welcome
User centered. Data driven.
of Choice
Destination of Choice
Investment for Success
Mobilizing
“A
university is a human invention for the transmission
of knowledge and culture from generation to generation, through the training of quick minds and pure hearts, and for this work no other human invention will suffice.” —W.E.B. Du Bois
UMass Amherst is Rising The University of Massachusetts Amherst ranks among the nation’s top 30 public universities, moving up 10 spots during the past year in the 2015 Best Colleges guide, by U.S. News & World Report. There are more than 600 public, four-year colleges in the country, and U.S. News ranks the best 122 National Public Universities.
No. 40 last year before advancing to 30th for 2015, tied with four other schools.
The Commonwealth’s flagship campus, led by Chancellor Kumble R. Subbaswamy, earned its highest ranking ever in the prestigious National Universities category. Since 2010, when UMass Amherst ranked No. 52 among publics, the university’s standing has steadily improved, reaching
A Washington Post analysis of the rankings published today cited UMass Amherst as one of only three national universities over the past five years that have risen more than 20 steps in the overall top 100 universities, from 99th to 76th.
Among all national universities, public and private, UMass Amherst moved up an impressive 15 places this year, from No. 91 to No. 76, tied with eight other schools.
Now in its 151st year, UMass Amherst encompasses more than 1,400 acres and 300 buildings. More than 28,000 students are enrolled, including nearly 21,000 undergraduates from 49 states and 68 countries.
“UMass Amherst increasingly is a destination of choice for the best students in Massachusetts and from all corners of world,”
said Subbaswamy. “These rankings reflect our commitment to excellence in undergraduate education. We greatly appreciate such national recognition, and we are grateful for the increased investment in public higher education supported by our legislators and the governor. That investment is truly yielding dividends.”
HOSPITALITY. PERSONALITY.
User Centered:
The UMass Amherst Libraries focus on the user experience, fostering fruitful connections and serving as virtual and physical town squares for community members to do work that benefits the university and the citizens of the Commonwealth. Staff embrace and embody library values: freedom of inquiry and equality of access. As a land grant institution, we are committed to outreach; library staff share the goal that all users, everywhere, feel empowered in their pursuits by having access to information.
Data-Informed: The Libraries are responsible
resource stewards. We engage in continual evaluation of our work to make sure that resources are appropriately invested. Data is critical to our decision-making, advocacy, and communication. We collect and analyze data about the use of our collections, spaces, and services. We also review current data on research library trends.We use these data to make evidence-based decisions that improve the user experience. Accountable to our users and the public, we openly share assessment data.
Welcome Focused:
The Libraries are the gateway to higher learning in the Commonwealth. With more than one and a half million visitors annually through our physical doors, and the highest webpage traffic for the entire umass.edu domain, we are the most frequented destination for the flagship campus, a testament to our hospitality ethic and the broad support we offer across disciplines and throughout the research process. The Libraries provide programs that bring diverse constituents into digital and physical environments designed to promote the exchange of ideas and the sharing of methods. In an increasingly collaborative environment, the Libraries’ long track record of partnering for the common good broadens access to resources and services. Our workspace culture is inclusive and diverse, a reference point that strengthens our services to users and makes the Libraries places where people choose to work and collaborate.
umass amherst libraries
SEL
SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING LIBRARY Lederle Graduate Research Center Lowrise, Floor 2 The Science and Engineering Library is the primary location for resources in the natural and physical sciences, mathematics, and engineering. (Medicine and health-related materials are in the W.E.B. Du Bois Library.) SEL provides group study rooms with computers, individual computer stations, wireless access, quiet study space, photocopiers, a print station, scanner, computer classroom, and exhibit space. Librarians are available to help with research, including comprehensive literature searches, assistance with specialized science databases and patent research, RefWorks instruction to create bibliographies, and classes in library research methods.
DU BOIS W.E.B. DU BOIS LIBRARY
The W.E.B. Du Bois Library is the tallest academic research library building in the world and a primary location for resources in education, geography, the humanities and fine arts, nursing, management, medicine, public health, and social and behavioral sciences. It is home to the Learning Commons, Learning Resource Center, Map Collection, Microforms Viewing Room, Music & Media Listening and Viewing Area, IT computer labs, Procrastination Station cafĂŠ, Special Collections and University Archives, and the Teaching Commons.
ICL
IMAGE COLLECTION LIBRARY 225 Bartlett Hall Assisting faculty and students in the transition from analog to digital image technology in the classroom, the Image Collection Library (ICL) provides digital image resources for the UMass community. ICL acquires images in all subjects for use in the classroom environment and is open to all UMass Amherst faculty, staff, and students. ICL provides access to image databases, teaches image discovery techniques, and assists faculty members who maintain their own personal image collections. The image databases serve as presentation tools and offer more features than PowerPoint.
@ our GRADUATES:
Alumni of UMass Amherst are an indispensable part of the state’s knowledge economy. They remain in Massachusetts in greater numbers than any other school or college in the state. The campus has more in-state alumni than any other college in Massachusetts, private or public. UMass Amherst has more than 242,000 living alumni, with 123,000 residing in the Commonwealth.
“The only thing that you absolutely have to know is the location of the library.” - Albert Einstein
Engage
Destination of Choice:
Libraries’ Goal: The Libraries are a physical and virtual destination of choice, woven seamlessly into users’ lives. The Libraries create services and produce spaces that facilitate academic work, provide access to resources, and curate unique collections that enhance the teaching, learning, and research of users wherever and whenever they seek knowledge. We contribute to a complete educational experience and we help to prepare students for lives as responsible global citizens.
MOBILE REFERENCE DESK Librarians meet users whenever and wherever they need research assistance, whether at a mobile reference desk (left), online chat, or in classrooms teaching alongside professors.
Libraries’ Mission: As a gateway to knowledge, the Libraries are key partners in teaching, learning, and research at UMass Amherst and in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Supporting freedom of inquiry, the Libraries foster a diverse and inclusive environment in which to engage with ideas and acquire the critical skills necessary for lifelong learning. By combining the latest information technology with excellent public service, the staff build and maintain a rich information environment, facilitate access to it, and create a hub of campus and community scholarly activity.
Highly Motivated Students... In the fall of 2015, UMass Amherst again welcomed its most academically accomplished class. A total of 40,015 students applied for admission, a 7.6 percent increase over the prior year, including larger numbers of out-ofstate and international students. Applications have increased by nearly 80 percent over the past ten years. The academic profile of the entering
class is again at another historic high, continuing the record-setting trend. SAT scores increased by about 10 points to 1226 compared to the previous year, and high school gradepoint average increased from 3.78 to 3.83. On average, students in the incoming class rank in the top fifth of their high school class. The entering class is 4,685 students, slightly larger
than 2014. This year’s incoming class is also more diverse. The ALANA (African, Latino, Asian/Pacific Islander and Native American) population will increase from 23.7 percent to 26 percent and the underrepresented minority population will increase from 10 percent to 12 percent.
UMass Amherst Wins Award for Library Café
Procrastination Station, the café in the W.E.B. Du Bois Library, won Food Management magazine’s 2014 Best Concept Award for Best Convenience Retailing Concept. The café is a joint project between the Libraries and UMass Amherst Auxiliary Enterprises. Procrastination Station, located on the first floor of the Du Bois Library, draws 1,800 customers daily and is open 24 hours a day from Sunday to Thursday with other hours Friday and Saturday. The café offers a menu of soups, salads, hot and cold sandwiches, (including breakfast sandwiches served round the clock), baked goods and gourmet hot and cold beverages, all made with natural and organic ingredients. There are also organic hand-cut fruit selections as well as organic bars and vegan/vegetarian packaged meals. “It is one of the most successful retail operations we have on campus and serves as a model for other schools to follow,” says Ken Toong, award-winning executive director of Auxiliary Enterprises at UMass Amherst. Food Management ’s annual awards program recognizes exceptional achievement and innovation in key areas of noncommercial food service.
Learning Commons: A Convergence of Resources UMass Amherst culture is about trying new things and taking risks; nowhere is this truer than in the Libraries. When the Learning Commons (LC) opened in 2005, it was one of the first of its kind in the nation. It immediately pushed the foot traffic in the Library to more than one million visitors a year. These visitors included peers from institutions hoping to create the same success. The LC has been expanded three times since then.
individual work stations in the Science and Engineering Library. The LC encourages collaboration and group project work; provides an all-purpose meeting place; facilitates use of print and electronic library resources and the Internet; enables users to create text documents, spreadsheets, graphic documents, and databases; and is staffed with software, hardware, information, writing, academic advising, international programs, and career advising experts.
Located on the Lower Level of the Du Bois Library, the LC provides students with 30,000 square feet of interactive learning spaces, including multipurpose work stations; 425+ ports for laptop access to the campus network, the Internet and Internet II; copying, printing, scanning, and faxing; access to technology support and reference and research assistance, and access to the Library’s physical and online collections and services. In 2012, to keep up with student demand, the Library opened a new 2,500-square-foot satellite computing facility with eight group study rooms and 46 The Learning Commons brings together technology, library, and other academic support services in an environment that fosters informal, collaborative, and creative work and social interaction amongst students and members of the Commonwealth. The facility encourages group project work, provides an all-purpose meeting place, and facilitates use of print and electronic library resources and the internet.
mi·cro·cli·mate The Learning Commons has maintained a strong presence on campus and has received national and international recognition as a groundbreaking space that supports student learning and success. While still receiving interest from educators around the world, the space is approaching its 11th anniversary. Services, spaces, and equipment are being updated and reinvented to meet the needs of a constantly changing academic landscape. A Learning Commons Assessment Task Force was formed to provide recommendations to the Provost on facilities, service and technology updates required for the reinvigoration of the space. Through focus groups, data review, and soliciting feedback, the task
force is developing a plan for the design, creation and implementation of a reconfigured Learning Commons to meet the needs of the 21st century learner. Recommendations will cover facilities, staffing, services, policies, and management of such a space. UMass Amherst anthropologist Krista Harper’s research into students’ study habits, use of technology, and help-seeking behaviors in the library environment were conducted in the Learning Commons to better understand how the Library can serve users. Microclimate test areas include modular mobile seating and movable writing surfaces that help us better understand how we
can foster innovative thinking. We cleared out space and brought in new seating: high-backed leather studio chairs, a serpentine couch, egg-shaped chairs and bean bags. These were interspersed with rolling white boards and two group workstations, all brightly colored and equipped with power and Wi-Fi. Researchers will continue studying users within the microclimate to launch a Learning Commons-wide renovation to further improve the student experience.
The new, modular furniture was purchased thanks to 1,900 donors who supported the Learning Commons Transformation Fund. To date, more than $95,000 has been raised. Students love the egg chairs (cost: $1,700 ea.)
“The energy, the forward-thinking approach...to create this kind of a center is really something...I see a lot of great things going on here...we look forward to a rich and robust partnership...”
Steve Ballmer in 2005, then-CEO of Microsoft To date, Microsoft has supported the Learning Commons with more than $6,000,000 in large software grants, which enable us to outfit more than 200 public access computers with up-to-theminute software and tools.
“I enjoy sitting in the egg chairs; they are comfortable and allow me to focus.” -Christina Walker ’16
“Since the Learning Commons was updated and this furniture popped up, I’ve been more productive and motivated to get my work done.” -Will Kenny ’16
welcome
partners to improve the user experience We
The Learning Commons thrives due to collaborative efforts between several offices and programs on the UMass Amherst campus. The contributions and perspectives of these partners provide a well rounded and holistic view of the academic needs of the undergraduate community.
Learning Resource Center
Teaching Commons The Teaching Commons on Floor 26 is a collaboration with the Institute for Teaching Excellence & Faculty Development and IT Academic Computing. It provides faculty with a rich set of support services and private space for collaboration and work, and builds a strong community for the advancement of learning on the UMass Amherst campus.
Located on Floor 10, the LRC offers students a peer-supported environment to meet academic challenges. Tutors and Supplemental Instruction Leaders are model students trained to assist their peers in achieving academic success.
International Programs Office IPO is a comprehensive office that works with incoming international students and scholars, as well as manages the study abroad and exchange programs and processes for all students, faculty and staff. It has a satellite location in the Learning Commons.
Information Technology The Learning Commons and Technical Support Desk is a collaborative model comprised of the Libraries, IT User Services, and IT Computer Classrooms. There are over 200 computers in the Learning Commons and easy access to the wireless network for those with laptops and other devices. IT Help Desk and Classroom Consultants are on hand in the Learning Commons to provide technical support for computing and account questions.
Writing Center The Writing Center is located in the Learning Commons. Tutors work with undergraduate and graduate students, staff, post-docs and faculty writers in 45-minute consultations, both face-to-face and online, on any academic genre at any point in the writing process.
Assistive Technologies Center The Assistive Technologies Center offers technology services to any member of the university community with an ADA-defined disability. The computer lab, located in the Learning Commons, offers access to screen reading software, voice recognition software, text enlargers, and other assistive hardware and software.
Academic Computing In collaboration with the Libraries, Academic Computing maintains a Team-Based Learning Classroom (pictured above) in the Learning Commons and several computer classrooms in the Du Bois Library.
Digital Media Lab The Digital Media Lab on Floor 3 of the Du Bois Library supports students at each point in the multimedia production process, from concept and media creation to post-production. This space brings together all the elements needed to produce high-quality multimedia from green screen video rooms and pro-audio sound recording booths to specialized workstations and collaboration space. Outfitted with 27-inch iMacs and dual Mac/PC workstations, it is a flexible workspace that can adapt to new technologies and learning modes. Students have access to a wide range of online tutorials, field production guides, and self-organized forums. A staff of multimedia specialists provides workshops and individual instruction as needed. In 2014 we doubled the amount of sound booths, created a larger green-screen facility, and increased the amount of computers loaded with video and presentation software. Thanks to 121 people who made gifts directly to the project… to date nearly $20,000 has been raised to help fund the expansion.
“I’ve done all my editing here and now I’m applying to jobs using these projects as evidence of my abilities. If this wasn’t here I’d be DOOMED.”
-John Holowitz, Communications major
“The availability of the larger-screen Macs, desk space, and quiet allows for productivity, efficiency, and good work. Open 24/7 is an extreme grace.”
-Philip Chen, Entrepreneurship in Art and Advertising, Bachelors Degree in Individual Concentration
“The Digital Media help desk attendants saved my project more times than I can count and I can’t thank them enough.” -Christopher Martin, English major Cara DeTour ’19 writes a song in the sound booth. She is a first-year graduate student in Speech-Language Pathology.
In the first year since the Digital Media Lab opened, more than 20,000 undergraduates and 2,000 graduate students were served. Staff logged more than 22,000 equipment loans including headphones, digital cameras, camcorders, and other accessories.
Investing in 3D Printing
Makerbot Innovation Center
The Libraries partnered with Makerbot, manufacturers of 3D printers, to build an Innovation Center in the Digital Media Lab, making 3D printing widely available to students, faculty, and researchers at UMass Amherst. The technology has the potential to revolutionize industries from manufacturing and aerospace to prosthetics and reconstructive surgery; the Center demonstrates the Library’s support of the Commonwealth’s technology-based future.
The Innovation Center is the first of its kind in New England and the first at a university library anywhere. It is available to all students, from business majors for entrepreneurial pursuits, to architects for creating models, to engineering and science students for developing concepts and tools. Students and professors from Architecture, Building Construction Technology, Studio Arts/Sculpture, Education, Classics, and Engineering have been the heaviest users of the printers to date. We are tapping into existing faculty to share ideas and case studies, and working on sample lesson plans, overview videos, online subject guides, 3D demos, and workshops. “Having this resource on campus puts UMass at the forefont of technological innovation,” says Alexander Schreyer, program director of Building and Construction Technology at UMass Amherst who uses 3D printing in his teaching, research and outreach.
Allison Brown ’16 gets 3D printing tips from Dennis Spencer, Digital Media Lab supervisor. Allison is majoring in Social Thought and Political Economy. To date, the 3D printing center has produced 250 3D prints.
The Innovation Center provides access to over 50 3D printers, 3D scanners, and an innovative 3D printing software platform that links the printers together, providing remote access, print queuing and mass production of 3D prints, and is designed to streamline productivity and staffing.
“Every new offering such as this changes the way students and faculty interact with the Library and enables them to explore all the other services and resources,” says Jeanne Antill, coordinator of the Digital Media Lab.
342 donors to the Innovation Fund for 3D printing have given nearly $40,000 to date.
Welcoming New Faculty Helping new faculty understand the vast resources and services available through the Libraries is critical to their success and to the success of their students. The Libraries are viewed by the Institute of Teaching Excellence and Faculty Development as important partners in New Faculty Orientation, offered each August. This event, and follow up discussions with individual new faculty members, introduces the many programs available to faculty, including: • Information and digital media instruction • Plagiarism prevention (Turnitin) • Streaming media for classroom support • Digital Scholarship & Consulting Services • ScholarWorks (digital repository for scholarly material) • Teaching Commons • Faculty Writing Place Teaching Commons
Welcoming New Students... Helping to Attract the Best Librarians attend admissions fairs and the annual Open House for early admissions students and potential students and their families. New Students’ Orientation Librarians tend a lively information table in the summer and fall for students who are coming to UMass as freshman or transfers. Family Weekend Librarians staff an information table in the fall for Humanities and Fine Arts freshman and participate in International Students Orientation. Peer Pressure Librarians attend the Residence Assistant orientation, giving information to the RAs to take back to the dorms.
One-on-One In the fall we provide extensive oneon-one assistance to students who are new to the Learning Commons; this means helping them log into the computers, use the printers, and navigate the Libraries’ services and resources.
Get Your Game On As part of the New Student Orientation, the Libraries partner with Information Technologies and the Game Hobbyists League (a Registered Student Organization) to present “Get Your Game On!”—an evening of fun and games, and popcorn and candy, for incoming freshman. More than 30 library staff volunteers help organize and staff the monthly event.
Get(ting) Your Game On
“Students revel in the excitement of meeting new friends, mingling with Library and IT staff, and getting to know the Du Bois Library as the warm, friendly place it is,” says Sarah Hutton, Head of Undergraduate Teaching and Learning Services (pictured below).
Oh the places you will go... As students prepare for finals, the Library provides students with an opportunity to de-stress by spending time with our four-legged friends—Therapy Dogs from the Paws Program (pictured left) and co-sponsored by the Libraries and the Center for Health Promotion.
Floor 21: Children’s Literature - School of Education professor emeritus Dr. Masha K. Rudman was one of the first scholars to study children’s literature from an issues approach. She donated her collection of more than 8,000 volumes of juvenile literature and related scholarly references to UMass Amherst Libraries. Adjacent to the collection is a bronze sculpture of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (pictured above). Peter Laird ’76, co-creator of the Turtles donated the grouping of the five main characters of the popular series.
And the things you will see! The Hokkaido Bear is a symbol of friendship and collaboration between the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Hokkaido University in Hokkaido, Japan. Harusada Suginome, president of Hokkaido University, presented this bear to UMass President Jean Paul Mather in 1957 to congratulate UMass on its new Student Union Building, where the bear was located for more than 50 years. In 2014, the bear was relocated to the W.E.B. Du Bois Library Learning Commons (pictured right), to honor an exchange agreement between the libraries of Hokkaido University and UMass Amherst. This agreement promotes a mutual understanding of and contribution to the progress of international scholarly communication.
We Are Community The Libraries host events to promote experiences and personal interaction among students, faculty, scholars, and the community, keeping step with the campus’s strategic need to serve the people of Massachusetts working as a catalyst for positive social change.
Open Access Week In 2015, the Libraries celebrated the 9th annual Open Access Week with workshops on open access, open textbook, copyright, and fair use; a wikipedia edit-a-thon; and a Tech Fair.
Fall Reception For the 17th year, the Libraries honored its donors at the Fall Reception. In 2015, the Libraries celebrated the gift of the Boston Jazz Society collection with jazz music by students and faculty and an exhibit highlighting the collection.
&
The previous year, the we celebrated our four millionth item, a miniature version of the Emancipation Proclamation, which is only one of a handful of proclamations surviving today.
4 Millionth Item
“In searching for the four millionth ceremonial item, we were looking for something that represented our history, about who we are and what we think about as librarians —freedom of inquiry, equality, access— all of these values we hold central to what we do.” -Rob Cox, Head of Special Collections and University Archives
Earth Day The Libraries’ award-winning Sustainability Fund helps underwrite keynote programming for Earth Day at UMass Amherst, including Annie Leonard, Majora Carter and Robert Bullard, father of environmental justice.
Du Bois Birthday Lecture The 21st Annual Du Bois Birthday Celebration hosted by the Libraries featured keynote speaker David Levering Lewis, Pulitzer prize-winning biographer of Du Bois. The Library marks the birthday of W.E.B. Du Bois each year with a lecture on a topic relating to his life and legacy.
Robert Bullard
Birds of Prey As part of Homecoming Week, the Libraries hosted a program with a wildlife rehabilitator. For a few hours, the Learning Commons was inhabited by a great horned owl, screech-owl, saw-whet owl, kestrel, peregrine falcon, red-tailed and Harris’ hawk, and a golden eagle.
Social Change Colloquium For 10 years the annual Social Change Colloquium, sponsored by the Department of Special Collections and University Archives, has highlighted our collections in social change. Some of the themes have included civil rights, communal living, nuclear power, political activism, war and peace issues, and toxic chemials.
Photo from Lionel Delevingne Collection. The Libraries steward dozens of collections that preserve and tell the history of social change.
W.E.B. Du Bois: Part of Who We Are. Scholar; writer; editor of The Crisis and other journals, cofounder of the Niagara Movement, the NAACP, and the Pan African Congresses, and international spokesperson for peace and for the rights of oppressed minorities, W.E.B. Du Bois was a son of Massachusetts who articulated the strivings of African Americans and developed a trenchant analysis of the problem of the color line in the twentieth century. In the early 1970s, UMass Amherst Libraries became home to the papers of W.E.B. Du Bois, thanks in large part to the efforts of Chancellor Randolph Bromery, the campus’s first black chancellor. The collection includes over 100,000 items of correspondence (more than three-quarters of the papers) with noteworthy figures in American and global reform, such as Booker T. Washington, Mohandas Gandhi, Harlem Renaissance writers and poets, and a young Martin Luther
King, Jr.. The archive, still the most frequently used special collection in our care, also includes speeches, articles, newspaper columns, nonfiction books, research materials, book reviews, pamphlets and leaflets, petitions, novels, essays, forewords, student papers, manuscripts of pageants, plays, short stories and fables, poetry, photographs, newspaper clippings, memorabilia, videotapes, audiotapes, and miscellaneous materials. The papers document Du Bois’ involvement in a wide range of causes from racial and economic justice to women’s rights, peace, labor activism, and cultural pride. Named for the famous manifesto by Du Bois, the online repository, CREDO, provides free access to the entire archive. Thanks to grants from the Verizon Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities, the collection is fully digitized and available at: credo.library.umass.edu.
Du Bois Center
The Du Bois Center is a source of academic scholarship and intellectual pursuit at UMass Amherst. The Center affects positive change and explores issues of justice by providing access to unparalleled archival resources and supporting scholars from all over campus, across disciplines, and from around the world as they interact with the teachings of W.E.B. Du Bois.
The Homesite
UMass Amherst owns the boyhood homesite of Du Bois in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. Archaeological field schools have been conducted there, and faculty and community members have been active in making it a memorial park and interpretive site.
To educate students about Du Bois and his connection with the Library, 500 free copies of The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois were handed out in less than two hours in October.
thewebduboiscenter.com
1994: As we march into the Twenty First Century, wrote UMass trustees, “We feel that it is time to go beyond the color line and name the tower library in honor of one of the finest heroes... of the world.”
The W.E.B. Du Bois Center and St. John’s Congregational Church, in Springfield, Massachusetts, home to John Brown’s bible, have collaborated on an annual Du Bois Birthday event for the past five years.
Investment Discovery of Choice: The Libraries serve as a catalyst for the creation of knowledge by providing tools that support research within the expanding universe of digital scholarship. The Libraries lead efforts to manage, disseminate, and preserve the campus’s scholarly record. The development of new technologies and their
integration into the academic enterprise is rapidly transforming the means by which faculty and students achieve their research goals. The Libraries are responding to this changing scholarly environment by strengthening our digital infrastructure and transforming the services and tools we offer.
UMASS AMHERST LIBRARIANS
Librarians at UMass Amherst work with instructors to identify where information literacy skills are needed and integrate those skills into course content and assignments. They support faculty with their own research needs and play a leading role in the education of undergraduate and graduate students. The transformation taking place in the teaching function of the Libraries is as crucial as the transformation in our facilities, and as enduring and dramatic. UMass Amherst librarians teach students in nearly every department and discipline in the university. Our teaching is on a par with the best at UMass; instructors receive rave reviews and, sometimes, standing ovations.
Investing in
info literacy
• Support Faculty • Teach Students • Develop Instruction and Learning Tools • Prepare Students for Lifelong Learning and Future Employment • Work with Campus Partners
“I will use ALL of what I learned in this session in my future research.”
In the past two years, our librarians led 641 library instruction sessions.
Investing in the undergraduate experience The Libraries support undergraduate research by supplying relevant and accessible materials at the times and places they are needed. As Undergraduate Education Librarian, Kate Freedman is the liaison to the University Writing Program and works with faculty, librarians and students on integrating information and digitial fluencies into research and learning practice. Her pedagogical focus is on active learning to instill social responsibility and encourage civic engagement, and to promote a lifelong love of learning. Undergraduate Education Librarian Katherine Freedman
As Undergraduate Outreach Librarian, Annette Vadnais works with Admissions for Fall and Spring Open Houses, and New Students Program for Resource Fairs at New Student Orientations and UFest, and helps facilitate events such as “Get Your Game On.” She coordinates a Welcome Desk at the beginning of each semester for new and returning students. Working with other librarians she creates stress relief programs during finals. Undergraduate Outreach Librarian Annette Vadnais
“… this session may have been the best, most academically helpful lecture I have ever attended at UMass.”
Investing in STUDENTS We recognize excellence in undergraduate research through financial awards, public recognition, and showcasing student work. We provide employment and fellowships that provide curatorial experiences and archival practice.
Undergraduate Research Award Although scholarship in the humanities and social sciences is grounded in the skillful use of primary sources, few undergraduates ever have the opportunity to engage with original historical materials. To encourage scholarly and creative research and promote the use of our collections, the Friends of the Library and Department of Special Collections and University Archives (SCUA) established Friends of the Library Undergraduate Research Award recognizing excellence in the use of primary sources. Students are invited to submit papers or projects they have completed during the previous three semesters. Winners are chosen by committee and announced in the spring. The first-place award ($1,000 scholarship) is presented to the student recipient at the Library’s annual fundraiser, Dinner with Friends. All winning papers/projects are then published on the SCUA website and become part of the University Archives.
Special Collections Archival Training Fund The Special Collections Archival Training Fund provides an opportunity for students to explore a career in history and allied fields and to contribute to the production of new historical knowledge. Students gain hands-on experience with original historical materials and are introduced to professional work in archives and digital library technologies. They have an opportunity to prepare archival collections for use by scholars, requiring them to acquire a range of skills in historical research, archival arrangement and description, preservation, digitization and metadata production, and preparation of
virtual and physical exhibits. Students gain exposure to work in an institution devoted to the preservation of historical memory,
and gain experience in historical research and the professional care of archival and rare book collections.
Investing in
Open Access
The UMass Amherst Libraries have two major goals in promoting Open Access on campus. The first is cost containment—both for students through less expensive textbooks and for libraries through reduced pricing for scholarly journals. The second is public access to scholarly research—encouraging faculty to publish in high-quality, peer-reviewed journals and providing open access to their scholarship. OPEN ACCESS WEEK The Libraries hosted Open Access Week for the ninth year in 2015 with lectures, info fairs, and workshops. David Ernst and Sarah Faye Cohen of the University of Minnesota’s Open Textbook Network were the keynote speakers. RETHINKING TEXTBOOKS The high cost of commercial textbooks (both print and electronic) continues to be a major concern for both students and their parents. The Open Education Initiative (OEI) is an incentive program that supports faculty interested in providing their students with a less expensive yet educationally rewarding alternative to commercial textbooks. Through the Libraries’ investment of $69,000 in the first four years of the Initiative, 50 faculty members have created alternatives to commercial textbooks that have resulted in an estimated savings for our students of more than $1.3 million to date.
Open Access cupcakes
SOAR FUND The Libraries support open access publication of UMass Amherst peer reviewed scholarship. The Supporting Open Access Research (SOAR) Fund underwrites reasonable publication charges for articles published in peer-reviewed journals that are openly accessible. The program provides $25,000 to UMass Amherst authors of articles and books. OPEN STAX The Libraries are one of only five sites in the country chosen by OpenStax College, supported by Rice University, to engage in a pilot program to showcase their open textbook materials. These are peer-reviewed texts written by professional content developers. Free online and low-cost in print, the OpenStax College books are built for today’s student budgets.
Jay Schafer, Director of Libraries, with OpenStax textbooks.
Previous Open Access Week Speakers: 2010: Stephen Carson, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Eric Frank ’92 and Michael Boezi, Flat World Knowledge; 2011: Patricia Aufderheide University Professor of Communication Studies in the School of Communication at American University in Washington, D.C., and director of the Center for Media and Social Impact; 2013: Dr. Stefano Bertuzzi, Executive Director of the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB); Brett Bobley, Chief Information Officer for the National Endowment for the Humanities; Dr. Kathleen Fitzpatrick, Director of Scholarly Communication of the Modern Language Association; Dr. Michael Stebbins, Assistant Director for Biotechnology in the Science Division of the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy; and Dr. Cameron Neylon, Advocacy Director for Public Library of Science; 2014: Peter Suber, author of Open Access, director of the Office for Scholarly Communication at Harvard, director of the Harvard Open Access Project; 2015: David Ernst and Sarah Faye Cohen of the University of Minnesota’s Open Textbook Network.
Investing in STAFF
Staff Council Facilitates communication and provides a creative arena for identifying and discussing issues relative to the Libraries’ organizational culture Encourages staff to use Staff Council as a forum for staff concerns Advises and assists Staff Council committees in doing their work by reviewing work plans, timelines and budget proposals Reviews committee budget proposals before sending them to the Director of Libraries for final approval Provides a clearinghouse for projects and proposals outside of departments
Caring @ Organizational Climate
Synthesizes and shares ideas throughout the organization
The Libraries value a healthy and inclusive organizational climate. In response to feedback received from users through various means (LibQual, focus groups, faculty study), the Libraries organized training opportunities to foster inclusiveness. In 2014, a DramaWorks Diversity & Difference Workshop used a variety of theatre techniques, including improvisation and interactive role-playing, to catalyze people to explore and visualize more optimal behaviors in the workplace, particularly in how library staff interact with the public. In 2015, staff training centered on Microaggressions. The term microaggression has become common in current discourse: these are acts or words that, however well intended, reinforce oppressive stereotypes. Staff learned about microaggression and how they could improve our quality of service as it relates to library patrons and our community.
Student Employee Training & Support Committee
In the last two years, the onboarding process for new employees has been expanded to orient and support staff integration into the organizational culture. Onboarding includes one-on-one meetings with representatives from library departments, attending library committee meetings, and consultations with organizations and representatives outside of the libraries—as many as will prove useful to the new employee—within the first 90 days of employment. Each new staff member is assigned a “buddy” or a mentor and welcomed at an annual reception. In summation, we embrace the following motto: “Staff—Our Greatest Resource.” The Director of Libraries holds monthly All Staff meetings for all library personnel and library student workers. This provides an opportunity for staff to hear from the Director about library-wide issues, personnel updates, facilities updates, collections and
Advises the Head of Library Human Resources and Organizational Development on subjects pertaining to communication, training, and support of student employees Makes policy recommendations and creates and implements programs for student employees related to training, recognition and development opportunities Actively solicits input from other student supervisors Conducts an annual review of documentation used for student training and communication Plans and conducts a Library orientation for new student employees on an annual basis
services; and ask questions; engage in discussions; and provide feedback. All Staff meetings frequently include presentations from various departments within the library and guests from other areas of the university.
Staff Social Committee Develops, schedules, promotes and implements Library social events and programming, including staff holiday parties, brown bags, departmental open houses, and more Establishes a calendar of regular and special staff events and shares information through the Libraries’ intranet Works with library administration to ensure compliance with established event guidelines Prepares an annual budget to be presented to the Staff Council each spring for the next fiscal year Above: Students enjoying ice cream at the Great Chill Out. Right: Winner of the staff Halloween costume contest, Librarian Annette Vadnais wearing the Du Bois Library with falcons on top.
Happiness is ... a Job in the Stacks
“
I began working at the W.E.B. Du Bois Library in the Information Resources Management Department (IRM) as a shy freshman, still adjusting to the pace and size of UMass. Before then, my only experience was working in a small local library in my town, and the 26 stories of information in the Du Bois Library were intimidating. However, that quickly changed as I met the people working in my department, learned my way around the various floors and sections, and became familiar with the intricate process of organizing a library. Over time, the Library has become one of my favorite places to pass time on campus, whether working in IRM or if I simply need a quiet place to read.
There is something comforting about having a place to work and spend time on campus where everyone is friendly, easygoing, and helpful—especially in a school as large and spread out as UMass. For me, the Library is a place where I can relax and escape from the bustle of the campus, if only for a little while. From those first few weeks of getting lost in the stacks desperately trying to find a book, to now, when I go into work and catch up with friends and organize books, working at the W.E.B. Du Bois Library has been one of the best experiences I have had at UMass.
”
-Katheryn (Kashe) Wansor ’15 The UMass Amherst Libraries employ 210 students on average throughout the school year. They are an integral part of the Libraries and we could not provide our services without them.
Mobilizing for Success:Innovate Libraries’ goal: As a unit that serves every department on campus, the Libraries are keenly aware that we need to be effective stewards of the resources entrusted to us. The Libraries continually examine services, resources, spaces, and staffing models to ensure that they support the UMass Amherst community and citizens of the Commonwealth.
Library objectives: 1. Cultivate community relationships 2. Energize strategic relationships 3. Stimulate innovation 4. Broaden philanthropic relationships 5. Encourage efficiency and effectiveness 6. Invest in and take full advantage of the knowledge, insights, and efforts of staff 7. Encourage innovation and reward excellence 8. Share workplace and organizational knowledge
9. Promote diversity as a strategic necessity in staffing, service provision, and collections
The Libraries have held the philosophy of “access versus ownership” as a best practice for well over a decade. Assessing the use of subscribed journals along with interlibrary loan (ILL) article requests allowed the Library to cancel expensive and little-used titles and add subscriptions for titles in demand by users. Membership in the Northeast Research Libraries (NERL) consortia is a key element in our collection management strategy because of the resources they broker on behalf of members. This includes reviewing the value of packages and resources NERL offers. ILL and Acquisitions partner on the “Books on Demand”
program where requested books that meet certain criteria are purchased automatically. The Libraries also partner with various Five College collections initiatives to avoid unintentional duplication of print monographs, which allows the Libraries to expand the breadth and depth of the resources we offer. The Five Colleges have partnered in a shared print repository since 2002 and plans for a new book annex are in the works. The Five Colleges are currently piloting an ebook demand-driven acquisitions program. This venture lets us offer the same materials across the consortium, providing our users greater access to expanded content.
Innovate: New Ways of Managing Collections Books on Demand A service available to all UMass Amherst faculty, students and staff, Books on Demand seeks to provide seamless access to recently published materials by purchasing rather than borrowing. Items purchased via Books on Demand begin as any other interlibrary loan request. Interlibrary loan requests are reviewed by Acquisitions staff and purchased for the collection if they meet the program criteria (i.e. academic books, maximum price $175). Books on Demand makes these otherwise
difficult-to-borrow materials available quickly, and it also supplements the Libraries’ collections with materials that are in demand by our community. An off-shoot of the program, Books in High Demand, seeks to replace or add additional copies of materials that are in demand but are missing or in use within the Five Colleges. The Libraries have continued to grow and enhance the Books on Demand program, which began in 2005, over the past 10 years.
Book Duplication
The Five College Libraries are reducing unnecessary book duplication. This cooperative collection effort provides access to more unique items across our combined collections and is a fiscally responsible use of resources.
Collections
Books on Demand
The Books on Demand (BODEM) program at UMass Amherst Libraries supports the purchase of books in lieu of borrowing the item through Interlibrary Loan. Purchasing books is often a more efficient and costeffective method to procure resources for our users. Items purchased through Books on Demand have a 96% circulation rate.
Collections spending and use is monitored closely with data visualization tools. Individual librarians have easy and up-to-date access to the ongoing use of materials purchased each year. Data is analyzed by school and college, LC classification, and purchasing program, which shapes allocations, spending and policy.
& University Archives Special Collections
To spark researchers’ imaginations and to celebrate the legacy of innovation and the activist spirit, Special Collections & University Archives (SCUA, pronounced SKOO-AH) pursues an ambitious program of collecting materials of enduring historical value and offers strong support for research and learning. Through its collections, programs, fellowships, public events, and exhibitions, SCUA promotes meaningful engagement with the broad record of social change in America, innovation and entrepreneurship, and the varied histories of the people of New England and the UMass Amherst community. We embrace the university’s historic role as a center of knowledge for the people of the Commonwealth and are committed to providing free and unfettered access to our holdings for all who wish to use them, using the highest professional standards and practices and the best technologies available. In keeping with our mission, SCUA collects materials of enduring historical and cultural value relating to four major thematic areas:
Campus & Community Innovation and Entrepreneurship New England History and Culture Social Change in America Spotlight: The Archive of Social Change emphasizes the crossfertilization between social movements and centers of activist energy, including peace, social and racial justice, agricultural reform, environmentalism, sustainability, labor activism, gay activism, anti-nuclear activism, and intentional communities, branching out to include anti-fluoridation activism, campaigns for voting rights, drug policy reform, clean elections, community and charitable organizations, and the history of revolutionary-era Europe. The collections tightly integrate and span all formats including over 35,000 printed items, approximately 30,000 linear feet of manuscript and archival materials, tens of thousands of photographs, and a burgeoning array of digital assets.
Items from the collections (from top, clockwise): Horace Mann Bond—all items in the Horace Mann Bond Collection are digitized; Chocolate Cookery from the 8,000 volume Beatrice A. McIntosh Cookbook Collection; Mark McCormack papers, a vast collection from the founder of IMG corporation, constituting the most valuable gift in kind to the university system, ever; McCormack with soccer phenom, Pele; Ted Kennedy with Ken Feinberg from the Kenneth R. Feinberg Collection; Frank A. Waugh Collection; Lionel Delevingne Collection.
University Photos Project
The Libraries’ Digital Strategies Group grappled with the challenges of charting a path through the analog world of the recent past into the digital future. Like many libraries, staff lacked a detailed understanding of digital standards and practical, hands-on experience. The task set by the Digital Strategies group, comprised of seniorlevel managers with investments in digital technologies, was to bridge the gap between analog skills and high-tech demands and to develop comfort with digital technologies throughout the organization, top to bottom. Such staff development would allow the libraries to build competencies across the organization and to create opportunities for creative collaboration among units. The Digital Strategies Group theorized that lasting organizational change would require staff to take part in concrete digital projects in a real-world setting. While the Digital Strategies group “strategized,” the Department of Special Collections The Sesquicentennial Celebration of the founding of UMass Amherst as a land-grant institution was in 2013. The Libraries take the landgrant mission seriously as we preserve and present the history of the Commonwealth through digitization projects and as we offer access to print collections of the Commonwealth’s largest public academic research library to all residents.
and University Archives faced its own digital dilemma. One of the collections under its purview had become something of a thorn in its side. A decade previously, SCUA had digitized over 13,000 photographs, making the results available through a
they consistently applied, and the technology powering the database had been superseded by a new, more robust digital repository. Furthermore, the descriptions themselves were often inadequate, incomplete, or inaccurate, posing a challenge for discovery. In exchange for help from other library departments, SCUA helped demystify digital technologies for its peers and assisted them in acquiring skills in three distinct areas: creating and interpreting digital content, working with the Metadata Object Description Schema (MODS), and gaining comfort in using XML-authoring software.
web-accessible database. Documenting the visual history of UMass from its founding in 1863, these photographs were heavily used, and with the university’s sesquicentennial looming in 2013, it appeared that use would increase significantly. While the scans were of high quality, the metadata were not compliant with current standards nor were
Top left: An early football team, season of 1886, wearing Massachusetts Agriculture College’s first formal uniform. Top right: Aggie Life, a student run newspaper was founded in 1890. Center: The Romanesque Revival stone chapel is built in 1884 and dedicated in 1886. It is currently being renovated. Bottom right: The first crew, 1870. In 1871, MAC defeats Brown and Harvard.
Dubbed the University Photos Project (UPP), SCUA trained 26 library volunteers, nearly 20 percent of the staff. In total, UPP participants corrected and encoded approximately 3,100 images during the project duration, an average of more than 180 images per person, and the project was completed in time for the Sesquicentennial Celebrations.
Reimagining Facilities Science & Engineering Library The renovation of the Science and Engineering Library (SEL) added group study rooms with computers, individual computer stations, wireless access, quiet study space, and exhibit space.
“A complete reorganization of the library introduced a whole new fleet of computers and group work spaces ... the Library saw a need amongst the student body and set out to find a way to fulfill it,” said Civil Engineering senior Zach Bemis at the ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the renovations at the Science and Engineering Library.
Music and Media Collection Before the renovation, the media viewing area was an unpleasant space behind a fenced-in area. The new space includes browsable CDs and DVDs, comfortable seating, state-of-the-art viewing and listening equipment, with new carpet, paint and shelving. The transformation involved moving over 10,000 CDs, 6,000 DVDs, and tens of thousands of books, journals, scores, and music monuments. The Libraries’ Music and Media Collection contains titles in a variety of formats, including videos, DVDs, CDs, audiocassettes, LPs, and CD-ROMs.
Before
After
Taking a bite out of textbook costs...
A Million-Dollar Idea
A
ny student can tell you about the skyrocketing cost of textbooks— prices have risen 300 percent since 2005. “I’m forced to pay hundreds of dollars for books I will use for only a few months,” says Katie CumnockFrancois ’15 (pictured left).
Textbooks are a necessary burden … or are they? The UMass Amherst Libraries pioneered the idea of awarding faculty grants to entice them to change over course materials from expensive textbooks to content in library databases, open educational materials, and even materials they create themselves. “The modest grants offer incentive for the time it takes faculty to identify new resources, adjust syllabi, and modify assignments,” says Marilyn Billings (below), Scholarly Communications and Special Initiatives Librarian, who created and coordinates the program.
Now in its fourth year, the Open Education Initiative has saved students more than $1,300,000 in textbook fees from an investment of $69,000 in grants.
“Results show that this program can be applied across a broad range of levels, subject areas and formats,” says Jay Schafer, Director of Libraries. “The materials produced have included, for example, videos of horse inoculations, a faculty-authored textbook on gender and sexuality, a chemistry lab notebook, and an interactive eBook on probability and statistics.” The Initiative is doing more than saving students money, says Stockbridge School of Agriculture professor Allen V. Barker. He developed a textbook that costs $10 to print and is free digitally, in place of the course’s previous $100 textbook. “The new textbook, based on lecture notes, not only saves students money, it allows them to concentrate better during lectures and take supplementary notes. The grades even went up,” noted Barker. The program, which awards grants of $1,000 and $2,500 depending on course size, has been co-sponsored by the Provost’s Office, Institute for Teaching Excellence and Faculty Development (TEFD) and by the Friends of the Libraries. In August 2015, UMass Amherst was represented at the first meeting of the Open Textbook Network, hosted by the University of Minnesota. “UMass Amherst is a leader nationally in the open education movement, and we are proud to continue our pioneering efforts through the Open Textbook Network,” said Jay Schafer.
“Love it! It makes me better at examining the multitude of sources and opened my eyes to the many facets of the topic that couldn’t be accomplished by text alone.” “The open education approach is amazing! The resources are very interesting and easy to use ... the content is direct and more enjoyable!” Feedback from students in a nursing class using alternatives to textbooks.
Sustainability, Library-style Awarding Grants In partnership with the Institute for Teaching Excellence and Faculty Development, the Libraries have awarded three rounds of Sustainability Curriculum Initiative grants to support teaching faculty interested in revising existing courses to include or augment sustainability topics. Liaison librarians work with faculty to integrate library resources and information literacy into the student experience. The schools and colleges represented include the Isenberg School of Management, College of Humanities and Fine Arts, College of Natural Sciences, and College of Social and Behavioral Sciences. “I have never received such ebullient evaluations. Almost all students had perfect attendance and several noted that it was a pleasure to come to class. The energy of the class was sparkling. Several students volunteered to give in-class oral presentations on their sustainability-related activities outside of class.” -Aviva Ben-Ur, Judaic and Near Eastern Studies “The most positive effects [of the initiative] are that students learned about different sustainability-related topics from various angles through the guest speakers that I invited in the class. They had the opportunity to do hands-on design for the campus in their term project and connect what they learned in class with local problems and actual solutions.” -Eleni Christofa, Civil and Environmental Engineering
Screening Green Films
A packed room filled with students and community members were treated to a screening of the newly released film, INHABIT: A Permaculture Perspective. The DVD was acquired with funds from the Library Sustainability Fund. An audience of over 150 attended a screening of the film This Changes Everything, funded by the Sustainability Fund. The film asks the question: What if confronting the climate crisis is the best chance we’ll ever get to build a better world? The event was co-sponsored by the UMass Geosciences Department.
Awarding Scholarships Thanks to generous donations to the Sustainability Fund, we were able to create the first-ever Undergraduate Research in Sustainability Award. The award promotes the learning of sustainability, research strategies, and the use of library resources, providing students with vital skills. “We are excited to continue the momentum of sustainability on campus with the new award,” says Jay Schafer, Director of Libraries. “The winning projects demonstrate robust research and the use of a variety of sources that include multiple perspectives.” The scholarships were presented to student recipients at the Libraries’ annual fundraiser.
Winners of the Undergraduate Research in Sustainability Award, Kathryn Cooney ’16 and Mitch Negus ’16.
Cultivating Conversations
Growing a Fund
Talking Truth: Finding Your Voice Around the Climate Crisis, is a discussion series co-sponsored by the UMass Amherst Libraries, the Office of Civic Engagement & Service Learning and the Department of Environmental Conservation. A well-balanced mix of nearly 100 faculty, librarians, staff and students gathered in the fall of 2015 to discuss emotions underlying the reality of climate disruption. The format includes break out groups, storytelling, free writing, art making, and mindfulness practices. Due to the tremendous response there are plans to continue into the spring of 2016.
Kayleigh Boucher, Class of 2019, Public Health and Health Sciences, makes a list of what she wants UMass Amherst to do about climate change at the Talking Truth seminar.
In partnership with the Sustainability UMass office, the Library helps recycle electronic waste items, including ink cartridges, cell phones, and phone batteries with a receptacle called the “Green Monstah.”
The national award-winning Sustainability Fund continues to resonate with alumni and friends, many of whom are making this their annual gift. To date, more than $224,000 from 8,400 gifts has been raised to purchase resources, fund speakers, provide faculty grants to build sustainability curriculum, and create student awards.
In the fall of 2014, faculty test-drove “JSTOR Sustainability” with students in their sustainability courses. This trial emerged through feedback offered during a unique collaboration between librarians, faculty, and academic publishers to fill the need of sustainability content/ access. The trial has now been extended.
“I have never seen a school with so many and such high-caliber people working towards sustainability. Everywhere I look here I see signs of hope and inspiration convincing me that change is possible.”
Guided by the Chancellor’s Sustainability Committee, the university has demonstrated a level of leadership in sustainability that few peer institutions can claim. The University of Massachusetts Amherst was awarded a STARS Gold rating from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education in recognition of its campus sustainability accomplishments in areas such as energy and water conservation, transportation, creating a sustainable permaculture garden and composting dining hall food waste. The campus earned four of a possible four “innovation points” for special projects. The Libraries’ Sustainability Curriculum Initiative helped earn one of the points.
Annie Leonard
—Annie Leonard, Director of Greenpeace USA, Founder of the Story of Stuff Project & UMASS Amherst Earth Day Keynote Speaker
THE GOLD STAR HANGS PROUDLY IN THE DU BOIS LIBRARY LOBBY
Leading Data Management Practices Digital Scholarship & Consultation Services (DSCS) The Libraries support members of the UMass Amherst community in planning, creating, organizing, and preserving digital information. From a single class to global sharing, from workshops to one-on-one consultations, DSCS consults on digital collections in support of instructional and research activities. The Libraries are available to answer questions, help strategize on projects, and outline options to meet goals.
Services: • Digitizing instructional and research materials • Capturing and processing images and learning objects to support classroom and research needs • Assessing copyright concerns and obtaining clearances as appropriate, and helping to protect authors’ rights • Developing digital publications, including conference proceedings and journals • Providing access to electronic theses and dissertations and select graduate student works
Advice and Instruction on: • Research data management & data management plan prep • Metadata solutions that fit purpose and project • Copyright and intellectual property concerns • Long-term preservation & access • Digitization best practices • Digital projects
ScholarWorks: ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst is a digital showcase of the research and scholarly output of members of the University of Massachusetts Amherst community. The ScholarWorks repository is administered by the UMass Amherst Libraries and serves as a permanent digital archive for these scholarly materials.
32,580 Total Papers 6,188,480 Total Downloads 1,510,205 Downloads in the Past Year “ScholarWorks is an excellent tool for highlighting not only my scholarship, but also the community-based research and public materials that my students have produced collectively through my courses.” Mari Castañeda
—Mari Castañeda, Professor Director of Diversity for College of Social and Behavioral Sciences
Retrospective Digitization Project Book Repair Coordinator Lorraine James excitedly shared what she had found: tucked inside a bound psychology thesis from the 1970s were several handwritten notes and seven one-dollar bills, placed there over time by the work’s author, Rod Kessler G’78. Kessler explained that when he returned to campus with his sports-reporter son, for athletic events and for Undergraduate Research conferences, he would leave a note and another dollar in the pages of his thesis, each time upping the ante for a potential finder and reader. “I hoped a student would find it. My thesis was a statement against psychology, a farewell letter,” says Kessler. “For me this was the expression of an existential crisis, good psychology versus personality psychology. I was saying that if psychologists were going to limit themselves to only looking at the numbers they would not be studying relevant things.” Kessler hoped that a future student might find his thesis and reach a similar career changing epiphany. Kessler turned his back on psychology and became a teaching assistant in Rhetoric even though it was a drop in pay. He eventually joined the English faculty at Salem State, teaching writing, serving as
coordinator of the Creating Writing program, managing the campus literary magazine, and serving as head of the magazine before retiring last year. Rod Kessler’s messages were discovered when the Libraries
available only in print. Beginning with the oldest dissertations and theses, which are rarest and most at risk for physical damage, the University Libraries began digitizing the works and making them available in ScholarWorks, which provides high visibility and makes the works easily searchable via Google and the National Networked Library of Theses and Dissertations. The digitized dissertations are also fully accessible to persons with disabilities, which was not the case in their print form. The university is contacting alumni to let them know about the process and give them a chance to weigh in on the digitization of their works.
embarked on an ambitious program to digitize all theses and dissertations of the university. While some research works have been available in electronic form since the 1990s, other dissertations and theses spanning more than a hundred years have long been
When they met, Lorraine James told Kessler that she is inspired by the numerous heartfelt dedication statements reminding her each document is connected to someone who made personal sacrifices to complete their degree. “People spend a lot of time and energy to write these things, and then many of them are never read,” said Kessler. “I’m glad to have the work out there.”
“I wrote my dissertation in 1980. I bought one of those IBM typing balls to give to various typists who typed my dissertation. I wanted to be sure that every page looked like it was typed on the same typewriter. I had a few graphs to describe my data. I went to the art supply store and bought some press-on letters and some very thin black tape for the axes and data line. I was very proud of the finished result. Little did I know that one day I would be writing via email to UMass about something called ‘digitizing’ and that I would get a link to my dissertation. Things have changed a lot in 35 years. Thank you.” Mike Glish G’80 Belmont, California
Supporting the Libraries Goal: Broaden philanthropic relationships. Fundraising is essential to the Libraries. It provides opportunities to engage donors and encourage investment through the cultivation of leadership gifts, planned gifts, and giftsin-kind. The Libraries will continue to identify sources of funding from corporations, foundations, grants, and individual donors.
The Libraries’ annual Dinner with Friends is in its 14th season. Each year, we close the library on the least busy Saturday night of spring semester and invite our most loyal donors to join us for a gourmet dinner and gala program including music, keynote speakers, and a silent auction. Proceeds benefit a current initiative. Recent speakers have included Roy Blount, Jr. and Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina; Jud Hale, of Yankee Magazine, and New York Times best-selling authors mystery writer Archer Mayor and Jodi Picoult, the latter of whom donated her archives to the Libraries. The speaker for 2016 is international best-selling author Donna Leon.
T
hrough the generosity of library donors the following projects have been made possible in the past six years during the $45M UMass Rising Campaign, which closes June 2016.
W.E.B. Du Bois Library Falcons of the Du Bois Library for web streaming and to maintain camera, on Roof Sustainability Fund for resources, speakers, grants, scholarships Teaching Commons, for faculty to retreat, write, create, and learn, Floor 26 Special Collections & University Archives offices, Floor 25 Mark H. McCormack Collection in Sport Management, Floor 25 W.E.B. Du Bois Center programming, Floor 22 Window Study Carrels, Floors 18-23 Music and Media Collection, renovated to create a media center, Floor 6 Digital Media Lab – sound booths, green screen room, Mac computers for video editing, presentation space, Floor 3 3D Printing Innovation Center – 50 3D printers & scanners, Floor 3 Benches for the Courtyard and Promenade Learning Commons Microclimates where students study on new modular furniture, Lower Level Calipari Room Renovation, where librarians teach 300+ classes a year, Lower Level
Science and Engineering Library (SEL) The SEL Renovation added group study rooms, computer carrels, comfortable seating and power tables.
Each one of these projects impacts students in a positive way, every day.
This Library is for the Birds The Falcons of Du Bois Library
A
new pair of peregrine falcons nested on the Du Bois Library roof in the spring of 2015. The pair included a two-year-old female and a male estimated to be around the same age. Falcon fans watched nervously as the new parents learn to raise their young.
proved popular; the Falcons have 1,255 Twitter followers. The video of the banding was viewed 1,900 times. The Falcon Cam had more than 288,000 views, an increase of 27 percent since 2014. Over $1,700 was raised this nesting season to offset the cost of the live broadcast, camera repairs, and maintenance.
The previous pair, which nested on the Library roof from 20032014, hatched 37 chicks, most of which survived to adulthood. Three eggs were laid, with two chicks, a female and a male, hatching in early June, the 13th generation of peregrine falcon eggs.
A Falcon Fan: The chicks
were banded in late June, providing important information on the birds’ movements and diet, and helping officials understand their habitat needs year-round. UMass Amherst Chancellor Kumble R. Subbaswamy’s wife Mala (pictured) attended the banding of the falcon chicks.
Siblings Fledge: The two
chicks have since thrived, losing their baby feathers and fledging in early July. “It is not unusual for first year birds to be unsuccessful
at chick rearing. We are very lucky that our new adults have done so well raising two chicks,” says Richard Nathhorst, Facilities Planning, UMass Amherst. “The fledglings will make wider and wider excursions from campus. They’ll learn to navigate and will start their first migration as the weather gets colder and prey species prepare to fly south for the season.” The female and male were still spotted around the Libraries as late as October.
All A-Twitter:
The Falcons are social media stars. Their activities posted on Facebook reached almost 40,000 people, twice as many as last year. Tweets about the birds have also
Since installing the live web camera, 206 donors have made 329 gifts totaling more than $8,500 to offset the cost of the live broadcast, camera maintenance, and repairs. In 1998, a nest box was installed on top of the W.E.B. Du Bois Library. In 2012, the live webcam was made possible by the UMass Amherst Facilities Planning Division, UMass Amherst Information Technology (IT), the Libraries’ Systems and Web Management Department, the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife (MassWildlife), and the Friends of the Libraries.
www.library.umass.edu/falcons
FISCAL YEAR 2015
BY THE NUMBERS
Visitors 1,257,598 W.E.B. Du Bois Library 263,339 Science and Engineering Library Collections 2,824,860 Bound Volumes 124,761 Print Serials and Periodicals 1,732,063 Electronic Books 404,969 Electronic Serials 47,851 Media 7,880,095 Total
Library Expenditures Collections Staff Operating Total
$7,981,613 $8,966,602 $2,640,171 $19,588,386
Circulation 102,672 Items checked out in Du Bois Library 9,942 Items checked out in Science Library 1,542 Multimedia equipment loaned Interlibrary Loan 41,945 Requests submitted 45,931 Requests received 15,678 RapidILL article requests sent (94% filled in 14 hours on average) 9,684
Students given information literacy instruction
849,144 WorldCat searches 923
Posters printed
Procrastination Station CafĂŠ 258,359 Customers 572,978 Items sold 55,955 Cups of coffee sold
Collection Expenditures Monographs $541,932 Subscriptions $6,966,265 Support $473,415 Total $ 7,981,613
2015 CALENDAR YEAR TO DATE Credo Online Repository
Falcons of Du Bois Library
2,451 1,253
Digital Media Lab 12,147 Items loaned 7,596 People served
142,189 Total items 506,036 Image files 1,090 Audio files
Facebook fans Twitter followers
288,114 FalconCam views 1,255 Falcon Twitter fans
Staff FTE 50 Librarians 12 Professionals 63 Support Staff 57 Student Assistants