What’s New

Oberlin College Publishes Its First Honors Thesis on ETD Center

Oberlin College's honors theses program published its first honors thesis on the OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center: Polar Measurements of Mesospheric CO (2005) by Susannah Burrows.

The OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center is a free, online database of more than 15,000 graduate theses and dissertations and undergraduate honors theses from students at participating Ohio colleges and universities. For more information about the OhioLINK ETD Center, visit the frequently asked questions page.

Oberlin College is the 22nd program to join OhioLINK's ETD Center. A list of participating institutions is available. Any OhioLINK member institution may join and submit theses and dissertations to the database.

Celebrate Women's History Month with Britannica

In honor of Women's History Month, Encyclopaedia Britannica is highlighting 300 women whose actions and ideas influenced history. Follow the illustrated timeline to identify developments in the lives of women since antiquity with the feature, 300 Women Who Changed The World (off-campus access). Read quotes, essays, and speeches. Enjoy biographies about Women's Rights luminaries such as Joan of Arc, Jane Adams, Phillis Wheatley and Sandra Day O'Connor. Watch video clips, use the learning activities to take an in-depth view of women's achievements, or read articles on topics such as feminism and the history of Mother's Day.

Try it now! (off-campus access)

Job Opportunity: Assistant Director of Electronic Licensing

Applications are invited for an Assistant Director of Electronic Licensing for the Ohio Library and Information Network. OhioLINK is a consortium of Ohio's college and university libraries and the State Library of Ohio. OhioLINK serves more than 600,000 students, faculty, staff, and other researchers at 87 institutions. OhioLINK provides a multitude of services including over 100 databases consisting of bibliographic, electronic journals, electronic books, images, videos, and audio files. See www.ohiolink.edu.

Reports to: Executive Director

Major Responsibilities:
Responsible for taking the leadership role in the planning, management, evaluation, and licensing of shared electronic information resources by the OhioLINK community. Working closely with the Executive Director, Office Manager, and in liaison to the Cooperative Information Resources Committee (CIRM) this position:

• Assumes lead role in negotiating license terms and pricing for shared electronic resources with vendors
• Establishes and coordinates with the Office Manager the invoice processing through OhioLINK and its fiscal agent to member libraries for annual renewals and new licenses for shared electronic resources
• Assumes the lead role in the creation of and agreement by members to cost sharing models appropriate for each share electronic resource
• Manages, monitors, and projects the OhioLINK financial resources for shared electronic resources
• As liaison to the Cooperative Information Resources Committee (CIRM) works interactively with the chair on the agendas and overall management of the committee's activities
• Oversees the development, evolution, and maintenance of guidelines for standard license terms
• Resolves license breaches and problems in consultation with libraries and vendors
• In collaboration with other OhioLINK staff monitors availability and/or delivery of licensed resources. Is the lead contact with vendors to resolve any problems
• Participates on and provides support to other committees as assigned
• Spearheads and coordinates the examination, review, and disposition, of new electronic resource opportunities. Coordinates vendor communications or evaluations, demos and trials
• Coordinates the collection and organization of usage data and statistics and prepares reports on trends in overall usage
• Ensures compliance with license agreements by communicating terms of contract to appropriate member library staff
• Stays current with national and international developments related to electronic resources and will participate in inter-consortium initiatives as assigned
• Supervises one support staff responsible for maintaining the claiming system for the Electronic Journal Center

Requirements:
MLS from an ALA accredited program or other advanced degree. Four years of professional experience in an academic or research library or an academic library consortium and two or more years experience working with e-resource licensing and management. Knowledge of the legal and business issues involved in acquisition, licensing and management of electronic resources. General familiarity with electronic publishing developments such as Open Access, information delivery through Internet sources and current library technologies.

Excellent written and oral communication and negotiation skills required. Strong Excel capabilities and organizational and analytical skills are required. Ability to function in a collaborative, service-oriented environment and flexibility in adapting to change; working knowledge of spreadsheet and other software to support the management of usage and financial data. Position will require some travel.

Salary and Benefits:
Salary is commensurate with position and experience. Position is a twelve month appointment on an annual contract. 22 vacation days, 15 days sick leave and 10 paid holidays per year. State-sponsored retirement plan, group health plan, and life insurance are available.

Deadline:
Review of resumes begins April 7, 2008. Resumes accepted until position is filled.

To apply for this position, please send resume and three references to resume-el@ohiolink.edu.

Job Opportunity: Assistant Director of Library Systems - User Services Development

Applications are invited for an Assistant Director of Library Systems - User Services Development for the Ohio Library and Information Network. OhioLINK is a consortium of Ohio's college and university libraries and the State Library of Ohio. OhioLINK serves more than 600,000 students, faculty, staff, and other researchers at 87 institutions. OhioLINK provides a multitude of services including over 100 databases consisting of bibliographic, electronic journals, electronic books, images, videos, and audio files. See www.ohiolink.edu.

Reports to: Director of Library Systems

Major Responsibilities:
The ADLS - User Services will work closely with the Director of Library Systems, with OhioLINK staff, and with personnel from OhioLINK member institutions in a leadership role in developing and maintaining current and new OhioLINK services from the user experience perspective. This job will provide consultation, direction, and support to the User Services Committee, whose members come from primarily reference department positions at member institutions.

In other capacities, this position also serves as the primary liaison to new libraries joining the OhioLINK consortium, as principal liaison to the Two-Year Colleges and Independent Colleges and provides troubleshooting for member libraries in resolving day-to-day access problems.

New member and new services implementation

1. Communicate with new libraries on all matters related to implementation and use of OhioLINK services.
2. Develop new member implementation schedules and coordinate orientation. Organize and/or conduct implementation meetings and training sessions. Answer questions, and give demonstrations and presentations relating to implementation and/or the application of the new and updated software.
3. Communicate with new members about site-specific issues; assist in analysis and resolution.

New services development

1. Act in a leadership role with other OhioLINK staff and the member libraries in the conception, development, evaluation, and implementation of new OhioLINK services.
2. Contribute to specifications; test and critique beta versions and participate in the process of moving services from beta to production.
3. Plan and execute user evaluations and research and serve as quality control manager for all interfaces.
4. Communicate implementation procedures to member libraries.
5. Prepare documentation.

Operational support

1. Troubleshoot operational access problems and communicate with software and database vendors on issues related to ongoing use. Report problems, coordinate training and documentation, and convey enhancement requests.
2. Communicate with member libraries on issues related to changes, access, and use of electronic services.
3. Participate with other staff in resolving access issues for databases.
4. Manage online information and help screens for central catalog and reference databases.

General

1. As liaison to the User Services Committee work interactively with the chair on the agendas and overall management of the committee's activities
2. Participate in other OhioLINK committee, technical, and administrative meetings as appropriate.
3. Represent OhioLINK to members, potential members, and outside groups. Visit OhioLINK libraries and regional groups. Demonstrate and discuss OhioLINK services. Travel primarily in-state, some out-of-state. Provide presentations in-house to national and international visitors on OhioLINK.

Requirements:
MLS from an ALA accredited program. At least four years experience in an academic library is expected with experience that is focused in reference or other related end user services. The candidate is expected to be a good facilitator and have experience in documentation and training. Successful experience with project management and working in a collaborative environment is highly desired. Experience in building end user interfaces is desired.

Excellent written and oral communication and negotiation skills required. Position will require some travel.

Salary and Benefits:
Salary is commensurate with position and experience. Position is a twelve month appointment on an annual contract. 22 vacation days, 15 days sick leave and 10 paid holidays per year. State-sponsored retirement plan, group health plan, and life insurance are available.

Deadline:
Review of resumes begins April 7, 2008. Resumes accepted until position is filled.

To apply for this position, please send resume and three references to resume-usd@ohiolink.edu

What's New on the OhioLINK Home Page?

We've redesigned the OhioLINK home page to make it easier for you to find the information resources you need. A prominent search box on the new page allows visitors to quickly and easily search for: (1) articles and books, (2) books only, (3) articles only, (4) digital videos, or (5) search the OhioLINK Web pages.

There are still direct links on the left side of the home page to specific resources such as the Electronic Journal Center, the Digital Media Center and more than 140 other research databases.

We welcome your feedback. Please Let us know what you think.

OhioLINK Video Contest Winner and Runner Up Announced

Congratulations to Wright State University student Eric Rieper, whose video of how a lost student found his way with the help of OhioLINK was voted the winner of the This Is MY OhioLINK video contest. Unanswered Mysteries, the entry by University of Akron students Dave Carulli and John Tamba was voted the runner-up. Eric Rieper chose the 160GB iPod Classic as his prize. Runner up Dave Carulli will receive a Hitachi Camcorder. Almost 5,000 votes were cast in this very close contest to decide the winner.

OhioLINK received seven creative and entertaining entries for its first-ever video contest, which was held in celebration of the program's 15th anniversary. Current students, faculty and staff at OhioLINK member institutions were eligible to participate. These entertaining videos will continue to be used to promote OhioLINK and explain how it can make the lives of future and current Ohio students, faculty and staff a little easier. Check out all seven entries on the video contest page.

The complete voting results are:

• This Is OhioLINK -- Eric Rieper (2,108 votes)
• Unanswered Mysteries -- Dave Carulli and John Tamba (2,101 votes)
• My OhioLINK -- Shane O'Neil (331 votes)
• Mr. Studious Finds A Solution -- Sara Smith and Daniel Smith (139 votes)
• Nuts About OhioLINK -- Edy Feazel (93 votes)
• OhioLINK Commercial -- James Mendez (70 votes)
• OhioLINK: It Can Research Any Topic -- Whitney Prose and Liz Hastings (37 votes)

Winner: This Is My OhioLINK -- Eric Rieper

Runner Up: Unanswered Mysteries -- Dave Carulli and John Tamba