In the 2015-2016 year, I continued to work on evaluating our print government documents collection, an ongoing project which I’ve been working on since becoming the Government Information Librarian in 2013; I am collaborating with the Library of Michigan, University of Minnesota, Google, and other MSU library staff on a project to send LOM government documents to Google for digitization; and I worked to maintain and promote the government documents collection by contributing photos from government documents to the Social Media Coordinator to post to the Libraries’ Instagram account.

Reviewing the print collection is something that all selectors are actively engaged in. While I had transferred our print collection of the U.S. Serial Set to Remote Storage in 2014, due to growing demand for Remote Storage space and because we have electronic access and had no requests for the print volumes, I decided that these print volumes should be withdrawn from the collection. Additionally, I received a list of 3788 titles (many of these items are multi-part sets or serials) for cataloged government documents that are housed in Remote Storage for review. In addition to determining whether items should be kept in our collection based on their research/historic value, I also had to search each title individually in the University of Minnesota’s (our regional depository library) catalog. This step is required as part of their disposal guidelines: if an item is listed in their catalog, we can withdraw that item without any further notice to UMN. However, if an item is not in their catalog or if it is in a non-print format, we are required to submit a list of titles to UMN asking permission to withdraw. This gives UMN the opportunity to ask us to send the print volume to them. Searching UMN’s catalog was a time-consuming process, as titles and Su Doc numbers did not always match on our list and their records and holdings statements were not always clear. I hope to begin physically withdrawing items in late spring/summer 2016.

In spring 2015 the Library of Michigan, University of Minnesota, Google, and the MSU Libraries began investigating the feasibility of sending LOM government documents to Google for destructive digitization. A pilot was conducted at LOM with a picklist of 1,500 items in late fall 2015 and a feasibility report was submitted at the end of February 2016 discussing the costs and staff time required for a full project with a picklist of 300,000 items; the directors at the above institutions agreed that this project will move forward. Myself and other MSU library staff will devote a portion of their time starting in spring 2016 to working at LOM, retrieving titles from the picklist, adding item records, and preparing shipments for Google.

In September 2015, I became responsible for the Canadian documents collection. While we no longer receive print documents, we have a large legacy collection to maintain. I have been working on evaluating this collection with the goal of minimizing its physical footprint on 3 West. This could mean withdrawing titles for which there are electronic equivalents or sending cataloged items to Remote Storage.

In an effort to promote our government documents collection, I’ve begun taking photos from art, illustrations, and images found within government publications. These photos are sent to the Social Media Coordinator, Katie Diamond, to be posted on the Libraries’ Instagram account. I hope that these posts will help draw attention to our collection by highlighting some of their interesting and unique aspects.

With the large donation of the Rovi media collection, which includes thousands of video games, there is a need for staff to work with this unique collection, particularly in regards to cataloging. Because of my interest in and knowledge of video games, my primary supervisor asked if I would like to use that expertise to help catalog video games, thus making them discoverable. I expressed interest and because cataloging requires so much time, my liaison role to James Madison College, with the heavy instruction load was transferred to Information Literacy. Additionally, while cataloging became my official secondary assignment, my responsibilities in the Reference unit were reduced to a tertiary. In the fall, my reference hours were reduced to 4 hours a week to ensure that I was able to devote a minimum of 25% of my time to learning cataloging; in January 2016, my Reference hours were adjusted to approximately 6 hours per week.

In December 2015, I attended a weeklong training session from Autumn Faulkner about Library of Congress Subject Headings. I have spent countless hours in self-study, watching webinars from the Library of Congress on RDA and FRBR and reading online training materials and books related to RDA, FRBR, and MARC to try to gain as much knowledge on these topics as possible in order to be able to gain the knowledge that cataloging requires, as I have no prior experience with cataloging. I have begun working with TLOC H books, including French Africana monographs, searching OCLC for copy and enhancing records to meet both MSU Libraries’ and national standards.

Information Literacy began providing all instruction for freshman-level writing classes for James Madison College in August 2015, which had previously accounted for the bulk of my instruction activities. Due to the shift in my responsibilities, my instruction numbers were not as high as in previous years. However, I did provide the following instruction sessions about Census/demographic resources and how to locate government information.

• Spring 2015, History 201: Food, Farming, and Nutrition in the USA. Assisted Bobby Smiley, along with Suzi Teghtmeyer. Showed how to find government information related to this course’s topic, including documents from the Department of Agriculture, how to use the Agricultural Census, and finding general demographic information from Social Explorer.
• Fall 2015, Undergraduate Studies (UGS) 200: Soccer and Community Building in Detroit. Provided instruction on how to find demographic and economic information about neighborhoods.
• Fall 2015, James Madison College (MC) 498: Civic Engagement and Community Development in Lansing. Provided instruction on how to locate demographic, social, and economic data and information about Lansing and surrounding communities.
• Spring 2016, MC 384: Metropolitan Society. Provided instruction on how to locate and use Census resources, such as Social Explorer, American Fact Finder, and print Census books to find demographic and economic data about metropolitan areas.

During the 2014-2015 evaluation year I spent a lot of time working on submitting proposals for posters, presentations, and publications. I used the 2015-2016 year to complete the projects that were accepted (see Part B for a complete listing). Items of note include my poster for the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) conference, which presented the basics for using text analysis on government information and in particular, the Congressional Record. I was asked by the FDLP webinar coordinator to present a webinar on this topic in order to reach a broader audience; this webinar is scheduled for the end of April 2016. I also wrote an article for Dttp, which is the publication produced by ALA’s Government Documents Round Table (GODORT), on The APIs of Data.gov. This article also led to a request by the coordinator for a government information webinar series, Help! I’m an Accidental Government Information Librarian, asking that I present a webinar about APIs and government information; this is scheduled for May 2016.

I was elected Member Services Director for the New Members Round Table (NMRT) of ALA for a 2015-2016 term. This executive board position supervises four NMRT committees and due to revamping for three of these committees, including modifying services and scope, there was much work to be done on my part. This included writing new policies and procedures and updating web page content and the handbook entries to reflect these changes. There is an issue with one of my chairs who disappeared not long after she was appointed, but reappears periodically; this lack of responsiveness and reliability has caused me to step into her role to do most of the work for her position to keep the committee on track, ensuring that committee outcomes and expectations are met.

I was also elected President-Elect of GODORT Michigan for 2015-2016, assuming the role of President for 2016-2017. In addition, I was named Program Chair, which requires me to plan the GODORT conferences for the fall and spring. I successfully planned the fall 2015 conference, which included securing a location, getting presenters, organizing the agenda, and leading the conference to make sure everything stayed on track. I am currently working on organizing the spring 2016 conference, which will be held in May or June 2016. While GODORT Michigan is a small organization, my role as Program Chair has taught me a lot of conference planning and dealing with unexpected issues.

SELF EVALUATION of SCHOLARLY AND CREATIVE ACTIVITIES:

Presentations and Posters

• “Proquest Congressional: There’s More to it Than What You Might Think.” MSU Reference Training. April 2, 2015.
• “Social Media, Privacy, and the Academic Classroom.” LACUNY (Library Association of City University of New York) Institute. May 8, 2015.
• “Building a Peer Support Network.” ARL IRDW (Initiative to Recruit a Diverse Workforce) Luncheon Panel “How I survived my first year as an Academic Librarian: Top Ten Tips”. MSU Libraries. May 19, 2015.
• “Weeding for the Future.” Government Documents Round Table of Michigan Spring Meeting. Sault Ste. Marie, MI. June 5, 2015.
• “Copyright Issues for Historic Collections.” Presented with Megan Malone from MSU Archives and Historical Collections Historical Society of Michigan. Lansing, Michigan. July 10, 2015.
• “Seeing Through the Congressional Record.” Poster presented at the Federal Depository Library Program Conference/Depository Library Council Meeting. Arlington, VA. October 19-20, 2015.
• “Creating an Interdisciplinary Community of Practice for Teaching Subject Librarians around the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy” (with Andrea Kepsel and Bobby Smiley). LOEX Fall Focus, November 2015
• “voxgov.” MSU Reference Training, March 3, 2016.

Publications

• “Digitizing Government and the Copyright Hurdle.” DSC (Digital Scholarship Collaborative) Sandbox, June 17, 2015
• “The APIs of Data.gov.” Dttp: A Quarterly Journal Of Government Information Practice & Perspective, 43:2 (Summer 2015).
• “Social Media, Privacy, and the Academic Classroom.” Urban Library Journal, 21:2.
• Book reviewer for ARBA (American Reference Books Annual) Online
  • The Grey House Homeland Security Directory 2015, 11^th edition
  • State Profiles: The Population and Economy of Each U.S. State 

Exhibit

• “Unidentified Flying Objects: Flying Saucers, Little Green Men, and Other Extraterrestrial Subjects.” Created in collaboration with Emily Sanford. July – September 2015. 

Continuing Education and Professional Development

• March 17, 2015 – Text Analysis with Python workshop (LEADR Lab, presented by Devin Higgins and Thomas Padilla).
• March 19, 2015 — Academic Libraries in the Scholarly Landscape: Our Work and Roles Today (MSU Libraries’ Art of Liaison, Instruction, and Selection Series).
• April 16, 2015 — Thinking Through Information Literacy in your Discipline (MSU Libraries’ Art of Liaison, Instruction, and Selection Series).
• May 13, 2015 – Introduction to Python workshop (MSU Faculty Seminars).
• May 21, 2015 — Information Literacy Instruction in the Virtual Environment (MSU Libraries’ Art of Liaison, Instruction, and Selection Series).
• MSU Libraries’ Teaching and Learning for Librarians: A Community of Practice, led by Sara Miller. September 2014-June 2015.
• December 17, 2015 — Tips and Tricks + Dos and Don’ts for Exhibiting Library Materials. Presented by Bexx Caswell-Olson.
• December 17, 2015 — Best Practices for LibGuides: Managing Guide Content and Designing Guides for Usability and Accessibility (MSU Libraries’ Art of Liaison, Instruction, and Selection Series).
• January 21, 2016 — Introduction to Universal Design for Learning (MSU Libraries’ Art of Liaison, Instruction, and Selection Series).
• February 18, 2016 — Working Towards Accessible Collections (MSU Libraries’ Art of Liaison, Instruction, and Selection Series).

SELF EVALUATION of SERVICE AND/OR PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES:

American Library Association (ALA)

• Government Documents Round Table (GODORT) Membership Committee, member, 2015-2016
  • Works to encourage individuals to join GODORT and help with GODORT member retention.
  • Plans the GODORT Happy Hours for Midwinter and Annual.
  • Plans a GODORT orientation session for Annual to introduce members to GODORT activities and encourage involvement in the round table.
• New Members Round Table (NMRT) Member Services Director, 2015-2016
  • Elected, executive board position
  • Provides support and guidance while also supervising the activities of four NMRT committees: Endnotes (peer reviewed journal), Footnotes (newsletter), Resume Review Service (provides virtual resume reviews and in-person reviews at ALA Annual and Midwinter), and Mentoring (provides virtual mentoring services and a social event at ALA Annual).
    • Has provided a lot of support for the committee Footnotes, which was transitioned after January from a quarterly newsletter to a blog. Has written the policies and procedures related to the new format and has instituted new requirements and duties for committee members.
• Served as an on-site resume reviewer at ALA Annual 2015 and ALA Midwinter 2016 for the NMRT Resume Review Service.

Presented a webinar for University of Maryland Library School on the benefits of ALA and NMRT membership, tips for attending ALA conferences, and the benefits of conference attendance. November 12, 2015.

• Presented a webinar for San Jose State University Library School on the benefits of ALA and NMRT membership, tips for attending ALA conferences, and the benefits of conference attendance. February 27, 2016.
  • Had the highest webinar attendance for the 2015-2016 year according to organizers.

• Elected President-Elect of GODORT Michigan, 2015-2016.
• Program Chair for GODORT Michigan, 2015-2016
  • Successfully planned the Fall 2015 conference at Western Michigan University. Tasks included organizing the location, finding presenters, setting the agenda, and leading the conference
  • In the process of planning the Spring 2016 meeting which will take place at the University of Michigan in May or June.

• CIC, Heads of Government Publications
  • Participates in in-person and virtual meetings to discuss issues related to government documents at CIC institutions.

• Reference Review
  • Member of the Peer-Review Board for this journal, which is published by Emerald, October 2014-October 2016
  • Provides peer review of submitted articles.

Self Evaluations