Sierra: 5.1 installed on 7/21/2020

The Sierra application and database servers were updated to Sierra 5.1 on 7/21/2020.  Included in 5.1 is the ability to disable the “Remember me on this computer” option, so you may have noticed it missing immediately after the upgrade. By default the option is disabled in 5.1. For now, the “Remember me” option has been re-enabled.

Please take a moment to review 5.1 new features and known issues reported and fixed on the Sierra Share Point.

Please send an email to library-systems@uakron.edu  for all Sierra requests, problem reports, or questions.

Categories
General Interest Research & Learning Services

Franks Provides Business Support

In his role as business librarian, Jeffrey Franks assisted with a SWOT Analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) of the board game industry and provided support in the development of a new board game.  Tyler Novak, a two-time UA alumnus, and founder of The Novak Gaming Co. is producing a tip of the tongue word game “Goes Both Ways”.  In the process, Joe Mulea, took on developing a marketing program for the Company as an independent study project during the spring semester, prior to earning his MBA.  That’s where Jeff’s assistance was important.  To read more about “Goes Both Ways”, see the July 10, 2020 UA-Digest.

Nicely done, Jeff!

Categories
Electronic Services General Interest Professional Development

Hayes & Orcutt Present Online

Brittany Hayes, Electronic Services, and Zoe Orcutt, Archives, gave a presentation with Sidney Gao and James Van Mil from the University of Cincinnati on June 16 at Society of Ohio Archivists virtual conference.  The title of the presentation was “Initial Steps on a Digital Preservation Policy.” 

Great teamwork!

Categories
Design & Development Services General Interest

Lampner in Panel Discussion

Wendy Lampner, Director of Design & Development Services, is participating in a panel discussion this afternoon, June 24, 2020, entitled Transitioning to an Online Learning Environment ‘On the Fly’ During COVID-19.  Described as a vendor agnostic panel discussion which features higher education LMS thought leaders and LMS owners. They will focus this discussion on how the existing LMS technology and support helped prepare higher education institutions to deal with the transition to ALL online instruction and remote learning, and the implications of doing so. Panelists will focus on sharing: lessons learned; opportunities for improvement; best practices that may benefit the research and education community; and more.

Speakers: Diane Butler, Rice University; John Fritz, University of Maryland Baltimore County; Wendy Lampner, The University of Akron; Tom Lewis, University of Washington

Well done, Wendy!

Categories
Electronic Services General Interest Professional Development

Monaco Gets Grant

Mike Monaco was awarded a grant through the Library Services and Technology Act for a workshop on teaching news literacy for Ohio librarians. The workshop will be taught online by news media literacy expert Michael Spikes (Northwestern University) in September. Mike, Michael, and Amanda Goodsett (Cleveland State University) will assess the workshop’s effectiveness by analyzing a teaching instrument from each participant before the workshop and as revised after the workshop. Thanks to this grant from the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), awarded by the State Library of Ohio, the workshop will be offered for free.

Nice going, Mike!

Categories
General Interest Professional Development Science & Technology Library

Stitz Following

Tammy Stitz, UL Science & Technology Library, has a video page for the LaTeX workshops which has reached 100 subscribers.   https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcCjIijJ9iaooJr4slwz24g

What a nice following, Tammy!

Categories
General Interest Professional Development University Press

Freels Wins Awards

As you may have read in the UA-Digest, Amy Freels, editorial design coordinator at The University of Akron Press, has won a book cover design award for Brittany Cavallaro’s “Unhistorical” in the Association of University Presses Book, Jacket, and Journal Show.  This is the second time Freels has won the award for book cover design.

In addition, one of her book covers is a winner of The da Vinci Eye, which is awarded to books with superior cover artwork.  Hawk Parable, Tyler Mills, University of Akron Press (cover by Amy Freels; art by Chris Maynard)

Impressive work, Amy!  Congratulations!

Categories
Design & Development Services General Interest Professional Development

DDS are Ziptastic Recipients!

Design and Development Services or DDS (Steve Kaufman, Rene Molenaur, Jamie Newhall, Ling Qian, Patrick Tabatcher, and Wendy Lampner) received the Ziptastic award in May.  Here’s what they said:

Congratulations!  We are honored to inform you, the amazing group of employees in Design and Development Services department, that you, as a group are the recipients of the SEAC Ziptastic Award for the month of May.  All of you were nominated by the faculty and staff from Buchtel College of Arts and Sciences for the amazing work you accomplished transitioning UA to online courses in a matter of days.  We are excited to share your dedication to the UA Community.

The Ziptastic Award was created by the Staff Employee Advisory Committee (SEAC) in October of 2016. The purpose of the Ziptastic program is to raise awareness of the contributions of UA employees who are committed to the The University of Akron community. 

The faculty and staff of the Buchtel College of Arts & Sciences (through BCC) collectively (and anonymously) submitted the following nomination…

We are nominating the entire Design and Development Service department. This is unusual, but well deserved. It would be difficult to overstate the difference our colleagues at DDS have made, in every department across campus, as we have moved all classes online in response to the coronavirus. Among other responses to this crisis, they have scheduled online workshops for WebEx and Brightspace, have posted tutorials for other online aids, have answered endless questions from faculty through email, and have monitored their phones for last-second difficulties faculty encountered. This is, of course, no surprise. DDS has been providing thoughtful and engaged professional support for our community for many years. But in the context of this crisis, we have come to even more deeply appreciate their contributions to teaching and learning in our classrooms. Many thanks DDS.

A well-deserved award to the members of DDS!  A great job and CONGRATULATIONS!

Categories
General Interest Professional Development Science & Technology Library

Antunez Receives Grant

The Medical Library Association offered heartfelt congratulations to Marilia Antunez on her selection as the 2020 Continuing Education Grant recipient. Her efforts are contributing to MLA’s second century of excellence and achievement in the health information profession. 

Let’s offer Marilia our congratulations as well!  Well done!

Categories
Electronic Services General Interest Professional Development

Monaco Presents & Publishes

Mike Monaco presented “The life-changing magic of RegEx” at the Library Collective’s 2020 conference in Knoxville, Tennessee, on Thursday, March 12. This was a hands-on workshop introducing the attendees to what regular expressions (RegEx) are and how to use them to match different patterns in text or data, using games. His co-presenter, Kathryn Lybarger of the University of Kentucky, was unable to attend this conference due to illness.

In addition, he published:

Report of the Catalog Form & Function Interest Group Meeting. American Library Association Annual Conference, Washington, DC, June 2019, Technical Services Quarterly, 37:2, 201-202, DOI: 10.1080/07317131.2020.1728135

Nice work, Mike!