New at the Kelley Center

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Spring and summer have been a busy time for the Kelley Center for Government Information, Data and Geospatial Services staff as will be the fall. Kathy Weimer, whom we welcomed as department head in January, is guiding the Kelley Center to expand its offerings related to data services and data management. You can learn more about Kathy from an article on page 7 of the Spring 2015 edition of News From Fondren.

Planning and carrying out new opportunities for intellectual property training has also been the focus of the department. In addition to our regular monthly patent search classes, on May 19 Michael Hydorn and Daphne Joseph from the Patent and Trademark Resource Center (PTRC) of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), came to Fondren to offer patent and trademark search training to those at Rice and from the greater Houston Area. As part of the event attended by around 100 people, representatives from local organizations who assist with intellectual property and business procedures described their services. Also, after months of planning, Rice patents became available in the Digital Scholarship Archive  this summer creating a much easier and more complete way of finding them and collocating patents with a researcher’s other scholarly body of work. Members of the group making this happen included: Linda Spiro and Siu Min Yu, Government Information Librarians; Scott Carlson, Metadata Coordinator; Monica Rivero, Digital Curation Coordinator; Kathy Weimer, Head, Kelley Center for Government Information, Data and Geospatial Services; Lisa Spiro, Executive Director of Digital Scholarship Services; and Shannon Kipphut-Smith, Scholarly Communications Liaison. On August 7 the department hosted a celebration to highlight the availability of Rice patents in the repository and the 225th anniversary of the first United States patent. Additionally, on September 16 from 1:30-3:00 pm Craig Morris, Educational Outreach Attorney for Trademarks at the USPTO, will speak in the Kyle Morrow Room in a free program entitled Trademark Basics: What Every Small Business Should Know Now Not Later.

With the advent of Fondren’s new web pages, content that was available on our government web pages on the old site is in the process of being moved to LibGuides. If you are having trouble locating information, please ask at the government information desk or call 713-348-5483.

Astrodome Memories Oral History and Scanning Event (2)

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Woodson Research Center staff Amanda Focke and Dara Flinn participated with other local archives in the Astrodome Memories oral history and memorabilia scanning event on Saturday morning, which brought members of the community to the Houston Public Library’s historic Julia Ideson Building to share wonderful stories of life in the Astrodome. Houstonians fully used all six scanning stations, the photography station for 3D and oversize objects, and the two oral history stations during the four-hour event, and made time to get to know each other’s stories as well. The event provided a reunion of sorts for two of the original Spacettes, the women charged with ushering guests in the dome. Betty Court Laney brought photos while Emily Hammond brought her 1965 gold lamé uniform, including blue boots and Astrodome-shaped pill box hat. Other fans brought photos and memorabilia of sporting events, the rodeo, and concerts held in the dome. Donald Bond brought photos and ephemera related to his father Walter Bond, who played for the Colt .45’s (later the Astros) baseball team.

Spacette Reunion

Spacette Reunion

Donald Bond with photo of Walter Bond

Donald Bond with photo of Walter Bond

Future events will be announced over the next year, and the Astrodome Memories Project staff will be happy to scan your memorabilia and record your oral history by appointment. The Astrodome Memories site can be found here:

http://www.astrodomememories.org/

Astrodome Memories Oral History and Scanning Event

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wrc05394

The Woodson Research Center is participating with other local archives in the creation of the Astrodome Memories Project. The project web site is live at:

http://www.astrodomememories.org

The next Astrodome Memories event is an oral history and scanning event:

August 8, 2015
10:00 AM until 2:00 PM
Julia Ideson Building Auditorium
Houston Public Library
500 McKinney Street
Houston, TX 77008
For Appointments Call: 832-393-1522

Drop-in appointments are available, but if you wish to record an oral history or have more than three items to contribute, we recommend making an appointment.

Oral histories and items scanned at the event will be shared online at the project Web site. You can view items that were scanned at the 50th Anniversary Birthday Party at the Astrodome by visiting:

50th Anniversary Event

Astrodome Memories is a project of the Houston Public Library in partnership with the Houston Metropolitan Research Center; the Harris County Archives; the Woodson Research Center Special Collections & Archives, Fondren Library, Rice University; Special Collections, University of Houston Libraries; and the Harris County Public Library. The project provides access to a broad collection of Astrodome-related materials, including items contributed by the public as well as from major archives in the Houston area and the state. The collection includes oral histories, photographs, blueprints, and audio-video materials related to the construction of the Astrodome, as well as pamphlets, scrapbook, and memorabilia documenting the use of the Astrodome for the last fifty years.

This project has been made possible in part by support from the Institute of Museum and Library Services provided by the Texas State Library and Archives Commission.

Jesse Jones records archived in Woodson

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The historic records of Jesse Jones (1874-1956), one of the nation’s most powerful appointed officials during the Great Depression and World War II and one of Houston’s pre-eminent developers during the first half of the 20th century, are now archived at Woodson Research Center. Read more in the Rice News article: http://news.rice.edu/2015/06/15/jesse-jones-archive-now-at-rice-university-2/

Jesse Jones archive

To view finding aids online visit:
or contact the Woodson Research Center for more information.

C-MACS Meeting Notes May 20, 2015

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C-MACS will restructure the committee as follows:
•Norie Guthrie will serve as a new co-chair.
•Debra Kolah will continue serving as a co-chair through summer 2016.

The following staff will become permanent members by virtue of their positions:
•Jeff Koffler
•Judy Howell
•Debra Kolah

The following staff will serve two-year terms representing their respective areas:
•Woodson (Norie Guthrie)
•Reference (Sandi Edwards)
•Access Services (Michael Chiles)
•Tech Services (David Bynog)
•DSS (Jean Aroom)

Other topics of discussion included:
•Social media;
•Creation of a new “Welcome Video” for Fondren’s website;
•Marketing services: The idea of a master calendar for Fondren events as well as a Survey Monkey training class was discussed;
•Fondren’s participation in O-Week activities;
•Service-point banners: Digital signage is very expensive, and we may explore other options;
•OwlCards updates: Including creation of a card for the Kelley Center.

Executive Committee Meeting Summaries, May 28 and June 11, 2015

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May 28, 2015

Lowman updated the group on Rice Board of Trustees actions that relate to library goals.

The project to renovate the first floor will move forward. In preparation for renovations, the reference collection is being back-shifted and VHS tapes are being re-located. The aim is to complete all of the noisy work by the end of the summer.

June 4, 2015

No meeting

June 11, 2015

The Executive Committee discussed plans for an upcoming Town Hall Meeting, which will include presentations on CMACS, disaster preparedness, the Rice Digital Scholarship Archive, and Fondren’s web site.

Lowman gave an update on the first floor renovation, saying that Fondren is currently waiting for furniture bids.

The committee divided up responsibilities for writing Fondren’s FY 2014 ROARS report and its contributions to Rice’s SACS report, both of which are needed to reaffirm the university’s accreditation status.

CORAL: A new ERM for Fondren

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The library recently implemented a new open-source Electronic Resource Management System (ERM) called CORAL to better manage our electronic resources. A small implementation group spearheaded by Scott Vieira has been put in place. Work with the ERM currently will be limited to Acquisitions Staff, but use by other departments is being explored to help with workflow processes.

Fondren Library Staff News has a new look!

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The Staff Relations Committee is pleased to announce some changes to the Fondren Library Staff News blog! The university’s general purpose blogging and content management system, blogs.rice.edu, moved to a more robust WordPress platform with many popular themes, plug-ins, widgets and other features.  Rice University has contracted with CampusPress by EduBlogs to provide the new cloud-hosted environment.  Details on the new features can be found in http://about.blogs.rice.edu.

Over the weekend of May 28-31, the full contents of our blog were moved into the new CampusPress environment. In addition to the new platform, the SRC decided to spruce up the layout of the blog. We have a new theme and features including the long awaited “Subscribe by email” function located on the right column. This feature will allow staff members to receive an email whenever a new post has been added to the blog. More details will be announced at the Staff Association meeting on Friday, June 12!

Executive Committee Meeting Summaries (April 23, April 30, May 7, 14, 18 & 21, 2015)

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April 23, 2015

Group members shared unavailable dates through the summer and agreed that summer meetings will be roughly bi-weekly.

Sara updated the group on renovation progress and began to build an agenda for the next Fondren town meeting. So far, topics to be covered include the renovation, 3rd and 4th floor shifts & shelf-reading project.

Diane shared that, late this summer, the committee working on reviewing the current market in library systems will be narrowing the field of systems to be considered. Finalists will be brought to meetings with all staff sometime in September.

Sara noted that the university budget review was completed and we are now awaiting word on the library’s funding for FY16.

April 30
No meeting.

May 7
No meeting.

May 14
No meeting.

May 18
The group met to discuss the use of collaborative spaces in the library. Computers temporarily located in B40D during the construction of the new collaborative space will be removed, leaving table seating and a PC instructor’s workstation as planned. The DMC Multipurpose Room (with Apple instructor’s station and connection for PC laptop instructor machine) will be scheduled via Google Calendar as other rooms, allowing scheduling by anyone in the Rice community. The appropriateness of using study rooms 201 and 601 in cases of conflict will be clarified. Instructors should be flexible about use of the rooms, swapping if more seating or other features are needed, thus minimizing conflicts. Good records will be kept and the adequacy of our current arrangements, recommended by the interdepartmental Collaboration Space Working Group, will be reviewed at the end of the fall semester. Any increase in the number of instructional spaces requires demonstrated need and an increase in the IT budget.

May 21
No meeting.

Executive Committee Meeting Summary, April 16, 2015

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  • The Friends of Fondren student research awards were announced.
  • Planning for the upcoming renovations of the first floor is underway. A working group led by Kerry Keck worked out a process and a timeline for re-locating materials. The furniture group has reviewed carpet and furniture samples; furniture will be ordered by early May.
  • Fondren plans to roll out CORAL as an open source module for electronic resource management. Scott Vieira will coordinate the work with IT and other staff.
  • Fondren will be participating in a campus-wide effort to improve accessibility, such as by closed-captioning new library-produced videos and making PDFs searchable.