MIAMI UNIVERSITYL I B R A R I E S

ANNUAL REPORT

2012

message. With Dean Sessions’ vision of the library and technology, the Libraries have transformed physically and virtually.

Before becoming Dean and University Librarian at Miami, Judith Sessions was the University Librarian at California State University in Chico. She earned a B.A. from Central Florida University, M.S. in Library Science from Florida State University, a certificate in Information Systems from George Washington University, and certificate in Management Change from American University.

In 2008 she received the Miami University Distinguished Service Award, and she earned a Distinguished Service Award from the American Library Association in 1994. She has also had the opportunity to

DEAN SESSIONS RETIRES AFTER 25 YEARS OF SERVICETRANSITIONS

When Judith Sessions began as Dean of Libraries in 1988, academic libraries looked quite different than they do today. Print books and journals were retrieved with the old style card catalog. OhioLINK, the statewide consortium now made up of 89 Ohio Libraries was merely an idea.

There were no eBooks or online research databases, and to get help from a librarian you had to come in person during regular business hours.

The library of today provides access to information that many in 1988 could not fathom. Library patrons can search our online catalog on their mobile phone or tablet, send electronic journal articles via email, read e-books and digitized archival material and get help from librarians via text

Cover photos (clockwise from top left):

Amos Music Library, BEST Library interior, Alumni Hall (home of Wertz Library), Peabody Hall (home of Western College Archives), Special Collections, BEST Library, King Library at night, SWORD, Miami Ar-chives, Alumni Hall ceiling, and King Library (center).

travel internationally to countries like China, Russia, South Korea and Ghana for various lectures and projects.

Through Dean Sessions’ strategic vision and leadership over the last 25 years, the Libraries have been positioned to serve our 21st century users with 24-hour access to thousands of online resources.

She has led numerous renovation projects to create dynamic library facilities that emphasize excellent service to students and faculty. Her support of technology has kept the Libraries ahead of pace and pushed us to remain relevant, nimble and able to respond to changing needs to patrons.

Dean Sessions announced her retirement this fall and retired from the university on December 31, 2012. In her announcement, she said, “I step down knowing, as I always say in presentations about the MU library system, that the strength of our Libraries

is its incredible staff and that you remain to carry out our vision to be not only the library of today but also the future.”

Effective January 1, 2013, Jerome Conley has been appointed Interim Dean of Libraries and Aaron Shrimplin has been named Interim Associate Dean. Jerome says,

“I look forward to working with Aaron, the Assistant Deans and the entire library staff to build upon Judith’s rich legacy, while also helping the Miami and library communities to begin an even richer chapter of providing unparalleled library service to our users.”

As we said goodbye to Judith, we also welcomed some new faces into the Libraries’ community.

“WHAT A WONDERFUL EXPERIENCE THIS HAS

BEEN FOR ME. EVERYONE SHOULD BE LUCKY

ENOUGH TO HAVE A JOB THAT NEVER FEELS LIKE

WORK!”

JUDITH SESSIONS

DEAN SESSIONS RETIRES AFTER 25 YEARS OF SERVICETRANSITIONS

2012 BY THE NUMBERS

EXPENDITURES

157KTOTAL CIRCULATION

BUDGET BREAKDOWN

STUDENTS STAFF LIBRARIANS LEADERSHIP

STAFF Salaries & benefits of our 121 employees

BOOKS One-time purchases of books, ebooks and audiovisual items

SERIALS Ongoing subscriptions to electronic journals

OTHERComputers and technology, ILL, preservation & operations

Twitter: 765 followers (up 30% since January 2012)

Flickr: 553,000 views on our content (~378 views per day, 214 followers, up 10% from last year)

Vimeo: 8,197 total views from over 150 countries (up 28% from previous year)

Facebook: 34% increase in likes from 2011

30,000 IN PERSON

VISITORS IN ATYPICAL WEEK

LIBRARIES BLOG News & Notesreadership up

43%OPEN ONLINE

AND @ KING LIBRARY

24/7THE MU LIBRARIES ON SOCIAL MEDIA

LIBRARIES WEBSITE www.lib.miamioh.edu Overall hits are up

57%

Source: National Center for Education Statistics 2012 Academic Libraries Survey

communication where the high costs of academic journals are putting a barrier between faculty work and potential readers.

In May 2012, Miami’s librarians voted on and passed an Open Access Policy and immediately began depositing their scholarly output in the Scholarly Commons, Miami’s institutional repository. The Libraries are the first department on Miami’s campus to successfully pass a policy such as this, and only the second university library in the country to take this action.

The hope is that through the adoption of this policy, librarians will gain first hand knowledge of how facets of open access work, which will greatly improve our outreach efforts to faculty on campus. Even more importantly, this policy allows librarians and faculty to more broadly share their work with the world. The vote also gained Miami University entry into COAPI, the Coalition of Open Access Policy Institutions.

The Libraries’ Scholarly Communications working group, led by librarian Jen Waller, was instrumental in the passage of the Open Access Policy. This group also provides opportunities for the academic and research

COLLECTIONS, FACULTY RESEARCH AND CURRICULUMCONNECTIONS

Miami’s librarians directly support teaching, learning, and research, particularly as they are enhanced by the use of library resources.

Subject specialist librarians are available for advanced research consultations in dozens of subject areas. Librarians work with faculty, staff and students to understand and support research and information needs, provide library instruction and maintain relevant online and print collections.

Open Access

Librarians are also vehement supporters of open access. The open access movement aims to increase visibility and impact of research by making scholarly works freely available online. This is just one reaction to the so-called crisis in scholarly

What is Open Access?

“Open access to information is the free,

immediate, online access to the results of scholarly research, and the rights to use and re-use those

results as needed.”

community to learn about the potential benefits of open access to information.

This past October, in celebration of the 2012 International Open Access Week, the Scholarly Communications group hosted several events including a presentation by William Gunn titled “How Open Scholarship is Changing Research.”

Center for Digital Scholarshiphttp://cds.lib.muohio.edu/

To further support faculty research, the Center for Digital Scholarship (CDS), which opened last year in King Library, has been expanded. The CDS provides a space where faculty and graduate students can work on digital projects and get assistance from librarians and other specialized staff.

This space has expanded to add more collaborative areas, a large meeting room, office spaces for specialized staff and additional faculty workspaces.

The facility also provides guidance for digital humanities and scholarly communications work. The CDS mission is to “provide facilities and services to support digital initiatives that enhance the research, teaching and learning mission of Miami University.” An Open House for the CDS will be held April 23, 2013.

COLLECTIONS, FACULTY RESEARCH AND CURRICULUMCONNECTIONS

Jean-Baptiste Du Halde. Description geographique, historique, chronologique, politique, et physique de l’empire de la Chine et de la Tartarie chinoise … Paris: Chez P.G. Le Mercier, 1735.

This is the first edition of an extensively illustrated four volume work, the most influential work on China published in the 18th century. A special bookplate was placed in this title in celebration of Dean Judith Sessions’ career at Miami.

FROM THE WALTER HAVIGHURST SPECIAL COLLECTIONS The following items are recent additions to the Walter Havighurst Special Collections.The items highlighted here will enhance the collection’s existing strengths in history, art, and literature and will be used in both classes and public exhibits. The materials were either donated to the Collections or purchased with donor funding.

John Gould and N. A. Vigors. A Century of Birds from the Himalaya Mountains. London: [Published by the author], 1832.

This elaborately illustrated folio volume was completed between 1830 and 1832 by John Gould (1804-1881), an English ornithologist, and features hand-colored lithographic plates of the birds of the Himalaya region.

HIGHLIGHTS

Geoffrey Chaucer. The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, Now Newly Imprinted. Upper Mall, Hammersmith, Middlesex: Kelmscott Press, 1896.

One of the most famous private press books ever printed, the Kelmscott Press edition of The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer is considered the crowning achievement of William Morris’s press and is one of the most beautifully designed books in the history of printing.

Charles Dickens. The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. London: Chapman and Hall, 1839. Purchased in honor of Dickens’s 200th birthday, this is a first edition, bound from the parts, of one of his most popular novels.

HIGHLIGHTS

For more from Special Collections, visit: spec.lib.miamioh.edu

George Covington Civil War letters and ephemera. Covington Family Collection. Approximately 50 items. The Civil War letters of George Covington are part of a recent donation by the Covington family heirs to the Covington Family collection already housed in the Walter Havighurst Special Collections. These are a welcome addition to our already substantial collection of Civil War related manuscripts.

were consolidated to one location to ease use for students and staff. Both of Wertz’s classified staff members, Jessica Wray and Naomi Gades were awarded the Miami University PRIDE award for excellence as classified staff.

Amos Music Library

Located in the Center for Performing Arts, the Amos Music Library supports the needs of the Department of Music with its staff, services and extensive collections, which includes the collected works of almost every major composer.

This past spring, Christi Sommerfeldt started as Library Associate. Print collection shelves were re-labeled with attractive black on yellow call number markers. User-friendly signage including explanations of music call numbers were placed on bookshelves in the library.

The audio collection was shifted and several hundred LP recordings were withdrawn or moved to storage if it was duplicated elsewhere.

RESOURCES: UPDATES FROM THE SPECIAL LIBRARIESSPECIALIZED

The Miami University Libraries consist of the 24-hour King Library, Amos Music Library, Wertz Art & Architecture Library, BEST (Business, Engineering, Science and Technology) Library and University and Western College Archives.

Wertz Art and Architecture Library

The Wertz Art and Architecture Library, located in Alumni Hall, includes library materials and support for art, architecture, landscape architecture, photography, and interior design.

In 2012, staff at Wertz completed an evaluation of the closed stacks collection and created a new group study room for student use. AutoCAD and Sketchup, design and drafting software, were added to the computers in the library. Printing services

To better serve patrons with technical questions, these areas have been staffed with specialists capable of helping with ArcGIS projects, Adobe Creative Suite, iMovie, 3D Modeling, Microsoft Office Suite including Excel, and many of the general computer problems you may encounter. The Digital Den Help Desk is staffed Monday through Thursday, 2pm-4pm and 7pm-11pm.

In addition to these services we also offer statistics help at our Statistics Help Desk. Geared for those needing assistance with statistics problems in their coursework, students are welcome to stop by, no appointment required, for help with course assignments but also assistance with stats software including Excel, JMP, SPSS, SAS, Minitab, R, and MATLAB.

BEST Library

The Business, Engineering, Science and Technology Library opened in 2011 in Laws Hall. Replacing the 33-year old Brill Science Library, this facility houses print collections, specialty subject services and library staff for the natural sciences including psychology and physical geography, the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and the Farmer School of Business.

Fall 2012 marked the opening of BEST Library’s newest service point, The Digital Den. This area, located directly behind the glass artwork in the lobby of the library, has 7 iMacs and 6 PCs, a 3D printer, and a 3D scanner. There is also a large format scanner, black and white printer, and an all-in-one copier/scanner/color printer.

RESOURCES: UPDATES FROM THE SPECIAL LIBRARIESSPECIALIZED

“The new library is great -- I almost wish I was just a freshman again so I could stay and use it!” - Miami senior about the BEST library

Instructional iPads

In addition to iPads for student checkout at information desks, iPads are now being used regularly for library instruction. Instructors can reserve up to 15 iPads to use for instructional purposes. By using tablets or other mobile devices, you can take library instruction directly to library users, no matter where they are. If library classrooms are booked, instruction sessions can happen anywhere.

3D Printing

Patrons can now print anything they want, with our new three dimensional printing services, now available in the Center for Information Management in King Library and in the Digital Den in BEST Library.

and INSTRUCTIONTECHNOLOGYLibrary staff educate and inform our patrons in many arenas: at information desks, computer labs, online through instant messaging or in the classroom. Technology is inextricably linked to library instruction in all its forms; it’s almost impossible to have one without the other.

Library instruction at Miami

Librarians teach information literacy and research skills to students of every level, from first-semester freshmen to graduate students refining their dissertations. Instructors teach students strategies for finding, evaluating, analyzing and citing information sources. Librarians also facilitate more informal learning experiences in workshops, working hands-on with maps, instructional materials or special collections or while embedded in online courses.

Many librarians teach credit courses in the Armstrong Institute for Interactive Media Studies (AIMS) or in their own discipline. In 2012, there was a total attendance of 13,697 in 567 library instruction sessions.

The Libraries has acquired two MakerBot Replicator 3D printers which can print virtually any object using ABS plastic, the same type that is used in the production of Lego’s™. The printers can print in a volume roughly the same size as a loaf of bread.

Library consultants are available to help with projects and can convert from a wide variety of formats for printing such as Google Sketchup, Blender or other 3D modeling programs.

The pricing is per gram of the finished print. Many factors go into the final weight of the end product: how much fill is necessary, how big the project is (volume), and whether the project requires external supports while being printed.

Computer Availability Maps

Patrons in our libraries or online can now view how many and what type of computers are available at any given time. Library staff members have created real-time computer availability maps that show computer labs and other areas in the libraries and what computers are in use, allowing students to quickly locate an available computer.

The maps were created with Google Sketchup and LabStats. Patrons can access this information from touch screens located around King and BEST Libraries, from the library website and their mobile device. To view other maps, like this one from the Kamm computer lab in King, visit:

and INSTRUCTIONTECHNOLOGY

http://www.lib.muohio.edu/computing/computer-availability

SELECTED SERVICE AND SCHOLARSHIPJenny Presnell published the 2nd edition of her book The Information-Literate Historian.

Jason Paul Michel’s book Web Service APIs and Libraries was published in 2012.

Jacky Johnson is the editor of Finding Freedom: Memorializing the Voices of Freedom Summer, released this year.

PROFESSIONAL SERVICE

Ashley Jones, in conjunction with colleagues from other institutions, started a new round table on sustainability at the American Library Association (ALA). Ashley

FROM OUR LIBRARY STAFFMILESTONES

PROMOTED TO PRINCIPAL LIBRARIANJohn BurkeJohn Millard

PROMOTED TO ASSOCIATE LIBRARIAN Stacy Brinkman

Arianne Hartsell-GundyJacqueline Johnson

Andrew RevelleKwabena SekyereKrista McDonald

Mark ShoresBeth Tumbleson

15 YEARS OF SERVICEAndy Farler

Pamela Lipscomb

25 YEARS OF SERVICEJames BrickerLinda EstepKen Grabach

30 YEARS OF SERVICESusan Gray

Monica Sweeney

MILESTONES and Jason Jackson have also begun a sustainability group at the Miami University Libraries.

Susan Hurst is the chair of Business Reference Sources and the RUSA John L. Sessions Labor Award committee in ALA.

Elias Tzoc developed the first mobile interface for DSpace, the most widely used open source repository platform.

Stacy Brinkman was elected as Fellow of the Association of Research Libraries Leadership and Career Development Program.

Kim Tully is a founding member of the Special Collections and Archives Interest Group at the Academic Library Association of Ohio and is currently serving as one of the Co-Chairs.

Robert Withers is on the following national committees: Education, Training and Support Committee, Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) Machine Assisted Reference Services. and Teaching Methods Committee, ACRL’s Instruction Section.

OTHER SCHOLARSHIP

Revelle, Andy, Kevin Messner, Aaron Shrimplin and Susan Hurst. 2012. “Book Lovers, Technophiles,

Pragmatists, and Printers: The Social and Demographic Structure of User Attitudes toward e-Books.” College & Research Libraries. 73 (5) :420-429. Hurst, Susan, Andy Revelle and Aaron Shrimplin. “Seeing the Forest by Counting the Trees: Using a Variety of Data Sources to See the Big Picture.” Journal of Web Librarianship (in review).

Miller, Lindsay. “The library and the campus visit: Communicating value to prospective students and parents.”College & Research Libraries News. 73 (10): 586-589.

Brinkman, Stacy and Arianne Hartsell-Gundy. “Building trust to relieve graduate student research anxiety.” Public Services Quarterly. 8(1): 26-39.

CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR 2012 RETIREES

James BeareJoan Jessie

Judith SessionsMonica Sweeney

NEWS FROM THE ARCHIVES AND WESTERN COLLEGE ARCHIVES

Thank you to our library donors. You are essential to the execution of our mission to be a fundamental resource in the pursuit of knowledge and scholarly research at Miami University. Your support allows our library system to be more and do more and make a bigger impact on Miami’s faculty and students. Thank you for your generous support of the Libraries.

TO OUR GENEROUS LIBRARY SUPPORTERS AND DONORS

The Western College Memorial Archives is dedicated to acquiring and preserving materials related to the Western College for Women.

Jacky Johnson, Archivist, is the editor of the book Finding Freedom: Memorializing the Voices of Freedom Summer, published in 2012. The book includes accounts from 1964 training sessions at Western College, including essays by Oxford residents. Period photographs and other essays are included.

For more information about Freedom Summer, visit the Freedom Summer Digital Collection: http://digital.lib.muohio.edu/fs/

The Miami University Archives contains manuscripts, publications, photographs, and artifacts dealing with Miami University history. The Archives, located in Withrow Court, updated their reading room in 2012 with all new furniture.

For information on how to donate to the

MU Libraries, visit:

www.lib.muohio.edu/gifts

As my chapter as Interim Dean commences, I marvel in the talents of our studentbody, the dedication and commitment of our faculty, staff and administrators tothe young charges placed in their care. I am equally impressed by the talentsof our library faculty and staff, each of whom works tirelessly to ensure an evenbetter tomorrow for the Miami Libraries and Miami University.

In her book on the history of the Miami University Libraries, Elizabeth Baerchronicles the efforts of John W. Brown to raise money on behalf of MiamiUniversity and the Libraries . Despite our very humble beginnings as an institution as well as a library, we still stand true to the ethos of our noble and grand profession. Just as my predecessors have been grateful for the support of donations of others, I toojoin them in saluting each of you for your support of Miami University.

Finally, I will be forever grateful for the vision and leadership of former DeanJudith A. Sessions. This annual report was dedicated to her nearly twenty fiveyears of service to the Miami University Libraries. We wish her only the best inher retirement.

PEACE. JEROME

A NOTE FROMJEROME CONLEYINTERIM DEAN