulation, and Discovery. See the partial screenshot below of example data for the Alma Libraries form we had to provide to CARLI and Ex Libris:

By the end of September, CARLI and Ex Libris will extract the Library’s data from Voyager and SFX for the second time and map that over to Alma. Around October 15th, we will receive a new test instance of both Alma and Primo VE populated with this second extraction of data. After setting up clearances and permissions in Alma by the end of October, the ILS Coordination Team will make the test instances of Alma and Primo VE available to early adopters (several representatives from each library and unit) and start offering training on using the systems in early 2020.

We will make sure all in the Library are ready to utilize both Alma and Primo VE by the Go-Live date of June 24th, 2020, offering weekly training sessions on Fulfillment/Circulation, Course Reserves, Resource Management, Maintenance of Holdings, and Discovery in both Easy Search and the Primo VE standalone online catalog.

Alma and Primo VE Certification
So far, we have had nine individuals successfully gain certification in Alma including Megean Osuchowski, MJ Han, Janelle Sander, Kristen Blankenship, George Gottschalk, Alisha Taylor, Stephanie Baker, Wendy Shelburne, and Michael Norman. We have two who have also gained certification in Primo VE as well. Both of these systems are very customizable and the certification allows this Team to configure and structure the systems how we would like to meet the Library’s needs in this management of work across these areas. This group will constitute the Systems Admin Team for Alma and Primo VE. Congratulations to all who completed the training program (almost 30-40 hours of video watching and testing). We look forward to putting in all this knowledge during the 2nd Test Phase of the Implementation. Congratulations to all who achieved this certification.

Discovery and Integration with Easy Search

We are working to incorporate Primo VE results into Easy Search Bento. We want the Primo results to showcase the online catalog holdings related to the search words input by users. Currently we are pulling the online catalog results from the VuFind catalog (utilizing the returned XML data to populate the Easy Search results seen above in the screenshot). For Primo VE we will need to utilize the available Primo Search API or possibly the Alma Bibs API or Alma Electronic Resources API (to pull back e-access availability for electronic resources, mostly e-serials titles). We are encountering performance issues with all of the Ex Libris APIs currently with most initial calls against Alma and Primo timing out and not returning the XML metadata associated with each resource or record. We do hope these performance issues will be addressed by Ex Libris and improve the response times for these API calls during the second Test Phase in the Fall. We have reached out for some additional help from colleagues at the University of Wisconsin at Madison to better understand the use of API calls against Alma and Primo for their Blacklight instance. We have just learned that Ex Libris will be offering a webinar to us from their API Development Team in early September and this will hopefully benefit us to learn more about incorporating the various APIs into our developing workflows in both Alma and Primo VE.

We did have some good news last week regarding the ability to pull in metadata records from our IDEALS Institutional Repository into Primo VE. We are able to map over the Dublin Core records into Primo’s structured XML setup. We can use OAI-PMH to harvest in all records currently in the IDEALS system and make weekly updates from these external sources. We did encounter an issue with the mapping of resource type (labelling IDEALS holdings as “Other” rather than its true format of dissertation, conference dataset, presentation, article, etc.) from IDEALS to Primo but we should be able to correct these errors with the next refresh of data harvested from IDEALS.

We will start to experiment with uploading some of the Library’s other local digital collections in the second test phase of the implementation including the Digital Library and possibly the Illinois Data Bank. Primo VE does have the capability of harvesting various schemas including Dublin Core, XML, and, starting in October, MODS metadata. Below is a sample search that shows many of the IDEALS records appearing in the results list in Primo VE:

For continuous updates regarding the Alma/Primo VE implementation, see the new ILS Coordination website at: https://www.library.illinois.edu/geninfo/discoveryservices/ils-coordination-team/.
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: Grant Announcements for External Fundraisers
As always, if you are interested in all grant opportunities across disciplines, feel free to subscribe to the OVCR’s list at https://groups.webservices.illinois.edu/subscribe/19149.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Heidi Imker or Kathie Veach.

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

09/27/2019 – IMLS – National Leadership Grants for Libraries and Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program (LB21) (Preliminary Proposals)

10/03/2019 – NHPRC – Access to Historical Records: Archival Projects

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

10/16/2019 – University of Illinois – Campus Research Board

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

01/15/2020 – University of Illinois – Campus Research Board

01/15/2020 – Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections
Output: Preservation Supplies/Equipment, Reports on Preventive Conservation

01/15/2020 – National Digital Newspaper Program
Output: Web Resources, Digitized Newspapers

01/16/2020 – NHPRC – Access to Historical Records: Major Initiatives (Preliminary)

02/01/2020 – IMLS – Collections Assessment for Preservation Program

02/05/2020 – Public Scholar Program
Output: Book

02/13/2020 – Summer Seminars and Institutes for Higher Education Faculty
Output: Conference/Institute/Seminar

02/13/2020 – Summer Seminars and Institutes for K-12 Faculty
Output: Conference/Institute/Seminar

03/04/2020 – University of Illinois – Campus Research Board

03/04/2020 – Institutes for Advanced Topics in Digital Humanities
Output: Conference/Institute/Seminar

04/08/2020 – NEH-Mellon Fellowships for Digital Publication
Output: Digital Material & Publications

05/15/2020 – NEH Research and Development
Output: Web Resources, Report, Computer Program

05/15/2010 – NEH Preservation and Access Education and Training
Output: Preservation Course or Curricular Materials, Conservation Graduate Program, Preservation Workshop, Fellow Positions in Conservation

05/15/2020 – NEH Infrastructure and Capacity Building Challenge Grants
Output: Buildings, Equipment, Digital Infrastructure

06/19/2020 – NEH Digital Projects for the Public
Output: Game/Simulation, Mobile App, Virtual/Augmented Reality, Website

07/15/2020 – NEH Humanities Collections and Reference Resources NEW!
Output: Digitized Collection, Web Resources, Catalogs, Databases, Encyclopedias
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: Did You Know? A Monthly Factoid from Library Assessment

The library conducted a faculty survey in spring 2019 and found a considerable increase (19%) in the importance of undergraduate library instruction. 79% of the Illinois faculty who participated in the survey viewed the function of “The library helps undergraduates develop research, critical analysis, and information literacy skills” to be important/extremely important. In 2013, only 60% of the participants valued the undergraduate library instruction as important.

For more information about the survey, please visit https://www.library.illinois.edu/staff/assessment/libsurv/ithaka-sr-faculty-survey-2019-faq/ .
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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.

The first LTOTM email of the fall semester will send in September. 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: Departures

  • Angie Gruendl, Grainger and Math (July 26)

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HR NEWS: Filled Positions

  • Tim Newman – Assistant Dean for Facilities (August 16)
  • Tiffany Brennan – Library Specialist, UGL (September 3)

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HR NEWS: In Memoriam

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HR NEWS: New International Travel Safety Policy
If you travel internationally, please be aware that the Board of Trustees recently approved a new International Travel Safety Policy. As an extension of that new policy, the System will pay the fee for faculty and staff who register for International Insurance for travel after August 1, 2019.
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IT NEWS: Adobe Licensing Changes
After the renewal of the campus Adobe license this summer, a few changes have taken effect when using Adobe applications. Please be aware of the following changes.

  • Library faculty and staff now need to sign in with an Enterprise ID (your netid and password) to use Adobe applications. If you’re unable to sign in, try activating your account for Adobe by using this free Webstore offer.
  • Students will also need to sign in when they are using Adobe applications on the authenticated public machines in the Library. Their session will last 2 hours, after which they will be prompted to extend their session or be signed out if no action is taken.
  • An additional license will need to be purchased for each student employee (graduate or undergraduate) who needs to use Adobe applications on a staff computer. To request a license for a graduate or undergraduate student employee, contact the Library IT Help Desk at help@library.illinois.edu and provide your department CFOP. These licenses are currently $40/semester/student. The license expiration date for Fall semester is 2/1/20. The license expiration for a Spring license will be 8/1/20.

Please contact Library IT with any questions at help@library.illinois.edu or 217-244-4688.
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FACILITIES: Update
Tim Newman, Assistant Dean for Facilities

First, I wanted to say, “Thank You, for the warm welcome I’ve received from all Faculty and Staff!” I look forward to the opportunities in being able to advance the University Library Facilities to meet all your space needs. As I continue to learn more about what each library and collections provide and how facilities can help, I did want to update you on a few current projects:

  1. Room 220 Conceptualization Study – We received the final submission for this and will look at the final concepts provided to determine, based on funding and need, how to proceed forward. Additionally, we will review how this concept fits within the Main Library redevelopment plan.
  2. Reading Room (Rm 200) – Chicago Commercial Construction is the contractor for this job and we are waiting on the Notice to Proceed (NTP). It’s anticipated that we will receive the NTP by September 6th, at which time we will be able to discuss a schedule for construction and develop a plan for how to phase construction while trying to maintain some operations within Room 200.
  3. 1st Floor Central Service Point – Construction has started with completion of this occurring in January 2020. Please pardon our dust, as we work to ensure that dust and noise is controlled, while work moves forward.

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: Music & Performing Arts Library’s 75th Anniversary
Friday, September 6
3:00 – 5:00 p.m.,1300 Music Building

MPAL 75th Anniversary Digital Sign

Join us on Friday, September 6 from 3:00 – 5:00 p.m. for an Open House to help us celebrate the Music & Performing Arts Library’s 75th Anniversary! There will be activities, giveaways, refreshments, and an opportunity to learn more about the Library’s history.
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EVENTS AND TRAINING: NISO Webinar – Preservation and Archiving of Digital Media
Wednesday, September 11
12:00 – 1:30 p.m., 428 Main Library

Libraries have long collected audio and video content in varying formats housing those materials in special archives and collections. However, unlike the static documents that have been digitized for purposes of enabling Web access by users, some collections of audio and video content may not have received the appropriate attention and resources that ensure long-term preservation. This session will look at a variety of such collections and associated archiving initiatives focused on what is an increasingly at-risk set of materials.

Confirmed speakers for this event include: Kira M. Sobers, Digital Media Coordinator, Smithsonian Institution Archives; Clifford B. Anderson, Associate University Librarian for Research and Learning, Vanderbilt University; Other TBA.
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EVENTS AND TRAINING: Human Library
Thursday, September 26
5:30 – 9:30 p.m., KCPA

Human Library Hero Image

A Human Library is an event that aims to create dialogue and understanding between people. Individuals volunteer as human ‘books’ and participants in the event can ‘read’ the book—meaning they would have a one on one conversation with the volunteer and share in a dialogue about that individual’s experience. ‘Books’ are volunteers from all walks of life who have experienced discrimination based on race, religion, sexual preference, class, gender identity, sex, age, lifestyle choices, disability, and other aspects of their life. The Human Library provides the opportunity for the community to share and understand the experiences of others in their community.

For more information about the Human Library, please visit humanlibrarycu.org. Additional details about the multi-disciplinary event known as PYGMALION are located at thisispygmalion.com/.

Please contact Sarah Christensen if you are interested in volunteering. Human ‘books’ are still in need!
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EVENTS AND TRAINING: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Conservation Treatments and Decision Making Through the Ages
Friday, September 27
3:00 – 5:00 p.m., 346 Main Library

Person conducting conservation treatment

Every book lover has encountered a poor volume that is in need of repair and wondered what to do. When pages are detaching and the binding is falling apart, tape can seem like a very appealing solution–but is it really the best option?

Conservation, as a profession, has developed over decades from traditional craft-based approaches to scientifically-informed treatment methodology in order to preserve our most precious books and manuscripts. Modern conservation approaches bring together a fascinating blend of historic bookbinding and papermaking expertise with a modern application of organic chemistry and instrumental analysis in order to inform how to slow deterioration and extend the useful lives of our priceless collections. Perhaps it is this blend of art and science that makes the field so fascinating.

While contemporary conservators strive to apply innovative modern conservation treatments for our objects, we see the good, the bad, and the ugly of past repairs through the ages in our collections every day. In this lecture, Consuela Metzger, Head of the UCLA Library Conservation Center, will discuss modern book and paper conservation.
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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 September 20, 2019.

August Library Office Notes


ANNOUNCEMENTS

HR NEWS

FACILITIES

EVENTS AND TRAINING



ANNOUNCEMENTS: University Librarian Note
Check back next month for a new Note from Dean Wilkin.
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: Library Building Project Update – 8/1/2019
Tom Teper, Associate Dean for Collections and Technical Services

Committees and Working Groups – Programming the Main Library
In mid-July, the Programming the Main Library Working Group held an open workshop with activities that got the 20+ attendees thinking about desired adjacencies in the Main Library as well as thinking about how to prioritize visibility of various services, collections, and spaces. It is fair to say everyone got an appreciation of how massive this project is and how there are many details yet to be worked out as things move forward. The outcomes of this workshop will be shared with the consultants along with all other feedback collected on the 75% document (which WG members also submitted). The WG is now working to schedule meetings with individual units in the Main Library (hopefully) in August and September to listen to questions and ideas from an even broader range of individuals in the Library.

Kirstin (Dougan) Johnson 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/. Questions or comments can be directed to the group at any time.

Committees and Working Groups – Collections
Utilizing the input received and feedback from the Library Consultation Working Group, the Executive Committee, and others in the Library, the Managing the Library’s Collections Working Group finalized its recommendations and submitted their final set of recommendations to the Executive Committee on July 25, 2019. 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/.

Committees and Working Groups – Special Collections Research Center (SCRC)
The Special Collections Research Center (SCRC) Working Group has continued meeting in preparation for working with our Programming and Conceptual Design firm. Subgroups focused on Exhibits and Outreach; Public Services; Environment and Storage; and Logistics and Operations compiled data in support of the forthcoming consulting work. All of this was shared with JLK and brightspot.

Following the kick-off meeting with JLK and brightspot, the SCRC WG held a couple of calls with the consulting firms in order to be interviewed about the project. The consulting firms also held a series of calls with members of the subgroups in mid-July to discuss their work, the data and recommendations compiled by the groups, and the project aspirations.

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/.

Committees and Working Groups – Library Consultation Working Group (Campus Level Cmte)
Members of the campus’ Library Consultation Working Group had an opportunity to review and comment on the 75% documents developed by JLK and brightspot. The Working Group itself met weekly through the month of June and in early July. Given that the timelines for the two consulting reports on the Main Library and the Special Collections Research Center have diverged, the group is currently in the process of reformulating a strategy for moving forward on a longer timeline.

Stress Management Workshops
The final installment of Michele Guerra’s Stress Management Workshop is scheduled for August 6th at 10:30 a.m. or 1:30 p.m. As you know, the Staff Development & Training Committee sponsored this series following the positive feedback received after Michele provided an overview of stress management resources at the March 13 Building Project Update

For questions, contact Jake MacGregor (jdmac@illinois.edu) or Zoe Revell (revell@illinois.edu).

Contracts and Firms – Main Library
As noted in earlier updates, the University Library is working with an architectural firm to help with the programming activities. Chicago-based Johnson, Lasky, Kindelin (JLK) Architects is the approved firm, and they are working with a firm knows as BrightSpot Strategy to help the University Library and our campus partners to begin developing the program for the Library Building Project. More information on JLK Architects, including information on other projects they have helped develop, can be found on the company’s website: http://www.jlkarch.com/. BrightSpot Strategy’s website can be found here: https://www.brightspotstrategy.com/.

Following the March 14, 2019 kick-off meeting, activities have moved forward at a reasonable pace with JLK and brightspot personnel on-site to lead three days of visioning activities focused on the Main Library Building. These sessions took place on May 14 – 16, 2019, and follow-up calls/discussions have been held with members of project leadership and the firms on May 22nd and 24th. These Main Library Building-centered activities are occurring as part of the Validation, Programming, and Space Planning Activities in the schedule below. The Library received the 50% documents from JLK and brightspot in early June and responded with comments ten days later. We received 75% documents in early July and responded with comments in the middle of the month. On July 26th, the firms submitted three different sets of drawings outlining options for conceptual plans. The drawings were all posted in 220 on Tuesday, July 30th and will remain available through Friday, August 2nd.

Contracts and Firms – Special Collections Research Center
As noted in previous updates, the Library anticipated establishing a contract with JLK and brightspot for the special collections building that would parallel the earlier process. That contract was established in early June and a kick-off meeting was scheduled with JLK and brightspot representatives on June 19, 2019. Members of the Special Collections Research Center WG attended the kick-off call.

Communications

  • Monthly Updates – As you know, monthly updates about the Library Building Project are 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 fourth Quarterly Update for the project was held on May 17, 2019. The fifth Quarterly Update is scheduled for September 9th at 4:00 p.m. in 66 Main Library. Please note that this time is tentative as it could be bumped due to class scheduling. We anticipate that the live stream provided by 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.
  • ITHAKA Faculty Survey – The ITHAKA Faculty Survey has been completed. For those that are interested in viewing some of the feedback received as part of that survey or others conducted as part of Library Assessment, please go here: https://www.library.illinois.edu/staff/assessment/libsurv/.

Facilities Schedules
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 and is serving on the feasibility study being conducted related to the instructional facility that may be situated adjacent to the Main Library as well as initial work related to the Special Collections Building.

As noted earlier, the University Library recently received approval to work with JLK Architects and BrightSpot Strategies. Based on the kick-off date of March 14, 2019, the schedule below represents the most current estimated project timeline for this phase.

Library Redevelopment Plan Programming and Conceptual Design Study (U18083):

Library Redevelopment Plan Programming and Conceptual Design Study Table

In addition to the Main Library Building project, Dennis Craig recently prepared a preliminary schedule for the first phase of the Special Collections Facility Programming Study. This schedule will be adjusted to accommodate changes in the project schedule, etc…. Presently, we anticipate seeing the completion date in mid-October 2019.

Undergraduate Library – Special Collections Facility Programming Study (U19112):

Undergraduate Library - Special Collections Facility Programming Study Table

Long-Term Project Schedule
Following the completion of the initial Programming and Conceptual Design phase, the schedule below represents a best guess as to the project schedule through December 2024.

Library Redevelopment – Design/Bid/Build (U20XXX):

Library Redevelopment - Design/Bid/Build Table

Outreach and Engagement
Nothing pending.
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: New IOPN Publication
The Illinois Open Publishing Network and Publishing Without Walls are pleased to publish our fourth title in the AFRO-PWW series published July 1, Tyechia Thompson’s Scalar book Love and Suspense in Paris Noir: Navigating the Seamy World of Jake Lamar’s Rendezvous Eighteenth.

Synopsis: Taking readers on an itinerant journey through Jake Lamar’s novel Rendezvous Eighteenth, Tyechia Thompson, practitioner of Black Paris, explores narratives of African-American expatriates in Lamar’s life, his Paris, and his work. Unfolding in six different paths, this interactive literary analysis pulls together interviews with Jake Lamar and relevant videos, showing Lamar’s chosen setting of the Eighteenth Arrondissement and treatment of race as a departure from contemporary fiction of its type. Introducing the “different side of Paris” through narrator Ricky Jenks, Lamar centers his novel on the lesser known parts of the city, enabling direct challenges to migration narratives of inclusion and racially utopic France. Building a new layer of analysis in each path, Thompson demonstrates a flexible approach to text, showing the complexities of Rendezvous Eighteenth in both form and content.

Find it at https://doi.org/10.21900/pww.3. Enjoy!
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: ILS Coordination Team Report
Michael Norman, Discovery Services Librarian and ILS Coordinator

ILS Coordination Team Website
The ILS Coordination Team wanted to report that we have created a website that will keep track of all the ongoing work occurring and where we will continually post updates of all this activity. You can view the website at:
https://www.library.illinois.edu/geninfo/discoveryservices/ils-coordination-team/.

Ongoing Timeline for Implementation of Alma and Primo VE
We are entering the 2nd Test Phase of the implementation of Alma and Primo VE. The Vanguard Test Phase of the five I-Share libraries was completed on June 28th. The UIUC Library will continue to have access to the Vanguard Test instances of Alma and Primo VE through September 30, 2019. We will also continue to have access to the Ex Libris Project Team through the end of September as well as we continue to test the Vanguard Test version of both Alma and Primo VE.

On July 9th, CARLI and Ex Libris held the 2nd Kick-Off meeting that pulled in representatives from all 91 I-Share libraries that will be involved with migrating and implementing the Alma/Primo VE systems over this next year. Over the next 11 months, each of the 91 libraries will be submitting the migration, configuration, Primo VE Worksheet, and Print to Electronic (p2e) forms to aid in the eventual extraction, mapping, migration, and mapping of data to the Alma system. The ILS Coordination Team is already busily updating each of these forms to submit by the deadlines for each category and we are updating answers we previously submitted in the Vanguard Test Phase back in April.

In mid-October 2019, the Library will receive a new Test Phase instance of Alma and Primo. As we learned what did not migrate over properly or map correctly to the Alma data structures (usually based on national standards and rules), the UIUC Library’s 2nd Test instances of Alma and Primo VE will include much of the data we have been working to clean up and convert to the required specifications required by Alma and Primo VE. We should have a more synced up version of Alma and Primo VE with this second test instance that will match up better with the configurations and customizations we want for the eventual Primo VE interface we want users to access.

Activity over the past month (June 18th to July 20th)
The ILS Coordination Team is steadily testing all aspects of the migration and configuration of the Alma and Primo systems. We have had access to Alma and Primo VE for nearly two months now and we are getting to understand the layout and structure of Alma and how it interoperates with the Primo Discovery instance. In many ways, this is completely different than what we have experienced with the interaction between the Voyager and the VuFind catalog. For more information about the interoperability of Alma and Primo VE systems, see the Ex Libris Essentials site for two information videos:

We do continue to test the migration of the Library’s data from Voyager and SFX into Alma. Most of the acquisitions information (including historical data), bibliographic records, holding records, item records, statuses associated with records, patron records, patron groups, loan information, and transactions on individual items were migrated correctly. We did hit a few issues regarding library locations associated with purchase orders and line items not showing properly and the serial check-in predictive patterns not porting over, but we have determined the issues with this occurrence and this will be fixed for the 2nd Test Phase and the round of the extraction of the Library’s data to occur in October 2019.

Some of the major differences between the two systems includes real time interaction between the two systems (it takes overnight indexing for changes in Voyager to be seen in VuFind), highlighting of electronic access to a title (from the embedded link resolver in Alma/Primo VE), activation of electronic collections in the Primo Central Index (see link below), and the use of a Master Record approach that has a designated record that is utilized by all libraries in the I-Share consortium.

There have been some major issues we do want Ex Libris to address in the near-term and in future stages of the implementation. The most important problem we have encountered so far is the performance issues with slowness of both the Alma and Primo VE systems in returning search results. Also, facets are not displaying properly at times. If one clicks too soon as results are resolving, the system hangs up and the user has to re-initialize the search or even start over completely. This will need to be addressed during the 2nd Test Phase of the implementation.

There will be some big changes regarding discovery and usage of the Library’s electronic resources as represented in the online catalog and the ILS Coordination Team will be providing information sessions on all this over the next year before going live with both systems in June 2020. Something new for us could be utilizing the Primo Central Index to create multiple search profiles in Primo VE to concentrate on different resource types including articles, books, conference proceedings, dissertations and theses, newspaper articles, research datasets, scores, statistical data sets, technical reports, and videos.

For more information about all the various collections available in Primo Central Index (with Primo Central Collection list for June 2019) see: https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Primo/Content_Corner/Product_Documentation/Primo_Central_Indexing.

Over the next 2-3 weeks we are beginning to examine the User Experience (UX) aspects of Primo VE including to examine the My Account features in the new system. John Laskowski is overseeing the endeavor to learn the optimum setup for these public-facing services. We are also working with CARLI Office to see about the feasibility of exporting over the saved records and items in VuFind into Primo VE or another similar reference management service such as Zotero, Mendeley, EndNote, Citavi, etc.

Certification to configure Alma and Primo VE systems
We have four members of the ILS Coordination Team who have made it through the Ex Libris certification process that enables individuals to be able to configure the Alma/Primo VE systems. The process requires the viewing of nearly 40 hours of training videos and then taking and passing a test to gain the certification badge. Megean Osuchowski, MJ Han, Janelle Sander, and Michael Norman have all gained certification over the past month and several other members of the team are close to completion. Individuals who get certification are allowed to configure the Alma system. Overall, we will have around 8 individuals who will gain the certification and this will become the Library’s System Administration Team to oversee the configuration and setup of the new systems.

Library-wide Information Sessions of Alma and Primo VE
The ILS Implementation Team will have three identical information sessions in late July and early August to give updates on the Vanguard Test Phase for the implementation of the Alma/Primo systems here in the Library and in the I-Share consortial libraries. During the current Vanguard Test Phase, we have had access to test instances of both Alma and Primo for about 3-4 weeks now and the Team is busily examining the migration of the Library’s Voyager and SFX data into the new systems and determining how all this maps over to the different structures in Alma/Primo. We have gained a good overview of the Alma/Primo systems and we are at a place where we want to give a preliminary introduction to the Library and showcase the functionalities of both systems.

The dates for the Alma/Primo Implementation sessions are:

  • Tuesday, July 23rd, 1 – 2 p.m. in Room 106
  • Tuesday, July 30th, 11 – 12 p.m. in Room 106
  • Tuesday, August 6th, 11 – 12 p.m. in Room 106

There will be more information sessions starting in October 2019 after we get access to the Library’s new instances of Alma and Primo during the Second Test Phase starting mid-October. Watch for those announcements.

Another sample search results page (search: Machine Learning) in Primo VE:


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ANNOUNCEMENTS: Grant Announcements for External Fundraisers
As always, if you are interested in all grant opportunities across disciplines, feel free to subscribe to the OVCR’s list at https://groups.webservices.illinois.edu/subscribe/19149.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Heidi Imker or Kathie Veach.

08/28/2019 – University of Illinois – Campus Research Board

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

09/27/2019 – IMLS – National Leadership Grants for Libraries (Preliminary Proposal) NEW!

10/03/2019 – NHPRC – Access to Historical Records: Archival Projects

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

10/16/2019 – University of Illinois – Campus Research Board

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

01/15/2020 – University of Illinois – Campus Research Board

01/15/2020 – Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections
Output: Preservation Supplies/Equipment, Reports on Preventive Conservation

01/15/2020 – National Digital Newspaper Program
Output: Web Resources, Digitized Newspapers

01/16/2020 – NHPRC – Access to Historical Records: Major Initiatives (Preliminary)

02/01/2020 – IMLS – Collections Assessment for Preservation Program NEW!

02/05/2020 – Public Scholar Program
Output: Book

02/13/2020 – Summer Seminars and Institutes for Higher Education Faculty
Output: Conference/Institute/Seminar

02/13/2020 – Summer Seminars and Institutes for K-12 Faculty
Output: Conference/Institute/Seminar

03/04/2020 – University of Illinois – Campus Research Board

03/04/2020 – Institutes for Advanced Topics in Digital Humanities
Output: Conference/Institute/Seminar

04/08/2020 – NEH-Mellon Fellowships for Digital Publication
Output: Digital Material & Publications

05/15/2020 – NEH Research and Development NEW!
Output: Web Resources, Report, Computer Program

05/15/2010 – NEH Preservation and Access Education and Training NEW!
Output: Preservation Course or Curricular Materials, Conservation Graduate Program, Preservation Workshop, Fellow Positions in Conservation

05/15/2020 – NEH Infrastructure and Capacity Building Challenge Grants NEW!
Output: Buildings, Equipment, Digital Infrastructure

06/19/2020 – NEH Digital Projects for the Public NEW!
Output: Game/Simulation, Mobile App, Virtual/Augmented Reality, Website
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: Did You Know? A Monthly Factoid from Library Assessment

Graph showing undergraduate student use of the library

A survey conducted in fall 2018 by the Library shows that 97% of the undergraduate students surveyed have physically visited the library. 42% said they prefer studying/working in a campus library more than in other types of buildings. 52% identified with this statement: “When I am in a campus library building, I feel that I belong.”

For more information about the survey, please visit https://odos.illinois.edu/assessment/pulse/2018/library/ and https://go.library.illinois.edu/undergrad.
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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.

The first LTOTM email of the fall semester will send in September. 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: Departures

  • Shoshana Vegh-Gaynor, Ricker Library (July 23)
  • Kim Matherly, Library Administration (July 26)

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HR NEWS: Filled Positions

  • John Rutherford – Web Application Developer (July 8)
  • Dan Dalpiaz – Web Application Developer (July 15)
  • Alex Dryden – Visiting Research Programmer, Scholarly Communication & Publishing (August 1)
  • Michelle Self-Ballard – Library Operations Associate, UGL (August 5)
  • Robert Geraci – Associate Research Professor (August 16)
  • Jessica Hagman – Social Science Research Librarian (August 16)
  • Janis Shearer – Public Services & Engagement Librarian (August 16)

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HR NEWS: In Memoriam

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HR NEWS: Vacancies

  • Library Operations Associate – Conservation, interviews starting soon
  • Library Specialist – Undergraduate Library, waiting on Master Referral
  • Library Specialist – Architecture & Art, job posting soon

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FACILITIES: Tim Newman Hired as Assistant Dean for Facilities

Headshot of Tim Newman
Tim Newman has been appointed as the Library’s new Assistant Dean for Facilities. He will start on August 16, 2019.

For the last four years, Tim has served as Director of Facilities for the Electrical and Computer Engineering department here at Illinois, and prior to that, he served as a project manager for capital projects in Facilities & Services. For several years prior to working at the University, Tim was able to combine his architectural and project management experience in large-scale construction and facilities positions in Champaign and Chicago. Tim is also a seasoned veteran, serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, where he capably demonstrated his leadership, architecture, and construction skills.

Dean Wilkin said, “Tim has broad experience with the array of facilities-related challenges a large organization faces, is a creative thinker and problem solver, and will be an asset to the Library in addressing both our day-to-day and grand challenges.”
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FACILITIES: Facility Project Updates

  • ACES Funk Library – Additional Staff Offices – F&S working on contract with consultant to design office space for staff on the second floor. Design and construction documents to be complete in August 2019. Construction anticipated to be September December 2019.
  • Library Programming and Conceptual Design – Johnson Lasky Kindelin Architects & Brightspot Strategies are the consultants for the project. Part 1 validation, programming and space planning activities – draft report due end of May 2019. Part 2 conceptualization & design, prioritization & phasing – June 15 –July 7, 2019.
  • Main Library Roof and HVAC Exterior Ductwork Replacement F&S is working on the consultant selection process – Design and construction documents to be complete in August 2020. Construction December 2020 – September 2021.
  • Main Library – Reading Room 200 Renovation & Room 220 Conceptual Design Bid documents May 20, 2019. Bid and award set for August 2019. Construction August 2019 – February 2020.
  • Main Library – 1st Floor Central Service Point Construction June – September 2019.
  • Undergraduate Library – Elevator Replacement Hiring professional services consultant during June 2019. Design and construction documents complete December 2019. Construction March 2020 – March 2021.

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: Stress Management Workshop Series
The Staff Development & Training Committee is sponsoring a stress management workshop series by Michele Guerra, Director of Campus Wellbeing Services. Michele provided an overview of the series at the March 13 Building Project Update and there has been interest expressed in bringing this workshop series to the Library.

Michele has offered to present each session twice, on the same day, to accommodate different schedules. A brief summary of each session is listed below, as well as the date and two times it is presented. Please register for each session you would like to attend (participation is limited to 25 participants per session). All are welcome!

Session 4: Dealing with stress at work, which applies previously learned stress management tools to managing stressors at work, discusses strategies for coping with uncertain situations, and explores ways to resolve conflict

(Important: Please complete at least Session 1 before taking Session 4, as participants use techniques covered in these earlier sessions.)

Offered Tuesday, August 6 at either 10:00 – 11:30 a.m. or 1:30 – 3:00 p.m.

All sessions are in Library Room 220. Each of the 4 sessions will be recorded for those unable to attend and recordings will be made available shortly after sessions.

These sessions are approved Library events. Staff should request time for the event in advance from their supervisor, and be sensitive to coverage issues for the unit.

To register for session(s), please click on the session time you would like, above, or go to the Library Staff Calendar.

For questions, contact Jake MacGregor (jdmac@illinois.edu) or Zoe Revell (revell@illinois.edu).
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EVENTS AND TRAINING: An Afternoon with the Consul General of India
Aug 21, 2019
12:00 – 1:00 p.m.
The International and Area Studies Library (321 Main Library)

Graphic for Afternoon with the Consul General of India Event

Meet the Consul General of India, Shri Sudhakar Dalela, enjoy free refreshments, and check out an exhibit showcasing the Indian Consulate’s recent donation of some of India’s most important cultural and literary texts!
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EVENTS AND TRAINING: One Community Together

Flyer for the One Community Together programming
Join the Sousa Archives and Center for American Music and the Champaign County Museums Network for its 11th year of One Community Together (OCT) programming for the Urbana Sweetcorn Festival on August 24, 2019.  This year’s programming and children’s activities kick off with another special performance by the Bow-Dacious String Band and the BBL Jazz Band and Drumline, and will again conclude with an outstanding finale performance by the Urbana, Central, and Centennial High School marching bands playing Tom Wallace’s arrangement of Margaret Cobb and Bruce Channel’s “Hey Baby” under the direction of the University of Illinois’ Director of the Marching Illini, Barry Houser.  The One Community Together stage is located this year at the corner of Broadway and Water Streets, and all performances and children’s activities are free and open to the public.

OCT performance schedule:

11:30-12:30 Bow-Dacious String Band and BBL Jazz Band
12:45-1:30 Two Boys Going Nowhere singing from the American songbook
1:45-2:30 Bali Lantari Balinese drumming and dance
2:45-3:30 Jean Rene Balekita and BOMOYI Congolese rumba melodies
3:45-4:30 Tradition Jazz Orchestra
5:00-6:15 Urbana, Central, and Centennial Marching Bands

OCT children’s activities:

11:30-1:00 Pollinator Puppets: Bees, Butterflies and Flowers Puppet Theater (Pollinatarium)
11:30-1:30 Toys of the 19th Century (Museum of the Grand Prairie)
11:30-4:30 Music Instrument Exploratorium Adventure (Sousa Archives)
12:30-2:30 Modelling New York City’s Holland Tunnel Disaster under the Hudson River with Construction Paper and Fans (Distributed Museum)
1:00-3:00 Crafty Coronation: Make Your Own Crown (Spurlock Museum)
2:00-4:00 Music Making with Didgeridoos, Australia’s Oldest Wooden Brass Instrument (Sousa Archives)
2:30-4:30 Mystery Mammals of Illinois and Other Nature Games (Homer Lake Interpretative Center)
2:30-4:30 Mibsters, Ringers, and Duck: Crafting America’s Marble Game (Champaign County History Museum)
3:00-5:00 Nature Play (Anita Purves Nature Center)
3:00-5:00 Solar Adventures: Exploring Telescopes, Meteorites, and the Sun (Staerkel Planetarium)

For further information about this weekend’s OCT programming please call the Sousa Archives and Center for American Music at 217-333-4577.  For a complete schedule of the Festival’s performances and other family programming please visit https://urbanasweetcornfestival.com/.
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If you would like to submit content for the September issue of Library Office Notes, please submit it to Heather Murphy or Tom Teper by August 16, 2019.

July Library Office Notes


ANNOUNCEMENTS

HR NEWS

IT NEWS

FACILITIES

EVENTS AND TRAINING



ANNOUNCEMENTS: University Librarian Note
We are coming to the end of our strategic planning process, intended to establish our priorities for the next five years (2019-2023). The work of the Library Strategic Planning Team (LSPT) was superb, and I want to thank everyone for their contributions to that process and for their engagement with the retreat. I especially want to thank our chairs, Clara Chu, Merinda Hensley, and Jen-Chien Yu, for their leadership and their hard work. I will devote this month’s Dean’s Note to recapping where we are in the process, discussing next steps, and reminding everyone where they can find the work that’s been done to-date. Read more…
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: Library Building Project Update – 7/1/2019
Tom Teper, Associate Dean for Collections and Technical Services

Committees and Working Groups – Programming the Main Library
Since the last update, the Programming WG has reviewed and evaluated the 50% plan document from the consultants, responding with clarifications and corrections based on our original needs list and our participation in the May planning exercises. We also plotted additional topics to discuss in future meetings such as anticipated service locations and profiles and the related impacts, and whether additional user data and information should be gathered by the group. Because all library staff have the ability to comment on the consultants planning documents, we look forward to reading individuals’ responses and thoughts on the plans and incorporating those into our discussions.

Kirstin (Dougan) Johnson 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/. Questions or comments can be directed to the group at any time.

Committees and Working Groups – Collections
Following the open forum held on May 21st, 2019, the Managing the Library’s Collections Working Group solicited additional input from members of the Library, receiving several email messages and additional communications before meeting with the campus-wide Library Consultation Working Group in order to discuss recommendations for the management of the collections.

Utilizing the input received and feedback from the Library Consultation Working Group, the Managing the Library’s Collections Working Group finalized its recommendations and submitted them to the Executive Committee on June 26, 2019.

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/.

Committees and Working Groups – Special Collections Research Center (SCRC)
The Special Collections Research Center (SCRC) Working Group has continued meeting in preparation for working with our Programming and Conceptual Design firm. Subgroups focused on Exhibits and Outreach; Public Services; Environment and Storage; and Logistics and Operations have been pulling together data in support of the forthcoming consulting work.

The SCRC has then discussed some of the recommendations of the subgroups, and will be developing a cover memo to JLK and brightspot that incorporates some of the input received.

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/.

Committees and Working Groups – Library Consultation Working Group (Campus Level Cmte)
Members of the campus’ Library Consultation Working Group had an opportunity to review and comment on the 50% documents developed by JLK and brightspot following their onsite visioning sessions from May 14-16, 2019. The Working Group itself met weekly through the month of June, learning about the findings from several recent library assessment activities, discussing collections issues, and spending time discussing the 50% documents.

Stress Management Workshops
The Staff Development & Training Committee is sponsoring a stress management workshop series by Michele Guerra, Director of Campus Wellbeing Services. Michele provided an overview of the series at the March 13 Building Project Update and there has been interest expressed in bringing this workshop series to the Library.

Michele has offered to present each session twice, on the same day, to accommodate different schedules. A brief summary of each session is listed below, as well as the date and two times it is presented. Please register for each session you would like to attend (participation is limited to 25 participants per session). All are welcome!

Session 1: Getting a handle on stress, including identifying and analyzing your current coping tools and building an effective stress management toolbox

Offered Tuesday, June 4 at either 10:00 – 11:30 a.m. or 1:30 – 3:00 p.m.

Session 2: Learning to relax, which covers how stress affects you physically and how to select a relaxation technique(s) that work for you

Offered Tuesday, June 11 at either 10:00 – 11:30 a.m. or 1:30 – 3:00 p.m.

Session 3: Reducing stress by taming your mind, including understanding how your perceptions and thoughts impact your stress level, and practicing affirmation and/or meditation technique

Offered Tuesday, July 23 at either 10:00 – 11:30 a.m. or 1:30 – 3:00 p.m.

Session 4: Dealing with stress at work, which applies previously learned stress management tools to managing stressors at work, discusses strategies for coping with uncertain situations, and explores ways to resolve conflict

(Important: Please complete at least Session 1 before taking Session 4, as participants use techniques covered in these earlier sessions.)

Offered Tuesday, August 6 at either 10:00 – 11:30 a.m. or 1:30 – 3:00 p.m.

All sessions are in Library Room 220. Each of the 4 sessions will be recorded for those unable to attend and recordings will be made available shortly after sessions. These sessions are approved Library events. Staff should request time for the event in advance from their supervisor, and be sensitive to coverage issues for the unit.

To register for session(s), please click on the session time you would like, above, or go to the Library Staff Calendar.

For questions, contact Jake MacGregor (jdmac@illinois.edu) or Zoe Revell (revell@illinois.edu).

Contracts and Firms – Main Library
As noted in earlier updates, the University Library is working with an architectural firm to help with the programming activities. Chicago-based Johnson, Lasky, Kindelin (JLK) Architects is the approved firm, and they are working with a firm knows as BrightSpot Strategy to help the University Library and our campus partners to begin developing the program for the Library Building Project. More information on JLK Architects, including information on other projects they have helped develop, can be found on the company’s website: http://www.jlkarch.com/. BrightSpot Strategy’s website can be found here: https://www.brightspotstrategy.com/.

Following the March 14, 2019 kick-off meeting, activities have moved forward at a reasonable pace with JLK and brightspot personnel on-site to lead three days of visioning activities focused on the Main Library Building. These sessions took place on May 14 – 16, 2019, and follow-up calls/discussions have been held with members of project leadership and the firms on May 22nd and 24th. These Main Library Building-centered activities are occurring as part of the Validation, Programming, and Space Planning Activities in the schedule below. The Library received the 50% documents from JLK and brightspot in early June and responded with comments ten days later.

As you know from LibNews, the 75% drawings were recently received. A copy is available for review in 230 Main Library.

Contracts and Firms – Special Collections Research Center
As noted in previous updates, the Library anticipated establishing a contract with JLK and brightspot for the special collections building that would parallel the earlier process. That contract was established in early June and a kick off meeting was scheduled with JLK and brightspot representatives on June 19, 2019. Members of the Special Collections Research Center WG attended the call.

At present, an initial interview is being scheduled with that working group’s leadership in preparation for some broader discussions in the coming months.

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 fourth Quarterly Update for the project was held on May 17, 2019. The fifth Quarterly Update is scheduled for September 9th at 4:00. We anticipate that the live stream provided by 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.
  • ITHAKA Faculty Survey – The ITHAKA Faculty Survey has been completed. For those that are interested in viewing some of the feedback received as part of that survey or others conducted as part of Library Assessment, please go here: https://www.library.illinois.edu/staff/assessment/libsurv/.

Facilities Schedules
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 and is serving on the feasibility study being conducted related to the instructional facility that may be situated adjacent to the Main Library as well as initial work related to the Special Collections Building.

As noted earlier, the University Library recently received approval to work with JLK Architects and BrightSpot Strategies. Based on the kick off date of March 14, 2019, the schedule below represents the most current estimated project timeline for this phase.

Library Redevelopment Plan Programming and Conceptual Design Study (U18083):

Table describes Library Redevelopment Plan Programming and Conceptual Design Study

In addition to the Main Library Building project, Dennis Craig recently prepared a preliminary schedule for the first phase of the Special Collections Facility Programming Study. This schedule will be adjusted to accommodate changes in the project schedule, etc…. Presently, we anticipate seeing the completion date in mid-October 2019.

Undergraduate Library – Special Collections Facility Programming Study (U19112):

Table describes Special Collections Facility Programming Study for Undergraduate Study

Long-Term Project Schedule
Following the completion of the initial Programming and Conceptual Design phase, the schedule below represents a best guess as to the project schedule through December 2024.

Library Redevelopment – Design/Bid/Build (U20XXX):

Table describes Design/Bid/Build of Library Redevelopment

Outreach and Engagement
Tom Teper is scheduled to talk to the iSchool alumni on July 13th during their on campus event.
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: Summer Reading Challenge at the Residence Hall Libraries
Pick up a card from the Ikenberry Library to participate. Complete 3 or more of our reading challenges to earn a souvenir bag with Residence Hall Library goodies and be entered for a Grand Prize! The Ikenberry Library is open M–F, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m., over the summer and is located on the 2nd floor of the Student Dining & Residential Programs Building, 301 E. Gregory Dr., Champaign. For more information, visit https://housing.illinois.edu/Resources/residence-hall-libraries/events.
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: ILS Coordination Report
Michael Norman, Discovery Services Librarian and ILS Coordinator

Activity over the past month (May 27 to June 18, 2019)
The ILS Coordination Team is busily testing the migration of our Voyager and SFX data into the Alma system. We received our Vanguard test instance of Alma on May 21st and we are doing some initial testing and observation of the migration of data and how it mapped over into the structure of the Alma system. Good news. We did observe that most of the acquisitions, bibliographic records, holdings data, items data, SFX knowledgebase activations, Reserve items, Library patron information, items with circulation statuses, and library location information did migrate over successfully.

There were some issues with the migration of our data including:

  • Ex Libris use of a Master bibliographic record (pulled from the consortial Network Zone) that overrides some of our local versions of bibliographic records,
  • Representation of analyzed titles and boundwiths in both Alma and Primo,
  • Technical categories being assigned to all items in Voyager that have a status associated with it (In Process, Lost, Missing, At Bindery, etc.), and
  • Information normally recorded in the MFHD holding record not showing in the Primo discovery instance. We have identified our major pain points of the migration of our data over

On May 27th, we also received a Vanguard Test version of the Library’s Primo instance. It is a completely different version from the previous Primo instance the Library had back in 2012 – 2014. It has a much different interface, a combined Ex Libris and ProQuest Central Index of collections that can be activated by the Library, and there are additional options in creating individual search scopes/profiles (for Catalog only search, WorldCat search, IDEALS and local digital collections, ProQuest Newspaper Collections search, Course Reserves, DataSets, and other possibilities). We have viewed that known–item search capabilities are improved. Relevancy ranking appears to be better than in the previous version with Primo now being able to search across various fields (author, title, publisher, pubdate, etc.) and bring the best matched to the top of results lists. We are looking forward to testing out the Primo and Alma APIs to incorporate searches into Easy Search Bento Discovery.

In our Primo instance, there was a mix up in the preliminary setup with Wikipedia references being activated as a collection pulled into the primary search scope, but this has been corrected recently and Ex Libris is exploring why it popped into our setup. We have activated several sources, including ProQuest Theses and Dissertations Global, Alexander Street Press collections, HathiTrust, and Biodiversity Heritage Library to see how well Primo integrates these collections with our local catalog and we have seen some difficulties with this as the ProQuest databases are performing full-text searches in these collections and these can tend to overwhelm and swamp our local catalog records. Also, our IDEALS collections were not migrated over during this Vanguard Test phase as anticipated and Ex Libris is examining why this did not occur.

The Vanguard Test Phase is winding down for the five I-Share libraries over the next few weeks. We will still have access to the Ex Libris Project Team and CARLI colleagues to help as we continue to test both Alma and Primo. We will have access to this Vanguard Test Phase instance of Alma and Primo through mid-October 2019. After several members of the ILS Coordination Team completes the Ex Libris certification process (by the end of June 2019), we will continue to experiment with the configuration of both systems to prepare for the 2nd Test Phase to Alma/Primo implementation. The team will showcase Alma and Primo and demonstrate the new functionalities and capabilities of the systems to all in the Library over the next several months to prepare for the next Test Phase.

Here is a reminder of the overall timeline for the Library in the implementation of the new systems over the next year:

Provides timeline of Alma/PrimoVE Migration

Discussion/Demonstration of Alma and Primo to Library Divisions
As part of the showcasing of Alma/Primo, members of the ILS Implementation Team will attend Division meetings over the next 2 months. Here is a meeting schedule with each Library Division:

  • June 19 (9:30 – 10:00 a.m.) – Central Public Service
  • June 20 (10:00 – 10:30 a.m.) – Law
  • June 26 (10:00 – 10:30 a.m.) – Tech Services
  • June 26 (1:30 – 2:00 p.m.) – Special Collections
  • June 27 (10:30 – 11:00 a.m.) – Center for Children’s Books
  • July 3 (10:00 – 10:30 a.m.) – Residence Halls
  • August 6 (10:30 – 11:00 a.m.) – Arts & Humanities
  • August 7 (10:00 – 10:30 a.m.) – Social Sciences
  • August 8 (10:00 – 10:30 a.m.) – Area Studies
  • August 14 (10:30 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.) – Life Sciences

Here is link on Box to the accompanying PowerPoint presentation we will be giving at the Division meetings: https://uofi.box.com/s/y49r4a0f8i04m0eob62g4yi1cnu3tlve.

Library-wide Information Sessions on Alma/Primo Implementation
The ILS Implementation Team will have three identical information sessions in late July and early August to give updates on the Vanguard Test Phase for the implementation of the Alma/Primo systems here in the Library and in the I-Share consortial libraries. During the current Vanguard Test Phase, we have had access to test instances of both Alma and Primo for about 3-4 weeks now and the Team is busily examining the migration of the Library’s Voyager and SFX data into the new systems and determining how all this maps over to the different structures in Alma/Primo. We have gained a good overview of the Alma/Primo systems and we are at a place where we want to give a preliminary introduction to the Library and showcase the functionalities of both systems.

The dates for the Alma/Primo Implementation sessions are:

  • Tuesday, July 23rd, 1 p.m. – 2 p.m. in Room 106
  • Tuesday, July 30th, 11 a.m. – 12 p.m. in Room 106
  • Tuesday, August 6th, 11 a.m. – 12 p.m. in Room 106

There will be many more information sessions in the Fall 2019 after we get access to the Library’s new instances of Alma and Primo during the Second Test Phase starting mid-October.

Recommended Testing of Third Party Integration
The ILS Coordination Team will start testing various 3rd party programs and devices to interact with Alma and Primo. We are prioritizing these following systems to start with and continue to work on other services throughout the second test phase:

  • SIS (patron loader) in conjunction with campus
  • Barcode scanners
  • ID Card Readers
  • Spine-label printing
  • Circulation Desks printing
  • User printing
  • Financial System
  • Bursar System
  • Self-Check Out System

Updated View of UIU PrimoVE search results

Provides screenshot of PrimoVE search results

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ANNOUNCEMENTS: Grant Announcements for External Fundraisers
As always, if you are interested in all grant opportunities across disciplines, feel free to subscribe to the OVCR’s list at https://groups.webservices.illinois.edu/subscribe/19149.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Heidi Imker or Kathie Veach.

NEH Grants
There are no pending IMLS deadlines at this time.

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

08/15/2019 – Public Humanities Projects
Output: Reinterpretation Plans; Exhibition

08/28/2019 – University of Illinois – Campus Research Board NEW!

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

10/03/2019 – NHPRC – Access to Historical Records: Archival Projects

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

10/16/2019 – University of Illinois – Campus Research Board  NEW!

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

01/15/2020 – University of Illinois – Campus Research Board  NEW!

01/16/2020 – NHPRC – Access to Historical Records: Major Initiatives (Preliminary)

01/15/2020 – Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections
Output: Preservation Supplies/Equipment, Reports on Preventive Conservation

01/15/2020 – National Digital Newspaper Program
Output: Web Resources, Digitized Newspapers

02/05/2020 – Public Scholar Program
Output: Book

02/13/2020 – Summer Seminars and Institutes for Higher Education Faculty
Output: Conference/Institute/Seminar

02/13/2020 – Summer Seminars and Institutes for K-12 Faculty
Output: Conference/Institute/Seminar

03/04/2020 – University of Illinois – Campus Research Board  NEW!

03/04/2020 – Institutes for Advanced Topics in Digital Humanities  NEW!
Output: Conference/Institute/Seminar

04/08/2020 – NEH-Mellon Fellowships for Digital Publication NEW!
Output: Digital Material & Publications
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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.

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: Filled Positions

  • Sarah Harris – Archival Program Officer, University Archives (June 16)
  • Kate Nichols – Archival Program Officer, University Archives (June 16)
  • Quinita Balderson – Library Specialist, Interlibrary Loan and Document Delivery (July 15)

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IT NEWS: Zoom Pro for Library Faculty and Staff
Beginning July 1, 2019, Library faculty and staff will be granted a Zoom Pro license when using the University of Illinois Zoom Service found at https://illinois.zoom.us.

Zoom Pro video conferencing provides meeting and webinar functionality that enhances learning and collaboration among students, faculty, staff, and research partners. In addition, various plugins are available providing integrated scheduling of meetings/classes from within a variety of applications like Microsoft Outlook, Google Calendar, and several Learning Management Systems.

To access Zoom Pro, navigate to the URL noted with a Zoom supported web browser (Google Chrome is recommended) and click on “Sign in” and then login using your University credentials.

Zoom Pro features include:

  • Include up to 100 meeting participants (increase to 500 or 1000 for additional fee).
  • 24-hour meeting duration limit.
  • Create a waiting room or allow attendees to join before host.
  • Assign unique roles to meeting participants.
  • Create breakout rooms – Split your meeting into separate sessions.
  • In-meeting chat, nonverbal feedback (raise hand), create polls.
  • Host can mute or un-mute all participants.
  • Outlook, Google Calendar, Compass 2G, Moodle, Kaltura integrations.
  • Record meetings locally or to the cloud (a 1-hour recording is roughly 100mb in size).
  • Cloud Recording is limited to 1GB per user, and recordings are kept for 120 days.
  • Allow user-initiated recordings.
  • Recordings can include transcriptions.

For questions, support, or the purchase of add-on features such as meetings larger than 100 participants, webinars, or Zoom Rooms, contact Library Information Technology Help Desk via email help@library.illinois.edu or phone 217-244-4688.
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IT NEWS: Staffing Updates
We will have two new full-time staff members joining Library IT in July as Web Application Developers. John Rutherford is expected to start July 1, 2019, and Dan Dalpiaz is expected to start July 15, 2019. Please join me in giving them a warm welcome to the Library.
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FACILITIES: Facility Project Updates

  • ACES Funk Library – Additional Staff Offices – F&S working on contract with consultant to design office space for staff on the second floor. Design and construction documents to be complete in August 2019. Construction anticipated to be September December 2019.
  • Library Programming and Conceptual Design – Johnson Lasky Kindelin Architects & Brightspot Strategies are the consultants for the project. Part 1 validation, programming and space planning activities – draft report due end of May 2019. Part 2 conceptualization & design, prioritization & phasing – June 15 –July 7, 2019.
  • Main Library Roof and HVAC Exterior Ductwork Replacement F&S is working on the consultant selection process – Design and construction documents to be complete in August 2020. Construction December 2020 – September 2021.
  • Main Library – Reading Room 200 Renovation & Room 220 Conceptual Design Bid documents May 20, 2019. Bid and award set for August 2019. Construction August 2019 – February 2020.
  • Main Library – 1st Floor Central Service Point Construction June – September 2019.
  • Undergraduate Library – Elevator Replacement Hiring professional services consultant during June 2019. Design and construction documents complete December 2019. Construction March 2020 – March 2021.

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: Library IT Phase 1 – Basic Conference Room Training
Wednesday, July 3
10:00 – 11:00 a.m., 106 Main Library

Training is for full-time Library faculty and staff for the Library conference rooms in order to log on to the dedicated room PC.

Who needs training? Full-time Library employees that plan on hosting a meeting that requires using the Library Conference Room computer equipment will need training. This training is required only once. If you are a new Library Employee, or if you plan to video conference, host a webinar, or participate in a library search committee (regarding interviews and candidate presentation days), then the Library IT phase 1 training session is necessary in order to log in to the conference room computer and use the room equipment. Also, anyone who would like a training refresher is always welcome to attend.

We will go over what the rooms have to offer and where to find this information. Demos include laptop connection, using the dedicated room PC, sound checks, enlarging text within documents and websites, troubleshooting common issues, and using the wireless VIA application.

Due to limited seating, please sign up if you plan to attend.
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EVENTS AND TRAINING: Summer Open House at the Ikenberry Library
Wednesday, July 10th
12:00 – 4:00 p.m.

Stop by the Ikenberry Library to stock up on your summer entertainment needs! The Residence Hall Libraries have lots of great new books, audiobooks, DVDs, video games, board games, CDs, and magazines, all available for check-out with your I-Card. Light refreshments will be provided.” For more information, visit https://housing.illinois.edu/Resources/residence-hall-libraries/events.
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EVENTS AND TRAINING: Stress Management Workshop Series
The Staff Development & Training Committee is sponsoring a stress management workshop series by Michele Guerra, Director of Campus Wellbeing Services. Michele provided an overview of the series at the March 13 Building Project Update and there has been interest expressed in bringing this workshop series to the Library.

Michele has offered to present each session twice, on the same day, to accommodate different schedules. A brief summary of each session is listed below, as well as the date and two times it is presented. Please register for each session you would like to attend (participation is limited to 25 participants per session). All are welcome!

Session 3: Reducing stress by taming your mind, including understanding how your perceptions and thoughts impact your stress level, and practicing affirmation and/or meditation technique

Offered Tuesday, July 23 at either 10:00 – 11:30 a.m. or 1:30 – 3:00 p.m.

Session 4: Dealing with stress at work, which applies previously learned stress management tools to managing stressors at work, discusses strategies for coping with uncertain situations, and explores ways to resolve conflict

(Important: Please complete at least Session 1 before taking Session 4, as participants use techniques covered in these earlier sessions.)

Offered Tuesday, August 6 at either 10:00 – 11:30 a.m. or 1:30 – 3:00 p.m.

All sessions are in Library Room 220. Each of the 4 sessions will be recorded for those unable to attend and recordings will be made available shortly after sessions.

These sessions are approved Library events. Staff should request time for the event in advance from their supervisor, and be sensitive to coverage issues for the unit.

To register for session(s), please click on the session time you would like, above, or go to the Library Staff Calendar.

For questions, contact Jake MacGregor (jdmac@illinois.edu) or Zoe Revell (revell@illinois.edu).
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If you would like to submit content for the August issue of Library Office Notes, please submit it to Heather Murphy or Tom Teper by July 19, 2019.

June Library Office Notes


ANNOUNCEMENTS

HR NEWS

FACILITIES

EVENTS AND TRAINING



ANNOUNCEMENTS: University Librarian Note
Check back next month for a new Note from Dean Wilkin.
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: Library Building Project Update – 6/1/2019
Tom Teper, Associate Dean for Collections and Technical Services

Committees and Working Groups – Programming the Main Library
Over the last several months, the Working Group discussed workspace needs in the building (e.g., adjacencies, groups vs. individual workspaces, etc…), gathered information into a single “wish-list” of desirable attributes that can be taken into account as we work through the process, and sought to provide information about how we might realize the vision outlined for the project into a reality. This information was all conveyed to the Programming and Conceptual Design firms in advance of their on-site work earlier this month. Now, following three days of intensive interaction with the Programming and Conceptual Design firms on May 14 – 16, 2019, the Programming the Main Library Building WG last met as a group on May 28th. At that meeting, discussions turned toward next steps in the process and for the working group. At present, the working group is waiting for initial results of feedback from the Programming and Conceptual Design process, which will inform their future tasks.

Kirstin (Dougan) Johnson 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/. Questions or comments can be directed to the group at any time.

Committees and Working Groups – Collections
The Managing the Library’s Collections Working Group held an open forum on their draft plan for managing the library’s collections on May 21st, 2019. The working group continues seeking feedback on the draft framework through June 5th and will seek to incorporate the information gathered into a final set of recommendations to be sent to the Programming the Main Library WG shortly after June 27th, 2019.

As noted in the forum and in previous monthly updates, Paula Carns and Tom Teper indicated that the working group has mined a homegrown database that incorporates metadata for 10.7-million physical items in the catalog and 8.3-million circulation transactions dating from 2002 – October 2018. The Office of Collections and Technical Services ran reports on the use of materials in the Main Stacks. These reports paint a picture of how the locally-held collections are being used. The same office provided statistics on the holdings in the Main Stacks with regards to formats: books, journals, etc. A rough calculation of the numbers puts a total number of volumes from the Stacks holding location that (a) had evidence of use in the last twenty years regardless of the publication date of the item, (b) had been published after 1970 regardless of circulation history, and (c) had come from sets that were associated with anything that had evidence of circulation, totaled approximately 2.6-million volumes.

Additionally, the Working Group ran a campus-wide survey on the use of the Main Stacks. In sum, 69% of participants said that they used the Main Stacks for getting books, while only 41% (of the total) said they used the Library Catalog (as opposed to browsing) to learn about books. In the comments, the majority of participants expressed the need for being able to browse physical books in the Main Stacks and hope that this option will continue. Others, however, requested that the Library provide more access to electronic books, as they prefer this format. One concern repeatedly expressed was the hope that, if the Library does move more books to Remote Storage, the Library will provide quick and easy access to materials. Most respondents said they prefer electronic journals (62%) and thus do not see the need to have these print counterparts housed in Main Stacks. Very few participants expressed a great use of reference materials.

The Collections Working Group has been working earnestly on the conceptual framework for the Main Stacks. They agree that limiting the collection to materials in the arts, humanities, and social sciences—as opposed to the current configuration that includes all subjects—would have several benefits. First, such a configuration would harmonize well with the departmental libraries housed in the Main Library. Second, the faculty and students in these disciplines use the Main Stacks the most. The Working Group has also been considering criteria to help guide the departmental libraries in their collection policies. Its members hope to discuss some of their work at an open forum that will be announced in the coming month with follow-up discussions at the June faculty meeting.

In recent weeks, conversations have also turned toward the management of other media formats within the Library’s collections. For example, microform collections are currently held by multiple units, one of which (the History, Philosophy, and Newspaper Library) will lose its storage vault as the project progresses. We need to discuss the management of these collections going forward.

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/.

Committees and Working Groups – Special Collections Research Center (SCRC)
The Special Collections Research Center (SCRC) Working Group has continued meeting in preparation for working with our eventual Programming and Conceptual Design firm. Subgroups focused on Exhibits and Outreach; Public Services; Environment and Storage; and Logistics and Operations have been pulling together data in support of the forthcoming consulting 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/.

Committees and Working Groups – Library Consultation Working Group (Campus Level Cmte)
Members of the campus’ Library Consultation Working Group participated in the final day of the JLK/brightspot visioning session on May 16, 2019, hearing about progress made during the prior two days of visioning and contributing their own thoughts to the consulting firms about the evolving vision. Several members of that group also attended the Town Hall that was held on the afternoon of May 16th. The Working Group itself met on May 22nd, devoting that meeting to a tour of the Main Stacks. A portion of the working group’s forthcoming June 3rd meeting will be dedicated to learning about the findings from several recent library assessment activities.

Stress Management Workshops
The Staff Development & Training Committee is sponsoring a stress management workshop series by Michele Guerra, Director of Campus Wellbeing Services. Michele provided an overview of the series at the March 13th Building Project Update and there has been interest expressed in bringing this workshop series to the Library.

Michele has offered to present each session twice, on the same day, to accommodate different schedules. A brief summary of each session is listed below, as well as the date and two times it is presented. Please register for each session you would like to attend (participation is limited to 25 participants per session). All are welcome!

Session 1: Getting a handle on stress, including identifying and analyzing your current coping tools and building an effective stress management toolbox

Offered Tuesday, June 4 at either 10:00 – 11:30 a.m. or 1:30 – 3:00 p.m.

Session 2: Learning to relax, which covers how stress affects you physically and how to select a relaxation technique(s) that work for you

Offered Tuesday, June 11 at either 10:00 – 11:30 a.m. or 1:30 – 3:00 p.m.

Session 3: Reducing stress by taming your mind, including understanding how your perceptions and thoughts impact your stress level, and practicing affirmation and/or meditation technique

Offered Tuesday, July 23 at either 10:00 – 11:30 a.m. or 1:30 – 3:00 p.m.

Session 4: Dealing with stress at work, which applies previously learned stress management tools to managing stressors at work, discusses strategies for coping with uncertain situations, and explores ways to resolve conflict

(Important: Please complete at least Session 1 before taking Session 4, as participants use techniques covered in these earlier sessions.)

Offered Tuesday, August 6 at either 10:00 – 11:30 a.m. or 1:30 – 3:00 p.m.

All sessions are in Library Room 220. Each of the 4 sessions will be recorded for those unable to attend and recordings will be made available shortly after sessions. These sessions are approved Library events. Staff should request time for the event in advance from their supervisor, and be sensitive to coverage issues for the unit. To register for session(s), please click on the session time you would like, above, or go to the Library Staff Calendar.

For questions, contact Jake MacGregor (jdmac@illinois.edu) or Zoe Revell (revell@illinois.edu).

Contracts and Firms
As noted in earlier updates, the University Library is working with an architectural firm to help with the programming activities. Chicago-based Johnson, Lasky, Kindelin (JLK) Architects is the approved firm, and they are working with a firm known as brightspot strategy to help the University Library and our campus partners to begin developing the program for the Library Building Project. More information on JLK Architects, including information on other projects they have helped develop, can be found on the company’s website: http://www.jlkarch.com/. brightspot strategy’s website can be found here: https://www.brightspotstrategy.com/.

Following the March 14, 2019 kick-off meeting, activities have moved forward at a reasonable pace with JLK and brightspot personnel on-site to lead three days of visioning activities focused on the Main Library Building. These sessions took place on May 14 – 16, 2019, and follow-up calls/discussions have been held with members of project leadership and the firms on May 22nd and 24th. These Main Library Building-centered activities are occurring as part of the Validation, Programming, and Space Planning Activities in the schedule below. Presently, the Library is awaiting the 50% documents from JLK and brightspot. I anticipate a fuller discussion of the meetings, the process, and their initial recommendations at the upcoming June quarterly update meeting.

In the meantime, a separate contract is being prepared in order to bring JLK on board as a Programming and Conceptual Design firm for the Special Collections Research Center (SCRC). The hope is to dovetail these two projects. And, similar Validation, Programming, and Space Planning activities will be scheduled for that group.

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 was held on March 13, 2019, starting at 3:30 – 4:30 in 66 Main Library. The fourth Quarterly Update is scheduled for June 18, 2019 from 10:00 – 11:30. We anticipate that the live stream provided by 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.
  • ITHAKA Faculty Survey – The ITHAKA Faculty Survey has been completed. For those that are interested in viewing some of the feedback received as part of that survey or others conducted as part of Library Assessment, please go here: https://www.library.illinois.edu/staff/assessment/libsurv/.

Facilities Schedules
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 and is serving on the feasibility study being conducted related to the instructional facility that may be situated adjacent to the Main Library as well as initial work related to the Special Collections Building.

As noted earlier, the University Library recently received approval to work with JLK Architects and brightspot strategy. Based on the kick-off date of March 14, 2019, the schedule below represents the most current estimated project timeline for this phase.

Library Redevelopment Plan Programming and Conceptual Design Study Table

In addition to the Main Library Building project, Dennis Craig recently prepared a preliminary schedule for the first phase of the Special Collections Facility Programming Study. This schedule will be adjusted as necessary once the final contract is approved and signed.

Undergraduate Library - Special Collections Facility Programming Study Table

Long-Term Project Schedule
Following the completion of the initial Programming and Conceptual Design phase, the schedule below represents a best guess as to the project schedule through December 2024.

Library Redevelopment - Design/Bid/Build Table

Outreach and Engagement
The first town-hall style event with the Programming and Conceptual Design firm was held on May 16, 2019 in 66 Main Library from 3:00 – 4:00 p.m. Further town-hall style events will be held in late summer and early fall.

Tom Teper is scheduled to talk to the iSchool alumni on July 13th during their on campus event.
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: 2019 Reference Retreat Slides Available
If you missed this year’s Reference Retreat and are curious about the presentations from the Office of Research, slides are available here: https://uofi.box.com/s/fejt79kqil003vc8gzbgqqkmr50fpcef.

Members of the units in the Office of Research—the Scholarly Commons, the Research Data Service, and Scholarly Communication and Publishing—are always happy to answer any questions you may have and our thanks to the Reference Management Team for collaborating on this event!
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: Integrated Library System (ILS) Implementation
Michael Norman, Discovery Services Librarian and ILS Coordinator

There has been a lot of activity occurring in the Vanguard ILS Test Phase over the last month. Here are some of those details:

April 26th to April 30th — Ex Libris successfully extracted our Voyager and SFX data and records and migrated it over to UIUC Library’s test Instances of Alma and Primo. Overall, it took about 3.5 days (82 hours) to complete the extraction. Both the CARLI Office and members of the ILS Implementation Team were observing the process to see if production activity was impacted from the extraction and we did not detect any noticeable slow-down of processes. This will be good information to have for later extractions of our data.

May 21st – After the extraction of our data and then the mapping process of data to Alma structure, we were delivered a test instance of our Alma System. We are currently testing how our data and records migrated over and how it mapped over from the configuration information we supplied to Ex Libris in building up the Acquisitions, Cataloging/Resource Management, Fulfillment/Circulation, User Management, and Analytics sections of the system. See the screenshots below for the initial Alma Dashboard screen and dropdown options in the Resources Management section:

Alma Dashboard and Resource Management Pull-down Menu

We have encountered duplication (and even some triplication in some instances) of e-resource records from the migration of our data over to Alma. We had anticipated some of this because of the different ways Alma/Primo represents electronic resources. Ex Libris had warned all the Vanguard libraries of the eventuality of this. We will be doing some clean-up of the duplication in this test phase to get the experience needed to prepare for the future 2nd Test Phase (with all 91 I-Share libraries participating) in September 2019.

Week of May 27th – The Library will receive a complete test instance of our Primo Discovery instance. This version of Primo is very different from the one that the Library experimented back in 2012-2014. The library is configuring this version to basically replace the Voyager and VuFind online catalog search. We will be activating a few electronic and digital collections within the Primo Central Index, including IDEALS, HathiTrust public domain titles, Biodiversity Heritage Library, Center for Research Libraries (CRL) holdings, several Alexander Street Press collections, ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global, and Naxos Digital Library. If there are additional collections we would want to experiment with activating in the central index, please let the ILS Implementation Team know and we will give it a try during this test instance. See screenshot images below of the UIUC Library’s Primo test instance:

Screenshots of Library's Primo Test Instance

Meeting with Departmental Libraries to discuss Library Location structures in Alma/Primo
Now that we know the Library Location structure in Alma and how these display in Primo Discovery, members of the ILS Implementation Team (Cherie’ Weible, Janelle Sander, Chris Prom, and Michael Norman) will be visiting the separate Divisions in late June and July to demonstrate and discuss the Library Location structure in both Alma and Primo. The Library Location and representation of the various collections in a departmental library is different than what we have in Voyager. We will work with the Libraries to update location and collection information and how it is represented in the online catalog and get this setup properly for the next Test Phase in September 2019.

Second Test Phase of Alma/Primo – Migration and Configuration forms due by mid-August
The ILS Coordination Team just received the Migration and Configuration forms for the second phase of the Alma/Primo implementation. After testing various aspects of the migration of our data over the next weeks, we will be updating the data from the first forms we filled out for the Vanguard Test phase. The due dates for completing these forms for this second test phase (for all 91 I-Share libraries) will be by the middle of August 2019.

Library-wide information sessions on Alma/Primo implementation
The ILS Implementation Team will have 3 identical information sessions (same information in each session) in late July and early August to give updates on the Vanguard Test Phase. We are learning a lot and want to pass on that knowledge to the rest of the Library as well. We will also discuss the future stages of the implementation work including 1) the 2nd Test Phase to occur from September 2019 to April/May 2020 and 2) the Final Implementation and Go-Live dates in Summer 2020. We will also go over training plans we will put in place to get everyone prepared and ready to start utilizing Alma and Primo next year.

The dates for the Alma/Primo Implementation sessions are:

  • Tuesday, July 23rd, 1 – 2 p.m. in Room 106
  • Tuesday, July 30th, 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. in Room 106
  • Tuesday, August 6th, 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. in Room 106

We will have a presentation to share for anyone not able to attend the information sessions.

Test-group of users to help test and improve Primo search and interface
For the Fall Semester 2019 and then also for Spring Semester 2020, the ILS Implementation Team will create a test group of Library personnel and some of our power users to help us examine and review the new Primo system and its integration into Easy Search Bento. We will put out calls in both semesters to build on this expertise from our users to help improve Primo search, interface configuration, and operability of the My Account functions. If you have individuals in mind that might be good to recruit to help with this testing of Primo, please contact Michael Norman at manorman@illinois.edu.
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: Grant Announcements for External Fundraisers
As always, if you are interested in all grant opportunities across disciplines, feel free to subscribe to the OVCR’s list at https://groups.webservices.illinois.edu/subscribe/19149.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Heidi Imker or Kathie Veach.

NEH Grants
There are no pending IMLS deadlines at this time.

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

08/15/2019 – Public Humanities Projects
Output: Reinterpretation Plans; Exhibition

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

10/03/2019 – NHPRC – Access to Historical Records: Archival Projects NEW!

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

01/16/2020 – NHPRC – Access to Historical Records: Major Initiatives (Preliminary) NEW!

01/15/2020 – Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections
Output: Preservation Supplies/Equipment, Reports on Preventive Conservation

01/15/2020 – National Digital Newspaper Program
Output: Web Resources, Digitized Newspapers

02/05/2020 – Public Scholar Program
Output: Book

02/13/2020 – Summer Seminars and Institutes for Higher Education Faculty
Output: Conference/Institute/Seminar

02/13/2020 – Summer Seminars and Institutes for K-12 Faculty
Output: Conference/Institute/Seminar
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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 May LTOTM at https://emails.illinois.edu/newsletter/214879.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: Vacancies

  • Library Specialist, Interlibrary Loan and Document Delivery – interviewing
  • Library Operations Associate, Undergraduate Library – posting soon

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HR NEWS: Departures

  • Naomi Crow, Retirement (May 31)
  • Bridgette LeSure, Retirement (May 31)
  • Ida Vineyard, Retirement (May 31)
  • Jessica LeCrone, Resignation (June 28)
  • Melody Allison, Retirement (June 30)
  • Silda Andrick, Retirement (June 30)
  • Kathy Danner, Retirement (June 30)
  • Donna Davis-Pearson, Retirement (June 30)
  • Mary Mallory, Retirement (June 30)
  • Tina Reinhart, Retirement (June 30)
  • Jeff Schrader, Retirement (June 30)

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HR NEWS: Filled Positions

  • Chris Bailey, Visiting Information Sciences Librarian (May 16)
  • Theresa Appiah, Business & Human Resources Service Center (June 3)
  • Diane Griswell, Communications Library (June 10)
  • Spencer Keralis, Digital Humanities Librarian (June 16)

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FACILITIES: Facility Project Updates

  • ACES Funk Library – Additional Staff Offices – F&S working on contract with consultant to design office space for staff on the second floor. Design and construction documents to be complete in August 2019. Construction anticipated to be September December 2019.
  • Library Programming and Conceptual Design – Johnson Lasky Kindelin Architects & Brightspot Strategies are the consultants for the project. Part 1 validation, programming and space planning activities – draft report due end of May 2019. Part 2 conceptualization & design, prioritization & phasing – June 15 –July 7, 2019.
  • Main Library Roof and HVAC Exterior Ductwork Replacement F&S is working on the consultant selection process – Design and construction documents to be complete in August 2020. Construction December 2020 – September 2021.
  • Main Library – Reading Room 200 Renovation & Room 220 Conceptual Design Bid documents May 20, 2019. Bid and award set for August 2019. Construction August 2019 – February 2020.
  • Main Library – 1st Floor Central Service Point Construction June – September 2019.
  • Undergraduate Library – Elevator Replacement Hiring professional services consultant during June 2019. Design and construction documents complete December 2019. Construction March 2020 – March 2021.

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: ALCTS Webinar

Session 1: Organizing for Change
June 4
1:00 – 2:00 p.m., 225B Main Library

How do we get our libraries from where they are to where we want them to be? Advocacy for the things that matter isn’t magic. It begins and ends with library skills: clarifying demands, making lists, talking to each other, and coming together when it matters. Drawing on experience from both union and library work, this presentation will offer strategies for building power collectively in order to move us, our libraries, and our communities forward.

Session 2: Trouble Your Magic: Technical Services is Advocacy
June 5
1:00 – 2:00 p.m., 225B Main Library

Library workers in technical services and technologist roles are significant actors in shaping library cultures. How can we become conscious advocates in our systems, standards, and initiatives? How can we challenge the narrative that library systems happen elsewhere? This talk describes ongoing tensions in technical services work while offering potential points of entry for library workers interested in advocacy from ‘behind the scenes’ positions.
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EVENTS AND TRAINING: Stress Management Workshop Series
The Staff Development & Training Committee is sponsoring a stress management workshop series by Michele Guerra, Director of Campus Wellbeing Services. Michele provided an overview of the series at the March 13 Building Project Update and there has been interest expressed in bringing this workshop series to the Library.

Michele has offered to present each session twice, on the same day, to accommodate different schedules. A brief summary of each session is listed below, as well as the date and two times it is presented. Please register for each session you would like to attend (participation is limited to 25 participants per session). All are welcome!

Session 1: Getting a handle on stress, including identifying and analyzing your current coping tools and building an effective stress management toolbox

Offered Tuesday, June 4 at either 10:00 – 11:30 a.m. or 1:30 – 3:00 p.m.

Session 2: Learning to relax, which covers how stress affects you physically and how to select a relaxation technique(s) that work for you

Offered Tuesday, June 11 at either 10:00 – 11:30 a.m. or 1:30 – 3:00 p.m.

Session 3: Reducing stress by taming your mind, including understanding how your perceptions and thoughts impact your stress level, and practicing affirmation and/or meditation technique

Offered Tuesday, July 23 at either 10:00 – 11:30 a.m. or 1:30 – 3:00 p.m.

Session 4: Dealing with stress at work, which applies previously learned stress management tools to managing stressors at work, discusses strategies for coping with uncertain situations, and explores ways to resolve conflict

(Important: Please complete at least Session 1 before taking Session 4, as participants use techniques covered in these earlier sessions.)

Offered Tuesday, August 6 at either 10:00 – 11:30 a.m. or 1:30 – 3:00 p.m.

All sessions are in Library Room 220. Each of the 4 sessions will be recorded for those unable to attend and recordings will be made available shortly after sessions.

These sessions are approved Library events. Staff should request time for the event in advance from their supervisor, and be sensitive to coverage issues for the unit.

To register for session(s), please click on the session time you would like, above, or go to the Library Staff Calendar.

For questions, contact Jake MacGregor (jdmac@illinois.edu) or Zoe Revell (revell@illinois.edu).
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EVENTS AND TRAINING: Library Blood Drive
The Blood Mobile will be parked in the Undergraduate Library circle drive from 10:30 a.m. – 3:10 p.m., June 6th. Sign up on the Staff Calendar, https://uiuc.libcal.com/calendar/staff
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EVENTS AND TRAINING: Brooks’s Birthday Celebration
June 7
3 – 5 p.m., 346 Main Library

Brooks's Birthday Celebration

Join the Rare Book and Manuscript Library for a birthday celebration honoring Gwendolyn Brooks on Friday, June 7th from 3 – 5 p.m. You’ll learn about the writings and impact of our former Illinois Poet Laureate through readings of her work, performances, cake, and more.
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EVENTS AND TRAINING: MLA Webinars

Critical Appraisal for Librarians: Evaluating Randomized Controlled Trials
June 11
1:00 – 2:30 p.m., Room 225B Main Library
Gain skills in reading and evaluating randomized controlled trial (RCT) studies and increased confidence in your ability to contribute to evidence-based medicine (EBM).

Critical Contributions: Developing Research Appraisal Skills at Your Institution
June 26
1:00 – 2:30 p.m., Room 225B Main Library

Learn why critical appraisal is an emerging need in health sciences programs, how librarians can fill a gap in critical appraisal expertise, and how you can increase your involvement in the evidence-based medicine (EBM) curriculum at your institution.
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EVENTS AND TRAINING: NISO Webinars

Discovery and Online Search Part One: Drivers of Change in Online Search
June 12
12:00 – 1:30 p.m., 428 Main Library

Discovery and Online Search Part Two: Personalized Content, Personal Data
June 19
12:00 – 1:30 p.m., 428 Main Library

We all know that automated personal assistants can find you the closest gas station or sushi spot. But can that same technology be programmed to find the best ten articles for a student’s assignment? The capability is unclear, as is the advisability of the task. But what is clear is that voice-driven technology as well as arbitrary algorithms are changing the ways in which users may be driving or directed in their information tasks. Taxonomies, controlled vocabularies, and similar tools have been used for decades in delivering effective online search. But now, with Alexa and Siri potentially being in the room, shouldn’t libraries and vendors be talking about what’s operating under the hood?
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EVENTS AND TRAINING: “Writers and Their Tools” Exhibition
June 17 – August 30
346 Main Library

This summer exhibition will feature six different typewriters, including those belonging to Illinois alumni Roger Ebert and Hugh Hefner (both on loan).
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If you would like to submit content for the July issue of Library Office Notes, please submit it to Heather Murphy or Tom Teper by June 21, 2019.

May Library Office Notes


ANNOUNCEMENTS

HR NEWS

IT NEWS

FACILITIES

EVENTS AND TRAINING



ANNOUNCEMENTS: University Librarian Note
Our 2019 budget meeting with the provost was encouraging, with substantial and engaged questions, including some that suggest sympathy with (if not a promise of support) for Library initiatives. Before a recap of the meeting and inviting you to read the tea leaves along with me, I’d like to share some thoughts about the range of dynamics in these budget meetings. Read more…
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: Library Building Project Update – 5/1/2019
Tom Teper, Associate Dean for Collections and Technical Services

Committees and Working Groups – Programming the Main Library
The Programming the Main Library Building WG last met as a group on April 30th. At that meeting, Jen Yu and John Laskowski presented summary findings from the Library Building Project Salons as well as data from the recently completed Ithaka Undergraduate Survey and earlier Ithaka surveys. Following that presentation, the group discussed workspace needs in the building (e.g., adjacencies, groups vs. individual workspaces, etc…). In preparation for a series of mid-May meetings with the programming and conceptual design team, the working group will endeavor to transfer information gathered thus far into a single “wish-list” of desirable attributes that can be taken into account as we work through the process. 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/.

Committees and Working Groups – Collections
The Managing the Library’s Collections Working Group last met on April 29, 2019. There are three more meetings for this group on the calendar: May 2nd, May 16th, and June 27th, 2019. In a recent summary document prepared for the Senate Committee on the Library, Paula Carns and Tom Teper indicated that the working group has been mining a homegrown database that incorporates metadata for 10.7-million physical items in the catalog and 8.3-million circulation transactions dating from 2002 – October 2018. The Office of Collections and Technical Services has run a series of reports on the use of materials in the Main Stacks. These reports are beginning to paint a picture of how the locally-held collections are being used. The same office provided statistics on the holdings in the Main Stacks with regards to formats: books, journals, etc. A rough calculation of the numbers puts a total number of volumes from the Stacks holding location that (a) had evidence of use in the last twenty years regardless of the publication date of the item, (b) had been published after 1970 regardless of circulation history, and (c) had come from sets that were associated with anything that had evidence of circulation, totaled approximately 2.6-million volumes.

The Working Group has met with the following individuals:

  • The Head of the Map Library – to discuss the maps held in the Main Stacks as well as in the Map Library;
  • The Head of the History, Philosophy, and Newspaper Library – to discuss the future of the microfilm collection attached to this unit, which currently is within the footprint of the Main Stacks;
  • And, the Head of Research and Information Services – to discuss the reference collection housed just inside of the entrance to the Main Stacks.

The Working Group also ran a campus-wide survey on the use of the Main Stacks. The number and type of participants were:
Survey Participants

Brief Summary of Results: 69% of participants said that they used the Main Stacks for getting books, while only 41% (of the total) said they used the Library Catalog (as opposed to browsing) to learn about books. In the comments, the majority of participants expressed the need for being able to browse physical books in the Main Stacks and hope that this option will continue. Others, however, requested that the Library provide more access to electronic books, as they prefer this format. One concern repeatedly expressed was the hope that, if the Library does move more books to Remote Storage, the Library will provide quick and easy access to materials. Most respondents said they prefer electronic journals (62%) and thus do not see the need to have these print counterparts housed in Main Stacks. Very few participants expressed a great use of reference materials.

The Working Group is keeping the results of the survey in mind as it moves forward.

The Collections Working Group has been working earnestly on the conceptual framework for the Main Stacks. They agree that limiting the collection to materials in the arts, humanities, and social sciences – as opposed to the current configuration that includes all subjects – would have several benefits. First, such a configuration would harmonize well with the departmental libraries housed in the Main Library. Second, the faculty and students in these disciplines use the Main Stacks the most. The Working Group has also been considering criteria to help guide the departmental libraries in their collection policies.

Its members hope to discuss some of their work at an open forum that will be announced in the coming month with follow-up discussions at the June faculty meeting.

In recent weeks, conversations have also turned toward the management of other media formats within the Library’s collections. For example, microform collections are currently held by multiple units, one of which (the History, Philosophy, and Newspaper Library) will lose its storage vault as the project progresses. We need to discuss the management of these collections going forward.

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/.

Committees and Working Groups – Special Collections Research Center (SCRC)
The kick-off meeting for the Special Collections Research Center (SCRC) was held on April 18, 2019 with Joanne Kaczmarek serving as the chair. Prior to the kick-off meeting, the entire Special Collections Division toured the Undergraduate Library in order to examine both public and back-office spaces, including the mechanical rooms that house HVAC equipment and emergency pumping equipment. During the initial kick-off meeting, the members began discussing and drafting an update to an existing vision statement for such a building as well as potential sub-groups that would be drawn upon to help address particular questions around topics such as: Exhibits and Outreach; Public Services; Environment and Storage; etc…. Moving quickly, the working group held its second meeting on April 29, 2019, discussing background information that might be provided to the consulting firms in the next couple weeks.

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/.

Committees and Working Groups – Library Consultation Working Group (Campus Level Cmte)
The Provost, Vice Chancellor for Research, and Dean of Libraries kicked-off a campus-wide committee on April 19, 2019. This short-term working group will work over the summer in order to provide input and guidance on the Library Building Project. They will be engaged to work with members of the University Library as well as the Programming and Conceptual Design Firm – Johnson, Lasky, Kindelin Architects.

Contracts and Firms
The University Library received approval to begin work with an architectural firm to help with the programming activities effective February 22, 2019. Chicago-based Johnson, Lasky, Kindelin (JLK) Architects is the approved firm, and they will be working with a firm knows as BrightSpot Strategy to help the University Library and our campus partners to begin developing the program for the Library Building Project. More information on JLK Architects, including information on other projects they have helped develop, can be found on the company’s website: http://www.jlkarch.com/. BrightSpot Strategy’s website can be found here: https://www.brightspotstrategy.com/.

A kick-off meeting was held on March 14, 2019. Presently, the University Library is working to schedule a visit on May 14 – 16th for JLK and Brightspot in order for them to meet with working groups, members of the Library administration, members of the campus’ Library Consultation Working Group, and others in order to help bring together information gathered thus far. This information about the Main Library Building is being gathered as part of the Validation, Programming, and Space Planning Activities in the schedule below.

In the meantime, a separate contract is being prepared in order to bring JLK on board as a Programming and Conceptual Design firm for the Special Collections Research Center (SCRC). The hope is to dovetail these two projects. And, similar Validation, Programming, and Space Planning activities will be scheduled for that group.

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 was held on March 13, 2019, starting at 3:30 – 4:30 p.m. in 66 Main Library. The fourth Quarterly Update is scheduled for June 17, 2019 from 10:00 – 11:30 a.m. We anticipate that the live stream provided by 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.
  • ITHAKA Faculty Survey – The ITHAKA Faculty Survey went live several weeks ago and included some questions for members of the faculty related to the Library Building.

Facilities Schedules
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 and is serving on the feasibility study being conducted related to the instructional facility that may be situated adjacent to the Main Library.

As noted earlier, the University Library recently received approval to work with JLK Architects and BrightSpot Strategies. Based on the kick off date of March 14, 2019, the schedule below represents the most current estimated project timeline for this phase – the highlighted portion representing where we are at present.

Long-Term Project Schedule
Following the completion of the initial Programming and Conceptual Design phase, the schedule below represents a best guess as to the project schedule through December 2024.

Outreach and Engagement
As noted in the last Quarterly Update, the Library held the last “Salon” for Library personnel in early April 2019.

The two scheduled focus groups for undergraduate students were canceled for lack of interest.

John Wilkin, Paula Carns, and Kirstin Dougan met with the Senate Committee on the Library on April 19, 2019 in order to discuss the activities of our Programming and Collections Working Groups.

Tom Teper met with the Staff Development and Training Committee in mid-April to discuss potential avenues for that body to contribute to the Library Building Project. After a follow-up conversation with the Dean and AULs, the committee will begin working with Michelle Guerro about possible sessions in the summer/fall related to Stress Management. The intent will be to hold sessions in both the morning and afternoon in order to maximize potential attendance.

Finally, we will be working in the spring to find opportunities for broader town-hall type discussions. The first of these will be an open forum with the Programming and Conceptual Design firm that was announced via e-Week and LibNews. It will be held on May 16, 2019 in 66 Main Library from 3:00 – 4:00 p.m.
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: Grant Requests
The members of the Research and Publication Committee would like to remind everyone that we have opened up requests for funding to tenured faculty and academic professionals this semester, and the fiscal year is approaching fast! Tenure track faculty should also continue to reach out to us for funding of course. Please see the RPC webpages at https://www.library.illinois.edu/staff/committee/research-and-publication-committee/ and read more about what we fund at https://www.library.illinois.edu/staff/policies-for-award-approval/. Let us know if you have any questions. We are always happy to work with you on your grant request.

Also, consider indicating your interest in serving on this committee when the call for volunteers comes out!

  • Lynne M Rudasill (Aug 2017 – Aug 2019)
  • Merinda Kaye Hensley (Aug 2017 – Aug 2019)
  • Shuyong Jiang (Aug 2017 – Aug 2019)
  • David Morris (Aug 2017 – Aug 2019)
  • Seth Robbins (Aug 2018 – Aug 2020)
  • Jennifer Teper (Aug 2018 – Aug 2020)
  • Heidi Imker (ex officio – AUL for Research)

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ANNOUNCEMENTS: Robert Howerton Scholarship
The Research and Publication Committee of the University Library is issuing a call for proposals for the Robert Howerton Scholarship for Library Pre-Professional Graduate Assistant Research.

Robert Howerton worked as a Senior Library Specialist at the University Library for 15 years. In this capacity, Robert cataloged Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies materials, and mentored graduate students in the pre-professional program. He was passionate about education, music, and public service. His generosity and remarkable patience helped graduate students thrive and succeed as young professionals. Some of these students are now librarians and catalogers. Robert’s story is a testament to the many positive roles played by civil service staff on a daily basis.

The scholarship is designed to support pre-professional graduate assistants as they do research projects in reference and technical services with the goal of publishing their work. The Research and Publication Committee will administer the scholarship. Please contact the Office of Library Advancement at 217-333-5682 if you would like to donate to this fund.

Eligibility requirements:

  • Restricted to students with a pre-professional graduate assistantship position at the University Library;
  • Candidates must intend to pursue a career as reference or technical service professionals, and to present their project findings in the form of a research paper at a local, regional, or international conference or in a LIS journal;
  • Research projects should target improving access to library services and collections.

Possible funding targets:

  • Travel to archives and other institutions for research;
  • Incentives for subject participation in user studies;
  • Purchase of materials or ancillary cost.

The number of proposals the committee approves will determine the amount of funding of up to $500 per grant. This is not a travel grant. Please contact the iSchool or the Graduate College to learn about funding for conference related travel grants.

Students should go to https://forms.illinois.edu/sec/8088921 to apply. The deadline for submission is May 22, 2019 at 5:00 p.m.

We are looking forward to hearing from these students so please share widely with the graduate students who work with you.
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: New AFRO-PWW Publication
Scholarly Communication and Publishing is happy to announce its newest publication through IOPN and Publishing Without Walls. Moving ahead with our monthly spring AFRO PWW releases, marilyn m. thomas-houston’s iBlack Studies was published Friday, March 29. This is our first publication to go live using Omeka and also the first using multiple platforms with an entry point through Scalar.

Title: iBlack Studies: An Interdisciplinary, Integrative and Interactive Approach
Edited by: marilyn m. thomas-houston

Synopsis: Rooted in long-incubated plans to use digital methods to explore the Black experience and from a 2006 gathering organized by editor marilyn m. thomas-houston, iBlack Studies introduces readers to the interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary field of Black Studies. Serving as a hub for accessing collections of research and resources on the Black experience by providing a no-cost open access home for digitized and born-digital research and minimally distributed publications, its resources include but are not limited to fieldnotes, video and audio recordings, datasets, and conference papers and proceedings. The hub is expected to grow, with new sections contributed by scholars interested in the creation of an online, no-cost, open-source presence for their work.
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: Integrated Library System (ILS) Implementation
Michael Norman, Discovery Services Librarian and ILS Coordinator

As many of you know, the Library will migrate over to a new cataloging system by Fall 2020. In an effort to make the transition as smooth as possible, I will be communicating to Library faculty and staff via LIB-NEWS and providing regular updates about the project in each issue of LON moving forward (through implementation). A dedicated set of web pages devoted to the project are being created for internal reference and will be up and running soon. I’m also providing monthly reports to the Content Access Policy & Technology (CAPT) Committee and those appear in CAPT meeting minutes found here.
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: Holiday Schedule
President Killeen has announced that the University will be closed December 27, 30, and 31 for the holiday break.
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: Grant Announcements for External Fundraisers
As always, if you are interested in all grant opportunities across disciplines, feel free to subscribe to the OVCR’s list at https://groups.webservices.illinois.edu/subscribe/19149.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Heidi Imker or Kathie Veach.

NEH Grants
There are no pending IMLS deadlines at this time.

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

06/19/2019 – Digital Humanities Advancement Grants  NEW!
Output: Curricular Materials, Course, Book, Article, Report, Computer Programs, Database/Archive/Digital Edition

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

08/15/2019 – Public Humanities Projects NEW!
Output: Reinterpretation Plans; Exhibition

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

01/15/2020 – Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections
Output: Preservation Supplies/Equipment, Reports on Preventive Conservation

01/15/2020 – National Digital Newspaper Program
Output: Web Resources, Digitized Newspapers

02/05/2020 – Public Scholar Program NEW!
Output: Book

02/13/2020 – Summer Seminars and Institutes for Higher Education Faculty NEW!
Output: Conference/Institute/Seminar

02/13/2020 – Summer Seminars and Institutes for K-12 Faculty NEW!
Output: Conference/Institute/Seminar
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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 April LTOTM at https://emails.illinois.edu/newsletter/214879.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: Vacancies

  • Library Specialist, Communications – interviews completed
  • Business/Administrative associate, BHRSC – Master Referral received, interviews in progress

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HR NEWS: Departures

  • Gil Witte, Retirement (May 31)
  • Miriam Centeno, Resignation (May 31)

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HR NEWS: In Memoriam

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IT NEWS: No Change Period
Library IT will observe a no-change period leading up to and through final exams. IT will make no changes to production services between 12:01 a.m. Monday, April 29, through 11:59 p.m. on Friday, May 10. Changes may still be made if necessary for stability or security, but as many changes as possible will be deferred until after commencement.
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IT NEWS: Skype for Business Persistent Chat Rooms to Retire

What’s Happening
Microsoft has announced that they will not include Persistent Chat Room functionality in the Skype for Business 2019 Server.

The Persistent Chat Room service will be retired on May 31, 2019.

What’s the Impact
Existing chat rooms and messages will no longer be accessible after this date. Private instant messaging and messaging in Skype for Business meetings (conference calls) will be unaffected. There will be minimal to no impact to the Skype for Business service.

Alternatives
Microsoft Teams supports persistent chats with threaded conversations, private discussions, and add-ons for items like Office documents, GitHub, Trello, and more.

You can access the web version or download Windows and Mac clients through the Office 365 Portal at https://office.com or https://teams.microsoft.com. iOS and Android apps can be downloaded from their respective app stores.

Support
If you have any questions, please contact the Technology Services Help Desk at consult@illinois.edu or 244-7000.
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FACILITIES: Facility Project Updates

  • ACES Funk Library – Additional Staff Offices – F&S finalizing consultant contract to design office space for staff on the second floor.
  • Library Programming and Conceptual Design – Johnson Lasky Kindelin Architects & Brightspot Strategies are the consultants for the project and a kickoff meeting took place March 14, 2019. Town Hall and Planning Meeting Set for the middle of May.
  • Main Library – Reading Room 200 Renovation & Room 220 Conceptual Design 95% construction drawings arrived for review and review set for May 9, 2019.
  • Main Library – 1st Floor Central Service Point Construction documents are complete and F&S is seeking cost from the Job Order Contracting group.

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: Suicide Awareness and Prevention Workshop
May 2
1:00 – 3:00 p.m., 106 Main Library

May is Mental Health Awareness month. Sebastian Klein from Angel Forever Foundation will do a presentation on suicide awareness and prevention titled, Filling the Void.

“FILLING THE VOID relates to the biggest obstacle in suicide prevention; SILENCE. The SILENCE STIGMA creates a veil of ” we shouldn’t talk about our challenges with mental health”. It silences the individual and it silences us as a community.

FILLING THE VOID also means helping inform and educate on mental health awareness and the challenges that come with it. Often an individual struggles to express what they feel because they don’t understand what is happening themselves.

Simply, because of stigma, the veil it creates, and the silence that hides behind it, what is left is THE VOID.

Angel Forever hopes to help in making a difference by FILLING THE VOID.”
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EVENTS AND TRAINING: #ColorOurCollections Open House
May 2
3 – 5 p.m., 346 Main Library

#ColorOurCollections Event

Color with us at the Rare Book and Manuscript Library! We’ll have coloring pages from some of our favorites in the collection that you can take home, and the books that inspired the pages will be on view. Come see how your masterpieces stack up to the originals!

Snacks & coloring supplies provided. Refreshments will be served.
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EVENTS AND TRAINING: Research and Publication Webinar Series – Part 5 – Communicating Impact Using Data Visualization
May 8
1:00 – 2:00 p.m., 428 Main Library

You’ve collected all your data, analyzed the results, and are ready to present it to the world–but how? Data visualization offers a wide variety of options, but choosing the best method for relaying your findings is tricky. Differences in audiences and applications can be difficult to understand or navigate. This webinar will demonstrate principles and tools to help technical services units and staff communicate their work and research. It will include discussions of how audience drives the narratives we use, what data points are effective for particular stakeholders, and what tools can help best visualize those data points.

This webinar series is presented by the Research and Publication Committee of the Cataloging and Metadata Management Section (CaMMS).
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EVENTS AND TRAINING: Strategic Planning Retreat
May 14
8:30 – 1:00 p.m., 200 Main Library

All Library employees are encouraged to attend the Library Strategic Planning retreat which will be held Tuesday, May 14 from 8:30am-1:00pm in 200 Library. The Library will be closed during this time. Coffee, hot tea, and water will be served in the morning and a lunch will be served at 12pm.  Again, we encourage everyone to attend. Those who do not wish to attend should work with their unit head to request a vacation day (or half-day) or make arrangements with their unit head to work in the unit that morning. For questions, please contact Library Human Resources at 333-8169.

Please register by going to the Staff event calendar, https://uiuc.libcal.com/calendar/staff/?cid=5238&t=d&d=0000-00-00&cal=5238, by Tuesday, May 7, so we have a count for food and can make name tags.

A draft Strategic Plan, to work from, will be sent out soon.
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EVENTS AND TRAINING: NISO Webinar: Libraries and the Move to Transparency
May 15
12:00 – 1:30 p.m., 428 Main Library

So much of library workflow and usage is shrouded from public view, sometimes due to the interest of protecting patron privacy, sometimes due to the assumption that the patron or the public would have no interest in knowing the process. At the same time, trust is most easily generated in the context of transparency. For example, the public needs to understand and trust the weeding process and/or the rationale behind off-site storage. What does your community understand or need to learn about the ways in which libraries operate in order to trust the library more fully? How can vendors and service providers support more transparency to users?
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EVENTS AND TRAINING: Library Building Project Town Hall
May 16
3:00 – 4:00 p.m., 66 Main Library

Town Hall Event

Dean Wilkin will share the vision for the project, current planning progress, and what to expect next. JLK Architects and members of the recently charged campus-level committee focused on the Library Building Project will attend as well. There will be an opportunity for the audience to ask questions and provide comments.
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EVENTS AND TRAINING: ALA Webinar: The Importance of Being Inclusive: Diversity in Collection Development for Academic Libraries
May 17
11:00 – 12:00 p.m., 428 Main Library
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EVENTS AND TRAINING: Creative Connections
May 22
12:00 – 1:00 p.m., 428 Main Library
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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 24, 2019.

April Library Office Notes


ANNOUNCEMENTS

HR NEWS

IT NEWS

FACILITIES

EVENTS AND TRAINING



ANNOUNCEMENTS: University Librarian Note
Check back next month for a new Note from Dean Wilkin.
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: Library Building Project Update – 4/1/2019
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/. According to Kirstin Dougan, “The Programming Working Group is in the information gathering phase. We have conducted conversations on study and other public use spaces, instructional space needs, and staffing spaces. We have also met with Jen Yu to discuss analyzing the information gathered from the Library salons.” Additionally, the ITHAKA Undergraduate Survey is complete, and members of the working groups have been examining the results.

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/. According to Paula Carns, “The Collections Working Groups has been busy discussing the future of the collections in the Main Library and has drafted preliminary collections criteria, discussed survey results from the online survey, and began discussing non-book formats and reference materials. The next scheduled meeting is on April 4, 2019.”

An initial draft of a charge for a working group to help steer work on the Special Collection’s building was developed. At the time this update was being written, it is being circulated among members of the Special Collections Division prior to revision and transmittal to the Library’s Executive Committee.

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/.

Contracts and Firms
The University Library received approval to begin work with an architectural firm to help with the programming activities effective February 22, 2019. Chicago-based Johnson, Lasky, Kindelin (JLK) Architects is the approved firm, and they will be working with a firm knows as BrightSpot Strategy to help the University Library and our campus partners to begin developing the program for the Library Building Project. More information on JLK Architects, including information on other projects they have helped develop, can be found on the company’s website: http://www.jlkarch.com/. BrightSpot Strategy’s website can be found here: https://www.brightspotstrategy.com/.

A kick-off meeting was held on March 14, 2019. The firm will be meeting with others on campus and in the Library in the coming months.

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 was held on March 13, 2019, from 3:30 – 4:30 p.m. in 66 Main Library. The fourth Quarterly Update is scheduled for June 17, 2019. We anticipate that the live stream provided by 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.
  • Reddit – On January 28, 2019, John Wilkin, Tom Teper, and Heather Murphy held an Ask Me Anything session with Illinois Reddit users to answer questions about the Library Building Project.
  • ITHAKA Faculty Survey – The ITHAKA Faculty Survey went live several weeks ago and included some questions for members of the faculty related to the Library Building.

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 and is serving on the feasibility study being conducted related to the instructional facility that may be situated adjacent to the Main Library.

As noted earlier, the University Library recently received approval to work with JLK Architects and BrightSpot Strategies. Based on the kick-off date of March 14, 2019, the schedule below represents the most current estimated project timeline for this phase:

Library Redevelopment Plan Programming and Conceptual Design Study

Long-Term Project Schedule

Following the completion of the initial Programming and Conceptual Design phase, the schedule below represents a best guess as to the project schedule through December 2024.

Library Redevelopment - Design/Bid/Build

Outreach and Engagement
As noted in the last Quarterly Update, the Library holds the last “Salon” for Library personnel in early April 2019.

There are also two focus groups scheduled with undergraduate students. These will be held in early to mid-April 2019.

Finally, we will be working in the spring to find opportunities for broader town-hall type discussions.
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: Library Strategic Planning Team
The Library Strategic Planning Team (LSPT) invites you to continue to stay engaged with the 2019–23 strategic planning process by visiting the Library Strategic Planning website (https://wordpress.library.illinois.edu/staff/administration/strategicplanning/) and dropping in to the upcoming LSPT Co-Chairs Office Hours:

  • Tue 4/2/2019, 10:00 – 11:00 a.m. – Library – Main – 308

We also welcome you to write to us with any questions and contributions.
~Clara, cmchu@illinois.edu and Merinda, mhensle1@illinois.edu
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: Data Nudge
Data Nudge is a monthly data management reminder that comes with quick, easy tips designed by our local Research Data Service staff. Currently, there are more than 280 subscribers from different areas, both on and off campus. Data Nudge topics vary, based on data life cycle or data-related events/issues. To view past Data Nudge content, visit http://go.illinois.edu/past_nudges. To subscribe, go to http://go.illinois.edu/nudge. If you have any topic suggestions, please use this form at https://go.illinois.edu/topic_suggestion.
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: Undergraduate Research Week
Undergraduate students from all disciplines will be sharing their scholarship via Undergraduate Research Week the week of April 14 – 20. Please consider supporting our undergraduates by attending one of the departmental sessions or the Undergraduate Research Symposium in the Illini Union, Ballroom A, B, and C on Thursday, April 19. The final schedule will be posted closer to the date. You can also follow on Twitter @ugresearch_UI, and subscribe to the blog for symposium updates. If you have questions or comments, please reach out to Merinda Hensley at mhensle1@illinois.edu.
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ANNOUNCEMENTS: Grant Announcements for External Fundraisers
As always, if you are interested in all grant opportunities across disciplines, feel free to subscribe to the OVCR’s list at https://groups.webservices.illinois.edu/subscribe/19149.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Heidi Imker or Kathie Veach.

NEH Grants
There are no pending IMLS deadlines at this time.

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

01/15/2020 – Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections
Output: Preservation Supplies/Equipment, Reports on Preventive Conservation

01/15/2020 – National Digital Newspaper Program
Output: Web Resources, Digitized Newspapers
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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 March LTOTM at https://emails.illinois.edu/newsletter/209254.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: Vacancies

  • Library Specialist, Communications – received Master Referral, interviewing soon

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HR NEWS: New Employees

  • Ana Rodriguez, RBML (March 1)
  • Cait Coker, RBML (March 15)
  • Spencer Keralis (June 16)

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HR NEWS: Departures

  • Janet Knight, Resignation (March 1)

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IT NEWS: Tom Habing’s Last Day
Just a reminder, Tom Habing’s last day with the Library was March 15th. If you have questions about anything Tom may have been helping you with, please send a ticket to the Library IT Help Desk at help@library.illinois.edu.
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FACILITIES: Facility Project Updates

  • ACES Funk Library – Additional Staff OfficesF&S finalizing consultant contract to design office space for staff on the second floor.
  • Library Programming and Conceptual DesignJohnson Lasky Kindelin Architects & Brightspot Strategies are the consultants for the project and a kickoff meeting took place March 14, 2019.
  • Main Library – Reading Room Renovation and 220 Conceptual Design 50% construction drawings arrived for review March 15, 2019 and conceptual design review meeting took place for room 220 on March 14, 2019.
  • Main Library – 1st Floor Central Service Point – 95% construction document review meeting on March 19, 2019.

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: 2019 Library Walking Challenge
The Library and the Wellness Group are pleased to bring you the 2019 Library Walking Challenge!

Starting Monday, April 1st through Sunday, April 28th, you can participate in the Annual Library Walking Challenge! This year we will be walking to four beautiful area parks and increasing our weekly cumulative step average each week. Participants who have turned in their weekly steps on time for all four weeks will receive a fabulous prize.
For more information go to https://guides.library.illinois.edu/walking2019.
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EVENTS AND TRAINING: Image of Research Award Reception
Image of Research Digital Sign

Please join us on April 3 from 4:00 – 5:30 p.m. in Main Library 220 for the graduate Image of Research awards. Remarks begin at 4:30. A preview of the images that will be displayed is here: https://publish.illinois.edu/imageofresearch/2019/03/18/graduate-image-of-research-2019-semi-finalists-announced/. See who won and vote for the People’s Choice Award!
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EVENTS AND TRAINING: Research and Publication Webinar Series – Part 4 – Assessment in Technical Services
April 3
1:00 – 2:00 p.m., 428 Main Library

Have you wanted to perform research but don’t know where to start? Do you have an idea for research but are unsure about what to do next? Do you want to understand how to perform assessment or how to visualize data to show value to stakeholders? Then this webinar series is for you. This five-part series will introduce attendees to the research and publication process, specifically for those working in technical services areas. Part 4 focuses on assessment in technical services areas and explains how to match assessment goals to methodologies.

This webinar series is presented by the Research and Publications Committee of the Cataloging and Metadata Management Section (CaMMS).
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EVENTS AND TRAINING: Library Blood Drive
The Blood Mobile will be parked in the Undergraduate Library circle drive from 10:30 – 3:00, April 4. Sign up on the Staff Calendar, https://uiuc.libcal.com/calendar/staff.
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EVENTS AND TRAINING: Moms Weekend Spring Open House
April 5
3:00 – 5:00 p.m., 346 Main Library

Moms Weekend Digital Sign

The RBML will have books on display: new acquisitions and spring-themed rare book favorites. Curators will be on hand to answer questions. Anyone interested in rare books and special collections is encouraged to stop by. Tea and cookies will be served!
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EVENTS AND TRAINING: Solving the World’s Challenges: Biodiversity and Conservation
April 9
3:00 – 4:00 p.m., Funk ACES Library, 2nd Floor

Solving the World's Challenges Digital Sign Graphic

Three experts from across campus (Milton Tan, Prairie Research Institute; Dan Miller, Natural Resources & Environmental Sciences; Conor O’Shea, Landscape Architecture) will each discuss their research related to biodiversity and conservation and respond to questions from attendees. Their research ranges from identifying new species, to conserving biodiversity while enhancing well-being of the world’s poorest people, to rethinking cities with ecology and biodiversity in mind. This panel presentation will be an opportunity for people to come together in the Funk ACES Library to learn about and discuss research related to one of the world’s major challenges – biodiversity and conservation.
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EVENTS AND TRAINING: Creative Connections
Wednesday, April 10 – Paper Box Making with Martha Dequtis
12:00 –  1:00 p.m., 428 Main Library

Thursday, April 25 – Games, Games and more Games
12:00 –  1:00 p.m., 428 Main Library
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EVENTS AND TRAINING: WordPress Training
April 10
10:00 a.m., 314 Main Library

WordPress Essentials training is a 60-minute training session hosted by members of the Web Team. This session gives users basic knowledge of WordPress functionality, so they can be ready to edit their sites. Attendance of at least one of this type of training is required to gain access to your WordPress site. Visit https://www.library.illinois.edu/wp-training/schedule/.
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EVENTS AND TRAINING: Brown Bag: Transgender Experience and Allyship Panel
April 11
12:30 – 1:30 p.m., 106 Main Library

Working with Jennifer Heaton at Housing, we are doing a follow up transgender Q&A panel. There will be several people who are transgender who will do a short Q&A with some preset questions and then open up to a general Q&A. Have a question you’ve been dying to ask but were feeling anxious about asking? Ask them at this panel! Bring your lunch if you like!
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EVENTS AND TRAINING: A Conversation with Frances de Pontes Peebles
April 13
2:30 p.m., 321 Main Library

Frances de Pontes Peebles Talk Digital Sign

Join the International and Area Studies Library for an event with the Brazilian-American author of The Seamstress and The Air You Breathe.
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EVENTS AND TRAINING: Scholarly Commons Speaker Series: Abolish Big Data

Milner Talk Digital Sign

Yeshimabeit Milner, the Founder and Executive Director of Data 4 Black Lives (d4bl.org), will be speaking in 220 Main Library on April 16 at 4:00 p.m., with a reception to follow. Data 4 Black Lives is a group of activists, organizers and mathematicians committed to the mission of using data science to create concrete and measurable change in the lives of Black people. Details of Milner’s talk are here: https://www.library.illinois.edu/sc/events/speaker/. If you would like a flyer to publicize this talk, please contact Emilie Staubs (estaubs@illinois.edu).
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EVENTS AND TRAINING: NISO Webinar: The Power of Library Consortia: How Publishers and Libraries Can Successfully Negotiate
April 17
12:00 – 1:30 p.m., 428 Main Library

This session will examine the role and powers of the modern library consortium. Content and systems providers are aware of the need to successfully address consortia demands, but may not be as aware of the importance of collaboration with such groups. Consortia may be set up to satisfy different needs or achieve specific goals in areas such as licensing of content or technological support. Regional or statewide consortia can offer publishers significant insights into what may be expected in a forthcoming fiscal year or the flaws in a proposed business model. The session is intended to foster engagement as well as understanding between supplier and buyer.

Confirmed Speakers Include:

  • Emily Farrell, Library Sales Executive, MIT Press
  • Jill Grogg, Licensing Program Strategist, LYRASIS
  • Jill Morris, Executive Director, PALCI

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EVENTS AND TRAINING: Albert Lee and Home of Their Own Films
April 24
3:30 – 4:30 p.m., 126 iSchool

Dr. Vanessa Rouillon ’13 will call in after the Home of Their Own and the Albert R. Lee:  A Man of Substance films are shown.
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EVENTS AND TRAINING: Women of Jazz: An Inside Look 

Women of Jazz Poster
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If you would like to submit content for the May issue of Library Office Notes, please submit it to Heather Murphy or Tom Teper by April 19, 2019.