ULAC Meeting Minutes

Devember 7, 2012

ULAC Meeting
2:00 pm - Steely Library – Room 510

Present: Vicky Berling, K.C. Russell, Arne Almquist, Jaesook Gilbert, Threasa Wesley, Karen Leek

Not Present: Kathy Kurk, Sam Goh, Greg Martin, Carol Furnish

Special Guests/Presenters: Mary Chesnut and Andrea Brooks

Arne Almquist:

  • Phone call from Archivist – just received NEH Grant this year – the first grant of $50,000 is paying for planning and design of improved environmental systems (HVAC). The second grant will support planning and design work to improve security systems. We are hoping these two grants will lead to a larger implementation grant next year.
  • We have a new SAGE journals package – had fewer than 100 to which we previously subscribed - has been extended to 650 titles at a very low annual cost – these packets will cross disciplines campus-wide – we will experience cost savings the first year – total number of subscribed titles is now approx. 4,500 to 5,000 – before we went electronic, that number was more like 1,500. Users have access to articles from 45,000+ current journal titles through our subscriptions and full text databases. In addition, we can get anything that we do not currently have through SourceFinder.
  • The Paul Sawyier exhibit will come down on Monday.
  • Bill Coffey gave a lecture on Paul Sawyier on November 29th – we wanted to have this toward the end of the exhibit to regenerate interest - approximately 30 people attended the lecture (some from Frankfort, Florida, etc.) and we have had a number of visitors since – we also received a lot of good press –sponsorship money from this exhibit provided upgraded gallery lighting and security system – if you know artists that may be interested in doing an exhibit, we can now successfully alarm each individual piece (this alarm also sounds at the police department).
  • Maureen Morehead, Kentucky's Poet Laureate, did a reading and book signing on September 25th – she read from her book which was based on personal letters from the Civil War – we had a crowd of approximately 50 people.
  • Watch for upcoming events – including the artist of an illustrated version of Moby Dick which he did using found paper, relevant to story – he will also create an artwork the night of the event.
  • Our newest version of Annotations will be released soon – due to the good work of Mary Chesnut, Editor - the new cover is stunning and is based on Sawyier artwork.
  • I spoke yesterday at the 15th Annual Tree Lighting – the NKU Wind Ensemble played, President and Mrs. Mearns read to the Early Childhood Center kids. Prior to the Lighting, President Mearns came over early to do a walk and talk with Arne re: library/budget/materials, etc. We also highlighted various programs and saw the entire facility – leaks and all.

Arne showed the PowerPoint that he presented to President Mearns.

  • Bridging the Gap West Virginia is going well – our teams met recently and they have asked us to serve on the Curriculum Advisory Committee for the Associate's degree program in Library Science for the Mountwest Community & Technical College.

Andrea Brooks and Mary Chesnut gave a presentation re: Information Literacy (will be uploaded to website w/minutes). A handout re: faculty consultations was also distributed (will also be uploaded with minutes).

Questions included:

  1. Is the tutorial a stand-alone for any student/any curriculum?
  2. At the higher level, how do you compensate for those that did not get the next level(s) above basic? We may have to focus on "track" to keep consistent for all, but the pre-testing helps better identify level of knowledge.
  3. Where are the tutorials? Library quick links/tutorials/course specific tutorial series – we can create a special tutorial for specific classes.
  4. Will this take away from other help services, i.e. consultations, research, etc.? We have reorganized R&IS to better address needs.

Mary discussed the grant received for the Foundation of Knowledge - may change how we instruct in the future. The course will be called "Information and Society." Vicky Berling asked if they would be interested in teaching an online Pace course.

Other business:

  • Arne reported on the deaccession of materials – we have been posting lists for 60 days on the faculty page of Steely Library's website – if you say keep, we'll keep.

Our next meeting is scheduled for February 17th.

There being no further business, meeting adjourned.