Perspective Following ALA Mid-Winter Conference

by Marcy L. Simons, Head of Access Services
The American Library Association’s Mid-Winter conference has long been a staple for the “think-tanks” behind the association, its members, and committees. Unquestionably, the theme of this year’s mid-winter was budget-cuts and how to deal with them.

Whether in a discussion with colleagues, during a more formal presentation, or in round-table discussion groups, an item on every agenda was how to deal with shrinking budgets.

The attendance numbers have been confirmed – 7,905 actual attendees – a far cry from the almost 11,000 who registered for the conference. Cancellations of discussion groups, panel sessions, and committee meetings were many due to panel members not able to travel, and, even in some cases, chairpersons having to give up their positions because they would not be able to attend the 2009 conferences.

As so many of our colleagues commented, there is strength in numbers, and there is no better way to jumpstart creativity than by spending time with like-minded people who all have the same goal: providing information and services that our users need and want. On everyone’s agenda was the question of how libraries prepare for, and implement, budget reductions while still taking advantage of future trends to support student and faculty research and learning. Below is a brief list of some of the interesting take-aways that I heard.


Librarians should anticipate an insistence on data management for all types of libraries. For academic libraries, this means measuring our impact on the educational experience of our users.

Today’s practicing librarians have a stake in what is being taught to future librarians in our graduate library schools. The curriculum needs to include course topics such as the following:
- evaluation of library services using well understood metrics
- evaluation of the “user experience”
- community service
- “each one reach one” mentoring programs
- library service advocacy

Librarians need to become more experienced at advocating for their library’s programs and services. In addition to receiving training to accomplish this, practicing librarians at all levels need to get out among their community of members to inform people about libraries and the services available to them.
Librarian administrators, deans, and public service directors spoke about various ways to manage budget reductions. Some of the more creative ways were the following:

- shared print repositories and consortia making “group” collection decisions
- creating formal assessment tools/programs to answer the “how do you provide
value” questions coming from boards, trustees, and others
- using today’s uncertainties as a qualified opportunity for reevaluating programs
and services and for re-structuring and right-sizing for organizational efficiency

There is more interest on developing an interface to efficiently deliver more mobile content for small-screen mobile devices such as the iPhone or iTouch, Blackberry, PDAs, smart watches, and other devices with restricted processing, memory, screen size, and bandwidth.

Librarians need to direct more attention to enhancing and evaluating the user’s library experience by actively employing collection techniques that go beyond placing posters throughout the library soliciting comments.

As a new professional to librarianship, the most important thing I learned was the importance and value of practicing librarians sharing our stories among each other so that we can capitalize on our successes for providing library programs and services.

John M. Ditsky Collection Donated to the Libraries to Enhance Steinbeck Research

Thanks to the generosity of Mrs. C. Suzette Ditsky, students, faculty, and researchers studying the life and work of Nobel Prize winning author John Steinbeck will have access to the papers of renowned Steinbeck scholar Dr. John M. Ditsky.

Mrs. Ditsky donated her late husband’s books and papers to Ball State University Libraries’ Archives and Special Collections where they will join the papers of fellow Steinbeck scholars Dr. Tetsumaro Hayashi and Roy Simmonds as part of the Libraries’ outstanding Steinbeck Collection.

Dr. John Michael Ditsky (March 9, 1938 – May 15, 2006) received his Ph.D. from New York University in 1967 and was Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Windsor, Canada, from which he retired in 2003 after 37 years of teaching. Prior to his tenure at the University of Windsor, he taught at the University of Detroit and Wayne State University. During his career, he served as vice president of the International Steinbeck Society, president of the New Steinbeck Society of America, and Chair of the Editorial Board of the Steinbeck Quarterly, and more recently of the Steinbeck Review.

In addition to his work as a Steinbeck scholar, Dr. Ditsky was an active poet, poetry editor, and music critic. He served as poetry editor of the University of Windsor Review for many years. He published four poetry collections, five critical volumes, and over 100 critical articles, essays, and book chapters on a variety of literary subjects. His vast publishing output and the many outstanding academic achievements of his career are reflected in his papers.

According to his long-time friend and colleague Dr. Tetsumaro Hayashi, Dr. Ditsky “was first and foremost a passionate and dedicated scholar, teacher, and mentor.” The collection of his books and papers available to students and researchers in the Ball State University Libraries will continue Dr. Ditsky’s “… legacy of extending a helping hand to emerging Steinbeck scholars.”

According to John B. Straw, Assistant Dean for Digital Initiatives and Special Collections, the addition of the John M. Ditsky Collection “… strengthens the reputation of the University Libraries as one of the premiere Steinbeck research collections in the world. The resources available at Ball State attract international scholars.”

In 2007, Mrs. Ditsky made a significant contribution to support the use of the Libraries’ Steinbeck collections when she established the Steinbeck Research Fund in honor of Dr. Distky. The fund is used to bring Steinbeck scholars to conduct research in the Archives and Special Collections. The first two recipients of the Ditsky Award were Dr. Kyoko Ariki, Shujitsu University in Japan, and Ms. Kay Bosse, University of Dayton, in 2007. The John M. Ditsky Collection will be a great resource for future recipients of the Ditsky Award to use in their research.

Ball State University Libraries' Chat Services Continue to Grow

The Information Services librarians at Ball State provide a variety of services to library users, including answering questions in-person as well as virtually, through Live Chat instant messaging service.

Chat statistics have risen steadily in recent years as our reference librarians explore new ways to make this virtual reference service more accessible to today’s users. For example, in September 2007, librarians conducted 282 chat sessions, answering a total of 346 questions, up from 190 chat sessions in September 2006. Last year, reference questions answered by chat services experienced an annual increase of 280%.

In an effort to better serve our library customers, reference librarians added several instant messenger accounts to their virtual reference services in June 2006. By creating a BSULibrarian account on instant messenger clients by AOL, MSN, and Yahoo, librarians could connect directly with users on these chat platforms. The three accounts are managed simultaneously by using Trillian, free software from Cerulean Studios.

This platform replaced proprietary software that had been used since the service first begun in 2004. This past summer, reference librarians added the Wimzi widget to their Ask a Librarian Web page, www.bsu.edu/library/askalibrarian. This plug-in allows users to chat directly with reference librarians from that page.

By using the new chat widget, students, faculty, and other users of the service are able to send their reference question through the chat service directly to a librarian without having to first log in to an instant messenger service and then establish a connection to the library’s chat account. The chat widget connects directly to the BSULibrarian account from the webpage, and allows the user to chat with the librarian from within that page. From the librarian’s point of view, the widget works seamlessly with the Trillian chat management software.

During September 2007, the first full month of chat with the Wimzi widget in place, 45% of the chats (128 chat sessions) were from Wimzi widget users. The service saw its peak use that month on Wednesdays, with the majority of chat sessions occurring between 3 p.m. and 9 p.m.

For more information, contact Stacy B. Chaney, Information Services Librarian, SBChaney@bsu.edu,765-285-3325.

Several University Librarians Attend the 2007 American Library Association Annual Conference in Washington, D.C.

In June 2007, the American Library Association held its Annual Conference in Washington D.C. for a record attendance of 28,635 according to the ALA Conference website. Several librarians from the University Libraries attended and took advantage of the opportunity to hear and discuss ideas, give presentations, see exhibits and displays, and speak with colleagues.

Following the conference, the University Libraries’ attendees met to discuss the ideas, products, exhibits, and demonstrations for possible implementation at the Ball State University Libraries. While discussing the Conference experience, attendees observed that many of the current programs and services offered by the University Libraries are in line with activity at other academic libraries. In some cases, we are offering activities that other libraries had singled out as creative and inventive to talk about at the Conference.

Some of the Conference take-a-ways the group discussed include the following:

• CONTENTdm 4.3 upgrade major enhancements, a release that is scheduled for Fall 2007
• Current status of e-books and audio books in library collections
• Discussion about the future of the MARC record and MARC field usage patterns
• Information on long-term digital asset and metadata preservation research
• Mobile Reference, using text messaging to connect with library users
• New service opportunities for Find It @ BSU (SFX Link Resolver)
• Opportunities for social networking, social bookmarking, and other 2.0 based services
• PBS Point of View (P.O.V.) 20, offering independent TV documentaries for local PBS stations
• PennTags, which are a form of social bookmarking with applications for academic library users
• Use of wiki technology to manage internal projects and workflow
• Using video objects to address information literacy
• Using WorldCat Local in the academic library

For more information on these and other ideas generated by the ALA conference this year, contact Bradley D. Faust, Ball State University Libraries’ Assistant Dean for Library Information Technology Services, BFaust@bsu.edu, (765) 285-8032.