The eBooks are here!

I am writing to let you know that the eBook discussions, trials, and testing you participated in during Spring Term helped us determine a good fit for our library and eBooks.  As recommended by those who responded, we have added ebrary’s Academic Complete collection and it is ready for you to use!

While on campus, users will be able to browse the collection and use the eBooks without restrictions. To use ebrary from off campus or to use the special features of this system, like storing titles you want to use again on a personal bookshelf, campus network credentials will be required. Use the link available at the top of the library’s homepage to gain access to over 52,000 ebooks, with titles in all academic subject areas. ebrary allows for unlimited, simultaneous-user access.  No checkouts required!

Watch for more news about the specific features of this new service coming as soon as we have them figured out and ready to use.

Changes in the Library Team

We just wanted to make you all aware of some changes coming soon to the Library’s team.  As of June 15th, Sara will become the director of Educational Technology here at Briar Cliff, so we will be looking for a new reference librarian.  In fact, the position has been posted!

So if you will be around this summer and have an interest in being on the search committee, please let Deb know.  We just need one or two folks to join us for the candidate interviews, which will hopefully begin by late May or early June.

Thank you for your help!

– Deb and Sara

eBooks, eTrials, eYikes!

The variety of electronic book interfaces was a discussion topic at our last meeting.  Members present indicated they would like to participate trials and demonstrations for a variety of collections.   Links to the three trials we have setup are listed below.   Please use each trial as much as you would like.  Share them with your students and get their feedback too.  Details on vendor demonstrations coming soon! Note: we have an opportunity to be included in consortia pricing through IPAL (Iowa Private Academic Libraries) if we indicate our interest by April 25^th!

eBooks on EBSCOhost

Gale Virtual Reference Library

ebrary Academic Complete from ProQuest

As always, let us know if you have questions or require any assistance.

ENJOY!
~Deb

3/31/2011 Meeting notes

Thursday, March 31, 2011 from 2:30 – 3:30 in Heelan Hall 365

Present:  Vickie Britson, Shannon Beller, Bernice Metz, Brian Hazlett, Brenda Parkhill,  Marilee Thomas, Sally Jackson, Sara Thompson, and Deb Robertson

A handout offering details of the agenda topics was distributed to those in attendance.

Overview of current electronic collections in the library

Sara shared some of the most popular electronic services offered by the library.  From the Library Tips section of the handout you will find links to Newsbank, new library books listings, a  reading list creation tool, and our e-Journal portal.  All of these tools are linked from the library web site and if you have questions or need assistance using any of these electronic resources, let the library staff know.  We will be happy to help you.

Discussion of concourse concept proposed by Library and IT Center

Deb and Sara shared details about the joint Concourse proposal.  The concept is still in development, the Library and IT Center have partnered and would welcome other departments to join us.  The concept is to create spaces in the library building for joint training and collaboration on ideas the students and faculty request.  We plan to answer all types of questions from how to use technology to find information, to how to create information.  There are plans for workshops offered by the joint IT and Library staff, for all BCU community members.    Oh yes, Java City will be in the building to offer their style of collaboration support too!

How best to move forward with moving to eBook holdings for our library

The steps we need to go through to make the best decisions for adding eBooks to the library collection were outlined.  The advisory committee members asked many excellent questions, here are a sample:

- what are the standards?
- can we read them on the iPad?
- will they have  easy searching capability, note taking tools, table of contents with links, easy navigation, annotating, margin notes?
- how many times can they be checked out?
- how many checkouts allowed at once?
- how does the patron keep notes or highlights made on a library eBook?

The library staff is aware of eBook vendors who have a variety of platforms and delivery models.  It was decided that the librarians will set up trials and demonstrations with the vendors and the advisory committee members will look at what is presented to be able to help the library make an informed decision on how best to proceed into eBook collection development arena.  Stand by, more to come on this real soon.  The library would like to set up at least one eBook account over the summer.

Moving forward…

April 10 – 16 is National Library Week.  The library plans to participate in a national library snapshot day activity on April 14th.  Please mark your calendar and attend this open-house event between 1:30 and 2:30 p.m.  We plan to ask you what you would put in the library spaces if they were empty.  Students will be invited to volunteer for the new student library advisory committee being formed this year.  We also have the BCU Jazz Ensemble scheduled from 2:30 – 3:30, BCU author displays, AND…FOOD!

Please spread the word to coworkers and students and be sure to join us and give us your “picture” of what we will look like in the future.

 

Next Advisory Committee Meeting

The next meeting of the BCU Library Advisory Committee has been scheduled for Thursday, March 31, 2011, from 2:30 – 3:30 p.m., in Heelan Hall 365.

Topics for the agenda include:

• Overview of the current electronic collections in the library — 20 minutes
• Discussion of concourse concept proposed by Library and IT Center — 20 minutes
• How best to move forward with moving to eBook holdings for our library – 20 minutes

Members of the committee should let Deb Robertson, at deb.robertson@briarcliff.edu or 279-1771, know if they will not be able to attend this meeting.

A lesson in being agile

Last summer, when the strategic planning teams were working to flesh out the major goals for the university, Leah Ward, the Director of our IT Center began a conversation with me about some type of collaboration where our two service areas might partner.  The IT Center and Library now have a concept for how we would like to collaborate to provide services we believe will help the rest of the campus community transform in product, place and people.  We delivered our concept proposal to the Administrative Council members last Friday, and the response was positive!  We are now working on a business plan to put it all together.

This is where you come in.  We are sharing the concept with you now so that you might ponder it, ask us questions, and be prepared at our next meeting to help us flesh out a few more details from the perspectives each of you brings to the group.  The concept we shared with the Administrative Council is available here, http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10100860/RevolutionStartsHereConcourse.pdf .

Until next time,
Deb Robertson

Reflections on a great beginning…

As the director of the library at Briar Cliff University, I have been contemplating what to post here since the first meeting of the newly formed Library Advisory Committee.  As members shared why they volunteered to be a part of this group, several mentioned wanting to know more about the library while others want to be involved because they have had good (a few could even be described as GREAT) experiences in libraries and they want to share their passion with us.

During the next segment of our meeting we discussed what members would like, or hope to have, in our library in 2020.  This garnered a long list of items from books, books, and more books, to personal information robots that would gather all the “good stuff” and deliver it to each patron based on their individual interests.  There was debate on what container the information would be delivered in.  Print vs. electronic, on shelves for serendipitous browsing, or electronic with analogous suggestions based on previous selections.    If you stop to think about it the last time the “container” for information was transformed as much as it has with the technology we have today, was when Johannes Gutenberg gave us the printing press, in 1440!  For me this says that for the first time, in a very long time, we have an opportunity to define the library.  Is it a building full of books or is it a place where information is available and knowledge can be found?

Before we can truly define the future of our library I believe a little history about libraries might help.  For those who want to learn more about libraries, this section is for you!  For those of us who already like libraries, well, you just might learn something too, I know I did!  “How did public libraries get started?” gives a decent picture of the evolution of  libraries.  There is also a retired librarian who maintains a website with links to many other sites of library history.  Visit this site when you have lots of time, http://www.libraryhistorybuff.org/index.htm .  Oh yes, the library has a book titled, A history of libraries in the Western World, you will find it in the stacks at: Z 721 .J63.

Other trivia about libraries:

• There was a time when libraries installed radios in reading rooms and turn them on for important events such as presidential speeches.  As radios became common household items, that practice disappeared.
• Andrew Carnegie built libraries that were recreational as well as educational centers.  In the 1890’s, few homes had indoor plumbing Carnegie’s libraries had showers, gyms, billiards and barbers.
• We have always dealt with change, even with books.  Just for fun here is a link to a YouTube video that might help us realize that what we are discussing is not new, just different.

I hope this posting has been informative.  Keep the conversation going, we are in this together!

Resources:
Greiner, T.,  & Cooper, B. (2007).  Analyzing Library Collection Use with Excel. Chicago: ALA Editions.
Storey, T. (2009.)  The Ripple Effect, Part 1:  Extending the Library’s Reach.  NextSpace, 17, 4-9.
Medieval Monastery Book Helpdesk .  Available online at:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zQgEqDdvuo

Discussion: What would you change about the physical library?

Please post your comments below — the more, the merrier, so feel free to post more than once if the inspiration hits you.

1/18/2011 Meeting Notes

Tuesday, January 18^th from 2pm to 3pm in the Curriculum Room (Library Basement)

Introductions and Interest in the group

Members joined because of a love of libraries and desire to learn more about the campus library.

Setting the Context

Deb: The impetus for forming the Library Advisory Committee was the campus strategic plan.  The library wants to be proactive, not reactive, in preparing the student of the future for change.  And the library will indeed be changing, but how?

What will the 2020 Library be like?

Members wrote their ideas on note cards and shared with the group.  Suggestions from the brainstorming and cards:

• online virtual assistant
• online Skype librarian
• market research shows interest in online but also personal contact, having a face with the chat, establish identity
• library staff who know it all and can teach others
• Current really good books for each department? A very welcoming place, maybe a coffee shop, encourage students to come and share research
• coffee bar, comfy lounge area, place to meet, home theater room to show movies
• be like Netflix, have online new releases
• have to have technology, but also want the serendipity of wondering through the stacks, so students have that experience, accidental discoveries – how to combine both environments?
• uses ILL but also wants instant gratification, finding and getting materials when they’re needed
• recommendations for books or websites, like StumbleUpon, have a hub to download ebooks to personal device
• no time to do the stack searching, need quick access to relevant materials
• need to know how to deal with old files, looking for physical information, library as a historical institution
• what will students do in the working world? Not technology for the sake of technology, we don’t know where its going, its hard to look ahead
• in nursing, electronic patron records, changes how students learn to chart
• importance of training with multiple interfaces, variety of ways to get work done, being familiar with other methods and perspectives
• one place for writing, citing, tutoring, software, research, computers that always work, a place to create

 

Tour of the Library

Deb took everyone on a tour of the building.

What would you change?  Add? Remove? Replace?  We’re all ears.

The Beginning

Our first Library Advisory meeting will be Tuesday, January 18^th from 2pm to 3pm in the Curriculum Room (Library Basement).

Agenda:

10 min.                 Introductions & Interest in this group

25 min.                 Setting the Context for the Road Ahead

20 min.                 Walk Through / Visions for the Future

 

As always, we’d love to chat with you anytime and look forward to seeing you all,

Deb & Sara