University Libraries’ Student Assistant is New Ball State Trustee

Indiana’s Governor Mitch Daniels has appointed Nicole M. Vauter to serve on the Ball State University Board of Trustees. Nicole has worked in the University Libraries as a student assistant since the second semester of her freshman year.

Nicole, who hales from Hebron, Indiana, is a third year student, pursuing a double major in finance and economics. In addition to serving on the Board of Trustees, Nicole has a fellowship at the Miller College of Business and is assigned to meet with prospective College of Business students and their families. She also keeps active with START, the Student-Alumni Relations Team, and Alpha Kappa Psi, a professional business fraternity. “I’m looking forward to learning more about all the different things I’m involved in,” says Nicole.

Nicole is a Circulation/Reserves Student Assistant in the University Libraries. This means that students and faculty may run into her the next time they check out a book or pick up an Interlibrary Loan item at Bracken’s Circulation Desk. Nicole can also be found creating network guest passes, organizing book trucks, and shifting books in the stacks.

About working at the University Libraries, Nicole says she likes the opportunity she has found to create so many fun and interesting relationships with the full-time personnel and student assistants. “I love the people I work with. It’s a fun atmosphere.”

Diane Frankland, Nicole’s supervisor, said that it is hard to put in just a few words an adequate description of Nicole. “Nicole is a very sweet person, and also diligent, caring, and responsible, with a lot to offer. I think she’ll go a long way.”

Joseph Cezar Architectural Records Collection

As you recline on a lawn chair in your backyard this summer, you might consider for a moment how you would design your own perfect lawn chair. A recent discovery in the Drawings and Documents Archive at Ball State University Libraries illustrates one architect’s classic, yet innovative, design for the perfect lawn chair.

One of many interesting items in the Joseph O. Cezar Architectural Records Collection, this 1943 drawing titled Lawn Chair is an interpretation of the classic Adirondack style chair with its sloping back, plank boards and wide armrests. The history of the Adirondack chair began, not surprisingly, in the Adirondack Mountain resort area of New York. Created in 1903, its popularity quickly spread throughout the country due to its rugged construction combined with the high level of comfort it provides despite its lack of cushions. Forty years later, Indianapolis architect Joseph O. Cezar (1903-1991) updated what was already a classic Adirondack design and incorporated two discrete wheels under the front chair legs for increased mobility. Clearly, he was familiar with the design but felt he could improve upon it by making a few alterations.

This drawing illustrates a period in Cezar’s life when he was establishing an architecture practice in Indiana and raising a growing family. Born in Austria in 1903, Cezar found his way to Indianapolis in 1938 after he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in architecture from Chicago Technical College. He worked in architecture firms until he began his own practice in 1944.

Architecture and landscape architecture students and faculty can utilize design drawings, such as this one, to learn about the decision-making process involved in matching need, such as comfort in the out-of-doors, with a design solution, in this case a sturdy and mobile chair. The technology of creating a simple functional object like a chair that bears appropriate weight, maintains its shape, and is comfortably reliable for an extended use is communicated in the clear, concise drawing and exact specifications Cezar incorporated into his drawing.

Cezar’s creativity is evident in his creation of a chair design, but one can also see his superb artistic talents on display in other drawings often containing interior or exterior elevation drawings of the room or building, which serve to give the client a visual representation of the space that is often difficult to decipher solely from the architectural drawings. This extra touch must have been successful for Cezar, as the collection attests to clients who employed him for multiple jobs.

The Joseph O. Cezar Architectural Records Collection will soon be available for online viewing through the Ball State University Libraries’ Digital Media Repository, http://libx.bsu.edu.

Size, Versatility, Low Cost — Contributing Factors to Netbooks’ Popularity

Recently, some of the University Libraries’ personnel spoke about how they use their netbooks, citing convenience and cost as top attributes. The name, netbook, is apt for this small-size laptop computer because of its reliance on an Internet connection.

James Bradley, Head of Metadata & Digital Initiatives, spent about $375 on his black ASUS Eee PC 1000HE Netbook. It features a 10-inch screen and wireless N connection with Bluetooth connectability. It has a battery life of over seven hours on a charge. He spent another $25 to upgrade the memory to 2 GB RAM.

“I love it,” he said. “During work hours, I use it for e-mail, Web, and word processing. It is portable and easy to take to meetings, thus my notes on a meeting can be saved to my main workstation when I return and then form an electronic and searchable archive of meeting notes and agendas.”

Jim said that, when away from work, he also uses his netbook to watch videos, such as YouTube or Hulu, and he uses Adobe PhotoShop and publishes family photos on his Web site.

When John Straw, Assistant Dean for Digital Initiatives and Special Collections, recently attended the 2009 annual meeting of the Academic Libraries of Indiana, he saw several people using netbooks to take notes, view Web sites that the speakers mentioned, and to keep up with their e-mail.

“I have one now, too,” he said. “I just used it at a meeting. It is very compact and useful to take to meetings and to work on-the-go.”

Denise Kinney, Secretary to Library Assistant Deans, really likes her ASUS Eee 1000HA. It features a 160 GB hard drive, sports 1 GB RAM, and offers wireless G capability.

“Big things come in small packages,” she said. “It weighs only three pounds and can operate for five or six hours on the fully charged six-cell battery.”

Denise used her netbook recently while on a trip to access "Microsoft Street Tips and Maps" to locate a library in Michigan and other locations. She has used the wireless connectivity to locate genealogy information and to download knitting and crochet patterns, which she reads as she knits. Like Jim, she enjoys staying in touch with her family and friends, watching movies through Hulu and YouTube, and viewing digital photographs.

“Truly, there is no limit as to what may be accessed or stored on this netbook,” she said. “I have the world at my fingertips through my netbook.”

Robert Seaton, University Libraries’ Web Development Specialist, said he likes the portability of his Acer Aspire One with its 10.1-inch screen and 1.6 GHz Intel Atom N270 processor. He paid about $350 for the sapphire blue unit.

“I can take it with me everywhere,” he said. “The size is small so it’s like carrying a paper notebook, and it is a fast machine. It’s small enough that I can take it to a meeting and it won’t be distracting.”

Robert said that his netbook even plays some of today’s more popular 3D games. The units do not come standard with a CD-ROM drive, although it makes up for that by having several USB ports and an SD card reader as well as a multi-card reader. It has built-in wireless so any software that he wants can usually be downloaded and installed.

Because the price of the netbook is so reasonable and its performance is so high, the unit seems to be perfectly suited for almost everyone. For less than $400, the user can have a powerful, portable computer that offers word processing, video playback, e-mail, and other functionality. From any WiFi hotspot or ubiquitous 3G network, the netbook is perfect for providing convenient access to the Internet from home, work, or school.

Outside Furniture Provides Gathering Spaces, Expands Use of Plazas

Recently, five outdoor tables were added to Bracken Library’s north and south plazas for student and faculty enjoyment. Already this furniture is popular with those who want to catch some sunshine while studying outside, taking a break, or grabbing a bite to eat al fresco.

Ball State University's plazas on the north and south sides of the library offer full wireless connectivity so that students and faculty can access the Libraries’ resources through their laptops or other portable devices. The tables are manufactured using 68% recycled material.

Providing the tables is another step toward making the University Libraries the most inviting, friendly space on campus for research, learning, and friends.

Recent Art Purchase Award Helps to Beautify Bracken Library

The 74th Annual Student Art Show, held at Ball State University’s Museum of Art, featured student artwork in all media, from painting and sculpture to video and furniture. Each year, a panel of jurors considers hundreds of student works for selection in this show, narrowing the final selection to between 100 and 125. The result is a student exhibition that showcases outstanding talent and quality artwork.

For purchase, the Ball State University Libraries selected New English by artist Michael R. Hurt, a senior from Redkey, Indiana. Originally, Professor Marilyn Derwenskus, Ball State Department of Art, started the painting. Upon her retirement this past year, she gave almost all of her unfinished sketches and paintings to students while encouraging them to reuse the canvas or paint over them, if desired. Michael chose this particular canvas for its composition and mysterious nature.

“I liked how the pillar on the left enclosed the scene while adding a sort of two-dimensional border uncommon to artworks,” he said. “I had sort of an immediate connection to this piece.”

Michael had always enjoyed the graffiti art found on railroad cars and in many urban settings. He was inspired by a graffiti artist named Heist from Toledo, Ohio. Michael commented that he had seen Heist paint whole freight train cars, from top to bottom and from side to side.

New English examines the differences and commonalities between two generations of artists – Marilyn’s generation, which covers periods of Abstract Expressionism, Neo-Expressionism, Pop Art, Op Art with influences from movements of the earlier 1900s, and Michael’s generation of graffiti artists who widely ignore the traditional artistic heritage in exchange for a self-satisfying culture.

“In the future, this style of art may be viewed as the most influential artistic movement in centuries,” he said. “Amidst this huge gap in artistic background, I think the piece holds together well while speaking volumes both conceptually and visually to the passing of the torch to a new set of artists and the remembrance of those who have come before us.”

The Libraries Upgrade E-Journal Access with MultiLink

In January 2009, the University Libraries embarked on a major project to overhaul how we manage access to online journals. We are now achieving a major milestone with the unveiling of SerialsSolution’s 360 Link software, which we are calling MultiLink.

MultiLink succeeds FindIt@BSU. From a user’s perspective, it works much the same way. Something that the user will notice that is different with MultiLink is a new blue button with some of the citations. Clicking the button produces a menu of links to multiple options for obtaining the citation’s full text.

In many cases, the University Libraries provide direct access to journal articles on the Web. However, when we do not have access, ILLiad provides speedy access via interlibrary loan. As always, there is an option to check the online catalog, CardCat. With MultiLink, we have added some new alternatives, including WorldCat, a global database of library resources, and Google Scholar, which indexes both commercially published and open access scholarly materials.

While the basic operation of MultiLink is not new to the University Libraries, it represents several major improvements in access to online scholarship. For example, we have implemented a 1-Click feature, where a click of the MultiLink button goes straight to a full-text article when one is available. MultiLink, as before with FindIt@BSU, is also accessible with the Citation Linker and an integrated Electronic Journals portal.

Very significant benefits arise from the fact that MultiLink and the Electronic Journals portal are integrated. Both services are driven by the same underlying database – the massive electronic journals database maintained by the Seattle-based SerialsSolutions, Inc. Prior to beginning our relationship with SerialsSolutions, Inc., the Libraries maintained links to electronic journals in three different “silos,” not an efficient arrangement. The single Electronic Resource Management System streamlines maintenance and will dramatically improve accuracy, which should translate to increased user success in finding full text.

Another improvement in electronic resource management will come with an integrated usage statistics component. This component will increase our capacity to make optimal collection and spending decisions.

For more information, contact James W. Hammons, Head of Library Technologies, JHammons@bsu.edu, 765-285-8032.

Bracken Library Voted “Best Place to Study” by Ball State Community

The Ball State Daily News, a student-run newspaper with a circulation of 14,000, recently asked the campus community to vote for the “best” in several categories. More than 2,000 votes were cast online and at various ballot boxes around campus.

With helpful librarians, outstanding digital and print resources, and hundreds of PC and Mac workstations, it is no wonder Bracken Library was voted Best Place to Study. Bracken Library, located in the heart of campus, is the place to meet friends, study, research, and to finalize projects. Our doors are in constant motion 120.5 hours per week.

The University Libraries’ tagline is “A destination for research, learning, and friends.” These seven words summarize and convey the personality of our brand and its promise. Students know when they visit Bracken they are at a place where they can accomplish their work and achieve what they set out to do.

Ball State University Libraries’ Archives and Special Collections Now Providing Reference Services in Second Life

Ball State University Libraries’ Archives and Special Collections now offer reference hours in Second Life, a free online virtual world.

Archivists Maren Read, a.k.a. Em Ziplon, and Carolyn Runyon, a.k.a. Carolyn Robonaught, are available to answer questions on Mondays and Fridays from 10 a.m. to noon and Tuesdays from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. A “drop box” is also available at the reference desk to leave questions and comments about the University Libraries and the Middletown Studies Library and Archives 24/7.

This new service has been made possible, in part, through an Innovative Library Program Grant for 2008-09 to the University Libraries as part of the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA), funding for which was appropriated by the U.S. Congress in 1996 and administered by the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the Indiana State Library.

In collaboration with Ball State’s Center for Middletown Studies and the Institute for Digital Intermedia Arts and Animation (IDIAA), the University Libraries’ Archives and Special Collections has been working this past year to develop the virtual Bracken Library and the virtual Middletown Studies Library and Archives on the Ball State University Island in Second Life.

When the project is complete in June 2009, students, faculty, and researchers will be able to chat with archivists, explore an exhibit on the history of Muncie as Middletown, watch films such as The Man Haters (35 mm silent movie filmed in Muncie in 1915) in the library screening room, and gather for classes and meetings “inworld.”

For more information, contact Maren L. Read, Archivist for Manuscript Collections, or Carolyn Runyon, Archivist for Digital Development and University Records, LibArchives@bsu.edu, 765-285-5078.

Libraries’ Support a Teaching, Learning, and Research Environment

Our librarians and paraprofessional personnel are committed to providing consistently gracious service to our students and faculty through our Roll Out the Red personal commitments of great care and through the Libraries’ many programs, services, and rich collections that are a strategic part of each student’s academic achievement and success plan.

Bracken Library supports immersive learning by being open Sunday nights through Thursday nights until 3 a.m. On Fridays, we open at 7 a.m. and close at 9 p.m. with Saturday hours from 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Altogether, we provide 120.5 hours per week, which ranks us high among all U.S. libraries that support late hours.

Housed in modern and spacious facilities, our libraries provide students with access to rich resource collections of print and digital resources and assets. Our librarians help students with research projects and they also help find resources not owned by Ball State that are necessary for research, including obtaining print and digital items through interlibrary loan services.

Bracken Library offers public access to over 460 PC workstations and 20 Macs. These computers provide students and faculty with access to all of the common software used in courses across campus. Large format scanners are available at various locations for free use.

Bracken offers students a variety of spaces for collaborative group projects and individual study. The facility is wireless throughout. There are group study rooms that accommodate from 4 to 18 persons, videoconferencing rooms that support classroom instruction, and the Bookmark Café providing access to sandwiches, coffees, teas, and other beverages.

Laptops and other technologies are available for checkout. High volume laser printers offer free printing for students and faculty. All public workstations provide USB and audio cables at the desktop for alternative printing, storage, retrieval, as well as for listening to audio files and viewing video formats.

I personally invite students and faculty to check out the University Libraries as a destination for research, learning, and friends. The Libraries offer students and faculty access to personnel for research assistance, collections for discovery and exploration of ideas, and technology for learning, classroom assignment enhancements, and experimentation.

Videos of First Division Veterans Now Accessible

Students, faculty, and other researchers worldwide now have 24/7 access to videotaped interviews with veterans of the United States Army’s First Infantry Division, commonly known as the “Big Red One.” Forty high definition videos, along with transcripts, comprise the Cantigny First Division Oral Histories Collection in the Ball State University Digital Media Repository,
http://libx.bsu.edu, a project of the University Libraries.

The interviews were conducted by Ball State history students Chris Reidy, Steven Brown, and Rachel (Fulton) Coleman under the supervision of history professors Dr. Michael W. Doyle and Dr. David Ulbrich (now at Ohio University) as part of a project funded by the Chicago-based McCormick Foundation with administrative support from the staff of the First Division Museum. The goal of the project was to preserve the memories of First Division soldiers who have served around the globe since World War II. The interviews focus on veterans currently residing in Indiana, Ohio, and Kentucky.

The University Teleplex Services videotaped the interviews and digitized them. Ball State University Libraries’ personnel transcribed the interviews so that they can be read and viewed simultaneously.

According to Professor Doyle in a press release about the project, “Even the youngest veterans who saw action in Operation Desert Storm are now approaching their 40s. We do not want to let these soldiers’ stories go unrecorded.”

He said that the Cantigny First Division Oral History Project was intended to do for newer generations what Ken Burns did for the World War II veterans.

You can learn more about the grant project by viewing the Conversations Across Generations: The Cantigny First Division Oral History Project video by Chris Reidy available on the collection splash page in the Digital Media Repository.

National Road Program to be Presented at Library Friends Annual Dinner

Movers and Stakers: Stories Along the Indiana National Road will be the topic of the E. Bruce Kirkham Lecture given by Nancy B. Carlson, Associate Professor of Telecommunications, at the annual dinner of the Friends of the Alexander M. Bracken Library, April 1, 2009. Mrs. Carlson will talk about and show clips from her upcoming documentary on the National Road, U.S. 40, in Indiana.

The Library Friends annual dinner will be held in the Ball State Alumni Center. A reception begins at 6 p.m., followed by dinner at 6:30 p.m., and then a brief business meeting followed by the Kirkham Lecture.

For more information on the dinner or joining the Friends of the Alexander M. Bracken Library, contact John B. Straw, executive secretary of the Friends and Assistant Dean for Digital Initiatives and Special Collections, JStraw@bsu.edu, 765-285-5078.

Ball State University Libraries: A Place to Experience Critical Thinking and Visual Rhetoric

A recent conversation with Dr. Adrienne L. Bliss, Assistant Professor at Ball State’s Department of English, revealed information about the University Libraries’ broader, richer scope, and its role on campus beyond serving as a resource for research and learning.

“The library supports the concept of learning in that it enhances critical thinking,” she said. “Critical thinking is about interacting with the world and problem solving, so when students visit the library, they learn how to find the information they need to solve problems and that includes using the maps, the technology, the physical space, and even the café.”

Dr. Bliss mentioned the trend of visual rhetoric being modeled in the library. Visual rhetoric is the study of how document design communicates through the use of illustrations, graphs, typography, and layout. Visual rhetoric also examines the relationship between images and writing. In this regard, the library’s signage and slides shown on the plasma screens communicate a range of important messages, including the slides that welcome students in a variety of languages, thus recognizing the importance of international students.

The library’s signage reminds visitors about vending machines in Bracken’s lower level, the availability of help from librarians, the range of resources, such as new collections, international films, DVDs, and laptops for check-out, and
the importance of not leaving personal belongings unattended.

Dr. Bliss believes that the library plays a significant role in the successful retention of freshmen and that reference librarians are key providers of library and information service to the campus community. She encourages students in her English composition classes to seek advice from librarians if they are stuck on a research project or if they need to narrow a topic for a paper. She tries to put a face on the library by personalizing the services offered by our librarians, and she encourages students to talk with librarians by saying, “They are your librarians. Go talk to them!”

On many mornings, one finds students working on their English papers in the New Books and Bestsellers corner while Dr. Bliss confers with others. She keeps “office” hours there on occasion because students prefer to meet with her in the convenient, comfortable setting of Bracken, which is centrally located on campus.

“Everything we need is here: technology, research tools, music, movies, even comfy chairs,” she said.
The scope of library services utilized by Dr. Bliss goes beyond the first floor. She takes students to instruction sessions offered by Technology Training Support Services, such as a Web design class. She also looks for ways to engage library personnel in her classroom, such as a visit early each semester by Dr. Fritz Dolak, University Libraries’ Copyright and Intellectual Property Manager, who discusses copyright issues with students.

The University Libraries continue to explore ways to serve the campus community and to support endeavors in teaching, learning, and research.

The University Libraries’ Garnett Mystery Collection: A Collection Management Perspective

Everyone likes to receive gifts, and the University Libraries are no exception. Donations of library materials or monetary contributions assist us in our efforts to provide a rich array of resources and services for our students and faculty despite rising costs and tightening budgets. Over the years the Libraries have received a number of gift collections that have strengthened our holdings for specific subject disciplines, such as music, architecture, history, and military history, among others.

Few gifts, however, have caused as much happy excitement as a recent donation of over 2,800 mystery books written by about 450 contemporary, women authors. The books are the gift of an anonymous Ball State alumna who originally gave her collection to the Women’s Studies Program to be made available for others to enjoy. Realizing that the University Libraries are better prepared to circulate books, the Women’s Studies office made arrangements last July to turn the collection over to the Libraries. The original donor is still reading mysteries, and she expects to contribute more books in the future.

Because of its popular nature, the donation, now dubbed the Garnett Mystery Collection, raised some interesting questions from a collection management perspective. Who would be most likely to use these books? And for what purposes? How should they be organized to facilitate use? Where should they be located? And what about preservation? Over two-thirds of the collection consisted of paperbacks that surely would not survive repeated circulations.

While the collection is not without potential research and instructional value for such areas as Women’s Studies, Creative Writing, or Sociology, the largest readership was deemed to be mystery lovers pursuing recreational reading – readers who probably also enjoy the Bestsellers Collection on Bracken Library’s 1-East area. It seemed prudent, then, to keep the Garnett books together as a collection and locate them near the Bestsellers where several ranges of shelving were already in place that would provide sufficient space for the current collection and still accommodate its anticipated future growth.

On the assumption that most people like to browse popular fiction collections, a simplified call number schema was devised to arrange the collection in alphabetical order by author’s last name and then, for each author, alphabetically by title. Of course, bibliographic records were also added to the Libraries’ online catalog, CardCat, to assist readers looking for particular mystery writers or fictional detectives in whatever Libraries’ collection they might be – bestsellers, audio books, or general collections’ literature sections.

A renewable two-week loan period was established to provide circulation opportunities to as many people as possible for what is expected to be a high-demand collection.

Preservation was one of the more difficult issues to resolve. There was little doubt that some kind of binding would be necessary if the collection was to endure, yet part of the appeal of a browsing collection is its colorful book covers and the information that publishers often provide on them.

We did not want to sacrifice these features, even though the solution came with a cost both in money and staff time. For the hardbacks with dust jackets, library staff performed the time-consuming process of applying plastic covers to the original jackets. The paperbacks were sent to the Libraries’ commercial bindery where they received a special type of binding called DigiCovers. Unlike the typical library buckrum binding process, which removes and destroys the cover, the DigiCover process makes a digital copy of the book’s original cover before removing it and then incorporates the digital image as part of the outside of the bound volume. The result of these decisions is a mystery collection that is both durable and visually appealing.

To identify the collection, library staff also designed special bookplates, even acquiring new labeling software so as to be able to create bookplates small enough to use in the paperbacks.

One final consideration in processing this collection was timeliness. Recognizing the potential appeal of the mysteries to our students and faculty and the donor’s desire that the books be made available for others’ enjoyment, it was important to make the collection available to the public in as short a time as possible. To accomplish this, both streamlined procedures and efficient use of available staff were required.

The normal cataloging process was expedited by the decision to download full bibliographic records from OCLC’s WorldCat into CardCat with minimal local revisions. In this we were fortunate that all but nine of the over 2,800 titles had usable records in WorldCat. Assignment of the locally devised call numbers was partially automated using an Access database developed by one of the Libraries’ catalogers. Other processes, such as binding and physical processing, did not lend themselves to shortcuts and were accomplished with great efficiency and much hard work on the part of the responsible library staff.

For more information, contact Sharon A. Roberts, Assistant Dean for Collection Resources Management, SRoberts@bsu.edu, 765-285-1305.

Creating a Web Laboratory

by Roy “Todd” Vandenbark, Part-time Temporary Special Project Developer, Library Information Technology Services

I recently attended the Library Information Technology Association (LITA) Forum. Some of the sessions I attended were about topics such as distance learning, hacking prevention for Web 2.0 applications, and optimizing library resources for persons who read on screen.

One of the sessions most directly applicable to my work in the University Libraries was Jason Battles’ and Jody Combs’ session, “Building a Web-based Laboratory for Library Users.” As library technology staff develop new products and services, a major question is how to test and market the products effectively to students and faculty. To address this problem, Battles and Combs may have adopted an idea from Google that will prove useful in libraries.

Google Labs is a site that showcases prototypes of software, or beta versions. These are available to the public for “test driving” in return for feedback about the experience. Battles and Combs adapted this for the Vanderbilt University Libraries to seek suggestions for new services, highlight and seek feedback on projects under development, and recruit participants for usability studies and focus groups. This online “Web laboratory” is organized similar to a blog, with an RSS feed to allow visitors to track updates and additions to the site.

It also includes an integrated feedback mechanism in the form of comment boxes for each item and for the site as a whole. Responses are recorded in a database where administrators can track and analyze user comments. Their concept has proven so successful that four additional academic libraries in addition to Vanderbilt are using it: the University of Alabama, the University of Alberta, the University of Minnesota, and the University of Virginia.
Advantages of a Web Lab

A library’s “Web lab” offers a number of advantages available to institutions of any size. Because it can be set up in a blog format, its implementation is quick, easy, and does not require technical staff. It also frees libraries from forcing innovations to fit an academic calendar. Online testing and feedback also helps the library serve distance learners who do not necessarily use the physical library, allowing them to see and comment on how the library serves them. Feedback on major projects such as redesigning a Web site or library catalog interface can be honed for greater success, avoiding mistakes in interface design and functionality, and tailoring services to better meet the changing needs of patrons.

Ball State University Libraries’ efforts to remain at the cutting edge of innovation include adopting successful concepts developed at other institutions. Our Libraries’ version of this Web Lab is currently under development, visit www.bsu.edu/libraries/weblab.

For more information, contact Roy “Todd” Vandenbark, University Libraries’ Part-time Temporary Special Project Developer, RTVandenbark@bsu.edu, 765-285-8032.

University Libraries Experience Digital Development Success in Past Year and Plan for Initiatives in New Year

Arthur W. Hafner, Dean of University Libraries, outlined the Libraries’ strategic goals in the June 2008 issue of this newsletter. One of those five goals was to expand the Libraries’ digital initiatives and facilitate development of emerging media opportunities for learning, research, and classroom enhancement.

The beginning of a new year provides us an opportunity to review progress on this goal and to look ahead and make plans for further achieving our goals.

The Ball State University Libraries have made many exciting advancements toward accomplishing digital initiatives in the past year, including:

Increasing the number of digital objects in the Digital Media Repository (DMR) to over 112,000 items to support research, learning, and teaching
- Designing a new DMR public interface with enhanced features, new content, expanded menus, and improved navigability
- Implementing Zoomify in DMR collections to allow users to view, zoom, and pan detailed images in a quick and efficient manner
- Enhancing DMR collections by creating Google interactive maps for selected collections, such as Muncie Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps and the Man Haters Film Collection
- Developing the Cardinal Scholar Institutional Repository to provide global access to Ball State’s student and faculty work

In total, 14 new digital collections have been made available for global access in the Digital Media Repository (http://libx.bsu.edu), bringing the total to 72.

Here are a few digital developments to watch for in 2009:
- An emerging media project to create educational applications using Digital Media Repository collections and other University Libraries’ digital resources through Microsoft Surface™ that will allow for data and digital asset manipulation by students for class projects
- A partnership to create a digital collection of Delaware County aerial plat maps that illustrate property changes between 1976 and 2006, including land development and use, zoning changes, and urban sprawl
- Collaborative grant projects with other institutions for the University Libraries to provide digitization services and host their digital collections
- New enhancements to Digital Media Repository collections, including a portal to U.S. Veterans digital resources
- New collections in the Digital Media Repository, including digital audio and video interviews with United States military veterans, Ball State University monographs, early issues of the Ball State Daily News (then called the Easterner), Indiana archeological surveys, and rare books from Archives and Special Collections
- The opening of the Helen B. and Martin D. Schwartz Special Collections and Global Digital Complex on the first floor of Bracken Library

For more information, contact John B. Straw, Assistant Dean for Digital Initiatives and Special Collections, JStraw@bsu.edu, 765-285-5078.

Campus Community Experiences Diversity at Bracken Library

The Ball State University campus community enjoyed the sights, tastes, and sounds of other cultures on Friday, November 7 at Bracken Library during the International Festival. Sponsored by the Rinker Center for International Programs, international students from 25 countries decorated tables in Bracken’s lobby with items from their homelands, offering students, faculty, staff, and community visitors a chance to visit with them about various customs from around the world.

The annual celebration of cultures at Ball State has been a tradition for more than 50 years. Its purpose is to raise awareness about the diversity of international students attending Ball State.

Participants said that the turnout and interactions with American students were positive. The all-day event was attended by more than 600 people, including classes from Burris Laboratory School and community visitors.

Dr. Arthur W. Hafner, Dean of University Libraries, said that the Libraries’ were happy to host this event for the second consecutive year to promote international awareness and to help campus community members learn about the customs and traditions of Ball State’s international students.

Kue Ziao, a graduate student from China, said the international festival is a window to all international students through which we can see and experience different cultures. He said that each year he meets new friends and learns something new at the festival.

Inasi Nilanka, a graduate student from Sri Lanka agrees. “Most people do not know about Sri Lanka, and I am proud to be a Sri Lankan,” she said. “The International Festival is one of the best opportunities to tell about my country's culture and beauty, and I also learn about other countries!" Inasi’s presentations resulted in many people saying they were interested in visiting Sri Lanka someday.

Visitors to the library sampled tea from Japan, coffee from Iraq, chocolates from Germany, a meat dish from Russia, and rice from India, to name just a few. A fashion show held at noon highlighted both modern and traditional dress from several countries.

From the Rinker Center for International Programs, Debra L. Goens, Interim Director of International Student Services, and two graduate students, Ramia S. Badri from Iraq and Vijay Mandadi from India, organized the event. The event was co-sponsored by University Program Board and Bracken Library.

For photos: www.bsu.edu/library/festival/international08

Chat Widgets Increase Number of Reference Questions at the Libraries

by Stacy B. Chaney-Blankenship, Information Services Librarian

In an effort to provide better services to our students, faculty, and staff, Information Services librarians at Ball State University Libraries have placed chat widgets on the Web site.

Chat widgets are a way for students and faculty to send instant messages directly from a Web page. Widgets do not require an account with a chat service provider nor do they depend on chat software being installed on the user’s computer station. Rather, chat widgets are put in place by the Web page creator. The user, who is assigned a “guest” account by the chat service provider, can interact with the widget provider directly from that page. In this case, personnel at the reference desk are contacted by students and researchers from the Libraries’ Web page.

The ever-popular chat service provides an easy way for users to get help from a librarian, and widgets can increase chat use by putting the service directly within the context of the Libraries’ Web site and making it easy for users to ask research questions.

The Ball State University Libraries have Wimzi widgets on the main Ask a Librarian page at
www.bsu.edu/library/askalibrarian, on the Libraries’ Articles and Databases page at
www.bsu.edu/libraries/databases/index.php, within the Libraries’ online subject guide system at
http://bsu.libguides.com, and on the Libraries’ MySpace page.

It did not take long for students and others to begin using the widgets. The University Libraries’ statistics on chat use increased immediately following implementation. The first widget went live on the Ask a Librarian page in late August 2007, and the following month showed a 33% increase in chats overall.

Another chat widget on the Articles and Databases page has accounted for 5% to 10% of all chat sessions received at the Bracken Library Reference and Information Desk since the widget’s introduction in September 2008.

In November 2008, sessions that originated from chat widgets accounted for 68% of the more than 400 total chat sessions overall. These chats are received at the reference desk in conjunction with other chat questions being sent from the users’ own AIM, MSN Messenger, and Yahoo chat accounts to our chat accounts, all with the username BSULibrarian and managed at the desk using Trillian software.

For more information, contact Stacy B. Chaney-Blankenship, Information Services Librarian, SBChaney@bsu.edu, 765-285-1101.

Ball State Librarians Present at Indiana Library Federation’s Annual Conference

Diane L. Calvin, Head of Information Services, participated in a panel discussion called Let’s Chat about Chat. She described University Libraries’ success with a live chat reference service as usage continues to grow for this service.

Stacy B. Chaney-Blankenship, Information Services Librarian, presented a session entitled Virtual Pathfinders and LibGuides. She discussed options for updating online library subject guides, including the University Libraries’ use of the LibGuides system.

Maren L. Read, Archivist for Manuscript Collections, and Amanda A. Hurford, Digital Initiatives Multimedia Developer, presented Not Just Old News: Virtual Access to Historic Newspapers through Digitization. They discussed the steps to make the Muncie Post-Democrat Newspaper Collection available to a global audience, including preparing the collection, digitization, Optical Character Recognition, metadata creation, and online display.

Scott R. McFadden, Head of Serials Cataloging, presented The CONSER Standard Record: A New Approach to Serials Cataloging. The session explained the CONSER Standard Record, a minimum standard for cataloging serials, recently introduced by CONSER (Cooperative Online Serials program).

Matthew C. Shaw, Collections Development Librarian, presented Please Visit our Google Branch: Supplementing Traditional Collections with Google Book Search Project to an audience of 70. He discussed practical ways for academic, public, and school libraries to take advantage of the digitization of millions of books by Google Inc.

French Revolution Pamphlets Available in the Digital Media Repository for Teaching, Learning, and Research

A collection of rare pamphlets from the French Revolution period is now available in digital format. Students, faculty, staff, and researchers globally may access these documents anytime from anywhere, 24/7/365. The French Revolution Pamphlet Collection can be found in the Ball State University Digital Media Repository, a project of the University Libraries, at http://libx.bsu.edu.

The collection contains pamphlets published from 1779 through 1815. Although the French Revolution occurred from 1789 to 1799, this collection documents the time leading up to the revolution through the Napoleonic Wars (1799-1815). Often privately printed due to newspaper censure by the French monarchy, the pamphlets were used to disseminate information and ideas concerning nationalism, citizenship, personal freedom, and social injustice.

The French Revolution Pamphlet Collection, which is housed in the Libraries’ Archives and Special Collections, was originally purchased from Mrs. Frances Reynolds in 1973. The University acquired it to assist an increasing number of history and French students in their research and studies. While it has served that purpose on several occasions since, the digital version will now make the collection available to a world-wide audience of students and researchers, anytime, anywhere. The collection will have new life for Ball State students and faculty who probably were not aware of this potentially research-rich resource.

The effects of the French Revolution were far-reaching and global. The resulting wars propelled Britain to global dominance. Many historians consider the French Revolution as the beginning of modern Europe. Much like the American Revolution, it was a movement of the masses. Since newspapers were heavily censored, the French revolutionaries turned to pamphlets to disseminate political discourse. Pamphlets became the most important tool for propaganda and political discourse.

The collection contains 544 pamphlets. Digitizing is continuing and the entire collection will ultimately be available in the Digital Media Repository. While the pamphlets are in French, an English title is provided as well as the French one. A link to a finding aid in English for the entire collection is available on the splash page. Our objective is to eventually provide a translation of each document.

Ball State University Libraries’ Interlibrary Loan Services: Helping Others around the Country and World

Ball State University Libraries’ Interlibrary Loan Services reputation for quality service helps place it as the second highest academic lender of materials in Indiana, just behind Indiana University-Bloomington with respect to the number of items loaned to other libraries.

“We have loaned materials to people from Canada, Denmark, France, Japan, Lebanon, and Norway, to mention a few countries,” said Elaine S. Nelson, Interlibrary Loan Supervisor. “Over the past fiscal year, we have experienced an increase of about 1.8% in the number of borrowing requests from other libraries. For the same period, our borrowing from other libraries has increased by 15.6%.”

The installation of a Direct Request feature in February 2006 allows the automatic submission of a student or faculty member’s request to the libraries once certain criteria are met. This is a “transparent feature” so that when a person submits a request, it automatically forwards to a library that owns the item.

This means that Interlibrary Loan staff do not handle the request until the item physically arrives at the University Libraries, thereby reducing the time the requestor has to wait by about 1.8 days. ILLiad has proven to be an essential technology in helping our staff to service an increasing number of requests.

The unit receives many types of thank you letters, mostly by e-mail, in which people share their appreciation for Interlibrary Loan Services.

One customer wrote, “This is my first time to deal with Ball State, having heard David Letterman crow about it for years. It’s been wonderful doing business with you!”

Interlibrary Loan Services has supplied six articles to the Executive Office of the President of the United States over the past few years. The unit also finds materials for Ball State students and faculty. For example, a student recently needed a book for his research that unit personnel found and borrowed from a library in South Africa.

Through Interlibrary Loan Services, students and faculty may
- Obtain books, articles, videos, software, and music from other libraries
- Obtain materials listed as “Checked Out” in our online public catalog
- Obtain most requested materials in less than 10 days
- Access requested articles may have articles delivered online.

For more information, contact Elaine S. Nelson, the University Libraries’ Interlibrary Loan Supervisor, ENelson@bsu.edu, 765-285-1323.