Vol. 25, No. 4 (December 2007)

President's Report

2007 Annual Conference

The 33rd Annual ALAO Conference "Innovation Generation: Tools, Techniques, Transformations", was a conference of change, adaptation and new experiences. There were 407 conference registrations received, 36 vendors – 26 of which directly participated in the conference, 9 invited speakers, 51 different breakout programs, 3 tracks of specialized programming, 17 different Ohio related authors, 17 poster sessions, 1 tour of the Historical Society library facility, and two days of creative, original and very engaging networking and activities. Approximately 86% of the returned conference evaluations rated the conference either excellent or good as a whole. Comments on specific parts of the event ran the gamut from outstanding congratulations to the conference planning committee to suggestions for improvements of specific activities at the conference.

The final meeting of the 2007 Conference Planning Committee took place on November 9th at the "hand-over" meeting where the 2008 planning committee started planning for next year’s event. This two day conference was the first that ALAO has tried in 14 years and it was held in the most expensive venue we have attempted to date. The success and credit for it’s undertaking is due to the shared effort of these fine 2007 ALAO Conference Planning Committee members:

• Douglas P Morrison, Committee Chair
• Don Appleby – University of Akron
• Joyce Burnett – Brown Mackie College – Findlay
• John D. Crissinger – OSU-Newark/Central Ohio Technical College
• Alice Crosetto – University of Toledo
• Ione Damasco – University of Dayton
• Kevin Deemer – Kent State University – Ashtabula
• Matthew Farthing – Owens Community College
• Lori Jean Fielding – University of Akron
• Kevin Furniss – Denison University
• Brian C. Gray – Case Western Reserve University
• Stephena Harmony – University of Cincinnati/Raymond Walters College
• Angel M Jackson – Columbus State Community College
• Krista McDonald – Miami University – Hamilton
• Melanie McGurr – Ohio State University
• Diana Nichols – Ohio University
• Karen A. Plummer – University of Akron
• Sue Polanka – Wright State University
• Diana S. Riemenschneider – Independent
• Oliva P. Riley – DeVry University
• Rob Withers – Miami University

Many of these committee members will be serving on the ALAO 2008 conference planning committee so I am looking forward to a great annual conference next year at the Roberts Conference Center near Wilmington Ohio. We were also able to make use of ALAO’s new table cover during this years conference at the registration table. It looked great and was money well spent.

Additionally, the ALAO Conference Planning Committee would like to thank the 36 sponsors and vendor participants that made this year’s conference possible. Next time you speak to your vendor representative from any of these organizations, please share your appreciation in their support of ALAO.

Vendor Sponsorships:

• OHIONET - Diamond: President's Program
• Vision Pro, Inc. - Diamond: Projectors for breakout rooms and President's Program
• Gale - Gold: Vendor/Author Social
• Emery-Pratt Company - Silver: Lanyards
• YBP Library Services - Silver: Afternoon Snack
• ALA Editions - Bronze
• Chronicle of Higher Education - Bronze: Free issue to every participant, plus 2 subscriptions for door prizes
• EBSCO Information Services - Bronze
• Knovel - Bronze
• LexisNexis - Bronze
• OLN - Ohio Learning Network - Bronze
• Serials Solutions - Bronze
• State Library of Ohio - Bronze
• Swets – Bronze

Vendor Donations and Prizes:

• ALA Editions - Bookmarks for all participants
• Carrick Enterprises
• CQ Press
• Disney Educational – DVD for door prize
• Drinian Press – Books for door prizes
• Ebrary
• Glenna Meckstroth
• H.W. Wilson
• IEEE - Pens for all participants
• Independent Midwest Publishers and Authors Consortium – Books for door prizes
• Kent State University Press – Book for door prize
• LexisNexis – Amazon gift certificates for door prizes
• McDonald & Woodward Publishing Co. – Books for door prizes
• Oberlin College Press
• Ohio Library Support Staff Institute – Gift basket for door prizes
• OhioLINK – Lunchbags for door prizes
• OHIONET – Starbuck’s gift basket for door prize
• PBS Video
• ProQuest
• Serials Solutions – iPod Shuffle for a door prize
• Swets – Tower of cookies for a door prize
• Turning Point/Easy Graphics

Door Prize winners over the two days of the conference included the following:

WINNER	AFFILIATION
Ken Irwin	Wittenberg
Beth Anderson	Wright State
Jason Paul Michel	Miami
Fran Rice	University of Dayton
Scottie Cochrane	Denison
Traci Moritz	Ohio Northern
Morag Boyd	Ohio State
Jenilou Grotevant	Kettering College of Medical Arts
Don Day	Ohio Univ. - Zanesville/Zane St.
Polly Reynolds	Ursuline College
Polly Whitaker	Miami Hamilton
Barbara Gushrowski	Indiana U. School of Dentistry
Amy Underwood	Ohio Univ. - Zanesville/Zane St.
Carmen Byg	Franklin Univ.
Kwabena Sekyere	Miami
Jeff Fisher	Portage County District Library
Mary Wrighten	Bowling Green
Maureen Walsh	Ohio State
Kathy Yoder	Bowling Green
Sanjyot Selkirk	Kent State/OCLC
Erica Clay	Wright State
Cheryl Lauricella	Wright State
Amy High	Air Force Institute of Technology
Xudong Jin	Ohio Wesleyan
Marcia Suter	Toledo
Linda Warren	Heidelberg
Steven Kenneally	Mount Union College
Lindsay McVey	Washington State CC
Jane Wildermuth	Wright State
Don Reams	Ohio State
Dana Shreve	Kent State SLIS
Debra Andreadis	Denison
Linda Tilton	Washington State CC
Andrew Whitis	Muskingum College
Kathryn Venditti	Ashland Univ.
Olga Hart	U. of Cincinnati
Brian Olesko	Wright State

Vice President's Report

2008 Conference Planning Underway

Planning for the ALAO 2008 conference, to be held at the Roberts Conference Center just off I-71 near Wilmington, Ohio on October 24, is already underway. The 2008 Conference Planning Committee met with the 2007 committee on November 9. We discussed our impressions of this year’s conference and reviewed your evaluations. The Committee will be working together over the next year to bring another interesting and informative conference to the ALAO membership.

The theme for the conference is "Connecting the Campus: Linking Users, Institutions and Information." Mark your calendars and join us for a day of presentations, panel discussions, poster sessions and other programming devoted to exploring the various ways our libraries truly connect our campuses. Information about the conference will be located on the ALAO website as it becomes available. Please check often for more information and calls for proposals.

Dates to Remember

2008
Jan. 11-16, 2008	ALA 2008 Midwinter Meeting, Philadelphia, PA
Jan. 15, 2008	Deadline for Continuing Education Grant applications [Application Form]
Feb. 15, 2008	ALAO Executive Board Meeting (OhioNET)
Feb. 15, 2008	Deadline for March ALAO Newsletter items
Apr. 18, 2008	ALAO Executive Board Meeting (OHIONET)
May 15, 2008	Deadline for June newsletter submissions
May 18, 2008	Deadline for Research Grant applications [More Info]
May 22, 2008	CMIG Spring Workshop
Jun. TBD	ALAO Leadership Retreat
Jun. 26–Jul. 2, 2008	ALA 2008 Annual Conference, Anaheim, CA
Aug. 15, 2008	Deadline for September newsletter submissions
Oct. 24, 2008	ALAO 2008 Annual Conference, The Roberts Conference Center and Holiday Inn, Wilmington, OH
Nov. 15, 2008	Deadline for December newsletter submissions

Membership News

I would like to encourage all current members to please renew your ALAO membership before the end of the year, if you renew before the January 1st, 2008 you will only need to pay $20. After the New Year annual registration dues will increase to $30/year. And if you are joining ALAO for the first time you can take advantage of the same deal! I would like to thank you all for your support of ALAO.

ALAO membership runs for the calendar year, January – December.

Time for ALAO Nominations Approaching Soon

If you would like to work with many wonderful academic library colleagues across the state, consider submitting your name in nomination for one of several positions in the ALAO organization. Though the deadline for nominations has not yet been announced, it will likely be sometime in January of 2008. It is definitely not too soon to be thinking about the opportunity to join the Board of ALAO. Open positions this year are: Board Member-At-Large positions, Secretary, Vice-President-President Elect and Membership Chair.

If you would like to nominate yourself at this time please use the pdf form on the ALAO web site: http://www.alaoweb.org/oldsite/manual/c11.pdf. If you would like to nominate someone other than yourself, please send the person's name and e-mail to me at watsona@denison.edu. Feel free to contact me via phone at 740-587-6389 if you would like additional information.

Thanks for considering a leadership position in ALAO.

Jay Ladd Distinguished Service Award: Winner Named

Betsy Blankenship is the 2007 Jay Ladd Most Distinguished Service Awardee

Betsy Blankenship holds a Bachelors of Arts in English from The Ohio State University and a Masters of Library Science from Kent State University in 1997. She has been a longtime and active member of ALAO and has held the offices of:

• Chair, Professional Development Committee, 2006-2007;
• Board Member at Large, 2005-2007;
• Public Relations/Outreach Coordinator, 2002-2005;
• Membership Chair, 2000-2002;
• Bibliographic Instruction Interest Group, Co- Chair, 1999-2000, Chair 2000-2001;
• Annual Conference Program Committee Member, 2002-2005.

Betsy is married to a firefighter, Chuck, and has a son, Wes, who is in 8th grade. This year Betsy is celebrating twenty years of service at the Ohio State University/Marion Technical College and the Ohio State University Libraries.

When asked what receiving the Jay Ladd Award meant to her, Betsy said,

"I am so honored to have been chosen this year and am very proud to represent ALAO this way. ALAO is a wonderful organization to be a part of and provides academic library staff so many unique opportunities to learn and grow in the profession. My involvement has allowed me to get to know some really great members across the state. They have made all the meetings, the conferences and the workshops fun and truly enjoyable. I have always believed that the heart of ALAO have been the members - their interest, loyalty and commitment to making the organization truly great. It has been a privilege to serve ALAO in various ways over the years and I have enjoyed them all. And yes, I really missed taking pictures at this year's conference!"

Congratulations Betsy!

Support Staff Award Winners Announced

The Support Staff Award of Appreciation is awarded to a person who demonstrates his or her appreciation of support staff and has encouraged support staff to grow in their positions. This year’s award was presented to Lynn Scott "Scottie" Cochrane from Denison University. Scottie is the Library Director of William Howard Doane Library & Seeley G. Mudd Learning Center at Denison. Some of the comments made on the letters of support for Scottie were: "she is respectful, insightful, encouraging, supportive, and trusting of her support staff." "She encourages attendance at workshops and classes and has developed a grant fund to allow support staff to attend conferences nationally." "While maintaining her presence as the director of libraries, she is also down to earth. She participates in the standing Trivial Pursuit Wednesday lunches and is never too busy to sit down with a staff member for a chat."

The Support Staff Award of Excellence is awarded to a person who shows excellence in job performance and has the ability to work with staff and patrons. Sheryl Gannon from Heidelberg College was this year’s winner. Sheryl began working as a student assistant in the circulation department. Currently, Sheryl serves as their Acquisitions Coordinator, Assistant Coordinator of the Media Center and Computer Liaison for Beeghly Library. Some of the comments in letters of support for Sheryl stated she is an "invaluable worker, performing her duties with diligence, working to find the best values and alternative approaches to problems." She "goes out of her way to help staff and patrons especially in her role as computer liaison." She is currently working toward a Computer Information Science degree. She is active in ALAO, OLSSI, and OPAL. She is the current chair of the Support Staff Interest Group.

The Support Staff Presenter Grant, which provides financial support to assist and encourage support staff members to present at the ALAO Annual Conference was awarded to Linda Warren from Heidelberg College. Linda is currently the Cataloging Coordinator, Government Documents Coordinator, and Lead Implementer at Beeghly Library. She was part of a team of four support staff from Beeghly who presented a poster session entitled, Boost Book Budgets with a Book Fair. The other members of the team were: Bobbi Bishop, Circulation Supervisor; Jennifer Shetterly, Instructional Media Center Coordinator; and Sheryl Gannon, Acquisitions Coordinator. The poster session described the process involved in planning and carrying out the three Scholastic Book fairs that Beeghly Library has held over the past four years.

Congrats to Sheryl, Scottie and Linda!

New guidelines for Continuing Education Award

At the November 16th Executive Board meeting, the ALAO board of directors adopted major changes to the Continuing Education Award. Professional Development Committee Chairman Al Zavar first indicated the move to broaden the scope of the award during the annual ALAO conference recently held at the Columbus Convention Center in October.

Current ALAO members will now be allowed to utilize the grant in pursuit of a professional library degree. In the past, the money was only to be used for conferences, workshops, seminars or similar educational events. Currently, one award per year is set up to two thousand dollars. Details of the guidelines to the Grant Program can be seen on the ALAO Website under the Procedures Manual – Section D Policies and Procedures – Item 5 Continuing Education.

The deadline for submission of grant applications for the next calendar year is set for January 15th, 2008. The form can be obtained at http://alaoweb.org/committees/profdev/ce-grant08.pdf.

Additional announcements will be made available to the membership through the listserv.

Government Relations Team

ALAO’s Government Relations Team studies proposed laws and regulations that concern librarians in Ohio and watches pending legislation in Columbus and in Washington, D.C. Each of the members contacts legislators about bills of special interest to the library community.

As an example of our work, we wrote letters to our U.S. Senators to support a bill about the National Institute of Health. A law proposed that researchers who had received support from the National Institute of Health must publish in NIH’s database a year after publishing in scientific and medical journals. ALA and the supporters of this legislation argued that publishing in an open access forum served to protect the interests of the professional societies that sponsor the journals and the public that should have the knowledge it paid taxes to develop. Although that bill passed the House and the Senate but fell to Presidential veto, the effort will continue.

In looking at the work ahead, the Team does have two concerns about improving the effectiveness of its efforts. One is that our letters to legislators are too few to draw attention and do not have enough impact. It is well-known that members of Congress pay more attention to communications from voters in their own district than from elsewhere. An ambition of the Team and of ALAO was to develop an Ohio Legislative Network that enlisted ALAO members in each district to contact their representatives on issues critical to librarians. However, we have not been able to develop this Network.

The second concern is Ohio Legislative Day. The Team is looking for ways to increase the participation of librarians in this event because in the political process, numbers do matter. A few days ago, the Ohio Education Library Media Association and the Information Network for Ohio Schools agreed to work with ALAO in developing a new event for Ohio Legislative Day in 2008. Discussions and planning will commence in the near future.

As a committee of your ALAO, and as your colleagues in librarianship, we welcome your ideas—and encourage you to help us with your legislators.

Paul Burnham, (Chair, Ohio Wesleyan University) pdburnam@owu.edu
Raimund Goerler (The Ohio State University) goerler.1@osu.edu
Gail Marredeth (Cleveland State University) g.marredeth@csuohio.edu

Interest Group/Committee News

Collection Management Interest Group

The CMIG is planning its annual workshop for May 22, 2008. The morning session will include discussions on ways to market your library and its collections to attract users to your library’s resources. The afternoon session will examine website usability issues and ways to keep patrons hooked on your resources to continue their research.

The workshop will be held at the Westerville Public Library from 10am until 3:30pm. A box lunch will be included in the registration fee, and parking will be free. Be sure to watch the ALAO mailing list for further updates.

Curriculum Materials Center Interest Group

Augusta Carolyn Sanders, Central State University, presented during the CMCIG sponsored session at ALAO’s Annual Conference, Friday October 26th. Her presentation-- "It Takes Two to Get the Job Done: Librarian and Teacher Collaborations" summarized research with one of her teacher education colleagues to improve the information literacy skills of teachers-in–training. She shared her insights with eight conference faithful during one of the final Friday sessions. Links to Carolyn’s handouts are available online at http://www.alaoweb.org/conferences/conf2007/links.html#d2s4

Attendees also completed a spring workshop survey and were reminded to send their suggestions for a "core" collection of electronic/digital resources for a state-of-the-art online CMC to Steve Aby, University of Akron, (saby@uakron.edu). For a summary of this project, see the September ALAO newsletter article http://www.alaoweb.org/communications/newsletter/v25n03-sep2007.php

Greg Martin, Cedarville University, designed a poster for the CMCIG’s table for the Annual Conference. Pictures reflected the diversity of CMC’s throughout Ohio as well as highlights of the spring workshop hosted by Frances Yates, Miami University. CMC brochures, information about the CMC website, blog, Praxis II resource list, and the "Virtual CMC" project, and a spring 2008 workshop survey were also available for conference attendees.

I emailed 2008 workshop surveys to the CMCIG listserv and mailed hard copies to spring 2007 attendees. Tentative dates are Friday, May 16th or Friday, May 23rd. If you are interested in hosting the workshop, please contact Ann Raney, University of Dayton, (Ann.Raney@notes.udayton.edu) or Greg Martin, Cedarville University, (marting@cedarville.edu).

Greg Martin, Cedarville University, is coordinating efforts to design an updated online "Ohio CMC Directory". This database will replace the 2000 online directory developed by Steve Aby (University of Akron) and Bill Meloy (Cleveland State University) with the assistance of Aimee deChambeau (formerly of University of Akron).

Support Staff Interest Group

Conference Wrap-up

Several members of the Support Staff Interest Group supported our track of sessions at this year’s Annual ALAO Conference. The sessions were well attended.

Sessions in the Support Staff Interest Group Track included:

• The ICDL & Libraries: Staff Development Implications for the Learning or Information Commons presented by Louis Mays from Southern State Community College and David Watts from Columbus State Community College. Attendees of the session found out what the ICDL (International Computer Driving License) is all about. The technology is here to stay and it is imperative for all students, traditional and nontraditional to have knowledge in this area.
• The Library Degree: Is It For Me? presented by Michael Bradshaw from Supreme Court of Ohio Law Library, Joyce Baker, Director Belmont Technical College, and Doug Morrison, ALAO President . Attendees to this session heard three people, two with library degrees and one without, talk about the merits of their choice. The speakers responded to questions from the audience at the conclusion of their presentation.
• Transforming Rocks into Diamonds: How to Cultivate Quality Student Workers presented by Pat Wood from Ohio State University at Marion. Pat shared the techniques she has found to be successful in training her new student workers. Her program, which includes a comprehensive training manual and hands-on instruction, changes her "unpolished" inexperienced student workers into dependable, responsible employees (sparkling diamonds).
• Five Years of Street Walkin’: The Jerome Rollers Book Cart Drill Team presented by Sara Bushong and Christine Plotts from Bowling Green State University. Sara and Christine and a few of the Jerome Rollers Book Cart Drill Team taught attendees how to start the planning process and carry through with performances in outside parades and in a competition at ALA.

SSIG Spring Workshop

Our Spring Workshop, "Polishing Your Library Gems: Support Staff", is slotted for May 16th, 2008 at Heidelberg College in Tiffin, OH. Session topics will include: How to Get Yourself Published, Flyer Creation, Instruction Sessions in Microsoft Excel, Career Development, and Yoga. It is sure to be a wonderful experience for everyone.

SSIG Survey Results

The SSIG Survey results were tabulated and reported on our SSIG Display Board in the Poster Session Ballroom at the ALAO Conference. We had a total of 151 respondents to the survey. The last estimate was that we have a little over 500 members in ALAO – that would mean a little over 30% of our membership responded to the Support Staff survey – and therefore consider themselves Support Staff.

Some of the results were:

Length of Time at Current Job:
1 to 5 years = 25%
6 to 10 years = 27%
11 to 15 years = 10%
15 + years = 38%

Type of Work You Do:
Tech Services = 37%
Public Services = 26%
Both Tech and Public = 37%

Annual Salary:
< $20,000 = 9%
$20,000 to $24,999 = 21%
$25,000 to $29,999 = 19%
$30,000 to $34,999 = 21%
$35,000 + = 30%

When asked what keeps them from getting involved with ALAO-SSIG:
25% said they were not interested in joining
25% said distance was a factor with the meetings being too far away
8% said they do not get reimbursed for mileage or meals
10% said they could not take the time off from work
32% had other reasons

If you have a desire to get involved with the Support Staff Interest Group, feel free to email the Chair, Sheryl Gannon at sgannon@heidelberg.edu. Want to stay in the loop on Support Staff issues, sign up for the SSIG mailing list. The instructions for how to sign up are located here: http://www.alaoweb.org/igs/ssig/listserv.php.

Technical, Electronic and Digital Services Interest Group

TEDSIG was delighted to feature a track of four programs at the ALAO Annual Conference held October 25-26 at the Columbus Convention Center. Sri Rajan, Electronics Products Manager at Swets, and Frank Bove, Electronic Resources Librarian at the University of Akron addressed the value of evaluating e-resources for marketing and purchasing in "Evaluating Electronic Resources and Usage Statistics." TEDSIG member Maureen Walsh, Metadata Librarian at The Ohio State University, addressed current practices with institutional repositories in "The Role of Institutional Repositories in Scholarly Communication." In "Back to the Future! Innovations in E-Resources Initiatives and Standards," Deberah England focused on the need for standards and spotlighted current initiatives and standards in development that would improve management of electronic resources. The final TEDSIG program, "A Joint Technical Services Department," examined the challenges and results of combining technical services workflows at Denison University and Kenyon College. Amy Badertscher and Andrea Peakovic, both of Kenyon College, and Sheryl Pustay of Denison University were the speakers for this pioneering program.

During the conference, TEDSIG Co-Chairs called a meeting in which several members attended. Efforts continue to focus on increasing participation in the Interest Group and to provide opportunities for TEDs librarians to present professionally and for TEDs librarians and staff to attend professional presentations focused on technical, electronic and digital services.

After the conference, Co-Chair Rocki Strader coordinated and collected reports from recorders for the four TEDSIG-track programs and six related CPC-selected programs. Reports will be submitted to Technical Services Quarterly, a Haworth Publication, for inclusion in their "Technical Services Reports" section. Recorders included Eve Davis (EBSCO), Deberah England (Wright State University), Kif Francis (Cleveland State University), Marty Jenkins (Wright State University), Rita Johnson (Wright State University), and Rocki Strader (The Ohio State University).

Diversity Committee

The Diversity Committee sponsored several sessions at this year’s annual conference. Dr. Steve Michael, Vice Provost for Diversity and Academic Initiatives, started off the committee’s programming with lots of energy, engaging the audience in a thought-provoking discussion of how we define diversity, and some of the ways in which we can increase diversity in the profession. During his session, entitled "Defining Diversity Strategies for Your Library," Dr. Michael challenged each attendee to try to recruit and mentor just one person with a background different from their own. He stated that if each person set that goal, the profession would increase in diversity very quickly. Dr. Michael closed out his program with a quick overview of the diversity model used at Kent State University, which can be found at http://www.kent.edu/diversity/upload/06-2188%20Div%20Strategic%20Plan%203C%20-printed%20and%20final-2.pdf

Emily Hicks from the University of Dayton provided an informative and entertaining presentation on intergenerational issues in the workplace. Her presentation, entitled "Across the Great Divide: Building Generational Bridges in the Technical Services Department," focused on some of the characteristics of each generation (The Silents, The Baby Boomers, Generation X, and the Millennials), and how such differences can impact how these groups interact with each other. She discussed the importance of understanding the different work styles of each generation, and how to tailor management styles to meet the needs of each group, while leveraging each group’s strengths.

Jacky Johnson and Kwabena Sekyere from Miami University presented a session entitled "Collaborating to preserve the past and sustain the future: Telling our story!" Their presentation highlighted the importance of collaboration between libraries and community organizations to preserve a rich cultural history. Over a one year period, they organized a public lecture and educational activities in cooperation with area schools, securing funding for the program utilizing various avenues of resources from university departments to school boards. The successful program hosted Dr. Spencer Crew, President of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center at Miami University and also arranged funding for a local school group to visit the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati.

Ione Damasco, co-chair of the Diversity Committee, presented the Diversity Scholarship award and certificate to Ms. Dawn Thompson at the awards luncheon. Ms. Thompson is currently enrolled in the Kent State SLIS program in Columbus. The Diversity Scholarship will be awarded again in the spring of 2008. More information about the application process will be forthcoming in early 2008.

Ione Damasco and Lori Fielding, co-chairs of the Diversity Committee, want to thank all of the committee members for all of their hard work in putting together an interesting and informative programming track for this year’s conference. We hope to see everyone at next year’s conference!

People and Library News

Ashland University Library

Ashland University Library welcomes new Reference and Instruction Librarian, Sara Klink. Sara formerly worked for the Stark County District Library in Canton, Ohio where she was a librarian and head of the Young Adult department. She has a background in the physical and biological sciences and earned her Masters of Library and Information Science in 2004 from Kent State University.

Case Western Reserve University

Retirement: After 44 years of devoted service, Elsie Finley, Collection Manager for the Social Sciences Collections, retired Oct. 12, 2007.

Changes in responsibilities: Catherine Wells became Assistant Director for Public Services and Business and Management Librarian. Nathan Lambert became Assistant Director for Technology. Brian Gray became Head of Reference and Engineering Librarian. Tony Gholson became the Collection Maintenance Supervisor for Circulation.

New Hires: Marel Corredor-Hyland is Library Administrative & Personnel Coordinator; Michele Chambers joined Bibliographic/Metadata Services Department; Eric Coopey is Analyst Programmer III, Technology Team; Tina Oestreich is Language Learning Manager, Freedman Center.

Miami University – Middletown

Beth Tumbleson has joined our staff as the Assistant Library Director. She holds an MSLS from Simmons College and an MA in Church History from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Before coming to Miami, Beth served as the high school librarian for Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy.

Gayle Shidler, Master Library Associate, retired from our staff on September 1, 2007 after serving as our circulation and interlibrary loan librarian for nearly 12 years. With her prior service at the Art and Architecture and King Libraries, Gayle has been an integral part of library service at Miami for 29 years.

Ohio State University

On October 20, 2007, Karen Diaz and Jose Diaz of Ohio State University traveled to Madrid, Spain to present at the 5th International Conference on the Book. The Spanish government’s Ministry of Culture through its General Department on Books, Archives, and Libraries sponsored the conference. This was the first time the International Conference on the Book took place in a Spanish-speaking country. Karen and José’s presentation, titled "From Text to Video and Back: Digital Storytelling and the Printed Word" highlighted locally produced digital stories. Karen’s story is about digital storytelling. Jose’s story relates a personal insight into his PhD dissertation and the possible uses of digital storytelling in history. The third story is by Anne Fields and tells how the Oxford English Dictionary came to be. Each of these stories highlight a connection to a print work, and the presentation raised the question of whether such stories can be used to entice our increasingly visual culture to the book. Anne’s and Karen’s stories are available in the OSU Knowledge Bank at http://kb.osu.edu.

OHIONET

OHIONET celebrated its 30th Anniversary at the Annual Meeting on November 15, 2007 in Columbus.

New Coordinator at OHIONET: Evan Struble has joined OHIONET as the new Continuing Education Coordinator – the first person to fill this position at OHIONET. Evan previously served as an Adult Services Librarian at the Westerville Public Library where he had extensive experience with training the public and other librarians on the use of information technology. Evan will work with our members, Advisory Councils, and trainers in developing OHIONET’s continuing education program. In addition to his new position responsibilities, Evan has recently moved into a home near German Village that he is renovating. Also see: http://www.ohionet.org/pdf/newsletters/ohionet_newsletter_2007_11_nov_dec.pdf

Wright State University

Katerina Drassa has joined the University Libraries at Wright State University as a practicum student. Katerina is an undergraduate student at the Technological Educational Institution of Athens, Greece in the department of Librarianship and Information Science. She is currently working in the Paul Laurence Dunbar Library Reference and Instruction Department and also expects to complete projects in Technical Services, Development and Public Relations, Collections, and Digital Services during her six-month practicum. She is supervised by librarians Maureen Barry and Mary Lou Baker Jones.

 

 

 

Youngstown State University

Maag Library is pleased to welcome two new librarians to its Information Services staff.

Michael Hurley is the new Multimedia Librarian. He is a recent MLIS graduate from the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Information Sciences. Michael received at BA in Anthropology from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania and was a music student at the University of New Orleans.

Christine Adams now serves as Assistant Reference Librarian: Business & Economics. She received her MLIS degree from Kent State in December 2006. Christine returns to YSU where she received a BSBA in Accounting and worked in the library as an undergraduate student.

About the ALAO Newsletter

ALAO Newsletter Publication Information

The ALAO Newsletter is published four times a year by the Academic Library Association of Ohio, in September, December, March, and June. It is made available as a benefit of membership. The purpose of the ALAO Newsletter is to advance the goals of the organization and serve the membership.

Deadlines for Contributors:
August 15, November 15, February 15, May 15.

Submission Guidelines:
We reserve the right to edit for space and clarity. Please send officer reports and feature articles copy to Lindsay Midkiff Miller and membership news (people and library news items) to Lori J. Fieldingin electronic format, preferably as an electronic mail Word document attachment or within the body of an email message. Include your name as you wish it to appear. If you are past deadline, PLEASE call Lindsay Midkiff Miller!

The Academic Library Association of Ohio assumes no responsibility for the statements and opinions of the contributors to this publication. Editorial views do not necessarily represent the official position of ALAO.

Editor:
Lindsay Midkiff Miller
Phone: 513-529-8035
Email: newslettereditor@alaoweb.org