Open Educational Resources
Our efforts to lead the charge to educate faculty and students on the open educational resources available to use in the classroom made great strides this week. On Wednesday we held workshops for faculty and staff focused on the myriad of affordable learning resources available to help reduce students expenses without sacrificing quality of teaching. The workshop was held in two parts – the morning was designed for faculty and the afternoon for staff. In both workshops the attendees ranged from skeptics to believers with everything in between. There were faculty from numerous academic departments, regional campuses, instructional designers and of course our own staff. Our speakers brought a wealth of information and we are grateful for their time. They included  Nicole Allen, Director of Open Education for the ARL initiative SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition), Charlotte Roh, Scholarly Communication Resident Librarian for UMass Amherst, and Nicole Finkbeiner, Associate Director for OpenStax College, a leading provider in open source textbooks. Both workshops were well attended and we will continue to provide similar opportunities this fall. Thanks to the in-house working group who organized the program (Kathy Labadorf, Kate Fuller, Dawn Cadogan, Carolyn Mills and David Ruiz), with some additional help from Merlita, Kristen J, Jean, and Jane.

The second development this week was the unanimous passage of House Bill 6117. The bill, introduced originally by Representative Haddad, 54th District does three main things: (1) requires the Board of Regents for Higher Education and UConn to establish an open-source textbook pilot program that assess the use of high-quality digital open-source textbooks and promotes their use; (2) completion of a report about the pilot by July 1, 2016 addressing the potential costs savings and barriers to the program; and (3) outlining best practices for utilizing these resources moving forward. This bill was championed by representatives from USG and ConnPIRG and I was pleased to work with Representative Haddad to clarify the language before it went to the House floor. The next step in the process for the Bill is to go to the Senate.

Finals Numbers Impressive Again This Year
We continue to be the primary location for students to get their work done during the crunch of finals. The total gate count from Friday, May 1-Sunday, May 10 was 70,255. Thanks again to the staff who helped with relaxation programming and our security crew who kept the wheels turning for 24/7 hours.

Martha on the Move
I had the opportunity this week to join other faculty and staff from the First Year Experience Program on a site visit to the Center for Engineering Innovation and Design (CEID) at Yale University. Housed in a space that was formerly used as the engineering library, the Center is open to the Yale community with the hope to empower students to improve human lives through the advancement of technology. This was a great opportunity to see how others are reimagining their library space and I look forward to more virtual and physical site visits as we reimagine our own space around inspirational learning.

I have also been serving as the academic library representative on the Board of Advisors for the Southern Connecticut State University’s Information and Library Sciences Program. We have been very active in achieving our goal to recommend improvements to the curriculum for reaccreditation of the program. I am joined by other colleagues from around the state, including representatives from industry, public libraries, and the CT State Library system.

Employee Appreciation Committee
As you know the Employee Appreciation Committee was formed this year to develop strategies and programs to strengthen our community and recognize individual excellence and commitment. They are working on a culmination event that will include a staff picnic to be held starting at noon on Friday, June 26th. More information will be coming, but I encourage you to hold the date on your calendar. VPC will be reviewing the committee’s charge and will be looking for more volunteers next year so if you are interested in joining them stay tuned for more information.