Wondering how that poll turned out, where we asked for your vote on what new committees ULS should create? Here’s the overview (click the image to enlarge it).
For more detailed responses, you’re welcome to view our full poll results on SurveyMonkey.
Looks like Academic Outreach is the one to start with, eh? Feel free to contact me directly if you have thoughts about this, or comment below.
In the next year ULS will be initiating several new committees in order to create more opportunities for ULS members to be active in the section while also expanding ULS’s contributions to university librarianship.
What will those committees be? We want you to tell us.
Vote now! via our one-question Surveymonkey poll.
Are your library’s databases accessible to people with disabilities? Do they comply with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act or the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines? How about your other licensed resources, such as ejournals, ebooks, and metasearch engines? Catalogs, chat software, wikis and other web 2.0 applications? There is a wiki page on ASCLA’s new wiki to help librarians find and share the answers to these questions. From this page http://ascla.ala.org/toolkit/index.php?title=Main_Page , go to the link at the bottom of the page for “Accessibility to Library Databases and Other Online Library Resources for People with Disabilities“. Googling “Accessibility to Library Databases and Other Online Library Resources for People with Disabilities” works too. There is also a section of the page for librarians to share practical experiences and advice about evaluating resources for accessibility. This is geared toward librarians who are not experts about accessibility. Please consider contributing to the wiki. More information about accessibility of many types of resources is needed. If it is easier for you to email information you’d like to contribute, rather than to post directly to the wiki, you are welcome to email Adina:
Adina Mulliken, Reference Librarian, Social Work, CFS, MFT, Aging; Library Disability Services; Interim for East Asia & CSD; Bird Library; Syracuse University
Having trouble filling management positions? There has been an ongoing debate in academic libraries about the benefits of hiring from within vs. brining in someone from outside the organization with different experiences and new ideas. Has this dynamic changed? Want to know what other institutions are doing?
The ULS Current Topics Discussion Group will be considering these issues at ALA Midwinter on Saturday, January 24, from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. in the Colorado Conference Center Korbel Ballroom Room 3B. Laura Blessing, Director of Personnel Management at North Carolina State University Library will get us started by talking about their program of identifying and nurturing new librarians with an interest in management.
Please spread the word about the discussion and we hope to see you on Saturday!
Vicki Nozero
Chair, Current Topics Discussion Group
Feeling pressed by the current economic situation? Wish you had someone you could lean on to assist you in delivering your message, someone to assist you in making the case for a smaller budget cut for you when compared to other campus agencies?
The ULS Campus Administration and Leadership Discussion Group will be taking up the topic of “Building Campus Advocacy in Tough Economic Times” at ALA Midwinter on Saturday, January 24 from 10:30 – Noon in Colorado Conference Center Room 402. The discussion will be facilitated by Georgie Donovan from Appalachian State University, who has experience in building advocates. Compare notes with your colleagues, learn ways to growing advocacy on your campus, and gain valuable ideas of how to put those advocates to work for you.
Please spread the word to your colleagues. We hope to see all of you there!
Christopher Cox
Chair, ULS Campus Administration and Leadership Discussion Group
Dr. Richard Price recently finished his Ph.D on the philosophy of perception from Oxford. With a team of people from Stanford and Cambridge, he’s just launched a website, www.academia.edu, which does two things:
- It shows academics around the world structured in a ‘tree’ format, displayed
according to their departmental and institutional affiliations.
- It enables academics to see news on the latest research in their area – the
latest people, papers and talks.
They’re hoping that Academia.edu will eventually list every academic in the world — Faculty Members, Post-Docs, Graduate Students, and Independent Researchers. Academics can add their departments, and themselves, to the tree by clicking on the boxes.
Academics are joining the tree rapidly. More than 15,000 academics have added themselves in the last two months. Some professors on the site include:
- Richard Dawkins – http://oxford.academia.edu/RichardDawkins
- Stephen Hawking – http://cambridge.academia.edu/StephenHawking
- Paul Krugman – http://princeton.academia.edu/PaulKrugman
- Noam Chomsky – http://mit.academia.edu/NoamChomsky
- Steven Pinker – http://harvard.academia.edu/StevenPinker
Many thanks,
Dr. Richard Price
http://oxford.academia.edu/RichardPrice
Today’s post on ACRLog from Steven Bell is “Why a CLS and ULS.” The post highlights a conversation that just started in the CLS Facebook group on the question of why there are two different sections in ACRL for college and university libraries.
I couldn’t resist posting my response to that question, which I’m reproducing here.
I’m a ULS member and have been increasing involved in the section for the past several years. From my perspective, the characteristic that has set ULS apart, historically, is a focus on administration.
I say “historically” because things are changing in ULS. In our last board meeting we spent a good bit of time casting about for a new characteristic that could set ULS apart. What makes university libraries different from other ACRL library types? More academic research? Grad students? These are not much to build a section around.
So the truth is I’ve been secretly asking the same question as Lisa. How would ULS and CLS members feel to be merged into the same body? Would that comingling of university and college librarians lead to more interesting projects and programs? I think it’s a question worth serious consideration.
But the more critical question is, what would we call it? CULS? UCLS? Who gets to go first?
What do you think? Would you merge the two sections into one?
Colleagues, I fully expect many to disagree with this post! Nevertheless, I wanted to share that in my experience do-it-yourself strategic planning works well in libraries and library organizations.
My first full-fledged strategic planning was done as Vice President/President-Elect of the Illinois Chapter of the Special Libraries Association/SLA, in the late 1990s. Our Board, and some invited others, created the strategic plan out of brainstorming sessions. The process was engaging, and the plan was helpful, we actually did much of it!
Most recently, at USC we completed our strategic plan, The Essential Library, in January 2008, with the official launch and publication in April 2008. The plan is available online here: http://www.usc.edu/libraries/essential/index.php .
Back in 2002-03, when the USC Libraries organization was linked with IT Services, a strategic plan for the dual organization was organized by the Academic Senate, with some librarians and library personnel on some of the groups. But it was very much faculty driven, and, while it gave us some pathways for development, in my opinion it was both technology-heavy and teaching-faculty-leaning.
The Essential Library we did ourselves – our Dean Catherine Quinlan convened a committee of librarians and library staff, by invitation, but only if members really wanted to serve (no arm-twisting involved!). A veteran of strat planning, our Dean guided us in the process, but the content was entirely developed by the committee AND everyone in the libraries – we held a number of public fora (aka forums!) and brainstormed and prioritized our top issues (which all turned out to be foundational changes needed). The engagement and participation of people across the libraries system was excellent! We are now beginning to implement these changes, and will continue to do so over the next 12-18 months. We are doing it! We will also soon be embarking upon planning for the next plan.
I have heard both positive and negative stories about plans developed with the aid of outside facilitators. Having never experienced that, but having been part of two in-house, if you will, strategic planning processes, I definitely favor DIY!
Looking forward to hearing others thoughts!
Sara T., a newly minted Associate Dean, who will be posting here occasionally, thanks to my colleague Felicia’s encouratement!