Poster presentation from the Living the Future 7 Conference, April 30-May 3, 2008, University of Arizona Libraries, Tucson, AZ. / The University of Arizona Library is participating in the "Preservation of the Literature of Agriculture" project, which is overseen by Cornell University. We are one of three Libraries in the final phase of this USAIN/NEH funded grant project, and are coordinating the digitization over 1,000 books, serials, pamphlets, and other printed materials on the history of state and local agriculture and rural life in Arizona published between 1820 and 1945. All digitized content will be made freely available on the web. These materials were selected and rated by a scholarly panel of historians and scientists at the University of Arizona with the assistance of librarians. Our poster will describe the creation of the bibliography and ranking system, the outsourcing of the digitization process, and the challenges inherent in securing copyright permissions and locating and arranging for the digitization of rare materials that are not widely held. We will also describe the development of a tracking database being used to manage the project and provide an overview of our technical specifications and quality control process. Details on the project can be found at http://usain.org/.

Poster presentation from the Living the Future 7 Conference, April 30-May 3, 2008, University of Arizona Libraries, Tucson, AZ. / Historically, The Gelman Library System (GLS) has often not been considered in University Development planning and funding strategies. Additionally, all academic libraries face the challenge of identifying a natural constituency base. In the past two years, the GLS has taken several steps towards reversing these trends. The objective is to change the culture so that it becomes one where the Library is a natural place to look for programs and events. By engaging partners in the campus community through meetings, education, and seeking out active collaborations, we have begun to experience success. Our goal is that the GLS is regularly consulted by our campus partners to increase our visibility and funding to meet our mission and that of the University. We serve as a place for those otherwise uncommitted donors to become reconnected to their University. Our poster will describe collaborations through events, activities and joint fundraising efforts.

Poster presentation from the Living the Future 7 Conference, April 30-May 3, 2008, University of Arizona Libraries, Tucson, AZ. / The University of Arizona has many useful resources for K-12 instructors that have been developed by different programs and departments and, until now, have been difficult to locate. The UA Libraries has developed a new resource called LessonLink that pulls together over 100 online resources for K-12 instructors. With this rich database, teachers only need to go to one site to access this material selected by a UA librarian for relevancy and applicability. Instructors can locate lesson plans, content for classroom activities, information about UA onsite campus visits, classroom visits from UA faculty and grad students, and programs for professional development. Teachers can search this database by subject and grade level. This poster will describe why and how this resource was developed, how it works, and its potential for outreach.

Conference proceeding from the Living the Future 6 Conference, April 5-8, 2006, University of Arizona Libraries, Tucson, AZ. / During Spring semester 2005, budgetary constraints, personnel reductions, and questions of efficacy challenged librarians at the University of Arizona to develop a more integrated method for assisting instructors and students in teaching and learning information literacy skills. In order to meet this challenge, University of Arizona librarians collaborated with the University’s English Composition program to develop an instructor-led, librarian facilitated approach to integrating information literacy instruction into the English Composition curriculum. The approach that the University of Arizona Library has developed will be described and the resources that were created will be shared during this session with the hopes that it will serve to assist librarians elsewhere in developing their own responses to similar challenges.

The "digital library" (DL) is a communication technology that has the potential to improve communication by removing temporal and geographic barriers and by introducing interactivity. This research focused on the adoption of digital libraries for electronic theses and dissertations (ETD-DL) at universities worldwide. ETD-DLs provide a means for universities to learn about implementing digital libraries in a networked environment.This research used diffusion of innovation theory to explore what has influenced ETD-DL adoption among Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD) member universities. Communication channels were categorized as being either interpersonal or mediated. The perceived importance of these channels was assessed both within and between organizations. Although ETD-DL adoption is an organizational level decision it has implications for both the university and members of the university community. In some cases, these outcomes may be in conflict; for example, what is best for the organization may result in complications for an individual. Therefore the perceived importance of two innovation attributes, relative advantage and compatibility, were examined at both the collective and individual level.This study employed a web-based survey to collect data from the 133 universities in 26 countries that were NDLTD members in December 2002. Respondents were members of the university's "ETD Committee" and represented academic administrators, faculty, librarians, and computer systemsspecialists. Surveys were received from 95 respondents representing 65 universities in 14 countries. Twenty-one of these universities were outside the United States. Universities were from countries with a wide range of economic development.Results provide insights into university attitudes towards a technological innovation for knowledge dissemination. For example, results suggest that interpersonal channels of communication are more important than mediated channels within the organization. Additionally, interpersonal channels are more important for communication within the organization than between organizations. However, mediated channels of communication are more important for those universities that have decided to adopt the ETD-DL but have not yet implemented the union catalog or self-archiving options. There were also significant differences in the importance attributed to these channels by individuals in different jobs. The results also suggest strategies that could encourage development of digital libraries within a social system.

Poster presentation from the Living the Future 8 Conference, April 23-24, 2012, University of Arizona Libraries, Tucson, AZ. / This poster will describe the process and role of the University of Arizona's Access Services and frontline public service staff in needs assessment and user service evaluation, specifically in understanding the voice of the customer. We will include information on our strategic planning process, resources required, data sources, methodology, analytical tools, and the outcomes of this process. Information in this poster was first presented at the 2010 Access Services Conference and has subsequently been updated for publication.

'Alternatives to Textbooks' Breakout session from the Living the Future 8 Conference, April 23-24, 2012, University of Arizona Libraries, Tucson, AZ. / The high cost of commercial print textbooks is a major concern for both students and their parents. To address these concerns, the Provost’s Office and the University Libraries of the University of Massachusetts Amherst launched the Open Education Initiative in the Spring of 2011. The OEI is a faculty incentive program that encourages either the creation of new teaching materials or the use of existing low-cost or free information resources to support our students’ learning. Now in its second phase, the Open Education Initiative has generated a total savings of over $200,000 for students in classes that utilize open educational resources, library materials or faculty generated content. The third round of grants will support faculty teaching large general education courses who are interested in pursuing non-traditional educational resources as an alternative to the traditional textbook.

Breakout session from the Living the Future 7 Conference, April 30-May 3, 2008, University of Arizona Libraries, Tucson, AZ. / The University of Arizona Libraries has developed several collaborative projects at local, regional and national levels. For example, the UA Libraries and the Office of Arid Land Studies at the University of Arizona have worked together on Rangelands West, a collaborative effort involving 19 Western land-grant universities. The UA Libraries and the Office of Arid Land Studies have recently partnered on a new initiative, the Sonoran Desert Knowledge Exchange (SDKE). SDKE is an emerging collaborative effort led by the UA Libraries involving more than 25 educational institutions, community organizations, and research centers. The presenters will share information about the vision of SDKE, the development and content of the project, discuss the roles of SDKE partners and participants, and examine the evolution of SDKE through the lens of collaboration. Issues surrounding the complexities of collaboration will be explored: How are transitions handled from library-led projects to more collaborative projects? What long-term vision is required to incorporate collaborative elements into project stages? What are the challenges and rewards of collaborative projects?

Breakout session from the Living the Future 7 Conference, April 30-May 3, 2008, University of Arizona Libraries, Tucson, AZ. / Research communities and libraries are on the verge of reaching a saturation point with regard to the number of published reports documenting, planning, and defining e-science, e-research, cyberscholarship, and data curation. Despite the volumes of literature, little research is devoted to metadata maintenance and infrastructure. Libraries are poised to contribute metadata expertise to campus-wide data curation efforts; however, traditional and costly library methods of metadata creation and management must be replaced with cost-effective models that focus on the researcher’s data collection/analysis process. In such a model, library experts collaborate with researchers in building tools for metadata creation and maintenance which in turn contribute to the long-term sustainability, organization, and preservation of data. This presentation will introduce one of Cornell University Library’s collaborative efforts curating 2003 Northeast Blackout Data. The goal of the project is to make Blackout data accessible so that it can serve as a catalyst for innovative cross-disciplinary research that will produce better scientific understanding of the technology and communications that failed during the Blackout. Library staff collaborated with three groups: engineering faculty at Cornell, Government power experts, and power experts in the private sector. Finally the core components with regard to the metadata management methodology will be outlined and defined. Rights management emerged as the biggest challenge for the Blackout project.

Conference proceeding from the Living the Future 6 Conference, April 5-8, 2006, University of Arizona Libraries, Tucson, AZ. / Past: Team Reorganization. Present: Evaluation and ongoing organizational assessment. Future: Flexible organization responding to the University’s needs and strategic plan. The Library is positioning itself for active participation in the University’s Strategic Plan. Several years ago, we restructured the organization to improve our services and our work. Within the last year, an internal task force surveyed and questioned the staff to see what was working well and what needed improvement within the teams, divisions, and organization. The task force then analyzed the feedback and prepared a complete report for the organization. We are now taking that feedback and working on ways to build our strengths, improve our weaknesses, and reach our targets and goals set forth in the strategic plan. A few key areas of focus include: Communication, decision-making, inter-team collaboration, and information overload.