Georgia Institute of Technology



INFORMATION SERVICES DEPARTMENT

Annual Report for 2008-2009

Prepared by Bruce Henson, Head Information Services Dept. August 2009

The Information Services Department (ISD) serves as the Library’s principal information gateway and is responsible for critical activities such as providing frontline information, assisting with research, and facilitating referrals to appropriate individuals, departments or organizations. The Department continues to be focused on enhancing information services by emphasizing liaisons between subject librarians and Institute departments, schools and colleges, instruction and training, assessment of services, the incorporation of new resources (print and electronic), and staff development.

The ISD continues to take a lead role in the management and operations of services in the Library West Commons (LWC), located on the 1st Floor West of the Library, and the partnership with the Office of Information Technology (OIT). The LWC provides expert research and technology assistance in a technology embedded learning environment all of the hours that the Library is open, which during school semesters is 24/5, from Sunday at noon until Friday at 6pm, and on Saturdays from 9am to 6pm.

ISD Staff

As of June 30, 2009 the ISD has 19 staff, 9 career staff and 10 Subject Librarians (there are also 7 other Subject Librarians in the Library who are not ISD staff). Changes in personnel in the ISD this year include: Lori Critz left the ISD and her responsibilities as the Assistant Head of the ISD to assume other responsibilities in the Library in July 2009; Willie Baer joined the department in August 2008 as the Subject Librarian for Mechanical Engineering and the Coordinator of Library Services for Distance Education; Jay Forrest resigned from his 3rd shift position as Information Associate III to accept a Subject Librarian position for the College of Computing and the Coordinator of Library Statistics and of GIS/Spatial Data; and Kim Kruthaup joined the department as an Information Associate I.

I. ACHIEVEMENT OF INFORMATION SERVICES DEPARTMENT OBJECTIVES FOR FY 2008

A. A. Outreach

Subject Librarian Outreach

The Department continues to build partnerships with academic and research faculty through a variety of outreach and marketing efforts such as one-on-one contacts, e-mail correspondence, holding office hours in departments, participation in campus meetings, committees and initiatives, and other outreach endeavors.

• Subject Librarians participated in New Faculty Orientation (NFO), on August 12, 2008. Brochures were distributed to approximately 70 new faculty members, with individual librarian follow-up. In addition Sherri Brown and Jon Bodnar participated in LCC’s orientation for new Brittain Fellowes, with 13 new faculty.

• Subject Librarian office hours were held in the School of History, Technology, & Society by Bruce Henson, the College of Management by Patricia Kenly, the School of Materials Science & Engineering by Bing Wang, and in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering by Lisha Li.

• In an ongoing collaboration with the Scholarly Communication & Digital Services (SCDS) Dept. , Subject Librarians have visited their campus departments with Julie Speer and/or Sara Fuchs to discuss scholarly communication issues and resources with faculty. This year SCDS met with librarians/faculty in: Lisha Li for Physics, Christine De Catanzaro for Music, Mary Axford for International Affairs, Jon Bodnar and Sherri Brown for Literature, Communication, and Culture, Patty Kenly for Economics, and Lori Critz for Applied Physiology.  In FY 2008 they met with librarians/faculty in: Bruce Henson for History, Technology, and Society, Cathy Carpenter for Public Policy, Bing Wang for Polymer, Textile and Fiber Engineering, and Kathy Tomajko for Aerospace Engineering.

• Lori Critz taught a section and Jon Bodnar co-taught a section of GT 1000.

• Patricia Kenly presented “How to Find Company Information” at the annual campus Career Focus in September 2008.

• Patty Kenly participated in a NTIS focus group during the Fall Federal Depository Conference and represented the Library at the opening of the Census Bureau Office in Marietta GA.

• Lori Critz co-developed and co-presented, with Julie Speer, 2 sessions of “Compiling with the NIH Public Access Policy” as part of OOD’s Brown Bag Series.

• Lori Critz participated in ABET accreditation at GT Savannah.

Other Outreach

• Lori Critz coordinated participation in several campus activities:

• The fifth annual RATS Night at the Library as part of the Freshman RATS week activities on Saturday August 16, 2008. Approximately 700 students attended various events held in the Library, including Ninja Tag, Speed Dating, Dance Revolution, and Poker. The event was staffed by representatives throughout the Library, including several ISD staff, and pizza, popcorn, and drinks were served.

• FASET (Familiarization and Adaptation to the Surroundings and Environs of Tech) Marketplace in summer 2008, in which ISD and other Library staff worked at an information kiosk during seven FASET orientations. Over 700 flyers were distributed, and contact information was collected for 400 students.

• Housing Resource Fair, which had approximately 200 interactions with student dorm leaders.

• Graduate Student Exposition, which had approximately 400 student interactions.

• Women in Engineering’s Technology, Engineering, and Computing Camp, a one-week technology camp for 7th and 8th grade girls. Lori was the Course Developer/Instructor for Web Page Creation Sessions.

• Patricia Kenly made three patent presentations at Peeks Chapel Elementary School (Conyers).

• Patricia Kenly initiated Library involvement in the campus Earth Day celebration and coordinated staffing a Library booth at the event.

• Patricia Kenly participated in Library Day at the state capital in Feb. 2009.

• A Library Welcome Event, organized by Crystal Renfro and staffed by ISD and other Library staff, was held on 3 days in August 2008 in the Library rotunda. Refreshments were provided and approximately 900 students received information about the Library.

• The ISD PR/Marketing Group has several ongoing initiatives to market and promote reference services and resources. Ten issues of the monthly restroom newsletters, T-Paper, were published this year – the paper has gained the attention of students through its colorful, catchy “articles” and advertisements. The Faculty lecture series, Tuesday Talks, ended at the end of spring semester 2009 after a successful run of 4 and 1/2 years, which included a total of 26 lectures and 864 attendees. Subtitled, “research for all of us,” the series goal was to raise the profile of the library by inviting Georgia Tech researchers to the Library to present their research in lay-man terms. There were 5 sessions this year with a total attendance of 129. Speakers included: Bruce Walker; Associate Professor, School of Psychology & School of Interactive Computing, “The GT Accessible Aquarium Project;” Henry S. Valk; Professor Emeritus, School of Physics & Bill Hunt; Professor School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, “Music, Science, and Technology;” Asst. Professor Melissa Kemp, Dept. of Biomedical Engineering, “Cellular Oxidation and its Role in Disease;” Hugh Crawford and Ron Broglio, School of Literature, Communication & Culture, “Dwelling Studies;” and Fredda Blanchard-Fields, Professor of Psychology & Chair, GT School of Psychology, “Older Adult Expertise in Emotion Regulation: Gains and Costs.”

B. Instruction and Training

ISD hosts many tours, classes and online demonstrations in library classrooms, campus departments, and off-site for various academic and administrative departments as well as other university affiliates and school groups. Both undergraduate and graduate student classes remain an important form of outreach by Subject Librarians. Undergraduate classes include many sessions of LCC 1101 and 1102 and Library sessions in GT 1000 courses. Subject Librarians offer course-integrated instruction to undergraduate and graduate students in their departments. Software classes include EndNote and Dreamweaver classes taught by Lori Critz and Sherri Brown, and LaTeX classes taught by graduate students that are coordinated by Lori Critz working with the SGA. General classes developed and offered include Library Orientations for Chinese Students conducted in Mandarin by Bing Wang. Searching Patents for Scientists and Engineers taught by Bing Wang, Library 101 sessions taught by Mary Axford, and several advanced Microsoft Office Classes developed and taught by Alison Valk and Terrance Hines.

Instruction Statistics:

• The total number of instruction sessions was 277, a 30% increase from FY 2008, with a total number of participants of 5902, a 26% increase from FY 2008 (includes course-based instruction, faculty/staff demos, walk-in sessions, & software workshops). These classes were comprised of 4614 undergraduate students, 728 graduate students, 204 faculty, 51 Staff, and 238 non-GA Tech affiliated individuals).

• The total number of orientations was 16, a 63% decrease from FY 2008, with a total number of participants of 117, a 93% decrease from FY 2008. The orientations were comprised of 53 undergraduate students, 42 graduate students, 20 faculty, and 2 staff.

Professional Development/Scholarly Activities/Staff Training

Participation in Campus Committees and Initiatives

• Mary Axford served on the campus Student Honor Committee and the Constitution Day Committee. She also completed the OOD Customer Service Certificate.

• Jon Bodnar served on the Body Image Committee/GT Campaign for Everybody, sponsored by the GT Women's Resource Center, is a member of the Tower: Undergraduate Research Journal Review Advisory Board, and is a member of the LCC-Library Film Studies Committee.

• Sherri Brown served on the Constitution Day Committee and several LCC committees: Communication Center Group, Communications and Marketing Group, the Intellectual Property Subcommittee of the Writing & Communication Committee, and the Student Application Learning Taskforce.

• Lori Critz served on the Student Computer Ownership Committee, on a Sakai Usability Group, the GT 1000 Strategic Planners/Curriculum Review Committee, was a Freshmen Partner for a dorm group, and volunteered for the Sting Break and Fall Fest.

• Bruce Henson served as a member of the GT Student Activities Committee, as the Library representative to the GT Academic Senate, and as the Library representative on the Campus Communication Group.

• Lisha Li participated in CETL’s Class of ’69 Teaching Fellows.

• Bing Wang is the library liaison to the Georgia Tech Chinese Friendship Association and maintains a Chinese magazine collection in the Library.

Staff Honors and Awards

• Jay Forrest completed the MLIS Program at Florida State University in May 2009.

• Alison Valk completed the MLIS Program at Florida State University in May 2009.

Conference Participation

• ACRL (April 2009, Seattle) – Sherri Brown

• ALA Midwinter (January 2009, Denver) – Mary Axford, Lori Critz, Patricia Kenly.

• AMS/ASLI Annual Conference (January 2009, Phoenix) – Lisha Li

• ASEE Annual Conference (June 2009, Austin) – Willie Baer and Lisha Li

• Atlanta Area Bibliographic Instruction Group Annual Conference (June 2009, Atlanta) – Jon Bodnar, Sherri Brown, Crystal Renfro

• Federal Depository Conference - Fall Meeting (October 2008, Washington DC) – Patricia Kenly

• Federal Depository Conference - Spring Meeting (April 2009, Tampa) – Patricia Kenly

• GA Academic Libraries Research Forum (May 2009, Atlanta) – Jon Bodnar

• Georgia Conference on Information Literacy (October 2008, Savannah, GA) – Lori Critz.

• Georgia Documents Librarian Meeting (December 2008, Atlanta) - Patricia Kenly

• Georgia Library Association/ Council of Media Organizations (Athens GA, October 2008) – Jon Bodnar, Patricia Kenly, Crystal Renfro

• GIL User Group Conference (May 2009) – Jon Bodnar

• LOEX – Sherri Brown participated in several virtual sessions.

• North Carolina Library Association Library Instruction 2.0 Conference (November 2008, Chapel Hill) – Sherri Brown.

• SLA Annual Conference (June 2009, Washington D.C.) – Bing Wang

• SLA Leadership Summit (Savannah) – Bing Wang

• U.S. Patent and Trademark Depository Library Workshop (April 2009, Washington, DC) – Lisha Li

Scholarly Activities

• Mary Axford co-authored with Crystal Renfro, ”Going for the Gold: Identifying Academic Quality Internet Resources” which was published in the Journal of Electronic Librarianship. She also published reviews in Reference Reviews.

• Willie Baer presented two papers at the annual ASEE Conference; Library and Information Use Patterns by Engineering Faculty and Students” with Lisha Li; and “Creating Partnerships between Librarians and New Engineering Faculty Members.”

• Jon Bodnar co-presented with Charlie Bennett, "Partnering with Faculty in Library Commons Spaces," at COMO. With Brian Mathews, he co-edited “ARL Spec Kit 306: Promoting the Library,” and co-authored three articles: “Student Newspapers and University Libraries: Uncovering Your Library’s Reputation and Promoting Its Service,” in Public Services Quarterly; “An Inside Look at How Academics Promote Their Libraries,” in Marketing Library Services; and “Information and Learning Commons, Faculty and Student Benefits,” in New Library World. He also reviewed books for Library Journal.

• Sherri Brown and Jon Bodnar co-presented with Erica Bodnar, “Beyond Google: A Librarian’s Perspective on Integrating Research and Library Sources into the Composition Classroom” at the Student Success in First Year Composition Conference.

• Lori Critz co-presented, “Next Gen/Open Source Catalogs and University System of GA Libraries” at GUGM; co-presented Discovery tool VuFind: GA Tech’s Implementation” at RACL; and presented “A Day in the Life of Jane Goodall! Bringing Information Literacy into the Science/Engineering Problem-based Learning Classroom” at the GA Conference on Information Literacy.

• Roland Garner co-presented “The Many Faces of Paraprofessionals” at COMO.

• Patricia Kenly made two presentations with Bette Finn: at COMO, "Population Information at Your Fingertips,” and at the GA Documents Librarians Annual Meeting, "Population Information at Your Fingertips,” revised and customized. She also contributed a review to Reference & User Services Quarterly.

• Lisa Li co-presented “Library and Information Use Pattern by Engineering Faculty and Students,” with William Baer, at the 2009 ASEE Annual Conference and presented a poster session at the CETL Resources Fair, “Using Web Tools to Design Online Research Guides and Tutorials.”

• Crystal Renfro co-authored with Mary Axford, ”Going for the Gold: Identifying Academic Quality Internet Resources” published in the Journal of Electronic Librarianship. At COMO she co-presented ““Inside ALA’s Emerging Leaders Program: How the Georgia Library Association Can Help You Get Involved,” which won the 2008 Georgia Library Association EBSCO Academic Paper Award, and will be published in the Georgia Library Quarterly. She also contributed reviews to Library Journal, Georgia Quarterly and Reference Reviews.

Staff Training

• Subject workshops were provided by department and library staff during monthly ISD meetings, including: Patricia Kenly presenting “Population Information at Your Fingertaps” with Bette Finn; and “Patents Reference.”

• The ISD Training Group of Jon Bodnar (Chair), Mary Axford, Eric Brower, Lori Critz, and Crystal Renfro created a series of modules that were offered in July-August 2008 to new ISD staff and to other Library staff wanting to work at the IS desk.

• Willie Baer, Sherri Brown and Lori Critz participated in GT 1000 training.

• Willie Baer, Sherri Brown, and Lori Critz participated in OLE Project Workshops.

• Sherri Brown participated in the OOD Everyday Creativity Brown Bag, a CETL discussion group “Scholarship of Teaching and Learning; and two webinars, a Lexis Nexis Academic Overview and a Blended Librarian webcast “Academic Library Administrators’ Perceptions of Critical Skills Needed by Librarians for the Instruction Process.”

• Joyce Craft attended several OOD classes: Defensive Driving, Emergency Preparedness, and Fire Safety Training.

• Jay Forrest completed AJAX Basics and AutoCAD Essentials I

• Lisha Li participated in several online training sessions: Web of Knowledge - Citation Mapping, by ISI; Transportation Librarians Roundtable, by NTL; and SciFinder: Finding "Greener" Research Processes, by ACS.

• Vincent Thorpe completed a Fire Safety Training Class.

II. OTHER MAJOR ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Library West Commons

• Bruce Henson participates in monthly Commons Advisory Group meetings with Bob Fox from the Library, and Lisa Spence and Cari Lovins from OIT.

• The Commons Advisory Group submitted a Technology Fee Request for computer hardware refreshment in the Library East Commons. Included in the refreshment was upgrading 30 desktop computers to Dell 960 Small Form Factor computers and six Dell 160 thin clients that are used for quick-use, walk-up stations. The use of thin clients was introduced as part of the Library West Commons refreshment last year, and is currently part of an experiment to reduce hardware costs in technology enhanced student learning spaces, such as computer labs and clusters.  Additionally, the thin clients are being used as part of a software virtualization project, which is managed by  The Office of Information Technology and the College of Engineering.  

• The Library/OIT Oversight Council was expanded to include the User Experience Librarian and is looking at ways of improving communications as it relates to the Library Commons. The group is focused on improving services in the Library Commons, and understanding student needs as related to technology, programming, and information services in the Library Commons. The Council also includes Cari Lovins, Victoria Burse (OIT Resource Center), Joey Fones, Charlie Bennett, and Bruce Henson. Bruce Henson and Cari Lovins facilitate the committee.

• Bruce Henson submitted a successful Technology Fee Request for a site license for Endnote software.

• Lori Critz and Bruce Henson participated in numerous OIT interviews for student User Assistants and multimedia interns and Cari Lovins participated as a member of two search committees for ISD Information Associates.

Interns

Lori Critz and Bruce Henson sponsored/coordinated two Library school interns in spring

2009, Kara Mullen (Valdosta State University) and Arlene Hogan (University of North

Texas, Denton).

Virtual Reference Service

The ISD offers virtual reference service to Georgia Tech students, faculty, and staff through email and chat service, which is coordinated by Crystal Renfro. There were 1064 Email reference transactions at ASK@GT, a 14% increase from FY 2008, and 356 Chat Reference transactions, a 24.5% increase from FY 2008.

Presentation and Rehearsal Studio

The studio, which replicates the technology found in Georgia Tech classrooms, continues to be a popular resource for student groups since its implementation in January 2004. During the FY 2009 1037 reservations were made, a 7.5% increase from FY 2008, with a total room usage of 1887 hours, a 1.8% increase from FY 2008.

III. STATISTICS

Instruction Statistics FY 2009

Classes, Orientations & Tours

• Bibliographic Instruction Sessions 277 - 30% increase from FY 2008

Participants 5902 - 26% increase from FY 2008 (4614 undergraduate students, 728 graduate students, 204 faculty, 51 Staff, and 205 non-GA Tech affiliated individuals).

Includes course-based instruction, faculty/staff demos, walk-in sessions, & software workshops)

• Number of Orientations 16 - 63% decrease from FY 2008

• Participants 117 - a 93% decrease from FY 2008 (53 undergraduate students, 42 graduate students, 20 faculty, and 2 staff).

ISD Tally Sheet Statistics FY 2009 (SF&M not included)

• Directional: 4,466 (26% increase from 2007/08)

• IT: 5,120 (47.8% increase from 2007/08)

• Other Services: 3,408 (40.5% increase from 2007/08)

• Traditional Reference: 4,930 (33.9% increase from 2007/08)

o Research Questions: 793 (13.6% increase from 2007/08)

Directional questions are defined by ARL and includes Other Services and Directional type tallies

Reference questions are defined by ARL and includes Traditional type tallies

Research questions are an internal classification for reference questions of 10 or more minutes. These are included in the Research Questions and Traditional tally total

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Special Formats & Maps Tally Sheet Statistics FY 2009 (not included in ISD)

• Directional: 853 (19.3% decrease from 2007/08)

• Other Services: 1,738 (6.8% increase from 2007/08)

• Traditional Reference: 1,324 (17.3% decrease from 2007/08)

o Research Questions: 12 (25% decrease from 2007/08)

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Special Formats and Maps Room Use Data

| |Microfiche |Gov. Docs. |Cart. & Reels |Maps |Reference |Total |

|2009 |1254 |1009 |1352 |503 |585 |4703 |

|Change from 2008 |-80 |-137 |-222 |-82 |-77 |-598 |

|% Change from 2008|-6% |-12% |-14.10% |-14% |-11.60% |-11.30% |

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Virtual Reference Statistics FY 2009

ASK@GT Email Reference: 594 (14% increase from FY 2008)

ISD Chat Reference: 356 (24.5% increase from FY 2008)

Presentation Rehearsal Studio Statistics FY 2009

• Number of Reservations: 1,037 (7.5% increase from FY 2008)

• Number of Hours Used: 1,887 (1.8% increase from FY 2008)

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