STARS Membership Committee
The Membership Committee was able to pass out and begin collecting updated committee information for the Web site. This initiative is step one in promoting committees to members in the coming year.
Membership is also organizing a party planning committee for the 10 year celebration of RUSA STARS @ ALA 2014. Committee members were solicited and, so far, we have Lars Leon, Heather Weltin, and Tina Baich on board. Membership will spearhead planning this celebration throughout the coming year.
Membership organized a review of the “Five Things†document to take place and also reviewed our STAR Gazing initiative to target non-academic members and past STARS Atlas-Systems Award winners. Naomi Chow has agreed to be a STAR Gazer in the near future!
Membership also shared some statistics with the group and confirmed all committee members would be staying on for another year!
Micquel Little, Chair
STARS Education and Training Committee
In March, the committee submitted a successful proposal for a free RUSA webinar. Amber Case, University of Washington, and Cherie Weible, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will present “Finding Dead People†on the topic of genealogy resources for ILL practitioners. The webinar will take place on October 16, and we anticipate strong interest from staff of public, academic, and special libraries. The committee will also partner with the RUSA History Section to produce a similar program at the 2014 ALA Annual Conference.
The Education and Training Committee continued to update the ShareILL wiki (shareill.org) and was grateful to receive assistance from many other STARS committees. Work on this project is ongoing, and plans include the addition of sections on open access, services to distance education students, and ILL best practices.
The committee also added several YouTube videos to the series “Exploring Library Careers in Interlibrary Loan and Resource Sharing.†New videos feature Megan Gaffney, Nora Dethloff, and Troy Christenson and are available at http://www.ala.org/rusa/sections/stars/section/educationandtrainingcommittee/etc.
Finally, this year’s STARS Atlas Mentoring Award was presented to Daniel Chesney of Southern Nazarene University. The award committee was chaired by Collette Mak, University of Notre Dame.
Jennifer Jacobs, Chair
STARS Hot Topics Discussion Group
A vice chair for 2012/13, Chair Elect 2013/14 was elected: Jesslynn Shafer, MSLIS Resource Sharing and Document Delivery Coordinator, Binghamton University Libraries, Binghamton, NY.
A new assessment tool was implemented for 2013 ALA Midwinter and received only two responses. The tool was revised for the 2013 ALA Annual conference. The general response was affirmative.
When participants at the Hot Topics Discussion Group at 2013 ALA Annual were asked if they would like a short presentation to introduce topics or a specific subject, the response was primarily negative, stating that it would take away time from the general discussion. When asked if they liked the existing format, the majority of people said “yes†and would like it to continue in its current format, especially if the time was reduced to one hour.
Troy Christenson, Chair
STARS Interlibrary Loan Committee
Jeanne Voyles and Joanne McIntyre are the outgoing Co-Chairs. New Co-Chairs will be Carol Kochan and Zheng Yang. Jeanne Voyles agreed to stay on as a member of the committee to support the new co-chairs and the work of the committee.
For 2013 ALA Annual, the committee planned and coordinated the discussion group topic, entitled: “How Will the Current Climate/Trends in Libraries Influence/Impact the Future of Resource Sharing?†Lars Leon, University of Kansas, made a brief presentation, posed questions to the audience throughout the session, and engaged attendees in a variety of current topics and trends. There were ninety-three-plus attendees for the hour-long session. The room was a good size and accommodated the number of attendees. We believe that out of that session there will be ideas to consider for future programming. The committee was pleased with the attendance and participation by attendees. Lars did an excellent job presenting various topics and facilitating the discussion. This may be a good model for future sessions.
Jeanne Voyles, Co-Chair
STARS ILL Research and Assessment Committee
As of June 2013, the STARS Executive Committee approved a name change for the STARS ILL Research and Statistics Committee. The new name will be the STARS ILL Research and Assessment Committee with the following charge:
To explore, develop, and promote assessment activities focusing on library resource service communities and STARS membership needs. Support research and assessment collaboration among STARS members. Coordinate, produce, and review STARS program evaluations and other self-assessment activities.
The committee continues to brainstorm ideas about this new charge and the expectations that come with it. Much organization will need to be done over the next year to ensure the success of this new direction.
The committee worked diligently to plan a program for the 2013 ALA conference in Chicago. The program title was “Does Your Data Deliver for Decision Making? New Directions for Resource Sharing Assessment.†The presenters included: Charla Lancaster, Director of Assessment and Library Access Services, Virginia Tech; Collette Mak, Manager, University of Notre Dame; and Margaret Ellingson, Team Leader, Interlibrary Services, Emory University. The program was successful with over 200 attendees (standing room and sitting room on the floor only), as the room could not accommodate all that wished to attend.
In the year leading up to the program, the team worked on shaping the topic so that three different perspectives on recent data collections were given. Appropriate planning including marketing, feedback mechanisms, room planning, and organization of the day of activities to name a few was completed.
The committee also made some changes to the ALA Connect web pages in order to better reflect the committee charge.
The committee met several times over the course of the year via Blackboard to discuss these various topics. We look forward to another successful year and look forward to the changes in our charge to support RUSA STARS.
Charla Lancaster, Chair
Vendor Relations Committee
We have reviewed a number of topics that were of interest to members of the committee and determined that the question of how not to print requests and use of mobile technologies are areas that we’d like to pursue in the coming year.
Elizabeth Ringwelski, Chair