Folks often ask if it’s slower at the library during the summer. Yes, there are fewer students and faculty around. Many classes are online and the building is quiet for the first time in months. For the outreach team, however, we keep moving forward! From now through August, my team leans heavily into planning mode: outlining new project workflows, coordinating people and resources, preparing annual reports, and most importantly taking the time to update and fix what we couldn’t to pay attention to during the academic year.
We have nine summer projects we’re hoping to complete before students return in August:
Universal design for learning and events: Using principles from UDL, my team is looking for ways to improve our programs and events, making them more accessible for a wider range of attendees.
Comms coordinating meeting: Our current way of coordinating external comms usually involves asynchronous messaging on Teams. We are looking at creating a more formal structure and timeline for both ideation and creation of materials.
New event assessment tools: We just wrapped up a year-long pilot test of a new survey tool for library programs. Now, we need to take what we learned to create custom survey instruments for each event.
New library merch: We’ve emptied out our library merch pile! It’s time to design and order new library branded merch for fall.
Update exhibitions guidelines: There are a number of recurring pain points in our hosted exhibitions program. I’m hoping updated guidelines with clearer expectations for our exhibitors will help.
Improving partnerships protocols: We work with more than 40 partners throughout the year to host events and reach students. I’d like us to “up our game” by examining what makes a good partner, determining best practices, and updating our protocols.
Banned books exhibit: Our banned books exhibit needs a refresher. We’re planning to update how we contextualize and talk about banned books beyond simply highlighting commonly challenged titles and listing annual stats.
Student job descriptions: We’ve used the same job description for our department’s student workers for the past 5+ years, but the nature of the job has changed significantly since 2020. It’s time to rewrite the job description and possibly restructure the program.
Finding the lights: A simple one, but one long overdue. For some of our larger events that happen in the evenings, we oftentimes need to adjust the lighting. Unfortunately, in our large, mostly open area building, it’s not always clear which switches control which lights. So break out the label maker! We’re going to finally figure this out.
There you have it. If you need me this summer, I’ll likely be plugging away at one of these projects above. For my academic librarian friends: what group projects are you and your teams working on this summer?
Last month, I was working on a project to review how other academic libraries structured their donor web pages. During that review I noticed some amazing projects, and this led me down a rabbit hole. I ended up searching through more than 250 library websites to seek out some of the happening at other academic libraries. What follows is a list of my most notable finds, including announcements, social posts, and events. This is certainly not an exhaustive list, but if this is the sort of thing you enjoy or find useful, let me know in the comments!
“To find out whether paying these APCs is worthwhile for authors, Stevison’s interdisciplinary team analyzed five years of bibliographic records totaling 146,415 articles in 152 biology journals offering both open and subscription-access options. […] They found that while paying APCs to make articles open via the “gold” route did yield increased citations, a more economical model of open access provided similar benefits.”
“Many of the newly digitized theses and dissertations were produced by students enrolled in Drexel’s College of Medicine and its predecessors, including the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, Medical College of Pennsylvania, Hahnemann Medical College, Hahnemann University, MCP Hahnemann University, and Allegheny University.”
Fordham University Libraries has an article about Adelaide Hasse, creator of the SUDOC classification system.
“Unhappy with the Dewey Decimal System, she set about creating a classification system all her own beginning, sensibly enough, with the Agriculture Department. She developed a system organized not by title or author, but rather by department. A for agriculture, D for defense, T for treasury, etc. It may seem confusing at first, but it has a strict and coherent internal logic.”
The University of Illinois Chicago library gives out awards to faculty members through its “Open Textbook Faculty Incentive Program” to support creation of open educational resources.
“This award recognizes faculty who demonstrate exemplary use of open educational resources in their classrooms and leadership in using and advocating for open course material. Examples include incorporating free educational materials in courses, including open textbooks, and creating original open educational resources.”
image source: Northwestern University Libraries Blog
Northwestern University Libraries recently completed a project to box up large bound volumes of newspapers: “Step 5: Put on a brave face and open compact shelving again.” I would need a brave face when confronting the above as well!
I love this “Meet Your Librarian” series that University of Oregon Libraries is currently running!
“‘It all starts with the students,’ is Morning Star’s philosophy. With her expertise and knowledge in art research, she is eager to assist anyone seeking help, and does more than offer her services as a subject librarian to help them find what they’re looking for.”
Also at UO, the librarians recently evaluated more than 100,000 volumes in an effort to revitalize and make space in their Northeast campus library. The storytelling here about the process (click on “virtual presentation”) is top-notch:
“Their efforts led to the removal and reuse of more than sixty aisles of book shelving from throughout the building at no cost to the University.”
“As with all of our Map of the Month features, if you’d like to get a scanned copy of this map, please submit a Map and Geo Service Request and we’ll be sure to get back to you within two business days, but typically sooner.”
“During his time as professor of Russian literature at Cornell (1948-1959), Nabokov collected hundreds of butterfly specimens from across the United States which he donated to the Cornell University Insect Collection.”
“When teaching inspiration strikes, we all should feel supported. Creativity, innovation and collaboration make library work and education exciting. ‘This project would not have come to fruition without the library’s spaces and people.’”
“Datathon presented students with realistic data challenges. These challenges involved looking at a question and then collecting, processing, analyzing, and interpreting data to help solve a problem.”
“Interested in the microscopic worlds of the body and environment in the age of digital and biotechnologies, Ginn explores human identity, mental health, AI and virtual reality, the techno-sphere, and trans-humanism.”
James Madison University Libraries is helping students explore alternative options to expensive learning materials with this helpful info graphic.
Congratulations to NC State University Libraries for being awarded their Chancellor’s Creating Community Award at the Office of Institutional Equity and Diversity’s Recognizing Excellence in Diversity Event!
Northeastern University Library has a monthly “reading challenge” award for students (file under: fostering a culture of readers).
Hesburgh Library at Notre Dame is celebrating its 60th anniversary. I love how they have identified 60 milestones in the library’s history to honor the occasion.
The University of Buffalo Libraries has a story about an item from the Challenger that now resides in its collections.
Penn Libraries has a detailed description of their attempts to stabilize and repair a rare Persian codex.
Washington University in St. Louis has an article about the illustrated editions of the raven from Edgar Allan Poe’s eponymous poem.
DePaul University Library created this infographic to highlight common reference desk questions.
On social media
Texas A&M Libraries has what might be the most charming library orientation video I’ve ever seen (above): YouTube.
University of Florida Libraries are asking students what they think is the oldest library on campus: Instagram
University of Oregon has a nice use of the campus mascot to promote finals use of the library: Instagram
Syracuse University has a well done video on the importance of accessibility and the staff who do that work: Instagram
MIT Libraries created this “Circulation: A Day in the Life of Library Books” video: YouTube
I love how some libraries are encouraging graduating students to use their spaces as backdrops for their grad photos. Here’s an example from Stony Brook University: Facebook
Fairfield Library has a good use of BTS video of a graduation photo shoot: Instagram
This Reel from NYU Libraries is a great use of audio to offer quick research tips: Instagram
Interesting events
image source: Dartmouth Libraries
Georgetown University Library is hosting an “Intimidating Reads” book club, starting with the Brothers Karmazov. Related: Duke Libraries is reading Don Quixote.
That’s it for now! Let me know what I missed. Again, if this is something you find useful, let me know in the comments. Maybe I’ll do it again next month!
Henry Ward Beecher, Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit (1887)
A few weeks ago, Meredith Farkas posted on X about her experience as a blogger in 2024. I understand the frustration. Once upon a time, there was a robust community of LIS bloggers. In the years between 2005-2012 in particular, I had to regularly cull my Google Reader (rip) because I would subscribe to more RSS feeds than I had time to reasonably consume.
I recently when looking for some of those sites and was pleasantly surprised to find that Everybody’s Libraries appears to still going strong. And others have emerged, like Ryan P. Randall. Like Meredith said, most seem to have disappeared or gone silent: Librarian in Black, Pegasus Librarian, Academic Librarian, The Waki Librarian, Pop Goes the Library.
Of course, it wasn’t just the LIS world. Blogging in any field was at its height in the late aughts. There was a deep and thoughtful conversation happening then that feels lost now, owing in part to the move away from long-form text. The recent rise in email newsletters seems to be bringing this back (have you seen the comment threads on an Anne Helen Petersen post recently!?), but what made it so special then was that the conversations seemed to be happening on people’s own domains, rather than walled communities like Substack’s Notes. Even if those domains were a free Blogger site, when you visited someone’s page, it felt like walking up to their front porch.
I know. “Back in my day.” But what if…
What would it take to bring blogging back, at least in small pockets? Intentionality. Back then, setting up a full WordPress or Typepad site was the simplest way to participate in the conversation. The conversation moved slower, but that’s all we had. Social media drastically lowered the barrier to entry and accelerated the speed, but that came with a cost: the loss of the personal. Yet with a little bit of coordination and purpose, a dedicated group of LIS writers could bring back the blogosphere.
Here’s how it might work:
Gather a group of writers. Each would need to have their own website. The site would need to have commenting and trackbacks functions built in. We can work out the technical bits later (though, I would look to IndieWeb): the key factor is having a space for conversation.
Depending on the size of the group, each writer pledges to write 1-2 posts per month/quarter/year. I think the ideal frequency would be for the group to put out at least 1 post per week. You could go even further and select monthly themes, but it’s probably best to let folks write on what they are most knowledgeable or passionate about.
In addition to regularly posting on their own site, each writer should plan to post at least 1 long-form response post to someone else in the group. This could be planned in advance or not, but the key here is to create [hyper]links among the group.
Each writer should plan to comment on every other writers’ post.
Of course, what I’m describing is what we used to call a “blogring.” This happened organically among communities of writers (we even had site badges for it!). And since it happened on our own domains, it still felt like a community of individuals and less homogeneous than the UX experience of today’s social media.
I know. “Back in my day.” But what if some things once forgotten could return. Would we welcome them?
What I’m reading
💻🌿💡 We Need to Rewild the Internet by Maria Farrell and Robin Berjon. “Rewilding the internet is more than a metaphor. It’s a framework and plan. It gives us fresh eyes for the wicked problem of extraction and control, and new means and allies to fix it. It recognizes that ending internet monopolies isn’t just an intellectual problem. It’s an emotional one.”
🤪🔗📄 The internet used to be fun. I stumbled across this page after writing the section above, thankfully, because this is a rabbit hole I plan to dive into for a few days! “I’ve been meaning to write some kind of Important Thinkpiece™ on the glory days of the early internet, but every time I sit down to do it, I find another, better piece that someone else has already written.”
⛴️🪝🌏 The invisible seafaring industry that keeps the internet afloat. I’ve seen this article shared repeatedly over the past week. It’s a #LongRead but worth the entire ride. So much of our infrastructure relies on an aging feet and diminishing workforce.
Links to the past
1 year ago: I was reminding myself that projects or initiatives carried on the backs of individuals is not sustainable. Moreover, it’s bad leadership.
3 years ago: Reading about writing, parenting, and wisdom.
