Typically a chill in the air is the indication that fall is approaching. However, at Purdue, for us, it is suddenly standing in a line at PEFCU or Starbucks and dodging young people as you drive down State Street or enter the parking garage. Would we have it any other way? Having our students back with us makes what felt like an office park over the summer have its true purpose again.

This fall we will review and renew our strategic plan. Our present strategic plan was inaugurated in 2011, and will come to its completion in 2016. Although a strategic plan is never completed, it is a blueprint for us to follow, to keep us focused and purposeful, and to assess the progress we are making and have made. Over the next several months we will look around, evaluate how far we have come, determine objectives for the next planning period and develop a new blueprint. Therefore, when you are asked to participate in the strategic planning process, be active and committed. Our future is one that we all share to insure that our students and faculty colleagues have the Libraries that they need and deserve.

STEW 279 is a Libraries space that has served many purposes in its 100+ years’ existence. Until recently, known as “the old archives” long after archives moved upstairs, it is being re-purposed again. It is now home to two new meeting rooms, scheduled and maintained by Purdue Conferences. The two new rooms are STEW 278, which preserved the tall windows on the east side of the building, and STEW 279 – a smaller meeting room.

The remaining space is now the new entrance to Libraries Administration and the Dean’s Office, STEW 278C. Kaitee Hardesty, first point of contact for Libraries Administration, is enjoying her new office. The other workstation there will be occupied by Lisa Berry-Wensveen’s replacement. Therefore, if you are asked to find the Libraries’ Administrative Offices, please direct then to the second floor of Stewart Center near the entrance from PMU, rather than taking the stairs near the entrance from Heavilon Hall. Signage updates are still in process, along with three other changes.

As George Carlin once remarked, it’s all about “having a place to put your stuff.” Soon, Jo Carow, along with her stuff, will be occupying the former reception area STEW 271A. Next, Paul Bracke and his stuff will move into Jo’s former office, STEW 272. Finally Rebecca Richardson, along with her stuff, will move upstairs to Paul’s old office in STEW 276. Phone numbers will remain the same for all involved. The mail drop has moved to the new reception area.

New office for Libraries Administration and Dean's Office.

Purdue Libraries greeted new students in Boiler Gold Rush (BGR) sessions on Saturday morning, August 22. Eight concurrent sessions, led by Megan Sapp Nelson, Ilana Stonebraker, Catherine Fraser Riehle, Scott Brandt, Hal Kirkwood, Mike Flierl, Amy Van Epps, Clarence Maybee and Rachel Fundator (a grad student from the University of Illinois working with Ilana Stonebraker), were held in various large classrooms and theaters across campus.

To prepare for the Libraries BGR sessions on Saturday, we encouraged new students to take photos of themselves in different libraries as part of a series of photo challenges that were announced on Twitter. Student groups were challenged to do things like find and pose with the life-sized cutout of Amelia Earhart that traveled to a different library each day, take a photo with their student mentor in his or her favorite place to study, and pose with a Purdue artifact selected for display by Archives and Special Collections.

In the Saturday BGR sessions, we conducted a Student Mentor Battledecks Challenge! A battledeck is an improv game where contestants have to give a presentation on a specific theme and relate it to a set of PowerPoint slides they have never seen before. The main idea was to have student mentors tell new students about the wonderful spaces, services and resources provided by the Purdue Libraries. It worked! In our competition, two teams of student mentors had to present on the theme of either “The Libraries at Your Fingertips” or “The Libraries and You.” Cheered on by the new students, each team presented while 15 slides advanced every 20 seconds in the background. Some of the slides showed things like the Libraries’ website with images of Purdue Pete pointing at the Ask a Librarian link. Other slides, however, had humorous images, such as a drawing of animals playing musical instruments. Some of the images in the slide show also came from photos the new students took of themselves in the Libraries and posted on Twitter as part of the photo challenges.

The difficult part of our Battledecks Challenge is that the mentors needed to tie the image on each slide to the theme they are presenting. Needless to say, some hilarity ensued. After the two teams gave their presentations, the new students choose the winner with their applause. Although the mentors who presented spoke very highly of the Libraries, the librarians did need to make a few “corrections” at the end of the sessions, e.g., most libraries do allow food, and yes, you can have more than 10 books checked out at once, and so forth. The new students were extremely engaged throughout the session and some groups even posted pictures about the Libraries on Twitter after!

In addition the Libraries’ faculty and staff listed above, Neal Harmeyer and Shannon Walker were part of the Libraries BGR planning group. A very long list of fantastic Libraries staff helped bring this project to life as well.

Parrish Library of Management and Economics is pleased to announce its 2nd Annual Case Competition! This case competition will be marketing and strategy focused and this year includes students from Purdue University, University of Notre Dame and Indiana University. This competition is intended to bring attention to business information literacy excellence among undergraduates and is sponsored by EBSCO.

Parrish Library Case Competition is open to all undergraduate students regardless of major. The teams should be 4-5 students. At Purdue, at least one student should have taken MGMT 175. Two of the students need to be freshmen or sophomore level (doesn't have to be the same as MGMT 175 participant). This case competition is intended to be a "lower division" case competition. First prize: $500; Second prize: $300; Third prize: $100.
More information: https://www.lib.purdue.edu/parrishcasecompetition

Callouts
Wednesday Sept. 16, KRAN 202, 5-6 p.m.
Wednesday, Sept. 23, KRAN 202, 5-6 p.m.
Tuesday, Sept. 29, KRAN 202, 5-6 p.m.

Teams Form and Case Presentation
Wednesday, Sept. 20, 6 p.m. (online)

First Round Executive Summaries
Due Oct. 5 (submitted online)

Final Presentations
Friday, Oct. 9, 1-4 p.m.
Burton Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship 121
Open to Public

Wednesday, September 16, is Purdue’s annual commemoration of Constitution Day and Libraries is again participating. We are asking for volunteers to staff the display, which will be in the Purdue Memorial Union Room 118 from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Visitors to past Constitution Days from the University and the community have enjoyed the Libraries display which demonstrates the importance of freedom of speech by highlighting books that have been banned over the years. Shifts that need coverage are listed below. Please check with your supervisor for permission to participate and let me know when you are available rboes@purdue.edu. Thank you.

10-11 a.m.
11 a.m.-12 p.m.
12-1 p.m.
1-2 p.m.
2-3 p.m.

Jim Derringer
Library Assistant
Math and Aviation Technology

Jim first started working at Purdue as a 14-year-old dishwasher in the Purdue Memorial Union, making 45 cents an hour. Later, as an undergrad and again as a graduate student, he worked at the Aviation Technology Library for Barbara Stair. Jim began his full time career with the Purdue Libraries in 1986, when he was hired by Richard Funkhouser to work in the Math Library. Jim’s primary responsibility was the serials collection in Math, including binding. He served on the Libraries Safety and Ergonomics Committee since its inception. In 2011, Jim graciously agreed to split his time between the Math Library and the Aviation Technology Library — a perfect fit for him because he is also a pilot. Because of his experiences outside of the Libraries Jim was able to bring a higher level of customer service to our patrons.

Sue Long's name was randomly drawn from all those who were SMILED upon in August. She received a $25 Von’s Book Shop gift certificate.

All faculty, administration 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/

Ilana Stonebraker reports that Students in MGMT 175 (Information Strategies for MGMT Students) Direct Admit Learning Community visited MatchBOX coworking studio on August 26. The short tour is part of the course theme “Making greater Lafayette greater” where students use business information to improve their community. They will also visit The Foundry in the Burton Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship, hear from speakers from Anvil as well as tour Small Spaces Lafayette.