News – Page 3

PALSave Campus Leaders learn how to launch cost-saving textbook program on their campus

November 20, 2018 by PALNIDCM

Today’s students are facing ever-increasing financial expenses with traditional textbook prices contributing to the pressure. To combat rising textbook costs and their detrimental effects on student success and retention, the Private Academic Library Network of Indiana (PALNI) launched an initiative: PALSave: PALNI Affordable Learning.

On November 5, 2018 leaders – including bookstore managers, instructional technologists, and librarians – from over half of PALNI’s supported institutions attended a workshop facilitated by the Open Textbook Network to learn how to roll out this new program on their campus. Attendees were trained to encourage the faculty adoption of open educational resources (OER) in the classroom, and in doing so maximize student success.

PALSave System Leader and University of Saint Francis Teaching and Learning Services Coordinator Andrea Cohn remarked on the workshop success and PALSave benefits: “The best takeaway from the OTN Workshop was that open educational resources really are a win for everyone involved. Faculty benefit from the ability to have complete academic freedom in customizing OER texts to fit needs, students benefit from having free access from day one to the texts in multiple formats, and administration benefits from lowered student cost of attending the university and knowing that they are addressing one of the largest social justice issues facing college students today.”

*PALSave Campus Leader and Marian University Library Director Jessica Trinoskey pulls up Creative Commons information as discussed in a session by the Open Textbook Network.*

Other campus departments, such as the campus bookstore, are onboard with the PALSave initiative. “I am most excited about the impact PALSave can have on student success. As a bookstore manager, I believe that if a student spends less on textbooks, they have more money to spend on my t-shirts,” explains Candy Pancake, bookstore manager for Oakland City University. She views PALSave as a student success partner rather than competition for sales, noting: “I had never really seen the library as having any interest in the [textbook] adoption process. But now, I have gained a great co-champion for the textbook affordability initiative I am working on.”

PALNI recently joined the Open Textbook Network (OTN) as the first step to further its initiatives for affordable education and student success across the state. OTN maintains the Open Textbook Library, and is well known for helping organizations to advance the use of open textbooks and practices on their campuses. They have had great success with their initiative: OTN members have saved their students over 8.5 million dollars!

*PALSave Campus Leader and Huntington University Library Director Anita Gray participates in a group activity during a workshop session.*

As part of PALNI, supported institutions can enjoy affiliate status in OTN, have access to a trained team to educate faculty on benefits of OER, and obtain help redesigning courses via the PALSave team, at no additional cost to the institution. Additionally, OTN staff will be coming to back to Indiana this spring to facilitate a follow-up Campus Leader Workshop (date to be announced).

For more information about PALSave: PALNI Affordable Learning or PALNI’s membership in OTN, contact PALNI Scholarly Communications Director Amanda Hurford (amanda@palni.edu) and/or view the PALSave website https://palsave.palni.org/.

PALNI Supports the “Shared BigData Gateway” Project

October 30, 2018 by PALNIDCM

PALNI has become a supporting organization of the Shared BigData Gateway project which will give students, faculty, and researchers greater access to new research data. This project provide research data behind and impacting research data – often called the “science of science.” New information will emerge about the complex connections between research texts and underlying external forces that affect the production of knowledge as well as enhance the ability to share data. All higher education institutions will benefit from the results and PALNI is proud to provide support to the project through representing liberal arts colleges. PALNI with gather needs and provide input on sustainable business models. The project is led by Indiana University with support from eight other “big ten” universities, an IMLS grant, and two private companies, and fellow library consortia GWLA.

Read the original article about the Shared BigData Gateway project:

IU will lead $2 million partnership to expand access to research data

PALNI Awards Two Library Innovation Grants for 2018

August 25, 2018 by PALNIDCM

Two proposals received PALNI Library Innovation grants in 2018, one from Franklin College focusing on wellness and one from Butler University focusing on Augmented Reality (AR). The grant supports initiatives that optimize library resources and services in ways that significantly expand the ability of supported organizations to support teaching and learning at PALNI institutions. Funded programs, projects, and initiatives must align with PALNI strategic priorities and support PALNI deep collaboration.

Denise Shorey, Director of Franklin College’s Hamilton Library received a grant to transform a current spot on the library’s first floor into a de-stress and collaborative zone called The Lounge for students, faculty and staff. The students will be able to express themselves in this area with low-tech materials such as coloring books, jigsaw puzzles and games, which have been shown to promote mindfulness and stimulate creativity. Those seeking a different type of stress release, or who want to explore new technologies, can enter a world of virtual reality using handheld viewers. Others may want to share their experience by using a system that allows others to view their activity on a monitor.

“This space will be especially helpful to first-year students who often experience anxiety when starting college. Its location puts visitors near other library resources that will also help them develop resilience,” said Lori Schroeder, provost and dean of the college.

Denise Shorey, director of library services said, “Academic libraries play a different role today. Our mission is still to connect people and information, but we also recognize that the library serves as a social space for students to connect with each other or to study alone. Supporting overall wellness is merely an extension of that.”

The Butler University Libraries received the second grant to develop an augmented reality (AR) experience. Kristen Allen, Administrative Specialist, Center for Academic Technology and Sally Neal, Associate Dean for Instruction and User Services will lead the project focused on student interactions with library resources and faculty. They will be partnering with Mary Hinds, Sr. Instructional Designer. The proposed AR experience will integrate active learning into library instruction and will provide students with real-time information regarding the library spaces they are viewing.

To create this student AR experience, the Library will develop and pilot an app with First Year Seminar (FYS) classes. Typically, the Library conducts library instruction sessions in most of the FYS classes, so the AR app experience and learning will be compared to the traditional direct instruction currently used. Jennifer L.W. Fink claims that “Generation Z lives online” and this new generation of students needs information presented visually (Virtual Reality, 2017). The Library will survey students in both instructional styles to determine if there is a significant difference in learning and/or engagement.

The AR app will function similarly to a scavenger hunt game; in order to move onto the next step of the app, students will be required to complete a specific task. To encourage collaboration, groups of three to five students will be given one iPad with the app and will be asked to complete the challenge together.

About Franklin College:
Franklin College is a liberal arts college in the Indianapolis metropolitan area, about 20 miles from downtown Indianapolis. Our small class size allows students to thrive through personal interactions and individual mentorship. In addition, our liberal arts curriculum offers transformative opportunities that translate into empowered perspectives and real-world jobs. Our professors, faculty-advocates, challenge students to stretch beyond easy answers and become leaders in their fields. At the end of the day, we are self-motivated lifelong learners who relentlessly pursue the best in ourselves and in our community. For more information, visit www.FranklinCollege.edu. Find Franklin College on Facebook and follow @FranklinCollege on Twitter.

About Butler University:
Located in the heart of the Indianapolis Butler-Tarkington neighborhood, Butler University seeks to provide the highest quality of liberal and professional education and to integrate the liberal arts with professional education, by creating and fostering a stimulating intellectual community built upon interactive dialogue and inquiry among students, faculty, and staff. In 1855 attorney and abolitionist Ovid Butler founded the school on the principle that everyone deserves an excellent education, regardless of race or gender—a bold idea in pre-Civil-War America. Today, we’ve built on Butler’s vision to create a community of students and faculty that learn by doing—a community that values hard work as an essential building block for success, whether in the classroom, on the field, or out in the world. Butler University is the only Midwest Regional University to earn the U.S. News designation as Most Innovative School, according to the magazine’s 2018 rankings. For the eighth consecutive year, Butler ranks No. 2 overall among 171 Midwest Regional Universities. Butler is also recognized among the best in the nation for four co-curricular programs that enhance the educational experience for students. For more information, visit www.butler.edu.

Camp RIO: More Than Just Another Conference

August 1, 2018 by PALNIDCM

Written by Eric Bradley and Ruth Szpunar, Information Fluency Coordinators

For a small group of librarians, summer means packing a duffel bag and heading to the great outdoors to enjoy mother nature and build lasting relationships.

On July 19th and 20th, 2018, 20 librarians gathered together for Camp RIO 2018–a two day camp adventure. Camp RIO is a professional development opportunity for Reference, Instruction, and Outreach librarians involved in the Private Academic Library Network of Indiana (PALNI). Camp RIO is similar to a conference, with focused sessions and content, but yet different, held in a relaxed rural location, with time to reflect in nature and connect with colleagues.

Camp RIO 2018 was held at Waycross Conference Center, located on 400 acres south of Indianapolis, Indiana. The theme was “Intentional Teaching,“ and each session walked attendees through teaching strategies for librarians, usable both for one class session or during an entire semester. Susan Adams, Associate Professor for Middle/Secondary Education at Butler University was the guest speaker for the event, offering attendees practical and helpful advice for becoming intentional teachers. Along with Susan, the RIO Coordinators and Steering Committee led the workshop sessions. Other PALNI librarians offered a wide range of camping activities, such as crafts, hiking, and a book club discussion.

At a fraction of the cost of traditional conferences, Camp RIO combines the best of professional development with the fun and relaxation of camp.

PALNI Honors Extraordinary Library and Consortial Staff at All-Staff Conference

July 17, 2018 by PALNIDCM

Keynote Barbara Fister opening the conference.

The Private Academic Library Network of Indiana Inc. (PALNI) recognized library and consortia staff by presenting twenty-eight awards on June 12th, 2018 at their annual all-staff conference. PALNI, a non-profit organization supporting the libraries of its twenty-four supported institutions, inspires innovation, fosters learning, and reduces costs for all PALNI institutions. The event provided opportunity for the supported institutions’ library and instructional technology staff to collaborate and share in person, learn from keynote Barbara Fister, and celebrate the success experienced over the past year.

The Executive Director, Kirsten Leonard,recognized accomplishments in five categories of awards during the event:

The “Hall of Fame” award was bestowed to library staff who’ve volunteered long-standing service and invested above and beyond in PALNI initiatives.
The “Outstanding Service 2018” was awarded to those who were active facilitators in driving action items and advancing projects during the annual year.
Outstanding Service 2018 awards were also given to recognition of those who supported the WMS Implementation of Bethel College and Saint Mary’s College who have recently joined PALNI.
The “Outstanding Achievement Award for Leadership in Deep Collaboration” was given to select library senior leaders who have led the way in working together more deliberately and effectively.
The “Heart of PALNI Award” was given to staff who embody PALNI’s deep collaboration, and supportive culture.

PALNI Hall of Fame

Lauren Magnuson accepting “Heart of PALNI” award at the 2018 All-Staff Conference.

Heather Myers, Anderson University

Outstanding Service 2018

Julie Miller, Butler University

Olivia MacIsaac, Butler University

Vanessa French, Butler University

Erin Milanese, Goshen College

Tonya Fawcett, Grace College

Rebecca Johnson, Manchester University

Suzanne Hinnefeld, Saint Mary’s College

Andrea Cohn, University of Saint Francis

Laura Vogler, Wabash College

Support of Bethel and Saint Mary’s WMS Implementation

Brandon Board, Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary

Karl Stutzman, Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary

Heather Myers, Anderson University

Richard Lammert, Concordia Theological Seminary

Roger Peters, Concordia Theological Seminary

Brooke Cox, DePauw University

Edward Mandity, Marian College

Shawn Denny, Taylor University

Outstanding Achievement Award for Leadership in Deep Collaboration – 2018

Jill Lichtsinn, Manchester University

Noah Brubaker, PALNI

Diane Randall, University of Saint Francis

Heart of PALNI Award

Heather Loehr, PALNI/Hanover College

Eric Bradley, PALNI/Goshen College

Ruth Szpunar, PALNI/DePauw

Barb Chen, PALNI/University of Saint Francis

Lisa Gonzalez, PALNI

Amanda Hurford, PALNI

Lauren Magnuson, PALNI

PALNI Joins the Open Textbook Network

June 7, 2018 by PALNIDCM

Written by: Amanda Hurford, Scholarly Communications Director

The Private Academic Library Network of Indiana (PALNI) recently joined the Open Textbook Network (OTN) in order to further its initiatives for affordable education and student success across the state. OTN maintains the Open Textbook Library, and is well known for helping organizations to advance the use of open textbooks and practices on their campuses. They’ve had great success with their initiative: OTN members have saved their students over 8.5 million dollars!

To kick things off, PALNI’s selected system leaders will attend the OTN Summer Institute this July for a week of intensive training. They’ll be trained to bring expertise, mentorship, and best practices back to PALNI, and specifically learn how to facilitate workshops to engage faculty. Through this model, system and campus leaders alike will encourage the adoption of open and affordable resources in the classroom, and in doing so maximize student success.

PALNI’s Affordable Education Initiatives Task Force, as a result of their exploratory efforts, recommended membership in OTN as the first step in PALNI’s program strategy in this area. The program, recently christened PALSave: PALNI Affordable Learning, includes many elements with which other consortia have experienced success, such as outreach, project facilitation, and assessment.

As part of PALNI, supported institutions will enjoy affiliate status in OTN, have access to a trained team to educate faculty on benefits of Open Educational Resources (OER), and help redesigning courses via the PALSave team, at no additional cost. Additionally, OTN staff will be coming to Indiana this fall to facilitate an Open Textbook Workshop (date to be announced).

For more information about PALSave: PALNI Affordable Learning or PALNI’s membership in OTN, contact PALNI Scholarly Communications Director Amanda Hurford (amanda@palni.edu).

About the Private Academic Library Network of Indiana (PALNI): www.palni.edu
PALNI is a non-profit organization supporting collaboration for library and information services to the libraries of its twenty-four supported institutions. PALNI provides everything from resource management systems to sharing expertise in many areas including strategic planning, reference, information fluency, outreach, data management and configuration, and has identified greater collaboration in acquisitions as a key goal.

Recent Fort Wayne Teaching Conference presentation highlights consortial Scholarly Communications, Affordable Education, and Instructional Technology at PALNI

March 6, 2018 by PALNIDCM

PALNI is engaging with faculty to create affordable and effective learning opportunities that draw upon the newest technologies and reduce costs for private colleges in Indiana at the same time. The Private Academic Library Network of Indiana (PALNI) has launched collaborative Scholarly Communications and Instructional Technology programs to incorporate the best of today’s technology, open access materials, and services to directly support teaching and learning by sharing expertise and deduplicating effort across the twenty-four PALNI colleges, seminaries, and universities. To introduce these projects, PALNI Scholarly Communications Director Amanda Hurford and University of Saint Francis Teaching and Learning Services Team Coordinator Andrea Cohn presented in person, while Manchester University Virtual Instruction and Emerging Tech Librarian Rebecca Johnson joined virtually to deliver a session at the Fort Wayne Teaching Conference.

Within this conference talk, Ms. Cohn, Ms. Hurford, and Ms. Johnson presented a call to action to faculty which invites direct engagement with PALNI’s resources and in PALNI’s newest advisory groups and task forces. The corresponding groups – Scholarly Communications and Instructional Technology Advisory Groups and the Affordable Education Initiatives Task Force – will help faculty and instructional designers achieve goals around classroom tech, course design, open educational resources, open access publishing, and digital scholarship across the consortium.

“Using a method of “deep collaboration” among the consortium’s members, we are able to draw on each other’s strengths to advance these ideas,” remarks presenter and PALNI Scholarly Communications Director Amanda Hurford. “These efforts evidence an evolution in strategy for PALNI, into programs that extend impact beyond the library and out onto campus.”

All three groups are open to join by anyone at a PALNI institution. They meet monthly to quarterly in order to advance action items as directed by PALNI’s 2017-2020 strategic plan. PALNI invites faculty involvement at the Advisory Group level, and also on more targeted task forces like Affordable Education, which require a time commitment to create impactful outputs to share across the PALNI audience.

Ms. Hurford has been pleased with the current campus-wide responses to the programs, “We have solid buy-in from library administrators, we are completing action items with good momentum, and we’ve had significant interest in our programs across PALNI campuses.”

For those in a PALNI institution who would like more information about joining one of these groups, please contact Amanda Hurford (amanda@palni.edu) for Scholarly Communications/Affordable Education Initiatives or Rebecca Johnson (rejohnson@manchester.edu) for Instructional Technology.

For more information about the presentation:

Presentation Slides: https://drive.google.com/a/palni.edu/file/d/1hr3ULW5wn9JUKbT3oqkh6Sent5wv5Duv/view?usp=sharing

instructionaltech.palni.org

scholcomm.palni.org

libguides.palni.edu/scholcomm

libguides.palni.edu/affordable_education

About the Private Academic Library Network of Indiana (PALNI): www.palni.edu

PALNI is a non-profit organization supporting collaboration for library and information services to the libraries of its twenty-four supported institutions. PALNI provides everything from resource management systems to sharing expertise in many areas including strategic planning, reference, information fluency, outreach, data management and configuration, and has identified greater collaboration in acquisitions as a key goal.

Bethel College and Saint Mary’s College join the PALNI Consortium and the PALNI group OCLC WorldShare Management Services

February 7, 2018 by PALNIDCM

The Private Academic Library Network of Indiana Inc (PALNI) is excited to announce the addition of two institutions, Bethel College (Mishawaka, IN) and Saint Mary’s College (Notre Dame, IN), to the PALNI family. Bethel College and Saint Mary’s College join a highly engaged and collaborative group of private college and seminary libraries across the state bringing the number of supported institutions up to twenty-four. PALNI uses OCLC’s WorldShare Management Services (WMS) to provide direct, unmediated access to the collective collections of all the institutions without the need to export or import records. OCLC is also continuing development in WMS to support collaboration in analytics, licensing, and more.

“The PALNI board discussion on the applications from Saint Mary’s College and Bethel College was enthusiastic,” says PALNI Executive Director Kirsten Leonard. “All of us in PALNI and PALNI-supported schools look forward to combining their strengths with the many experts and leaders across PALNI. Their request to join PALNI’s Deep Collaboration speaks highly of PALNI’s ability to produce services and collections together that rival much larger consortia and institutions and their inclusion will make us stronger.”

The PALNI board of directors has committed to “deep collaboration” between PALNI institutions, providing better service by sharing resources to reduce duplication and fuel innovation. New expertise from both schools will aid the consortium to increase collaboration efforts and enhance traditional services. Bethel College and Saint Mary’s College will have access to over 200 colleagues and support staff from the other PALNI schools, a cost-efficient contract with OCLC for the WorldShare Management Services, a consortia-wide resource-sharing program called PALShare, an instructional technology collaboration, affordable education initiatives, and a host of other services that continue to grow to meet the new needs of our students and faculty.

“We are looking forward to the peer-based support from experienced librarians at libraries like ours: small, largely undergraduate libraries that face similar challenges and limitations but also have similar degrees of flexibility,” comments Saint Mary’s College Interim Director Catherine Pellegrino. “We are excited about joining an organization where we will be equal collaborators on projects and where we’ll be challenged to develop and share our own expertise for the benefit of the whole cooperative consortium.”

“We are excited to partner with the member libraries of PALNI,” remarks Bethel College Library Director Mark Root. “It will be a great opportunity for us to work with institutions that are liked minded and facing similar challenges. By partnering we will be able to expand our services and resources to our community and the PALNI community.”

The institutions’ librarians and their patrons will benefit from the consortium’s contract with OCLC’s WorldShare Management Services. “OCLC has been closely collaborating with Kirsten Leonard, PALNI Executive Director, and the PALNI consortium since the group selected WMS as their cloud-based library services platform in 2013. More recently, we collaborated with several PALNI libraries to develop and pilot the new Digby mobile app to ensure that it delivered the right experience and simplified their libraries’ work. Their input was invaluable in making this app user-friendly for their student workers. As we continue to enhance WMS to ensure it meets the needs of libraries and library groups into the future, we look forward to continuing to partner with PALNI and its newest members, Bethel College and Saint Mary’s College,” said Mary Sauer-Games, OCLC Vice President, Global Product Management.

The PALNI institutions are looking forward to meeting their new colleagues and bringing them onboard fully this spring. “Bethel College and Saint Mary’s College are ideal partners for PALNI,” shares PALNI Board Chair-Elect and Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary Library Director Karl Stutzman. “Our track record of collaboration addresses a central challenge in higher education: the need to contain educational costs while providing increasingly sophisticated services. Adding well-aligned members like Saint Mary’s and Bethel will increase all PALNI institutions’ return on investment.”

About Saint Mary’s College:

Saint Mary’s College, Notre Dame, Ind., is a four-year, Catholic, residential, women’s liberal arts college offering five bachelor’s degrees and more than 30 major areas of study, such as business, nursing, art, chemistry, and social work. Saint Mary’s College also offers two graduate degrees: a Master of Science and a Doctorate. All programs that fall under these degrees are co-educational and include a Master of Science in Data Science, a Master of Science in Speech Language Pathology, and a Doctorate of Nursing Practice. Founded in 1844 by the Sisters of the Holy Cross, Saint Mary’s College seeks, according to its mission statement, to educate students, develop their talents, and prepare them to make a difference in the world.

About Bethel College:

Bethel College is a Christian liberal arts college that that offers both baccalaureate and master’s degrees in a wide variety of disciplines and areas of study. Bethel has as its mission to be a Christian community of learners dedicated to building lives of commitment for leadership in the Church and the world. In order to achieve this mission, Bethel provides liberating academic and co-curricular programs to challenge the mind, enlarge the vision and equip the whole person for lifelong service.

About PALNI:

The Private Academic Library Network of Indiana (PALNI) is a 501(c)(3) owned by the twenty-four supported private academic institutions. The founding concept of PALNI is to collaborate to enhance teaching and learning through optimizing library resources and services. PALNI collaborates not only with other private academic institutions in Indiana, but also with other groups and consortia to reduce costs and compete academically through innovative services. Information management systems and sharing expertise in many areas including strategic planning, reference, information fluency, outreach, data management and configuration, scholarly communication, and instructional technology are just a few examples of our collaborations.

About OCLC and WorldShare Management Services:

OCLC is a nonprofit global library cooperative providing shared technology services, original research and community programs so that libraries can better fuel learning, research and innovation. Through OCLC, member libraries cooperatively produce and maintain WorldCat, the most comprehensive global network of data about library collections and services. Libraries gain efficiencies through OCLC’s WorldShare, a complete set of library management applications and services built on an open, cloud-based platform. It is through collaboration and sharing of the world’s collected knowledge that libraries can help people find answers they need to solve problems. Together as OCLC, member libraries, staff and partners make breakthroughs possible.

New PALNI Scholarly Communications initiatives take off after new Scholarly Communications Director hire, Amanda Hurford

January 17, 2018 by PALNIDCM

PALNI Scholarly Communications Director Amanda Hurford

Since the Private Academic Library Network of Indiana, Inc (PALNI) hired a Scholarly Communications Director, a number of scholarly communication initiatives have launched consortia-wide. Those in affordable education, open access publishing, and institutional repository (IR) development topping the list. The new Scholarly Communications Director, Amanda Hurford, brings focused expertise to the supported PALNI schools and looks forward to sharing her knowledge while forming partnerships in and outside of the consortia.

“PALNI has made it possible to launch scholarly communication initiatives at our very small theological school,” Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary Library Director Karl Stutzman testifies to the added value. “There is broad excitement from our faculty and administrators for open access resources because they are so clearly connected to our educational mission; having a PALNI staff expert is helping us leverage PALNI’s significant technological resources to support open access journals, launch an institutional repository, and more.”

Scholarly Communications jobs have grown in significance since the Association of College Research and Libraries (ACRL) identified the crisis in their 2003 white paper, “Principles and Strategies for the Reform of Scholarly Communication.” A 2012 Association of Research Libraries survey showed a 70% increase in the number of scholarly communications positions with 24% creating new areas to handle scholarly communication support. However, most PALNI libraries lacked the budget to create a position focused on this area on their own.

In late 2016, the PALNI Board of Directors unanimously voted to add the shared, full-time staff position continuing PALNI’s “deep collaboration” initiatives. The position, the first of its kind nationally, supports a consortial effort to advance scholarly communications, institutional repository support, and affordable education initiatives at all 22 supported institutions. Previously in the PALNI consortia, only Butler University Libraries had access to a full-time Scholarly Communications Librarian despite the growing need in all schools.

To achieve this year’s goals, Ms. Hurford leads the Scholarly Communications Advisory Group, which works to provide PALNI librarians with the knowledge, tools, and services needed to engage in these types of projects at the local level. Projects include creating a faculty OER adoption toolkit, implementation of the cutting edge Hyku institutional repository software, and building a robust support system around open access publishing using Open Journal Systems.

Ms. Hurford brings over a decade of experience in digital librarianship working for Ball State University and IUPUI. Former colleague and IUPUI Associate Dean of Digital Scholarship Kristi Palmer spoke highly of Ms. Hurford’s experience, “Ms. Hurford has been an integral part in the success of Indiana’s Service Hub with the Digital Public Library of America, participating since the Indiana Memory DPLA was formed in 2015. As the organization’s current chair she led our 2nd Annual DPLA Fest and has worked diligently to ensure the organization thrives in its mission.”

“Having recently finalized our action plan for 2018, I’m truly excited to move our ambitious goals into sustainable programs within PALNI,” Ms. Hurford states enthusiastically. “Especially interesting will be the development of our consortial institutional repository, and all the opportunities for growth and collaboration it invites in and outside of PALNI.”

PALNI releases ACRL/IPEDS instructional guides for OCLC WMS users

December 11, 2017 by PALNIDCM

The Private Academic Library Network of Indiana Inc. (PALNI) has released a number of open-access ACRL and IPEDS statistical collection videos and guides to assist OCLC’s Worldshare Management Services (WMS) users in the consortium and beyond.

Heather Loehr, PALNI Analytics Coordinator and Hanover College Duggan Library’s Coordinator of Information Services (Photo provided by Loehr)

All academic libraries are required to report data to the IPEDS annual survey and optionally to the ACRL survey, both necessitating significant time and data processing. Heather Loehr, the PALNI analytics Coordinator and Hanover College Duggan Library’s Coordinator of Information Services, led the project in order to create a common set of instructions that could be shared to all libraries using WMS, rather than each library developing its own guides locally. To benefit the whole OCLC community, the team included instructions for both Standard Reports–available to all WMS users–and instructions for Report Designer users.

Ms. Loehr, originally partnering with Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary Library Director Karl Stutzman and more recently with DePauw University Prevo Science Library’s Associate Dean of Libraries and Coordinator Caroline Gilson, saw the consortial need for consistent and time-saving instructions in 2015. “We wanted to develop methods that were easy to use and could be used consistently year after year. Consistency is key—the data is most valuable when we are confident that we are reporting on a common standard both internally as well as across the consortium. The methods we have developed are simplified to some degree, and surely more granular analysis could be done for greater accuracy, but we believe that the data acquired is accurate enough and the procedures are clear and accessible.”

The OCLC community of users enthusiastically embraced the work and was praised by the OCLC WorldShare Analytics Community Manager Team. “The OCLC Community Center was designed to foster the culture of support and collaboration among libraries. The IPEDS and ACRL reporting guides that our PALNI colleagues build every year and distribute through the Community Center is one of the best examples of impactful collaborations that we’ve seen. PALNI and their colleagues across various communities of practice are truly setting the pace for sharing knowledge about best practice workflows, as well as gathering and contributing ideas on how to improve products. Congratulations to PALNI on another round of important contributions to the collective’s effective use of WorldShare Reports!”

Before these instructional videos and guides were released, librarians had to interpret the survey instructions and develop their own data-gathering methods locally making it difficult to benchmark across the nation. Now, with over 70+ hours invested by Ms. Loehr’s team in gathering data, creating instructions, and designing the guides and videos, all WMS users can save time and reduce uncertainty by making use of the guides and videos. Having clear instructions that match data points to the survey questions reduces the range of interpretation, making the ACRL and IPEDS statistics more valuable when comparing across the nation.

The Customer Service Director of Counting Opinions, creators of the ACRLmetrics analytics tool that allows libraries to manage and measure ACRL and other performance data, complimented Loehr’s team, saying, “Peer benchmarking is an important component of assessment in academic libraries. Consistent methods for gathering data across institutions are vital for useful peer benchmarks. The excellent work led by Heather Loehr, Coordinator of Information Services with the Duggan Library at Hanover College and Analytics coordinator for the PALNI consortium can be used by all OCLC Worldshare Management Services (WMS) participants helping to guarantee consistent data gathering across all WMS peers. We thank her for her efforts and for the PALNI group’s sharing of this work.”

In addition to the guides, Loehr and Gilson hosted a PALNI online training session this year. Franklin College’s Library Director Denise Shorey attended the Fall session and greatly appreciated the work, “I’m very grateful to Heather Loehr for her role in creating guides for using WMS Reports. By aligning WMS options with IPEDS/ACRL requirements, the guides have been an immense time-saver. The step-by-step instructions provide clear guidance, and Heather was superbly patient in answering any lingering questions that I had.”