These short “
pecha kucha-like” sessions will feature 5 PowerPoint presentations of 6 minutes and 40 seconds each. We will have time at the end of the session intended for Q&A for all presenters. Come for a lively, rapid-fire group of talks.
1) It's NOT Just Kid's Stuff! (Reorganization of Juvenile Collection in an Academic Library) (Heidi Busch)Libraries and their access to holdings evolve to meet the changing needs of their communities. In response to changing needs, the University of Tennessee at Martin’s Paul Meek Library evaluates their physical library holdings on an ongoing basis. Recently the past encroached on the present in the form of our Juvenile Collection. The library has a strong Juvenile Collection, primarily meant to serve our Education Department, but also serves as a resource for local educators and the community. However, stack maintenance was an issue and it had not been weeded in years. As part of our SACS/COC goals, the library conducted a review of the Juvenile Collection which included creating a new section for YA materials, reorganization of materials, and weeding. This review then functioned as a catalyst to review the Juvenile collections at our off-campus sites as well as establishing a guide for future collection evaluation.
In this presentation participants will come away with a better understanding of one library’s method of reorganization and weeding of a specific collection and including data collection for assessment purposes in an Academic Library. Audience members will be encouraged to share their own experiences with collection development and data collection for assessment purposes.
2) Technology Lending: Just Like Any Other Collection, Sort Of (Bobby Hollandsworth)Technology lending or equipment lending has long been a staple of academic libraries. Think back a few years ago and you’ll probably remember calculators, tape recorders, point and shoot cameras, and projectors being loaned out at your library. Past was certainly prologue in this collection as Clemson University Libraries made a deliberate decision to upgrade the technology being loaned out in the spring 2012 to keep up with the changing needs of students, faculty, and staff. Some of the initial upgraded items included DSLR cameras, camera lenses, iPads, tripods, microphones, and digital voice recorders. Over the past five years more technology has been added to the lending collection including higher end DSLR cameras, Xbox and PlayStation consoles and games, mobile green screens, and virtual reality equipment. A technology lending collection is similar to any other collection an academic library may have, but different in many ways. These key differences will be discussed along with learning how to get started with technology lending or upgrading your current lending practices by assessing your needs and creating and managing a technology lending fund, the selection process, circulation policies, maintenance of the collection, and weeding.
3) Collection Assessment: A Cure for Office Clutter? (Thomas Karel)This will be a discussion of two projects that I would like to complete before I retire in the near future: the management of an ambitious collection assessment project (aka “weeding”) and the Herculean attempt to get rid of the clutter in my office. I have discovered that these two projects are intertwined and I will talk about the challenges and frustrations of each one. Items that will be discussed include: the design of Franklin & Marshall’s Collection Assessment Project (CAP); guidelines for the initial assessment and review of decisions; the goals for the project; the impact on staff; the impact on my office space and workflow; and the dispersal of the withdrawn items.
4) Cooking the Books: Developing an “Academic” Cookbook Collection (Whitney Kemble)When looking for cookbooks, people usually think of bookstores or public libraries. Most academic libraries are not known for their cookbook collections, except at some notable institutions with significant food-related programs. In 2015, the University of Toronto Scarborough Library began developing a niche, locally-relevant cookbook collection. This presentation will explore the important role the library is playing in meeting the growing demand from faculty and students for an array of resources that complement research and coursework about food.
With budget and space limitations, the UTSC Library cookbook collection needed to be somewhat broad, inclusive, and diverse, and to include some canonical cookbooks, but it also needed to be focused in some way. To achieve this fine balance, the collection is focused on representing the foodways of Scarborough, which is home to many large immigrant groups from different parts of the world that are represented in the restaurants and markets throughout its neighbourhoods. Much of the food studies work being done on campus engages with these local culinary communities and their global ties, examining how socio-economic and cultural systems impact food, and exploring sensory experiences. The cookbook collection supports that work by providing a variety of primary sources to be mined for scholarship across disciplines, as well as for personal experimentation.
This presentation will discuss how the cookbook collection began, the specifics of developing it, such as selection of materials within budget and space constraints, and promotion and assessment of cookbook use. The presentation will also consider how the cookbook collection contributes to the experiential learning of food studies students at UTSC, by allowing them to actively engage with foods from the surrounding community and beyond, both in and out of the classroom.
5) Hosting a library vendor week: A better way to manage vendor site visits? (Ed Lener, Carola Blackwood)Scheduling meetings between vendors and the appropriate library staff members is often a challenge, and the number of requests for site visits can quickly overwhelm any library calendar. The University Libraries at Virginia Tech recently held its first library vendor week in an attempt to address such concerns. Nearly two dozen vendors took part in the five-day event. This session will relate key lessons we learned during this experience and share tips and strategies for libraries who may be interested in hosting their own multi-vendor event. With one speaker from the host library, and another from a vendor who took part, attendees will hear perspectives from both sides about this uncommon approach to organizing vendor site visits.
