Tomalee Doan's Vision for HSSEB

On April 21, Tomalee Doan officially started in her role as head of the newly formed Division of Humanities, Social Sciences, Education and Business (HSSEB), which includes HSSE, MEL, and UGRL. Here, she shares her vision for building partnerships between the Libraries and departments across campus to create dynamic learning spaces that will meet student and faculty needs, and has three steps to move us forward:

1. The Grand Scheme – Define our vision for the future.
   The Libraries are changing from an information delivery service to producers of learning. By taking part in the learning process, we can build collaborations to create useful learning spaces.
   
   
2. Identify Stakeholders – What our users want and need.
   Using LibQual+™ results we can engage focus groups to better understand what students and faculty want from our collections, services, and spaces.
   
   
3. Do the Homework – Understanding what the learning space needs to be.
   Completion of Phase I of the MEL renovations, set for June 11, will allow Krannert, ITaP, and library staff to experiment and learn the new technologies that will be available to them in the newly constructed Learn Lab.

“Implementing this plan will of course take time, but I know this organization is committed to staying on track,” Tomalee says. “The completion of a dynamic learning space – the Learn Lab – in June is one of our short term goals, and it will be followed by the completion of Phase II of the MEL renovation in the next 18 to 24 months.”  She adds that long term goals include continuous identification and unification of campus departments to develop learning spaces that meet the changing needs of the students and faculty. “Mini-assessments will be conducted as each goal is achieved so that we can carry our successes over to each library,” she says.

Beth McNeil, associate dean for academic affairs, notes, “This new division is an exciting development for the Libraries, and Tomalee will do a tremendous job maximizing the opportunities and possibilities available to the HSSEB division.”

“Building and creating partnerships across campus will allow the Libraries to provide the most complete and innovative learning spaces that we can,” Tomalee says, “and all of this will help us reach our organizational goals: to share our expertise with faculty and enhance the student learning experience.”

Over the past few weeks, AdCom and Operations Council (OC) members have been discussing ways to increase the effectiveness of OC in light of the Libraries’ revised organizational structure. We realized that the reduction of administrative and management positions achieved in revising the organizational structure would make it possible to reconfigure the 22-member OC as a group of 13 managers, with other Libraries staff attending OC meetings as needed to provide information and participate in discussion of particular topics.

The reconfigured OC will be made up of the following members:
-- Associate deans (Paul Bracke, Scott Brandt, Nancy Hewison, and Beth McNeil)
-- Booker Chair (Sharon Weiner, as of 6/1/09)
-- Division heads (Tomalee Doan, Michael Fosmire, Vicki Killion, and Sammie Morris)
-- Head of resource services (Pat Kantner)
-- Head of IT (Lisa Purvis)
-- Head of collections management (Sue Ward)
-- Director of financial affairs (Heather Oakley)

The reconfigured membership will be effective at the May 14 OC meeting. The council’s first item of business will be unit planning, with a focus on unit responsibilities and interrelated, collaborative initiatives that move the Libraries’ overall strategic plan forward. The council’s communication with AdCom, other councils, and leaders and staff in all areas of the Libraries will be critical to increasing awareness of and encouraging input on OC business, and thus enhancing OC’s ability to effectively oversee and facilitate the planning and operations of the Libraries. Therefore, OC communication will be another early item of business. To enable it to move rapidly on issues such as recommendations on student budget allocations, the council will meet more frequently than in the past.

As the first meeting of the reconfigured OC approaches, please join AdCom in thanking the members of the present OC for their management and coordination of effort and initiatives across the Libraries since 2006:

Paul Bracke                                     Patricia Kantner                         Heather Oakley
Scott Brandt                                    Vicki Killion                               Rebecca Richardson
Tomalee Doan                                 Jane Kinkus                               Marianne Ryan
Michael Fosmire                              Carolyn Laffoon                         Judy Schumaker
Jeremy Garritano                             Beth McNeil                              Gretchen Stephens
Tom Haworth                                  Sammie Morris                          Amy Van Epps
Brad Heiss                                      Judith Nixon                               Sue Ward
Nancy Hewison

Update on New Roles for Staff

Many of us are experiencing changes in our work these days for a variety of reasons, including binding decreasing, the move to LC classification and shelf-ready processing, changing service patterns in our libraries, etc. At the same time, exciting new directions for the Libraries are surfacing, relating to our overarching goals in our strategic plan.

Several core areas needing additional assistance from staff throughout the Libraries include Digital Initiatives, ILL, inventory, and the Oral History Program transcription work. In the longer term, we will be looking to involve staff with new or expanded initiatives. Our growing information literacy initiatives, for example, will require more staff assistance. As we look to improve services to the Purdue community, we may initiate services such as e-reserves that will provide new opportunities for staff. We will also be looking for ways of strengthening other core areas, such as desktop support and web support, by providing opportunities for more staff involvement. And work on the ever-popular and quite important barcoding project in HKRP must continue.  

During the next few months the reconfigured Operations Council will tackle this issue, by determining priorities for allocating staffing resources to these areas and, working with the staff development coordinator, will implement training so that staff are prepared to assume these new duties. More information to follow in the next INSIDE.

Libraries Sponsor Undergraduate Research & Poster Symposium

Undergraduate students displayed their research projects on April 21 at the fifth annual Undergraduate Research and Poster Symposium. The goal of the event is to educate the campus community about research taking place at Purdue by undergraduate students.

The Libraries sponsors awards for abstracts that explain the research of each poster submission. This year there were five best abstract awards presented:

Russell Martin, Physical Science
Michael L. Mashtare Jr., Life Sciences
Mike Wleklinski, Mathematics/Science
Annette E. Miller, Humanities & Social Sciences
Matt Plumlee, Innovative Technology/Entrepreneurship & Design

Winning abstracts were based on Clarity (concise, clearly written), Organization (effective introduction, problem, body, results, and conclusions), and Content (accurately describes project).

Judges from the Libraries were Marianne Stowell Bracke, Michael Fosmire, Megan Sapp Nelson, and Catherine Fraser Riehle.  Scott Brandt announced the winners and handed out the awards.

Funding & the S&E Budget

For the upcoming fiscal year, FY10, the Provost’s Office is requiring that the Libraries and other units fully fund S&E (Supplies & Expenses) budgets. Salary savings can no longer be a temporary ‘fix’ for the shortfall in S&E funds. Instead, all vacant faculty lines and most dollars from vacant staff lines will be moved permanently to S&E. This means that the vacancies, or ‘lines’, will no longer exist as such.  

As you know, this year the Libraries, as well as the rest of campus, had to reduce its overall S&W (Salaries and Wages) and S&E budget by 2%. For the Libraries this resulted in a cut of $189,594 for the upcoming year, FY10. If these funds had not been required for reversion as part of the overall campus budget reduction, the funds would have been available to the Libraries to cover vacant salary lines. Obviously this would have allowed us to fill three or four vacant Libraries faculty positions during the upcoming year. Since that was not the case, and for the reasons explained above, we presently have no vacant faculty lines for FY09-10.

Every effort has been made to minimize and contain S&E costs in order to reduce the impact on available S&W funds. This year and in future years we will continue to monitor the S&E budget for every savings possible, to support salary funds. As vacancies occur in the future, both for faculty and staff, we should be able to fill positions. These positions will be reviewed, ranked and filled to meet Libraries system-wide needs.

Digital Cinema Contest Winners

Five students received the top awards in Purdue’s seventh annual Digital Cinema Contest Premiere Night and Awards Ceremony on April 23, at the Lafayette Theater. The contest is sponsored by ITaP and the Purdue Libraries and is hosted by the Digital Learning Collaboratory (DLC). The DLC offers access to film editing software, instruction, and video and computer equipment.

Most of the films are posted on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com) with the tag “dcc09.”  Kevin O’Shea, DLC coordinator, cautions that the videos have not been rated and advises viewer discretion as some contain adult language and violence.

2009 Winners
Viewers Choice Award – A vampire-theme short film, directed by Harry Nelson
Best Narrative – "Hustler & the Blind Man," directed by Daniel Skubal
Best Alternative - "When I Die," directed by Jason Zink
Best Animation – "Rags & Roger," directed by Chris Borer Jr.
Best Documentary – "Lying Still," directed by Danielle Johnson
Best Actress – Danielle Johnson in "Lying Still"
Best Actor – Bradford Oman in the vampire short film
Best Director – Samantha Braden in "The Bet"
Best Cinematography – Chris Purdy & Matthew Mann for "The Wall Flower"
Best Sound – Robert Shoemaker for "Decay Constant"
Best Special Features – Daniel Skubal for "Hustler & the Blind Man"

Frank Lloyd Wright Display in HSSE

The HSSE Library currently has an exhibit of miniature furniture, textiles, and books about Samara, the local Frank Lloyd Wright House. When Wright designed a house he also designed all the furniture; the display has authentic miniatures that were crafted by Wayne Kinsley of Rossville. This house was built in 1954 for Dr. John Christian, emeritus faculty member, and his wife Catherine. Dr. Christian still lives in this house, making it one of the few Frank Lloyd Wright houses still occupied by the original owner. 

The next time you come to HSSE take a few minutes to see the display, which is in the display cases near both the north and south entrance doors. If this motivates you to visit Samara, tours of the house are available by appointment. For more information call 765-409-5522 or visit http://www.samara-house.org.

Display and photo designed by Patrick Whalen, HSSE

New Staff

Shauna Borger
Digital Collections Coordinator
Archives and Special Collections

I began working in the Virginia Kelly Karnes Archives and Special Collections Research Center at the beginning of April. My position as Digital Collections Coordinator includes duties in both digitization and arrangement and description of archival collections. I graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in December 2008 with a Masters of Library and Information Science. During that time, I worked as an intern in the Digitization Unit at UWM Libraries, where I discovered a strong interest in the relationship between primary sources and providing access to them through digital content management systems. I developed skills in scanning, metadata creation, interface design and digital object management and cemented my interest in building digital initiatives using archival materials.

I have been a resident of Lafayette, Indiana for only a few weeks. I grew up in Kenosha, Wisconsin. I lived in La Crosse, Wisconsin while working on my Bachelor’s degree. I studied abroad for a year in Oldenburg, Germany and developed a bad case of the travel bug. My interests include web design, languages and culture, history and traveling. In my spare time I enjoy being outside walking, hiking, biking, and reading.

Shauna’s office is located in STEW 420 and she can be reached at 494-2636 or borger@purdue.edu.

24-Hour Study Space

Engineering students take advantage of the convenient location, food, coffee, and quiet space to stage a 'studying marathon' in UnderGrounds during final exams week. Rishabh Iyer says, "This is just a great space to work and study. It's easy to get to and it provides a different atmosphere than anywhere else on campus." Steven Jordan said that they had been there for two days and will keep studying until their last exam on Saturday.

Khai Yoo, sophomore in Mechanical Engineering takes a break while Steven Jordan, junior in Materials Engineering, and Rishabh Iyer, sophomore in Electrical Engineering prepare for their final exams.