For the last few weeks I

have been cleaning out my office

which will soon be occupied by

Sara. Since I moved into the library

in 1986 and then to the Frey

Computer Center in 1996 I have

had an opportunity to purge older

materials several times. Some of

the things which I have found (so

far) are my calendars from 1988 to

the present and letters, project

estimates, evaluations, and

presentations dating back to 1983.

Nobody would ever miss these

items and they hold no significance

to anyone. However, it is still nice

to look at them and remember how

much work went into these

outdated and now useless items.

The big decision is what to throw

away and what to keep. I can

report that the majority I have

handled, reminisced, and then

gently thrown away.

From 1981 to 1992 I

managed the development of

administrative online systems for

LSU. Then in 1992 I took

advantage of an offer to lead the

automation of five academic

libraries on the LSU mainframe.

My first meeting on this project,

which would later be named

LOUIS, was held in my office in the

basement of Middleton Library with

Mike Dicarlo (La Tech) and Lynda

Huggins (Northeast) on August 12,

1992. Hurricane Andrew hit later

that month, my oldest son started

Louisiana Tech in September, and I

attended an e-mail class and my

first meeting with all the library

directors in October. And it has

been meetings, e-mail, hurricanes,

and library directors every since.

Needless to say I have enjoyed

every minute of it!

It has been an honor and privilege to serve each of you. I know I have met hundreds of people and hopefully I will remember most of them for a long time. Each of you had a part in my development. As much as I enjoyed remembering the past by reviewing old, worn out documents I will cherish the memories of each of you. I would like to thank the library directors for their trust, support, and confidence which they placed in me and the LOUIS staff. Northwestern was not scheduled to be implemented until 1995 but I can clearly remember Ada Jarred asking me at every meeting between 1992 and 1995, ―Ralph, you coming to get us?‖ And I will never forget Kay Adams and her moaning (lovingly) about the length of my status reports at the LALINC Directors‘ Meetings. The LOUIS Users

Conference was one of the best

tools for me

Ralph’s Farewell

The LOUISiana Library Network

J U N E 2 1 , 2 0 1 0 V O L U M E 1 8 , I S S U E 1

INSIDE THE ISSUE:

2010 COSUGI

Conference

2

ILLiad International

Users Conference

3

LALINC Collection & E-

Resources Committee

3

Information Literacy

Committee Update

4

LALINC Research &

Development

Committee Report

4

Louisiana Digital

Library LOUIS Update

5

LOUIS ILLiad User’s

Meeting Spring 2010

6

LOUIS Site Visit 6

ULM Libraries Special Collections

7

Preserving Louisiana’s Audiovisual Resources

8

Louisiana Digital Library Committee Update

9

2010 LLA Annual Conference Wrap Up

9

LOUIS on Facebook & Twitter

11

New Visions, New Voices: ACRL-LA Announces New Membership Levels

12

Noel Memorial Library Technology Tips

13

ACRL-LA 2009-2010 Self-Study: Meeting Goals Set by ACRL in its Strategic Plan for Learning & Scholarship

14

LUC 2010 15

ACRL-LA S.T.A.R 16

Tulane LDL Collections 18

SirsiDynix Symphony Update

19

P A G E 2

As per the theme,

“From Intersections

to Lasting

Connections,”

COSUGI

demonstrated a

merging of the user

groups in spirit, as

well as in product.

2010 COSUGI Conference by Brian Sherman, McNeese

reconnecting with the movers and shakers. I have met so many dear friends from those meetings and I will always cherish our relationships. LUC 2010 is already on my calendar and may just have to be an annual event for me. As I leave it is a comfort to me to know that you will be in good hands. Sara has a heart for service and has the skills and staff to further what has only begun. Thanks for your

friendship and may God

bless each of you!!!

The 2010 COSUGI Conference was held March 3 – 5, at Disney‘s Coronado Springs Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. This was the first conference held under the banner of the newly merged user group. As per the theme ―From Intersections to Lasting Connections,‖ this conference demonstrated a merging of the user groups in spirit, as well as in product. During the opening session, SirsiDynix executives showcased several new training initiatives, among them an interactive training platform and expanded SirsiDynix Institute. Continuing development of mobile applications and Enterprise was also spotlighted. To applause from Horizon users, it was announced that the Horizon ILS would still be developed. The opening session ended with Keynote Speaker David Lee King, author of Designing the Digital Experience, who spoke of how to create digital content that connects with users and encourage participation. SirsiDynix pulled out all of the stops for their party at Disney‘s Hollywood Studios. In a portion of the park resembling a New York City block, librarians clustered together under gas heaters and street lights, as the unusually cold weather complemented the park‘s backdrop of the Big Apple. Following a great meal and questionable-at-best line dancing, party goers were treated with a private showing of Fantasmic, a live action show with enough lasers and fireworks to please the pyromaniac in everyone. Louisiana gave a strong showing of attendance by many of its libraries, of which 8 attendees were from LOUIS institutions. LOUIS‘ own Marcy Stevens and Lisa Stigall presented the Customizing E-Library pre conference to a full house. Brian Sherman, of McNeese, moderated the Acquisitions Sharing Session. LSU‘s Natalie Palermo sat in the audience to make Brian nervous.

T H E L O U I S I A N A L I B R A R Y N E T W O R K

P A G E 3 V O L U M E 1 8 , I S S U E 1

LOUIS will be well represented on the COSUGI Board during 2010 – 2011, with the election of two members from the consortium. Current COSUGI Conference Chair, Brian Sherman, will serve as Chair-Elect of the group. The board will receive some new blood (pardon the pun) with the election of Esther Blood from LSU Alexandria as Membership and Communications Chair. Make plans to attend the 2011 COSUGI Conference on April 19 -21, in Phoenix, Arizona!

site‘s ILLiad databases; updates by OCLC as well as by Atlas; and much more. One of the new features of ILLiad 8 called ILLiad Addons, is causing a lot of excitement. These Addons add functionality to the ILLiad client. They are flexible and allow staff to designate their own tabs on a request form to perform actions, like a web search, based on information in the ILLiad request. Once a

result is found, the user can update information in ILLiad based on the results of the search. Currently, the list of Addons includes Amazon Search for Loans and Price Importer, Google Search for Loans and Articles, Google Scholar Search for Articles, Shipment Tracking, and WorldCat Local Searches.

The ILLiad Users Conference was held in Virginia Beach, Virginia on March 24-25, 2010. It was well attended with over 300 people from across the nation. As usual the conference sessions were excellent. They included presentations on Webjunction.org, a replacement for ILLiad-l; overview of ILLiad 8; custom holdings; how to clean up a

ILLiad International Users Conference 2010 by Mary Laird, LOUIS

LALINC Collection and E-Resources Committee by Kevin Cuccia, Chair, LaTech

This has been a very productive year for the committee. Our access has begun with our most recent purchases: the Gale Virtual Reference Library, Readex‘s Louisiana Historical Newspapers and African American Newspapers, CQ Global Researcher, and Wilson Cinema Image Gallery. These purchases were made possible by a Board of Regents one time grant of $680,000 and other LOUIS savings. We compared two similar products, Art and Architecture Complete from EBSCO and H.W. Wilson‘s Art Full Text. Mike Matthews has conducted some analysis of the full text content of both and sent the committee his results. Debbie Johnson-Houston also has provided us with some useful comparison statistics using Gold Rush. Sara Zimmerman has given us some wonderful usage reports for these two products for November 2009 to February 2010. Based on all information the recommendation was to go with Wilson. We are also continuing to evaluate a number of different databases. We currently have trials to two business products which members of the committee are reviewing: Chart Screen by Securities Research Company which provides stock market information and Datamonitor‘s Marketline. Additional free trials are listed on the LOUIS homepage.

P A G E 4

LALINC Research and Development Committee Report by Natalie Palermo, Chair, LSU

T H E L O U I S I A N A L I B R A R Y N E T W O R K

The Committee held a conference call on November 6, 2009 to discuss plans for the remainder of the fiscal year. The Committee decided to investigate OPAC enhancement products and LibGuides. Vendor demonstrations of enhanced OPACs would not be scheduled until late spring or early summer of 2010. LibGuides is a web 2.0 content management and library knowledge sharing system. Six sites were invited to participate in a pilot project. LOUIS will license the product for the first year. The sites will be responsible for licensing the product after the first year. Participation in the project requires each site to assign adequate time and resources to the project and to consider it a priority. At the end of the pilot project, the sites will report to LOUIS how well the product worked for them. They will also give a presentation at LUC. The six sites include:

Committee

member, Boris

Teske (LaTech)

published,

"Assessing and

Enhancing

Information and

Communication

Technology

Literacy at

Louisiana Tech

University,” in

Louisiana

Libraries.

Information Literacy Committee Update by Angela Dunnington, Chair, SELU

This year, members of the Information Literacy Committee met in September and in October at the LOUIS Users Conference to discuss the history of the committee and past and current initiatives. Plans are underway for revision of the online resource directory, ―Integrating Information Literacy into the General Education Curriculum: Resources for Colleges and Universities,‖ which will be useful to all participating institutions as they plan to meet accreditation standards and focus on assessment in their information literacy programs. The committee is also examining its charge and considering redistribution of the institutional awareness survey to LALINC institutions. Members of the committee participated in several publication venues. Debra Rollins (LSUA), Jessica Hutchings (McNeese), Melissa Goldsmith (Nicholls), and Tony Fonseca (Nicholls) published, ―Are We There Yet? The Difficult Road to Re-Create Information Literacy," which appeared in the October 2009 issue of portal: Libraries and the Academy. The article explores the findings of the institutional-level awareness surveys conducted in 2002, 2006, and 2008 and the implications at both the state and national levels. The committee completed its work on the information literacy themed-issue for Louisiana Libraries. Published in Winter 2010, the issue features information literacy articles ranging from assessment to information literacy in the general education curriculum. Melissa Goldsmith (Nicholls) served as guest editor and Carolyn Bridgewater (LSUHSC New Orleans), Angela Dunnington (SELU), Tony Fonseca (Nicholls), Debra Rollins (LSUA), and Kathy Seidel (BRCC) served as peer reviewers on the project. Committee member, Boris Teske (LaTech) published, "Assessing and Enhancing Information and Communication Technology Literacy at Louisiana Tech University,‖ in the issue. Questions, comments, or suggestions are always welcome. Please contact Committee Chair, Angela Dunnington at adunnington@selu.edu.

P A G E 5 V O L U M E 1 8 , I S S U E 1

Delgado Community College Louisiana State University – Shreveport Louisiana State University – Health Sciences Center – New Orleans McNeese State University University of Louisiana - Lafayette University of New Orleans

Not long after the sites accepted the invitation to participate in the LibGuides pilot project, rumors of mid-year budget cuts began to surface. LOUIS decided to put the project on hold until it was known if its budget would be cut. In early February 2010, the pilot project resumed with Baton Rouge Community College replacing LSU- HSCNO. The Committee is currently at a crossroad. Central funding for a product such as an enhanced

OPAC is not an option for the foreseeable future. One-time grant funding would not address ongoing

maintenance costs. It might be time to refocus the activities of the Committee.

system before making the same

changes to the production server.

Tulane University

resumed active participation in

LDL this year. LOUIS staff trained

David Comeaux of Tulane in the

use of CONTENTdm. David will

serve as the collection

administrator at Tulane interfacing

with LOUIS on behalf of five

departments within Special

Collections at Tulane University:

Louisiana Research Collection,

University Archives, Hogan Jazz

Archives, Southeast Architectural

Archives and the Latin American

Library. The University of

Louisiana at Monroe also

resumed active participation in

LDL. Cyndy Roberts of ULM was

given a refresher training in

CONTENTdm and has been busy

adding collections and items.

LOUIS staff continue to train each other in the administration of CONTENTdm and LDL practices. For example, Zehra ‗ZeeZee‘ Zamin is now the primary contact for the LOUISiana Digital Library replacing John Guillory. In addition, Marcy Stevens will

provide technical backup when programming changes to the system are required. The number of items added

this fiscal year was 6,300, for a total

of 146,300 items in the LOUISiana

Digital Library. Thirty-nine new

collections we added this year:

Anthony J. Stanonis Pamphlet Collection

Arts Administration Master's Reports

Charity Hospital Archive

Edna Tiny Tarbutton Collection

Gordon W. Maxcy Photographs

Griffin 1932 Flood Collection

Hermann Moyse, Sr. World War I Collection

History of Louisiana Dental Education Archives

History of Loyola Athletics

Isidore Newman School Archives

Israel Shreve Letters

John C. McDonald

Joseph-Auren Cornet, F.S.C., Collection

Joseph Bauer Family Album

Lafcadio Hearn Correspondence

Lettres de Louisiane

Lippman Collection of Civil War Postal Covers

Louisiana Newspaper Access Program – LaNeAP Louisiana State Documents Digital

Since June 2008, the Louisiana Digital Library (LDL) has been running on the OCLC hosted service. The LDL Committee‘s decision to move to the hosted server has proved beneficial for the consortium by providing reliable service at a reduced cost to members, along with reduce staff time spent on maintaining and upgrading a locally administered server. CONTENTdm, the software that runs the LOUISiana Digital Library (LDL), was upgraded three times this year to versions 5.1, 5.2, and 5.3. Each upgrade improved overall stability of the major release of version 5.0. Noteworthy improvements in the 5.0 release are the introduction of a new client, server-side indexing of large data sets, and integration into WorldCat which is OCLC‘s online union catalog of its member libraries‘ holdings. In February 2010, LOUIS

purchased a CONTENTdm

Development Server license from

OCLC. This will provide LOUIS

and OCLC staff an environment to

upgrade, develop and test

changes to the CONTENTdm

The Louisiana Digital Library LOUIS Update by John Guillory & ZeeZee Zamin, LOUIS

P A G E 6

LOUIS ILLiad User’s Meetings Spring 2010

by Mary Laird and ZeeZee Zamin, LOUIS

LOUIS Site Visit by Shanna Clevenger, Delgado Community College

Archive

Louisiana State Museum Historical Center

Louisiana State Museum Trade Labels

Louisiana State Sovereignty Commission Pamphlets of the Civil Rights Era

Loyola University Maroon

Loyola University New Orleans Electronic Theses

LSU Libraries Political Papers

Matas Health Sciences Library Historic Photographs

Medical Journalism in Antebellum Louisiana

Mistick Krewe of Comus Missing Links Parade

Orleans Parish School Board Minutes

Sidonie de la Houssaye Collection

T. Harry Williams Center for Oral History Four Corners of Louisiana Collection

T. Harry Williams Center for Oral History Floods, Storms and Levee Breaks

T. Harry Williams Center for Oral History Military History Collection

T. Harry Williams Center for Oral History Political Collection

T. Harry Williams Center for Oral History Presentations and Publications

Tensas River National Wildlife Refuge Ivory Billed

Woodpecker Records

Tiger Rag – Student newspapers of LSU School of Medicine, New Orleans

UNO Historical Archives of the Supreme Court of Louisiana

William Branks Stewart

Collection

asked me if I would like to take over for her, I was somewhat nervous. She set up a site visit with ZeeZee Zamin and Cathy Sicard for training in September 2009. I was to submit questions to LOUIS in preparation for

Becoming the LOUIS System Administrator for Delgado Community College has been an eye-opening experience. When Denise Repman, Dean of Library Services,

our meeting, but since I was so new I needed it all. ZeeZee and Cathy were such a big help. They patiently guided me through the maze called ―Workflows‖ and the various functions that would be necessary for

T H E L O U I S I A N A L I B R A R Y N E T W O R K

Each spring two LOUIS ILLiad Users meetings are held, one in the northern part of the state and one in the southern part so that travelling is easier for the attendees. These meetings provide the chance for the ILL staff to meet each other, exchange tips, learn new techniques, and report issues and problems. This spring the LOUIS staff provided updates from the ILLiad International Users Conference that was held on March 24-25, 2010 at Virginia Beach, VA. At each meeting Rob Bremer, The User Services Librarian at Louisiana Tech, gave a brief presentation on copyright issues as they pertain to interlibrary loan. His presentation generated an active discussion about copyright at each meeting. Other topics included discussions about new ILLiad software releases, cleaning the user database, email templates, and much more. Thirteen attendees from seven LOUIS ILLiad sites participated in the meetings. The North meeting held at LSU-A was hosted by Esther Blood. The South meeting was held at LSU. Attendees agreed that these meetings were very useful as they provided a venue to not only exchange information but to meet other ILLiad staff in the consortium as well.

P A G E 7 V O L U M E 1 8 , I S S U E 1

me to become a competent System Administrator. They reassured me that no question is too silly to ask and LOUIS is always a Footprints incident away. It has been eight months since the site visit, and both ZeeZee and Cathy have kept their promise. I have opened numerous Footprints, both serious

and silly (although at the time...not so silly). LOUIS quickly and efficiently answered my question or fixed my problem. So a big…THANK YOU...to ZeeZee, Cathy, and all the LOUIS staff for their continued support.

at the Ouachita Parish

Courthouse. This collection

is part of a larger collection,

The Griffin Photograph

Collection, given to Special

Collections in 1986 by

Durwood Griffin. Durwood,

also a professional

photographer, was the son of

J.E. Griffin. A Louisiana

Board of Regents

Enhancement Grant provided

funding in 2009 to purchase

the equipment needed to

digitize this collection and

other historic collections of

interest to students and

patrons at ULM.

A second collection,

the Edna Tiny Tarbutton

collection is in the process of

being published in the LDL.

Images from three

scorebooks are currently

available and the remaining 8

are being scanned, cataloged

and added to the on-line

content. The Edna Tiny

Tarbutton collection

documents women‘s

basketball in northeast

Louisiana and across the

state between 1945 and

1955. Willie Edna ―Tiny‖

Tarbutton coached women‘s

basketball at Baskin High

School, from 1943 until 1977.

Her team won a state

championship in 1945 and

was runner up in 1947.

Beginning in 1948 and

ending in 1955, Tarbutton‘s

teams won eight consecutive

state championships and 216

consecutive victories.

Tarbutton was inducted into

the Louisiana High School

Athletic Association Hall of

Fame in 1979, The Louisiana

Sports Hall of Fame in 1993,

the National High

School Hall of

Fame in 1994, and

the Women‘s

Basketball Hall of

Fame in 2005.

A collection of images

showing the Ouachita River

Flood of 1932 and belonging

to the University of Louisiana

at Monroe Library Special

Collections is now available

online through the Louisiana

Digital Library. The 303

images, taken by J.E. Griffin,

a professional photographer

from Monroe, Louisiana, were

scanned from negatives with

some being as large as 8 x 10

inches in size. Griffin labeled

the negatives with places and

dates so they show, in

chronological order, the rising

flood waters and the effects

on homes and businesses in

the Ouachita Parish area.

Included in the collection are

aerial images of Ouachita

parish and images of houses,

flooded streets, motor

vehicles, trains, horse drawn

wagons, Red Cross workers,

men patrolling the levees and

filling sandbags and workers

lining up for meals and for pay

The University of Louisiana at Monroe Library Special

Collections has a presence on The Louisiana Digital Library by Cyndy Robertson, ULM

“A Louisiana

Board of

Regents

Enhancement

Grant provided

funding in 2009

to purchase the

equipment

needed to

digitize this

collection and

other historic

collections of

interest to

students and

patrons at

ULM. “

P A G E 8

“This project

also aims to

assist

repositories

with audiovisual

assets

throughout the

state and

region.“

Preserving Louisiana’s Audiovisual Resources by Leslie Bourgeois, Louisiana Public Broadcasting

Louisiana Public

Broadcasting and the

Louisiana Secretary of

State‘s Office look

forward to partnering

with LOUIS and the

Louisiana Digital Library

to advance the

development of the

Louisiana Digital Media

Library Project. The

agencies received a

2009 National

Leadership Planning

Grant from the Institute

of Museum and Library

Services (IMLS) to

develop the framework

for an online digital

media archive with the

aim of preserving and

providing access to

Louisiana‘s valuable

audiovisual resources.

Currently, the

Secretary of State‘s

Multimedia Archives

houses a number of film

and video

collections,

including

materials from

many of the

state‘s television

stations dating

back to the 1950s

and oral histories

conducted with

Louisianans who

have shaped the

state‘s history.

Louisiana Public

Broadcasting houses

the materials it has

collected in producing

news and public affairs

programs and regional

interest documentaries

throughout its 35-year

history. Through the

Louisiana Digital Media

Library Project, both

agencies plan to digitize

their collections as a

part of a long-term

preservation strategy

and to make these

materials available to a

larger audience online.

This project also

aims to assist

repositories with

audiovisual assets

throughout the state

and region. The

preservation of analog

video, in particular, is a

complex task because

of the variety of existing

formats with short life

spans and a lack of

available playback

equipment. When

converting these analog

materials to digital

media, crucial decisions

must be made in order

to ensure the survival of

archival quality content,

including choosing the

appropriate digital file

formats and storage

media and establishing

a preservation strategy

to ensure the long-term

viability of these assets

as digital technologies

change. Therefore, the

Louisiana Digital Media

Library Project also

plans to establish best

practices for the

preservation of

audiovisual content in

line with emerging

national standards to

provide guidance for

other state and regional

repositories working on

similar projects within

their own institutions.

The next phase

of the project will

involve the

implementation of the

system infrastructure

and initial digitization

efforts over the next 3

years. If you have any

questions or would like

more information on the

Louisiana Digital Media

Library Project, please

feel free to contact

project manager Leslie

Bourgeois at

lbourgeois@lpb.org.

T H E L O U I S I A N A L I B R A R Y N E T W O R K

The LOUISiana Digital Library Committee Update by Keith M. Pickett, Chair, UNO

P A G E 9 V O L U M E 1 8 , I S S U E 1

The LOUISiana Digital Library (LDL) offers more than 150,000 digital items through its website at

http://www.louisianadigitallibrary.org. Twenty two organizations contribute materials to

over 100 collections, and new collections and items are being continuously added.

Furthermore, LDL contributors are entering into exciting partnerships with such

organizations as the Jazz and Heritage Foundation, JSTOR, Louisiana Sea Grant, LPB

and NPR StoryCorps to provide access to even more unique content of interest to users

across the state.

After extensive beta testing by OCLC in late 2009, an improved Project Client for

CONTENTdm was released with added functionality for collection administrators. Many

errors were also resolved. The latest version of Project Client is compatible with Windows 7 and is

somewhat faster, especially when uploading multiple-page PDF files as compound objects. The latest

version also allows collection administrators to sort items to be uploaded by any metadata field, which

was requested by several beta testers. Collection administrators also now have access to the ―server‖

tab in CONTENTdm Administration, which will allow them to access monthly usage statistics and register

their collections with OCLC via the WorldCat Digital Collection Gateway. Registering collections in the

WorldCat Gateway offers greater visibility on web search engines and the opportunity to harvest

metadata records in MARC format. The WorldCat Gateway is still in the pilot phase, but will be fully

functional this summer.

We are looking forward with great anticipation to the release of CONTENTdm version 6. This

upgrade will dramatically improve the end-user experience. A new, improved image viewer will offer easy

-to-use zoom and pan capabilities as well as the ability to download and print images with the click of a

mouse. Page images will be able to be viewed side-by-side with full-text generated by OCR. Users will

also be able to comment on and add tags to images. Breadcrumbs will be available to help with site

navigation. Streaming content will also be supported. Currently, a ―Sandbox‖ of mockups of the

improved user interface is available from the CONTENTdm User Support Center (http://

www.contentdm.org/USC) for collection administrators to comment on. LDL contributors have been

asked to view the mockups and leave comments and suggestions in the Sandbox forum so that OCLC

can incorporate them into future releases.

Honorable Mayor-

President, Melvin ―Kip‖

Holden declared the week

of March 8-12, 2010 as

Louisiana Library

Association Week. The

citation was presented to

LLA President, Melanie

Sims during the General

―Louisiana

Libraries: the Heart of Our

Communities‖ served as

the theme for the 84th

Annual Conference of the

Louisiana Library

Association held March 10

-12, 2010 at the Hilton

Capitol Center. The

Session. The more than

570 conference attendees

had a variety of

activities to choose

from beginning with

the Pre-Conference

activities on

Wednesday. A few

attendees began their day

2010 LLA Annual Conference Wrap Up by Melanie E. Sims, LSU LAW

P A G E 1 0

“The need for

advocacy has

never been greater

than now as

societal change

and economical

problems pose a

threat to the long

term stability of

libraries of all sizes

and types. “

by participating in a

community service

project at Baton Rouge

Magnet High School.

While others attended

one of three pre-

conference workshops:

Louisiana Libraries:

Advocacy on the Front

Lines; FSU Public

Libraries Hurricane

Preparedness and

Response Website;

and Using Open

Source Tools to

Enhance the Library

Experience.

As the day

wound down,

conference attendees

were welcomed to the

capital city with an

Open House and

Reception hosted by

staff of the Magnolia

Library at Baton Rouge

Community College.

After the reception,

local librarians served

as gracious hosts for

LLA‘s first Dine

Around.

With everyone

all geared up, the

official conference

began Thursday

morning with a

continental breakfast

and ribbon cutting

ceremony to open the

Exhibits Hall. There

were a total of 65

booths with 59 vendors

showcasing a wide

variety of products and

services. During the

conference, there were

over 70 door prizes

given away in the

Exhibit Hall.

The General

Session featured

keynote speaker, ALA

President Camila Alire

who motivated

conference attendees

to become ―front line‖

advocates for libraries.

The need for advocacy

has never been greater

than now as societal

change and

economical problems

pose a threat to the

long term stability of

libraries of all sizes

and types. Dr. Alire

emphasized how front

line advocacy differs

from the traditional

view of advocacy that

begins with

administrators lobbying

to legislators.

Following the keynote

address attendees

were energized by the

Ouachita Girls and

EBR Dewey Deci-

Belles as they

demonstrated their

book cart drill

precision. Both of

these drill team

routines may be seen

on YouTube.

There were 77

concurrent programs,

interest group

meetings and business

meetings for attendees

to choose from during

the two day

conference. The meal

functions always serve

as part of the

conference highlights.

During the Public/

Trustees Luncheon,

the Honorable

President Pro Tempore

of the Louisiana State

Senate, Sharon

Weston Broome gave

an inspirational speech

on her love and

support of libraries.

She also discussed

some of the challenges

facing the state. The

Book Dinner on

Thursday evening

featured acclaimed

author and Louisiana

native, Ernest Hill. He

spoke about growing

up in rural north

Louisiana and how it

has influenced his

writings. Family Ties,

a sequel to A Life for A

Life will be released

this fall. The 2010

Louisiana Literary

Award was presented

at the Book Dinner to

Sara Roahen for her

book entitled, Gumbo

Tales: Finding My

T H E L O U I S I A N A L I B R A R Y N E T W O R K

P A G E 1 1 V O L U M E 1 8 , I S S U E 1

Place at the New Orleans

Table. On Friday, March

12, the GODORT

Breakfast featured Paula

Wright from the U.S.

Census Bureau who

discussed the changes to

the 2010 census.

Children‘s author, Toni

Buzzeo shared her life

story and the stories

behind her stories during

the LASL Author

Luncheon.

The LLA Annual

Conference wouldn‘t have

been complete without

honoring our very

deserving 2010 award

recipients during the LLA

Award Ceremony held

Friday afternoon following

the General Business

Meeting. A wine and

cheese reception

immediately followed the

awards ceremony.

In addition to the traditional events, LLA welcomed several new conference events this year. The New Members Round Table Interest Group was revived this year by Rebecca Miller and Stephanie Wilkes. NMRT held an orientation and luncheon for new members sponsored by Detel. The first LLA Book Club also met. The conference culminated with the first ever

Scholarship Bash to raise funds for the Ollie H. Burns Memorial Scholarship. This event marked the end of a successful conference as attendees danced to the smooth sounds of the Michael Foster Project. The 2011 LLA Annual

Conference will be held

March 16-18, 2011 at the

Lafayette Cajundome.

LOUIS is on Facebook and Twitter by Marcy Stevens, LOUIS

President Pro

Tempore of the

Louisiana State

Senate, Sharon

Weston Broome

gave an

inspirational

speech on her

love and

support of

libraries.

LOUIS is keeping up with social networking and has joined Facebook

and Twitter. LOUIS has 96 fans and growing. Items that are posted include

upcoming events, accomplishments by LOUIS members and posts by our

fans on various library related topics. It is used as a supplement to our

private LOUIS consortium listservs and webpage. Become a fan at http://

www.facebook.com/louislibraries.

If you aren‘t on Facebook, you can also find LOUIS on Twitter. Tweets are

short, timely messages from LOUIS. To become a follower go to http://

www.twitter.com/louislibraries.

P A G E 1 2

“ACRL-LA plans to

further facilitate

communication, as

well as

collaborative

exchange,

between

librarians,

teaching faculty,

SLIS students, and

SLIS faculty. “

New Visions, New Voices: ACRL-LA Announces New Membership Levels

by Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith, President-Elect, Nicholls

T H E L O U I S I A N A L I B R A R Y N E T W O R K

intended for graduate students in related disciplines, and undergraduates interested in academic librarianship. The new level, the Associate Membership, is a broad category that welcomes scholars from other fields (for example, English professors and instructors, faculty/staff involved with instructional technology, Faculty

Development coordinators, and others), as well as retired and unemployed librarians, school librarians (especially those with an interest in ACRL-LA‘s Transitions to College Committee or with their own schools‘ K-12 information literacy initiatives), and out-of-state librarians with a compelling interest in Louisiana‘s academic and research libraries. Associate and Student Members receive all the benefits of full membership, with one caveat: they may not run for officer positions on the chapter‘s Executive Board.

Regardless of what type of member one becomes, that individual will find that ACRL-LA‘s dedication to the advancement of academic librarianship in the state of Louisiana will help result in the betterment of students, scholars, professors, and librarians of all types. The chapter takes as its mission the complete

professional development of the librarian, offering opportunities for publication (Codex is our peer-review online journal, now in its second issue),

chances for professional and scholarly enrichment through workshops, mechanisms (such as our Experts and Peer Networking Program) that nurture scholarship through enabling the successful completion of projects or successful approaches to solving problems, and access to first-hand information (what some may call the lowdown) about all the scholarly resources available in the state. Never an organization to rest on its laurels, ACRL-LA plans to further facilitate communication, as well as collaborative exchange, between

In an effort to increase the diversity of our membership, in the spring of 2010 ACRL-LA ratified new amendments to its By-Laws that will encourage

the addition of more members—of diverse backgrounds—but nonetheless with interests in research libraries to join the chapter. Whereas the old membership levels limited the chapter‘s appeal to practicing academic librarians and School of Library and Information Science students, the new membership levels will hopefully lead to outreach. With the passage of the By-Laws change, current memberships, and the corresponding annual dues, are as follows: Full Membership $20, Associate Membership $10, Student Membership $10.

As before, Full Membership is intended to attract professional, practicing academic librarians, in other words, those with the word Librarian in their position titles, and is limited to those who currently work in

Louisiana (Note: All members of the national

P A G E 1 3 V O L U M E 1 8 , I S S U E 1

librarians, teaching faculty, SLIS students, and SLIS faculty. But the new membership levels are crucial to our success, as the chapter‘s chance at a bright future can be realized only if that future includes new voices for strong leadership, a diversity of experience, and multidisciplinary expertise.

Noel Memorial Library would like to share a couple of technology tips that have been implemented at LSU Shreveport.

A dual monitor was added at the Reference Desk to permit patrons to view the same screen display as seen by the Reference Librarian. This eliminates

the need for the librarian to turn the desk monitor or for the patron to lean over the desk to see the

screen.

Noel Memorial Library Technology Tips

by Allen Gabehart, LSUS

With the wireless network in the library, the primary need of patrons with laptops was an electrical outlet. After relocating most of the

Index Collection in Reference, ten index tables were wired for electricity providing sixty laptop

workstations. In addition, patrons can also charge their cell phones.

Note: If you are interested in becoming a Full, Associate, or Student member of the chapter, visit our website at www.acrlla.org . There you will find information not only about membership levels, but about our journal, our discussion boards, and our Experts Network, among other items of interest.

P A G E 1 4

Another objective

of the national

organization is to

seek “to strengthen

relationships with

higher education

organizations that

are important to

faculty and

administrators in

order to develop

institutional

understand of

librarians’ roles in

enhancing teaching

and learning.”

ACRL-LA 2009-2010 Self-Study: Meeting the Goals Set by ACRL in its Strategic Plan for Learning and Scholarship

1

by Tony Fonseca, ACRL-LA President, Nicholls

According to ACRL‘s Strategic Plan, its members aim to be recognized

internationally as collaborative leaders and partners in ensuring that ―students

leave with lifelong learning skills, improving techniques for assessing learning

outcomes, and in creating environments for discovery by expanding regional,

national and international adoption, use and development of information literacy

standards.‖ To meet this goal, ACRL-LA has expanded its efforts in

encouraging adoption of the ACRL Information Literacy Standards in Louisiana

by creating an extremely active committee to investigate issues dealing with the

information literacy skills of Freshmen. Examining inconsistencies in the transition

from high school to college, this committee has already presented at two statewide

conferences, to audiences consisting of school, public, and academic librarians.2

Another objective of the national organization is to seek ―to strengthen relationships

with higher education organizations that are important to faculty and administrators in

order to develop institutional understanding of librarians‘ roles in enhancing teaching

and learning.‖ Although the chapter has only begun to strengthen such relationships,

it does indirectly empower members to (re)invent their own libraries, learning

commons, and digital venues, through the huge strides made by the chapter in the

last year in its web presence, which now allows for the following: forums and bulletin

board discussions on both general academic librarianship issues and items specific to

job descriptions and tenure requirements, file downloads (sharing), an introduction to

the chapter's projects (services), and information about the chapter's publications.

ACRL also prides itself on the fact that ―its members are recognized

internationally as authorities on the integration of content, tools, and services into the

evolving workflows of scholars and creators at all stages from initial discovery, to

individuals organizing their own resources, to the creation, sharing, publication,

aggregation, and preservation processes, including associated intellectual property

issues,‖ seeing itself as a catalyst for ―transformative change‖ in the scholarly

communication systems. In addressing how the chapter could meet these objectives,

Past-President Michael Matthews applied for, and won, the right for ACRL-LA the

right to host one of the five Scholarly Communications Roadshow workshops in the

summer of 2009. This free discussion of

copyright licenses, open access journals (OAJs),

and the relationship between the two was

attended by some 90 chapter members. As a

follow up, the chapter is working towards a

collaborative effort to establish a Louisiana

electronic theses and dissertations (ETD)

consortium.

T H E L O U I S I A N A L I B R A R Y N E T W O R K

P A G E 1 5 V O L U M E 1 8 , I S S U E 1

Both the chapter‘s incoming president (Melissa Goldsmith) and I will be presenting on institutional and consortia roles in ETD libraries at the forthcoming Networked Digital Libraries of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD) conference, and one of ACRL-LA‘s Executive Board members, Boris Teske, has already produced an ETD report to his the Louisiana Tech Graduate Council (on which he serves), at the request of his

Graduate Studies Dean. The chapter sees this as a solid first step towards achieving the ACRL objective of enhancing members‘ abilities ―to provide education, advocacy, and coalition building to support transformative change in scholarly communication systems.‖ In addition, ACRL-LA has identified copyright issues and open access as two topics for its October 2010 workshop. To address the objective of enhancing members‘ understanding of scholarly communications (namely how scholarship is created, aggregated, organized, preserved, accessed, and exchanged) the chapter, at its summer workshop, made available to members information about options authors have in the publishing/licensing process. Finally, to meet the priority of strengthening ACRL‘s ―relationships with learned societies to expand membership knowledge of disciplinary practices in scholarship,‖ Goldsmith and I have routinely attended conferences in tangential disciplines, such as education, popular culture, and music scholarship over the last few years. Finally, the chapter is making plans to revisit a 2008 theme of ―liaisonship,‖ or subject specialist librarianship. 1 A more developed version of this report, which details how the chapter attempts to meet all of the national organizations goals, and how these goals relate to professional librarianship, tenure-track appointments, and the proposed closing of LSU‘s SLIS program, see issue 2 of Codex: the Journal of the Louisiana Chapter of the ACRL: journal.acrlla.org/index.php/codex . 2 For details, see Karen Niemla‘s article in this issue.

good response to our reception last year that we will again host a reception on Thursday evening. Along with the venue change we have also changed food vendors and you will be in for a nice surprise this year. But LUC isn‘t all about the food! It‘s about the wonderful presentations and collaboration among LOUIS librarians around the state. The call for presentations has been good and we will be

This year LUC will be held on Thursday Oct. 21, 2010 and Friday Oct. 22, 2010. There is a venue change this year. LUC 2010 will be held in the Patrick F. Taylor Hall on the LSU Campus. This is the building that was formerly called CEBA. The format will be the same in that we will go all day on Thursday and half the day on Friday. We will offer breakfast both days, snacks both days and lunch on Thursday. Also, we had such a

making final decisions the first week of July. Be on the lookout on the listservs, Facebook, Twitter, and webpage for the opening of registration and the agenda. We hope to see you there.

LUC 2010 by Marcy Stevens, LOUIS

P A G E 1 6

“Information

Literacy is about

much more than

finding books and

articles; it's about

interpreting the

world we live in

and learning to

create new

ideas.”

ACRL-LA STAR (Successful Transitions to Academic Research) Committee

by Karen Niemla, ULM

Information Literacy is an immensely important set of skills everyone should have. Since ACRL national defines it as "the set of skills needed to find, retrieve, analyze, and use information," Information Literacy is about much more than finding books and articles; it's about interpreting the world we live in and learning to create new ideas. It‘s fundamental, because research is a more involved process than finding the right answer to a question. SACS very appropriately goes further, and calls it "the ability to locate, evaluate, and use information to become independent life-long learners." Since this is such an important concept, waiting until post-high-school to foster Information Literacy skills is very likely not enough, because it is so fundamental that a student needs it in his or her toolbox when they arrive on campus. It goes without saying that students who are not college-

bound might need to know this also. It would be inconsiderate to say that public libraries do not have a crucial role in fostering Information Literacy skills. After all, that is where I taught myself how to use EBSCOhost (the one without a GUI, if you remember that). Schools, however, have an inherent responsibility to educate and prepare students which is implicitly passed on to higher education. Thinking of Information Literacy as a General Education requirement, as substantial as any other, is a reality for institutions with standards like those of SACS. Reaching those standards is impeded by the varying degrees of information competency in incoming students. Dealing with this challenge has always been a part of ACRL-LA's School to College Transitions committee. ACRL-LA began the "School to College Transitions" committee as early as 2008, when

then-president Michael Matthews suggested it. When first conceived, it was known as the "K-20 Initiative," as libraries are important from the onset of education and beyond. As ACRL-LA put it in a news release, "Simply stated, this initiative will address the current disconnect that seems to exist between the K-12 system and higher education when it comes to information literacy scholarship, training, outcomes and assessment." In 2009, Debra Rollins was named committee chair, and she remains so. Eventually "K-20" was renamed "School to College Transitions," and the focus was shifted largely to high schools. Efforts to make its endeavors more concrete began with opening a dialog to learn about the concerns of the librarians. In January at the 2010 LASL Midwinter Conference, a panel discussion in Coughlin Hall Auditorium asked the titular question, "Successful Transitions: How Librarians can Help

Prepare Students for College Research?" It was not a librarian-only affair, and one of the panelists was a

T H E L O U I S I A N A L I B R A R Y N E T W O R K

the cooperation of people outside of libraries. Missing from the ceaseless discussion were concrete solutions, but not conspicuously so. That is not to say, however, that there are not still things that universities and schools can do to assist one another. For instance, The University of Louisiana at Monroe Library will prepare tours and instruction for grade schools even though this is not necessarily a part of our regular duties. School

librarians and other faculty should be considerate of their college counterparts and schedule instruction in advance with intent to honor those commitments. You can also work with us. Recently, the committee was re-named

P A G E 1 7 V O L U M E 1 8 , I S S U E 1

college professor who works with freshmen. There was much talk during the session, and it went so well that another was suggested for the 2010 LLA Conference. The session with the same name at LLA 2010 was also successful, and the Hilton's Victory Room was completely filled with various types of librarians even though it was sponsored by LASL on the "Youth Services" track, and even though it was a late entry in the conference program. People were clearly interested in the issue. Unsurprisingly, many of the same challenges face academic libraries and school libraries; they are limited in resources, and sometimes have trouble getting the attention of faculty. Many librarians who spoke seemed to feel that their skills were underused, and they were sometimes underwhelmed by the information competency levels of their students (in regards to practices, not the individuals). Instructors often assume that because their students are young, they already know how to find information and use it properly, while neither may be true. Many seemed to be aware that producing information literate students requires

again to the ―STAR (Successful Transitions to Academic Research) Committee,‖ and we welcome new members with interest in improving Information Literacy education. The committee hopes to one day draft something like written competency standards, and good input is needed. You can see the committee list at acrlla.org/about, and you can contact Debra Rollins at drollins@lsu.edu for more information.

P A G E 1 8

“The Louisiana

Research

Collection at

Tulane University

has recently

contributed three

collections to the

LOUIS Digital

Library.”

Tulane LDL Collections

by David Comeaux, Tulane The Louisiana Research Collection (formerly known as the Manuscripts department) at Tulane University has recently contributed three collections to the LOUIS Digital

Library. The first consists of the costume drawings for the Mistick Krewe of Comus' "Missing Links" parade, held in 1873. The Mistick Krewe of Comus celebrated its first Carnival in 1857, and is the oldest krewe in New Orleans. This parade is particularly famous in Mardi Gras history, as it was one of the first major parades steeped in political satire and ridicule. The "Missing Links" referred to the work of Charles Darwin, and the parade not only mocked the theory of evolution, but other topics of the day including Reconstruction.

The second collection is the Al Lippman collection of Civil War postal covers. This is part of a collection of Civil War period letters and

postal covers from donor Al Lippman. Postal covers are

envelopes with printed designs commemorating an event, person, or cause. The forty postal covers, with one exception, depict Union sentiment and patriotism. Many depict Confederate figures such as Jefferson Davis and General Beauregard. Sometimes these depictions are animal-like caricatures, others tend towards violent depictions, including several showing a hanging Jefferson Davis. Some postal covers portray a disdain of Britain's relationship with the Confederacy, others are steeped in Union patriotism and imagery of Uncle Sam. They were collected by Alfred S. Lippman of Morgan City, Louisiana, who donated them to the Louisiana Research Collection in 2009. An attorney, Lippman has been active in civic and business affairs. Among his many contributions are his services on the boards of the Community Foundation of Acadiana, 2009, United States Assay Commission, 1973-1974; Morgan City Harbor and Terminal

District, 1967-2004 (President, 1972-1978-1999); Louisiana Board of Tax Appeals, 1980-1985; the Pan American Commission, 1990-1992; the Board of Supervisors, Louisiana Universities, 2000-2005; Whitney National Bank and Whitney Holding Corp., 1997- present; and the United States Coast Guard Foundation, 1990-2005. The third collection is the Mistick Krewe of Comus‘ 1910 Parade Float Designs. The theme of this parade was Mahomet (Muhammad), with illustrations of ―scenes from the Koran and episodes in the life of the great Prophet‖. The artist was Jennie Wilde, who designed floats for many parades, for both Comus and the Knights of Momus. The two Comus collections are part of a much larger Carnival collection housed at the Louisiana Research Collection.

T H E L O U I S I A N A L I B R A R Y N E T W O R K

SirsiDynix Symphony Update by Cathy Sicard, LOUIS

P A G E 1 9 V O L U M E 1 8 , I S S U E 1

Last fall LOUIS completed the first upgrade on our new virtual Beta server. We upgraded from Symphony 3.2.1 to 3.3.1. All sites were invited to beta test the new release using this new environment supported by LOUIS. After beta testing, LOUIS then upgraded the Test server on December 15 and the Production server on January 11. The upgrade process for all twenty-nine sites was completed successfully in less than four hours. The issues reported following the upgrade were very minimal. Thanks to Chad Wright, SirsiDynix Technical Advisor, for his help throughout the process and to the LOUIS System Administrators for all their help testing throughout the process! One of the biggest adjustments with the 3.3.1 upgrade is that all sites have migrated from the WorkFlows C-client to the Java client. This transition has thankfully been less painful than we anticipated. After upgrading to

3.3.1, the LOUIS staff

updated the encryption

certificates for all sites

since they are required to

encrypt eLibrary. Also,

LOUIS expanded the

scope of eLibrary data that

was encrypted to include

not only the users in ―My

Account‖ data, but also the

entire eLibrary interface.

Unrelated to the upgrade, LOUIS updated other pieces of the Symphony environment. On the server side, the backup procedures have been enhanced with new features; more memory was added to ―Bob‖, the Symphony beta, training and hotsite server; and jumbo frames was installed to improve backup network throughput. The LOUIS hosted EZproxy software was also upgraded to the

current release for the nineteen sites that use this service. In December 2009, LOUIS allowed SirsiDynix to load its newly developed Web Services and BookMyne iPhone application on our Beta server in order to do testing. Following this test, the iPhone application was released by Apple. LOUIS installed this software on the Symphony Test server for further testing. The decision was made to wait for further enhancements before proceeding with this

application in production. In January 2010, LOUIS purchased and installed StaffWeb 3.3.1. This is a light version of the WorkFlows desktop client. It was not designed to replace WorkFlows. Ten sites have been using it so far. LOUIS completed a data conversion project for all government document sites. The conversion formatted the 856 fields in such way that it allowed the title to be displayed along with the ―click‖ usage statistics for electronic government documents loaded into the catalog. A total of 849,327 bibliographic titles were updated. Upcoming within our SirsiDynix environment, is the implementation of Demand Management for all sites, the addition of a new institution, Louisiana Delta Community College, and the implementation of LDAP for LSU and LSU-S.

“The upgrade

process for all

twenty-nine

sites was

completed

successfully in

less than four

hours. The

issues

reported

following the

upgrade were

very

minimal. “

LOUIS Contact Information:

Mailing Address:

LOUIS Office

Frey Computing Services Center

Tower Dr. at S. Stadium Dr.

Baton Rouge, LA 70803-1900

Phone: 225.578.3700

FAX: 225.578.6400

http://www.louislibraries.org

Executive Director:

Ralph Boe 225.578.3740

Director: Sara Zimmerman 225.578.3705

Consultant:

Cathy Sicard 225.578.3751

Analysts: John Guillory 225.578.3758

Mary ―Bron‖ Laird 225.578.3753

Marcy Stevens 225.578.3771

Lisa Stigall 225.578.3735

Zehra ―Zee Zee‖ Zamin 225.578.3747

Design Editor:

Alex Zimmerman

THE LOUISIANA LIBRARY NETWORK:

Combining the resources of Louisiana's public and private academic libraries,

along with a centralized support staff to produce a dynamic library consortium.