Strategic Initiatives
Initiative Descriptions
Acquisitions in Honor of Juneteenth
Themes: Connect Theme 3, Empower Theme 2, Sustain Theme 1
Lead: Janet Hulm
Status: Complete
In honor of Juneteenth, the Libraries Juneteenth Planning Group (Janet Carleton, Janet Hulm, Michele Jennings, Miriam Intrator, Miriam Nelson, and lorraine wochna) proposed to make a significant collections acquisition that honors and celebrates Juneteenth and its legacy. At the heart of this acquisition is the Libraries' acknowledgment of the deeply detrimental impact of institutional racism on the breadth and depth of the Libraries’ current collections. While a single annual purchase is only one small step, the Planning Group feels that it is integral to the reparative work the Libraries must undertake to ensure that the impact and contributions of Black cultural heritage are better represented within our collections and centered in our collecting practices. The planning group worked collaboratively with the University's Juneteenth Celebration committee to make final selections from a list of resources that included important historical databases, rare books and artists' books that document the Black experience in the United States.
Acquisitions Study
Themes: Connect Theme 1, Empower Theme 1, Sustain Theme 1
Lead: Michele Jennings
Status: In Progress
In order to promote information sharing between selectors and the acquisitions team, improve decision making processes, advance the stewardship of financial and collections resources the collections, the Collections Functional Team is conducting an environmental scan of acquisitions practices among current selectors. From this scan, the team is creating best practices documentation and identifying training needs and opportunities for additional support from acquisitions staff.
ArchivesSpace Implementation
Themes: Connect Theme 1, Connect Theme 2, Connect Theme 3, Empower Theme 3, Empower Theme 4, Sustain Theme 1, Sustain Theme 3
Lead: Miriam Nelson
Status: In Progress
This initiative seeks to increase the discoverability of the University Libraries' archives and special collections holdings via a local archival management system. By implementing a local instance of ArchivesSpace Ohio University Libraries will ensure access to more complete and updated description of it's archives and manuscript collections. The ArchivesSpace instance will replace the OhioLINK Finding Aid Repository, which has not been supported for over a decade and is scheduled to be taken down in 2029. A locally maintained archival management system will enhance and facilitate teaching, learning, and creative activity that utilizes archives and special collections material by making the collections easier to find and exposing collections data to more modes of research.
Assess Help FAQs
Themes: Connect Theme 1
Lead: Chad Boeninger
Status: In Progress
- Audit existing FAQS, check for accuracy, and rewrite using modern writing for the web rules (completed).
- Identify and recommend relevant areas on the main website, Libguides, Staff Portal, and other web spaces where it would be useful to link to specific FAQs (completed).
- Identify new FAQs that are needed (ongoing).
- Build a schedule to routinely check FAQs for accuracy and usage (forthcoming).
Assess Help Videos and Tutorials
Themes: Connect Theme 1, Empower Theme 2, Empower Theme 3
Lead: Chad Boeninger
Status: In Progress
- Audit existing tutorials and instructional videos; make recommendations for new content.
- Prioritize, create, and update content. Build a schedule to routinely check content for accuracy and usage.
Assess Virtual Help Services
Themes: Connect Theme 3
Lead: Chad Boeninger
Status: In Progress
- Investigate, adopt/create, and implement instrument to measure service quality; use results to make improvements.
- Consider applicability for in-person services.
Collection Development Forum
Themes: Connect Theme 1, Connect Theme 1, Sustain Theme 1, Sustain Theme 2
Lead: Michele Jennings
Status: In Progress
In support of their broader initiative (promote information sharing between selectors and the acquisitions team in order to improve decision making processes and advance the stewardship of financial and collections resources) and to critically examine the role of the collection development librarian in the current environment and moving forward, the Collections Functional Team hosts and administers a discussion forum every six weeks centered on collection development processes for selectors and technical services librarians. Invitees include Subject Librarians, Archivists, and Regional Managers, plus heads of Acquisitions, Metadata Services, and Collections and Content Strategies, and librarians working in Acquisitions.
Consolidate and Enhance Scholarly Communication Information on the Libraries' Web Site
Themes: Connect Theme 2, Sustain Theme 1
Lead: Araba Dawson-Andoh
Status: In Progress
Consolidated and enhanced scholarly communication information for the public including open access, open licensing, author rights information, and Ohio Open Library, on the libraries' web site. The Scholarly Communications Team examined scholarly communications websites of peer institutions and recommend enhancements to Ohio University Libraries' scholarly communication web pages.
Contribute Library Modules to Graduate Teaching Assistants Development Course
Themes: Connect Theme 1, Connect Theme 2, Connect Theme 3, Empower Theme 2, Empower Theme 3, Sustain Theme 3
Lead: Hanna Schmillen
Status: Complete
In collaboration with OII and the Graduate College, several librarians have created content to be used in the Principles and Practices for College Teaching asynchronous course for OHIO instructors, aimed at graduate Teaching Assistants. The goal is to create a course that provides a foundation of success and support related to teaching and student success in the classroom. The Libraries created content for several units and worked closely with OII to integrate the content into the course throughout the summer. Content includes: - Affordable Course Materials; Collaborating and Consulting with a Librarian; Information Literacy, Critical Thinking, and Library Instruction; Archives and Special Collections; Visual Literacy Across Disciplines; Using Film and Media Resources in The Classroom.
More content may be coming and what is available can be viewed on the Graduate College's Professional Development for Graduate Students page.
Create Research Data Management (RDM) "Hub"
Themes: Connect Theme 1, Connect Theme 2, Connect Theme 3, Empower Theme 3
Lead: Hanna Schmillen
Status: In Progress
Members of the Research Services Department and partners from across the University (OIT, ORSP, Compliance, Graduate College, CRSCA, Division of Research) formed a research data management working group to help faculty and researchers at OHIO. The working group, chaired by Hanna Schmillen, is charged with creating resources to help researchers know what to do to protect their research data in light of the new federal requirements. The research data management working group can help streamline steps for faculty who may need help during their research process. Currently, the working group is exploring the logistics of creating a “Research at Ohio Lifecycle Hub” that will bring together the support, guidelines, tips and parties involved in the entire research process.
Digital Scholarship Working Group
Themes: Connect Theme 1, Connect Theme 2, Connect Theme 3, Empower Theme 3, Sustain Theme 2
Lead: Michele Jennings
Status: Completed
In support of research and teaching and to advance the goals of the Libraries' Strategic Plan, the Digital Scholarship Working Group (DSWG) explored and advanced library services and library staff expertise around digital scholarship, including but not limited to digital humanities, data services, and digital pedagogies.
DMPTool
Themes: Connect Theme 2, Connect Theme 3
Lead: Hanna Schmillen
Status: Completed
Ohio University Libraries, OIT, and ORSP worked together to make trianing and support resources for OHIO's use of DMPTool. DMPTool is a free platform that helps researchers create and maintain data management plans (DMP) for grant submissions and maintenance of research data. A DMPTool training guide was created. The work of the team was communicated to campus via OHIO News.
Enhance Visibility of OHIO Research and Creative Activity Impact
Themes: Connect Theme 1, Connect Theme 2, Connect Theme 3
Lead: Hanna Schmillen
Status: Pending
Members of the Research Services Department are working to increase OrcID integration for OHIO faculty, staff and graduate students to enhance scholarship visibility. The department is also developing services to assist faculty and researchers in measuring their scholarly impact.
HathiTrust: Add eBook Access to ALICE Catalog
Themes: Connect Theme 1, Connect Theme 3, Sustain Theme 1
Lead: HathiTrust Task Force (Chris Guder, Damon DeBorde, Jeffrey Ferrier, Sandy Gekosky, Miriam Intrator, Miriam Nelson, Carrie Preston, Seth Sisler, Brandi Weaver)
Status: Completed
The 149,580 Ohio University Libraries print titles to which we have full text access in HathiTrust have had their ALICE Catalog records updated to share the link to the electronic version. Why is this important? Users no longer have to check out or request the print copy to read the book. Among the 149,580 books are 13,015 Special Collections titles - now users can easily access the electronic version of the text when access to the print version would be quite difficult, especially during pandemic times.
After ArticlesPlus gets its monthly update, the links will also appear in ArticlesPlus results.
HathiTrust Research Center (HTRC)
Themes: Connect Theme 2
Lead: Chris Guder
Status: Completed
Members of the Research Services Team interviewed faculty members, then created a HathiTrust Research Center guide aimed at faculty and researchers interested in working with text as data through the Libraries' HTRC membership.
Inform Open Access Publishing Practice
Lead: Araba Dawson-Andoh
Status: In Progress
The Scholarly Communications Team researched and developed a white paper of OA policies, purposes, and how they exist at peer and exemplary institutions. The team is in the process of developing recommendations on how to begin implementation of an OA position statement at Ohio University based on processes at other institutions.
Integrate Information Literacy in Guarantee+
Themes: Connect Theme 1, Connect Theme 3, Empower Theme 2, Sustain Theme 1, Sustain Theme 3
Lead: Hanna Schmillen
Status: Completed
The initial thrust of this initiative was to integrate 3 required information literacy learning experiences into the coursework of all undergraduate majors. Revisions to the overall structure of the G+ initiative by the OHIO Guarantee Plus Graduation Plans Office resulted in removing information literacy requirements from the OHIO Guarantee+ graduation plans. Regardless of the placement or requirements embedded in the graduation plans, the Libraries know that information literacy instruction is critical to student academic success. Regardless, this initiative resulted in a required lesson for UC1900 that introduces students to the University Libraries and basic academic scholarship. The Libraries continue to encourage faculty to maintain and seek collaborations with their librarians and continue to integrate information literacy learning opportunities into their courses and programs, even if they are not required academic milestones in graduation plans.
Investigate Open Access Publishing Initiatives and Recommend Sustainable OA Collections Strategies
Themes: Connect Theme 1, Connect Theme 2, Empower Theme 2, Sustain Theme 1
Lead: Araba Dawson-Andoh
Status: In Progress
The Scholarly Communications Team reviewed products from various open access publishers and is working on recommending sustainable products that the libraries can consider for funding when resources are available.
OhioLINK Luminaries Program
Themes: Sustain Theme 2, Sustain Theme 3
Lead: Eileen Theodore-Shusta
Status: In Progress
The program offers students a unique, paid opportunity in academic libraries not available in traditional internships or part-time campus employment. As a paid, resume-building position offering hands-on experience, participating students receive broad introduction to the information studies profession—its purpose, value, and expertise. The OhioLINK Library Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Initiative seeks to create and promote career opportunities in librarianship, information studies, and data sciences to individuals from under-represented populations and economically disadvantaged environments. The Initiative aims to identify and encourage diverse candidates for Ohio’s libraries and library-related industries that are more representative of the state’s population, while also encouraging and supporting efforts towards greater diversity, equity, and inclusion at the library level.
One OHIO Libraries Initiative
Themes: Connect Theme 3, Empower Theme 3, Empower Theme 4, Sustain Theme 1, Sustain Theme 3
Lead: Katy Mathuews
Status: In Progress
The Libraries are working to transition to a library system approach as regional libraries now report to library leadership. We are building a system approach to acquisitions, metadata services, web presence, and other aspects of library services.
Open Access Digitization Project Proposal Process
Themes: Connect Theme 2, Empower Theme 2, Sustain Theme 1
Lead: Araba Dawson-Andoh
Status: In Progress
The Scholarly Communications Team was charged with developing a process for the Libraries that will result in a request-based Open Access collection of digitized materials from the Libraries' holdings.
ORCiD (Researcher IDs)
Themes: Connect Theme 2
Lead: Chris Guder
Status: In Progress
Members of the Research Services Team developed ORCiD guides and made two videos, one aimed at faculty researchers and the other at graduate students. The team will continue to promote and provide information about the service.
Reparative Description in the Digital Archives
Themes: Empower Theme 1, Empower Theme 2, Empower Theme 4
Lead: Miriam Nelson
Status: In Progress
The goal of this initiative is to develop internal practices that support the: "remediation of practices or data that exclude, silence, harm, or mischaracterize marginalized people in the data created or used by archivists to identify or characterize archival resources" (SAA Dictionary of Archives Terminology). As a first step DI staff have developed a growing reading list and have formed a discussion group meeting weekly with DI staff and occasionally with Mahn and Metadata Services staff. The discussions focus on assigned readings/resources as well as how they might apply to DI's practice. Next steps will be to draft a strategy document, identifying needed documentation for new procedures, potential collections for remediation projects, possible collaborations, timelines, and transparency/accountability. The initiative will serve to begin an ongoing process.
Revitalize Presentation of Library Guides and FAQs
Themes: Connect Theme 1, Empower Theme 2
Lead: Chad Boeninger, Ryan Spellman / Libraries Web Committee
Status: Completed
The Libraries assessed the presentation and organization of Library Guides and FAQs, including subject- and course-specific guides as well as general self-help materials; and assessed the pathways available from the Libraries web site to those materials. Based on our assessment, we updated the guide and FAQ homepages to provide more direct and legible access to this information. We also created mechanisms for evaluating student discovery of guides and FAQs from the library web site.
Self-Pickup Location, Study Space, and Service Desk Enhancements
Themes: Connect Theme 1, Empower Theme 2, Sustain Theme 1
Lead: Chad Boeninger
Status: In Progress
The Self-Pickup Location is a project that was created out of necessity during the pandemic. To create the temporary space, we needed to remove a popular student study area. This project will create a permanent, more visible, and more usable home for the Self-Pickup Service shelves, while also returning very popular study spaces back to our users. At the same time, we will move course reserves and Interlibrary Loan materials to the 2nd floor desk, which allow for a single pickup location for all circulated materials (except videos). This enhances the User Experience for our patrons by eliminating multiple pickup points. Additional lighting will be installed around the 2nd floor. The service desk on the 2nd floor will receive new furniture, allowing for the current periodicals to relocate to the 2nd floor. This project also allows User Services to better align staffing resources to a primary service point, now the 2nd floor service desk. The Multimedia Center will be rearranged, and a new service desk will provide a space that will be staffed by our new multimedia peer tutors.
Strengthen Supports for CIS Graduate Students
Themes: Connect Theme 1, Connect Theme 3, Empower Theme 2, Empower Theme 3
Lead: Jeffrey Ferrier
Status: In Progress
Center for International Collections staff designed a new approach to introduce to key library resources and services to graduate students in the Master of International Affairs programs in the Center for International Studies (CIS). Librarians have created and delivered synchronous and asychronous lessons which are now embedded into Blackboard for CIS programs.
Student Advisory Board Creation
Themes: Connect Theme 3, Sustain Theme 3
Lead: Kelly Broughton
Status: Complete
In early 2021, we launched the University Libraries' Student Advisory Board, comprised of undergraduate and graduate student across OHIO campuses. As primary stakeholders in the services, resources, and spaces of the Ohio University Libraries, the Student Advisory Board provides students direct access to the administrative leadership of the Libraries and exists to facilitate two-way communication between students and library staff. The Board will advise the Dean of University Libraries on important and impactful issues related to the Libraries’ spaces, services, resources, and collections.
Subject Liaison Evolution Study
Themes: Connect Theme 1, Connect Theme 2, Connect Theme 3, Empower Theme 2, Empower Theme 3, Sustain Theme 1, Sustain Theme 2, Sustain Theme 3
Lead: Hanna Schmillen
Status: Completed
The first goal of the subject liaison evolution is to study OHIO library liaisons' current and developing work. This includes gauging the current instruction and research needs of our OHIO community. And then to gather liaison work and models from peer libraries. We will do this in tandem with assessing the trends and movement in the field of liaison librarianship to help gauge how/if our liaison model may evolve. The second goal is to take this evidence and explore possible liaison models to inform how much our model should change. The evolution would be focused on being more impactful, sustainable, and better aligned with the current and future research and information needs of the OHIO community.
Support Student Expo
Themes: Connect Theme 1, Connect Theme 2, Connect Theme 3, Sustain Theme 1, Sustain Theme 3
Lead: Damon DeBorde and Janet Hulm
Status: Complete
As the Student Expo could not be held in-person in 2021, the Libraries hosted student presentations in our institutional repository, OHIO Open Library. The repository provides permanent and open access to student research and creative works.
In 2022, the Libraries again hosted Student Expo presentations in OHIO Open Library. For 2022, the Libraries created a process so students can submit their presentation posters to the repository seamlessly.
Systematize New IT Projects
Lead: Carrie Preston / Libraries IT Projects Committee
Status: Completed
The Libraries committed to take a systematic approach to major IT project planning; and to develop tools and structures to support mindful decision-making, with awareness of the labor required for both initial rollout and ongoing maintenance; clarity of who will perform that labor; and agreed-upon measures of success. A Libraries IT Project Review Procedure, including planning and evaluation tools, was developed by the Head of Library IT Services and accepted by the Libraries’ Department Heads. In 2022, an IT Project Review Committee was formed and began reviewing project proposals, using the newly developed tools, for recommendation to the Libraries Executive Committee. Use of the tools also noticeably improved the efficiency of certain aspects of project implementation.
Systematize Web Accessibility
Themes: Connect Theme 1, Empower Theme 2
Lead: Carrie Preston / Libraries Web Committee
Status: Completed
Web accessibility is now critical to the Libraries business continuity (since it is required at the university level), as well as to the empowerment of our patrons. A Libraries Approach to Web Accessibility document was developed by the Head of Library IT Services and accepted by the Libraries’ Department Heads. In 2022, the newly constituted Libraries Web Committee surveyed the state of the Libraries’ web applications, identified initial projects to prioritize, worked with Department Heads to allocate staff resources, conducted training, and acted in an advisory role to accessibility testing projects (most notably, evaluation of one of the Libraries’ most-used student tutorials). The Web Committee will continue to serve as a resource and organizing force for Libraries-wide web accessibility awareness.
Update and Rightsize Public Computer Fleets
Themes: Connect Theme 1, Empower Theme 2
Lead: Carrie Preston
Status: Completed
Using data gathered throughout the 2022-2023 academic year, Library IT Services worked with User Services to recommend and implement updates to student computing in Alden Library and the Music and Dance Library. Underutilized desktop computers were reduced and re-arranged to provide space for students to use their preferred personal laptops – including with large external monitors – and other study activities. Outdated machines were retired, and newer machines upgraded to the latest Windows operating system, Windows 11. The number of laptops available for student borrowing was also increased.