RIT Libraries  ·   ANNUAL REPORT   ·   2005 - 2006

Curriculum Support

Strategic Plan 2005-2010

As a new strategic direction for RIT emerged, the RIT Libraries enthusiastically embraced the goal of becoming a "Category of One" university with the belief that RIT's libraries will be an important campus partner.

Our vision is to improve Library services, enhance information access and allow transformation of the Library as a resource that will meet the future academic needs of RIT. The driving concept behind the strategic plan: transform what has been a primarily undergraduate library into a new Center for RIT Culture and Information Services. To achieve this, additional energy, resources and proficiencies must be focused in providing exceptional library support for undergraduate education, graduate research and faculty scholarship. Click here to view our Strategic Plan in full.

In May of 2006, the RIT Libraries were honored to receive the 2006 ACRL Excellence in Academic Libraries Award. This national award, sponsored by Blackwell’s Book Services and The Association of College and Research Libraries, recognizes the staff of a university, college or community college library for programs delivering exemplary services to further the educational mission of an institution, and acknowledges staff collaboration and innovation in particular.

ACRL-Award related teams:

• ACRL Award Writing team: Chris Lerch, Linda Coppola, Gina Bush
• ACRL Award Planning Committee: Laura DiPonzio-Heise, Bob Chandler, Sue Roethel, Linette Koren, Linda Groves

The accomplishments of 2005/2006 are summarized under the categories listed below, followed by reports from the RIT Archive and the Melbert B. Cary, Jr. Graphic Arts Collection.

RIT Libraries Goal

Enhance information access.

Continually enhance access to an extensive variety of information services which support undergraduate and graduate student success as well as faculty engaged in various forms of scholarship and research.

• [Strategic Plan Initiative] The Gravure Research Library, the first satellite library at RIT, was established fall quarter 2006 in collaboration with Professor Robert Chung, School of Print Media. Over 800 volumes currently make up the room use-only collection, donated to RIT by the Gravure Research Association. This library is located in the Gannett Building.

• [Strategic Plan Initiative] Database contracts for the following graduate resources Current Contents, Social Science Citation Index, ISI Proceedings and ProQuest Digital Dissertations and Theses were negotiated and access to databases was implemented for July 1, 2006.

• [Strategic Plan Initiative] Information was compiled and a webpage created for Database Alert Services, outlining resources available for retrieving current contents from journals, email alerts and RSS news feeds from databases.

• Electronic Resource Management system (ERM) The final phase of the implementation of Innovative’s ERM module was completed. As part of this implementation, responsibility for all electronic databases was completely transitioned to the Digital Assets team. In conjunction with the activation of the ERM system, a review of individual electronic journal subscriptions and implementation of the EBSCO Electronic Journals Services occurred. The result is improved access for patrons, the ability to generated statistical data on the individual title level and future gains in the management of valuable e-resources.

• [Strategic Plan Initiative] Borrowing privileges for graduate students have been extended by offering ten-week revolving loan periods (instead of three) and allowing up to 50 items to be borrowed. 

• [Strategic Plan Initiative] The RIT Library continues to perform technical administration of and staff training for the Connect NY service. Three schools were added (Canisius College, Pace University and LeMoyne College) bringing the total number to 12. The Connect NY website was completely revamped, improving ease of use and adding additional functionality. RIT's use of the service continues to grow.

• [Strategic Plan Initiative] - Requests for course reserves can now be accessed via an RIT account rather than a separate user id and password by the implementation of LDAP authentication. Accessing this material is now less confusing to the faculty and students.

• A LibX FireFox toolbar extension was implemented to integrate library resources into a browser and to integrate library resources into Google scholar.

• Work on the enhanced version of the RIT Faculty/Staff Database was completed, enabling faculty and staff to contribute and highlight their research and publishing accomplishments.

• [Strategic Plan Initiative] Three issues of the Scholarship@RIT newsletter were published during the Fall-Spring quarters as an excellent opportunity/venue for faculty and students to publish and make known their scholarly activities. It is also published in the RIT DML and is available on the PSSC website. Was assisted by Cary Collection with design and the final look.

• As a collaborative venture with CAST, the Journal of Applied Science and Engineering Technology (JASET) was initiated as an academic open access journal, using open journal software that has the potential to be another vehicle for showcasing RIT scholarship.

Team: Marianne Buehler, Chair; Chance Glenn (CAST), Damian Marinaccio, Chris Lerch, Amelia Hugill-Fontanel, Marnie Soom.

Improve library service.

Recognize the profound impact and value of the interpersonal service as key to success in satisfying our patrons. Strive to be the most reliable, centralized source of campus information by seeking out information gaps and filling them.

• The Millennium Acquisitions module was implemented, which enhanced the ability to order, receive and pay for materials quickly and make them available to our patrons in a timely fashion. The use of Payment Net and FedEx and UPS online forms has also increased the speed of internal processes in the Acquisitions department.

• In response to a need for preserving faculty course reserves records, IDS began saving course reserve items (PDF format) on CD-ROMS for professors upon request.

• [Strategic Plan Initiative] Research and investigation into the improvement of the Library's signage resulted in implementation plans for new signage in the upcoming year.

Team: Bob Chandler, Jennifer Roeszies, Jackie Ott.

• [Strategic Plan Initiative] In order to provide up-to-date information for RIT students, faculty and staff on copyright and plagiarism, a number of presentations on those topics were given throughout the year. A plagiarism exercise module was created for the FYE program, as were policies for using Turnitin and copyright guidelines for faculty, in addition to individual consultations.

• [Strategic Plan Initiative] Expand courseware integration with library resources. The Desire2Learn project that was introduced at the end of last year has proven to be very successful and has generated interest from libraries around the country, resulting in multiple conference presentations this year. A list of presentations can be found at http://library.rit.edu/desire2learn/.

Team: Jon Jiras, Sue Mee, Shirley Bower

• [Strategic Plan Initiative] RefWorks, a web-based bibliographic citation management tool, was implemented. As part of its set-up, a solution was developed to allow direct export of citations from the Library's online catalog into Refworks. An instructional guide on the exporting of citations from library databases was completed in addition.

• [Strategic Plan Initiative] To assist the RIT community in using OpenBook@RIT (Lulu), the self-publishing service, a Lulu author checklist was created to guide authors through the process, and a referral list for designers and editors was developed.

• A new service for RIT Alumni was introduced this year: access to a suite of Proquest databases. This service is offered in collaboration with the Alumni office via the Alumni portal and has received an enthusiastic response from Alumni.

• [Strategic Plan Initiative] The loan period for laptops was extended to 4 hours, allowing longer periods of uninterrupted use for students.

• [Strategic Plan Initiative] The policy and procedures for a mobile locking cart for graduate student use were created, and the prototype successfully implemented.

• [Strategic Plan Initiative] A fax service for students was established at the Circulation Desk.

• [Strategic Plan Initiative] An online study room reservation system was implemented.

• Automated placing of holds on items in the Library's catalog and the automated courtesy notices for faculty/staff year-end account updating was implemented.

• Library Technology Services staff worked closely with the campus-wide Student Identity Replacement Project (SIRP), the Library’s Circulation and Information Delivery Services Departments, and the Office of the Registrar to migrate all library systems (Elevator access system, Integrated Library System, and IDS Express) from Social Security Number to the new RIT ID number and to support the new RIT ID cards in all library systems.

• A public use videophone was added to the Re:search Zone.

• [Strategic Plan Initiative] Converted to using IM for our One2One virtual reference service.

• [Strategic Plan Initiative] An investigation concerning the provision of current textbooks by the Library culminated in the Reserve Textbook Collection Report. Based on its findings, the Library will investigate various options and partnerships in order to accommodate the demand for these materials.

• [Strategic Plan Initiative] In order to provide more interpreting services for the Deaf at the Library, research was conducted and survey data gathered into a Student Interpreter report. The results of this study are to be reviewed in the upcoming year.

• Various upgrades to equipment and systems occurred in order to provide faster and enhanced service to library users: server upgrades, virtual server upgrades and a new disk cluster installation.

• [Strategic Plan Initiative] The new editing assistance service provided by the PSSC received and completed 144 editing jobs consisting of 463.45 hours spent in reviewing 4,348 pages. Many of these jobs were completed electronically. Eight staff members from various departments and two temporary employees worked on these projects. Policies for faculty copyediting and grad student writing assistance were developed. All 2005-2006 editing/writing assistance recipients were contacted in spring quarter for feedback.

• [Strategic Plan Initiative] Beginning in fall 2005, ILL requests found in RIT databases were filled by instantly posting the material to the requestor's IDS Express account. This increased the number of filled requests as well as increasing positive response by the patrons. All articles, regardless of receipt by mail or Ariel, are now delivered electronically.
  

RIT Libraries Goal

Transform the library to become the Center for RIT Culture and Information Services.

Partner to consistently provide a common place where every RIT person can access the scholarly resources of the Institute, where every RIT person can gather or distribute information about or vital to the culture and life of the community, and where everyone on campus can receive practical information assistance in a variety of formats.

• [Strategic Plan Initiative] The establishment of the new Publishing and Scholarship Services Center (PSSC), the Business and Entrepreneurship Resource Area (BERA,) and the Global Resource Area (GRA) was concluded by the end of summer quarter 2006. In addition to creating the physical spaces by relocating the Leisure Collection and portions of the Reference Collection, current and new materials were combined to create corresponding collections for these new areas.

• [Strategic Plan Initiative] The RIT Digital Media Library continues to expand as library staff focus on creating a well-rounded scholarly environment that represents RIT scholarship in its many forms. There are over 1400 (406% increase) authored items and 2700 unique authors, including the addition of 164 student theses, dissertations, and capstone projects. Added this year were three communities (office of the president, academic affairs, and student affairs), many sub-communities and collections, such as Faculty Scholars, the Faculty Learning Community, Kearse Awards, CAST’s Scholarship Report, FITL, all Signatures from 1997, all ASC/LDC newsletters, University Magazine, Print Industry Center monographs, and News&Events.

• [Strategic Plan Initiative] The Lulu self-publishing service was introduced to the campus as OpenBook@RIT and 32 RIT books were cross-populated into this service. The PSSC edited two student books that were financially supported by the RIT administration, and worked with University News on the Coast to Coast project which culminated in the hosting with support from the Center for Intercollegiate Athletics & Recreation in a book signing (70+ attendees) for Coast to Coast: a Chronicle of the 175th RIT Anniversary Transcontinental Run.

Select Events [Strategic Plan Initiative]

Practical Information Session
September 2006: Henry Hutton, Lulu.com. This session covered the ins and outs of publishing through Lulu.com and introduced OpenBook@RIT.

If All of RIT Read the Same Book 
In December the RIT Library released 100 copies of Alison Smith’s Name All the Animals into the RIT community. Students, faculty, and staff were encouraged to read the book, write comments in the margins, sign and date the inside back cover, and pass the book along to another member of the RIT community. In addition, people were encouraged to visit the online discussion board to participate in the on-going campus discussions about this book or this project. This event culminated with a small reception and book discussion, moderated by Tim Madigan, St. John Fisher College, was held in the Idea Factory.

Team: Jody Sidlauskas, chair; Gina Bush, Chris Dunford

RIT Faculty Scholars Series 
This series spotlights the scholarship work of a different faculty member for each showcase.

• October 2005: Frank Cost , RIT College of Imaging Arts and Sciences: "Twilight of the Gatekeepers"
• February 2006: Amit Ray , RIT College of Liberal Arts: "WWW/ Wiki, Wacky Web?: Wikis, Authority and the Public Sphere"
• April 2006: Chance Glenn , RIT College of Applied Science and Technology: "When the Artistic Meets the Scientific: A New Method of Digital Processing for Audio, Video, and Images.

Meet the Authors Series 
This series features RIT authors, giving the community an opportunity to meet and discuss their works.

• October, 2005: Ron Hira, RIT College of Liberal Arts: Outsourcing America: What’s Behind Our National Crisis
• January, 2006: Willie Osterman, RIT College of Imaging Arts and Sciences: Deja View: Bologna, Italy.
• February, 2006: Mary Sullivan, RIT College of Liberal Arts: Editing and Publishing Archival Primary Resources.
• March, 2006: Ila Parasnis, National Technical Institute for the Deaf. Cultural and Language Diversity and the Deaf Experience.
• May, 2005: the editor and writers of Signature Magazine.

Team: Linda Coppola, Sarah Reynolds, Sue Roethel.

Margaret's House Storytime

Team: Tracey Melville and Diane Grabowski.

The Book Nook

Team: Diane Grabowski and Linda White through February 2006; Linda White and Kira Barnes, March 2006-

Miscellaneous

RIT Libraries

• RIT United Way Golf Hole Team: Chris Butler, chair; Jon Jiras, Joe Zoda.
• RIT Libraries Climate Survey Team: Laura DiPonzio-Heise, Lisa Bennett, Joe Zoda.

Institute

• Margaret Bartlett served on the Institute Effective Teaching Committee.
• Marianne Buehler served on the IP Policy Task Force.
• Linda Groves coordinated the Library's participation in the campus-wide Eat Well, Live Well initiative.
• Julia Lisuzzo was elected to Staff Council and elected chair of that group’s Communications subcommittee.
• Julia Lisuzzo served on the Committee for the Campaign for RIT.
• Joan Naturale served on the Deaf Studies Curriculum at NTID Committee.
• Pat Reed continues to serve on the campus-wide RedDot Content Management System Implementation Team.
• Sue Roethel served on the Commission for Promoting Pluralism, and in that organization's Diversity Leadership, Benchmarking and Future planning subcommittees.
• Sue Roethel was appointed to the RIT Presidential Search Committee.
• Margaret Bartlett, Marianne Buehler, Linda Coppola, Chris Lerch, Julia Lisuzzo, Joan Naturale and Marcia Trauernicht served on various Middle States Self-Study subcommittees. Chandra McKenzie is a member of the Middle States Self-Study Steering Committee.

RIT Archive and Special Collections

Enhance Information Access

• A web site was created to highlight Spirit the Tiger, the live tiger brought to campus in the mid-sixties. The site incorporates information, photographs, and audio clips from an oral history interview with the principal students involved. Organized and conducted a video oral history interview with the members of the original Tiger Committee, a group of students that brought a live tiger to campus in the mid-sixties to raise school spirit.

Team: Becky Simmons, Pat Reed

• A web site of online exhibits was created, using photographs, clippings and captions to tell selected stories from RIT’s history.

Team: Becky Simmons, Pat Reed

• [Strategic Plan Initiative] A records survey of NTID documents and artifacts was begun, in order to identify materials for the Deaf Studies Archive.

• Completed an NEA funded grant project to organize the papers of graphic designer and illustrator George Giusti.

• A successful grant application was submitted to the Getty Foundation to hire an archivist to organize and create a finding aid for the Will Burtin Design Archive. Half of this year long project has been completed.

Team: Becky Simmons, Kari Horowicz

• Additional art works were identified and added to the RIT Art collection. A database was created to track individual works in the archives and as they circulate.

• Linear footage of collections added: approximately 113 linear feet representing 70 collections of varying sizes from one item to 33 feet of records.

Improve Library Service

• 36 classes were held in the department, allowing students to experience special “hands on” access to rare materials. Kari Horowicz continued to introduce classes to the artist’s book collection, the poster collection and Design Archives. The department also provided individualized access to students working on special projects using the primary resources of the Design Archives, as well access to the RIT Art collection for students in classes on art appreciation and art appraisal. Becky Simmons, RIT Archivist introduced classes to the RIT Art collection, and contributed lectures to classes on museum/archival collecting and preservation issues.
• The department continued to serve a number of readers, with students, faculty, staff and scholars outside RIT coming to use the resources of the department. These numbers increased during the last year, as did the number of items examined.

Transform the library to become the Center for RIT Culture and Information Services

• [Strategic Plan Initiative] The Gallery for RIT History and Art opened on the first floor, providing a highly visible showcase for displays related to RIT.

• [Strategic Plan Initiative] Planning began for the RIT Museum, a larger exhibit area located outside the department on the third floor of the library. This area will allow more focused exhibits of documents and artifacts from the RIT Archives.

• [Strategic Plan Initiative] The RIT/NTID Deaf Studies Archive was established. Several donations, including the Lights On! Deaf Theater, the Empire State Association for the Deaf and Robert Panara’s collection of books with Deaf characters and NTID Student Life videotapes have already been acquired.

Miscellaneous

• Jody Sidlauskas, Archives Assistant Library Key Captain for the United Way campaign.

• Becky Simmons, RIT Archivist contributed to the Mission and Governance Task Force, researching and preparing data for the Middle States Accreditation report.

Melbert B. Cary Graphic Arts Collection

The Cary Collection enjoyed a banner year in every way. Use by students and faculty increased significantly, and many more classes from both RIT and outside institutions visited for lectures on a variety of different subjects by the curator, as well as to enjoy the collection’s unique resources. Cary also hosted FYE tours for all incoming new and transfer students for CIAS. A number of exhibitions were installed in the Cary showcases, including a Guild of Bookworkers display of fine press books; a comprehensive tribute to Cipe Pineles, the first female art director for an American magazine; and an exhibition devoted to some of Cary’s most remarkable recent acquisitions.

Enhance information access.

Significant inroads were also made the past year in cataloging nearly all of the monographs the Bernard Middleton Collection of Books on the History and Practice of Bookbinding, made possible by a Regional Bibliographic Databases and Resource Sharing Program grant from the Rochester Regional Library Council, the library’s cataloging staff, and expert consultants from the Library Company of Philadelphia and Johns Hopkins University. A (RBDB) 2006 Grant was awarded to the RIT Libraries for the retrospective conversion of a portion of the Bernard C. Middleton Collection on the History of Bookbinding. Work began on this project in Feb. 2006, and continues into the next fiscal year.

Transform the library to become the Center for RIT Culture and Information Services.

The Cary Collection, and its subsidiary operations the Cary Graphic Arts Press and the Graphic Design Archives, are members of one of RIT Libraries’ core teams: the Cultural Collections Team, formed as a result of the library’s recent strategic plan initiative. The other major partner on the team is RIT Archives; together the members are responsible for managing and coordinating all of the library’s cultural resources and exhibition spaces.

Acquisitions over the last year included a number of extensive additions, a few of which are noted below:

• Fred Troller Archive of Graphic Design. This important designer’s work will join the Graphic Design Archive, now the most prominent collection of its kind in the country.
• Important additions to the Vincent FitzGerald collection of fine press books, some of which were recently featured in an article devoted to the Cary Collection in the Winter 2005 issue of Rochester Magazine.
• Important additions to the 21st Editions collection of fine press books illustrated with photography.
• A unique manuscript by the influential German calligrapher and type designer Rudolf Koch.
• Several important designer bindings, including one by Bernard Middleton, considered the greatest living book restoration expert.
• Several exceptionally rare type specimen books, which join Cary’s celebrated and highly used holdings in this area.

RIT Cary Graphic Arts Press

[Strategic Plan Initiative] The Press has already met its gross revenue goals for 2006 and expects to complete the publication of some 12 to 14 titles by year’s end. Notable publications this year include The American Image, a catalog of rare posters from the collection of Mark Resnick, a history of the PAETEC corporation by its CEO Arunas Chesonis, and a book on outstanding typographers of the 20th century, now in progress.

One of the most exciting developments during the last year was a successful fundraising effort for a facility to house the RIT Cary Graphic Arts Press. To be known as the Alexander S. Lawson Center, this facility will incorporate all of the editorial, pre-press, production management, marketing, and fulfillment activities of the Press.