Category Archives: From the Dean of Library Services

Messages from the Library Dean

Learning Commons to open at the Claire T. Carney Library

The Learning Commons at the Claire T. Carney Library will open on the first day of the spring semester, January 26.

The Learning Commons, or LC, integrates library, technology, and academic support services for students, faculty, and staff. A cross-campus collaborative effort, the LC will be administered by the Division of Library Services, Information Resources and Technology with a campus-wide advisory group.

The first-floor LC is designed for undergraduates to study, write papers, prepare presentations for class, collaborate with groups, do library research, and get help with technology. Service Desk staff can assist with a variety of questions, from library and reference resources to technology services such as COIN, email, and support for software applications. Students can meet with tutors from the Writing & Reading Center in the evenings for help with writing papers. As the LC develops, additional support services will be offered.

The Scholarly Commons on the library second floor is designed for faculty and students engaged in advanced research. Reference librarians will provide expert assistance and instruction in the identification, evaluation, and use of information resources. The Center for Teaching Excellence is also located within the Scholarly Commons.

Two LC Training and Computer Classrooms on the lower level of the library are available for classes and campus-wide training and professional development.

The LC will be open during regular library hours, with additional 24×7 access during study and exam periods. The lower-level computer classrooms will be accessible for student use during peak study times.

As the university plans for the future expansion and renovation of the Claire T. Carney Library, the opening of the Learning Commons represents a major step in the ongoing mission to provide integrated library, technology, and academic support services for students, faculty, and staff.

For more information about the Learning Commons, please visit www.umassd.edu/lc/, call x8884, or email lc@umassd.edu.

Sharon Weiner, Dean of Library Services, and Donna Massano, Associate Vice Chancellor for Computing and Information Technology Services
Date: 1/23/09

Claire T. Carney Library Holiday Gift-Giving Program “Family-to-Family”

“Claire T. Carney Library is hosting a holiday gift-giving program,”Family-to-Family,” for the Cape Cod Department of Children and Family.

Please come to the Library and take the name of a needy child from the holiday tree at the Circulation Desk.

Purchase and wrap the gifts and bring them to the Library by Wednesday, December 17 and they will be delivered to the child for the holiday.

Thank you for your generosity!”

Dr. Sharon Weiner
Dean of Library Services
X8664
sweiner@umassd.edu

Claire T. Carney Library Associates Donation and Newly Elected Officers

The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Library Associates presented a check for $3,500 to Library Dean Sharon Weiner at their annual meeting on May 14. The purpose of the donation is to purchase books in the humanities, specifically, music, art, English literature, and history. They also presented a plaque that recognized a program organized by the Library Associates this year, “Four Male Authors.”

Dean Weiner gave a presentation on the symbolic value of libraries.

The following officers were elected for 2008/09: President, Cindy Yoken; Vice President, Richard Kugler; Recording Secretary, Claudette Roy; Corresponding Secretary, Maureen Lewis; Treasurer, Diane Xavier; Assistant Treasurer, Rita Raymond; Members at Large, Melvin Levine, Walter Mierzejewski, Robert Moore; Nominations, Norman Brassard; Membership, Joyce LeBlanc; Programs, Mel Yoken; Hospitality, Donna Brown and Maria Sanguinetti; Publicity, Richard Ward; Donations, Virginia Callas; Historians, Cecelia Denwood and Edith Andrews; Literary Group, Susan Gabert and Janet Friedman; Library Liaison, Damaris Chapin-Berner.”

Rockland Trust donates $50,000 to fund Cyber Café at Claire T. Carney Library

Rockland Trust has donated $50,000.00 to the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. The donation will sponsor the creation of the Rockland Trust Cyber Café in the expanded Claire T. Carney Library on campus.

The Claire T. Carney Library project, slated to open in the Fall of 2010, will contain, in addition to the library collections of books, periodicals and other information, a lecture venue for guests speakers and University receptions, a campus gallery and the Rockland Trust Cyber Café–a technology equipped campus meeting spot. The expanded library space will benefit not only the University’s student population but the greater Dartmouth-SouthCoast community as well. –> More…

“The Symbolic Value of the Library” ~ Dean Sharon Weiner ~ The Claire T. Carney Library Associates 2008 Annual Meeting

Wednesday, May 14, 2008
7:00-8:30 p.m.
Library Browsing Area

The Claire T. Carney Library Associates 2008 Annual Meeting and election of Officers

Speaker: Library Dean, Dr. Sharon Weiner “The Symbolic Value of the Library”

Reception to follow the program.

The annual meeting is free and open to the public.

NIH Director Examining Peer Review Report; Public Comment Period Closes March 17

Update from the NIH Office of Extramural Research to the external biomedical research community.

from the Nexus Special Edition on Peer Review: March 5, 2008

The NIH Director Dr. Elias Zerhouni is mulling the final draft of the “NIH 2007-2008 Peer Review Self-Study” submitted Feb. 28, 2008, marking the end of the diagnostic phase of the peer review enhancement effort. The public comment period is open through Monday, March 17, 2008. To access the full report and for details on submitting comments please visit the Enhancing Peer Review at NIH Web site.

Last year, Dr. Zerhouni established two working groups (the Advisory Committee to the Director and the NIH Steering Committee) to examine the peer review system NIH uses to support biomedical and behavioral research. The groups were charged with identifying the most significant challenges and proposing recommendations that would enhance this system in the most transformative manner. During the summer and fall of 2007, both working groups embarked on an in-depth evaluation of peer review that included soliciting input from NIH internal and external communities and extensively deliberating about challenges and recommendations.

The final report reflects the outcome of the diagnostic phase and includes the working groups’ recommendations to the most significant challenges facing the peer review system (details of implementation were purposefully omitted during this phase of the project). Dr. Zerhouni will carefully consider the recommendations and work with the Steering Committee Peer Review Implementation Group to develop an implementation plan. NIH will formally announce the new initiatives it plans to implement in the spring of 2008.

For brief summary and recommendations see: Nexus Special Edition on Peer Review: March 5, 2008
(https://grants.nih.gov/grants/partners/0308Nexus.htm#ExtramuralNexus )

For FULL report see: Enhancing Peer Review at NIH
( https://enhancing-peer-review.nih.gov/ )

Library/CITS lab print solution to manage paper waste begins March 24

Beginning March 24, LSIRT (Library Services, Information Resources and Technology) will implement a “print solution” to reduce paper waste. Anyone printing from the Carney Library’s second-floor computers and those in CITS labs in the lower level and LARTS 216 will use a nearby print station to release a document for print.

Staff and information will be available to help students with the new process.

A print solution to reduce paper waste is necessary as UMass Dartmouth strives to be more environmentally conscious. Currently, printer areas in the Carney Library and the CITS labs generate an average of 800 sheets of waste paper every day: items printed but never picked up. That figure translates to 5600 sheets of waste paper per week and 179,200 sheets per academic year (32 weeks).

We believe that the new printing system will help people to be more aware of the documents they send to the printer.

We appreciate your cooperation as we try to reduce paper waste and improve our impact on the environment.

– Donna Massano, Associate Vice Chancellor for Information Technology, CITS
– Sharon Weiner, Dean of Library Services, Claire T. Carney Library

UMass Dartmouth Learning Commons Planning Committee Final Report Released

The Final Report of the UMass Dartmouth Learning Commons Planning Committee has been released. The committee was formed in the Fall of 2007 with three co-chairs Magali Carrera (Professor of Art History), Donna Massano (CITS), and Sharon Weiner (Library). The committee was given the following charge:

“The UMass Dartmouth Learning Commons (LC) Planning Committee will develop plans for the services, technology, resources, and space for the LC on the first and second floors of the Claire T. Carney Library. The LC will be an interdisciplinary collaborative learning space that will provide seamless access to resources, technology, and people to support teaching, learning, and research. The LC will advance the University mission to be “actively engaged in personalized teaching and innovative research” and will help to fulfill the University’s vision of “providing a personalized academic environment where the scholarly research and creative activities of faculty and graduate students are interwoven with the undergraduate experience.” It will also advance the vision of providing “enhanced technological capabilities for the delivery of our educational and outreach programs.” As an integrated environment that fosters engagement, collaboration, and discovery, the LC will meet the changing and emerging needs of teaching, learning, and scholarship at UMass Dartmouth.”

The next phase of planning will be the formation of three new teams: LC Management Team, Transition Team, and Implementation Team.

See the UMass Dartmouth Learning Commons Planning Committee Final Report for full details.

Public Policy Update: FY 2008 Omnibus Appropriations Package Signed into Law

On December 26, President Bush signed the end-of-the-year (https://www.rules.house.gov/110_fy08_omni.htm) omnibus package that makes the National Institutes of Health (NIH) public access policy mandatory.

Section 218 of the bill provides that:

“The Director of the National Institutes of Health shall require that all investigators funded by the NIH submit or have submitted for them to the National Library of Medicine’s PubMed Central an electronic version of their final, peer-reviewed manuscripts upon acceptance for publication, to be made publicly available no later than 12 months after the official date of publication: Provided, That the NIH shall implement the public access policy in a manner consistent with copyright law.”

Congrats to Liz Winiarz! President-elect of the International Association of Aquatic and Marine Science Libraries and Information Centers (IAMSLIC)!

Liz Winarz - President Elect IAMSLIC - Picture from left to right: Peter Fritzler, University of North Carolina, Wilmington, Secretary; Jan Haspeslagh, Flanders Marine Institute, Vlaams Instituut voor de Zee (VLIZ), Junior President Elect; Barbara Butler, Oregon Institute of Marine Biology, Library, President; Elizabeth Winiarz, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Library, President-Elect<br />Congratulations to Liz Winiarz, our Claire T. Carney Library’s Science Librarian, who has been elected president-elect of the International Association of Aquatic and Marine Science Libraries and Information Centers (IAMSLIC)! IAMSLIC is an organization of individuals and institutions involved with aquatic science information.

Begun in 1975 in Woods Hole, IAMSLIC numbers over 400 members from more than 70 countries. IAMSLIC’s purpose is to promote cooperation and sharing of resources among libraries and information centers which specialize in any aspect of aquatic science –freshwater, brackish and marine.

IAMSLIC is a formal non-profit organization. All types and sizes of libraries and information centers participate, including research and policy institutions, government agencies, colleges, universities, non-profit and for-profit organizations.

Over the coming year Elizabeth with coordinate planning of the program content for next year’s IAMSLIC annual conference to be held at the University of the South Pacific in Suva, Fiji.

Participation in this organization brings recognition to UMass Dartmouth and benefits our programs by increasing access to library collections at other institutions worldwide.

(Pictured above from left to right: Peter Fritzler, University of North Carolina, Wilmington, Secretary; Jan Haspeslagh, Flanders Marine Institute, Vlaams Instituut voor de Zee (VLIZ), Junior President Elect; Barbara Butler, Oregon Institute of Marine Biology, Library, President; Elizabeth Winiarz, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Library, President-Elect)