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A Note from the Dean: Creating a Culture of Transformational Change
Previously in Source, I discussed the importance of building strategic staffing capacity in order to create new positions and opportunities within UC Libraries both to meet the organization’s growing needs and to attract new talent. While finding new talent is important to the success of UC Libraries and the implementation of our Strategic Plan, developing and retaining the talent we already have is equally important. One of the main objectives of the Strategic Plan’s People pillar is to “cultivate and empower a well-trained and technologically savvy workforce that embraces a culture of continuous learning, creative thinking and the pursuance of excellence.” The concept of embracing a new culture is one…
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An Interview with May Chang, Library Chief Technology Officer
In October, May Chang joined UC Libraries in the newly created position of Library Chief Technology Officer. May’s role is to provide strategic and operational technology direction for UC Libraries. Below is an interview with May about her professional background, immediate goals for the new position, and her early impressions of UC Libraries. May can be reached via email at may.chang@uc.edu. Please tell us your professional background. I did my undergraduate program in Information Science at Curtin University of Technology in Perth, Australia. Through their study abroad program, I spent a year at the Graduate School of Library & Information Science, University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign where I returned a…
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Staff News
People – the second pillar of our Strategic Plan – has as its goal to “transform the evolving role of the information professional.” We will accomplish this by becoming more dynamically engaged partners with colleges, departments and units —integrating new methods for collecting, accessing, utilizing and preserving streams of data and information in support of the teaching and research mission of the university. We will become leaders in defining the changing role of academic libraries in the global library community. Below are some of the activities the UC Libraries staff have engaged in recently as we work to expand our active engagement in research, teaching, learning and clinical practice. Publications…
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Announcing the Establishment of UC’s First Digital Scholarship Center
The University of Cincinnati Libraries, in partnership with the McMicken College of Arts and Sciences (A&S), is establishing UC’s first Digital Scholarship Center. To be located in the Walter C. Langsam Library, the Digital Scholarship Center will provide a place for faculty and students to explore digital scholarship (DH/DS) in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences, as well as cross-disciplinary teaching and research. The mission of the Center will be to serve as a catalyst for creative hybrid forms of research and teaching, bringing together humanistic methods with technical innovations to test paradigms and to create new knowledge at the boundary between disciplines as they are conventionally imagined in the…
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An Interview with Mark Konecny, Scholarly Communications and Digital Publishing Strategist
In July, Mark Konecny joined UC Libraries in the newly created position of Scholarly Communications and Digital Publishing Strategist. Mark’s role will be to consult with students, faculty, and librarians on issues regarding fair use and copyright in research and in the classroom. Below is an interview with Mark about his professional background, his immediate goals with the new position, and his early impressions of UC Libraries. Mark can be reached via email at konecnmc@ucmail.uc.edu. Can you tell us a little bit about your professional background? I received a Ph.D. in Russian culture from the University of Southern California and took a position as an archivist/curator at the Institute of Modern…
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A Librarian’s Journey to Cuba
Rosemary Franklin, librarian in the Reference and Instructional Services Department, traveled to Cuba July 8-17 as a participant in the program People-to-People, “A Revolutionary Perspective on Education.” Joining Rosemary was 17 librarians, K-12 teachers, university professors, and instructors from New Mexico, Florida, Ohio, and Washington, D.C. The participants brought together their collective experiences in education practice, policy making, and administration, along with health and medicine, library sciences, and community development as part of an effort to learn about Cuba’s educational practices and philosophy. While on the island, participants visited museums with stunning collections; met with grassroots organizations working on literacy, environmental science, and the humanities; heard from faculty of the…
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New Position Brings Research and Collaboration Opportunities
On July 1, Jennifer Krivickas, head of the Robert A. Deshon and Karl J. Schlachter Library for Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning (DAAP), will join the Office of Research as the assistant vice president of integrated research. This new, shared position between the Office of Research and UC Libraries was created to align and integrate the research support activities provided by the Libraries and the recently developed arts, humanities and social science (AHSS) Third Century initiatives to advance UC’s emerging trans-disciplinary research goals. Below, Jennifer and Patrick A. Limbach, vice president for research, answer questions about this new position. Patrick: Can you tell a little bit about your motives/need for…
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Rewarding Excellent Student Workers
Student workers play a vital part in the daily operation of UC Libraries. From assisting users with checking out materials to trouble shooting technology problems to helping new students locate the stacks, student workers help the libraries to achieve our mission to “empower discovery, stimulate learning and inspire the creation of knowledge by connecting students, faculty, researchers and scholars to dynamic data, information and resources.” Annually, we recognize those student workers who perform their job at the highest level with the University of Cincinnati Library Student Award for Quality Service. The principal criterion for this award is that the student worker consistently excels in providing quality service and accomplishes both…
