WAAL09: We're from the Government and We're Here to Help! : Reference and Loan Library Services for Academic Libraries

"We're from the Government and We're Here to Help! : Reference and Loan Library Services for Academic Libraries"
Martha Farley Berninger, Abby Swanton, Lisa Reale, and Vickie Long
Reference & Loan Library, DPI - http://dpi.wi.gov/RLL

BadgerLink:
-- Appreciate getting credit for database links (ex: "provided by BadgerLink" or logo)
-- Access is via IP address or library card barcode ranges (please provide both to Badgerlink), or other as needed
-- New: Federated searching across all EBSCOhost and Proquest databases, (and WisCat for licensed libraries)
-- Support: online form for tech support & promotional materials (bookmarks, posters)

WisCat:
-- Since 1980s - resource-sharing tool for ILL, MARC record sharing
-- Z39.50 compatible
-- Includes public, academic, and medical library catalogs, (and Minitex - Minnesota catalogs?)
-- For past year, ISO connection with Illiad for UW-Madison libraries (GZM) brokered by WILS
-- Splash page is customizable, with up to 4 RSS feeds, calendar message of the day
-- "L" list libraries only - can't afford others

Wisconsin Digital Archives - http://cdm15011.contentdm.oclc.org
-- WI Document Depository Program - http://dpi.wi.gov/rll/inddep.html
-- Academic and public libraries
-- Some docs are born digital and only exist online
-- Authoritative, long-term access
-- Primary access is via OPACs - all records in WorldCat, WisCat, MadCat, LRBCat, FirstSearch
-- Collection: hot topics, statistics, task forces, final reports
-- All are assigned WiDoc numbers
-- Open to suggestions for documents to add
-- Not archived: public records, databases, private info (intranets), print that hasn't already been digitized, entire websites (tho can do *parts*)
-- RSS feed or Monthly lists sent to libraries since 2005 - http://salcat.dpi.wi.gov/refloan/indship.asp

Reference Services:
-- AskAway = chat for all public libraries & paid institutions, email for paid institutions - not encouraged to be linked as primary service
-- Backup reference (phone, email, mail) - all WI residents / libraries
-- Songbook database - links into WisCat
-- Library directory
-- Automobile service manuals (coming soon)
-- Access to Dialog, WestLaw, Lexis-Nexis

Questions:

-- Plans to add more databases to Badgerlink? Answer: COLAND recommendation was to enhance access, but waiting to hear about funding.

WAAL 2008: Where are we? Academic librarianship in Wisco

Panelists:

• Kim LaPlante, Northeast Wisconsin Technical College
• Mary Rieder, UW Colleges
• Ed Van Gemert, UW-Madison
• Pat Wilkinson, UW-Oshkosh
• Pete Gilbert, Lawrence University
• Moderator: Gretchen Revie, Lawrence University

Role of library in higher education today

• Kim:
• WI Tech Coll system served 400,000 students last year
• NWTC 43,000+ students, 6,000 FTE
• Education: what you want, how you want it, where you want it
• #1 teaching IL skills - find, evaluate, use - librarian is most important resource in the library
• #2 gather materials - not so much in-house, but provide access; currency (ex: nursing or computer tech within past few years); get copyright permission to put online; video streaming online; cover many counties so has to be widely available
• #3 fostering innovation; disseminate to admin and faculty re: trends, directions to take, grants
• Mary:
• Similar to Tech Coll, with multiple campuses/libraries (13) across state; 50 library staff (~3/library, not all FT)
• Lots to do, little staff time to do it
• Large and growing online student population (1,100 now)
• Undergrad support vs. faculty research
• Started online document delivery, use SCLS and UB forfor ILL
• Non-traditional students doing research from work - needed proxy server
• Online library support has been done from one campus, but will need to hire more
• Templates for course Library Course Pages - citation guides, databases, catalog, ILL, websites - faculty can customize if want
• Coursecasting - podcasting audio of lectures, campus activities (ex: poetry readings), access can be restricted to students
• IL - wide range of students; life-long skills
• Copyright education for instructors
• Pete:
• Googled phrase "role of library in higher education" - found article from 1982, Australian perspective
• Dependent upon educational objectives of institution
• WAICU - 19 private schools - Marquette to Nashoda Seminary - most 1000-2000 students - overall 57,000 students; 1/4 4-year students in state - more diversity and non-traditional students (25+ years old)
• Independent schools: Personal connections, innovate with faculty, mission-driven, about teaching and learning primarily for undergrads, individualized learning, undergrads doing research with faculty
• Pat:
• Utilitarian definition of academic librarian
• Means by which HE gets certain amount of scholarly information to students and faculty
• 11 comprehensive colleges within UW System (2,500 to 10,000 students)
• Academic libraries no longer have a near monopoly - once operated in information-scarce environment; now information-rich
• Grappling with having to demonstrate our effectiveness now that libraries didn't need to 30 years ago
• Admins contact me and ask about # of books in library to put in reports - that doesn't tell anyone anything
• Ed:
• We'll hear more about similarities than dissimilarities today
• We have an incredible wealth of educational opportunities in this state - marvel at how and why that came about
• Over 45 libraries on the UW-Madison campus [well...]
• UW-Madison started 2 years after statehood, library collections go back further than that
• Sister states benefit from multiple research universities
• Wisconsin Idea - Charles Van Hise 1904 - boundaries of university extend beyond boundaries of the state
• My grandfather's time: extension staff, lumbering - natural resources, Now: information technology
• Support for big science, and digital arts and humanities
• Important for quality of life in Wisconsin
• People think "grad students and faculty research" but it's also undergrad education
• Less about internal focus, than external - how library serves needs of campus, city, state
• Article in Chronicle from Monday - UW-Madison difficulty retaining faculty and staff, scary article

Changes made in past 3-5 years to accomplish mission in HE? Considering?

• Kim:
• IL - more guides, online tours, virtual ref, more lab staff, hired coordinator for 3 campuses, customized guides for 3 programs, video streaming
• for students who are used to doing their own Myspace and Facebook pages
• Increasing tools at regional centers so anywhere in district students can get what they need
• Cataloging learning objects alongside books, journals, etc.
• Using Delicious account to bring students to recommended sites
• Library blog with RSS feed
• In Facebook - not alot of fans, but we are there - incorporate resources within so if seen, they can use
• Innovation - joined a lot of committees, not just to market library, but to help out as researcher about new technology, trends; More integrated with curriculum dev process
• College-wide online discussion with reading lists, instructors discuss articles posted by librarians
• Want to increase team teaching of librarians and faculty
• Want to make our interfaces more user-friendly; nextgen wants easy, nontrad want intuitive; Voyager 7 this year
• Instructor development role - want to help train re: libraries, work with existing faculty, being added to search teams, so can market library before they're hired because so busy when they start
• Mary:
• Tried some of those things
• Wisco virtual ref consortium - dropped out - staff small, hard to cover shifts - started to get questions about resources we didn't have
• Tried chat and IM ref, our students tend to like email because you can get to it on own time
• New strategic plan - assessment is big - survey a few years ago re: user feedback on Voyager catalog, and lots of changes were made, more streamlined; more campus surveys; 1st LibQual only 118 respondents (not as many as hoped) - will put into report for Library Council
• Budget cuts - created our own licensed resource purchasing cooperative; more collaborative purchase decisions
• Some students want to talk, others to be quiet - customizing spaces
• Online social networking hasn't really gone big with us
• Some of our libraries have LibraryThing and Google Books lists
• May become a baccalaureate granting institution, and will need to support this
• Want to tell faculty what we have, so they can tell students what we have
• Want to digitize non-copyrighted materials
• Want to look at internal and external funding sources
• Pete:
• Wayne Wiegand was my advisor in grad school - key phrase was "the library in the life of the user, as opposed to the user in the life of the library" - to achieve ubiquity, we try to customize our resources/services for users
• Signs and business cards: "Ask us"
• We're also spending a lot of time asking them - formal through SurveyMonkey, and informal through flipchart in library with question: "What one change would you like to see in the physical building?" that users write on
• We ask ourselves "So what?" - what if we just stopped doing this? what would happen? because we have to stop something if we start something new.
• IL causes increased reference statistics - make appointments for reference conferences, allows us to prepare more than drop-in desk questions
• Going to where the students are, virtually - Moodle course management system on campus (free version of D2L, Blackboard) - created a library module to search catalog, will add federated searching, will be doing Delicious and RSS; working with faculty to use PURLs to link to articles
• Librarians and art faculty talking about digital image provision to studio students - work on things as people ask for them
• Senior experience - every department has to have a culminating experience; opportunity to integrate library across curriculum
• Building new campus center - "living room" - library is like that right now; what will new role of library be? Remote services? Domino effect on other buildings - incorporate learning commons into library?
• Pat:
• Sharper, more public focus on faculty research
• TOC service
• Desktop document delivery - Promised to faculty that we'd get anything they wanted as fast as we could - $10,000/year - BadgerCat helpful as discovery tool, some UW funding
• Less cumbersome for students - added MS Office suite, wireless, laptop checkout, allow people to do things from homepage
• Tried minor physical improvements - quiet study, group study, new archives area (work with classes doing research)
• More fun, fewer rules, no fines for overdues, murder mystery/IL, coffee/cookies during finals, custom-printed mousepads
• Not only tried to handle cuts well, but have tried to improve services - got through to admin, they were happier with us
• Not buried under IT in identity
• Stress one-system, one-library - role of UW-Madison as flagship very important, elsewhere that doesn't happen
• Reducing footprint of materials, to make room for information commons
• Conscious transition to digital resources
• Integrate with CMS
• Increased funding, strengthening cooperative collection development
• Ed:
• Started 1971 as student assistant in library
• Recent strategic planning exercise - not so important what directions and outcomes were - process on large campus (300 FTE) was interesting and informative - wouldn't hesitate to do again
• Strategic partnerships - with faculty, students, other system institutions on digital collections, highlight work by faculty, with Google - transformative work for libraries
• We can do big things, and we can change the world, that's part of our role - will continue to be
• Library space is a physical asset; over 1 million square feet at UW-Madison; reduction of print, want to repurpose, also landgrab on campus; how partner with faculty, centers, etc. or it will be taken from us
• Have lost 5 million dollars in journal collections from budget cuts; ILL/document delivery has done a great job
• Lorcan Dempsey - critical of libraries not "in the flow"
• NIH requirement of uploading publications to PubMed Central - libraries have taken central role, partnered with research admin
• Culture of Sharing workshop last weekend - 50 students, starting Students for Free Culture org on campus - told it was the 1st such symposium in U.S.
• Building collections based on buildings and people not appropriate; need to support multidisciplinarity
• Librarians designed learning outcomes for learning objects - instructors bring images, skeletons, etc. - how help them place into CMS, provide ubiquity

What skills and abilities help librarians thrive?

• Kim:
• Instruction skills with enthusiasm - they just have to share!
• Someone with imagination who has ideas they want to try
• Mary:
• Need IT skills because we're not that well supported, do our own web design
• Multi-tasking - reference in person, circulation, email reference, committee work
• Marketing resources, services, what we can do for faculty/admin/community
• Networking with community - Campus Reads, library boards, helps at budget time
• Ed:
• Social intelligence - build into position descriptions - work as team, partnerships with limited resources and time regardless of subject expertise
• Pat:
• Ability to work in ambiguous situations, take a risk, take initiative; 30 years ago, libraries were run top-down
• Business communication skills - we like academia, and we need to focus our communication on what people need to know, not what we want to show them
• Pete:
• Creativity - thinking energy - I have 9 pages of brainstorming from staff about better serving campus
• Responsivity - reference "house calls"
• Connectivity - knowing people by name, who's doing what

[Image: http://www.mywcpa.org/colleges_universities.php]

WLA 2007: WisconsinEye.com

The first I learned of this new C-SPAN-like broadcasting network was from the WLA conference brochure's directory of exhibitors, two days ago: "WisconsinEye is a statewide public affairs network providing independent, nonpartisan coverage of community and civic life, beginning with gavel-to-gavel coverage of state government in Madison."

Then Thursday morning, Bonnie Shucha at WisBlawg passed along an announcement of the partnership between WisconsinEye and BadgerNet, the state's network of "voice, data, and video services to state agencies, local governments, UW campuses, technical colleges, private colleges and universities, public and private K-12 schools, and libraries."

When I made it into the exhibit hall for the first time late Thursday afternoon, it was my intention to seek out the WisconsinEye booth and find out a bit more about this venture. I found Chris Long, President & CEO, ready to talk, with a back-drop of streaming news playing on both their website and a television, and maps of cable and BadgerNet coverage areas within the state.

Chris is a former C-SPAN staffer, who was pursuing a PhD in Mass Communications at the UW-Madison when the opportunity to lead WisconsinEye came up last year. The idea for the network originated over ten years ago, within state government. After some initial research into existing models, it was determined that such a network should properly be established as a non-profit, with no state funding or state-funded staff, unlike other systems across the country.

Anyone in the world can watch the fascinating machinations of the Wisconsin legislative, judicial, and executive branches at http://www.wiseye.org/. Cable subscribers can currently tune in for free to Channel 200 (Charter) or 163 (Time Warner), although the long-term financing plan is to sell broadcast rights to these companies - and they may need to hear your voice as a subscriber to be convinced of the value of WisconsinEye, so speak up and get involved, if you like what you see.

As a sample of their intended "civic life" coverage, you can also go to their website to catch recorded author talks from the Wisconsin Book Festival!