Hiring at UCL

Thank you to those who joined us this morning for the first candidate to lead our Metadata & Discovery Service unit. As you know there are several other positions we are in the process of filling and I would like to encourage you to get involved when you can. Hiring the right people that fit within the organization and can help move us forward is critical for our success so your input is vital. Often when I meet with candidates I hear how welcome we make them feel and I do appreciate that. I look forward to seeing you at these events.

VPC Open Forum Cancelled

Due to the candidate presentation on Wednesday, we will be cancelling the Open Forum Meeting.

Development Initiatives Update

This week I am looking forward to presenting to the UConn Foundation team responsible for Library fundraising. I will be talking with them about the role of the library in student success, highlight some of the changes we are embracing along with many other academic libraries, and some of the great things happening here that have development opportunities such as the Master Plan and our work with Open Educational Resources.

I would also like to extend an invitation to you all to join us on Monday, November 28th at 6:30pm for a wine and cheese reception to officially open the Ronald Searle Exhibition in Babbidge. We will be joined by Robert Forbes, who has been generous with both the loaning of this unique collection of art as well as with a donation to help with its installation. He will be joining us for a gallery talk alongside Cora Lynn Deibler and Alison Paul from the School of Fine Arts. I know many of you have commented on how wonderful the exhibit is and this would be a nice opportunity to thank Mr. Forbes for his generosity.

Holiday Party

It’s that time of year again! If you are interested in helping plan our annual holiday party, please let me know.

Out & About with UConn Health Sciences Library

Our colleagues in Farmington have been reaping the rewards of their hard work over the last few months. On September 13, Kathleen Crea presented a poster at the New England Assessment in Action Symposium regarding the research program she and her colleagues completed as part of the ALA/ACRL Assessment in Action: Academic Libraries and Student Success (AiA) program. The research project, run by Kathleen, Evelyn Morgen (now retired), Arta Dobbs and three clinical faculty and educational administrators looked at how students used resources over four years through a series of surveys. Survey questions aimed at trying to understand how students felt their ability to find information improved over time, what became “must have” sources, and what instructional sessions were most useful. The program was highlighted in a recent National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NN/LM) New England Region blog.

On October 24th at the 2016 North Atlantic Health Sciences Libraries (NAHLS) conference Teri Shiel, Kathleen Crea and Rich McIntyre presented a poster session titled “Outreach: Web-Based Content Creation Tools that Promote Your Library.” The challenge of  balancing work and fun at a conference was also successful at NAHLS, as evidence of this image we found on Facebook.

One Good Thing

Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to send me nice things about our colleagues. I will be periodically sharing these with you so please keep them coming. One of our staff members was mentioned by two different colleagues:

• He is the Energizer Bunny of colleagues. Ask him to do something, and he asks if he can do *more* for you.

• As a new member of the library, he was one of the first staff members to reach out to me from outside of my department. His work is a tremendous asset to the library, but beyond that, it’s his ever-present positive attitude that really makes a difference in the workplace.