President's Musings

CARL Days, CARL Nights

The days are endless, but the years fly by.

The quotation above is traditionally a direct reference to the vicissitudes of child-rearing, but can easily enough be applied to an academic career, or many other of the Kafkaesque trajectories that are characteristic of the lives of twenty-first century, over-technologised academics. It certainly fits my year as CARL president – ending as of this December. I sometimes had days of one email after another, dealing with some minor CARL crisis or kerfuffle. (My memory, suspect as it is, does not admit to any major crisis of any sort. No murders, no fratricidal or even vaguely threatening rants amongst the CARL brethren, no CARL offices occupied, no destruction of any sort – mostly just weaving CARL through the vast maze of hyper-detailed librarian issues.) A day of CARL life could take forever though, and I would feel like I barely got to my other work. And now I look up at the calendar and the fun is over; the year has blasted by with a mighty whoosh of commotion, and I am not quite sure yet what debris is left in the wake.

It has been an amazing year, with a grand opportunity to work with our excellent, dynamic, always-challenging Executive Committee: hard-working, intelligent librarians all, from across the state, possessed of backbones and creative ideas. By the time you read this, it will have been refreshed with newly elected members, and I offer thanks to those officers leaving, who have done much for CARL in the last year. The reins of CARL now go to the capable hands of Stephanie Brasley, who has a marvelous conference in store for you this coming April in sunny San Diego. Industrious Vice President Kathlene Hanson is in the wings, stirring pots and reaching out.

The most personally gratifying CARL activity during the last year has been the February launch of our long-in-gestation Mentoring Program, now with over two dozen mentors handling nearly that many “mentees.” There is clearly a need for new librarians, either fresh out of grad school or new to California or academic library culture, to meet and learn from more veteran colleagues. So far all seems to be going well, and the mixing of minds is valuable to both ends of the mentoring spectrum, as it should be. We do need more mentors in the hopper, however, if the program is to grow. Its current rate of expansion cannot go on indefinitely, but it would be better to have more mentors at hand to match with new librarians, especially since there are often different career attributes that new librarians seek advice on, and having choices is always good in this arena. Please let me know if you would like to join the mentor ranks and help out a newer librarian. Your experience is more than valuable: it is revitalizing, relevant, and potentially embracing.

It is a lousy time to be in higher education in California, as likely all of us would agree, as the state has gone and squandered its once stellar reputation for an excellent public college and university system. Fingers can deservedly be pointed in many directions, but realistically it will not be until the electorate decides that it is important for the state to fund advanced education, that there will be any relief. (For a thoughtful article on the economics of this, see UC Santa Cruz’s Robert Meister’s piece in the UCSC newsletter.)

Perhaps everyone needs to think of education funding as an "investment in the future" rather than as a “tax,” (currently a term with apparently demonic associations). Money won’t solve everything, but it is hard to get a kid through college properly when there isn’t enough money to pay faculty appropriately (who often leave for better situations elsewhere), or fund adequate library collections and resources. And when California is outspent in per-student expenditures to higher education by states with far less robust economies such as Arkansas, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, New Mexico, and South Dakota, it is just plain embarrassing. California is squarely mid-pack in the country when it comes to state support for higher education – which is even worse than it sounds, since the cost of living is so high here, and California’s economic output so impressive. Education quality is down, the cost is up, and I’m sorry, but this is no way to treat our future – and the next college student you run across, like it or not, is our future. It is a shame, because a college or university is just about the most amazing institution in the United States, perhaps the world, even now, and so much good comes out of the mix of students and faculty. Minds broaden, horizons deepen, the universe is explored. After almost twenty years as an academic librarian, my nerve endings still get excited every day I come to campus, or when I hear from colleagues about their work with their own students, IL advances on their campus, or the improvements to their library services. While threatened mightily by social and economic forces, the university remains an essential component of an educated society, and the library, and librarians, are key elements in the missions of all institutions devoted to higher education.

Old Library at St. John’s College, Cambridge

Good holidays to all, thanks to everyone who has helped move CARL and the profession forward this year, and I look forward to seeing you in San Diego and all the other places where inquisitive, hard-working librarians meet.

My thanks,
Ned Fielden, San Francisco State University, CARL President

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CARL Business

CARL Welcomes New Officers

The election results are in! Thanks to all who ran and to everyone who voted. Please join the CARL Board and the Nominating & Elections Committee in welcoming our new and re-elected officers.

Vice-President South/President-Elect – Allison Carr, California State University, San Marcos
Secretary – Matthew Conner, University of California, Davis
Treasurer – Pam Howard, San Francisco State University
Director-at-Large – April Cunningham, Saddleback College
Director-at-Large – Shana Higgins, University of Redlands

Allison Carr has been Social Sciences Librarian California State University, San Marcos since 2006. Offices Held and/or Service to CARL include:

• Chair, Southern California Instruction Librarians (SCIL), 2011
• Co-Chair, CARL 2012 Conference Planning Team
• Vice Chair/Chair Elect, SCIL, 2010
• Webmaster, CARL 2010 Conference
• Co-Chair, CARL 2008 Conference Planning Team

Offices Held and/or Service to other Professional Associations:

• Member, Conference Planning Committee ACRL Instruction Section, 2007-08
• Intern, User Education & Information Literacy Committee, Reference Services Section of RUSA, 2006-07
• Intern, Conference Planning Committee ACRL Instruction Section, 2006-07
• Webmaster, LOEX Conference Planning Committee, 2006-07

Matthew Conner is Reference/Instruction Librarian at Peter J. Shields Library, University of California, Davis.

Offices Held and/or Service to other Professional Associations:

• Chair, Committee on Professional Governance (CPG), Library Association of the University of California (LAUC) 2009-2010
• Secretary, Library Association of the University of California, Davis (LAUCD) 2009-2010

Pam Howard is Associate Librarian at J. Paul Leonard Library, San Francisco State University.

Offices Held and/or Service to CARL:

• Currently Treasurer of CARL

Offices Held and/or Service to other Professional Associations:

• 2009/10 Grant committee chair and member of the (Lucretia) McClure Excellence in Education Award Jury, Medical Library Association

April Cunningham has been Library Instruction Coordinator at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo since 2005.

Offices Held and/or Service to CARL:

• SCIL Chair 2009
• SCIL Vice-Chair 2008
• SCIL Secretary 2006, 2007

Offices Held and/or Service to other Professional Associations:

• LOEX Advisory Board 2009-2012

Shana Higgins has been Instructional Services Librarian at University of Redlands since 2006.
 
Offices Held and/or Service to CARL:

• Private Institutions Director-at-Large (elected) & Southern Campus Liaison Coordinator (appointed), California Academic & Research Libraries (CARL), 2009-2011
• Reviewer, California Academic & Research Libraries (CARL) Conference, 2010 & 2012

Offices Held and/or Service to other Professional Associations:

• Member, Communication Committee, Instruction Section, Association of College & Research Libraries, 2010-2012
• Intern, Professional Education Committee, Instruction Section, Association of College & Research Libraries, 2009-2010
• Membership Committee, Library Instruction Roundtable, American Library Association, Member, 2008-2009, Co-Chair, 2009-2011
• Editor of Mass Media and Film & Television lists, Women’s Studies Section Core Books Database, Association of Academic & Research Libraries, 2006-present

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The arrangement and description of the CARL Archives is nearing completion. A finding aid will be posted on the CARL website once it is finished. For questions or comments, please contact Rand Boyd, Chapman University: rboyd@chapman.edu.

346 Total Members
137 Renewing Members (121 Members and 16 Students/Retirees)
19 New Members

• The new membership database is up and running (the 137 members who renewed this quarter used this system).
• The membership directory is now in good working order.
• CARL Donations site (for conferences and scholarships) is up and has received one scholarship donation already.
• Renewal notices for 2011 expiring or expired members are going out.

Submitted by Kelly Janousek, California State University, Long Beach, CARL Membership Director.

CARL Conference 2012

Registration is Now Open!
April 5-7, 2012 in San Diego, CA

Come join us at CARL's Biennial Conference in sunny San Diego, April 5-7, 2012. We're planning a great conference! http://www.carl-acrl.org/conference2012/

Here are just a few highlights:

Keynote Speaker Jenica P. Rogers is Director of Libraries for the Crumb and Crane Libraries at the State University of New York at Potsdam. In 2009 she received a SUNY Potsdam President's Award for Excellence in Professional Service and was nominated one of Library Journal's Movers and Shakers for 2009.

New to this conference: Free internet in hotel rooms and free parking at the hotel!!!

Invited papers

Char Booth explores the integration of education, research, technology, and design in libraries. She is Instruction Services Manager/E-Learning Librarian at the Claremont Colleges, and recently joined the ACRL Immersion Faculty.

Elisabeth Leonard brings nearly 15 years of experience in the library field to her newly created position at SAGE, as the market research analyst for online products. In addition to an MLS, she has an MBA and is currently pursuing her PhD in Information Science from UNC Chapel Hill. Her dissertation topic is innovation in libraries.

Brian Mathews is an Associate Dean for Learning & Outreach at the Virginia Tech Libraries. Brian has written a book titled Marketing Today’s Academic Library published by ALA Editions in 2009. He also writes the blog The Ubiquitous Librarian, hosted by the Chronicle of Higher Education [http://chronicle.com/blognetwork/theubiquitouslibrarian/]

• Free internet in hotel rooms and free parking at the hotel (icing on the cake, really)
• Unconference: additional opportunities to connect with and learn from fellow attendees through a series of peer-sourced and driven sessions in which participants determine the course and content. Includes speed networking, roundtable discussions, solution-oriented presentations, a how-to boot camp, as well as backchannel conversations via live tweeting (Twitter hashtag: #carlunconf2012).
• Lightning rounds: short bursts of content offered in quick succession a great way to learn a lot in a short period of time.
• Outreach fair: an opportunity to showcase materials used in outreach at a variety of academic libraries; materials will be available throughout the conference to take and reuse at your own institution.
• Free internet in hotel rooms and free parking at the hotel(did we mention this yet?)

For questions, please contact Stephanie Brasley, Allison Carr or Brena Smith at: carlconf2012@gmail.com

Interest Group News

SCIL Works 2012 - Back to Basics: The Ubiquitous One Shot

Friday, February 3, 2012
The Claremont Colleges

NOTE: The deadline to submit a proposal for Research & Practice presentations and Lightning Round presentations has been extended to Thursday, December 15th.

Most of us spend the bulk of our time teaching one-shot library instruction sessions of one type or another. For some, this work has a zen-like pleasure: we can engage in an endless honing of our craft. For others it can be frustrating: we feel like we have little formal contact with the students or input into the curriculum.

What can we do to facilitate students' development of information literacy skills throughout college and life?

How are you:

• Making the most of opportunities for collaboration with colleagues and discipline faculty?
• Piquing your students' interest?
• Applying instructional design principles to online or face-to-face instruction?
• Assessing what students have learned?

SCIL Works 2012 is the place to learn about great ideas, activities, lesson plans and research on the ubiquitous one-shot through both the hour-long Research & Practice Presentations and the live, 5-minute Lightning Round Presentations.

For more information, please see the SCIL Works 2012 web page: http://www.carl-acrl.org/ig/scil/scilworks/2012/index.html

Submitted by Stephanie Rosenblatt, Pollak Library, California State University, Fullerton.

SCIL Fall 2011 Update

A lot has been happening at SCIL (Southern California Instruction Librarians) this fall!

New SCIL Officers for 2012
SCIL held their annual elections in November. The new officers are:

• Vice-Chair / Chair Elect: Gayatri Singh (UCSD)
• Secretary: Talitha Matlin (San Diego Zoo Global)
• Registrar: Coleen Martin (CSU Northridge)

The current SCIL Chair, Allie Carr, will be passing the gavel to Stephanie Rosenblatt, SCIL Vice-Chair/Chair Elect at our December 9th meeting at CSU Fullerton.

Upcoming Meetings
SCIL business meetings are open to any and all interested parties! This Fall, we have been featuring short continuing education sessions before the meetings, which we hope to continue into 2012. Save the date for our upcoming meetings: March 9th (teleconference), April 5-7 (CARL Conference IG Lunch, exact date TBD), and May 4 (location TBD).

Submitted by Talitha Matlin, San Diego Zoo

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SEAL-S Fall 2011 Program Report

Data Curation Initiatives at Southern California Academic Institutions
Friday, October 28, 2011, California State University, Long Beach

We had a very good turnout for the event. All 30 participants seemed to enjoy the program, which included a continental breakfast, lunch, and presentations from five speakers.

The speakers provided a well-balanced representation on data curation and data management plans. We had service providers such as Joan Starr from the University of California Curation Center (UC3) and Tim Tamminga from BePress Digital Commons. Joan Starr discussed
EZID, a persistent identifier that enhances the location of an object, its metadata and the ease of updating location of a dataset. Tim Tamminga showcased various Digital Commons institutional repositories hosting different types of materials, from undergraduate research, archival primary-sourced documents to faculty publication.

The other three speakers displayed data curation efforts at the University of California, the California State University system as well as private institutions. Marisa Ramirez from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo gave the audience a sneak-preview of her upcoming C&RL publication
about Cal Poly faculty behavior and attitude towards data curation. Mitchell Brown from UCI provided specific examples of data management for different constituents/contexts, from Earth
Science Department or humanities data to born-digital files. Lastly, George Porter from Cal Tech keyed in the message of the importance of finding a “happy home” for data. With the astronomical amount of data generated by Cal Tech researchers and limited library bandwidth, Cal Tech Libraries’ approach is to provide links and good metadata pointing to other servers/repositories that host the data.

Submitted by Khue Duong, SEAL-S Program Chair, kduong@csulb.edu

Conferences and Events

Internet Librarian 2011 Conference Report

What do digital watches, stepping stones and ducks have in common? The Internet Librarian Conference in Monterey, of course!

As usual, my notes from the annual conference made a lot more sense when I was writing them than they do a month later. However, I can still decipher the recommendation from Mary Ellen Bates to go try out a handful of browsers that do not track your every move: ghostery.com; scroogle.com; duckduckgo.com; and smartpage.com.

“Digital watches are just watches now,” lamented one vendor. “We will know that ebooks have arrived when they are just called books.” There were murmurs of agreement, but when I think about it, the only people I know who make the distinction are librarians and ebook distributers. Sometimes it is hard to remember that ebooks – like graphic novels – are a mode of delivery, not a genre.

Wikipedia came up as a topic several times during discussions at the conference. It was given credit for being a “revolutionary way of viewing information” that opens up the “back room” and allows readers to see the editing history. But mostly, it was viewed in the way it functions best: as a stepping stone resource for starting new research in an unfamiliar field.

Text and Illustrations Submitted by Diane Sands, San Francisco State University

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Upcoming LIRT Event at ALA Midwinter

Start Where They Are: Google and Google Scholar, a gateway to database research?

For those lucky CARL members who are planning to attend the ALA Midwinter conference in Dallas, be sure to mark your calendars for the LIRT Discussion Group: Sunday, January 22, 2012, 10:30 AM – 12:00

Join the LIRT conversation about how to help users make the transition from what they know (search engines) to what professors and librarians want them to use (scholarly journals).
 
Submitted by Linda J. Goff, President ALA/LIRT, California State University, Sacramento

People News

Awards and Publications

Peter J. Runge, Head of Special Collections and University Archives at Cal Poly, is the co-author of Northern Arizona University: Buildings as History with Lee C. Drickamer. Published by the University of Arizona Press in June 2011, the book is a pictorial chronicle of the Northern Arizona University campus where Runge previously worked. It includes more than two hundred images of campus buildings, many of them never before published.
Yvonne Nalani Meulemans, Information Literacy Coordinator at California State University, San Marcos, recently co-published an article titled “Assessing an Information Literacy Assignment and Workshop Using a Quasi-Experimental Design” in volume 59, issue 4 of College Teaching.

Ann Fiegen, Business Librarian at California State University, San Marcos, was promoted to full Librarian. She also recently published an article titled "Business Information Literacy: A Synthesis of Best Practices," in volume 16, number 4, of the Journal of Business and Finance Librarianship.

UCLA's Graduate School of Education & Information Studies (GSE&IS) is delighted to honor Library and Information Studies alumna Marianne Afifi (MLS '93) for her professional achievements and her strong support of the Department of Information Studies and GSE&IS, including her support for the Marianne Afifi Scholarship for a graduate student in the MLIS program. Ms. Afifi is Associate Dean of the Oviatt Library, California State University, Northridge.

Stephanie George, Archivist at California State University, Fullerton Center for Oral and Public History, published “Sacred Encounters: The History of Holy Cross Cemetery in Anaheim,CA” in the November 2011 issue of Orange Countiana, the journal of the Orange County Historical Society. Ms. George is also the current President of the California Council for the Promotion of History.  

Pamela Jackson and Patrick Sullivan, both of San Diego State University, edited a book for ACRL entitled, International Students and Academic Libraries: Initiatives for Success. It can be found online here: http://www.alastore.ala.org/detail.aspx?ID=3622

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Presentations

Pam Howard co-presented with Meg Gorzycki at the October 14, 2011 AAC&U meeting in Long Beach, CA on Ethical Thinking as a Cognitive Task. This presentation brought the theoretical underpinnings for the development of a rubric that stimulates student thinking about ethics to an audience of faculty, chairs and deans. The AAC&U meeting was followed by a panel presentation titled Building a Simulation Program: Moving Beyond the Mannequin, at the Magic in Teaching conference, in San Diego, CA, held October 19th and sponsored by the California Institute for Nursing & Health Care. The panel, Dr. S. Serber (RN), Kathleen L. Shea (RN), Dr. Meg Gorzycki, Edward J. Rovera and Pam Howard, presented on their work developing a human patient simulation program for the SFSU School of Nursing curriculum.

Robin Hartman, Director of Library Services at the Hugh and Hazel Darling Library, Hope International University, was a co-presenter with Larry Haight, Director of Libraries, Simpson University and Andrew Pace, OCLC Executive Director, Networked Library Services in a session at Internet Librarian 2011 on "Web Services: Libraries in the Cloud."

Places News

Appointments

Stephanie Rosenblatt, Education Librarian, was appointed Instruction Coordinator at the Pollak Library, California State University, Fullerton in Spring 2011.

After receiving her MLIS in December, 2010, Sarah Naumann was hired in August 2011 as a Reference Librarian for Mills College in Oakland, CA.

Lindsey Sinnott was hired June 1, 2011 after a five-and-a-half year search to fill a vacancy for Associate Librarian of Systems and Technical Services at the Hugh and Hazel Darling Library, Hope International University. She had been our Acquisitions Manager and completed her MLIS degree (Drexel University iSchool) in December 2010.

David Beales joined Cal Poly San Luis Obispo as Librarian for the College of Engineering in October, 2011. Beales came to Kennedy Library from the Central Library, Imperial College London, where he was the Faculty Team Leader for Engineering over the last two years and introduced research support sessions in bibliometrics, research impact and academic plagiarism. Previously he served at King's College London as Senior Information Specialist for Teaching and Learning, and Information Specialist, Physical Sciences and Engineering. Beales’ university degrees include a BEng in civil engineering from the University of Brighton and an MA in Information Services Management from the University of North London.

Mark Bieraugel joined Cal Poly San Luis Obispo as the College Librarian for the Orfalea College of Business in September, 2011. Bieraugel brings a range of experience in multiple areas of business librarianship to Kennedy Library, including over ten years as a business librarian. He has been a researcher for Microsoft, manager of business and strategic intelligence at software and telecommunications firms, researcher supporting public relations executives and staff at Waggener Edstrom, and senior research specialist for Moss Adams LLP. Recently Mark made the transition to academic librarianship, holding a faculty position at Tacoma Community College for the last two years. Mark earned an MLIS from the University of Washington and an undergraduate degree in dramatic art from UC Santa Barbara.

Karen Lauritsen joined the Robert E. Kennedy Library at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in a newly established position of Communications and Public Programs Coordinator in August, 2011. Lauritsen leads public programs including Science Café and Conversations with Cal Poly Authors. She is responsible for library communications within campus and the larger community, including the library’s annual publication and media outreach. Before joining Cal Poly, Lauritsen held positions in design education at UCLA Extension, communications and events at Stanford University and curriculum development at Stanford Prevention Research Center. Lauritsen has a MA in Education from UC Berkeley and a BA in Speech Communication from Humboldt State University.

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Events and Exhibits

The Fullerton College Library received a $15,000.00 grant check from Verizon at a September soirée in the library lobby. Attendees included: Verizon Government and External Affairs Regional Director Mike Murray; North Orange County Community College District Chancellor Dr. Ned Doffoney; and Fullerton College President Dr. Rajen Vurdien. As guests munched finger foods, Verizon Government and External Affairs Regional Director Mike Murray emphasized Verizon’s commitment to community-building and literacy.
 
Grant monies will provide instructional and library materials that support students in building basic skills. Resources to be acquired include instructional software; books for new and low-level readers of English; basic skills-level math and science books; and handbooks for the Academic Support Center. The writer of the grant, Acquisitions Librarian Monique Delatte Starkey, collaborated with Academic Support Center Director Olivia Veloz, Library and Learning Resource Center Dean Jackie Boll, and Instruction Librarian Jill Okamura to determine the focus of the initial grant request. Delatte Starkey stated, “I am fortunate to work with such an excellent team.” She continued, “We are incredibly grateful to Verizon for funding literacy and basic skills initiatives. As Fullerton College has been designated an Hispanic-serving institution and an Asian-American/Pacific Islander-serving institution, this effort is serving a diverse cross-section of the community. The student body will greatly benefit from the new resources purchased through this grant.”

Submitted by Monique Delatte, Fullerton College Library

Loyola Marymount's Manifold Greatness

The William H. Hannon Library at Loyola Marymount University has been selected as one of 40 libraries to host the traveling exhibition Manifold Greatness: The Creation and Afterlife of the King James Bible. The exhibition, created to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the first printing of the King James Bible in 1611,tells the story of the origins, creation, and impact of one of the most influential books in history. Manifold Greatness not only highlights the dramatic tale behind the making of this book, but also includes its influence on English and American literature, and its multifaceted impact on culture and society to the present day. Manifold Greatness: The Creation and Afterlife of the King James Bible was organized by the Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D.C., and the American Library Association Public Programs Office. It is based on an exhibition of the same name developed by the Folger Shakespeare Library and the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, with assistance from the Harry Ransom Center of the University of Texas. The traveling exhibition was made possible by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. In January 2013, the William H. Hannon Library, in partnership with the City of Inglewood Public Library, will offer free programs, a rare books exhibit, and other events for the public in connection with the exhibition. For more information, please contact Jamie Hazlitt, Outreach Librarian, at 310-338-5234.

Submitted by Tobeylynn Birch, Loyola Marymount University

News from the Hugh and Hazel Darling Library, Hope International University

The Darling Library was an early adopter of WMS, OCLC’s ILS in the cloud, going live in June 2011. They have also integrated LibAnswers with eCollege (our Online Course Management System) to create an “Ask the Librarian” button (available in all online classes) along with a “Meet the Librarian” button which links to a personal “get to know me” page embedded in these courses.

The Darling Library has been selected to receive the International Society for Science and Religion (ISSR) Library award. HIU is one of only 150 institutions worldwide to receive the full ISSR Library set, which consists of 224 volumes that cover not only science and spirituality but also history, social science, philosophy, the environment and more.

Submitted by Robin R. Hartman, Hope International University

About the CARL Newsletter

The CARL Newsletter (ISSN: 1090-9982) is the official publication of the California Academic & Research Libraries organization and is published online quarterly. The RSS feed for this newsletter is available at http://www.carl-acrl.org/newsletter/feed.xml.

Deadlines for submissions: February 15, May 15, August 15, and November 15.

Newsletter submissions, including creative contributions, People News and Places News should be sent to carlnewsletter@gmail.com. For corrections, questions and comments contact the co-editors, Mira Foster (mira@sfsu.edu), and Nicole Allensworth (nallensw@sfsu.edu), J. Paul Leonard Library, San Francisco State University, 1630 Holloway Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94132.