Week five began with a wonderful orientation to the library's Archives & Special Collections given by Joel Samuels, University Archivist. After introducing ourselves (UD is working with another intern, Jenny Parker, doing her coursework online through University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee), and participating in a little bit of "library school talk," we moved from Joel's office to the room housing the Archives & Special Collections. Essentially the structure is a large concrete box with an independent heating, cooling, and humidity system, and is surrounded by a layer of dead air and another layer of concrete. It is secure and fire resistant, with fire sensors throughout the space. Fire must be detected in two zones before triggering the system to release chemicals (preventing extra damage in the event of sensor malfunction).
Throughout our time in the Archives & Special Collections, University history was woven within the tour (as one might expect). I won't give a lengthy account, particularly because I am no UD history expert, but I will include a bit, to give some perspective on the types of items collected. The foundation for the University began in 1846 when the Rev. and Mrs. Peter Flury came to Dubuque to minister to German-speaking immigrants. In 1847, Flury organized the charter congregation of the German Evangelical Church. In 1849 he returned to Switzerland and the church continued under the leadership of a handful of pastors over the years, continuing Flury's mission. A highly influential church member, and eventual pastor, Adrian Van Vliet came to Dubuque and began a German school for ministers. In 1854 the German Evangelical Church of Dubuque became the First German Presbyterian Church. Van Vliet's school continued to grow, and was continued by Rev. Jacob Conzett, one of his students, after Van Vliet's death. The seminary expanded under Conzett's leadership, and reorganized a few times over the next 25 years, bringing in new leadership and refocusing the curriculum--eventually realizing the need for the use of English as opposed to the earlier German emphasis. This eventually became the Synod of the West and what we know today as University of Dubuque. More information can be found here (http://www.dbq.edu/childofthechurch/) and here (http://www.dbq.edu/library/collectionspdf/summaryhistoryofthesynodofthewest.pdf).
The archives/special collections core collection consists of items Joseph L. Mihelic, former University Archivist, compiled and organized. The collection covers a wide variety of topics/artifacts including various leaders' time at UD, papers from various offices around campus, faculty papers, related church artifacts Mihelic's files and papers from his estate, seminary documents and publications, German Presbyterian materials, Iowa history collections, various artifacts and artwork, and published works of influential UD graduates (including Tony Danza's cookbook, true story). It was fascinating to hear about the individuals whose names I recognized from various buildings around campus (though, from what I can tell, there's no Tony Danza Memorial Hall at this time). The oldest item in the collection is their copy of Martin Luther's German Bible written within 20 years of Martin Luther's death (1546). Crazy to think I was able to handle that object! They also have Luther's commentary on Galatians.
In the middle of the week we received a little bit of snow (as in thirteen inches) which caused the University to cancel classes, and also made it a two-day week for me (as I had been planning on going in on Friday anyway).
Friday was filled with shadowing in Tech. Services. The day began with shadowing in Acquisitions with Meris Muminovic. We talked about the basics of ordering and accounting and he showed us JTacq, which is basically magic. JTacq is an open source, customizable collection development purchasing agent that works by importing purchase request lists (from Books in Print or you may enter each individually), or patron requests (collected via a form on the library's website or through written slips/emails). The student requests are forwarded on for approval from library management or collection managers. The program goes through Amazon to purchase the least expensive, but new, copies of the requested materials--but Meris also checks to see if the title is duplicated in the library's YBP standing orders (which can't be returned) and the catalog's holdings. Presently, if the library has the book in e-book form or if Wartburg has a copy the UD library still purchases the print copy for the UD library (even though sharing does occur between Wartburg and UD). If a student has requested the item, the provisional record is flagged so that student/faculty member will be notified once the item is received and fully processed.
JTacq allows for budget reports to be run by importing information from SirsiDinix-Horizon. E-book purchasing is done on as needed, when requested or required for a class. If the library knows about the need for the e-book, they will purchase it right away to eliminate the added expense (each e-book gets three views, with a reduced cost for each view, before the item is fully purchased by the library). E-books are purchased through EBL, not JTacq.
The next job shadow session was in Cataloging and Interlibrary Loans with Susan Reiter. She emphasized the importance of student workers. For the Interlibrary portion of the position, Susan uses OCLC ILLiad 8.0 for handling the borrowing, lending, and document delivery needs of UD. ILLiad allows for customization. In this case, UD was able to customize the lending periods for their materials, setting the period at four weeks. As is the case with many libraries, UD prefers to work with free lending libraries and the customization allows for lists to be made in ILLiad to utilize these libraries first.
The UD "Buy, not Borrow" program purchases student requests that are: books, fairly recent publications (from the year of 2000 or newer), $50 or less. This was new to me, but makes sense if the items will be heavily used.
We briefly talked about OCLC and cataloging. UD modifies some LC call numbers for specific collections (those used for certain classes that are shelved in special areas of the library, those that are in the Curriculum Library, and those that are gifts all have modified bibliographic records, subject headings, and/or call numbers in the local catalog).
In the afternoon, we visited Meghann Toohey in serials. Part of Meghann's job is to coordinate the online Rosetta Stone language classes/use. Because of limited numbers of users (30 users), Meghann coordinates registration and enrollment in sessions. She also keeps statistics on the languages used, the number of people per session, and the types of users (faculty, students). The online version of Rosetta Stone is new to UD (just began within the last tear of two) so they are hoping to compile data to guide future use.
UD uses Ebsco for the majority of the periodical purchases (and a handful of local publishers for smaller publications) which makes accounting and requesting claims much simpler (all claims requests are done online through Ebsco and further correspondence is done through email with an Ebsco representative). We discussed Gold Rush (view UD's version here under "Find Articles"-->"Journal List": http://goldrush.coalliance.org/index.cfm?inst_code=123_UDL; learn more here: http://grweb.coalliance.org/). Gold Rush allows for searching for articles and journals, keeps online holdings and coverage dates up to date, provides a staff toolbox, allows for spreadsheets to be uploaded, and keeps subscription information and statistics all in one place (including contact information for subscription providers).
Something else new to me was the Back Serve program, which allows libraries to request print copies of journals missing from their holdings. These requests are filled by other libraries with duplicate copies of the requested materials.
Of course, throughout my time here I will continue to do some collection development work, placing titles in the preliminary ordering carts to be evaluated by Anne Marie and ordered by acquisitions.
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