CUTTING THROUGH THE CLUTTER, STREAMLINING COMMUNICATION, AMPLIFYING OUR MESSAGES

As you know, there are a multitude of activities happening here within Purdue Libraries. From key research, publishing and collaborations to new teaching and learning initiatives, it is the role of Purdue Libraries Strategic Communication to streamline and maximize these important activities in a consistent and effective way to maximize our results to our key audiences.

The challenges:

• Purdue Libraries has multiple messages going out to different audiences at the same time.
• Purdue Libraries competes with other messages from other entities both on campus, externally and among our peer institutions.
• Many of the cutting-edge activities happening in Purdue Libraries aren’t necessarily measured by current library, university or external metrics.
• We continuously must look at ways to communicate in an environmentally sound and cost-effective manner that produces maximum results.
• Key initiatives to communicate, such as the Active Learning Center are still visually abstract, yet we must move forward with communicating to our campus, community, peer institutions and potential prospects about the importance and progress of this important project.

What to look for in the next year:

• More consistent branding and amplified use of our social media channels.
• Increased collaboration with different Purdue Library Divisions.
• Moving away from printed communication to more digital communication.
• A holistic plan for communicating our Libraries key objectives and advancement priorities tied to the Libraries Strategic Plan and in conjunction with the University Development Plan and key University objectives.
• Effectively communicating library division resources in a more streamlined, digital manner.
• Evolving the Purdue Libraries brand to cut through the clutter.
• More consistent use of our regular communications channels.
• Continued search for improving communications, achieving cost savings and maximizing results.
• Tying metrics into communication; showing how Purdue Libraries are making an impact.

How you can help:

• Provide your ideas on how we can improve communication internally and externally.
• Find pieces of communication that aren’t working effectively and let me know why.
• Submit story ideas of great things happening in the Purdue Libraries — from people to projects to simple solutions!

If you have any questions or ideas, I welcome your feedback. Please feel free to email me anytime at: walker81@purdue.edu or call me at 496-6910.

INFORMATION LITERACY UnCONFERENCES

The Academic Libraries of Indiana’s (ALI) Information Literacy Committee hosted three UnConferences around the state during the week of July 29. The northern event took place at St. Mary’s College in Notre Dame, the central event at the Janet Prindle Institute for Ethics in the DePauw University Nature Park in Greencastle, and the southern event at Ivy Tech Community College in Sellersburg.

An UnConference is a type of conference where the participants spend part of the morning selecting the topics they will discuss during the breakout sessions across the rest of the day. At the Greencastle event, six attendees from the Purdue Libraries joined 28 other librarians from the central Indiana area in selecting nine topics to be discussed during breakout sessions:

• Learning Objects
• Google
• LibGuides
• Flipped Classrooms
• Information Literacy as a Life Skill
• Assessment
• User Information & Ethnographic Studies
• International Students & Grad Students as Specialized Populations
• Outreach to Faculty & Students

There were three concurrent sessions during each of the three breakout periods that took place across the rest of the day, so attendees had opportunities to engage with three topics they were interested in. During the breakout sessions everyone in the room shared their experiences with the topic. For example, at the User Information & Ethnographic Studies breakout session, attendees discussed research project ideas as well as shared details of research projects they currently have underway. At the end of the day, all the attendees came back together and reported on key points from each of the nine sessions. The discussion was thought provoking and a few attendees may have found new solutions to issues they face back at their institutions. Most of all, the day provided a wonderful venue for networking with our colleagues from the central area of the state. The photo below features the breakout session, "Learning about our Users."

Author’s note: Clarence Maybee, assistant professor and Purdue Libraries Information Literacy Specialist, became the Chair of the ALI Information Literacy Committee at a meeting held at Purdue in July 2013.

SUCCESSFUL STAFF TRANSITIONS

Bonnie Douglas
Library Assistant
Digital Projects

With the advent of “shelf-ready” books and electronic holdings, the copy catalogers’ work has been transitioning into new areas. During the past several years we have taken on projects that had previously been on the “wish-list” of various library departments. For example, I spent one summer cataloging all the VHS tapes in Hicks Undergraduate Library. Later I completed a serial conversion project for Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences Library (EAPS) and also did some map cataloging.

Sometime during 2010 the copy catalogers started helping Digital Initiatives (now Digital Programs) with metadata for the pre-1923 Theses and Dissertations project. The scanning was being done by students but metadata had to be provided using ContentDM and Dublin Core (as opposed to MARC cataloging) before the material could be uploaded to e-Archives for public access. In the spring of 2012 when Carl Snow was gearing down for retirement, Patty Glasson (my supervisor) was asked to take over his duties. Since Jan Addison was also nearing retirement, Patty had her hands full trying to learn everything the two of them knew about scanning and ContentDM before the end of May 2012.

When another big project came along (with a deadline), I started assisting with scanning in addition to metadata. Summer came and most of our student workers left until fall 2012, so I soon found myself spending more time in STEW279 than in cataloging. Luckily I had worked with flatbed scanners at home, so I learned the procedures quickly and before I knew it I was training new students. When Patty asked if I would like to move downstairs and work in Digital Projects full time, I was very happy to oblige.

Digitization projects have three major parts (after the planning stages, which can take almost as long as the project!): scanning (using either flatbed scanners or the Bookeye Three); quality control (cleaning up the scans, cropping and correcting skew, removing artifacts using Photoshop); and metadata. In some projects we also have to clean up after the OCR software which attempts to make scans “keyword searchable.”

Since being here I have learned a lot about various new types of software: ContentDM, Photoshop, Adobe Acrobat and ABBYY Fine Reader to name a few. The pre-1923 Theses and Dissertations project will last for several more years, but sometimes gets put on the back burner in favor of other projects that have deadlines. We have worked on old books and pamphlets, scrapbooks, yearbooks, photographs, slides, glass plates, tintypes — you name it. We work closely with Archives and Special Collections but also accept projects from departments all over campus.

Right now we have a project involving Amnesty International. We have over twenty cartons of Urgent Action Bulletins, Medical Action bulletins and other documents dating back to the 70s and 80s. We are collaborating with a Purdue professor who is doing a statistical analysis based on our scans, so getting our work product to mesh with the software they are using has been very challenging. But I am always happiest when there is plenty of work to do and new challenges to take on, so I am very happy with my transition from cataloging to Digital Projects.

LIBRARIES NEW STAFF

JULY'S SMILE AWARD

Dale White’s name was randomly drawn from all those who were SMILED upon in July. He received a $25 Von's Book Shop gift certificate.

All faculty, administrators and staff are invited to send a note of appreciation for a kindness or thoughtfulness given, assistance provided to or by a Libraries, Press or Copyright Office colleague.

To learn more about how to participate in our SMILE Program, please visit and bookmark this page on the Libraries Intranet: http://intranet.lib.purdue.edu/display/HR/SMILE+Program.

LIBRARIES STAFF A-Z