Save the Date for a visit with CRL
Bernie Reilly, President of the Center for Research Libraries will be vising UConn on Wednesday, September 14th. The theme of his visit is “Enriching Research, Expanding Possibilities” and will include several meetings and presentations for you to participate in. During our Open Forum from 9:30-11:00am he will be talking with staff about the access to primary sources and other materials we have through our CRL membership. From 1:30-2:30pm he will host a public presentation for faculty and researchers in the Class of ’47 where he will give an overview of CRL’s collections and discuss the future of primary sources in the Digital Era. He will also be meeting with members of the Collections Steering Committee and DD/ILL throughout the day. More detailed information will be coming shortly, but I wanted to make sure you mark your calendar as early as possible.
International Guest – Sylvia Celeste Salvio
On September 6th will have the pleasure of welcoming Sylvia Celeste Salvio to the UConn Library. Silvia is currently a reference librarian at the Physics Library in the Institute of Physics “Gleb Wataghin” at the University of Campinas, Brazil and is working through an exchange program through Unicamp. She received her MIS from Pontificial Catholic University of Campinas, Brazil and has expressed interest in learning more about our academic liaison program, how we are assisting in research data management, our outreach with the Scholars’ Collaborative, and public services such as reference and tutoring. She will be spending time in each area for the first week or two followed by work on a special project for the remainder of her time here, which is through September 30th. Sylvia will be located in the office next to Holly so please stop by and give her a warm UConn welcome.
Music & Dramatic Arts Library Changes
The transformation of the M&DAL is nearly complete! As of today, the library will change its services and become the School of Fine Arts Resource Center. The Resource Center will be staffed with students and continue to circulate the music scores, sound recordings, videos, playscripts, and stagecraft books that are still in the building. The remainder of the collection, as well as the services such as ILL and reserves have been moved here to Homer Babbidge. Lois has also joined us here in Babbidge, and now has an office in the Access Services area behind the Circulation Desk. This has been a long time in the making, with many moving parts and I want to thank each of you who have had a part in making this happen.
New Faculty Orientation
I had the pleasure of joining my colleagues in welcoming new faculty to campus last week. I did have to follow Jonathan, which seemed a bit unfair, but in my short time I focused on the services of our subject specialists, available tools and resources to help with their teaching and research, and many of our new initiatives such as Open Educational Resources and the Greenhouse Studios. I challenged them to come and be inspired at the heart of the academic community of UConn.
Davis Educational Foundation/OER Update
This week we will be submitting our first progress report to the Davis Educational Foundation. Having just read the report I am so pleased at the progress we have made in this area. We have truly done an astonishing job so thank you to everyone who has had a role to play. We will continue to work toward more integration of these resources on campus and are looking forward to starting up the Campus-wide Open Textbook Task Force with the start of the semester.
And of course – today marks the start of the semester. I’m not sure where the summer went exactly, but I am looking forward to working with all of you along our collective path forward. There is no doubt that we are dealing with constraints, but also on the horizon are some great things about to happen. We will be hiring new staff that will continue our push for innovation and inspiration, seeing upgraded spaces in our libraries, and embracing new collaborations and processes to extend our reach and maximize our resources. I love the excitement and energy that new students bring to the library. Many are often a little lost in many ways, but usually can find their way to a library where our caring staff are very helpful and can ease their fears. The anticipation I feel in the air is energizing and I wish you all a wonderful Fall 2016 semester!