The Information Commoner: Keeping Library Staff on Common Ground, 2009 September.

              Information Commoner
September 2009
Volume 4, Issue 3
Keeping Library Staff on Common Ground
In This Issue
At Your Service 2
Announcements 3
Department News 3
Ask the Tech Guy 6
Employee Spotlight 9
Mike’s Message
Do you remember when the Library...
1. Had 33,000 square feet?
2. Had 66,000 volumes (currently
232,000)?
3. Had a corridor directly through it?
4. Had LC 413 for a BI room?
5. Had dot-matrix printers?
6. Had 100 popular magazines through
Academic Abstracts?
7. Had no archives?
8. Had no loading dock?
9. Had no space in Technical Services?
10.Had no group study rooms?
11.Had only 36 computers?
12.Had no café?
13.Had no faculty lounge?
14.Had no Writing Center?
15.Had no Visual Arts Lab?
16.Had no Deaf Studies Lab?
17.Had no Honors classroom?
18.Had no Mac Lab?
19.Had no TETC center?
20.Had no seminar rooms?
21.Had no Media viewing rooms?
22.Had no auditorium?
Utah Trade and Technical Institute
Library, 1966
UVSC Library, 2002
2 INFORMATION COMMONER
Announcements:
October Events
What’s Our Policy
By Cole Smithey
During our last year in the old building, nobody in
Circulation recalls catching anyone attempting to
steal items from the Library. This past year in the
new building, J. has caught four people trying to
walk through the gates with materials in which
identifying marks, such as call numbers and
barcodes, were removed. This, coupled with the
14% increase in enrollment suggests that we need to
be more vigilant when it comes to the protection of
our collections. To help with this, a review of what
steps to take when the gate alarm sounds is in order.
The gates at the Circulation desks go off all of the
time. When the alarm does sound, here is what
should be done. First, kindly ask the patron to step
back through the gate. Ask them if they have any
items that commonly set off the gate alarm such as
Interlibrary Loans, movies from Hollywood or
Blockbuster, reserve textbooks that don’t leave the
library, or textbooks bought from Amazon or similar
websites. Most of the time it will be one of these
items, or a random item such as a laptop, cell phone,
or even static build up on their shoes.
Second, ask to see the item and have them walk
through the gate again. If the alarm does not sound,
hand them the item and they are free to go. Third, if
it is not any of the items described above, ask them
for their UVID and have them empty out the
contents of their bag on to the Circulation desk. Ask
them take small piles of the items through the gate.
If the pile does not set off the alarm, set it aside and
move on. If it does, separate that pile out until you
find the item. Fourth, if the item is defaced or
mutilated in any way, we call campus police. If the
item is concealed, but not defaced or mutilated, we
consider this an “honest mistake,” but we make a
note of the incident on Symphony.
A few reminders: Always remember to get their
UVID. Always have them walk back through the gate
with their bag while you examine the video,
textbook, etc. Crime in the Library does not always
happen at the gate. There have been several
occasions in which people have been caught cutting
up magazines inside the Library at one of the study
tables. Also, keep an eye out for any suspicious
behavior and report it. By following these simple
steps we can keep our collections, staff, and patrons
safe.
Halloween Costume Contest
On October 30, the Events Committee will be
sponsoring a costume contest. Entrants will have
their picture taken with the Joker (also known as
Josh Rowley) and have a chance to win movie
passes.
Students will be able to vote for their favorite
costumes on our Facebook page.
Fall Break
Fall Break will be October 15-17. Our hours will be
8:00 AM to 5:00 PM Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.
At Your Service News from Systems
INFORMATION COMMONER 3
News from Technical
Services
By Lesli Baker
Although we often talk about how to best serve our
students, we also need to focus on how to best serve
our faculty. In addition to our Library services, we have
centralized many campus services in our building that
are of interest to faculty or that will support their work.
Now we need to get the word out!
Each time we work with faculty, look for ways to
promote services such as:
•  Electronic Reserve
•  Faculty Delivery Service
•  Faculty Lounge
•  Technology Training
•  Media Equipment Checkout
•  Librarian Liaisons
•  Library Newsletter
•  Extended Checkout Periods
•  Archives
•  Technology Enhanced Teaching Center
•  Faculty Center for Teaching Excellence
•  Media Services
•  Library Instruction
By Mark Stevens
Symphony 3.3 Upgrade
Now that the Symphony 3.3 upgrade is complete, we
will be addressing unfinished areas on our issues list.
Thank you for your patience as we continue to work
through remaining bugs or inefficiencies. Please attend
all desired recorded SirsiDynix classes by September
29th, and register for all desired Webex classes by
September 29th. After that date, the classes will not be
free.
By Keith Rowley
Maybe we can blame it on Symphony, but some of the
Tech Services staff have decided that this is a good time
to go on vacation. Janet is visiting family in Colorado,
Illinois and Canada and will be back October 7. Shuyi will
be gone October 12 through November 3. She is going to
China to visit her mother. Keith will be in Delaware
October 14 through October 21.
Symphony really put a crimp in Technical Services
activities, but cataloging is almost up to speed and
acquisition processes are slowly picking up. Maybe in a
couple more months things will be nearly back to
normal.
ED I TO R I A L IN FORMA T I ON
The Information Commoner is an internal
communication tool published once a month by and for
the Utah Valley University Library staff. Input from all
library staff is encouraged.
The deadline for information submittal is the third
Friday of each month. Send information to Lesli via
email.
4 INFORMATION COMMONER
By Judy Robertson
Access Services seems in better shape than ever.
Our newest staff are catching on and managing
Symphony very well. They are a good bunch and
are intent to serve patrons and do their other tasks.
Please visit the picture page (on the S Drive), see
who they are and take the opportunity to get to
know them.
I have noticed that many of our returning aides are
doing a super job mentoring. Just this week,
Supervisors mentioned Kuki and Andrea as being
really proactive. Debra has taken on many special
projects that have made some projects easier for
the rest of us. Mariah color-coded the staplers and
the staples that go with them. I think that will lower
the frustration of playing the match game every
time we need to fill a stapler. The fun interaction of
the LAs competing against time to get the pile of
Patron Registrations finished is one example of the
spirit and work ethic of this crew. I am looking
forward to working with our staff this year and
excited about learning of your talents through your
work experience. Melissa is planning a Halloween
outing for the staff so look for details about the
party.
Volunteers
By Holly Larson
We are pleased to welcome to our staff four
volunteers who have come to us from Alpine
Transition and Employment Center, otherwise
known as ATEK. With the help of Tim Rowley and
Kristie Ruesch, we are starting a second program
here on the UVU Campus. They first started over in
Dinning services, where six volunteers are currently
working.
With the help of Nate, their working coach, we
have these students from 11:30 – 1:30 every day.
David is 17 years old and one of the hardest
workers. He is very dependable and is here working
every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. He has yet
to miss a day.
Sean is 19 years old and loves football. He is very
excited about this weekend’s BYU game.
Stephen is 19 years old and really loves his video
games. Nate has already shown him the
information he can find here on computer graphics
and he looks forward to utilizing this facility.
Brigham is also 19 years old and loves to attend the
Institute here on campus. He never misses a class.
All four wish to accomplish whatever we need of
them. Just ask and they will make sure it gets done.
Currently they have been working hard in
maintaining the Children’s Literature by shelf
reading everyday and dusting not only that
collection, but Reference and Browsing as well.
They are also keeping an eye on our Family Study
Room and making sure it is in top shape. We have
already received several compliments on the
difference in that room.
We, in Circulation, really appreciate all their hard
work!
News from Access Services
INFORMATION COMMONER 5
News from Reference/
Instruction
News from Serials
By Wendy Wise
Horizon to Symphony
As a result of the conversion from Horizon to
Symphony there is still a bit of work left for Serials to
complete before we are ready to completely
transition from Horizon. Part of the transition
process includes cleaning up records up in
Symphony. A number of the periodical item records
in eLibrary display old staff notes that must be
deleted. We are working on the large project of
getting those old notes removed.
Reminder
If a patron cannot locate a periodical issue it may be
they need taught about the hinged display shelving
that we have on the third floor. Only the most
recently received issue is displayed. All older current
issues are housed behind it.
The Great Reference Collection Weed of 2009
By Trevor Young
The information upheaval we are currently experiencing
makes building and keeping a vital Reference Collection an
interesting experience. Some researchers are adept at
discovering facts and figures the old fashioned way through
print, while others demand the convenience of electronic.
Who’s correct? No one quite knows, so we strive to meet
both patrons’ needs. Space needs add further pressure to
transform the collection, but also gives us a wonderful
opportunity to assess the appropriateness of our current
holdings. Both Mike and I have taken a close look at some of
the larger runs as well as many standing order titles and
have been able to make some decisions:
•  All but the current volume of World Almanac have
been moved to the Regular Collection.
•  All but the current volume of Statistical Abstracts have
been moved to the Regular Collection.
•  Doing Business In… series has been moved to the
Regular Collection.
•  The back run of Europa Yearbook has been moved to
the Regular Collection; further, the content of the
publication was assessed and found to be an
unnecessary annual publication. Therefore, we shall
collect new volumes approximately every five years.
The online version is nearly three times as expensive.
•  The following titles have been removed from the
collection entirely:
Continued on next page.
The Doing Business in… series and many
other reference titles have been moved to
the Regular Collection
Continued from previous page
•  Nineteenth Century Literary Criticism
•  Twentieth Century Literary Criticism
•  Contemporary Literary Criticism
•  Editorial Research Reports
Also, here are some titles which may or may not
work better in a different location. Please give
them some thought and we will discuss them in
Librarian’s meeting.
•  Book Review Index
•  Book Review Digest
•  Readers Guide to Periodical Literature
We’re considering moving these into the empty
range of shelves directly outside of the Family
Study Room.
• Masterplots
Should we discard them altogether? Are they ever
used? Have they really been replaced by
Wikipedia?
•  County and City Data Book
•  County and City Extra
Can these be moved to a different location?
Thank you for keeping an eye on your subject area
in the Reference Collection. Any weeding you do
will help our cause greatly.
ASK THE TE CH GU Y
Q: How do you burn a CD/DVD on the
InfoCommons Computers?
A: All the computers in the Information
Commons are able to burn CDs via the NERO
Essentials software. Most of the time all you
need to do is to burn something onto a disk.
This is how you do it:
1. You can find Nero as a desktop icon, called
Nero StartSmart Essentials, or in the
Programs menu under the name Nero 7
Essentials.
2. Once you open Nero you are presented with
a window displaying a few options
illustrated as icons.
3. Mouse over the star icon.
4. Choose Make Data CD from the choices that
appear.
5. In the window that comes up, Disc Content,
click on the +Add button to locate files to be
burnt to the disc. (You can also drag files
into the Disc Content window.)
6. Once the file(s) you want to burn are in the
Disc Content window, click Next.
7. From the Final Burn Settings window, click
Burn to begin the burning process. (Leave all
the other settings as they are.)
8. Once it has finished, close the application
down.
9. Test the disc by ejecting it, then putting it
back in and browse the CD and make sure
the file(s) can be opened.
6 INFORMATION COMMONER
News from Media
By Christy Donaldson
Heather and I will be out of the office at Media Market
Monday, October 5th through Friday, October 9th. If you
need assistance please either email us (we will be
checking email periodically) or talk to our Library aides
Sam or Mary Beth.
We have lots of new films in our collection. Here's an in-depth
look at one of our recent gems entitled Hear and
Now: The Cochlear Implant in Later Years. This moving
documentary is about the choice of two people who,
after 65 years of being deaf, decide to take the plunge
into the world of sound and get cochlear implants. The
film follows the stories of Paul and Sally Taylor, both
whom were born deaf in the 1940s and met when they
were young adults, got married and raised three hearing
children. We follow them through their life stories and
through the process of getting the cochlear implants and
learning to hear for the first time. It is also a story of
what those who are hearing in their lives go through as a
result of their decision to have the cochlear implants.
Paul and Sally met as young children when they
attended the Central Institute for the Deaf, a private
school that taught deaf students the “Oral Method” of
learning which teaches them how to make sounds,
speak English, and read lips. After 10 years at the
Institute, they both went back to their families and
attended regular public high school. Years later they
reconnected while both living in St. Louis. Paul went to
college for engineering and later became a professor.
Paul was always tinkering with things and after being
inspired by the picture phone at the 1964 World’s Fair,
Paul invented the telephone typewriter or TTY. He
invented the TTY so that he could communicate with
other deaf people via telephone lines.
Raising three hearing children also had its challenges for
two deaf parents. Paul created all sorts of devices so
that they could tell when a child was crying in another
room or someone was at the door or the phone was
ringing. When the decided to get the cochlear implants,
the decision impacted their family as well. Their children
and their own parents dealt with the possibility of Paul
and Sally changing and how it would affect them.
The film follows Paul and Sally through their operations
and the aftermath of entering the world of sound. At
times very emotional and overwhelming, we see them
come to grips with their new reality and what it means
to them and those they care about. It is an insightful
look at how the cochlear implant effects older deaf
people and their families. Highly recommended
especially for those with deaf studies programs.
Hear and Now won Best Documentary Feature at the
2007 Heartland Film Festival and the Audience
Award at the Sundance Film Festival. It was also
nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance.
INFORMATION COMMONER 7
8 INFORMATION COMMONER
News from the George Sutherland Archive
By Catherine McIntyre
I am please to announce that we have hired a new
Archives and Digitization Assistant. His name is Brent
Seavers, and he is a student in the Digital Media
department. He will be working full-time, but
around his class schedule for this semester, so his
hours might be a little unusual to start with.
Brent worked on the historical photo digitization
project with Provo City Library, and has a lot of
experience with digitization technologies. He will be
a great asset to the Archives and to the Library in
general.
We have received the cradle scanner that was
funded through an IMLS mini-grant. We will get that
set up in the next week or so and then we can start
scanning fragile items.
We have some historic framed photographs on
display along the wall between the Archives and
Debbie’s office. These images are a gift from the
office of Dr. Mark Bezzant, who recently retired.
They are enlarged images of students, classes, and
campus shots from the old days of UVU, mostly from
the 1960s when the school was still Utah Trade and
Technical Institute (UTTI) and Utah Technical College
at Provo.
September and October are busy months for
meetings and conferences.
September 17 and 18, I attended the Utah State
History Conference in Salt Lake City. The first day I
attended the oral history workshop given by Mr.
Powell, with the addition of a panel of presenters in
the afternoon who talked about oral history projects
they had worked on. Kathy French was there to
discuss the Oral History of Peace Activists that she
and I have been working on together. Steve Koga of
the Topaz Museum discussed an oral history project
interviewing surviving Topaz Camp internees, Randy
Williams from Utah State University talked about
their “Latino/a Voices” oral history program, and
Dottie Grimes from Emery County Archives
discussed her oral history interviews with Montell
Seely, a well-known Emery County rancher.
September 22, the Library will help sponsor a
presentation by Dale Minami, the lead lawyer on the
Fred Korematsu civil rights case. We collaborated
with Jane Beckwith and the Topaz Museum to bring
Mr. Minami here to speak about his experiences
handling this important case.
September 23, I will be involved in the UALC
Digitization Committee meeting held in Cedar City at
SUU. I won’t be able to actually attend, but I will be
participating remotely through Wimba.
September 30 is both the Fall Caucus of the
Conference of Intermountain Archivists (CIMA) at
Continued on next page.
What the new scanner will look like when set up
INFORMATION COMMONER 9
Continued from previous page.
the U of U, which, as an elected officer of some sort I
should go to—but I had already committed to going to
the National Institutional Repository Conference being
held in Logan at USU on the same day. Where is an evil
twin when you need one?
October 13-17, I will be attending the Oral History
Association annual meeting in Louisville Kentucky. Kathy
French asked me to co-present with her on the Peace
Activists Oral History project we’ve been building for
several years now. So that will be exciting and hopefully
fun.
October is also Utah Archives Month, and so we will be
putting up a special display in the Archives to
commemorate that. As part of it, we will be hosting an
Oral History Workshop on Thursday, October 29, from 9
am to 1 pm. The workshop is sponsored by the Utah
State Archives, and will be presented by Kent Powell,
eminent oral historian and author from the Utah State
Archives. The workshop is open to all library staff and
student aides who wish to attend.
Background information
I was born and raised on the near-west side of
Columbus, Ohio and am the oldest of eight children. I
moved to Orem/Provo in 2000 and have loved the West
ever since. I have a plant (which I miraculously
remember to water) and have been in a committed
relationship with my beard for about four years.
When did you start working at UVU? What changes
have you seen?
I have been working at UVU for about five years. The
biggest change I have seen has been in the types of
students who come here. We have become a lot of our
students’ first choice school. I think that’s pretty
exciting.
Favorite things about job/UVU
My favorite part of working here has definitely been my
relationships with my co-workers and the interaction I
get to have with students. I also love the creative side of
my job. The podcast team has definitely been a
highlight.
Job duties
I am a Circulation Supervisor, the Library Aide Training
Coordinator, and I share responsibilities for Stacks
Maintenance with Holley. I am also on the LibCast Team
and contribute to Activities Committee projects. If you
have suggestions for Library Aide Training, I would love
to hear them.
Continued on next page.
Employee Spotlight: J O’Day
10 INFORMATION COMMONER
Continued from previous page.
Education/where did you go to school?
I LOVE SCHOOL! I am a student here at UVU. I have been
an English Major, a History Major, and recently flirted
heavily with the Integrated Studies Department. Lately I
have been taking a lot of art classes and loving them. I
have no idea what I want to be when I grow up. Maybe
I’ll join a professional croquet league? Professional
hammock-bum?
Favorite things to do in your spare time or hobbies
I rock-climb (but I’m not too serious about it), I read
(two newspapers a day and I’m currently working on
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy and Waiting for the
Barbarians by J. M. Coetzee), I watch movies (just saw
Downfall--a German film about the last 12 days of
Hitler’s Life, Amazing!) and I like to make stuff and read
about making stuff. I have a blog where I post cool stuff I
find on the web and occasionally post my own stuff:
http://jmichaeloday.blogspot.com . I’m obsessed with
indie music. I play guitar badly. And I love to read and
write poetry.
J O’Day