Download - LOUIS Newsletter Vol 18, No 1
For the last few weeks I
have been cleaning out my office
which will soon be occupied by
Sara. Since I moved into the library
in 1986 and then to the Frey
Computer Center in 1996 I have
had an opportunity to purge older
materials several times. Some of
the things which I have found (so
far) are my calendars from 1988 to
the present and letters, project
estimates, evaluations, and
presentations dating back to 1983.
Nobody would ever miss these
items and they hold no significance
to anyone. However, it is still nice
to look at them and remember how
much work went into these
outdated and now useless items.
The big decision is what to throw
away and what to keep. I can
report that the majority I have
handled, reminisced, and then
gently thrown away.
From 1981 to 1992 I
managed the development of
administrative online systems for
LSU. Then in 1992 I took
advantage of an offer to lead the
automation of five academic
libraries on the LSU mainframe.
My first meeting on this project,
which would later be named
LOUIS, was held in my office in the
basement of Middleton Library with
Mike Dicarlo (La Tech) and Lynda
Huggins (Northeast) on August 12,
1992. Hurricane Andrew hit later
that month, my oldest son started
Louisiana Tech in September, and I
attended an e-mail class and my
first meeting with all the library
directors in October. And it has
been meetings, e-mail, hurricanes,
and library directors every since.
Needless to say I have enjoyed
every minute of it!
It has been an honor and privilege to serve each of you. I know I have met hundreds of people and hopefully I will remember most of them for a long time. Each of you had a part in my development. As much as I enjoyed remembering the past by reviewing old, worn out documents I will cherish the memories of each of you. I would like to thank the library directors for their trust, support, and confidence which they placed in me and the LOUIS staff. Northwestern was not scheduled to be implemented until 1995 but I can clearly remember Ada Jarred asking me at every meeting between 1992 and 1995, ―Ralph, you coming to get us?‖ And I will never forget Kay Adams and her moaning (lovingly) about the length of my status reports at the LALINC Directors‘ Meetings. The LOUIS Users
Conference was one of the best
tools for me
Ralph’s Farewell
The LOUISiana Library Network
J U N E 2 1 , 2 0 1 0 V O L U M E 1 8 , I S S U E 1
INSIDE THE ISSUE:
2010 COSUGI
Conference
2
ILLiad International
Users Conference
3
LALINC Collection & E-
Resources Committee
3
Information Literacy
Committee Update
4
LALINC Research &
Development
Committee Report
4
Louisiana Digital
Library LOUIS Update
5
LOUIS ILLiad User’s
Meeting Spring 2010
6
LOUIS Site Visit 6
ULM Libraries Special Collections
7
Preserving Louisiana’s Audiovisual Resources
8
Louisiana Digital Library Committee Update
9
2010 LLA Annual Conference Wrap Up
9
LOUIS on Facebook & Twitter
11
New Visions, New Voices: ACRL-LA Announces New Membership Levels
12
Noel Memorial Library Technology Tips
13
ACRL-LA 2009-2010 Self-Study: Meeting Goals Set by ACRL in its Strategic Plan for Learning & Scholarship
14
LUC 2010 15
ACRL-LA S.T.A.R 16
Tulane LDL Collections 18
SirsiDynix Symphony Update
19
P A G E 2
As per the theme,
“From Intersections
to Lasting
Connections,”
COSUGI
demonstrated a
merging of the user
groups in spirit, as
well as in product.
2010 COSUGI Conference by Brian Sherman, McNeese
reconnecting with the movers and shakers. I have met so many dear friends from those meetings and I will always cherish our relationships. LUC 2010 is already on my calendar and may just have to be an annual event for me. As I leave it is a comfort to me to know that you will be in good hands. Sara has a heart for service and has the skills and staff to further what has only begun. Thanks for your
friendship and may God
bless each of you!!!
The 2010 COSUGI Conference was held March 3 – 5, at Disney‘s Coronado Springs Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. This was the first conference held under the banner of the newly merged user group. As per the theme ―From Intersections to Lasting Connections,‖ this conference demonstrated a merging of the user groups in spirit, as well as in product. During the opening session, SirsiDynix executives showcased several new training initiatives, among them an interactive training platform and expanded SirsiDynix Institute. Continuing development of mobile applications and Enterprise was also spotlighted. To applause from Horizon users, it was announced that the Horizon ILS would still be developed. The opening session ended with Keynote Speaker David Lee King, author of Designing the Digital Experience, who spoke of how to create digital content that connects with users and encourage participation. SirsiDynix pulled out all of the stops for their party at Disney‘s Hollywood Studios. In a portion of the park resembling a New York City block, librarians clustered together under gas heaters and street lights, as the unusually cold weather complemented the park‘s backdrop of the Big Apple. Following a great meal and questionable-at-best line dancing, party goers were treated with a private showing of Fantasmic, a live action show with enough lasers and fireworks to please the pyromaniac in everyone. Louisiana gave a strong showing of attendance by many of its libraries, of which 8 attendees were from LOUIS institutions. LOUIS‘ own Marcy Stevens and Lisa Stigall presented the Customizing E-Library pre conference to a full house. Brian Sherman, of McNeese, moderated the Acquisitions Sharing Session. LSU‘s Natalie Palermo sat in the audience to make Brian nervous.
T H E L O U I S I A N A L I B R A R Y N E T W O R K
P A G E 3 V O L U M E 1 8 , I S S U E 1
LOUIS will be well represented on the COSUGI Board during 2010 – 2011, with the election of two members from the consortium. Current COSUGI Conference Chair, Brian Sherman, will serve as Chair-Elect of the group. The board will receive some new blood (pardon the pun) with the election of Esther Blood from LSU Alexandria as Membership and Communications Chair. Make plans to attend the 2011 COSUGI Conference on April 19 -21, in Phoenix, Arizona!
site‘s ILLiad databases; updates by OCLC as well as by Atlas; and much more. One of the new features of ILLiad 8 called ILLiad Addons, is causing a lot of excitement. These Addons add functionality to the ILLiad client. They are flexible and allow staff to designate their own tabs on a request form to perform actions, like a web search, based on information in the ILLiad request. Once a
result is found, the user can update information in ILLiad based on the results of the search. Currently, the list of Addons includes Amazon Search for Loans and Price Importer, Google Search for Loans and Articles, Google Scholar Search for Articles, Shipment Tracking, and WorldCat Local Searches.
The ILLiad Users Conference was held in Virginia Beach, Virginia on March 24-25, 2010. It was well attended with over 300 people from across the nation. As usual the conference sessions were excellent. They included presentations on Webjunction.org, a replacement for ILLiad-l; overview of ILLiad 8; custom holdings; how to clean up a
ILLiad International Users Conference 2010 by Mary Laird, LOUIS
LALINC Collection and E-Resources Committee by Kevin Cuccia, Chair, LaTech
This has been a very productive year for the committee. Our access has begun with our most recent purchases: the Gale Virtual Reference Library, Readex‘s Louisiana Historical Newspapers and African American Newspapers, CQ Global Researcher, and Wilson Cinema Image Gallery. These purchases were made possible by a Board of Regents one time grant of $680,000 and other LOUIS savings. We compared two similar products, Art and Architecture Complete from EBSCO and H.W. Wilson‘s Art Full Text. Mike Matthews has conducted some analysis of the full text content of both and sent the committee his results. Debbie Johnson-Houston also has provided us with some useful comparison statistics using Gold Rush. Sara Zimmerman has given us some wonderful usage reports for these two products for November 2009 to February 2010. Based on all information the recommendation was to go with Wilson. We are also continuing to evaluate a number of different databases. We currently have trials to two business products which members of the committee are reviewing: Chart Screen by Securities Research Company which provides stock market information and Datamonitor‘s Marketline. Additional free trials are listed on the LOUIS homepage.
P A G E 4
LALINC Research and Development Committee Report by Natalie Palermo, Chair, LSU
T H E L O U I S I A N A L I B R A R Y N E T W O R K
The Committee held a conference call on November 6, 2009 to discuss plans for the remainder of the fiscal year. The Committee decided to investigate OPAC enhancement products and LibGuides. Vendor demonstrations of enhanced OPACs would not be scheduled until late spring or early summer of 2010. LibGuides is a web 2.0 content management and library knowledge sharing system. Six sites were invited to participate in a pilot project. LOUIS will license the product for the first year. The sites will be responsible for licensing the product after the first year. Participation in the project requires each site to assign adequate time and resources to the project and to consider it a priority. At the end of the pilot project, the sites will report to LOUIS how well the product worked for them. They will also give a presentation at LUC. The six sites include:
Committee
member, Boris
Teske (LaTech)
published,
"Assessing and
Enhancing
Information and
Communication
Technology
Literacy at
Louisiana Tech
University,” in
Louisiana
Libraries.
Information Literacy Committee Update by Angela Dunnington, Chair, SELU
This year, members of the Information Literacy Committee met in September and in October at the LOUIS Users Conference to discuss the history of the committee and past and current initiatives. Plans are underway for revision of the online resource directory, ―Integrating Information Literacy into the General Education Curriculum: Resources for Colleges and Universities,‖ which will be useful to all participating institutions as they plan to meet accreditation standards and focus on assessment in their information literacy programs. The committee is also examining its charge and considering redistribution of the institutional awareness survey to LALINC institutions. Members of the committee participated in several publication venues. Debra Rollins (LSUA), Jessica Hutchings (McNeese), Melissa Goldsmith (Nicholls), and Tony Fonseca (Nicholls) published, ―Are We There Yet? The Difficult Road to Re-Create Information Literacy," which appeared in the October 2009 issue of portal: Libraries and the Academy. The article explores the findings of the institutional-level awareness surveys conducted in 2002, 2006, and 2008 and the implications at both the state and national levels. The committee completed its work on the information literacy themed-issue for Louisiana Libraries. Published in Winter 2010, the issue features information literacy articles ranging from assessment to information literacy in the general education curriculum. Melissa Goldsmith (Nicholls) served as guest editor and Carolyn Bridgewater (LSUHSC New Orleans), Angela Dunnington (SELU), Tony Fonseca (Nicholls), Debra Rollins (LSUA), and Kathy Seidel (BRCC) served as peer reviewers on the project. Committee member, Boris Teske (LaTech) published, "Assessing and Enhancing Information and Communication Technology Literacy at Louisiana Tech University,‖ in the issue. Questions, comments, or suggestions are always welcome. Please contact Committee Chair, Angela Dunnington at [email protected].
P A G E 5 V O L U M E 1 8 , I S S U E 1
Delgado Community College Louisiana State University – Shreveport Louisiana State University – Health Sciences Center – New Orleans McNeese State University University of Louisiana - Lafayette University of New Orleans
Not long after the sites accepted the invitation to participate in the LibGuides pilot project, rumors of mid-year budget cuts began to surface. LOUIS decided to put the project on hold until it was known if its budget would be cut. In early February 2010, the pilot project resumed with Baton Rouge Community College replacing LSU- HSCNO. The Committee is currently at a crossroad. Central funding for a product such as an enhanced
OPAC is not an option for the foreseeable future. One-time grant funding would not address ongoing
maintenance costs. It might be time to refocus the activities of the Committee.
system before making the same
changes to the production server.
Tulane University
resumed active participation in
LDL this year. LOUIS staff trained
David Comeaux of Tulane in the
use of CONTENTdm. David will
serve as the collection
administrator at Tulane interfacing
with LOUIS on behalf of five
departments within Special
Collections at Tulane University:
Louisiana Research Collection,
University Archives, Hogan Jazz
Archives, Southeast Architectural
Archives and the Latin American
Library. The University of
Louisiana at Monroe also
resumed active participation in
LDL. Cyndy Roberts of ULM was
given a refresher training in
CONTENTdm and has been busy
adding collections and items.
LOUIS staff continue to train each other in the administration of CONTENTdm and LDL practices. For example, Zehra ‗ZeeZee‘ Zamin is now the primary contact for the LOUISiana Digital Library replacing John Guillory. In addition, Marcy Stevens will
provide technical backup when programming changes to the system are required. The number of items added
this fiscal year was 6,300, for a total
of 146,300 items in the LOUISiana
Digital Library. Thirty-nine new
collections we added this year:
Anthony J. Stanonis Pamphlet Collection
Arts Administration Master's Reports
Charity Hospital Archive
Edna Tiny Tarbutton Collection
Gordon W. Maxcy Photographs
Griffin 1932 Flood Collection
Hermann Moyse, Sr. World War I Collection
History of Louisiana Dental Education Archives
History of Loyola Athletics
Isidore Newman School Archives
Israel Shreve Letters
John C. McDonald
Joseph-Auren Cornet, F.S.C., Collection
Joseph Bauer Family Album
Lafcadio Hearn Correspondence
Lettres de Louisiane
Lippman Collection of Civil War Postal Covers
Louisiana Newspaper Access Program – LaNeAP Louisiana State Documents Digital
Since June 2008, the Louisiana Digital Library (LDL) has been running on the OCLC hosted service. The LDL Committee‘s decision to move to the hosted server has proved beneficial for the consortium by providing reliable service at a reduced cost to members, along with reduce staff time spent on maintaining and upgrading a locally administered server. CONTENTdm, the software that runs the LOUISiana Digital Library (LDL), was upgraded three times this year to versions 5.1, 5.2, and 5.3. Each upgrade improved overall stability of the major release of version 5.0. Noteworthy improvements in the 5.0 release are the introduction of a new client, server-side indexing of large data sets, and integration into WorldCat which is OCLC‘s online union catalog of its member libraries‘ holdings. In February 2010, LOUIS
purchased a CONTENTdm
Development Server license from
OCLC. This will provide LOUIS
and OCLC staff an environment to
upgrade, develop and test
changes to the CONTENTdm
The Louisiana Digital Library LOUIS Update by John Guillory & ZeeZee Zamin, LOUIS
P A G E 6
LOUIS ILLiad User’s Meetings Spring 2010
by Mary Laird and ZeeZee Zamin, LOUIS
LOUIS Site Visit by Shanna Clevenger, Delgado Community College
Archive
Louisiana State Museum Historical Center
Louisiana State Museum Trade Labels
Louisiana State Sovereignty Commission Pamphlets of the Civil Rights Era
Loyola University Maroon
Loyola University New Orleans Electronic Theses
LSU Libraries Political Papers
Matas Health Sciences Library Historic Photographs
Medical Journalism in Antebellum Louisiana
Mistick Krewe of Comus Missing Links Parade
Orleans Parish School Board Minutes
Sidonie de la Houssaye Collection
T. Harry Williams Center for Oral History Four Corners of Louisiana Collection
T. Harry Williams Center for Oral History Floods, Storms and Levee Breaks
T. Harry Williams Center for Oral History Military History Collection
T. Harry Williams Center for Oral History Political Collection
T. Harry Williams Center for Oral History Presentations and Publications
Tensas River National Wildlife Refuge Ivory Billed
Woodpecker Records
Tiger Rag – Student newspapers of LSU School of Medicine, New Orleans
UNO Historical Archives of the Supreme Court of Louisiana
William Branks Stewart
Collection
asked me if I would like to take over for her, I was somewhat nervous. She set up a site visit with ZeeZee Zamin and Cathy Sicard for training in September 2009. I was to submit questions to LOUIS in preparation for
Becoming the LOUIS System Administrator for Delgado Community College has been an eye-opening experience. When Denise Repman, Dean of Library Services,
our meeting, but since I was so new I needed it all. ZeeZee and Cathy were such a big help. They patiently guided me through the maze called ―Workflows‖ and the various functions that would be necessary for
T H E L O U I S I A N A L I B R A R Y N E T W O R K
Each spring two LOUIS ILLiad Users meetings are held, one in the northern part of the state and one in the southern part so that travelling is easier for the attendees. These meetings provide the chance for the ILL staff to meet each other, exchange tips, learn new techniques, and report issues and problems. This spring the LOUIS staff provided updates from the ILLiad International Users Conference that was held on March 24-25, 2010 at Virginia Beach, VA. At each meeting Rob Bremer, The User Services Librarian at Louisiana Tech, gave a brief presentation on copyright issues as they pertain to interlibrary loan. His presentation generated an active discussion about copyright at each meeting. Other topics included discussions about new ILLiad software releases, cleaning the user database, email templates, and much more. Thirteen attendees from seven LOUIS ILLiad sites participated in the meetings. The North meeting held at LSU-A was hosted by Esther Blood. The South meeting was held at LSU. Attendees agreed that these meetings were very useful as they provided a venue to not only exchange information but to meet other ILLiad staff in the consortium as well.
P A G E 7 V O L U M E 1 8 , I S S U E 1
me to become a competent System Administrator. They reassured me that no question is too silly to ask and LOUIS is always a Footprints incident away. It has been eight months since the site visit, and both ZeeZee and Cathy have kept their promise. I have opened numerous Footprints, both serious
and silly (although at the time...not so silly). LOUIS quickly and efficiently answered my question or fixed my problem. So a big…THANK YOU...to ZeeZee, Cathy, and all the LOUIS staff for their continued support.
at the Ouachita Parish
Courthouse. This collection
is part of a larger collection,
The Griffin Photograph
Collection, given to Special
Collections in 1986 by
Durwood Griffin. Durwood,
also a professional
photographer, was the son of
J.E. Griffin. A Louisiana
Board of Regents
Enhancement Grant provided
funding in 2009 to purchase
the equipment needed to
digitize this collection and
other historic collections of
interest to students and
patrons at ULM.
A second collection,
the Edna Tiny Tarbutton
collection is in the process of
being published in the LDL.
Images from three
scorebooks are currently
available and the remaining 8
are being scanned, cataloged
and added to the on-line
content. The Edna Tiny
Tarbutton collection
documents women‘s
basketball in northeast
Louisiana and across the
state between 1945 and
1955. Willie Edna ―Tiny‖
Tarbutton coached women‘s
basketball at Baskin High
School, from 1943 until 1977.
Her team won a state
championship in 1945 and
was runner up in 1947.
Beginning in 1948 and
ending in 1955, Tarbutton‘s
teams won eight consecutive
state championships and 216
consecutive victories.
Tarbutton was inducted into
the Louisiana High School
Athletic Association Hall of
Fame in 1979, The Louisiana
Sports Hall of Fame in 1993,
the National High
School Hall of
Fame in 1994, and
the Women‘s
Basketball Hall of
Fame in 2005.
A collection of images
showing the Ouachita River
Flood of 1932 and belonging
to the University of Louisiana
at Monroe Library Special
Collections is now available
online through the Louisiana
Digital Library. The 303
images, taken by J.E. Griffin,
a professional photographer
from Monroe, Louisiana, were
scanned from negatives with
some being as large as 8 x 10
inches in size. Griffin labeled
the negatives with places and
dates so they show, in
chronological order, the rising
flood waters and the effects
on homes and businesses in
the Ouachita Parish area.
Included in the collection are
aerial images of Ouachita
parish and images of houses,
flooded streets, motor
vehicles, trains, horse drawn
wagons, Red Cross workers,
men patrolling the levees and
filling sandbags and workers
lining up for meals and for pay
The University of Louisiana at Monroe Library Special
Collections has a presence on The Louisiana Digital Library by Cyndy Robertson, ULM
“A Louisiana
Board of
Regents
Enhancement
Grant provided
funding in 2009
to purchase the
equipment
needed to
digitize this
collection and
other historic
collections of
interest to
students and
patrons at
ULM. “
P A G E 8
“This project
also aims to
assist
repositories
with audiovisual
assets
throughout the
state and
region.“
Preserving Louisiana’s Audiovisual Resources by Leslie Bourgeois, Louisiana Public Broadcasting
Louisiana Public
Broadcasting and the
Louisiana Secretary of
State‘s Office look
forward to partnering
with LOUIS and the
Louisiana Digital Library
to advance the
development of the
Louisiana Digital Media
Library Project. The
agencies received a
2009 National
Leadership Planning
Grant from the Institute
of Museum and Library
Services (IMLS) to
develop the framework
for an online digital
media archive with the
aim of preserving and
providing access to
Louisiana‘s valuable
audiovisual resources.
Currently, the
Secretary of State‘s
Multimedia Archives
houses a number of film
and video
collections,
including
materials from
many of the
state‘s television
stations dating
back to the 1950s
and oral histories
conducted with
Louisianans who
have shaped the
state‘s history.
Louisiana Public
Broadcasting houses
the materials it has
collected in producing
news and public affairs
programs and regional
interest documentaries
throughout its 35-year
history. Through the
Louisiana Digital Media
Library Project, both
agencies plan to digitize
their collections as a
part of a long-term
preservation strategy
and to make these
materials available to a
larger audience online.
This project also
aims to assist
repositories with
audiovisual assets
throughout the state
and region. The
preservation of analog
video, in particular, is a
complex task because
of the variety of existing
formats with short life
spans and a lack of
available playback
equipment. When
converting these analog
materials to digital
media, crucial decisions
must be made in order
to ensure the survival of
archival quality content,
including choosing the
appropriate digital file
formats and storage
media and establishing
a preservation strategy
to ensure the long-term
viability of these assets
as digital technologies
change. Therefore, the
Louisiana Digital Media
Library Project also
plans to establish best
practices for the
preservation of
audiovisual content in
line with emerging
national standards to
provide guidance for
other state and regional
repositories working on
similar projects within
their own institutions.
The next phase
of the project will
involve the
implementation of the
system infrastructure
and initial digitization
efforts over the next 3
years. If you have any
questions or would like
more information on the
Louisiana Digital Media
Library Project, please
feel free to contact
project manager Leslie
Bourgeois at
T H E L O U I S I A N A L I B R A R Y N E T W O R K
The LOUISiana Digital Library Committee Update by Keith M. Pickett, Chair, UNO
P A G E 9 V O L U M E 1 8 , I S S U E 1
The LOUISiana Digital Library (LDL) offers more than 150,000 digital items through its website at
http://www.louisianadigitallibrary.org. Twenty two organizations contribute materials to
over 100 collections, and new collections and items are being continuously added.
Furthermore, LDL contributors are entering into exciting partnerships with such
organizations as the Jazz and Heritage Foundation, JSTOR, Louisiana Sea Grant, LPB
and NPR StoryCorps to provide access to even more unique content of interest to users
across the state.
After extensive beta testing by OCLC in late 2009, an improved Project Client for
CONTENTdm was released with added functionality for collection administrators. Many
errors were also resolved. The latest version of Project Client is compatible with Windows 7 and is
somewhat faster, especially when uploading multiple-page PDF files as compound objects. The latest
version also allows collection administrators to sort items to be uploaded by any metadata field, which
was requested by several beta testers. Collection administrators also now have access to the ―server‖
tab in CONTENTdm Administration, which will allow them to access monthly usage statistics and register
their collections with OCLC via the WorldCat Digital Collection Gateway. Registering collections in the
WorldCat Gateway offers greater visibility on web search engines and the opportunity to harvest
metadata records in MARC format. The WorldCat Gateway is still in the pilot phase, but will be fully
functional this summer.
We are looking forward with great anticipation to the release of CONTENTdm version 6. This
upgrade will dramatically improve the end-user experience. A new, improved image viewer will offer easy
-to-use zoom and pan capabilities as well as the ability to download and print images with the click of a
mouse. Page images will be able to be viewed side-by-side with full-text generated by OCR. Users will
also be able to comment on and add tags to images. Breadcrumbs will be available to help with site
navigation. Streaming content will also be supported. Currently, a ―Sandbox‖ of mockups of the
improved user interface is available from the CONTENTdm User Support Center (http://
www.contentdm.org/USC) for collection administrators to comment on. LDL contributors have been
asked to view the mockups and leave comments and suggestions in the Sandbox forum so that OCLC
can incorporate them into future releases.
Honorable Mayor-
President, Melvin ―Kip‖
Holden declared the week
of March 8-12, 2010 as
Louisiana Library
Association Week. The
citation was presented to
LLA President, Melanie
Sims during the General
―Louisiana
Libraries: the Heart of Our
Communities‖ served as
the theme for the 84th
Annual Conference of the
Louisiana Library
Association held March 10
-12, 2010 at the Hilton
Capitol Center. The
Session. The more than
570 conference attendees
had a variety of
activities to choose
from beginning with
the Pre-Conference
activities on
Wednesday. A few
attendees began their day
2010 LLA Annual Conference Wrap Up by Melanie E. Sims, LSU LAW
P A G E 1 0
“The need for
advocacy has
never been greater
than now as
societal change
and economical
problems pose a
threat to the long
term stability of
libraries of all sizes
and types. “
by participating in a
community service
project at Baton Rouge
Magnet High School.
While others attended
one of three pre-
conference workshops:
Louisiana Libraries:
Advocacy on the Front
Lines; FSU Public
Libraries Hurricane
Preparedness and
Response Website;
and Using Open
Source Tools to
Enhance the Library
Experience.
As the day
wound down,
conference attendees
were welcomed to the
capital city with an
Open House and
Reception hosted by
staff of the Magnolia
Library at Baton Rouge
Community College.
After the reception,
local librarians served
as gracious hosts for
LLA‘s first Dine
Around.
With everyone
all geared up, the
official conference
began Thursday
morning with a
continental breakfast
and ribbon cutting
ceremony to open the
Exhibits Hall. There
were a total of 65
booths with 59 vendors
showcasing a wide
variety of products and
services. During the
conference, there were
over 70 door prizes
given away in the
Exhibit Hall.
The General
Session featured
keynote speaker, ALA
President Camila Alire
who motivated
conference attendees
to become ―front line‖
advocates for libraries.
The need for advocacy
has never been greater
than now as societal
change and
economical problems
pose a threat to the
long term stability of
libraries of all sizes
and types. Dr. Alire
emphasized how front
line advocacy differs
from the traditional
view of advocacy that
begins with
administrators lobbying
to legislators.
Following the keynote
address attendees
were energized by the
Ouachita Girls and
EBR Dewey Deci-
Belles as they
demonstrated their
book cart drill
precision. Both of
these drill team
routines may be seen
on YouTube.
There were 77
concurrent programs,
interest group
meetings and business
meetings for attendees
to choose from during
the two day
conference. The meal
functions always serve
as part of the
conference highlights.
During the Public/
Trustees Luncheon,
the Honorable
President Pro Tempore
of the Louisiana State
Senate, Sharon
Weston Broome gave
an inspirational speech
on her love and
support of libraries.
She also discussed
some of the challenges
facing the state. The
Book Dinner on
Thursday evening
featured acclaimed
author and Louisiana
native, Ernest Hill. He
spoke about growing
up in rural north
Louisiana and how it
has influenced his
writings. Family Ties,
a sequel to A Life for A
Life will be released
this fall. The 2010
Louisiana Literary
Award was presented
at the Book Dinner to
Sara Roahen for her
book entitled, Gumbo
Tales: Finding My
T H E L O U I S I A N A L I B R A R Y N E T W O R K
P A G E 1 1 V O L U M E 1 8 , I S S U E 1
Place at the New Orleans
Table. On Friday, March
12, the GODORT
Breakfast featured Paula
Wright from the U.S.
Census Bureau who
discussed the changes to
the 2010 census.
Children‘s author, Toni
Buzzeo shared her life
story and the stories
behind her stories during
the LASL Author
Luncheon.
The LLA Annual
Conference wouldn‘t have
been complete without
honoring our very
deserving 2010 award
recipients during the LLA
Award Ceremony held
Friday afternoon following
the General Business
Meeting. A wine and
cheese reception
immediately followed the
awards ceremony.
In addition to the traditional events, LLA welcomed several new conference events this year. The New Members Round Table Interest Group was revived this year by Rebecca Miller and Stephanie Wilkes. NMRT held an orientation and luncheon for new members sponsored by Detel. The first LLA Book Club also met. The conference culminated with the first ever
Scholarship Bash to raise funds for the Ollie H. Burns Memorial Scholarship. This event marked the end of a successful conference as attendees danced to the smooth sounds of the Michael Foster Project. The 2011 LLA Annual
Conference will be held
March 16-18, 2011 at the
Lafayette Cajundome.
LOUIS is on Facebook and Twitter by Marcy Stevens, LOUIS
President Pro
Tempore of the
Louisiana State
Senate, Sharon
Weston Broome
gave an
inspirational
speech on her
love and
support of
libraries.
LOUIS is keeping up with social networking and has joined Facebook
and Twitter. LOUIS has 96 fans and growing. Items that are posted include
upcoming events, accomplishments by LOUIS members and posts by our
fans on various library related topics. It is used as a supplement to our
private LOUIS consortium listservs and webpage. Become a fan at http://
www.facebook.com/louislibraries.
If you aren‘t on Facebook, you can also find LOUIS on Twitter. Tweets are
short, timely messages from LOUIS. To become a follower go to http://
www.twitter.com/louislibraries.
P A G E 1 2
“ACRL-LA plans to
further facilitate
communication, as
well as
collaborative
exchange,
between
librarians,
teaching faculty,
SLIS students, and
SLIS faculty. “
New Visions, New Voices: ACRL-LA Announces New Membership Levels
by Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith, President-Elect, Nicholls
T H E L O U I S I A N A L I B R A R Y N E T W O R K
intended for graduate students in related disciplines, and undergraduates interested in academic librarianship. The new level, the Associate Membership, is a broad category that welcomes scholars from other fields (for example, English professors and instructors, faculty/staff involved with instructional technology, Faculty
Development coordinators, and others), as well as retired and unemployed librarians, school librarians (especially those with an interest in ACRL-LA‘s Transitions to College Committee or with their own schools‘ K-12 information literacy initiatives), and out-of-state librarians with a compelling interest in Louisiana‘s academic and research libraries. Associate and Student Members receive all the benefits of full membership, with one caveat: they may not run for officer positions on the chapter‘s Executive Board.
Regardless of what type of member one becomes, that individual will find that ACRL-LA‘s dedication to the advancement of academic librarianship in the state of Louisiana will help result in the betterment of students, scholars, professors, and librarians of all types. The chapter takes as its mission the complete
professional development of the librarian, offering opportunities for publication (Codex is our peer-review online journal, now in its second issue),
chances for professional and scholarly enrichment through workshops, mechanisms (such as our Experts and Peer Networking Program) that nurture scholarship through enabling the successful completion of projects or successful approaches to solving problems, and access to first-hand information (what some may call the lowdown) about all the scholarly resources available in the state. Never an organization to rest on its laurels, ACRL-LA plans to further facilitate communication, as well as collaborative exchange, between
In an effort to increase the diversity of our membership, in the spring of 2010 ACRL-LA ratified new amendments to its By-Laws that will encourage
the addition of more members—of diverse backgrounds—but nonetheless with interests in research libraries to join the chapter. Whereas the old membership levels limited the chapter‘s appeal to practicing academic librarians and School of Library and Information Science students, the new membership levels will hopefully lead to outreach. With the passage of the By-Laws change, current memberships, and the corresponding annual dues, are as follows: Full Membership $20, Associate Membership $10, Student Membership $10.
As before, Full Membership is intended to attract professional, practicing academic librarians, in other words, those with the word Librarian in their position titles, and is limited to those who currently work in
Louisiana (Note: All members of the national
P A G E 1 3 V O L U M E 1 8 , I S S U E 1
librarians, teaching faculty, SLIS students, and SLIS faculty. But the new membership levels are crucial to our success, as the chapter‘s chance at a bright future can be realized only if that future includes new voices for strong leadership, a diversity of experience, and multidisciplinary expertise.
Noel Memorial Library would like to share a couple of technology tips that have been implemented at LSU Shreveport.
A dual monitor was added at the Reference Desk to permit patrons to view the same screen display as seen by the Reference Librarian. This eliminates
the need for the librarian to turn the desk monitor or for the patron to lean over the desk to see the
screen.
Noel Memorial Library Technology Tips
by Allen Gabehart, LSUS
With the wireless network in the library, the primary need of patrons with laptops was an electrical outlet. After relocating most of the
Index Collection in Reference, ten index tables were wired for electricity providing sixty laptop
workstations. In addition, patrons can also charge their cell phones.
Note: If you are interested in becoming a Full, Associate, or Student member of the chapter, visit our website at www.acrlla.org . There you will find information not only about membership levels, but about our journal, our discussion boards, and our Experts Network, among other items of interest.
P A G E 1 4
Another objective
of the national
organization is to
seek “to strengthen
relationships with
higher education
organizations that
are important to
faculty and
administrators in
order to develop
institutional
understand of
librarians’ roles in
enhancing teaching
and learning.”
ACRL-LA 2009-2010 Self-Study: Meeting the Goals Set by ACRL in its Strategic Plan for Learning and Scholarship
1
by Tony Fonseca, ACRL-LA President, Nicholls
According to ACRL‘s Strategic Plan, its members aim to be recognized
internationally as collaborative leaders and partners in ensuring that ―students
leave with lifelong learning skills, improving techniques for assessing learning
outcomes, and in creating environments for discovery by expanding regional,
national and international adoption, use and development of information literacy
standards.‖ To meet this goal, ACRL-LA has expanded its efforts in
encouraging adoption of the ACRL Information Literacy Standards in Louisiana
by creating an extremely active committee to investigate issues dealing with the
information literacy skills of Freshmen. Examining inconsistencies in the transition
from high school to college, this committee has already presented at two statewide
conferences, to audiences consisting of school, public, and academic librarians.2
Another objective of the national organization is to seek ―to strengthen relationships
with higher education organizations that are important to faculty and administrators in
order to develop institutional understanding of librarians‘ roles in enhancing teaching
and learning.‖ Although the chapter has only begun to strengthen such relationships,
it does indirectly empower members to (re)invent their own libraries, learning
commons, and digital venues, through the huge strides made by the chapter in the
last year in its web presence, which now allows for the following: forums and bulletin
board discussions on both general academic librarianship issues and items specific to
job descriptions and tenure requirements, file downloads (sharing), an introduction to
the chapter's projects (services), and information about the chapter's publications.
ACRL also prides itself on the fact that ―its members are recognized
internationally as authorities on the integration of content, tools, and services into the
evolving workflows of scholars and creators at all stages from initial discovery, to
individuals organizing their own resources, to the creation, sharing, publication,
aggregation, and preservation processes, including associated intellectual property
issues,‖ seeing itself as a catalyst for ―transformative change‖ in the scholarly
communication systems. In addressing how the chapter could meet these objectives,
Past-President Michael Matthews applied for, and won, the right for ACRL-LA the
right to host one of the five Scholarly Communications Roadshow workshops in the
summer of 2009. This free discussion of
copyright licenses, open access journals (OAJs),
and the relationship between the two was
attended by some 90 chapter members. As a
follow up, the chapter is working towards a
collaborative effort to establish a Louisiana
electronic theses and dissertations (ETD)
consortium.
T H E L O U I S I A N A L I B R A R Y N E T W O R K
P A G E 1 5 V O L U M E 1 8 , I S S U E 1
Both the chapter‘s incoming president (Melissa Goldsmith) and I will be presenting on institutional and consortia roles in ETD libraries at the forthcoming Networked Digital Libraries of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD) conference, and one of ACRL-LA‘s Executive Board members, Boris Teske, has already produced an ETD report to his the Louisiana Tech Graduate Council (on which he serves), at the request of his
Graduate Studies Dean. The chapter sees this as a solid first step towards achieving the ACRL objective of enhancing members‘ abilities ―to provide education, advocacy, and coalition building to support transformative change in scholarly communication systems.‖ In addition, ACRL-LA has identified copyright issues and open access as two topics for its October 2010 workshop. To address the objective of enhancing members‘ understanding of scholarly communications (namely how scholarship is created, aggregated, organized, preserved, accessed, and exchanged) the chapter, at its summer workshop, made available to members information about options authors have in the publishing/licensing process. Finally, to meet the priority of strengthening ACRL‘s ―relationships with learned societies to expand membership knowledge of disciplinary practices in scholarship,‖ Goldsmith and I have routinely attended conferences in tangential disciplines, such as education, popular culture, and music scholarship over the last few years. Finally, the chapter is making plans to revisit a 2008 theme of ―liaisonship,‖ or subject specialist librarianship. 1 A more developed version of this report, which details how the chapter attempts to meet all of the national organizations goals, and how these goals relate to professional librarianship, tenure-track appointments, and the proposed closing of LSU‘s SLIS program, see issue 2 of Codex: the Journal of the Louisiana Chapter of the ACRL: journal.acrlla.org/index.php/codex . 2 For details, see Karen Niemla‘s article in this issue.
good response to our reception last year that we will again host a reception on Thursday evening. Along with the venue change we have also changed food vendors and you will be in for a nice surprise this year. But LUC isn‘t all about the food! It‘s about the wonderful presentations and collaboration among LOUIS librarians around the state. The call for presentations has been good and we will be
This year LUC will be held on Thursday Oct. 21, 2010 and Friday Oct. 22, 2010. There is a venue change this year. LUC 2010 will be held in the Patrick F. Taylor Hall on the LSU Campus. This is the building that was formerly called CEBA. The format will be the same in that we will go all day on Thursday and half the day on Friday. We will offer breakfast both days, snacks both days and lunch on Thursday. Also, we had such a
making final decisions the first week of July. Be on the lookout on the listservs, Facebook, Twitter, and webpage for the opening of registration and the agenda. We hope to see you there.
LUC 2010 by Marcy Stevens, LOUIS
P A G E 1 6
“Information
Literacy is about
much more than
finding books and
articles; it's about
interpreting the
world we live in
and learning to
create new
ideas.”
ACRL-LA STAR (Successful Transitions to Academic Research) Committee
by Karen Niemla, ULM
Information Literacy is an immensely important set of skills everyone should have. Since ACRL national defines it as "the set of skills needed to find, retrieve, analyze, and use information," Information Literacy is about much more than finding books and articles; it's about interpreting the world we live in and learning to create new ideas. It‘s fundamental, because research is a more involved process than finding the right answer to a question. SACS very appropriately goes further, and calls it "the ability to locate, evaluate, and use information to become independent life-long learners." Since this is such an important concept, waiting until post-high-school to foster Information Literacy skills is very likely not enough, because it is so fundamental that a student needs it in his or her toolbox when they arrive on campus. It goes without saying that students who are not college-
bound might need to know this also. It would be inconsiderate to say that public libraries do not have a crucial role in fostering Information Literacy skills. After all, that is where I taught myself how to use EBSCOhost (the one without a GUI, if you remember that). Schools, however, have an inherent responsibility to educate and prepare students which is implicitly passed on to higher education. Thinking of Information Literacy as a General Education requirement, as substantial as any other, is a reality for institutions with standards like those of SACS. Reaching those standards is impeded by the varying degrees of information competency in incoming students. Dealing with this challenge has always been a part of ACRL-LA's School to College Transitions committee. ACRL-LA began the "School to College Transitions" committee as early as 2008, when
then-president Michael Matthews suggested it. When first conceived, it was known as the "K-20 Initiative," as libraries are important from the onset of education and beyond. As ACRL-LA put it in a news release, "Simply stated, this initiative will address the current disconnect that seems to exist between the K-12 system and higher education when it comes to information literacy scholarship, training, outcomes and assessment." In 2009, Debra Rollins was named committee chair, and she remains so. Eventually "K-20" was renamed "School to College Transitions," and the focus was shifted largely to high schools. Efforts to make its endeavors more concrete began with opening a dialog to learn about the concerns of the librarians. In January at the 2010 LASL Midwinter Conference, a panel discussion in Coughlin Hall Auditorium asked the titular question, "Successful Transitions: How Librarians can Help
Prepare Students for College Research?" It was not a librarian-only affair, and one of the panelists was a
T H E L O U I S I A N A L I B R A R Y N E T W O R K
the cooperation of people outside of libraries. Missing from the ceaseless discussion were concrete solutions, but not conspicuously so. That is not to say, however, that there are not still things that universities and schools can do to assist one another. For instance, The University of Louisiana at Monroe Library will prepare tours and instruction for grade schools even though this is not necessarily a part of our regular duties. School
librarians and other faculty should be considerate of their college counterparts and schedule instruction in advance with intent to honor those commitments. You can also work with us. Recently, the committee was re-named
P A G E 1 7 V O L U M E 1 8 , I S S U E 1
college professor who works with freshmen. There was much talk during the session, and it went so well that another was suggested for the 2010 LLA Conference. The session with the same name at LLA 2010 was also successful, and the Hilton's Victory Room was completely filled with various types of librarians even though it was sponsored by LASL on the "Youth Services" track, and even though it was a late entry in the conference program. People were clearly interested in the issue. Unsurprisingly, many of the same challenges face academic libraries and school libraries; they are limited in resources, and sometimes have trouble getting the attention of faculty. Many librarians who spoke seemed to feel that their skills were underused, and they were sometimes underwhelmed by the information competency levels of their students (in regards to practices, not the individuals). Instructors often assume that because their students are young, they already know how to find information and use it properly, while neither may be true. Many seemed to be aware that producing information literate students requires
again to the ―STAR (Successful Transitions to Academic Research) Committee,‖ and we welcome new members with interest in improving Information Literacy education. The committee hopes to one day draft something like written competency standards, and good input is needed. You can see the committee list at acrlla.org/about, and you can contact Debra Rollins at [email protected] for more information.
P A G E 1 8
“The Louisiana
Research
Collection at
Tulane University
has recently
contributed three
collections to the
LOUIS Digital
Library.”
Tulane LDL Collections
by David Comeaux, Tulane The Louisiana Research Collection (formerly known as the Manuscripts department) at Tulane University has recently contributed three collections to the LOUIS Digital
Library. The first consists of the costume drawings for the Mistick Krewe of Comus' "Missing Links" parade, held in 1873. The Mistick Krewe of Comus celebrated its first Carnival in 1857, and is the oldest krewe in New Orleans. This parade is particularly famous in Mardi Gras history, as it was one of the first major parades steeped in political satire and ridicule. The "Missing Links" referred to the work of Charles Darwin, and the parade not only mocked the theory of evolution, but other topics of the day including Reconstruction.
The second collection is the Al Lippman collection of Civil War postal covers. This is part of a collection of Civil War period letters and
postal covers from donor Al Lippman. Postal covers are
envelopes with printed designs commemorating an event, person, or cause. The forty postal covers, with one exception, depict Union sentiment and patriotism. Many depict Confederate figures such as Jefferson Davis and General Beauregard. Sometimes these depictions are animal-like caricatures, others tend towards violent depictions, including several showing a hanging Jefferson Davis. Some postal covers portray a disdain of Britain's relationship with the Confederacy, others are steeped in Union patriotism and imagery of Uncle Sam. They were collected by Alfred S. Lippman of Morgan City, Louisiana, who donated them to the Louisiana Research Collection in 2009. An attorney, Lippman has been active in civic and business affairs. Among his many contributions are his services on the boards of the Community Foundation of Acadiana, 2009, United States Assay Commission, 1973-1974; Morgan City Harbor and Terminal
District, 1967-2004 (President, 1972-1978-1999); Louisiana Board of Tax Appeals, 1980-1985; the Pan American Commission, 1990-1992; the Board of Supervisors, Louisiana Universities, 2000-2005; Whitney National Bank and Whitney Holding Corp., 1997- present; and the United States Coast Guard Foundation, 1990-2005. The third collection is the Mistick Krewe of Comus‘ 1910 Parade Float Designs. The theme of this parade was Mahomet (Muhammad), with illustrations of ―scenes from the Koran and episodes in the life of the great Prophet‖. The artist was Jennie Wilde, who designed floats for many parades, for both Comus and the Knights of Momus. The two Comus collections are part of a much larger Carnival collection housed at the Louisiana Research Collection.
T H E L O U I S I A N A L I B R A R Y N E T W O R K
SirsiDynix Symphony Update by Cathy Sicard, LOUIS
P A G E 1 9 V O L U M E 1 8 , I S S U E 1
Last fall LOUIS completed the first upgrade on our new virtual Beta server. We upgraded from Symphony 3.2.1 to 3.3.1. All sites were invited to beta test the new release using this new environment supported by LOUIS. After beta testing, LOUIS then upgraded the Test server on December 15 and the Production server on January 11. The upgrade process for all twenty-nine sites was completed successfully in less than four hours. The issues reported following the upgrade were very minimal. Thanks to Chad Wright, SirsiDynix Technical Advisor, for his help throughout the process and to the LOUIS System Administrators for all their help testing throughout the process! One of the biggest adjustments with the 3.3.1 upgrade is that all sites have migrated from the WorkFlows C-client to the Java client. This transition has thankfully been less painful than we anticipated. After upgrading to
3.3.1, the LOUIS staff
updated the encryption
certificates for all sites
since they are required to
encrypt eLibrary. Also,
LOUIS expanded the
scope of eLibrary data that
was encrypted to include
not only the users in ―My
Account‖ data, but also the
entire eLibrary interface.
Unrelated to the upgrade, LOUIS updated other pieces of the Symphony environment. On the server side, the backup procedures have been enhanced with new features; more memory was added to ―Bob‖, the Symphony beta, training and hotsite server; and jumbo frames was installed to improve backup network throughput. The LOUIS hosted EZproxy software was also upgraded to the
current release for the nineteen sites that use this service. In December 2009, LOUIS allowed SirsiDynix to load its newly developed Web Services and BookMyne iPhone application on our Beta server in order to do testing. Following this test, the iPhone application was released by Apple. LOUIS installed this software on the Symphony Test server for further testing. The decision was made to wait for further enhancements before proceeding with this
application in production. In January 2010, LOUIS purchased and installed StaffWeb 3.3.1. This is a light version of the WorkFlows desktop client. It was not designed to replace WorkFlows. Ten sites have been using it so far. LOUIS completed a data conversion project for all government document sites. The conversion formatted the 856 fields in such way that it allowed the title to be displayed along with the ―click‖ usage statistics for electronic government documents loaded into the catalog. A total of 849,327 bibliographic titles were updated. Upcoming within our SirsiDynix environment, is the implementation of Demand Management for all sites, the addition of a new institution, Louisiana Delta Community College, and the implementation of LDAP for LSU and LSU-S.
“The upgrade
process for all
twenty-nine
sites was
completed
successfully in
less than four
hours. The
issues
reported
following the
upgrade were
very
minimal. “
LOUIS Contact Information:
Mailing Address:
LOUIS Office
Frey Computing Services Center
Tower Dr. at S. Stadium Dr.
Baton Rouge, LA 70803-1900
Phone: 225.578.3700
FAX: 225.578.6400
http://www.louislibraries.org
Executive Director:
Ralph Boe 225.578.3740
Director: Sara Zimmerman 225.578.3705
Consultant:
Cathy Sicard 225.578.3751
Analysts: John Guillory 225.578.3758
Mary ―Bron‖ Laird 225.578.3753
Marcy Stevens 225.578.3771
Lisa Stigall 225.578.3735
Zehra ―Zee Zee‖ Zamin 225.578.3747
Design Editor:
Alex Zimmerman
THE LOUISIANA LIBRARY NETWORK:
Combining the resources of Louisiana's public and private academic libraries,
along with a centralized support staff to produce a dynamic library consortium.