Monthly Archives: July 2014

Collection management milestones

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Staff in the Kelley Center, Technical Services, Shelving and the Library Service Center have had a busy eight months relocating collections in preparation for the upcoming renovation of Fondren’s basement.

LSC staff began pulling nearly 30,000 volumes from the Q-TC call number range in October 2014, allowing Shelving staff to do a quick and effective compaction of these collections.  Over 110 SFU were emptied in anticipation of the microfilm collection being relocated to the southwest area of the basement.

Kelley Center staff, working with extensive support from staff in Technical and Research Services, began identifying microfilm (and a modest number of print government documents) for housing off-site.  This process resulted in the relocation of over 80,000 reels of microfilm to the LSC, with additional materials withdrawn due to chemical breakdown of the film base (aka the vinegar syndrome).

During this intense process, accessions to the LSC from the Woodson had been on hold, but the flow of archival materials from Fondren to LSC has resumed.  With all of this activity, it is not surprising that the LSC celebrated a specific milestone:  in February 2014, the LSC passed the 1 million collection items count – the off-site collection now stands at nearly 1,100,000.

Fondren Executive Committee Meeting Summaries (June 12-July 3, 2014)

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June 12, 2014

No meeting.

June 19, 2014

The Executive Committee discussed defining key technology skills for library staff. Potential strategies include developing technology competency standards for staff (based on department or roles) and integrating thoughtful consideration of technology skills into the hiring process.

Lowman reported on the renovation kickoff meeting, mentioning Facilities, Engineering and Planning personnel changes. Ana Ramirez, who worked on the previous renovation, will be working closely with us on this renovation. More meetings are scheduled for June 24, after which the detailed work of the design phase will begin, lasting approximately 6 weeks.

Lowman will serve on the CIO search committee.

Janet Thompson will return to work July 7.

June 26

No meeting.

July 3

Shannon Kipphut-Smith visited to discuss the Public Access Working Group (PAWG) report about Fondren’s readiness to support the Office of Science and Technology (OSTP) public access policy memorandum and the SHared Access Research Ecosystem (SHARE). Kipphut-Smith acknowledged uncertainty about the development of SHARE, but emphasized the need for the library to be ready. Already the library has many of the crucial pieces in place, including staff expertise and an institutional repository. An important part of Fondren’s efforts will be raising awareness of SHARE and public access issues with key people on campus.  Shannon will schedule a meeting with the Research Services group to discuss SHARE and other open access initiatives. The PAWG report will be shared with Fondren staff and will be discussed as part of an upcoming library town meeting.

In addition, the Executive Committee briefly discussed the ARL’s strategic design process, including the six systems of action presented at the Spring 2014 Membership Meeting.

The Executive Committee meeting will be on a summer hiatus until July 31.

Fondren’s Web Team News

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Fondren’s Web Team (Diane B., Debra K., Jane Z., Jean A., Lauren M., Sandi E., Jun L. and Jeff K.) saw the implementation of some major updates to the classic catalog go live on June 16th, 2014. These changes were the result of usability studies conducted with students and staff to make the catalog easier to understand and use. Denis G. and Mang S. modified the classic catalog to include an easy to use button bar, better information organization/layout and straightforward terminology.

This summer the Web Team is putting together a plan for the next version of the Fondren Library website. Drupal has been chosen as the content management system and the team is currently evaluating peer institutions for ideas on organizing the site and finding new features and functions to include. The Web Team would love your input at these early planning stages. Please feel free to share your comments/concerns with this brief survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/fondrenweb

 

Horizon Group reporting in Fall on MOOCs

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Following up on the Horizon Group‘s Spring 2014 report on the general nature of MOOCs, our group plans to present a report in the early Fall entitled “Open Educational Resources as a Factor in the Effective Development of MOOCs.”

Topics include:

  • The Nature of OERs / why MOOCs need them to be successful
  • Sources for OERs and OER guidance (sharable materials)
  • OERs & MOOCs as they relate to libraries
  • How can Fondren provide tips for use of OERs at Rice? (Our recommendations)

Horizon Group members: Amanda Focke (2014, co-chair), Shannon Kipphut (2014 co-chair), Angela Brown (2014), Lauren Mueller (2015), Nyssa Juneau-Kimbrell (2015), Jean Aroom (2015), Mary Brower (2015)