Welcome to a new academic year

BY JIM MULLINS

Dear Libraries’ Colleagues:

We who work in academia are blessed to have two beginnings in a year — we celebrate the traditional beginning of a new calendar year, and we begin anew each fall when students return to campus and anticipate all that is ahead in their year of learning, exploration, social interaction and, probably, just a bit of fun. What pleasure it is to witness the excitement that accompanies the advent of the new school year, and what an opportunity to draw energy and vitality from those expectant, earnest and excited faces that we meet in the halls or in our libraries.

This year we are not only embarking on a new year, we are embarking on a new five year strategic plan. Yesterday's challenges are today's common practices — as we look to the future with our plan, it is important for us to remember that what may seem a challenge now will, by 2016, be a comfortable and accepted practice. The plan crafted in 2006 included initiatives that advanced and positioned the Libraries to lead the campus in provision of information resources, instruction in information literacy, management of datasets, creation of dynamic and beautiful learning spaces, and growth in our special collections and archives. That is a tremendous accomplishment for an academic library and I extend my most sincere appreciation to our Libraries family for making our vision in that 2006 plan become a reality.

The Purdue Libraries now are positioned to assume leadership roles in nearly every area of endeavor in academic research libraries: information literacy, data management, technical infrastructure development, new scholarly communication models and creation of new learning spaces — both physical and virtual. We have demonstrated that we are willing to try new things and to bid adieu to activities that are no longer core to our mission.

I will end by saying that it truly has been my honor and privilege to serve as your dean for the past seven years and to work with you to bring remarkable advances to the Libraries and to Purdue. I look forward to working with you to advance our current strategic plan by continuing the work accomplished in our last strategic plan — opportunities lie ahead for the Libraries, the University Press and the Copyright Office, and, as a team, we will take advantage of these opportunities to advance our plan.

Here's to a great beginning to the new academic year!

PILLAR: Scholarly Communication

This fall should be a busy one in the world of copyright. Several major copyright decisions should be handed down by the courts. These decisions can have a major impact on how we do business in libraries and higher education.

On September 15, Google and the publishers are due back in court to share the outcome of their discussions on the Google Book Project and to announce whether they have been able to come to an agreement on the copyright issues. If they do not have an agreement, then Judge Chin can order the case to proceed to trial. If that happens, then the question before the court is whether or not Google’s book scanning and posting of materials is fair use. If they have reached another amended agreement, then the court will rule if the agreement is fair to copyright holders. Either way, the case will set the standards for mass digitization projects such as Google, HathiTrust and institutional repositories.

It is anticipated that sometime this fall, that the judge in the Georgia State case will issue a ruling. Three publishers have sued Georgia State over their use of e-reserves. Georgia State has argued that their use is fair use under U.S. Copyright Law. Obviously, the publishers disagree with that stance. Judge Evans has indicated that she would like to provide some type of guidelines for e-reserves and potentially for the broader use of copyrighted materials by faculty. The decision will have major implications for academic libraries.

There are several other court cases that question the legality of international interlibrary loan as well as whether U.S. libraries can circulate books that were printed outside the United States. The cases are in different stages of litigation, but they are being closely monitored by all concerned entities.

I will keep you informed of any new developments.

PILLAR: Infrastructure

Libraries employees have asked for guidance on what their responsibilities are in emergency situations which require that people either evacuate (leave) the building or seek shelter within the building. The following action steps for Libraries employees have been reviewed with, and approved by University emergency services officials.

This document has been discussed with and endorsed by the Libraries Administrative Committee (AdCom), Safety and Ergonomics Committee (SEC), Planning and Operations Council (POC), and Operations Coordinators Committee (OCC). Please direct questions to Nancy Hewison at nhewison@purdue.edu.

Nancy S. Hewison
Associate Dean for Planning and Administration
August 22, 2011

EVACUATING THE BUILDING
As a Libraries employee, you are expected to immediately take the following steps when an emergency situation requires that people evacuate (leave) the building. (Note: this is the response to a fire alarm sounding, which may indicate a fire or a spill, release, or incident involving hazardous materials.):

(1)  Use the PA system or shout to make a brief announcement stating the need to evacuate.
Example:
“The fire alarm is sounding. Leave the building now.”

(2)  Leave the building immediately. Assist persons needing help if possible, but do not look for stragglers and do not linger to try to convince others of the need to leave the building. Emergency personnel have the responsibility, the training, and the equipment to deal with those who fail to evacuate. Your responsibility is to announce the situation and take appropriate action for your own safety.

 TORNADO WARNING
As a Libraries employee, you are expected to immediately take the following actions when you receive a tornado warning via NOAA weather radio, Purdue ALERT system text message, local weather and radio stations alerts, Boiler Television (BTV) Emergency Alerting System, internal department alerting procedures, or individual word of mouth:

 (1)  Use the PA system or shout to make a brief announcement stating the need to seek shelter. Example:
“We have received a tornado warning. Go to the basement*/sub walk*/lowest level of the building* now.” (*State the location of the pre-determined tornado shelter for your building.)

(2)  Go to the pre-determined tornado shelter location in the building. Assist persons needing help if possible, but do not look for stragglers and do not linger to try to convince others of the need to seek shelter. Emergency personnel have the responsibility, the training, and the equipment to deal with those who fail to take shelter. Your responsibility is to announce the situation and take appropriate action for your own safety.

(3) Remember that there is no “all clear” siren signal. The all clear will be announced over local TV and radio stations or the expiration of the initial National Weather Service warning notification.

 OUTDOOR ALL HAZARDS SIRENS HAVE BEEN ACTIVATED – AND YOU DO NOT KNOW WHAT THE INCIDENT IS (tornado, hazardous materials release, active shooter incident)
“The outdoor all hazards warning sirens are designed to notify individuals who are outside. Anytime the sirens are activated, individuals should immediately seek a safe location inside the nearest facility and immediately seek more information on why the sirens are sounding….basically, one should SEEK SHELTER & THEN FIND OUT MORE INFORMATION through the Purdue ALERT communication layers.” [From “Basic Shelter in Place Scenarios,” updated Feb. 21, 2011, Campus Emergency Preparedness and Planning, Purdue University.]

As a Libraries employee, you are expected to immediately take the following action if you become aware that the outdoor all hazards sirens have been activated -- and you do not know what  the incident is (tornado, hazardous materials release, active shooter incident):

 (1)  Use the PA system or shout to make a brief announcement stating the need to seek shelter. Example:
“The outdoor warning sirens are sounding. Seek shelter now in the basement*/sub walk*/lowest level of the building*. Then find out additional information and follow the instructions provided by emergency responders.” (*State the location of the pre-determined tornado shelter for your building.)

(2)  Go to the pre-determined tornado shelter location in the building. Assist persons needing help if possible, but do not look for stragglers and do not linger to try to convince others of the need to seek shelter. Emergency personnel have the responsibility, the training, and the equipment to deal with those who fail to take shelter. Your responsibility is to announce the situation and take appropriate action for your own safety.

(3) When you have reached the tornado shelter location, find out more information through the Purdue ALERT communication layers.

(4) Once you find out the type of incident, respond accordingly.  Follow the instructions provided by emergency responders.

 PREPARE YOURSELF IN ADVANCE OF AN EMERGENCY BY PERIODICALLY REVIEWING SPECIFIC INFORMATION AVAILABLE VIA THE FOLLOWING:

-- “West Lafayette Campus Emergency Procedures Guide”
-- www.purdue.edu/emergency_preparedness/
-- Building Emergency Plan

PILLAR: New Relationships

In Spring 2011, the Orientation Committee (Marianne Stowell Bracke, Frances Christman, Mary Dugan, Dawn Stahura and Jane Yatcilla, chair) worked with a group of student leaders from Student Access, Transition, and Success (SATS) to turn a set of learning objectives into viable concepts and then actual scripts for the four video commercials that were recently unveiled at Boiler Gold Rush (BGR) and to the Libraries community. The students listened to the Orientation Committee’s ideas and returned a couple weeks later with ideas for some commercial spoofs. A few weeks after that the students presented us with actual scripts that became the basis for the videos.

The Libraries contracted with ITaP’s Video and Multimedia Production Services (VMPS) to create the videos. Amazingly, the crew filmed footage for three of the videos on one day! The two “Distraction” videos and beginning of “Libraries Jingle” were filmed in a demo dorm room in the morning and the latter part of “Jingle” was filmed in Hicks Undergraduate Library in the afternoon. “Database vs. Google” was shot on another day on the green screen, just like in Hollywood movies!

On Friday, August 12, the Libraries commercials were previewed to around 500 students involved with Boiler Gold Rush (BGR) 2011. Corey Thoss of SATS emailed, “We just did a preview of the videos for our student staff of 500 and they LOVED them! They were laughing and cheering! I can’t tell you how many comments I heard like ‘those videos are awesome!’ Thank you so much for working so hard on getting these videos completed! I really feel like they will be great for both BGR and the Libraries!”

While Frances Christman and I handed out Libraries pens and Mortar Board inserts at the BGR Resource Fair on August 17, several freshman told us they enjoyed the videos. One young man even quoted the videos with “Is that where I can find a credible resource that’s not Wikipedia?” The videos are clearly hitting the mark!

Although, together the four commercials are barely three minutes long, the Orientation Committee offers our sincere thanks to the many people who helped turn our ideas into reality: Corey Thoss (SATS); Beth McNeil; Kate Kester; SATS students Joshua Long, Alex Prichodko, Lauren Thoman, Raina Baldwin, Billy Hilbrich and Trevor Dum; Betty Kroll; Jason Doty and Rob Hart of VMPS; Catherine Fraser Riehle; student workers Johanna Hillgrove, Jessica Johnson, Stephanie Mercado; UnderGrounds employee Chuck Oliver; and Donna Ferullo.

Links
Roommate Distraction:  http://go.lib.purdue.edu/mkt/rmdist
BFF Distraction:  http://go.lib.purdue.edu/mkt/bffdist
Like a Good Library…:  http://go.lib.purdue.edu/mkt/goodlib
Database vs. Google:  http://go.lib.purdue.edu/mkt/libvgoogle

Libraries participates in BGR Resource Fair

PILLAR: New Relationships

Frances Christman and Jane Yatcilla, both members of the Orientation Committee, handed out Libraries pens and Mortarboard inserts at the Boiler Gold Rush (BGR) Resource Fair on August 17. Other Resources represented included: Academic Success Center, Fraternity and Sorority Life, Study Abroad, Women’s Resource Network, Diversity Resource Office, Student Employment, Purdue Police and Fire, CityBus, Office of the Dean of Students and more.

Boiler Gold Rush, commonly known as BGR, began in 1993 by Cary Quadrangle hall manager, Roger Sharritt. Shreve Hall hosted the first program, originally called Corn Camp. The pilot program involved 100 first-year students and 15 staff members. In 1994, it moved to Cary Quadrangle and consisted of two, one-week sessions, involving 400 students and about 50 staff members.

In 1995 Corn Camp changed its name to Boiler Gold Rush. The program expanded, and was held in August to involve all of the residence halls. In 1997, responsibility for planning BGR shifted to the Office of Admissions and the program was open to all new freshmen. In 1999, Boiler Gold Rush moved into a new department called Orientation and New Student Programs. When Student Access, Transition and Success (SATS) Programs was created in December 2005, BGR became a part of that office and is an integral program within that department.

This year’s five day event included over 5,500 new students and more than 500 student volunteers. Additionally, numerous student organizations, faculty and staff contributed their time, effort and resources to the help make BGR a great success.

Over the years, the BGR family has grown to include over twenty dedicated, professional staff members. A listing of the staff who work on BGR and other SATS programs, along with their contact information, can be found here.

PILLAR: New Relationships

Wow! Things have sure changed since Michael Fosmire had that pet project back in 2007 of setting up an information tent on the Engineering Mall to introduce students to the Purdue Libraries and their services. What was then a one tent operation first manned by the Engineering Library staff and then by PSET has evolved and grown to include two tents and staffing from all areas within Libraries.

Because of the all the positive feedback we received from students and University personnel this project expanded in 2010 to include a second location at the Agricultural Administration lawn.

Now going on its fifth year, the Libraries information tents have helped many frantic students find where they should go, who they should see and how to get there. Of the many students who stop by, our friendly faces are often the first contact they have with Libraries.

Speaking of friendly faces, the Orientation Committee would like to thank the following volunteers for their time and commitment to help in extending the reach of the Libraries mission into the student population: Elaine Bahler, RaeLynn Boes, Marianne Bracke, Frances Christman, Lil Conarroe, Dianna Deputy, Mary Dugan, Jeremy Garritano, Amanda Gill, Becky Hunt, Wendy Kelly, Kate Kester, Beth McNeil, Alaina Morales, Megan Sapp Nelson, Dania Remaly, Catherine Riehle, Laurie Sadler, Kay Shurr, Maribeth Slebodnik, Gretchen Stephens, Terry Wade and Jane Yatcilla.

The Orientation Committee would also like to thank everybody in Libraries who help with setting up and taking down the tents, especially Auxiliary Services, as well as our colleagues who covered desk duties so the volunteers could be at the tents. We really appreciated your help and enthusiasm!

PILAR: New Relationships

This year at Purdue Day at the Indiana State Fair, our goal was to create a more interactive experience for visitors and the day exceeded even our own expectations. We heard many positive comments from visitors, volunteers and our neighboring tent staff.

A huge thank you to everyone who helped make our presence a success: Allen Bol, Marianne Stowell Bracke, Paul Bracke, Bert Chapman, Sandy Galloway, Sandy Howarth, Betty Kroll, Dean Lingley, Alaina Morales, Dan Rotello, Bryan Shaffer, Tonya Wichterman, Pat Wilson and Marti Worden.

This year’s volunteers did a tremendous job of meeting people, and making sure visitors left knowing a little more about what we do here at Libraries. We could not participate in these events if it wasn’t for the cooperation of our faculty and staff. Hope to see you next year!

In the photo, Bol helps a visitor to our tent navigate through the Indiana Farmer digital archive to find the answer to a posed question. Visitors who answered questions were given the choice of receiving Purdue University Press books: Just Call Me Orville or Divided Paths, Common Ground: The Story of Mary Matthews and Lella Gaddis, Pioneering Purdue Women Who Introduced Science into the Home.