Recently, the Board of Trustees approved a SAP project that includes three components: General Ledger Transformation, Human Capital Management (HCM) Transformation and Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) Transformation. This project will change many business processes and will impact almost every person in the Libraries in some way. The design phase of the project started November 1. The anticipated completion is around July 1, 2018. Below is some high level information about the project.

General Ledger Transformation

• “Re-design the University Chart of Accounts and business processes supporting financial and operational management and reporting, with business process re-design based on a 'standard' application of the software.” (Sullivan, 10/14/16)
• This will change our account numbers as we know them today as well as impact reporting on account information.

HCM Transformation

• “Implementation of SAP SuccessFactors, a cloud-based software package for HCM processes in human resources, payroll, timekeeping, recruiting and onboarding, compensation and learning.
• Re-design of underlying business processes and policies based on a “standard” application of the software.” (Sullivan, 10/14/16)
• This is the area that will impact the most Libraries employees. We will see a very significant change in the hire to separation process.

EAM Transformation

• “Consolidation of asset management activities for the capital program and plant maintenance under already owned SAP functionality and retire current systems.
• Re-design of construction project accounting, business processes and delivery structures to support financial and operational management and reporting.” (Sullivan, 10/14/16)

Overall Outcomes

• Eliminate paper-based processes.
• Redesign, automate and standardize workflow.
• Dramatically reduce manual reconciliations.
• Financial transparency.

I look forward to sharing additional information as the project progresses.

Resources: Sullivan, W. (2016 October 14). Approval of and Authorization for SAP Project. Board of Trustees Minutes.

Recently Purdue University Libraries hosted international visitors from National Chengchi University (NCCU), a national co-educational research university located in Taipei, Taiwan. NCCU is considered to be one of the most prestigious and important universities of Taiwan, specializing in arts and humanities, mass media, social sciences, management, politics and international affairs programs, is currently planning a brand new library building that particularly addresses user needs in the digital era. The new library will provide user spaces for collaborative learning and research activities. It will also be designed to meet the requirements for special collection preservation and its further applied services.

Tours of the Roland G. Parrish Library of Management and Economics, John W. Hicks Undergraduate Library and the Wilmeth Active Learning Center were conducted with Nanette Andersson serving as host. A discussion was held in the afternoon in the Swaim Instruction Center with Erla Heyns, Nanette Andersson, Nancy Hewison, Michael Fosmire, Sammie Morris and Cliff Harrison. President Chow also met with Ragu Balakrishnan, department head and professor of electrical and computer engineering.

Pictured left to right: Ms. Claire Tao, Mrs. Nancy Lin, Dr. Edward Chow, Dr. Ming Lee, Ms. Hui-Chen Chang and Ms. Bang-shin Hwang.

Photo by Patrick Whalen

On November 5, the five top teams from three schools gathered at the Burton Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship to compete in the third annual Parrish Library Case Competition, sponsored by EBSCO. This yearly event challenges students to solve real world business issues using exceptional information literacy skills. The case this year focused on a real brewery startup, Alexandria Brewing Company, located just outside of Cincinnati, Ohio. Students used information to formalize a marketing strategy for the brewery, including target markets, demographics, trend analysis and best practices. The CFO of the Alexandria Brewing Company, Brian Fish, helped write and judge the case final round.

This year 27 teams competed in the Parrish Library Case Competition, up from 16 teams last year and eight in the first year. Due to the large demand of competition, the final round was increased from top three to top five teams. The winners of the Parrish Library Case Competition include:

First Place: Butler Bulldogs (Butler) — Samantha Chalmers, Taylor Gillenwater, Karly Krebs, Allison Wolff, Nicolen Henrich
Second Place: Purdue Pennys (Purdue University) — Kaitlyn Frawley, Chloe Boughner, Quincy Smith, Shivangi Agarwal
Third Place: Boiler Consulting Services (Purdue University) — Aaron Mendia, Alexander Tan, Surya Gundavarapu, Dhruv Chawla

Thank you EBSCO for continued support of the competition and Alexandria Brewing Company for working with us in the case development.

Thank you to final round judges Jessica Huffman (Indiana University Libraries), Dr. Ken Harling (Krannert), Brian Fish (Alexandria Brewing Company), Kirk Powell (EBSCO), Hal Kirkwood (Purdue Libraries) and Judy Nixon (Purdue Libraries).

Thank you to first round judges Heather Howard (Purdue Libraries), Julia Kalish (Krannert), Teresa Williams (Butler University Libraries), Mary Dugan (Purdue Libraries), Jessica Huffman and Hal Kirkwood.

Following the success of high school GIS day on Oct. 6, college GIS day was held on Nov. 4 at Stewart Center. Facilitated by Purdue University Libraries nine years in a row, GIS Day continued to be a great opportunity for the campus GIS community from different colleges to get together, learn new developments in the GIS field and connect with external GIS professionals.

The college GIS Day program attracted more than 150 students, faculty and staff from campus and the local community. The keynote speakers were Wendy Cho, professor of political science and statistics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Jim Sparks, Indiana geographic information officer (GIO). Professor Cho talked about how GIS could be used in the presidential election in her redistricting project. Indiana GIO, Mr. Sparks, introduced how geospatial information is used in the next generation of 911 support. Both of these presentations were well received by the audience and generated great conversations.

Other presenters included Joel Bump, CIO/MIS director at the Indiana Department of Transportation; Matt Badger, survey project manager at the Lochmueller Group; Dr. Noah Kaye, visiting professor at Indiana University; Dr. Tarek Rashed, director of geoinformatics at the Polis Center of IUPUI; Dr. Rich Hogan, sociology; Dr. Jonathan Pettit, Center on Religion and Chinese Studies; Larry Theller, ABE; and Larry Biehl and Randy Herban, ITAP.

With the rising interest of drones on campus, a drone panel presentation was held with Dr. Keith Cherkauer, ABE; Dr. Ayman Habib, Civil Engineering; Dr. Brian Kozak, Aviation and Transportation Technology; and Dr. Ian Lindsey, Anthropology. Discussions included how drones are used, research findings and potential and future directions. There were more than 50 in attendance for this session.

A Purdue GIS Day tradition that includes a career luncheon and poster competition continued to attract students from various departments across campus. The career lunch connects students with potential GIS employers. This year, GIS professionals from various county and state government agencies, industry and university departments were in attendance. Discussions centered on the topics students were most interested in for career preparation. The poster competition not only allows students to present their GIS related projects, but also provides a fun way to recognize excellent studies. According to the judges, this year’s winners are:

First Place: Gabriela C. Nunez-Mir, Forestry and Natural Resources, "Analyzing the native-exotic richness relationship using native beta diversity"
Second Place: Emily B. McCallen, Forestry and Natural Resources, "The Impact of Management on the Movement and Home Range Size of Indiana’s Eastern Hellbender Salamanders"
Third Place: Benjamin S. Taylor, Forestry and Natural Resources, "Spatial analysis of landfills in respect to flood events and sea-level rise"

The success of GIS Day event is made possible by great team work from many areas across the campus. Thank you to Dean Mullins for bringing in sponsors; Shannon Walker, Ashley Hutchcraft, Angie Ewing and Patrick Whalen for their efforts in every detail of the event; and support from the Libraries faculty and staff who have generously offered their time and efforts in setting up the event.

GIS Day is supported by College of Agriculture, College of Education, College of Engineering, College of Liberal Arts, College of Science, the Graduate School, Office of the Provost, Polytechnic Institute and Purdue University Libraries.

Bertin Mbongo
GIS Analyst

I am happy to join the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) team in the Purdue University Libraries as a geographic information systems analyst. I am helping with the management of geospatial data and look forward to helping Purdue students and faculty search for GIS data and learn GIS tools for use in their work.

I was born in the Central African Republic and have studied geology in France and environmental management in a Francophone University in Egypt. I have also earned a master of science degree in agricultural system management in Agricultural and Biological Engineering at Purdue. My thesis work included using GIS and SWAT model to simulate different climate change scenarios on the Blue Nile River in East Africa. I also have experience using remote sensing data from the Purdue Terrestrial Observatory for various environmental research projects.

I have lived in West Lafayette for 14 years with my wife and three children. Besides driving my kids to their various activities (basketball, soccer, track and field and Butler's writing camp) I enjoy traveling, bicycling and photography. I also build small UAV (unmanned aerial vehicles) because I am interested in their use in 3D mapping and applications in GIS.

My office is located in the map room in Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (EAPS) library. I can be reached at bmbongo@purdue.edu. I am happy for you to stop by for a chat in French, English or any of the four African languages that I speak.

Here is an opportunity to showcase your artistic talents with your coworkers by participating in the Libraries Annual Arts and Craft Show and Sale on December 9, from 2-3:30 p.m. in STEW 278. This event is held in conjunction with the Annual Faculty & Staff Recognition.

All library artists/craftsmen are invited to bring in their handmade items or artwork on this day and price it for sale or display. A table and chair will be provided for each display. If you are interested in participating or have questions, contact Ashley Hutchcraft at ahutchcr@purdue.edu.

Amanda Gill’s name was randomly drawn from all those who were SMILED upon in October. 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/

Purdue Libraries Facilities (PLF)

On November 1, PLF hosted an enjoyable open house to highlight their renovated spaces and introduce new and current staff to the rest the Libraries family.

Front row (left to right): Brian Talbert (standing beside dock), Zack Menzie, Jon Welk, Nanette Andersson, Sydney Korycinski and Dan Yeoman. Back row: Adam Baker, Jacinda Laymon, Candy Scott, Dan Rotello and David Scantlin.