CARLI News May 30, 2013

Read the CARLI News for the latest information on CARLI events, new and ongoing projects, product and service updates and upcoming deadlines. Issues are sent to all subscribers of the “Announce” listserv. 

CARLI Board of Directors Election Results

The election and appointment process for new members of the CARLI Board of Directors has been completed. New Board members elected to 3-year terms beginning July 1, 2013 are Brian Beecher (Elgin Community College), Mary Case (University of Illinois at Chicago), and Scott Walter (DePaul University). Board members elected to one-year terms are Njambi Kamoche (William Rainey Harper College), and Patrick Dawson (Northern Illinois University). 

Richard Darga (Chicago State University), Felice Maciejewski (Dominican University), and Tammy Kuhn-Schnell (Lincoln Land Community College) have accepted one year appointed seats on the Board. 

Please join us in welcoming these new members of the CARLI Board.  

New Usage Reports for CARLI Digital Collections

Google Analytics Keyword and Traffic summaries for the first and second quarters of 2012-2013 are now available for CARLI Digital Collections.

On a quarterly basis, the CARLI Digital Collections Users' Group summarizes Keyword and Traffic reports generated by Google Analytics to provide the CARLI community with analysis on the use and users of CARLI Digital Collections. Summaries for Quarter 1 (July-September 2012) and Quarter 2 (October-December 2012), along with a complete list of keyword searches that brought users to CARLI Digital Collections, are available for download from the CARLI web site.

Due to the nature of our consortial environment and shared CONTENTdm server, we cannot create customized Google Analytics reports for individual collections or institutions.

If you have any questions or comments about these new reports, please contact the CARLI Office.

E-Resources

CARLI FY 2014 Database Selection System Deadline May 31

The CARLI database subscription selection period will conclude at the close of business on Friday, May 31. All subscription choices or modifications for the period July 1, 2013-June 30, 2014 must be completed by that time. 

Pricing has been added to the selection system for Bowker Syndetics modules for a small group of libraries that are not current subscribers. If you have questions about your pricing or would like to see pricing for these modules, please contact the CARLI Office.

CARLI Selection System Redesign Survey

CARLI is beginning the process of redesigning the Selection System used extensively by both member libraries and CARLI staff to record and maintain information related to electronic resource subscriptions and purchases made through CARLI. 

We would appreciate your input about using the system and your suggestions about potential enhancements to the system. Once you have completed your FY14 database subscriptions please complete the survey by May 31. 

CARLI ​Strikes Deal with Alexander Street Press

Alexander Street Press, an electronic publisher of award-winning online collections and video for scholarly research, teaching, and learning, has forged a landmark agreement with the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois (CARLI) to provide perpetual access to academic online video collections for 124 of the group's participating governing member institutions.

Since 2005, CARLI has united libraries across Illinois with the common goal of building environments that foster scholarship and education. Beginning in May, governing member institutions will be granted perpetual streaming access to the six Alexander Street Press video databases of their choice from a broad range of disciplines. The agreement will also cover participating libraries’ access fees for the first 10 years.

This unique agreement allowed each participating library the freedom to select the resources that best fit the needs of its patrons. The most frequently chosen collections include American History in Video, Nursing Education in Video, World History in Video, Health and Society in Video, Education in Video, Criminal Justice and Public Safety in Video, and volumes I–III of Counseling and Therapy in Video.

Cindy Clennon, Director of Electronic Resources explained, “This purchase was facilitated by a significant investment in ASP video collections made by four CARLI member libraries: Northern Illinois University, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, the University of Illinois at Chicago, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. That purchase created a basis for this new endeavor and all of the CARLI libraries have benefitted from their vision.”

“We’re thrilled to provide these resources to so many institutions across Illinois,” said Alexander Street Press President Stephen Rhind-Tutt. “This agreement enables us to share information with hundreds of thousands of students, faculty, and scholars, and strongly supports our mission of making silent voices heard. CARLI is a pioneer in the field, and we hope this will open doors for other groups seeking ways to enrich their members’ resources.”

“The CARLI Board of Directors is excited to make these innovative resources available to our governing members," said Executive Director Susan Singleton. “Budgets are tight right now, but this agreement provides unprecedented flexibility for our institutions and allows them to embrace streaming video to support teaching and scholarship in dramatic new ways. We're grateful to Alexander Street Press for their instrumental role in making this landmark agreement possible. "

Each collection from Alexander Street Press includes hundreds of hours of high-caliber video hand selected by content experts. For many participating libraries, these will become the first video databases on offer, allowing thousands of students and faculty to experiment with and learn the benefits of streaming video. 

According to Thomas Teper, Associate Dean and Associate University Librarian for Collections at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, “Our campus made a significant investment in Alexander Street’s streaming video products a couple of years ago. The flexibility of the offer made to CARLI provides broader coverage of streaming products to our campus and enables us to continue support to our consortial partners.”

Denise Cote, Reference Librarian at College of DuPage adds, “Alexander Street provides an excellent product that is easy for faculty to use in their online courses and in their classrooms. The collections subsidized by CARLI add useful content to our Academic Video Online subscription and we are thrilled to have access.”

I-Share

Fiscal Period Close (Rollover) Open Conference Calls

The CARLI Office has scheduled 2 conference calls about Fiscal Period Close (Rollover). Please call in with questions, concerns, and/or expertise on Fiscal Period Close. CARLI Staff will facilitate this call. FPC veterans to call in and share their expertise!
 
The calls will contain identical content, so please register for the call that is most convenient:

Tuesday, June 4, 10:00 am-11:00 am

Wednesday, June 5 2:00 pm-3:00 pm 

Prior to this call it is highly recommended that you review the documentation under "Fiscal Period Close (Rollover)" especially the first 2 documents (Fiscal Period Rollover sequence: The big picture and Fiscal Period Rollover: Step-by Step, with Commentary.)
 
Registration closes May 31. Call in information will be shared with registrants June 3.
 
If you have any questions, contact the CARLI Office.

OPAC Logs Available for Analysis 

In response to requests from usability testers and other researchers interested in how people search the OPAC, CARLI is now making 60 days of anonymized logs from both VuFind and WebVoyage available for download in gzip format. 

CARLI will not release OPAC usage data that would make it possible to identify individual users' searches. All usernames, borrower IDs and IP addresses have been removed from the logs. There is one log file for each day, from each of the two catalog interfaces. Older logs will roll off as new ones are added. CARLI will not archive older logs; researchers may download and store logs if they anticipate doing any kind of longitudinal study.

CARLI offers these logs as fodder for research projects. Although anonymized, they are still raw: they are not documented, analyzed, parsed, or summarized except by date. As researchers delve into these data and reach conclusions about user behavior or recommendations for interface design changes, we hope they will share their findings in appropriate fora.

In order to assist would-be investigators of the OPAC logs, the I-Share Users' Group's OPAC Team has created a skeletal "OPAC log analysis" tips and techniques wiki page. The team invites anyone with an interest to update the page with their experiences, discoveries, strategies, or even suggested research questions. Currently the page has sections on downloading, unzipping, opening/ingesting, interpreting and querying log files. In addition there are sections for suggested research topics and for research findings. 

The CARLI Office and the OPAC Team hope this wiki page will foster collaboration, spark new ideas and help launch many new research projects. Please return to the page as your OPAC log analysis projects proceed, to share tips, techniques and research findings with other investigators.

Preservation Tip: Disaster Recovery Vendors & Pre-Need Contracts

A disaster recovery vendor can provide critical support salvaging and restoring damaged library materials. Institutions interested in utilizing these services, however, should consider signing pre-need contract with a selected vendor before a disaster strikes.

Pre-need contracts serve three key purposes. First, they help ensure that your institution obtains assistance in the event of a natural disaster such as a flood or a tornado when many institutions may be demanding disaster recovery assistance. Some vendors offer a guarantee of service for institutions that register in advance of need. Secondly, pre-need contracts help establish the scope of work vendors will perform in the event of a disaster call. These contracts collect such critical information as the size of your collection, the types of formats represented, and the presence of rare or fragile materials in your collection. Contracts also establish how the vendor will interact with existing institutional regulations, policies, and procedures. Institutions engaged in labor contracts, for example, may require that vendors supply unionized workers or comply with prevailing wages—information that a vendor must know in advance before sending workers to a disaster site. Finally, filling out a pre-need contract provides opportunities for your institution to review and refine your disaster plan. The questions a vendor asks may provide your institution with new insights into potential threats.
 
As with any contract, the language of a pre-need disaster recovery contract should be carefully reviewed before signing. Some red flags to consider when reviewing a contract: Is there an associated cost with pre-need contracting? Unless the vendor is providing you a service, signing the contract should be free of charge. Does the contract require you to choose certain services in the event of a disaster or does it prevent you from doing business with another provider? Since disasters are unpredictable, a pre-need contract should provide your institution total flexibility to choose or reject services or select another vendor—don’t get locked in to an agreement that limits your options.

Ross Griffiths (Illinois State University), Preservation Working Group

Other Library News:

Illinois Heartland Library System Launches New Automation Consortium

Illinois Heartland Library System's local library system automation program, SHARE (Sharing Heartland's Available Resources Equally) launched on Polaris on April 9, 2013. The launch joined together 296 Library agencies (public, school, academic, and special) with 427 branches, on one integrated library system.

If your library is a CARLI member, and would like to receive a SHARE institutional library card in order to place requests or holds through this new consolidated OPAC, please contact Chris Dawdy, SHARE Manager for Staff Services for more information.

Beverly Lynch is the Newest Illinois Library Luminary

Beverly Lynch, a leading figure in librarianship nationally and in Illinois, has been named the twenty-eighth Illinois Library Luminary.  Luminaries, comprising the Illinois Library Association's roll of honor, are individuals who have made a significant contribution to Illinois libraries and have been recognized by their peers. 

"Beverly Lynch's leadership and her many contributions to libraries and librarianship in Illinois are very deserving of this designation as an Illinois Library Luminary," said Robert Wedgeworth, university librarian and professor emeritus, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Lynch has a long and distinguished record in librarianship in Illinois and nationally as a librarian, library educator, and library leader.  She became executive director of the Association of College and Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association, in 1972. Following that, she served as university librarian and professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago from 1977 to 1989.  Lynch was president of the American Library Association in 1985-86 and twice served as interim president of the Center for Research Libraries in Chicago. 

Her tenure at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) includes serving as dean and professor in the Department of Information Studies at UCLA, founding director of the California Rare Book School, and directing the UCLA Senior Fellows Program.  Lynch has received many honors and awards, including the Melvil Dewey Medal (2012) and the Lippincott Award (2009), both awarded by the American Library Association.  She holds a master's degree in library and information science from the University of Illinois and a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin.

Illinois Library Luminaries honor those who have made a significant contribution to Illinois libraries and whose supporters make a contribution of at least $1,000 to the Illinois Library Association Endowment on their behalf. This honor roll for Illinois libraries serves the dual purpose of recognizing outstanding voices in the library community, while creating a legacy through the ILA Endowment to continue their important work.  To see the complete list of luminaries, visit the ILA web site.

2013 Historical Records Preservation Grant Program: Deadline May 31

The Illinois State Historical Records Advisory Board (ISHRAB), using funding from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC), is offering grants of up to $5,000 to Illinois historical records keepers to develop and/or carry out projects to identify, preserve, access and use historical records in Illinois. Information about this grant program is listed below.
 
Grant Amounts and Requirements
Minimum grant request: $500
Maximum grant request: $5,000
All grants require a one-to-one ($1 for $1) in-kind and/or cash match

The application period concludes on May 31. The completed application must be mailed. It cannot be submitted on-line.
 
The Illinois State Historical Records Advisory Board is made up of representatives from different archives, museums, universities and libraries from around the state and seeks to facilitate cooperation among historical records depositories and other information agencies within Illinois.  The Illinois State Archives serves as the coordinator of the ISHRAB.          
 
For additional information or to request the grant guidelines and application form, contact David Joens at 217-782-3492.

Upcoming CARLI Meetings and Events

Forums, Workshops and Training

June 4     Fiscal Period Close (Rollover) Open Conference Call
June 5     Fiscal Period Close (Rollover) Open Conference Call
June 6     RDA Training, University of Illinois Chicago
June 6     I-Share Resource Sharing Forum, Illinois Valley Community College, Oglesby
June 7     RDA Training, University of Illinois Chicago 
June 10   RDA Training, CARLI Office, Champaign
June 11   RDA Training, CARLI Office, Champaign
June 12   I-Share Acquisitions and Serials Training, CARLI Office, Champaign
June 13   I-Share Acquisitions and Serials Training, CARLI Office, Champaign
June 19   Instruction Team Library Instruction Showcase, Heartland Community College, Normal

July 9-12  Digital Preservation Train-the-Trainers Workshop, Champaign

Meetings

June 3     CARLI Executive Committee
June 7     CARLI Board, CARLI Office, Champaign
June 7     Instruction Team meeting
June 10   E-Resources Working Group
June 12   I-Share OPAC Team
June 17   Preservation Working Group
June 18   Collections Working Group Conference Call
June 18   Public Services Working Group
June 19   I-Share Acquisitions & Serials Team
June 20   Collections Working Group Conference Call

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

Contact Us

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