The Academic Library's Place in the Information Economy
John Buschman, Associate University Librarian, Scholarly Research and Services
Georgetown University
Washington, DC
Reported by Dan Chibnall

John Buschman spoke to his audience about the academic library’s role in the information economy and the 21^st century. He stressed early on in his talk that higher education has more value than just giving people higher paying jobs. Higher education brings out the democratic values of people and helps to improve our society as a whole. Libraries have an advantage providing this kind of education because we have the resources and we have, more recently, spaces like information commons in our physical buildings. Blending technology and space is important but Buschman noted that anyone can build a commons on campus. He noted that libraries are a purposely designed research spaces that have special educative properties.

He asked the question, “What behaviors do we want our users to emulate when we build our spaces?” In essence he was making the argument that our physical buildings and our resources should help our patrons build the best possible behaviors and habits when it comes to research. We also have to be careful about embracing the concept of return on investment. It is difficult to quantify the positive results of what we do as librarians and as library institutions. We have to dig deeply within an area of our curriculum, such as information literacy, and ask the big questions: are our students showing an understanding of these skills? Can they perform them when asked to?

Libraries have a special role as essential space in our society, especially academic libraries. In our modern economy we have to be careful about how we mimic bookstores and coffee shops. We need to stay true to our mission of being connected to the research spirit of the university and tether ourselves to the curriculum as much as possible. Buschman emphasized this point very strongly saying that if we try to change too much then we will not be fulfilling our long-held mission and traditions of helping students and faculty do great research.

 

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L2L: Collaborations Between School, Public, and Academic Libraries
Betsy Thompson, Sioux City Public Library
Dan Chibnall, Grand View University
Rebecca Funke, Des Moines Area Community College (Ankeny)
Reported by Mara Egherman

Three enthusiastic librarians shared their collaborative experiences. Betsy Thompson of Sioux City Public Library started us off with an historical overview of the information literacy collaboration between her public library and local school libraries. Many social studies teachers invited public librarians into their classrooms, forming a cooperative in 1986. Why collaborate? First, it sometimes makes good financial sense. It also broadens use of professional expertise, such as in readers’ advisory. Collaboration is great for reaching new audiences. It can take time, and it may be faster to do something yourself. Collaboration also requires consistent communication. But the benefits are worthwhile. You can even have social events!

Dan Chibnall and others of Grand View University Library have been partnering with high school teachers in Des Moines for about two years. Grounded by the active learning model (research based, of course!) and only when invited, GVU librarians went into Advanced Placement (AP) classes, put students in groups, and gave them examples of college assignments. Students used the databases available at their respective high schools to learn how to find scholarly resources. Mention was made of the college writing center and time management. Feedback from high school librarians was positive. They liked the college librarians “coming from the future” to mentor college bound students, and hoped that this kind of reality check might mitigate “senioritis.”

Rebecca Funke of Des Moines Area Community College (DMACC)’s main campus in Ankeny has facilitated collaboration between DMACC’s library, public libraries, and school libraries. Her favorite thing about it is that it raises visibility of libraries! A partnership with Ankeny Public Library consisted of a shared film showing and shared promotion and marketing of the event. Then Colin Beavan’s No Impact Man was the text for a common reading initiative called One Book, One College, One Community. Book discussions were held at the public library. DMACC has also begun partnering with K-12 classes. A teacher requested that Rebecca come and explain why libraries are important at the college level for her English class. Rebecca outlined expectations for college research to the college bound students.

Discussion followed. The first point made was that we should not forget the school librarians and the public library youth specialists in the mix when collaborating. School librarians have so much on their schedules that they may not be able to attend each class the college librarians visit. Still, they should be invited and informed about these happenings in their schools. If public library youth specialists are included in the dialogue, they can tie in their programming as well.

One public librarian mentioned that her library is used as a bridge to other libraries in Illinois. 378 libraries formed a consortium Illinois and Iowa 40 years ago including public, academic, school, and special libraries. They share an electronic catalog and delivery services, and several of the school libraries link to public library catalogs. In such a large group, sometimes there have been problems with communication and she would advise those of us looking into this sort of thing to anticipate that and be proactive.

Other discussion items included the importance of developing trust between cooperating libraries/librarians, the partnership between The University of Northern Iowa (UNI) Library, Cedar Falls Public Library and others who collaborate every year to “Bring a Book to Life.” This program was hailed as a good model to follow. A National Library of Medicine exhibit on the science of Harry Potter is this year’s theme.

A few of us tweeted about the conference at #IALIB11 which is no longer archived, but feel free to look up my posts from October 13 and 14 @mmegherman on Twitter.

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Reading the Garden: Unique Library Collections at Seed Saver Exchange
Bill Musser, billm@seedsavers.org
Robert Becker Memorial Library
Seed Savers Exchange
Decorah, Iowa
Reported by Brett Cloyd

 

Bill is a full-time librarian at the Seed Saver Exchange (SSE) and started his job in 2010. SSE is a non-profit organization founded in 1975 by Kent and Diane Ott Whealy. Kent and Diane wanted to share heirloom seeds and preserve them.  Among early seeds they collected were Grandpa Ott’s Morning Glory, German Pink Tomato, and Moon and Stars Watermelon.  Their efforts eventually led to the formation of the largest non-governmental seed bank in the nation with an international membership of 13,000.  An important part of this work is sharing seed histories. Members of SSE send in seeds and the stories behind them, so it has been important to develop a system for organizing everything.

Among their publications is a Seed Savers Yearbook which lists seeds that are available in a given year. The seeds come from members and from the central office in Decorah.  Diane Ott Whealy also has a new publication entitled Gathering: Memoir of a Seed Saver.

Bill wanted to let us know about SSE current projects. Chief among them is the Global Seed Vault which has generated international cooperation and was funded by the Norwegian government. Located on the island of Spitsbergen, Norway, it duplicates and provides a back-up of other seed saving programs.

SSE has received lots of press including a visit by President Obama and the support of Martha Stewart, Wendell Berry, and Greg Brown.

Bill described the gardens and grounds of Heritage Farm in Decorah as an idyllic setting. The Preservation work is a core activity and takes place in the administrative building and laboratory as well as in the gardens. There are currently about 18,000 varieties of seeds in the preservation collection. The Library is there primarily to support the research work of the preservation lab. 

The annual Seed Saver catalog, seed racks and seed packet sales help to fund SSE’s work. The catalog is a beautiful publication full of vibrant and interesting plant varieties. Bill reports that the seed business is booming as more and more people are gardening.

The Library has transitioned from the private library of Kent and Diane Ott Whealy  (for 36 years) to an organizational library. The Library received a substantial contribution of scholarly horticultural and agricultural materials from Robert Becker who was a professor at Cornell University. Becker loved agricultural history and his family decided to donate his materials to SSE when he died in 1996.

When Bill arrived, books were organized by author’s last name. Now at 4,500 volumes, 1,200 are cataloged so far, using LC classification. He has two community volunteers assisting him. The Library’s primary audience is the staff at SSE. Recently he was able to purchase 1,500 books from an East Coast collector including material which is historical and rare.

Not many libraries collect seed catalogs. The Smithsonian Institution has an online exhibition of seed catalog covers from their large collection. Landreth is the oldest seed company in the U.S., started in 1784. This year it is closing down. DM Ferry used to be the largest seed company in the world, and SSE has its catalogs, too. Some local seed companies included in the collection are Salzers (La Crosse, WI) and Adams Seed Company (Decorah). Perhaps the youngest seedsman in the nation at the time, Billy Hepler, aged 12, started his own seed company in 1947, following the work of his botanist father in New Hampshire.

The Library’s oldest item is a 1586 rare monograph called Agriculture et Maison Rustique by Charles Estienne. William Lawson’s A New Orchard and Garden from 1625 is also worth noting.

There is a substantial collection of almanacs at the SSE Library. It includes an example of one of the earliest by Nathaniel Ames from 1764. A manuscript by Horace Greeley was found in a book in the collection authored by Greeley entitled What I Know About Farming from 1871.

Bill presented several books from the Seed Savers Exchange Library and made them available for audience members to explore.

Photos

Librarian Bill Musser, left, and ILA ACRL President Ryan Gjerde

Diane Whealy’s new book, Gathering

Farm Ballads by Will Carleton from the SSE Library Collection

The ILA/ACRL Nominating committee is pleased to announce the resutls of this Fall's elections.  Thanks to all candidates who so graciously volunteered to serve the Iowa academic library community!

• Amy Paulus, University of Iowa, VP/President-Elect
• Natalie Hutchinson, Central College, Secretary/Treasurer
• Anne Marie Gruber, University of Dubuque, Member-at-Large

This issue of the ILA/ACRL Newsletter features a semi-annual President’s Piece submitted by sitting ILA/ACRL president, Ryan Gjerde, results of the IA/ACRL fall elections,and reports from the fall ILA Conference.

President's Piece

The fall is a busy time of year for many ILA/ACRL committees; making final preparations for the ILA conference, laying the groundwork for the Spring ILA/ACRL conference, and finding willing and able volunteers to lead and work with our committees are just a few examples of the tasks keeping committee members occupied.

Following the ILA conference, we enter a time of transition and reflection, as we on the Executive Board prepare to hand over our duties to the in-coming chairs and officers. This month, I would like to reflect briefly upon the work accomplished by our ad hoc committees. Our bylaws require us to limit ad hoc committees to 2-year terms, and this Fall we had two such committees reaching the end of their term.

The Scholarly Communication committee, led by Kate Hess, has worked to survey membership on issues related to scholarly communication, and reviewed the materials posted on the ILA/ACRL website. The committee recommended, instead of duplicating effort on maintaining resources, to link to the University of Iowa Libraries’ guide on scholarly communication, which is routinely maintained.  

The Mentoring committee, led by Jen Rouse, has continued to work to connect “new” and “experienced” librarians across the state.  ILA/ACRL has sponsored mentoring activities for the past 4 years or so, led by a couple of ad hoc committees.  This July, the executive board reaffirmed the desire to continue our mentoring program, and sought to find a more permanent place for it within our committee structure.  With that in mind, the duties and responsibilities of mentoring have been added to those of the Membership committee, in support of that committee’s charge to encourage Chapter membership and activity.  

The executive board thanks all who have served on these committees over the past two years!

The July executive board meeting also saw the creation of a new ad hoc committee, focusing on collaboration between K-12 and Higher Education.  The new committee’s charge is to partner with IASL to develop and implement a framework and action plan for future collaboration.  This committee arises out of the informal meetings and discussions that began at the 2010 ILA planning day, and have continued throughout 2011.  Pam Rees will chair this committee.  We look forward to continuing this discussion and finding fruitful opportunities to partner with other librarians in the state.

Thanks to all who have participated in ILA/ACRL in the past year!

Ryan Gjerde
President, ILA/ACRL

The Iowa Chapter of ACRL is pleased to announce that Samantha Bouwers has been awarded a scholarship to attend the ILA Fall Conference in Council Bluffs.  Samantha is a current student in the School of Library of Information Science at the University of Iowa.  If you see Samantha at the conference, please introduce yourself and welcome her!

Awards Committee:  Mary Iber, Chair, Kris Stacy-Bates, Jennifer Sterling, Leslie Ross Ferm, and Steven Johns

Vice President/President-Elect

Amy Paulus
Amy Paulus received a B.A. degree from Iowa State University and M.A. in Library and Information Science from the University of Iowa in 1998.  Amy began work as a Library Assistant in the Interlibrary Loan/Document Delivery department at the Main Library of the University of Iowa, later taking a librarian position in 2004.  In 2007, she expanded her responsibilities as Head, Access Services and continues in this position.  Amy has been active in ILA/ACRL since 2004, chairing the Newsletter Committee and Fall Conference Program and serving on various committees and as the ACRL Chapters Council Representative.

I am pleased to run for the position of Vice President/President-Elect of ILA/ACRL.    At the University of Iowa, ties are being strengthened with the community colleges in the area and library services may change as a result.  There are great opportunities for the libraries across the state to collaborate on these partnerships and ILA/ACRL is a great mechanism to do so.  ILA/ACRL has also made significant strides in including teacher librarians to further strengthen the ties between school and academic libraries.  Given increasing legislative and financial uncertainties, we need to explore these opportunities for partnership to create richer and sustainable library services across the state of Iowa.  I would honor the opportunity lead ILA/ACRL in supporting our libraries as well as individuals within these libraries who need local and cost-effective opportunities for mentoring, life-long learning, and networking.

Secretary/Treasurer

Natalie Hutchinson
Natalie Hutchinson has been the Library Director of Geisler Library at Central College since February 2008. She holds an MSLIS from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She began her career at Central College in 1994, serving as Reference and Instruction Librarian until 1998, when she moved to Maine to serve as the Information Literacy Coordinator at the University of Southern Maine. Prior to returning to Central, Natalie was the library director at St. Joseph’s College in Standish, Maine for five years.  Since her return to Iowa, Natalie has again become a member of ILA/ACRL, and has served as member-at-large on the ILA/ACRL Executive Board.

In these challenging economic times, it is increasingly important that libraries work together to keep the needs of our users front and center.  One of the best ways that we can do this is through the kind of collaboration that happens through ILA/ACRL.  I have very much enjoyed my work on the ILA/ACRL Executive Board, and would be proud and honored to serve as its Secretary/Treasurer. 

Steven Johns
Steve Johns received his BS (Business) from Iowa State University, and his MLIS from the University of Texas.  Steve has been Public Services Librarian at Des Moines Area Community College for the past three years.  Prior to that he was on the library faculty at Iowa State University where he served as Library Faculty Secretary (2002) and Library Faculty Vice-President (2003).   Steve served as the ISU “correspondent” for the ILA Newsletter Committee from 2004-2006.  He has served on the ALA Poster Session Review Panel since 2004, and on the Editorial Board of Journal of Web Librarianship since 2006. 

“I’m a strong believer in professional service and would be honored to serve as ILA/ACRL Treasurer.”

Member-at-Large

Anne Marie Gruber
Anne Marie Gruber is Assistant Director for Library Instruction and Public Services at Charles C. Myers Library at the University of Dubuque. She received an MLS from the University of Iowa and a BA from the University of Northern Iowa. She has served UD for 6 years, including 3 years as Reference & Instruction Librarian. She currently coordinates an extensive information literacy program integrated into the Core Curriculum at UD and has expanded her library’s creative partnerships with Career Services, Student Activities, and the Bridge Program for at-risk students. She has also supervised 3 undergraduate and 2 library science graduate student internships in public services.

Anne Marie has served as Secretary/Treasurer for ILA/ACRL (2008) and, together with her UD colleagues, received the first ILA/ACRL Advocacy Award (2007) and the ILA/ACRL Research Award (2010). She has presented at ILA/ACRL and LOEX, has published several articles, and recently collaborated with two UD faculty members to co-author a communication textbook.

I am honored to be considered for At-Large Representative for ILA/ACRL. In a time of uncertainty and change, academic librarians in Iowa and across the country are working hard to respond creatively and assert the role of libraries on our campuses. I admire the dedicated librarians who have integrated information literacy into college curricula and have focused on the library’s integral role in student learning. When I was a new librarian, I benefited from the professional sharing and guidance ILA/ACRL provides. I look forward to working with my statewide colleagues to ensure quality professional development opportunities through conferences and other ACRL activities. ACRL is the voice of academic librarians and I would be honored to contribute to our association by serving as At-Large Representative on the board.

Gregory Wool
Gregory Wool is a monographs cataloger at Iowa State University with the rank of Associate Professor.  He holds an M.A. in German from Indiana University and an MLS from Rutgers.  He has been with Iowa State since 1991, and before that served as a serials cataloger at the University of Nebraska—Lincoln.

Greg has served several terms as Chair or Vice-Chair of the ILA Resources and Technical Services Forum, and is the current Chair.  He has also served as chair of ILA GODORT and as Editor of ILA’s ACRL Newsletter.  His activities in ALA include two terms on the Subject Analysis Committee of the Association for Library Resources and Technical Services (ALCTS) and the ALCTS Policy and Research Committee, as well as Secretary of the ALCTS Council of Regional Groups.  Recent service includes the Research and Planning Committee of ALA ACRL’s West European Studies Section and chairing the ALA GODORT Cataloging Committee.

Publications include:  “A Meditation on Metadata”, The Serials Librarian, v. 33, no. 1/2, 1998; “On Pins and Needles: Using Structured Metadata for Collocation and Browsing Capability”, The Serials Librarian, v. 41, no. 3/4, 2002; “Filing and Precoordination: How Subject Headings Are Displayed in Online Catalogs and Why It Matters”, Cataloging & Classification Quarterly, v. 29, no. 1/2, 2000.

“Much like the world as a whole, the library profession is changing fast and becoming harder to recognize.  It remains important to facilitate learning but also keep our eyes on the ball in order to improve and enhance what truly matters.  I am proud of my involvement in ILA.  As an ACRL Member-at-Large I would do my best to help advance the principles and practice of librarianship.”

ILA/ACRL Fall Program Committee:  Kathy Parsons, Iowa State University, Chair; Rebecca Stuhr, formerly of Grinnell College, James O' Gorman, St. Ambrose University, Randy Roeder, The University of Iowa

L2L: Library to Library Collaborations Between School, Public, and Academic Libraries
Thursday, October 13 11:05 am

OMG, L2L is so TTLY rad. Do you know that K12, public, and academic libraries can be BFAW? Come hear three librarians describe their experiences in creating collaborations with other types of libraries in their communities.

Betsy Thompson, Director, Sioux City Public Library, will talk about the Sioux City Library Cooperative, founded in 1986. She will share examples of projects that have built trust among libraries in the Sioux City area and will address the “why and how of cooperation”.

Dan Chibnall, User Services and Instruction Design Librarian, Grand View University, will describe his library’s program visiting local high school AP classes. Librarians present learning techniques, used in colleges, which involve real life activities and then require the students to think about complex ideas in a new light. They also touch on personal responsibility in college, the failures of Google and Wikipedia, and the use of on-campus resources.

Rebecca Funke, Director of Library Resources, Des Moines Area Community College, will speak about her library’s partnership with the Kirkendall Public Library in Ankeny for joint programming activities surrounding the One Book One College One Community project. She will also address collaborations with local high schools regarding information literacy—providing library instruction to dual credit students and sharing the need for and importance of good research skills in college. Discussions between K12 and higher education librarians from across the state, where potential partnerships and initiatives to better meet the needs of our high school students and information literacy as they transition to college, will be investigated.

The audience should come prepared to participate by sharing examples of collaboration and cooperation among their local libraries whether in the same town, county, or region and to inspire colleagues by sharing “aha” insights—something they want to go back and do that was triggered by this program.

 

Reading the Garden: Unique Library Collections at Seed Savers Exchange
Thursday, October 13 3:30 pm

Cicero once wrote to his friend Varro: “If you have a garden and a library, you need nothing more.” At the intersection of reading and gardening, a horticultural library collection can fuel perennial passion, inspire fruitful vision, and share down-to-earth wisdom in wonderful ways. Add to the Venn diagram a circle for the rich human stories behind heirloom seeds, and the result is a unique library and archive among the gardens of Seed Savers Exchange (SSE), located at Heritage Farm on 890 acres of woods, hills, and streams near Decorah, IA.

SSE began in 1975 as a simple exchange of heirloom seeds among passionate gardeners and amateurs who sought to preserve the rich gardening heritage of their ancestors. The organization’s library was initially the personal collection of SSE founders Diane Ott Whealy and Kent Whealy. That library collection grew organically as volumes were donated by members, offered as review copies, or purchased as needed. Now numbering about 4,500 volumes, including nearly 1,500 rare and special collection items, the Robert Becker Memorial Library at Seed Savers Exchange is managed by full time professional librarian, Bill Musser, who serves the research needs of the organization and the visiting public. Bill will share some of Seed Savers’ rare books, seed saver stories, and special collections with the participants in this session.

Musser says, “If you think Jethro Tull was just a British band from the 70s, or that the phrase ‘eat dirt’ is just a nasty expression, your attendance at this session is required.” Seed your mind and see what grows in your future.

 

The Academic Library’s Place in the Information Economy
Friday, October 14 10:20 am

Think you know what the academic library’s place is in the information economy? If so, then you may want to think again. John Buschman, Associate University Librarian for Scholarly Resources and Services at Georgetown University’s Lauinger Library, has written extensively on the changing and threatened role of libraries and of librarians. In numerous articles and books, both authored and edited, Buschman ponders the peril to our profession when we turn patrons into customers, purchase newer and higher speed hardware at the expense of building strong collections, and seek to compete with cappuccinoserving, mall-based bookstores. In his view, our proper role is nothing short of preserving the vital public space where people may learn from diverse writers and engage in the messy work called democracy.

But this public space is comprised of both democratic and economic parts, and the economic portion is ascendant, squeezing and challenging the democratic share. In response to the new economy where so much of our public debate centers on costs, budgets, and the bottom line, Buschman quotes American library historian Wayne Weigand, “… capitalism may not appreciate what it is we do, but democracy does.” Some institutions are too important to be left to market forces.

John Buschman has won numerous awards, including ALA’s Elizabeth Futas Catalyst for Change Award (2004). This award honors a librarian who, according to ALA, “… invests time and talent to make positive changes in the profession of librarianship.” He is also the recipient of the research award from the New Jersey Library Association, College & University Section. With an academic background in history, sociology, American studies, library science, and doctoral work in liberal studies, he has a unique perspective in which to interpret social trends over the last thirty years.

Come ready to be challenged, engaged, and maybe reconnected to the role, purpose, and promise of libraries and of librarians.

Welcome to the Fall 2011 ILA/ACRL newsletter.  You can find information about the ILA/ACRL sponsored sessions being held at the ILA Conference, an award winner, and candidate statements and information.