For me, part of the new experience of being an academic librarian is the encouragement to participate in conferences and engage with colleagues from other academic institutions. This past April, I had the wonderful opportunity to attend and present at my first national library conference as a librarian, the Electronic Resource and Libraries (ER&L) Conference in Austin, Texas.

ER&L is a small conference with about 400 attendees. To me, it was evident that this intimate and focused conference, allowed for those of us who work with electronic resources (everything from ejournals, databases, ebooks, discovery tools, Electronic Resource Management systems, and even those engaged in library publishing ventures), being in the same space and engaging with others who do the exact same thing is extremely valuable.

I took a great deal out of the conference, both in terms of the learning experience of working on a presentation with librarians from other institutions, as well as how to engage in a conference as a participant. Though I saw numerous, fascinating presentations here are a few highlights:

All you can ERMS: Laying out the Buffet of eResource Management Systems

A two-session panel discussion with librarians from different institutions on how they implement and utilize their different ERMs. ERMs covered included Innovative (what we have at OSU), CORAL (open source), Worldshare (OCLC), 360 Resource Manager (Serials Solutions), and Verde (Ex Libris).

Take-away: Each ERM offers a slight different solution to the user and selection of an ERM is highly depend on the needs of each institution, however if all the functionality of all the different vendors’ ERMs could be rolled into one product, that would be awesome. That day will come, hopefully sooner rather than later.

The Textbook Affordability Crisis and the Academic Library: Exploring Alternatives (Monica Metz-Wiseman, University of South Florida)

A compelling argument correlating the rising cost of textbooks, total cost of a college education, and student loan debt, and a call to librarians to participate and support the campus discussion on textbook affordability.

Take-away: The total cost of a college education and discussion of student-load debt are issues that are not going to go away. Campuses must find creative solutions to help students with the lowering the total cost of a college education. Librarians have specialized knowledge on the copyright, the economics of information and publishing industry and may be able to offer valuable insight or creative solutions in campus discussions on textbook affordability

Ohio Librarian Get-together:

Although this was not a presentation, prior to the conference two librarians from Denison organized an evening social for those of us in attendance from Ohio. Buckeyes were served and it was a great opportunity to talk to other electronic resource librarians on what they are doing with statistics, ERMs, OLinks and other specific issues or questions I run across all the time.

Take-away: Whether it’s because of OhioLINK or not, there’s a lot of good camaraderie among Ohio librarians who are more than willing to share their experiences and help each other out with issues that may be experienced across academic institutions.

There were so many other fascinating presentations that I couldn’t cover here, but I have notes and powerpoint slides from many of them, so feel free to send me an e-mail if you’re interest in a specific presentation.

UWeekly Cover from January 18, 2012

In spite of its presence everywhere on campus, out of the weekly newspapers in Columbus, I do not typically read the UWeekly (but this may change). I usually glance at the cover article and continue on my way thinking ok, I’m not the target audience, but last week’s cover article made me stop, pick it up from a table in the Tech Center staff lounge and read this one article in detail—twice. The eBook Revolution: When will it come to college campuses?

In Acquisitions, we talk about eBooks a LOT. What the publishers are doing (or not doing) with eBook publication, the user experience (or lack thereof) at platforms that provide eBooks, the discovery layer for eBooks in our collection, and the general incorporation of eBooks in academic libraries.

So, what do you mean “when” will eBooks arrive on college campuses? They are already here! Tens maybe hundreds of thousands of them in our collection.

There are many statements in the UWeekly article, that I would challenge, support with better data, or elaborate on, however, after finishing the article a second time, I realized none of that is important for us as a library. This is an article written by and includes interviews from likely OSU library patrons (mostly undergraduates). Regardless of your opinion on eBooks or on the data within this article, this article provides valuable insight into how some of our users view the notion of eBooks, the confusion and unfamiliarity that exists over e-Readers, tablets, and even eBooks versus eTextbooks (two different animals), and the one factor that is driving many people or organization either into or away from eBooks—money.

So, who else read this article? What does it mean for us? What insights does this bring to your work in the library? And what about the cost of e-Readers and tablets? Will there ever be a point where an e-Reader or tablet replaces the need to buy a laptop?

Last week, the LA Times columnist wrote about the value of libraries in a news article entitled Librarian’s Words are Binding. Puns aside, it set off a flurry of comments, some of which contended the value of libraries. This is nothing new in LIS. As we struggle to assert our value in the community or campus, there are always those who see libraries as increasingly obsolete and wasteful. One comment questioned why K-12 schools should fund libraries over larger math classes or other core subjects. Another viewed libraries as a luxury akin to a game room. Information services groomed through the libraries (both public and academic) are continually undervalued (and publicly; watch this disparaging comment by Bill Mayer) despite years of advocacy and promotion.

I would argue that the value perceived by the public is in part a result of the experience users have in college. Typically, the library is realized as a useful place for study and academic research, but what in the academic library inspires students to lifelong use beyond its walls?

At last week’s faculty meeting, librarians discussed author rights in publications and explored the idea of an Open Access Resolution.

How in tune are our non-library faculty counterparts, or even graduate and undergraduate students, with their rights as creators/authors? How can we engage the rest of the OSU community in this discussion, one that impacts all of us?

Here are a few resources to start.

Are there any other resources that you use to inform others about Open Access and author/creator rights? Please share in the comments!

Copyright, Fair Use and Ownership Workshop

November 16th, 2011 10:00am–11:30am

Learning Collaboration Studio, Rm 060 Science and Engineering Library

Join Anne Gilliland of the Prior Health Sciences Copyright Management Office for a discussion on copyright, fair use and ownership.  She will also introduce two new short videos on copyright basics that can be used when talking about copyright with classes or individuals.

( I attended this workshop and highly recommend it. Great audience participation and discussion from the OSU community)

https://registration.it.ohio-state.edu/node/415

Open Access Instructional Video

Only have 1 minute to spare to brush up on Open Access and Author/Creator rights? Here’s the video for you courtesy of the Canadian Association of Research Libraries and McGill University Library

Open Access: Author Instructional Video

A completely silly take on the Open Access discussion

What happens when Albert Einstein and Queen Elizabeth II land on the Moon? They talk about Open Access, of course! Yes, find out how in this completely silly video.

Albert Einstein and the Queen discuss Open Access

As someone who helps support work done with these grants, this is probably not the most unbiased blog post you’ll find. However, I feel strongly about the potential these grants have for staff, librarians, teaching faculty, and students alike, and I’d like to offer ideas to those who find themselves wondering how they can best incorporate librarians into their class and curriculum. The evaluation criteria states:

• The introduction of library materials and services will enhance the success of the course.
• New or innovative use of library materials, a variety of formats, or information literacy instruction is included.
• Potential for broad impact on students is possible. This might be indicated by high enrollment, pre-requisite status, frequent offering, multiple sections, discussion of how course material will be shared with colleagues, etc.
• The proposal shows evidence of collaboration with a librarian.
• Applicant is familiar with or willing to learn how to use appropriate technologies identified in the proposal.

What does this mean aside from offering an instructional session on resources or promoting ILL services? Here’s a short list of possibilities:

1. For any assignments that require research, offer to be a peer reviewer to make sure that those resources are still available and that what is being asked of students is clear in the language of an assignment.
2. Create a collaborative resource centered on students’ work (e.g. wiki for written papers, private YouTube channel for videos, etc.—technology is not limited to proprietary software)
3. Help develop an assignment that requires students to engage with a primary or secondary resource (Anne Fields has a fantastic list of sample assignments)
4. Assist faculty in visually-enhancing or updating their teaching materials
5. Partner with learning-technology specialists to add additional layers of engagement to the classroom

These are just a few ideas, and I would love to help you think of additional ones. But what unique ways have you engaged with faculty?