UNC Librarian Rebecca Vargha has been named a Fellow of the Special Libraries Association

UNC librarian Rebecca Vargha has been named a Fellow of the Special Libraries Association (SLA). Vargha has been head of the Information and Library Science Library since 2001 and is an adjunct faculty member at UNC’s School of Information and Library Science (SILS).

SLA is a “nonprofit global organization for innovative information professionals and their strategic partners that serves more than 9,000 members in 75 countries in the information profession, including corporate, academic and government information specialists.”

Vargha is a past president of the association; immediate past chair of SLA’s leadership management division; chair-elect for SLA’s Museums, Arts and Humanities Division; archivist for the North Carolina SLA Chapter; and faculty advisor for the SLA Student Group at SILS.

SLA Fellows are recognized mid-career for their leadership in the library and information science professions. Only a maximum of five SLA members are selected as Fellows each year.

“This is such a high honor personally and for our excellent university,” Vargha stated. “Being named as a Fellow of SLA recognizes my current work for our profession and for the future of information professionals, whether on campus working with students and faculty at UNC-Chapel Hill or virtually with library colleagues in South Africa, India, Germany, or Spain.”

Prior to her appointment at UNC, Vargha worked as senior research specialist at Nortel Networks. She was also an information analyst for the Research Triangle-based software company SAS. Her career began as an assistant librarian at the National Humanities Center. She is actively involved in the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) and presents globally on current challenges in library and information science.

Vargha holds a Bachelor’s degree in English from UNC-Chapel Hill and a Master’s degree in library science from North Carolina Central University. She is a member of Beta Phi Mu and won the Meritorious Achievement Award (1994) from the North Carolina SLA Chapter for making outstanding contributions to the profession and chapter. On October 31, 2008, she was awarded the Distinguished Alumna Award from North Carolina Central University. In May 2012, she received the SILS Deborah Barreau Award for Teaching Excellence.

Left to right: Jan Paris (honorable mention); Sarah Michalak, University Librarian; Greg Jansen, outstanding employee of 2012; and Melissa Salvanish (honorable mention)

The University Library has awarded its 2012 Outstanding Employee Award to Greg Jansen of the Library Systems department. Honorable mentions went to Jan Paris of the Conservation Lab in the Wilson Special Collections Library and Melissa Salvanish of the Undergraduate Library.

The award, presented at a Feb. 12 gathering for Library staff, honors a University Library employee for excellence in one or more of the following categories: Community Service Activity, Commitment and Dependability, Creativity and Innovation, and Teamwork and Leadership.

Greg Jansen, Applications Analyst, was recognized as the 2012 Outstanding Employee for his teamwork, commitment, and creative work on the Carolina Digital Repository (CDR), a digital archive for materials produced by members of the UNC community. During the past 18 months, Greg has offered workshops in Scotland, Canada, and in the Triangle area about his work on the Curator’s Workbench, a utility designed to prepare data files and metadata for the repository. Recently, Greg was named a member of the technical team for the Academic Preservation Trust Advisory Group. Thanks in large part to Greg’s work, UNC is nationally recognized as a leader in the digital preservation of research data and cultural history.

Jan Paris, Conservator for Special Collections at the Wilson Special Collections Library, was nominated for her creativity, commitment, and teamwork in managing the four-year Wilson Library sprinkler installation project. Jan served as the primary Library contact with UNC Facilities, the architect, and the contractors, ensuring that the project was done according to specifications and carrying out the relocation of collections to minimize the inconvenience to users through the process. Throughout the project, Jan displayed a talent for clear and timely communication and a remarkable blend of practicality and imagination.

Melissa Salvanish, Acquisitions/Facilities/Circulation Supervisor at the Undergraduate Library, was recognized for her dependability, teamwork, and creativity. Melissa works to ensure that the Undergraduate Library is a safe and welcoming environment and that facilities work is completed in a timely, non-disruptive manner. Melissa encourages student employees and colleagues to identify issues in need of attention and to share information openly. Her innovative suggestions have made workflows more efficient and improved communication, including transforming the UL reserves hold process in a way that has resulted in reductions in delivery time and duplication and lessened patron frustration.

Related Links

• Library Honors Outstanding Employees of 2011
• Library Honors Outstanding Employees of 2010

Award winner and UNC business and economics librarian Rita Moss

UNC business and economics librarian Rita W. Moss received the Gale Cengage Learning Award for Excellence in Business Librarianship on June 24 at the American Library Association (ALA) Annual Meeting in Anaheim, California.

The Business Reference and Services Section (BRASS) of the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) presents the award and $3,000 prize annually “to an individual who has made a significant contribution to business librarianship.” Previous recipients include former UNC Associate University Librarian for Public Services Diane Strauss in 1990.

The award committee selected Moss for her outstanding contributions to business librarianship over more than two decades of professional work in the field. The committee also recognized her role as a mentor and educator, and her active participation in professional organizations.

Moss has worked at UNC since 1991. She is the author of the second and third editions of Strauss’s Handbook of Business Information: A Guide for Librarians, Students, and Researchers.

Moss served as chair of RUSA BRASS in 2008-2009, and previously chaired BRASS’s nominating and vendor relations committees, co-chaired the Business Reference in Academic Libraries Committee, and served on RUSA’s nominating and membership committees.

Prior to coming to UNC, Moss was a business reference librarian at Elon University. She holds an M.A. in economics and education from the University College of North Wales and an M.S.L.S. from UNC.

Related Links

• Rita Moss recognized by RUSA BRASS for outstanding contributions to business librarianship (ALA news release)

John Smalls (right), chair of the Penn Center Board of Trustees, presents the Center's 1862 Circle award to Tim West, curator of the Southern Historical Collection. (Photo: Bob Sofaly)

The Penn Center of St. Helena Island, S.C., has named the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill a member of its 1862 Circle. The Center presented the award on April 29 to recognize the University’s stewardship of the Penn School papers at the Southern Historical Collection in the Wilson Special Collections Library.

The Penn School began in 1862 as an experimental program to educate and provide services to thousands of African Americans who had been freed by U.S. troops early in the Civil War. The Center today preserves and serves as a resource for the history, culture, and environment of the Sea Islands.

The Center deposited the Penn School papers with the Southern Historical Collection in 1962. The collection contains more than 32,000 letters, journals, and official documents from the school’s history. The diary of Laura Towne, a Philadelphia abolitionist and one of the school’s founders, is among them.

The collection also includes approximately 3,000 photos, some dating to the 1860s. Oral history interviews and later documents relate to the Penn Community Services Center, which opened in 1948 after the school closed.

“The Penn papers document a groundbreaking effort to help newly freed people,” said Tim West, curator of the Southern Historical Collection. “Eventually, it became an effort of the people themselves. Researchers use these papers to study topics ranging from the Gullah culture of the region, to African American education, to race relations.”

As part of its citation, the Penn Center recognized the ongoing active partnership that it maintains with UNC. As a result of these efforts, more than 10,000 pages of the Penn School papers are now available online through the Southern Historical Collection.

Related Links

• Penn School Papers finding aid
• Digitized Penn School content
• Penn Center

Left to right: University Librarian Sarah Michalak, Katelyn Ander and Alison Murray (honorable mentions); Megan Kilb (outstanding employee 2011)

The University Library has awarded its 2011 Outstanding Employee Award to Megan Kilb of the E-Resources & Serials Management department. Honorable mentions went to Katelyn Ander of the Media Resources Center in the Undergraduate Library and Alison Murray of the North Carolina Collection in the Wilson Special Collections Library.

The award, presented at a Feb. 28 gathering for Library staff, honors a University Library employee for excellence in one or more of the following categories: Community Service Activity, Commitment and Dependability, Creativity and Innovation, and Teamwork and Leadership.

Megan Kilb, E-Resources Access Librarian, was recognized as the 2011 Outstanding Employee for her creative approaches to problem solving and her drive, professionalism, and positive attitude. In late 2011, Kilb worked on the Summon/Articles+ service, demonstrating her flexibility and attention to detail while dealing with the complexity of negotiating content for UNC. Her effective and excellent service produces time-sensitive responses to patrons and librarians while enhancing the overall reputation of the Library on the UNC campus.

Katelyn Ander, Office & Public Services Manager at the Media Resources Center in the Undergraduate Library, was nominated for her outstanding interpersonal skills, a thoughtful approach to her work, and an enthusiastic “can do” attitude. Her nominators noted intelligence and unflappability, and praised her for treating colleagues, patrons, and student workers alike respectfully and professionally. Ander, who began working at the Media Resources Center when she was an undergraduate at UNC, has also worked on the State Employees Combined Campaign and serves on the Library’s Diversity Committee.

Alison Murray, Business Services Coordinator at the North Carolina Collection in the Wilson Special Collections Library, was recognized for her commitment to the Library’s mission of high-quality service on an unusually broad range of assignments. Murray manages the office, coordinates events, supervises students creating special indexes and research files, and also assists researchers. She has demonstrated flexibility in moving from one assignment to another, and her self-motivation and productivity motivates others to perform well by her example. Her co-workers stated that it is a privilege and pleasure to have her as a colleague.

The digital North Carolina Maps project scanned and posted more than 3,200 maps over a three-year period ending June 2010. The UNC Library and the North Carolina State Archives scanned the maps, and the Library hosts and administers the site. The Outer Banks History Center in Manteo also contributed maps.

The partners identified and scanned nearly every original map of the state published from 1584 to 1923. The online site also contains maps of every North Carolina county and maps published by the state through the year 2000.

The AASLH award honors significant achievement in state and local history. Presentation of the award was made during the association’s annual meeting on Sept. 16, in Richmond, Va. AASLH is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the preservation and promotion of history.

Related Links

• North Carolina Maps project home
• Five centuries of N.C. maps posted online (UNC News Services release, June 17, 2010)

Associate University Librarian for Collections and Services Carol Hunter

Carol Hunter, associate University librarian for collections and services, is part of a multi-institutional team that has received a grant to study business cases for new service development in research libraries.

The $50,000 award from the Council on Library and Information Resources’ Digital Library Federation will develop guidance for academic libraries seeking to support innovative services such as publishing and data management activities on their campuses.

The librarians will investigate business-planning literature and will study established publishing and data curation services. The project will result in a series of publications and a business planning model for new ventures and services. With such a model, libraries will be better able to determine whether a new service is feasible and how to make a persuasive case for resources.

In addition to Hunter, the project team includes Theodore Fons, OCLC; Mike Furlough, Penn State University; Elizabeth Kirk, Dartmouth College; and Michele Reid, North Dakota State University. Judy Luther, president of Informed Strategies, will advise the project and facilitate the team’s discussions and publishing process.

Hunter hopes the lessons learned will have broad applicability in libraries. “In today’s economic and information environment, we must be able to analyze and justify every service we offer and become more comfortable with evaluating potential new services areas,” she said. “This method and our conclusions will provide a model for doing that.”

Related Links

• DLF Funds Project on Business Cases for New Service Development in Research Libraries (CLIR/DLF news release)
• Appointment: Associate University Librarian for Collections and Services (Carol Hunter appointment announcement, Dec. 9, 2010)

Emily King and Chad Haefele helped lead development of "Should Brandon and Nicole Get Engaged?"

The University Library is the inaugural winner of the Springshare Innovation in Academic Libraries Award, from the Academic Division of the Special Libraries Association (SLA). The award was presented June 13 in Philadelphia, during the association’s annual meeting.

The award honors the project “Should Brandon and Nicole Get Engaged?” (ShBANGE). The interactive alternate reality game was played out on the UNC campus in spring 2010.

Two UNC  librarians, Chad Haefele and Emily King, helped lead development of ShBANGE. The School of Information and Library Science and the Teaching and Learning division of UNC’s Information Technology Services were development partners.

ShBANGE began with a mock wedding proposal in the Pit. Participants then followed a URL to an online gaming adventure involving puzzles such as a stereogram, riddles, a NATO encoding puzzle, and a crossword puzzle. Each activity included as many areas of the academic curriculum as possible, and many involved fragmentary clues solvable only by sharing.

At one point, students were led to a hollowed-out book in Davis Library containing a USB with further game instructions. Additional puzzles were posted on blogs, social media, and even in balloons that volunteers distributed to unsuspecting participants.

SLA’s award committee praised ShBANGE as a successful and forward-thinking way to help students build information literacy skills through an interactive and engaging experience.

Rebecca Vargha, librarian for UNC’s Information and Library Science Library, and a former president of SLA, accepted the $500 award on behalf of the Library.

In March, Haefele and King were recognized by Library Journal as “Movers & Shakers of 2011” for their role in ShBANGE.

Related Links

• UNC Chapel Hill Library is Presented with Innovation Award (SLA announcement)
• Brandon proposes to Nicole in the Pit at Carolina (ShBANGE YouTube video)
• UNC Librarians Honored by Library Journal as “Movers & Shakers”
• Chad Haefele & Emily King – Innovators – 2011 Movers & Shakers (Library Journal)

Ph.D. student Katy Simpson Smith’s story of an archival mystery discovered at UNC has advanced to the Society of American Archivist’s national “I Found It In the Archives” contest.

In April, the Library announced that Smith was the winner of the local “I Found It” contest, sponsored by the Wilson Special Collections Library. In an essay, she told  her story of discovery in the archives and how her family was able to bond over a cryptography competition based on an eighteenth-century diary.

Her essay is one of six submissions from around the country to become part of the Society of American Archivist’s (SAA) national contest.

Readers can vote for their favorite story at the SAA website through July 1. Go, Katy!

Related Links

• Vote for Katy’s story
• “They Found it In the Archives: 2011 Contest Winners” (UNC contest)

The grant program recognizes the creative spirit of library staff members by connecting novel ideas with resources. The emphasis is on experimentation and exploration in the quest to meet existing or future needs.

The first round of competitive grants was underwritten through an allocation from the University Libraries. The Libraries are seeking additional funding in order to be able to award more significant and sustained awards.

“Our staff members have boundless creativity,” said University Librarian and Associate Provost for University Libraries Sarah Michalak. “It’s my hope that others will join in seeking innovative ways to address real-world information problems in an intelligent, sustainable way,” she said.

The winning proposals, to be completed by June 2012, are as follows:

Digital Repository: North Carolina Regional Extension Centers Listserv Email Communications
Award amount: $5,800
North Carolina’s Regional Extension Centers (RECs) have received federal grant funding to help primary care physicians in private practice across the state implement electronic health records. Initial work of the RECs has taken place via email and dispersed documentation. Investigator Mary Beth Schell (Health Sciences Library) will create a browseable and searchable archive for this important and growing body of unpublished literature. Her investigation is expected to provide a model for professional library-based curation of geographically dispersed and diversely created information.

Mobile Planning and Prototypes: NC Health Info, AHEC Digital Library
Award amount: $6,450
This project will research, design, and implement mobile prototype versions of two widely used sources of online health information. The AHEC Digital Library provides current medical literature and professional resources to healthcare providers across the state. NC Health Info is an online guide to websites and health information for North Carolina citizens. Investigators Adam Dodd and Christie Silbajoris (Health Sciences Library) will work towards development of mobile-specific versions of these sites to meet the growing demand for mobile access by both practitioners and healthcare consumers in North Carolina.

Gifts to the University Libraries Innovation Awards will contribute to the development of innovative endeavors by UNC Libraries staff. They will also support the Innovate@Carolina Campaign, a $125 million drive to help make Carolina a world leader in launching university-born ideas for the good of society. To learn more about the campaign, visit innovate.unc.edu.

To support the University Libraries Innovation Awards, contact Peggy Myers, Director of Library Development: (919) 843-5651, pmyers@email.unc.edu.

Related Link

• Innovate@Carolina Campaign