Thursday, June 30, 2016

Augusta-Richmond County Public Library System in the Spotlight

Aerial view of ARCPLS old and new headquarters
The Augusta-Richmond County Public Library System (ARCPLS) is comprised of the Headquarters Library and five branches scattered throughout the greater Augusta, Georgia area.  The Headquarters Library was opened in 2010 across the street from the previous main location, transporting services and collections from a 3500 square foot building to a 95,000 square foot, three floor facility equipped with computers on each level, dedicated Children’s and YA Areas, study rooms and an auditorium with a collapsible wall affording versatile uses of the building’s largest meeting space.

The remaining five locations include the Diamond Lakes Branch, which shares building space with a recreation/community center known as the hub of a very active sports program serving athletes of all ages.  The Freidman and Maxwell Branch libraries are each slated for extensive renovations within the next few years due to a community-backed SPLOST initiative.  Upon completion, these branches that will have been in existence well over a combined total of 70 years, will be able to continue to serve their communities within familiar walls using state-of-the-art library fixtures and resources.

Appleby Library, Augusta, GA
Undoubtedly, the hidden jewels of the system are housed in its oldest buildings.  The Wallace Branch is one of the most popular meeting room destinations of all of the facilities.  Its location, less than five blocks away from the Augusta University Medical Campus (formerly the Medical College of Georgia), next door and across the street from two high schools and across the street from a respected preschool makes it a convenient destination for students of all ages.  Its historic significance to the city is invaluable as it was originally built as the first public library location to specifically serve African-American patrons in the 1950’s.  Finally, the beautiful Appleby Library is located in a stately, historic antebellum home willed to the system many years ago.  Parents regularly remark that their children are the 3rd generation in their family to attend the branch’s very popular story times.

A strengthened emphasis on programming is the latest effort by ARCPLS to transform the system into one that leans out into the community to bring patrons into the fold, while not necessarily into the doors.  Annual signature programs such as the Augusta Literary Festival, Star Wars Reads Day and the Evenings In Appleby Gardens Concert Series regularly draw thousands of attendees.  However, lessons on how to become a “virtual patron” teach those unable or unwilling to travel to a branch how to best maximize online resources such as Georgia Download Destination for book downloads, Zinio for periodical downloads and Pronunciator and Tumblebooks for distance literacy learning in over 80 languages.  GLASS Augusta rounds out the system’s offerings as the department provides Talking Books outreach to 21 surrounding counties.

Under the leadership of Library Director Mashell Fashion who has spent the bulk of her 30 year career with the system, ARCPLS looks forward to honoring its past while simultaneously exceeding goals poised to make it a model public library system of the future.

Saturday, June 18, 2016

GLA Website Redesign Survey

The Georgia Library Association is undertaking the GLA website redesign. As part of this effort, we would like to know how you use the GLA website and what content and features you would like to see on the new site.

The following 10 questions survey will only take a few minutes to complete - https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/XZ2T2RV

Please help us improve the web site and make it more useful to you by telling us about your experiences with the site.

The survey will close on July 1, 2016.

Thank you for your time and input.

Website redesign task force
Elizabeth McKinney  - Chair
Kara Mullen
Jeffrey Mortimore
Christina Yau
Sofia Slutskaya  

Monday, June 13, 2016

Upcoming Carterette Webinar: Integrated Assessment for Informed Collection Management - July 6, 2016


Integrated Assessment for Informed Collection Management: A Review of the Pilot Year
Wednesday, July 6, 2016
2pm Eastern (11am Pacific | 12pm Mountain | 1pm Central)
Register:  https://goo.gl/xgUbac

Description:
In June 2015, the Kennesaw State University Library System launched a pilot implementation of a newly-conceived Collection Assessment Plan. The plan follows a 5-year rotating schedule for systematically reviewing print holdings of the KSU Library System. The plan is broad in scope. It spans multiple library departments and integrates into operational workflows. Project contributors include Undergraduate Faculty Liaisons and Graduate Librarians as well as professional, paraprofessional, and student employees from Access Services, Technical Services, and Interlibrary Loan. In all, 36 staff members distributed over four library locations participated in this much-needed collection assessment and maintenance project.

Collection Assessment can serve numerous functions. It allows a library to better understand the needs of the community, to report assessment findings to administrative stakeholders and, importantly, it informs decisions about collection maintenance. These decisions include matters of selection and withdrawal, among others. The plan recognizes that no single metric is sufficient to serve all of these roles. Rather, it investigates multiple aspects of the collection, including use, patron perception, holdings analysis, areas of existing need, core title list comparisons, and peer benchmarks.  Assessment is often considered peripheral to a library’s primary objectives; it measures and reports on library activities from the sidelines. A preferable approach would be for assessment information to be in the hands of decision-makers at the point of need. This model of collection assessment endorses the idea that assessment is best employed when fully integrated into collection workflows and procedures, and distributed among staff who make decisions about selection and withdrawal. Ultimately, this plan seeks to provide structure for improved decision-making and strategic collection growth.

About the Presenters:
Ana Guimaraes is the Interim Head of Collection Development for the Kennesaw State University Library System. Her professional work experience primarily consists of public services and collection development for academic and rare book libraries, including public archives and university special collections.  Since joining KSU in 2013, her efforts in collection management and assessment have been focused on laying the groundwork for years of sustainable collection growth that is better able to meet the educational and research needs of the scholarly community.

Michael Luther serves as Assessment Librarian and Assistant Professor of Library Science at the Kennesaw State University Library System. Michael is responsible for cultivating an evidence-based approach to the evaluation of library services and resources. In partnership with the faculty and staff, he aims to measure library quality, support the university mission, and improve the library experience for the KSU community.

Can't make it to the live show? That's okay. The session will be recorded and available on the Carterette Series Webinars site for later viewing.
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To register for the online event
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1. Go to registration page: https://goo.gl/xgUbac
2. Complete and submit the form.
3. A URL for the event will be emailed to you immediately after registration.
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Contact a member of the Carterette Series planning team with questions or suggestions:
carteretteserieswebinars@gmail.com

Saturday, June 4, 2016

Master of Library Science Programs Fair - June 18, 2016

Metro-Atlanta Library Association and Georgia Library Association’s NMRT present ...

Master of Library Science Programs Fair

When:   Saturday, June 18th, 2016
  2:00 – 4:00 pm

Where:  Oglethorpe University
  Turner Lynch Campus Center
  4484 Peachtree Rd NE
  Atlanta, GA 30319

What:  Meet with and ask questions of representatives from a variety of ALA-accredited MLIS programs!

Who:
  Clayton State University
  Middle Tennessee State University
  University of Alabama
  University of Kentucky
  University of North Carolina
  University of North Texas
  University of Southern Mississippi
  Valdosta State University

Also featuring:
Atlanta Emerging Librarians
Special Libraries Association

Light snacks will be served.  

Friday, June 3, 2016

Emory University and the Georgia Institute of Technology Joint Library Service Center in the Spotlight!


Emory University and the Georgia Institute of Technology in March dedicated a new joint Library Service Center (LSC), a collaborative project that houses a shared collection of materials, provides delivery services and frees space on the main campuses at both universities.

The LSC, located at Emory's Briarcliff Road property, is a secure, 55,000-square-foot, climate-controlled facility that employs state-of-the-art equipment and technology to house both special and general library collections, provide free access to them, and ensure cost-effective, long-term preservation of the materials.

“The new Library Service Center is a shining example of the long and productive public-private partnership between Emory and Georgia Tech," said G.P. "Bud" Peterson, president of Georgia Tech. "Our complementary strengths produce powerful synergies. Our collaborations exist because both institutions believe great things happen when we work together to tackle big challenges."

More than 15 years ago, the two universities established EmTech, at that time a biotechnology business incubation initiative to provide infrastructure for biotech start-ups. EmTech has expanded a variety of initiatives, including the LSC, that benefit both institutions.

Each institution contributed equally to the facility's construction and will continue equal support for operations funding.

“By working together to establish the LSC, both institutions now have access to a broader range of library materials, stored in optimal physical conditions and at a lower cost," said Rich Mendola, enterprise chief information officer and senior vice provost for library services and digital scholarship at Emory.

Currently, the LSC houses approximately 95 percent of Georgia Tech’s collections and a portion of Emory collections. Once ingest is complete in the summer of 2016 the archive module will house more than 2 million volumes. The module is capable of holding 4 million volume equivalents, and the facility can accommodate another module of the same size, meaning that it may be possible for additional partners to join Emory and Georgia Tech.

Only about 17 percent of Georgia Tech's and Emory's collections overlap, which means that "together we have an exceptional collection that benefits both campuses," said Yolanda Cooper, university librarian at Emory.

"In addition to making progress on the big dream of the shared collection available to all at both institutions, the Emory-Georgia Tech collaboration creates a new model of partnership between research libraries that we hope will encourage our library colleagues to improve access to collections and services through deeper collaborations of their own," said Catherine Murray-Rust, vice provost for learning excellence and dean of libraries at Georgia Tech.

Features of the Library Service Center include:

  • The 55,000-square-foot secure, climate-controlled facility has state-of-the-art equipment and technology. The archive module is 30,000 square feet and 25,000 is used for processing materials and special handling.
  • High-density shelving is designed to ensure the long-term preservation of and access to library collections. 
  • A reading room allows users to consult materials on site, so that they can make more precise selections to be delivered to a campus library for use.
  • Two deliveries per day of physical items to campus locations are scheduled, with a mediated service available for rush/on-demand delivery. Electronic delivery of scanned content, such as journal articles and conference papers, also is available. 
  • A virtual browsing solution is in the planning stages; it would offer a similar serendipitous experience to finding a valuable new book by chance.

For more information, visit http://renewal.library.gatech.edu/library-services-center