Vol. 21, No. 2, June 2003

• President's Report
• Dates to Remember
• 2003 Conference Update
• ALAO Elections Results
• ALAO Archives
• Legislative News
• About the Newsletter

• ALAO SSIG Support Staff and Supporter of Support Staff Awards
• Continuing Education Grants Awarded
• Announcement/ Invitation

• Collection Management and Technical Services
• Curriculum Materials
• Instruction
• Support Staff

• Five Colleges of Ohio
• Kent State University
• Lakeland Community College
• Ohio State University
• Ohio University Eastern
• University of Akron
• Wright State University
• Youngstown State University

ALAO News

President's Report

Colleagues … as most of you realize, I'm getting ready to change my volunteer job title from ALAO President to ALAO Past President. This incredible shift takes place at the ALAO Leadership Retreat in early June and in fact may already have occurred by the time you read this in the newsletter. Though my assigned task for this article is to report on the April Board meeting, I thought I would also try to let you know how ALAO is doing at this point and underscore some of the positive things that have happened since last June.

I have to start by telling you that I don't have much to do with any of these things since they are chiefly the products and accomplishments of the ALAO Board, the Program Committee, the Interest Groups, and you and your colleagues who cycle in and out of planning for Interest Group (IG) workshops or assisting with all the other volunteer tasks that keep ALAO running. I owe lots of folks "thank you" letters and hope to actually compose and mail them shortly after the retreat.

Many of the Board meeting happenings will be reported in other areas of this newsletter, so let me concentrate on a few things that have been brewing this year that are sooooooo close to being accomplished or announced to the membership. Many of these have to do as much with technology as they do with trying to save on costs while improving services to the ALAO membership.

Along with the ALAO Newsletter, which I consider to be continuing on a successful transition from print to electronic, the ALAO web site now hosts conference and workshop announcements and registration forms, Board minutes, and general information on ALAO and ACRL. Officer and IG reports will soon be added starting with those given at the leadership retreat. The Communications Review Committee and the Manual Revisions Coordinator have been working to make it easier to find out how to get something done in ALAO by adjusting the electronic Procedures Manual and making it more accessible to all ALAO members. This still is in transition, though it's close to completion. There are a few oddities (Cliff didn't quite make it with updating the Strategic Objectives for 2002-2003, for example) and a few questions yet to be answered, like how often we should archive the Manual, how often we should archive the web pages, and when we should remove workshop announcements (who should check for currency of content and how often), and so forth. However, it's usable (web pages, Manual, Newsletter) and available to you now! So lots of hard work has been done by the web folks, newsletter folks, Manual Revision Coordinator ... and all they probably get is a thank you letter not yet composed ...

General communication for all ALAO should improve with our migration from our current web and list server to a server that will be under the direct control of the Web Team. Having to rely on an intermediary to administer the ALAO and IG listservs has been pretty frustrating at times for all of us. Combining server control with the products we expect we can generate from the new ALAO membership database being released in conjunction with the leadership retreat means that the ALAO Membership Chair will actually be able to check on whether or not you renewed your membership - in a timely manner - actually, you'll also be able to check your status. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has unintentional lapses in my ALAO membership. I missed a year when I bought something at an Annual Conference in 1987 or so, instead of renewing my membership. Rob Withers (Miami) and others (Tom Klingler, KSU; the Web Team, volunteers) have been working on a replacement for our current member database for several years and it's almost here! Well, these folks too are on my list - letters not yet composed …

I've already said thanks for all your support at the Annual Conference in an earlier newsletter. Your Board has done a wonderful job. We have had articles in ACRL's Chapter Topics for the first time in a long time. We awarded continuing education grants (see article in this newsletter) and for the first time, Board members attended and presented a certificate to the deserving winner of the ALAO minority scholarship at the Kent State SLIS awards dinner this year.

I'm about out of space, so I'll tell you what to do. Rather than wait for me (this has been known to take a long time sometimes) to thank these fine folks by US Mail, check out the list of Board members on the ALAO website (www.alaoweb.org/), or look at current committee assignments in the Procedures Manual (www.alaoweb.org/manual/A42.html), or check out the Interest Groups (www.alaoweb.org/comsigs/igs.html) and say "Thank you."

Be quick, there will be changes to these listings over the summer. Lastly, there is still time to submit a poster proposal for the 2003 Annual Conference - and thank you for your continued support of ALAO.

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Dates to Remember 2003

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2003 Conference Update

You can now register for the ALAO Annual Conference to be held on November 14, 2003, at the Wyndham Hotels and Resorts in Dublin, Ohio. "Early birds" receive a discount on your registration, so register by September 30th for the best deal! You also can reserve a room at the Wyndham if you would like to stay overnight, either before or after the conference. Please mention ALAO when you register with the Wyndham so that you receive the conference rate. A conference registration form and additional information are available on the ALAO website at: www.alaoweb.org/03conf/

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ALAO Elections

Congratulations to our newly elected ALAO Executive Board Members

Those elected were:

A total of 594 ballots were mailed: 212 ballots to current members and 382 ballots to those whose membership had expired in 2002. 232 valid ballots were returned for a return rate of 39%.

The new officers and board members began their service at the ALAO Leadership Retreat, held June 2 and 3 at Deer Creek Resort in Mt. Sterling, Ohio. Over the summer months, incoming President Lois Szudy will make appointments to the 2004 Annual Conference program committee and other ALAO committees. John Burke will chair the 2004 Program Committee. Please contact Lois or John if you are interested in a committee position.

A hearty thank you to all who ran for office, to all who voted, and to the Nominating Committee (Cliff Glaviano, Cindy Kristof, and Marcia Suter).

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ALAO Archives Contributions

Contributions are still being accepted for the ALAO Archives. Contact Jackie Johnson (JohnsoJ@muohio.edu), ALAO Secretary, if you are interested in contributing.

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Legislative News

Statehouse Connect Day

Fifteen OhioLINK library directors and eight ALAO members met with their area's Ohio House Representatives and Senators, or their legislative aides, on Tuesday, May 6, in downtown Columbus. Ryan Miller, Director of Constituent Affairs and Jessica Green, Special Projects Coordinator, first briefed all participants for Speaker of the House, Larry Householder, as well as Tom Sanville of OhioLINK, on effective communication with legislators and OhioLINK facts to share. Participants thanked their legislators for ongoing support of OhioLINK and also noted the economic advantages of OhioLINK, such as resource sharing and statewide licensing of databases and electronic journals. Participants shared individual library success stories as well as the 10th Anniversary OhioLINK publication, Snapshot 2002.

Of Statehouse Connect Day, Oberlin College libraries director Ray English said, "…I felt very positive about all of our meetings with senators and representatives." Cleveland State University library director Glenda Thornton echoed English's comments: "The day was really quite easy to do, and we should do it more!" ALAO members interested in participating in Statehouse Connect Day next year are encouraged to contact Susan Scott at scott@denison.edu.

Ryan Miller, Director of Constituent Affairs, and Jessica Green, Special Projects Coordinator for Speaker of the House, Larry Householder, speak to ALAO members and OhioLINK library directors participating in Statehouse Connect Day. Participants gathered in the board room of the Ohio Board of Regents Office on the 36th floor of the Rhodes Tower in Columbus, Ohio.

Connie Salyers Stoner, Assistant Director for Public Services, and Tess Midkiff, Library Director, both Shawnee State University, meet with Ohio House Representative Todd Book (district 89) at Statehouse Connect Day.

ALA National Library Legislative Day

ALAO Legislative Travel Advocate Award recipient Gail Marredeth, Health Sciences Librarian at Cleveland State University, along with Government Relations Team members Susan Scott, Ann Watson, and Cindy Kristof, participated in ALA's National Library Legislative Day in Washington, D.C. May 12 and 13, 2003. Seventeen other Ohio librarians, including public librarians and state coordinators Mike Lucas, Librarian, State Library of Ohio, and Assistant State Librarian, Bill Morris, participated as well.

In an all-day session May 12, librarians from all over the country were briefed on current issues important to libraries, such as the Museum and Library Services Act (which includes the Library Service and Technology Act, or LSTA), E-Rate funding under the Telecommunications Act of 1996, intellectual property issues (including proposed changes to the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and database protection), and the USA PATRIOT Act vis-à-vis the Freedom To Read Protection Act.

On May 13, Ohio librarians met over breakfast to discuss issues important to Ohio libraries, including LSTA grants and E-Rate discounts in each Ohio district. The Ohio contingent met with about 21 Congressman or their Legislative Aides during the late morning and through the afternoon. ALAO librarians acknowledged the success of OhioLINK's Chat Reference service, funded in part with LSTA monies, as well as the advantages to college freshman of K-12 and public library exposure to the identical EBSCO databases used in OhioLINK.

Ohio librarians discovered enthusiastic support for libraries and library funding in their Congressmen and Legislative Aides, many of whom had experienced first-hand the benefits of both public libraries and OhioLINK. Jennifer Sharp, Aide to Senator Mike DeWine, was well acquainted with the advantages of OhioLINK, which she used during her undergraduate days at Miami University. Fellow Miami alumnus Jason Kratovil, Aide to Steven C. LaTourette, had used the Geauga County Public Library system for years before using OhioLINK.

Those interested in library advocacy are encouraged to apply for next year's Legislative Advocate Travel Award. The deadline is the end of January. See www.alaoweb.org/legislative/adv_trav.html for further information.

ALAO members Ann Watson, Cindy Kristof, Susan Scott, and Gail Marredeth (left to right) attend a reception to celebrate the launch of WebJunction, held at the Library of Congress the evening before National Legislative Day. For information about WebJunction, see www.webjunction.org/do/Home

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2002-2003 ALAO EXECUTIVE BOARD ROSTER

www.alaoweb.org/officers/board.html has complete information.

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Interest Groups

Collection Management and Technical Services

Collection Management/Technical Services Workshop

On May 15, more than 80 people participated in "Showdown in the Serials Aisle: Corralling Electronic Journals," a workshop jointly sponsored by the Collection Management and Technical Services Interest Groups.

Presentation topics included:

• Overviews of cataloging issues (Tschera Harkness Connell, The Ohio State University)
• Models for providing web-based listings of electronic journals (Ken Irwin, Wittenberg University; Rob Withers, Miami University)
• A "sneak peak" at a new rights management system which tracks holdings and privileges currently under development by OCLC (Bill Carney, OCLC)

The afternoon session included a "Numbers, Lies, and Statistics: How Do You Know What You REALLY Own," a large group discussion on challenges and solutions for counting electronic titles, and a time for smaller focus groups on "Licensing and Rights, Staffing Issues, Providing Access to E-journals Through the Catalog, and Local Management of Electronic Journal Information."

Pictures from the workshop are available at: www.lib.muohio.edu/~rwithers/ejournals/workshop/pictures/

Both CMIG and TSIG would like to thank OCLC for their generous support of this workshop.

New Officers and Upcoming Events for TSIG & CMIG

On the TSIG front, Julia Gammon, Head of Acquisitions at the University of Akron, will soon join Kevin Furniss as co-convenor. I'd like to say thank you and convey what a pleasure it has been to work with Cynthia Whitacre, our outgoing co-convenor. The above noted workshop would not have been thesuccess it was without her efforts.

TSIG is currently planning a few sessions for the annual conference, including integrating OCLC PromptCat and YPB GOBI workflows, and the access, cataloging, and management of electronic dissertations and theses. More information about these sessions and others will be forthcoming, and Julia and Kevin look forward to seeing you at the conference!

The incoming chair of CMIG's coordinating committee is Tina Schneider at the Ohio State University at Lima. This fall, we are hope to offer a session on cooperative collection development at the ALAO annual conference.

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Curriculum Materials

The ALAO CMCIG spring workshop "Connecting with Patrons: Creating the Exemplary CMC Environment" was held at Ashland University Library on Friday, May 16, 2003. Workshop evaluations indicated that participants found the sessions helpful, interesting, and informative. Kristine Condic, Coordinator of Electronic Resources and Adelaide Phelps, Coordinator, Educational Resources Lab both from Oakland University gave a presentation entitled "Undergraduate Education Students: How to Reach Them so You CAN Teach them." Ms. Condic discussed ideas for linking with education faculty, advertising library services, how and what to teach them. Ms. Phelps profiled the Lab and described instruction and orientation sessions for education students.

Dr. Linda Billman, Ashland University, presented "Praxis Materials: What Librarians Need to Know." This session discussed the importance of the Praxis exam for education students and she shared print and electronic resources useful when preparing for the test. Diane Schrecker, Ashland University, described the process she went through to design the Ashland University Library web page and the Instructional Resource Center's web page. Ms. Schrecker also discussed the usefulness of metatags, web counters, and statistics.

The ALAO CMCIG Coordinating Committee led participants in small group discussions of the newly adopted ALA/ACRL Guidelines for Curriculum Materials Centers available at: www.ala.org/Content/NavigationMenu/ACRL/
Standards_and_Guidelines/Guidelines_for_Curriculum_Materials_Centers.htm

The business meeting included the following discussions that have formed the interest group's 2003-2004 objectives:

• Praxis II Resources - Ann Raney has completed a website devoted to the collection of resources (print and electronic) to help education students prepare for the Praxis. Anyone is welcome to add to the database. The link will be available soon from the CMCIG web page, but for now the information is available at academic.udayton.edu/Praxis/index.htm.
• CMC Online Directory - The interest group has been collecting suggestions to enhance this directory. It is available at cmc.library.uakron.edu/cmc/index.html.
• CMC Listserv - Participants were encouraged to join the listserv. It was suggested that replies go to all members of the list rather than only to the sender. This should promote more discussion.
• CMCIG web page - The Workshop and Committee pages are in the process of being updated. The projects and main page will be updated next year.
• Annual Conference - The CMCIG has submitted a proposal to hold a panel discussion on CMCIG organizational structures and services. A business meeting will also be held.
• 2003-04 - Chair - Diane Schrecker, Ashland University has agreed to be the next CMCIG chair.
• 2004 spring workshop - The CMCIG Coordinating Committee will be working with Michigan's CMC group to plan a joint spring workshop in 2004.
• It was suggested that the CMCIG collect collection development policies from Ohio CMC's for comparison purposes.

The 2002-2003 Coordinating Committee included the following people:

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Instruction

The Instruction Interest Group held its spring workshop on Friday, May 23, 2003 at Wright State University. The program, "What's the Problem: Enriching Library Instruction Through Problem-Based Learning," was presented by librarians from the University of Cincinnati. Jane Carlin, Head of the Design, Architecture, Art and Planning Library, and Alison Armstrong, Head of the Training and Educational Services Department for the University Libraries, involved the participants in activities which demonstrated how problem-based learning can be a very effective library instruction method.

The Instruction Interest Group is seeking input for its session at the annual conference in November, 2003. The session will focus on connections that are being made between academic and secondary school libraries. It will consist of a panel of academic and high school librarians who are active participants in these important connections. They will share their programs and activities, and provide ideas on how to initiate such partnerships on other campuses. Conference attendees will learn about the pitfalls and benefits of forming collaborative relationships between the academic and secondary school domains. If you are involved in a partnership of this type, or know of someone who is, we need you! Please contact Chris Sheetz (csheetz@lorainccc.edu), or Judy Perella (jperella@ashland.edu).

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Support Staff

The Support Staff Interest Group held its annual spring workshop this May in three locations: Shawnee State University (SSU) in Portsmouth, OH, the University of Toledo (UT), and Ohio Wesleyan University (OWU) in Delaware, OH. The workshop, entitled "Preparing & Motivating Ourselves for Success in the Library," attracted a total of 91 participants to the three sites. 10 attendees were from outside the academic community (five each from special and public libraries). Douglas Morrison of the Ohio State University Agricultural Technical Institute gave the keynote address, "Observations on Motivation, A Personal Perspective from a Roman, a Playwright, and a Librarian" and then moderated a discussion on motivation with three local panels of library support staff members and administrators.

During a lunchtime business meeting, participants who are ALAO members cast votes for the next SSIG Secretary/Chair-Elect. Angie Lorensen of the Northwest Ohio Regional Book Depository was elected to serve for 2003-2004.

After a sumptuous lunch, participants chose from two of four afternoon sessions: (1) "Humor in the Library," Denise Forro & Leah Black of Michigan State University (SSU, UT, OWU), (2) "Communicating Effectively with Co-workers and Patrons," Louis Mays of Southern State Community College (SSU), Brian Hickam of Ohio State University-Mansfield (UT), and Mary Jane Santos of the Delaware County District Library (OWU), (3) "What To Do Before You Call a Tech," Jimmie Epling of Ohio Valley Area Libraries (SSU), Corey Seeman of the University of Toledo (UT), and Barbara Anderson of Case Western Reserve University (UT & OWU), and (4) "How Emerging Trends and Technologies Will Affect the Library," John Burke of Miami University Middletown (SSU, UT, OWU).

Great thanks are due to Judy Orahood of OWU for coordinating registrations, to the site coordinators for making local arrangements and finding panel participants (Mary Ayers of Southern State CC & Amanda Bowers of Ohio Valley Area Libraries (SSU), Brian Hickam & Corey Seeman (UT), and Judy Orahood (OWU), to Karen Ketchaver (John Carroll University) for creating and analyzing the evaluations, to Gaynelle Predmore who assembled the workshop packets and to the entire SSIG Program Planning Committee. A special thank you goes to John Burke who took over my responsibilities as Chair of SSIG during the workshops. I really appreciate all that he did to make these workshops successful.

The Support Staff Interest Group is still accepting nominations for the Ohio Library Outstanding Support Staff Award and the Ohio Library Supporter of Support Staff Award. Information about the award can be found at www.alaoweb.org/comsigs/ssig/awards.html. The submission deadline is July 31, 2003.

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Feature Stories

ALAO SSIG Support Staff and Supporter of Support Staff Awards

The ALAO SSIG is sponsoring the Ohio Library Outstanding Support Staff Award. The winner of this award will be a person who shows excellence in job performance and has the ability to work with staff and patrons. The person must be willing to grow in a support staff position by attending or presenting at workshops and conferences, taking classes, or being published. The person must also be active in a library association(s).

The ALAO SSIG is also sponsoring the Ohio Library Outstanding Supporter of Support Staff Award. The winner of this award will be a person who demonstrates his/her appreciation of support staff and has encouraged support staff to grow in their positions. (Examples: providing attendance to workshops, conferences, and classes; encouraging activity in library associations and interest groups).

Nominate yourself or someone else for one or both of these awards by submitting an essay of no more than 500 words that gives solid examples of how you or a co-worker perform outstanding support staff activities. All nominees must be employed in the state of Ohio. Provide both the nominee's and nominator's names, contact information (phone number, address and e-mail address), their institution(s), length of service, and title. Persons who choose to self-nominate must provide one reference. Send an application to:

Application deadline is July 31, 2003. Winning nominations will automatically be submitted to COLT and ALA for their spring competitions.

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Continuing Education Grants Awarded

ALAO members Judith Perella, Kathryn Venditti, Joyce Laurence and Xudong Jin received continuing education grants this spring. Judith Perella and Kathryn Venditti are both reference librarians at Ashland University. They each received a grant to cover the registration fees for the preconference Best Practices in Information Literacy: Assessing Your Program at the recent ACRL conference in Charlotte, North Carolina. Ashland is beginning a process of establishing formal assessment plans for all departments and librarians have been asked to take the lead in developing an information literacy component as part of each department's plan. Judith and Kathryn attended the preconference for some timely guidance in this endeavor.

Joyce Laurence is a technical services assistant at Ohio Wesleyan University. She is working toward an associate of applied science degree in information services at Belmont Technical College. The program is designed for those already employed in libraries and other information technology organizations and Joyce has found each course to be an asset to her work in the library. The ALAO Continuing Education grant will help defray the cost of tuition for one term.

Xudong Jin is the associate director of libraries and head of technical services at Ohio Wesleyan University. He is vice-chair of the PromptCat Users Group, and plans to attend the ALA conference in Toronto to help plan next year's program for the group and to share PromptCat and other outsourcing experiences with other librarians. His continuing education grant will help cover the costs of attending the conference.

ALAO's Professional Development Committee extends congratulations to all four recipients and thanks them for their continuing interest in their own professional growth.

ALAO awards continuing education grants twice each year. The next application deadline is September 15, 2003. An application form is available at the ALAO web site at www.alaoweb.org/manual/c61a.pdf.

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Announcement and Invitation

You are cordially invited to attend the Ohio Caucus meeting during ALA in Toronto. The time is 4:30-5:30 p.m., on Monday, June 23, 2003. The meeting will be held in the Metro Toronto Convention Center (MTCC 705). Refreshments will be served. This will be Dr. Carolyn Brodie's last Ohio Caucus. She has decided not to run for reelection to the position of ALA Councilor from Ohio.

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Crossing Boundaries - Diversity Committee Spring Workshop

The Diversity Committee of the Academic Library Association of Ohio (ALAO), a chapter of the Association of College and Research Libraries, sponsored a workshop entitled "Crossing Boundaries" on April 4, 2003, at Carlson Library, The University of Toledo. The ALAO Diversity Committee is the recipient of the Library Administration and Management Association's (LAMA) Cultural Diversity Grant which was used to partially fund the cost of the workshop. LAMA is a division of the American Library Association. There were approximately 30 attendees; some of them were non-librarians.

Our first speaker, Dr. R. Blake Michael, Professor of World Religions and Christian Missions and Associate Dean of Academic Affairs at Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio, administered the diversity quiz, and then presented, "Islam: Religion of the Book and Books of the Religion." The speaker at the afternoon session was Mr. Nur Hussen, Social Program Developer, Cultural Competency Coordinator, Franklin County, Ohio, who discussed, "Acculturation and Assimilation (with focus on the Somali culture)." The last part of the workshop was devoted to a panel discussion with Dr. Blake Michael and Mr. Nur Hussen.

Dr. R. Blake Michael addressing the conference attendees.

ALAO Past President Marcia Suter with Diversity Committee Chair Rajinder Garcha.

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People and Library News

Five Colleges of Ohio

Librarians and Faculty from the Five Colleges of Ohio presented a panel called "Ideas, Incentives, & Interaction: Integrating Information literacy into the Curriculum through Faculty-Librarian Collaboration," at ACRL in Charlotte on Saturday, April 12. Susan Scott provided introductions and roamed the audience with a cordless microphone--Phil Donahue style. Jasmine Vaughan moderated the 60-minute Question and Answer period. Jessica Grim, Donna Jacobs and Joy He (along with their faculty collaborators) gave overviews of their Information Literacy course creation/redesign and shared experiences during the Q & A. Ray English, Library Director, Oberlin College is the Project Director for this Mellon grant (Integrating Information Literacy into the Curriculum), www.denison.edu/ohio5/grant/

(from left to right): kneeling: Joy He, Jasmine Vaughan, Ray English
standing: Nancy Knop, Donna Jacobs, Dean Fraga, Wendy Kozol, Jessica Grim, Susan Scott

Kent State University

The Kent State University is pleased to welcome two new faculty librarians to the staff of Libraries & Media Services. On April 1st, Elizabeth Flood assumed the position of Music and Media Cataloger. Elizabeth earned a bachelor of music degree in violin performance from Butler University. She has done post-graduate work in music history and musicology at Butler and at the University of Texas at Austin. She received her MLS, with a specialization in music librarianship, from Indiana University. Elizabeth's most recent professional experience prior to coming to Kent was in the position of Assistant Music Catalog Librarian at Oberlin College.

On April 21st, Anna Hood assumed the position of Serials Cataloger. Anna comes to Kent from the Lubrizol Corporation where she performed original cataloging, administered the library's automated system and met an array of public service commitments. Anna's other experience includes work as a catalog librarian at the University of Southern Mississippi and as a reference librarian at Lorain County Community College. She received her BA in English from the University of Akron and her MSLIS from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Lakeland Community College

Scott Savage has joined the reference staff at Lakeland Community College. Previously, Scott was reference librarian and history instructor for Belmont Technical College.

Ohio State University

John M. Bennett has published a chapbook of visual poetry, Under Separate Cover, edited and translated by Eter Panji, St. Petersburg, Russia: Poligrafia Borei Print, Visual World Poetry, 2003. He was also included in a curated exhibition, WordSeen: Wordworks by 13 Visual Poets and Artists at the Diana Lowenstein Gallery, Miami, Florida. He gave a solo reading there on March 8, and participated in a performance by the sound-poetry group, The Be Blank Consort.

Miriam Conteh-Morgan gave a presentation at ACRL titled "Journey with New Maps: Adjusting Mental Models and Rethinking Instruction to Language-Minority Students."

Gerry Greenberg had a book chapter published: "On the Roof of the Library Nearest You: America's Open-Air Libraries, 1905-1944." In Libraries to the People: Histories of Outreach, edited by Robert S. Freeman and David M. Hovde. (McFarland, 2003).

Jim Murphy presented a paper at the 21st Annual Symposium on Ohio Valley Urban and Historic Archaeology, held March 8 at Chillicothe, Ohio. The title of his paper was "Clay Tobacco Pipes from the Merrill and Dyke Factory Sites, Akron, Ohio."

Laura Tull of Ohio State has published "Library Systems and Unicode: A Review of the Current State of Development" in Information Technology and Libraries 21, no. 4 (Dec. 2002):181-185.

Graham R. Walden has published Survey Research Methodology, 1990-1999: An Annotated Bibliography, part of the Bibliographies and Indexes in Law and Political Science Series (Greenwood, 2002).

Behavioral & Social Sciences Librarian, Vol. 21, No. 2 (2003) features articles from two Ohio State librarians. Jose Diaz contributed "Vieques, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Navy: An Annotated Bibliography of Selected Sources" (p.13-28), while Anne Fields contributed "Tracing the Evolution of a Discipline: Education and the Three Major Encyclopedias of the Social Sciences" (p. 57-72).

Katharine Dean, Miriam Conteh-Morgan, and James Bracken have published The Undergraduate's Companion to Women Writers and Their Web Sites, part of Libraries Unlimited's Undergraduate Companion Series.

Read about an Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center's (OARDC) preservation project in the article "Project Comes to the Rescue of Ohio's Agricultural Literature" (enVision Online, May 20,2003).

Ohio University Eastern

Sue Evans, Library Assistant, has been awarded the Ohio University Eastern's Classified Staff of the Year Award. This is the first year that the award has been offered. The library is proud that the first award went to a member of the library staff. Sue is one of our night and weekend staff. Sue's first love in the library is serials, and she is responsible for bindery prep and repair of library materials. On weekends, Sue is the entire library staff and handles all questions and problems with a quiet demeanor and a soft voice.

University of Akron

The University of Akron Libraries welcomes three new faculty members, wishes one faculty member well as he advances his career, congratulates one faculty member on her promotion, and congratulates a staff member's success in obtaining a competitive scholarship:

Christen Cardina began work on April 1, 2003 as Assistant Professor and Life and Allied Health Sciences Librarian in the Science and Technology Library. Christen has a BA in Plant and Soil Science, an MS in Human Nutrition and an MLIS. She participated in the June 2000 ACRL Institute for Information Literacy and served as the Information Literacy Coordinator for the College of Wooster Libraries.

Russell Tinkham began work in the Bierce Library on March 15 2003 as an Assistant Professor and the Performing Arts Librarian. He will oversee collection development, instruction and specialized reference for the disciplines of music, theater and dance. Russ has a BM in music education, an MM in music, and an MLS.

Mike Tosko will be Assistant Professor and Information Literacy Coordinator beginning July 1, 2003. He comes to Akron from American University in Washington, D.C. where he was the Instruction Librarian. He has an MLS from KSU and a BA and MA in English from Bowling Green State University. He is ABD in English from Kent State. He taught for seven years while working on advanced degrees so he brings experience to his position at Akron.

James E. Nalen, Assistant Professor and Social Sciences Librarian and Bibliographer, has resigned effective June 18, 2003 to accept a new position at Central Michigan University. James will be working in the Washington DC area as part of Central Michigan's extensive distance education program.

Karen A. Plummer, Assistant Professor and Audiovisual/Special Materials Cataloger, assumes the duties of Acting Department Head for Cataloging as of July 1, 2003.

The Special Library Association awarded Brian C. Gray, Science and Technology Library Senior Library Associate, a $6,000.00 competitive scholarship to continue graduate study toward the MLS. Brian will receive the award during the President Elect's Poster Session Awards and Scholarships Presentation Monday June 9th at 1:30 p.m. during the SLA convention in New York City.

New publications from University of Akron Library faculty include an article in a recent issue of the Journal of Commonwealth Studies by Dr. Diana Chlebek, Associate Professor and English and Modern Languages and Literature Bibliographer. Joseph LaRose, Associate Professor and Applied Arts Bibliographer, has recently published "Terrence Malick: A Bio-Bibliography" in the Bulletin of Bibliography 59 (4), December 2002, 137-142.

Wright State University

Humanities Librarian Charlotte Droll (Paul Laurence Dunbar Library) received a University Studies Abroad Consortium (USAC) Language Development Award through Wright State's University Center for International Education (UCIE). In June, she is studying Spanish in San Sebastian, Spain. Her language studies will assist in developing the library's Spanish language collections in the disciplines of International Business, International Studies, and Modern Languages. She was also elected the Secretary (2003-04) of the Literatures in English (LES) section of the ACRL and currently chairs the LES Planning Committee.

Alison Aldrich, a graduate of the University of Michigan School of Information and Hiram College, joins the staff of the Fordham Health Sciences Library this month. Her duties as Health Sciences Librarian include reference, instruction, collection development, and web development as a member of the Wright State University Libraries' Web Team.

Brett Powers, formerly Health Sciences Librarian at the Fordham Health Sciences Library, was appointed Wright State University Libraries' Web Coordinator in November 2002.

Youngstown State University

Maag Library welcomed two new librarians this year. The new Assistant Catalog Librarian, Kevin Whitfield, comes to YSU from London, Ontario. Kevin received his MLIS from the University of Western Ontario where he worked as a Teaching Assistant. He also has a Bachelor of Education degree from the University of Windsor and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from York University in Toronto. Mr. Whitfield spoke and was a featured artist in a textile art exhibition at Montreal's Concordia University in May.

Thomas Bell is the Assistant Reference Librarian who manages the Multi-Media Center and serves as the liaison for the College of Fine and Performing Arts. He comes to YSU from Austin, Texas, where earned his MLIS from the University of Texas and served as a reference librarian at Austin Community College. Mr. Bell received his BFA from Missouri's Stephens College and his Master of Arts in Music from the University of California at Santa Barbara. While in Washington, he was a researcher at the library of the Supreme Court of the United States, and for the Special Libraries Association.

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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 memberbship.

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