CARLI News April 28, 2020

Statement on the Importance of a Director in Charge of the Academic Library

At its December 2019 meeting, the CARLI Board of Directors discussed the issue that some members′ organizations are not filling the library director position when the incumbent leaves, for example, retires or resigns. The college or university simply "assigns" the library to a campus administrator, like a vice president or assistant provost, who may have many other responsibilities. Sometimes a mid-level library staff member is named as "in charge" without title or compensation change. These assignments erode the effectiveness of the library in many ways, but also dramatically diminish the ability for the consortium to interact in a meaningful way with the library. As a result, services and programs that could be extended to faculty, staff, and students, are never offered or promoted. The entire consortium is weakened as a result.

CARLI, its Board of Directors, and members, seek to act as a resource for organizations contemplating a staffing decision whereby the library no longer has a director. The statement articulates the importance of having a dedicated, library-focused director, not just for continuity of service, but also for leveraging interlibrary cooperation, and ensuring that the campus investment in the library is optimized by a representative who can advocate for innovation and service excellence. 

Please direct questions or comments to CARLI Support.

ILDS Service Suspension 

ILDS service continues to be suspended until further notice. We will be working closely with RAILS and IHLS to coordinate a smooth restart of the delivery service. Make sure to watch your email and check the ILDS information page to keep up on the latest.

CARLI 40th Anniversary Celebration

In recognition of CARLI's 40th Anniversary we invite you to share your memories!

Please share your stories, photos, videos, anything! Share with us your reflections about CARLI, ILCSO, CCMP, IDAL, the staff, the meetings, consortium membership, resource sharing, etc. Ask your faculty, staff, and students to share as well. Tell us about a moment, a day, an event, person, or place that made a difference to you or the people you know. 

We look forward to hearing what CARLI means to you!

E-Resources Update

The CARLI E-Resources Selection System is open for FY21 subscription commitments through May 15. If you have any questions about working with the system or the products being offered for FY21 please send a note to CARLI Support.  

If you need justification of pricing negotiation for your renewals, please contact us. Our contracts include language that CARLI will be offered the lowest pricing within Illinois. We are also working with vendors in this time of hardship to negotiate further discounts. Email us at CARLI Support if you need more detail or will have to make substantial cuts to your e-resources. 

Open Textbook Network and Allied Institution Membership

The Open Textbook Network (OTN) has established a new membership type: Allied Institutions.

Allied Institutions can join or sustain their membership in the OTN community at a discounted rate as compared to the Institutional member rate if they are part of an existing OTN member system or consortium.

Allied Institutions will have the same benefits as OTN Institutional members at a discounted rate because of their affiliation with a member consortium. 

There are two main differences in Allied versus Institutional membership:

• The OTN will not travel to present workshops at an Allied Institution (because their consortium has provided training for them to hold their own workshops or, in the case of institutional members within a consortium, we′ve already visited)
• Allied Institutions will manage their own data in the Data Dashboard while being affiliated and aggregated in the consortium. (The OTN Data Dashboard is the online tracking system for faculty members to write reviews of the open textbooks in the Open Textbook Library.

CARLI is committed to ongoing OTN membership and will continue to manage data in the OTN Data Dashboard for all members unless those that become Allied Institution members wish to do so themselves.

Allied Institutions will be able to join the Open Textbook Network for $500 per annum on a July 1–June 30 membership cycle.

If any CARLI member is interested in the OTN Allied Institution membership, you must contact the OTN by May 15, 2020 by completing this form.

The OTN will bill your institution directly.

The OTN has created both an FAQ and a membership benefits table. 

If you have additional questions, please email them to CARLI Support.

Recordings Available for Two CARLI Programs

Together the Instruction and Public Services Committees planned a daylong online program, "Getting Ready for Primo VE", held on April 2 for library staff exploring and discussing Primo VE. There were over 280 registrants from 80 different CARLI members.

Sessions recorded from the day include:

• Welcome and Introduction to the Day, Aaron Harwig, College of DuPage
• Library Discovery Searching: An Overview, Denise Green, CARLI
• Primo VE & Ex Libris Product Development, Amy Maroso, CARLI
• CARLI & Primo VE, Jessica Gibson, CARLI
• Primo VE & the Automated Fulfillment Network (AFN): A Demonstration, Debbie Campbell, CARLI 
• Introducing a New Discovery Service to Your Campus: 
• "Primed for Primo VE," Jessica Bastian, Illinois Central College
• "Looking Back: Lessons Learned After Going Live," Niamh McGuigan, Loyola University Chicago
• Know Before you Go (Live): Advice for Creating Primo VE User Guides
• Krista Bowers Sharpe, Western Illinois University, Christina Norton, Bradley University, and Dee Anna Pharesm Northern Illinois University
• Usability Basics: Test with Your Users, Chad Kahl, Illinois State University

The recordings and slides are available here.

The Instruction Committee hosted "ACT UP: Evaluating Sources and Pushing Against Privilege" on April 7 for nearly 100 registrants. Dawn Stahura presented her evaluation method, ACT UP, which goes beyond standard evaluation methods like CRAAP. Because source evaluation is social justice work, it is critical we teach students how to push against privilege in publishing as well as identifying misinformation before sharing it with others.

The recording is available from the Instruction Committee web page under the Enhancing Library Instruction section.

RESCHEDULED: Messy Data? Clean it up with OpenRefine!

CARLI’s, in-person program, "Messy Data? Clean it up with OpenRefine!" which was to be held at the I-Hotel on April 30, has been rescheduled. The program will be held on Thursday, October 8, 2020. Current registrants will be allowed to register first when registration opens in late August.

Please contact CARLI Support with any questions.

Alma Primo VE Update

It′s the end of Voyager as we know it!  CARLI has run Voyager since August of 2002, and in that time our I-Share libraries grew in number from 44 to 91. Voyager and VuFind have served us well for a long time, and although change is hard, it is time to move on.  May 1, 2020 marks the beginning of what is called the "Tech Freeze" phase of our Alma migration project. April 25 will be the last day CARLI staff will do any batch loads of bib records into Voyager (patron data batch loads can continue until June 17). As of 11:59 p.m., April 30, I-Share libraries must stop adding, changing, or deleting any inventory (bibs, holdings, items) and must stop making any changes to purchase orders, invoices and serials check-in records in Voyager. This work must cease so that CARLI and Ex Libris can begin the processes that create the forms and data exports that will be used to repopulate our Alma test environments with new data. 

Voyager will remain available for circulation work until 11:59 p.m., Thursday, June 18. Universal Borrowing was suspended due to the COVID closures on March 16 and it is likely we will not be bringing it back online before June 11, which was the date we had originally scheduled to shut it off. We anticipate keeping Voyager and VuFind available in a frozen status, i.e., with no updates to its data, for library staff use for a few months. We do not yet have a specific date for turning Voyager off entirely but would expect to do so sometime in Fall 2020. If you need a copy of our project deadlines, you can find that here.

May 1 also marks the deadline for changes to Alma configuration settings. I-Share libraries will be able to make configuration changes again after we go live, which is still scheduled for June 24. The CARLI staff has been working very hard to help you get your configurations in place before the May 1 freeze. In particular, we′ve been encouraging you to get set up for your patron data synchronization and user authentication so that your users will be able to connect to Alma and Primo VE at go live. These processes are quite different in Alma Primo VE from what they are in Voyager and we know that set up work has been a challenge to many of you and your colleagues in your IT departments. Thank you for all the work you have put into this, especially in this challenging time.

The COVID closures have impacted all our lives, and this project as well. We hoped to do more testing of routing and receiving materials through Alma′s automated fulfillment network (AFN) functions but the ILDS shutdown changed those plans. Many of you have been working in innovative ways with partner libraries to try to test AFN tasks from your homes, without your collections, scanners and printers. Thank you! Those efforts will pay off when we go live, but we know many of you have not had a chance to try these workflows while working remotely. We don’t know what our closure status will be this summer, but we will grow into AFN and Alma and Primo VE over time when we are all open again. 

We plan to continue to offer the Thursday, 2 p.m. Office Hours webinar calls as we move into this next phase of the project. We hope you are finding those useful. Remember we record them so you can review them when you get a chance.

Please remember, that as much as we appreciate that you want to call us directly or send email directly to a CARLI staff member you are working with, that we are all working from our home offices and that we are, as they say, experiencing a high volume of questions at this time. If you would send your questions to us at our ticketing system address of support@carli.illinois.edu we can better track the incoming requests for help and reassign them among our staff as needed. We are doing our best to keep up with the incoming questions and are also trying to make sure that date-dependent questions are handled in time. Thanks for working with us on this. We know you are all working from home, too. 

Stay well and stay in touch. Alma, here we come!

Preservation Tips: 

Resources for Collection Management Response to COVID-19 
Ann Lindsey, Head of Conservation at the University of Chicago Library

Looking for hard and fast answers to how libraries and archives should respond to the collection management aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic may be difficult or even impossible at this time. There have been studies about how long the virus can stay viable in various circumstances, but the hard truth is that we do not actually know right now. With that in mind, the CARLI Preservation Committee has developed a list of resources to help guide decision makers in these difficult times. As always, in an emergency, the most important thing is to keep people safe, but we are also presenting information about how to keep materials safe.

Preservation of Archival Materials, an Interview with Jenny Dunbar, Archivist at College of DuPage
Nora Gabor, Rare Books Librarian at DePaul University

For 2019–2020, the CARLI Preservation Committee is sharing a series of interviews with preservation managers, conservators, and other library specialists who graciously described their experiences on preservation and conservation topics of interest to CARLI libraries. 

This month, Nora Gabor, Rare Books Librarian at DePaul University asked Jenny Dunbar, Archivist at College of DuPage, to share some experiences working in the archives at a community college. 

Read the full article.

Additional interviews from the Preservation Committee’s Learning from our Collective Experiences series are also available.

Suspending Open Calls for Committee Volunteers

This year marks a time of great transition for CARLI; the new library services platform, Alma Primo VE, will change how we provide services. As we envision CARLI in 2021 and beyond, we know that some of our committee charges may need to be updated to reflect our new environment. Additionally, we may wish to create new committees, and combine or sunset others. See the Committee Directory for a list of the committees and descriptions.

In order to allow time to evaluate current committee structures and make recommendations for committees that reflect the changing landscape, the CARLI Board of Directors has suspended open calls for committee volunteers for FY21.
 
Broadly, what this means for CARLI committees and their members:

• The committee structure will remain the same for FY21; that is, the groups themselves will be carried over without change to purpose. 
• In Summer/Fall 2020, we ask that each committee consider whether the group should continue, cease, combine, or split. For committees that should continue, we ask that members examine their group′s charge with an eye to evaluate whether it should remain unchanged or go forward with modifications. 
• Current committee members whose terms are expiring are invited to continue their service for FY21 in order to engage in these evaluation efforts. We value the benefit of your committee experience and hope that you will stay to continue helping through this transition period. If you are unable to continue, or if you do not wish to do so, please email Margaret Chambers. Where additional input is needed for the evaluation or to complete their planned activities, CARLI may invite past members to serve a one-year term.
• In order to have a final plan in time to complete the committee volunteer and selection process in Spring 2021, we ask that each committee prepare an initial report to the CARLI Board of Directors for review at their December 2020 meeting, with a final plan presented for approval at the March 2021 board meeting.
• Committee projects may be suspended or continued in parallel with a focus on the questions above. In short, the committee’s project for the year can be its re-envisioning.
• For FY22, the established process to join committees will recommence. As necessary to transition to the new committee structure, FY21 committee members may have to option to continue their service on continuing or newly created committees.

As always, please send any questions, or feedback about the committee evaluation process to CARLI Support.

Other Library News

Preservation Week at University of Illinois

Preservation Week 2020, is now underway at the University of Illinois Libraries. This year a variety of virtual programming is offered including: 

Test your knowledge: Disaster Planning and Response
Wednesday, April 29, 1:00 p.m.
How much do you know about disaster planning and emergency response? This interactive game will put your knowledge to the test. 

Preserving Your Family Heirlooms
Thursday, April 30, 1:00 p.m.
This session will introduce general tips and best practices for storing and preserving treasured family heirlooms. 

Online Exhibit
Digitizing the Hōrai no makimono Japanese Scroll 
Last year, Digitization Services teamed up with Conservation and Professor Steve Witt to digitize the Hōrai no makimono Japanese Scroll, held by the Rare Book & Manuscript Library. The nearly 10 meter-long scroll presented a wide range of challenges given its length, condition, and format, and required collaboration with Conservation to facilitate safe care and handling during digitization. 

Blogs, virtual posters, and more!
Follow online to learn more about environmental monitoring and pest management; personal and professional digital preservation; Preservation Services workflows; and more. 
Conservation Lab Blog: Bunsen and Bronte
Facebook: facebook.com/ConservationatIllinois
Twitter: @PresCons
For those interested, visit tinyurl.com/uiucpresweek2020 for additional details and Zoom Registration for presentations.

Upcoming CARLI Events and Meetings

Important Dates

The CARLI Office staff will remain in remote work status through at least May 31.

May 25            CARLI Office Closed for Memorial Day holiday

Webinars, Forums, Workshops and Training

May 7              Alma Primo VE Migration Open Office Hours
May 14            Alma Primo VE Migration Open Office Hours
May 21            Alma Primo VE Migration Open Office Hours
May 28            Alma Primo VE Migration Open Office Hours
May 29            8th Annual Instruction Showcase (Online)

June 4              Alma Primo VE Migration Open Office Hours
June 11            Alma Primo VE Migration Open Office Hours
June 18            Alma Primo VE Migration Open Office Hours

Meetings

May 6              Resource Sharing Committee Meeting
May 11            Preservation Committee Meeting
May 13            Collection Management Committee Meeting
May 13            Instruction Committee Meeting
May 18            Technical Services Committee Meeting
May 19            OER Task Force Meeting
May 20            Public Services Committee Meeting
May 26            Created Content Committee Meeting

June 3              Resource Sharing Committee Meeting
June 3              Executive Committee Meeting
June 8              Preservation Committee Meeting
June 10            Collection Management Committee Meeting
June 10            Instruction Committee Meeting
June 12            Board of Directors Meeting
June 16            OER Task Force Meeting
June 17            Public Services Committee Meeting
June 22            Technical Services Committee Meeting
June 23            Created Content Committee Meeting

Consult the CARLI calendar for the most current list of meeting times and locations.

Contact Us

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