Information Commoner
February 2012
Volume 6, Issue 5
Keeping Library Staff on Common Ground
In This Issue
Announcements
2
Department News
2
Brag Box
5
What’s Our Mission?
By Lesli Baker
Do you know we have a mission statement? Have you read it lately? Well, it’s time to take a closer look at it.
As part of the strategic planning process, we will be looking at our mission statement to see if it needs to be updated. The mission statement should represent who we are and what we do, as well as drive where we want to go. Please take a minute to review it:
The Utah Valley University Library supports the University's mission of teaching, learning, and scholarship by providing access to quality information resources, offering exceptional services, utilizing current technology to enhance research, promoting information literacy, and ensuring intellectual freedom.
Strategic Planning Message
By Lesli Baker
So far, our strategic planning has focused on an environmental scan. During this phase, we benchmarked the current state of the Library and identified trends. We also looked at where the university is with current trends and strategic directions.
We will now use this information to create the Library’s SWOT analysis where we will highlight our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Each department should be providing insights for this analysis. If your supervisor hasn’t asked for you input, please pass it on!
After our SWOT analysis, we will put all of this information together to see what we can use to form our goals and objectives for the future. We will write our goals during spring break, and each department will write objectives shortly after. We really need your input for the objectives, and hope you will dream big! 2 INFORMATION COMMONER
Announcements
Library Awards Ceremony
Please join us in celebrating our employees at the annual Library Awards Ceremony on Thursday, March 1, at 1:30 PM in the Lakeview Room. The Library Employee of the Year, Special Projects Award, and Library Aide of the Year will be announced then. As if that isn't enough, we will also have some yummy treats!
Spring Break
This year, Spring Break will last the entire week of March 12-17. We will be on limited hours March 12-15, and on March 17. On Friday, March 16, campus—and the Library—will be closed.
Who Would Win
An epic battle between good and evil is about to begin in the Library! This year's Who Would Win voting will focus on superheroes and pit them against a variety of villains. Of course, all of the characters are represented in our collection! Voting will begin on March 19 and run until the week before finals.
EDITORIAL INFORMATION
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.
News from Media
Oscar Fever
By Kim Rollins
It's awards season in Media, so we are busy tracking down award winners from Sundance, the Toronto film festival, the Golden Globes, BAFTA, and the SAG Awards. Last weekend was the Independent Spirit Awards and the Oscars. We also have our own film critic in the house! Heather is taking a film class and has watched nine of the Sundance movies, reviewing them all on the usefulness for our collection. Heather is also making sure that nothing falls through the cracks while Christy is away, monitoring new releases from many different film sources. I have some money for acquisitions, so let her know if you have any faculty requests.
INFORMATION COMMONER 3
By Annie Smith
Trevor Young has been working to grow our collection of online materials and we have been able to add some very interesting new resources.
The Birds of North America Online (http://ezproxy.uvu.edu/login?url=http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna/) currently provides information on more than 700 bird species that live in the United States and Canada. Entries are constantly updated to make sure that readers get the best information possible.
To find information, use the search box on the main screen or click the Species tab to browse for birds by common name (e.g. Western Tanager) or by scientific name (e.g. Piranga ludoviciana). You can also browse for birds taxonomically, meaning that you can find species by their different groups (owls, pigeons and doves, etc.)
Each entry includes detailed information about behavior, feeding, conservation, populations, and territories. The entries include extensive citations, allowing users to track down even more information about the bird they're researching. The distinguishing characteristics sections of the entries and the high quality photographs will be a boon to bird watchers looking to identify different species.
In mid-January, we added the Classical Scores Library (http://ezproxy.uvu.edu/login?url=http://shmu.alexanderstreet.com/) to our database offerings. This database provides access to more than 25,000 scores, a number that continues to climb with each update. It's searchable by composer, genre, time period, instruments, and more. Scores can be printed or saved to an internal folder.
If students ask about music scores, don't forget to refer them to this resource. These scores are licensed only for individual use, and may not be performed in public.
We also added the Royal Society's Journal Archive (http://royalsocietypublishing.org/search), which offers free access to papers published between 1665 (yes, you read that right) and 1940. It features original works by famous scientists and thinkers such as Isaac Newton, Robert Boyle, Charles Darwin, and Benjamin Franklin. The link points to the entire Journal Archive, so be aware that it will return articles that you can't read--essentially anything published after 1941. The best way to search is by author or title.
News from Reference/Instruction
Western Tanager, from the Birds of North America Online
Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, including the famous Dah-dah-dah Dun! From the Classical Scores Library. News from Serials
By Sarah Suazo
In honor of February “the month of love” (even though Valentine’s Day is over), here is a list of things the Serials Department truly loves:
We love when damaged periodicals are promptly brought to us so that we may repair them. Many times damaged items must be repaired with special mending tape or procedures, due to binding restrictions.
We love when items are shelved correctly. Orange and green tagged periodicals shelved in their boxes on the compact shelves make us very happy.
We love when staff and student workers contact us if they have a question regarding an issue or volume. We often have additional information about the item and its location that can help the patron. Contact us any time you have a question.
Bindery Shipments
We currently have a shipment at the bindery and are planning on sending another batch near the beginning of March. As always, if you cannot locate an item, please check with us as it may be in the process of being prepared for the bindery.
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News from Systems
API Class to Facilitate Symphony Improvements and Changes
By Mark Stevens
Azucena Aguayo and I attended a four day Symphony API class at the new SirsiDynix building at Thanksgiving Point. We expect this training to increase our abilities in the following areas:
1. We want to create custom reports, tailored to the specific requirements or conveniences of a given Library department. For example, we are working on a new routing report that prints the routing slip to circulate a journal within a group of librarians. Other custom reports might support detailed analysis and statistical insight regarding our Library operations.
2. We hope to replace some (or all) of the current Webreporter reports. If all WEBRPT reports are replaced, we would save money by not replacing the aging WEBRPT server (hardware and software). Users would also find it easier to run their reports directly on the Symphony server.
3. We expect increased flexibility to do ad hoc mass updates to the Symphony database. News from the Sutherland Archives
INFORMATION COMMONER 5
By Holley Larsen
Friends and colleagues,
After eight very educational years, the time has come for me to leave Utah Valley University. Beginning March 7, I will be moving on to my next adventure: the public library in Ogden, Utah. Before I leave, I wanted to take this opportunity to let you know what a great and distinct pleasure it has been. Thank you all for the memories!
Warmest regards,
Holley
BRAG BOX
Congratulations, Sarah!
Sarah Rice and her husband are expecting their first child—a boy—sometime in May.
News from Access Services
By Catherine McIntyre
We are busy preparing for the opening celebration for the oral history of Utah peace activists project. We have been working on this oral history project with Dr. Kathy French since 2007, when she and I received a grant from the Utah Humanities Council. This grant allowed us to hire someone to transcribe interviews. We began archiving them and adding the text and audio to our digital collections (www.uvu.edu/library/archives/peace.html) and the Mountain West Digital Library. There are interviews with over 125 people who were engaged in various types of activism, from peace and justice to fair housing and veterans’ issues.
The opening reception will be held from 12:00 to 1:00 PM on Wednesday, March 21, in the Timpanogos Room and will coincide with the UVU Peace and Justice Studies Week of events. Many interviewees from the oral history project will be present at the reception, and a number of them will also be participating in panel discussions throughout the day in LI 120. For example, from 1:00 to 2:00 PM a panel will discuss the 1990 Trial of the “Hercules Three,” the people who were arrested in 1989 for protesting the Thiokol Company for creating missile motors that powered Trident nuclear submarines.
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From 2:00 to 3:00 PM, Alex Caldiero and Tim Mason (oral history participants and performers) will perform their poetry and music and discuss their experiences with activism. And at 3:00 PM, a panel will discuss the MX Missile project, with several people who demonstrated and fought against its implementation in Utah’s west desert.
As part of the grand opening, the Sutherland Archives will be hosting a multimedia exhibit of photographs by Alexis Kelner, a writer and retired professor of engineering at the University of Utah who has been photographing demonstrations and gatherings in Utah for over 30 years. This is the first time these photographs have been shown in an exhibit, and Brent is working hard to scan and prepare the negatives for matting and exhibition. This exhibit will be in place from March 19 until April 6.
Between April 9 and 14, the Archives will host an exhibit from the Deaf Studies department and lab. We will host an exhibit of old telecommunications equipment such as older TTY machines. This exhibit will run concurrently with the Deaf Studies Today! Conference, which will be held at UVU April 12-14, 2012.
In other news, we received a collection of communications from President Holland’s office that Aimee will begin processing. She and I gave a presentation to a public history class here at UVU and found ten students from the class who want to volunteer for Archives instead of writing a final research paper! So we will come up with some small projects for them to do.
We also have a new intern who is helping me transcribe and proofread the interviews from the Meaning of Utah Tabernacles oral history project. Brent has been busy with the Kelner photos, doing research on Tabernacles of central Utah, and continuing to scan items from the U.S. Deaf Basketball Association collection for digitization.
6 INFORMATION COMMONER
Undated photo of protesters at the Utah State Capitol, by Alexis Kelner.
Undated photo of pro choice protesters, by Alexis Kelner.
Utah Valley University Library Collection
