University Libraries

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    Getting It Done: Interactive Promotion of Library Services
    (2022-06-10) Ginsberg, Sharona
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    A Work in Progress: Improving Labor Practices in Digital Libraries
    (2019-06-11) Wickner, Amy; Caringola, Elizabeth
    Labor sustains cultural heritage and yet it is undervalued across libraries, archives, and museums (LAM). LAMs furthermore normalize contingency through practices like using short-term funding to create short-term positions in support of long-term programs and services. Conversations about labor practices and workers’ well-being in LAM often frame these issues as individual concerns. However, the impacts of LAM labor practices spread beyond the growing number of undervalued, invisible, and contingent workers that characterizes this field. In academic libraries, for example, workers with job protections (such as non-contingent faculty status) face mounting workloads as they find themselves unable to support and retain talented colleagues. These protected workers may also find it difficult to scale down their units’ responsibilities, even as undervalued and contingent workers depart. And when library workers depart or become burned out, what becomes of libraries’ ability to sustain access to information, teaching and learning, and high-quality research collections? In this session, we’ll discuss our recent work with the Digital Library Federation Working Group on Labor in Digital Libraries, Archives, and Museums (https://wiki.diglib.org/Labor), which focuses on two research areas: foregrounding the experiences of contingent and precarious workers; and developing a research agenda for valuing labor. We’ll briefly review each research activity in the first half of the session and devote the second half to discussion with participants. This session will be interactive but we hope you’ll stay!
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    How to Innovate Fearlessly: Community Notes
    (2018-06-14) Goldfinger, Rebecca; Epps, Sharon; Dohe, Kate
    These are notes compiled by attendees of the Libraries Research & Innovative Practice Forum 2018 session entitled "How to Innovate Fearlessly," a panel featuring Sharon Epps and Kate Dohe, moderated by Rebeca Goldfinger. Session Description: A few barriers to innovation include not having a safe space to experiment, fear of failure, and big egos. Panelists Sharon Epps and Kate Dohe will discuss how to avoid these barriers. A moderated group discussion will follow on how we can promote innovation at the Libraries.
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    Solar Decathlon data management: Curating the legacy of Team Maryland
    (2018-06-14) Durden, David; Cossard, Patricia Kosco
    University of Maryland Libraries are taking the lead in archiving and curating data sets for the UMD Solar Decathlon Team Maryland (2002, 2005, 2007, 2011, 2017, and Solar Decathlon Europe 2019). A 2017 report from the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL), Insights on Technology Innovation - A Review of the U.S.Department of Energy Solar Decathlon Competition Entries 2002-2015 (Simon, 2017) found that over time, the technologies developed, demonstrated, and perfected for the competition series have become more commonplace in industry. While more than 500 books, thesis, reports and articles have been written about the individual competitions in its sixteen years of existence, to date, there has been no systematic archiving of the research, scholarly, and creative work created by these competitions. Patricia Cossard and David Durden (DSS-Digital Programs & Initiatives) are working with the U.S. Department of Energy (all competition deliverables/documents have recently been transferred from NREL to DOE with no developed maintenance plan), the OECD's International Energy Agency (the Solar Decathlon Knowledge Base (SDKB)), and Team Maryland to develop a data management standard and best practices for international dissemination to all teams and agencies, past, present and future.
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    MDSOAR: Collaborative, centralized infrastructure for open access scholarship in Maryland
    (Maryland Library Association, 2017-05-11) Koivisto, Joseph; Klose Hrubes, Annamarie; Breneman, Kyle
    Our poster will inform attendees about the Maryland Shared Open Access Repository (MD-SOAR), a shared digital repository platform for participating colleges and universities in Maryland. MD-SOAR, newly emerged from its pilot phase, is now accepting new institutions. Any college or university in Maryland can join MD-SOAR and enjoy the benefits of having access to a fully-fledged institutional repository, as well as maintenance and development, at a fraction of the normal cost. MD-SOAR currently is funded entirely by the University System of Maryland and Affiliated Institutions (USMAI) Library Consortium (usmai.org) but also includes other collaborating partner institutions. MD-SOAR is jointly governed by all participating libraries, who have agreed to share policies and practices that are necessary and appropriate for the shared platform. After evaluating various vendors and platforms, the MD-SOAR governance group selected DSpace (http://www.dspace.org/) as their platform with University of Maryland, College Park’s Digital Systems and Stewardship Division (DSS), as their vendor. DSS already had experience managing a successful DSpace repository, DRUM (Digital Repository at the University of Maryland, http://drum.lib.umd.edu/). The MD-SOAR governance group and DSS collaborate on specific customizations, e.g. submission forms and metadata, for MD-SOAR. Customizations and other application updates are tested on an instance of MD-SOAR on a development server before they are installed in MD-SOAR. In addition to providing a general overview of the governance group’s process for the establishment and ongoing support of the MD-SOAR platform, this poster will illustrate the metadata framework developed to support a wide variety of file types across a distributed consortial user base. Furthermore, the poster will cover ongoing development efforts that will support continued platform usability and sustainability. Lastly, this poster will illustrate MD-SOAR’s partnership in research initiatives at external institutions, underscoring the platform’s importance not only as an innovative repository approach but also as a testing ground for experimental analytics methodologies. The presenters will serve as MD-SOAR representatives and will have information on hand for institutions that may be interested in joining the MD-SOAR community.
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    Seeking out initiatives and partnerships for digital instruction and engagement as a systems librarian
    (2017-10-25) Koivisto, Joseph
    Despite having a wide array of technical and critical skills, systems librarians may find they have few outlets for outreach and engagement. Finding partnerships and initiatives that include systems librarian voices can create richer discussions and foster innovative collaboration within and without the university library.
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    Assessing effectiveness of communication and collaboration platforms at USMAI partner campuses
    (2017-06-08) Dahl, David; Hanson, Heidi; Koivisto, Joseph
    The USMAI library consortium — originally formed to capitalize on cooperative resource sharing — provides partner institutions with a knowledge-sharing network and a pool of talented, insightful collaborators. By combining a range of perspectives, practices, and localized expertise, consortial partners have become better equipped to address the individual needs of their campus community while also gaining increased library domain knowledge through collaborative engagement and collegial correspondence. While acknowledging this noble mission, the authors of this proposal posed a question to the USMAI consortium: do the communication and collaboration platforms used among consortial partners help enhance this aim, or do they rather serve as a stumbling block to an otherwise motivated community of peers? During the summer and fall of 2016, the project team conducted a series of surveys, meetings, and focus groups to determine the effectiveness of the variety of tools available to the consortium for communication and collaboration purposes, such as the USMAI web sites, web conferencing platforms (e.g., GoToMeeting), and the USMAICollaborates Google site. In this presentation, the project team will describe the motivating factors for this assessment, an overview of the planning and execution of our data collection activities, and a report of our findings on the user assessment of tool effectiveness and usability. The authors will also lay out a series of recommendations for enhanced platform development that have been submitted to the USMAI executive leadership and the Council of Library Directors.
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    Commons Model In Libraries - Challenges & Successes
    (2017) Soergel, Elizabeth; Banyas, Kelly; Zdravkovska, Nevenka
    In the last few years academic libraries in the United States embraced the new Commons model, where each of these commons, such as learning commons, research commons, subject and format commons, etc., has its own specific characteristics and role within the library. However, this new trend mainly has been the result of increased reliance on electronic collections and increased need for collaborative work. Users want continuous access to all resources in a variety of locations, which is not always feasible due to resource and staffing limitations. To adapt to this new model, library spaces have been transformed to accommodate the needs for collaborative work. Additionally, staff skills and duties have also been transforming with librarians and support staff becoming partners in the research process as opposed to being transmitters of information. We will briefly discuss different commons models and give examples of challenges and successful space transformations. We will explore the skillsets of the new workforce needed for this new reality and the new positions in Libraries that are advertised. Like academic libraries, iSchools will have to adapt as well since this is where new members of the workforce are cultivated and educated. At the same time, professional development in the libraries is an important component of bringing current staff up to speed in the changing environment. We will also share our experience with implementing library commons and discuss the different commons that exist at the University of Maryland Libraries, such as the Terrapin Learning Commons, Research Commons and its subsidiaries Research Commons @ EPSL (Engineering and Physical Sciences Library) and Research Commons @ MSPAL (Michelle Smith Performing Arts Library), and Media Commons.
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    Make and Remake: Adapting Library Makerspaces to Meet Institutional Needs
    (2017-06-19) Soergel, Elizabeth; Banyas, Kelly
    Makerspaces have become a mainstay in many universities in the United States. At the University of Maryland (UMD), there are a variety of makerspaces available to the university community, including in private labs, classrooms, and specially built makerspaces within academic units. When makerspaces were first being conceived at UMD, maker technology was introduced through the University Libraries and grew to include spaces at multiple libraries on campus. As the number and variety of makerspaces has grown at UMD, the libraries have worked to remain competitive and current as other campus and corporate partners developed new makerspaces of their own. This poster will look at the genesis of makerspaces in the University Libraries at UMD and some of the initial services that were provided to the university community. This poster will also explore the changes that took place with the libraries’ makerspaces as other academic units on campus began developing their own makerspaces and offering a more diverse set of services. Finally, we will look at the reorganization of the UMD Libraries’ makerspace and future goals of the “maker” program in the library.
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    Commons Model in Libraries - Challenges & Successes
    (2017-06-19) Soergel, Elizabeth; Banyas, Kelly; Zdravkovska, Nevenka
    In the last few years academic libraries in the United States embraced the new Commons model, where each of these commons, such as learning commons, research commons, subject and format commons, etc., has its own specific characteristics and role within the library. However, this new trend mainly has been the result of increased reliance on electronic collections and increased need for collaborative work. Users want continuous access to all resources in a variety of locations, which is not always feasible due to resource and staffing limitations. To adapt to this new model, library spaces have been transformed to accommodate the needs for collaborative work. Additionally, staff skills and duties have also been transforming with librarians and support staff becoming partners in the research process as opposed to being transmitters of information. We will briefly discuss different commons models and give examples of challenges and successful space transformations. We will explore the skillsets of the new workforce needed for this new reality and the new positions in Libraries that are advertised. Like academic libraries, iSchools will have to adapt as well since this is where new members of the workforce are cultivated and educated. At the same time, professional development in the libraries is an important component of bringing current staff up to speed in the changing environment. We will also share our experience with implementing library commons and discuss the different commons that exist at the University of Maryland Libraries, such as the Terrapin Learning Commons, Research Commons and its subsidiaries Research Commons @ EPSL (Engineering and Physical Sciences Library) and Research Commons @ MSPAL (Michelle Smith Performing Arts Library), and Media Commons.