HICKS LIBRARY TO BE RENOVATED

In keeping with the Libraries strategic goals of providing leading edge learning spaces and user centered services, the Hicks Undergraduate Library will be undergoing Phase 1 of what will be a two phase renovation project. Phase 1 will encompass the central area and east end (by the Lincoln statue) of the main floor and will offer updated collaborative and individual study spaces while Phase 2 will have additional collaborative and individual study spaces along with some high-end technology. Both phases will feature a new look with contemporary fabrics and furniture. In response to student requests, beginning this fall, the main floor of Hicks will be open 24/7 with Libraries services ending at midnight.

The Décor — Good-bye Orange and Blue Vinyl
A variety of colors and durable, easy-to-clean materials will be used to create a warm, welcoming feel and define the usage zones in the library. Gathering places fit for collaborative study and socializing will be provided by comfortable booth seating adjacent to the windows and near to the entrance will be a lounge area and bistro height tables both with decorative pendant lighting. Dry-erase boards will allow for recording and sharing ideas. Quick access standup computer stations will be available near the library entrance for checking email or quickly printing out a soon due assignment. The number of computer work stations will be the same as currently in Hicks. The accompanying chairs were selected after collecting input from students on the comfort level of a variety of styles, and additional, easily accessible electrical outlets will be installed. High-durability flooring will replace the carpet in the high traffic area between the entrance and the stairway down to the lower level, porcelain tile will be used on the floor between the drinking fountains and restrooms and multi-color carpeting will be in the remainder of the space. Architectural screens will allow for privacy for those studying at booths and resin panels will help soften the concrete columns while concealing electrical/data channels. In response to student surveys indicating their unease at being in front of the curtainless windows after dark, motorized, timer-controlled blinds will automatically cover the windows at night.

The Staff — A New Model for a New Library
To create a more open feel and allow staff to have a more private office space, the service desks as they are today will be removed and replaced by a single, easily relocated desk on the east end of the floor where ITaP and library staff will both be present. This new configuration will better meet the needs of library visitors who will often be using technology when they visit the space but may also need guidance in accessing Libraries resources. ITaP equipment — cameras, tripods and hard drives — and items for use in the classrooms, such as remotes and dry erase markers, will be checked out from this desk and a small reference collection with lockable shelving will be nearby. Staff members will support classroom usage by assisting with the technology and seeing that the areas remain clean. To facilitate the collaboration necessary for maintaining and providing services for what will undoubtedly be a highly used space, staff workspaces will be open to each other with a glass wall closing the desk area off from the public while allowing for view of traffic at the service point.

This Summer
Hicks Library and UnderGrounds Café will close for the renovation immediately after finals are over and reopen in time for classes to begin in August. While Hicks Repository and Circulation Services staff members will remain on the lower level of Hicks, access to repository materials will be through HSSE and circulation services staff will meet with customers by appointment. During the closure, Hicks staff will be relocated but all will return in the fall upon completion of the renovation. Ann O’Donnell and Emily Heitman will be at HSSE, Dan Yeoman full-time in auxiliary services, RaeLynn Boes and Kristen Twardowski full-time at Parrish and Jill Begley in the Hicks Repository. ITaP media equipment and the color printer will be temporarily relocated to the computer lab on the first floor of Stewart Center (STEW 102) to return to Hicks after the renovation is completed.

ARL INITIATIVE TO RECRUIT A DIVERSE WORKFORCE

On April 7-9, the Purdue Libraries hosted 14 graduate students who are participants in the 2012-2014 Association of Research Libraries (ARL) Initiative to Recruit a Diverse Workforce (IRDW), accompanied by ARL's Director of Diversity and Leadership Programs, Mark Puente. The ARL IRDW program is designed to recruit talented master of library and information science (MLIS) students from traditionally underrepresented ethnic and racial minority groups into careers in research libraries. Through our partnership with ARL in this initiative, we in Libraries are helping to address this challenge by giving the students an opportunity to go behind the scenes in a major research university, in order to learn about the work we do and the issues we face.

We've hosted the ARL IRDW visit since 2005, making this contribution to the program in 9 out of the 13 years of its existence. By giving the graduate students an experience of Purdue Libraries as an example, we hope to increase their interest in working in research university libraries — and it appears we're having some success! During the visit, Puente told us that of the 152 graduates of the ARL Initiative to Recruit a Diverse Workforce program, 48% of them are now employed in United States ARL-member libraries. The actual percentage in academic research libraries may even be higher, since this number doesn’t include those employed in health and law libraries, nor in Canadian libraries. Additionally, there is a 97% retention rate of the 152 within the library profession. Having met them, it's safe to predict that, following their own graduations from their master's degree programs and the ARL IRDW, the 14 graduate students who visited us this week will contribute in a positive manner to those statistics.

The graduate students, also known as ARL Diversity Scholars, began their visit on Sunday evening with a warm welcome from visit planning committee members Ilana Barnes, Neal Harmeyer, Nicole Kong and Tao Zhang, who hosted an informal get-together featuring pizza, followed by a campus walking tour. On Monday, the scholars participated in sessions on the changing face of collection development, the growing significance of archives and special collections, promotion and tenure, and emerging roles and disciplinary librarianship. Tuesday found them exploring the university and library learning environment in a session covering learning spaces, information literacy and Instruction Matters: Purdue Academic Course Transformation (IMPACT), followed by tours of the Parrish Library of Management and Economics and the Hicks Undergraduate Library. A session on data management, services and preservation and one on scholarly communication, e-science and emerging technology were followed by a poster session featuring the research of Libraries faculty and administrative/professional staff.

Our visitors had lunch on Monday with representatives from Purdue's Black Cultural Center (BCC); Latino Cultural Center (LCC); Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Center (LBBTQC); Native American Educational and Cultural Center (NAECC); and the International Center (IC), a community center located adjacent to campus. The scholars lunched on Tuesday with recent hires from among the Libraries faculty and administrative/professional staff. The group also met with Provost Tim Sands to learn about the role of top University administrators and with Vice Provost for Diversity and Inclusion, Dr. Christine Taylor. Time for networking and socializing included dinner Monday evening at Jim and Kathy Mullins' home and a closing reception on Tuesday at the BCC.

In addition to Barnes, Harmeyer, Kong and Zhang, the visit planning committee included Jane Yatcilla (chair), Carole Tolley and Nancy Hewison. Many others from the Libraries faculty and staff participated in making the ARL Diversity Scholars visit a success, including Jim Mullins, Mary Dugan, Sue Ward, Sammie Morris, Beth McNeil, Michael Fosmire, Michael Witt, Catherine Fraser Riehle, Jake Carlson, Clarence Maybee, Megan Sapp Nelson, Maribeth Slebodnick, Sharon Weiner, Paul Bracke, Tomalee Doan, Vicki Killion, Hal Kirkwood, Courtney Matthews, Dewayne Branch, Lisa Zilinski, Carly Dearborn, Tracy Grimm, George Stachokas, Lauren White, Ada Emmett, Amy Hatfield, Rebecca Richardson, Judy Nixon, Charlotte Erdmann, Robert Freeman, Rebecca Richardson and Gretchen Stephens. Also involved in the poster session were Abhinav Ghai , Austin Saragih, Ruth Wertz and Senay Purzer. Carole Tolley provided extensive operational support for the committee's work and the visit, including hotel reservations and catering arrangements, with assistance from Kim Weldy and Jamie Seebald.

2013 participants, left to right, included: Camille Salas, Mark Puente, ARL Director of Diversity and Leadership Programs; Peace Ossom Williamson, Mario Macias, Eva Rios-Alvarado, Bredny Rodriguez, Ebony Magnus, Curtis Small, Christian Minter, Amber Saundry, Thomas Padilla, Lisa Hardman, Na Qin, Christina Chan-Park and Sabrina D. Dyck.

LIBRARIES FACULTY LEAD KEY TOPICS OF DISCUSSION AT 2013 ACRL CONFERENCE

This year, Purdue Libraries faculty and staff were able to take advantage of a highly-regarded, global research libraries conference closer to home. The 2013 ACRL Conference took place in Indianapolis. This is the first time the conference has been held in Indianapolis and many regarded the event as a great success. The event helped put Purdue University Libraries on the map as a leader in innovative new library programs and tools. Purdue Libraries also hosted a booth in conjunction with the event, which showcased the Libraries many innovative research projects, programs, publications and initiatives.

The conference offered attendees numerous continuing education, networking and benchmarking opportunities with fellow college research library colleagues from around the globe. Several Purdue Library faculty served as keynote speakers and leaders on many important subject areas (See Publications and Presentations for a list of participants.)

LIBRARIES LEAD ENGAGEMENT WITH INDIA

Last semester, Purdue's Office of Engagement issued a call for proposals for faculty to develop new relationships in research, education and business with institutions in India. At the time I was working with Dr. Ramesh Gaur, University Librarian at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in New Delhi, to identify and catalog data repositories from India in Databib. We assembled a team to write a proposal that included Professors Thomas Hacker, College of Technology, and Aman Yadav, College of Education.

Our proposal was awarded, and we conducted a one-day workshop on March 25 at JNU on the topic of data curation in the university, approaching it from the perspectives of libraries, learning and cyber infrastructure. We collaborated to arrange keynote speakers, to present a balanced program with panels that included a mix of American and Indian experts and to lead interactive breakout sessions over lunch and tea. One highlight of the workshop was the opening address given by Dr. BK Gairola, the director of the e-governance mission of the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology of the Government of India. There were 140 people registered for the workshop — mostly from New Delhi — but some from other parts of India and even participants from Qatar and Hong Kong.

In addition to the workshop, Professor Hacker visited Tata Motors in Pune to review their high-performance computing environment, where they maintain the largest supercomputer in India. He also visited the nearby Cummins College of Engineering for Women to recruit prospective graduate students. Professor Yadav gave an invited lecture at IIT Bombay. I was invited to present a paper at the CALIBER 2013 conference in Gandhinagar as well as give an invited lecture at JNU for the library staff and computer science faculty. I also had the opportunity to visit and tour the new INFLIBNET centre, an organization that is similar in many ways to OCLC and IMLS in the United States.

The two-week trip was a great opportunity to meet hundreds of librarians from all over the country and learn more about their culture and practice of librarianship. While there are some differences between us, we face many of the same global challenges in libraries in India and the United States, which we can work together to solve. It was great to meet new friends and colleagues and to lay a foundation for future, international collaboration.

MELINDA CROKER RETIRING AFTER 22 YEARS

Melinda Croker
Circulation/Evening Reference Assistant
Hicks Undergraduate Library

I began working at the Hicks Undergraduate Library almost 14 years ago. Before that I worked for more than 5 years at McCutcheon Residence Hall and during my years as a student I also worked many part-time and temporary jobs. In 1962, I also worked for a year in the Conference Division, quitting to get married and move to Hawaii for 5 years while my husband finished his Navy career experience. I will be finishing up with almost 22 years accredited service to Purdue on April 28.

I have worked through many changes here at Hicks and enjoyed working with some pretty awesome people. The people here at Hicks have been like my second family and I will miss you all so very much. Thank you for you kindness, support and friendship. I don't like goodbyes so I’ll just say "later."

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