UMass Amherst Libraries
Activities and Accomplishments
2015
Assessment
§ Updated Assessment Committee charge approved by SMG (January)
§ LibQual survey (February)
Awards
Charney, M.K. (2014). 2014 Climate Leadership Award with others from UMass Amherst. 2014
Presidential Summit on Climate Leadership. Boston, MA.
Turner, C. (2015). Edward Swanson Memorial Best of Library Resources & Technical Services Award for her paper E-Resource acquisitions in academic library consortia. Library Resources & Technical Services (LRTS), 58 (1), pp. 33-48, January 2014.
Collections
§ Massachusetts Government Documents Collection digitization completed (October)
§ Collection statistics for 2015:
o Total items added to the collection (all formats) - 192,033
o Breakdown by format:
§ Print monographs – 6,390
§ Sound recordings - 490
§ Music scores - 291
§ Video recordings - 162
§ Microforms - 712
§ E-books - 140,446
§ E-journals - 7,008
§ Streaming audio files - 27,863
§ Streaming video - 7,236
§ E-gov docs – 1,435
Development
§ Talk and exhibit by Ed and Libby Klekowski, “Archaeology of the First World War: Exploring the Trenches Today” (February)
§ 13th annual Dinner with Friends with publisher and editors of Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary as guest speakers. Also featured were the White House-performing UMass Amherst a cappella group The Doo Wop Shop. Proceeds went toward the Innovation Fund for underwriting the production of the new 3D Printing Center. (March)
§ At the Academic Library Advancement and Development Network (ALADN) Conference, the Libraries’ annual report won best annual report and was also selected as the people’s choice for best publication in development for the year. (April)
§ INHABIT: A Permaculture Perspective film screening (October)
§ 17th Annual Fall Reception, “Jazz with Friends,” featured special guest Aureldon Henderson, founder of the Boston Jazz Society and music by UMass Amherst Department of Music’s Jazz Ensemble I and the Graduate Jazz Quintet, under the direction of Jeffrey W. Holmes, conductor. The event highlighted historic collections like those of the Boston Jazz Society and pianist/composer Borah Bergman. (October)
§ Birds of Prey Program with wildlife rehabilitator Tom Ricardi (October)
§ “Why is Your Library Named Du Bois?” event in Library lobby (October)
§ First annual Tower Run, modeled after the Empire State Building Run-Up, offered the opportunity to run the 440 steps of the Du Bois Library, from the Lower Level to Floor 26. (November)
Du Bois Activities
§ Associate professor of anthropology Whitney Battle-Baptiste appointed Director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Center (January)
§ 21st Annual Du Bois Lecture with speaker David Levering Lewis (February)
§ Talks by the recipients of the 2014 Du Bois Library Fellowships, Brandon R. Byrd and Donald Geesling (April)
§ Du Bois Center hosted Project eLEVate students for a tour of SCUA and a seminar, "Hip Hop Feminism," presented by Whitney Battle-Baptiste (June)
§ Presentations by the recipients of the 2015 Du Bois Library Fellowships, Nneka Dennie and Crystal Webster (October)
Facilities
§ Electrical project completed (January)
§ B2Q presented an 80-page consultant’s report to the Physical Plant regarding the Library’s HVAC. As a result, $450,000 was allocated towards implementing some of the recommendations. (January)
§ Project to install hand dryers in restrooms with heavy traffic was funded (January)
§ Development and Assessment areas of the 4th floor renovated (February)
§ Grand opening of the MakerBot Innovation Center, attended by faculty, administrators, students, parents, press, business partners and community members, with speeches from university administrators and representatives from MakerBot (March)
§ Test grid of LED lighting installed in the following areas: 9th floor stacks and open study area, 4th floor conference room, area in the microclimate, area over the public computers (March)
§ Temporary loading dock installed on the east side of the Du Bois Library due to the South College project (March)
§ Hydration station installed on the east side of the Lower Level (July)
§ National Library Relocations removed collections from the 6th floor in preparation for construction of space for the Image Collection Library (August)
§ Window replacement project completed (August)
§ Building Monitors Desk and Information Desk merged and named Library Information Desk. Library Information Desk materials now overseen by the Library Office. (August)
§ Elevator floors replaced (August)
§ Handrails in inner stairwells sealed (August)
§ Class of 1955 Garden completed (August)
§ All windows in the Du Bois Library washed (August and September)
§ Lobby project plans discussed and the project put on hold due to the cost (September)
§ 7th floor construction projected completed and Academic Computing moved in (October)
§ Scholarly Communications office renovation (December)
§ The campus approved using the former Textbook Annex for storing little-used library materials that must be removed to accommodate the Writing Program/LRC renovations on the 12th and 13th floors of Du Bois. (December)
§ There were discussions about co-locating the Academy at UMass Amherst, a center for intellectual discourse for retired faculty, with the Teaching Commons on the 26th floor of Du Bois.
Five Colleges
§ Five College Libraries All-Access Services Staff Meetup held at the Du Bois Library (March)
§ Five College Annex site identified in Northampton did not work out. A second site was chosen in Hadley, but the Town of Hadley Planning Board voted against building the Annex there. The Five Colleges appealed the Planning Board’s decision.
§ FCLC wrote to the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) regarding the changes to NEASC’s standard 7.
Information Resources Management
§ Established two demand-driven e-book acquisitions plans with the Five College Library Consortium.
§ Implemented Resources and Organizations modules of the CORAL Electronic Resources Management system.
o Populated resource records for 537 databases, ebooks, ebook packages, ejournal packages, streaming media, images and tools.
o Added records for 300+ organizations with which we have relationships.
§ Created a Virtual Shelf Browse and Cover Image Browse of books in the Five College catalog by call number.
§ Leveraged the Smith College Library Visual Browse to create UMass Amherst Authors Visual Browse.
§ Oversaw the identification, preparation, and related records management functions of materials identified for relocation to offsite storage in order to make room for the Image Collection Library on the 6th floor of the W.E.B. Du Bois Library.
§ Implemented Report Broken Links function to improve the reporting and troubleshooting of e-resources access problems.
§ Implemented borrowing and lending through the Commonwealth Catalog with the Five College ILS Coordinator.
§ Streamlined and automated the process for sending student billing to the bursar.
Organization and Planning
§ Libraries 2015-2017 Three-Year Plan completed
§ ORCID IDs proposal endorsed by SMG (February)
§ External Funding Procedure endorsed by SMG (February)
§ Digital Strategies Group Strategic Plan Implementation Task Force Report completed (April)
§ SMG endorsed appointing the Information Desk Services Task Force (May)
§ Librarian Engagement Program Proposal approved by SMG (May)
§ Ergonomic Requests Guideline approved by SMG (June)
§ Revised Disaster Response Manual approved by SMG (June)
§ SMG retreat focused on the task force reports and possibilities for moving forward (July)
§ Task Force to Merge Info Desk Functions into Du Bois Building Operations Report endorsed by SMG (July)
§ Customer Service/Service Guidelines Task Force endorsed by SMG
§ 3D Printing Policy endorsed by SMG (August)
§ Access Services Workflow Review Task Force Summary and Phase 2 Reports approved by SMG (September)
§ Research & Liaison Services Department Review Task Force Report approved by SMG (September)
§ Library Engagement Team Advisory Committee Charge approved by SMG (September)
§ SMG endorsed the Marketing Work Group Report and the creation of an ongoing Marketing Advisory Team (October)
§ Co-located Service Desk Implementation Task Force Charge endorsed by SMG (October)
§ Revised Laptop Lending Rules approved by SMG (November)
§ In addition to an initial $130,000 cut, an additional $18,004 was cut from the Library budget for FY 2016. This budget cut was covered by student employee savings due to the merging of the Information and Building Operations Desks, and no longer staffing the 6th floor desk.
§ Learning Commons Assessment Task Force Final Report approved by SMG (December)
Outreach
§ Therapy Dogs Events (February 26, April 27, October 21, December 9)
§ Human Library Event, an international project that started in Denmark 15 years ago, was held on the Lower Level. Students, staff and faculty were invited to "check out" a “living book.” (April)
§ One-credit course, “De-Mystifying Library Research” (UNIV 190-L), offered during Spring 2015 semester.
§ “Get Your Game On” events (September 6 and December 4)
§ Finals Fun Breaks held in SEL and Du Bois December 14-18
§ Collaborated with the Graduate School’s Office of Professional Development to present workshops on research skills, research data management, scientific writing, information management and author rights.
§ Participated in the Graduate School Fall New Student Orientation with presentations and tabling.
§ Hosted librarians visiting from two universities in Japan, Doshisha University and Hokkaido University, which included a two-week training sojourn by a librarian from Hokkaido University.
§ Collaborated for the 7th year with other regional academic libraries to organize Science Boot Camp for Librarians, a three-day educational event. Each year in June, 60-70 librarians attend a basic orientation given by faculty in three science fields, along with three other scientists who present their research. A capstone session on an applied science library topic finishes Boot Camp.
Presentations
Adamick, J. (2015). Data visualization with Tableau. Presentation at the Boston Library Consortium Networking Day. Brandeis University, Waltham, MA.
Adamick, J. (2015). Transforming the Learning Commons with microclimates. Presentation at the Boston Library Consortium Networking Day. Brandeis University, Waltham, MA.
Allen, N., Bell, S., Billings, M., Ernst, D., Jensen, K., Sutton, S., West, Q., Wiley, D., & Zemke, S. (2015). Tackling textbook costs through open educational resources: A primer. Workshop at the American Library Association Midwinter Conference. Chicago, IL.
Antill, J. (2015). UMass use case. Presentation at MakerBot Innovation Center overview at GrabCAD. Cambridge, MA.
Antill, J. (2015). UMass MakerBot Innovation Center. Presentation for Western Mass Innovation & Entrepreneurship Tour. Amherst, MA.
Billings, M. (2015). Building your fan base: Promoting your repository on and off campus. Presentation at bePress IR All-Stars Tailgate. Portland, OR.
Billings, M. (2015). Encouraging openness at your institution: Trends in open education and open access. Presentation at the Special Library Association 2015 Annual Conference. Boston, MA.
Billings, M. (2015). Open education initiative at UMass Amherst. Presentation at the American Library Association Midwinter Conference. Chicago, IL.
Billings, M. & Cohen, S. (2015). Savings are nice, but learning is nicer: Libraries linking open textbooks with instruction, pedagogy and assessment. Presentation at the Open Education Conference. Vancouver, CN.
Billings, M. (2015). Seeking alternatives to high-cost textbooks: A case study of the UMass Amherst Open Education Initiative. Invited presentation at Boston College. Boston, MA.
Billings, M. (2015). Seeking alternatives to high-cost textbooks: The UMass Amherst example. Affordable Learning Georgia webinar presentation.
Billings, M. (2015). The new now: Institutional repositories and academia. Keynote presentation at Institutional Repository Day at University of Southern Mississippi. Hattiesburg, MS.
Billings, M. (2015). The Open Education Initiative at UMass Amherst: Seeking alternatives to high-cost textbooks. Presentation at Wheaton College. Norton, MA.
Billings, M. (2015). UMA’s Open Education Initiative: Perspective after 4 years in. Association of SouthEast Research Libraries webinar presentation.
Billings, M., & Camihort, K.M. (2015). The Open Education Initiatives at UMass Amherst and Holyoke Community College. Presentation for the Pakistan Community College Administrators Program. Amherst, MA.
Bischof, S. (2015). A large scale DDA consortial e-book project: What we learned during our first year. Presentation at the annual meeting of the ExLibris User Group of North America (ELUNA). Minneapolis, MN.
Bischof, S. (2015). What are you Indexing?: RDA, fixed fields, table of contents and more. Presentation at the annual meeting of ExLibris Northeast User Group (ENUG). Waltham, MA.
Bischof, S., & Lewellen, R. (2015). Five College EBL pilot project results. Presentation at Five College Libraries All Staff Meeting. Northampton, MA.
Borrego, P. (2015). Plant patents. Presentation to the Northfield Garden Club. Northfield Public Library, Northfield, Massachusetts.
Button, L. (2015). Data informed approach: Reinstating an approval plan. Presentation at the American Library Association Midwinter Conference. Chicago, IL.
Cox, R.S. (2015). Culinary history. Keynote presentation at the South Shore Annual History Symposium. Plymouth, MA.
Cox, R.S. (2015). Culinary history. Presentation at the Amherst Club. Amherst, MA.
Cox, R.S. (2015). Culinary history. Presentation at Books by the Sea. Osterville, MA.
Cox, R.S. (2015). Culinary history. Presentation at Bank Square Books. New London, CT.
Cox, R.S. (2015). Culinary history. Presentation at the Cape Cod Natural History Museum. Dennis, MA.
Cox, R.S. (2015). Culinary history. Presentation at the Kingston Public Library. Kingston, MA.
Cox, R.S. (2015). Culinary history. Presentation at the Kingston Senior Center. Kingston, MA.
Cox, R.S. (2015). Culinary history. Presentation at the New Haven Museum. New Haven, CT.
Cox, R.S. (2015). Culinary history. Presentation to the Amherst Historical Society. Amherst, MA.
Cox, R.S. (2015). Culinary history. Presentation to the Belchertown Historical Society. Belchertown, MA.
Cox, R.S. (2015). Culinary history. Presentation to the Litchfield Historical Society. Litchfield, CT.
Cox, R.S. (2015). Culinary history. Presentation to the New England Independent Booksellers Association. Providence, RI.
Cox, R.S. (2015). Food in the archives: Culinary history. Presentation at the Massachusetts History Conference (MassHumanities). Worcester, MA.
Cox, R.S. (2015). Sympathy for the dead. Presentation at the Applewood Senior Center. Amherst, MA.
Cox, R.S. (2015). Talking with the dead. Presentation at the Hilltowns History Fair and Conference. Buckland, MA.
Cox, R.S. (2015). The dead online. Presentation at the Association of Gravestone Studies Meeting. Greenfield, MA.
Espinal, I. (2015). From the individual to the institution: Exploring the experiences of academic librarians of color. Invited panelist for Association of College and Research Libraries Conference. Portland, OR.
Espinal, I. (2015). Parables, poetics, polemics and politics: The application and misapplication of core librarianship values in education, diversity, and social responsibility. Presentation at the ACRL/NY Symposium on Social Responsibility, Democracy, Education, and Professionalism: Supporting Core Values in Academic and Research Librarianship. New York, NY.
Espinal, I. (2015). Partnership beyond CALA: Training leaders of color for action. Invited Panelist for Chinese American Librarians Association program at the American Library Association Annual Conference. San Francisco, CA.
Espinal, I. (2015). ‘Today we have no excuse’: Commit to addressing the climate crisis in your library work with latinos. REFORMA National Conference. San Diego, CA.