Starting this week, a familiar representative from each area will begin connecting with workgroup leaders, team leaders, and project managers to collect a basic set of information about each project that LIS is involved in. Ron McKinnon, Joseph Watson, Dan Frostman, and Bryan Carson will be reaching out to their respective areas to gather this data and also to ensure that we are collecting the right information about projects. Once the collection effort has concluded, the LIS Administration will review all of the projects for inclusion in a web-based LIS Project Directory.

Several people have asked for clarification about what should be considered a  “project”. For the purposes of this initiative, a project is currently considered to be a one-time, multi-task endeavor that has a specific scope of work, a beginning and an end, and concludes with a deliverable result. Some projects may require planning or involve the efforts of multiple people, others may require sponsorship or even budget approval. It is important to note that daily work activities and related responsibilities are not currently considered projects.

So, be on the lookout for these “project scouts” as they begin to visit workgroups to find out what we have going on! If you have questions about this initiative, please feel free to contact me at x5480 or cnorris@middlebury.edu.

- Chris

We won’t be offering LISterine workshops for the remainder of the summer, but don’t let that prevent you from freshening your professional perspective. Stay Fresh!  Here’s how…

We’ve made a three-year commitment (that we can back out of on an annual basis if we feel like it!) to work with ArtStor and a small group of other colleges and universities on a shared image management system that ArtStor is calling Shared Shelf. The press release is at http://www.artstor.org/news/n-html/an-090714-shelf.shtml . Terry Simpkins and Mike Roy are the main representatives to the project, and we’ll be consulting closely with others as the project moves forward.

Now that I’ve been here for a year, I wanted to start a conversation about the future of LISt. I really like the idea of LISt, and believe that it does serve an important internal communication need, allowing LIS to understand better what is happening elsewhere in the organization. That said, I think it could be even better with some relatively modest changes.

Here are some of my thoughts on what we might do to improve things:

1. Develop a schedule of topics to be written up, and invite suggestions about topics to be covered. As it stands, I sense that LISt is somewhat random in terms of the topics we cover. If we planned ahead a bit, we might do an even better job of keeping ourselves informed of what’s going on.

2. Change to an every other week schedule? Is every week too ambitious? Should we consider scaling back to an every other week schedule?

3. Expand the contributors. We certainly want to include the newly formed teams in LISt. Who else should we ask to post regularly?

4. Link accomplishments to the end of the year report. If we got in the habit of posting significant milestones via LISt, the activity of compiling the end of the year report would be much easier.

Those are some of my thoughts on tweaks we might make. I welcome comments, and other ideas for ways in which we can make LISt more effective. Other ideas for improving internal communications are, of course, always welcome!

– mike

Planning a trip to the Echo Lake Aquarium and Science Center, at the Leahy Center for Lake Champlain? Borrow the ECHO Library Pass from the Main Circ Desk and save your $. The Library Pass will give you a reduced rate of $2 admission each – for up to 2 adults and 3 youth. Fun!

Middlebury now participates in the VCAL reciprocal borrowing program. This program allows faculty from Middlebury to walk-in to participating libraries in the state and borrow materials from them as if they were full guest borrowers of that library.
*Faculty need to fill out a form and get a VCAL card from Main Circ
*Faculty are expected to return borrowed items to the owning library
*Faculty are expected to abide by the owning library’s guest circulation policies

Please feel free to contact Terry with any general VCAL questions and Elin with any specific borrowing questions.

Due to popular demand – and rave reviews – the LIS staff art and craft exhibit was extended until July 3rd.

EXH!BITED! was a fabulous show! Many many thanks to all LIS artists who shared their work with visitors and the College community. Many people remarked on and were amazed by the depth of talent within LIS. Should we do it again next year?

LIS has acquired from DLSG (http://www.dlsg.net/) a digitization system that will simplify and speed up interlibrary loan processing. It consists of a Bookeye 2 Color Planetary Scanner with overhead scan design and scan/print electronics that include auto-focus and book-fold correction to safeguard book bindings and to increase scanning efficiency. The scanner also has automatic centering and border removal, as well as text and photographic scan modes. The second component of the system is BSCAN ILL production capture software designed for interlibrary loan departments. It permits staff to scan, review, and rescan items very rapidly, while its image cleanup features provide optimum image quality. It also reads barcoded loan request sheets and automatically sends scanned articles to requestors through Ariel or ILLiad, a highly desired combining of processing steps will make ILL staffers smile! ILL will use the grayscale and color modes sparingly, as they produce files often too large for libraries to receive; however, since this refurbished machine cost less than a new black and white model with a smaller bed, we thought the additional size and features could be used to support in-house projects. The scanner has a 400 DPI maximum, as it is not the manufacturer’s newest model.