Purdue Libraries Mission & Vision

mission: Our mission is to advance the creation of knowledge for the global community through provision and preservation of scholarly information resources; teaching of information literacy; research in library, archival, and information sciences; and the development of dynamic physical and virtual learning environments.

vision: We will be recognized as an essential leader in the advancement of the University’s core strengths and global mission by leading in innovative and creative solutions for access to and management and dissemination of scholarly information resources, and for the provision of information literacy and the creation of leading-edge learning spaces, both physical and virtual, and will be regarded as a leader in the national and international research library community.

Foreword – message from the Provost

In 1876, the American Library Association was formed and Melvil Dewey published his decimal-based system of classification that would become known as the Dewey Decimal System. Today, nearly 140 years later, this fifth edition of VOLUMe describes a library environment that Mr. Dewey wouldn’t recognize.

Purdue Libraries faculty are partners in teaching, embedded within courses and even co-instructing for greater information literacy among our students. Library physical spaces now include collaborative work areas and informal learning spaces. Card catalogs have given way to computers, and these virtual environments mean that students and faculty can access the libraries’ information anytime from anywhere.

Purdue University Libraries have led the way as times have changed, modifying space and bringing technology to the service of teaching and learning, discovery and engagement.

Earlier this year, the Purdue University Libraries received  a prestigious award —the 2015 Association of College and Research Libraries Excellence in Libraries Award. Steven Bell, chair of the 2015 Excellence in Academic Libraries Committee said, “Purdue University Libraries succeeds by being experimental, taking risks, innovating and leveraging collaboration with their faculty, graduate and undergraduate students to push the boundaries of what research university libraries can accomplish for their community, locally and globally.”

Much of the success is due to the work of the faculty/professional staff, support staff and student assistants led by James L. Mullins, Dean of Libraries and Esther Ellis Norton Professor. These are the people who keep the libraries around our campus operating every day, helping our students and faculty as they pursue excellence in their studies, discover new knowledge and improve their craft. You will read about recent successful programs conducted by Purdue Libraries faculty in this edition of VOLUMe. I know you will enjoy and appreciate, as I do, their remarkable accomplishments.

The Purdue Libraries system contributes to the excellence of this institution and is critical to its future success. I am very proud of the creativity, dedication and innovation demonstrated by members of Purdue Libraries as they define the role of the 21st century research university. I suspect Melvil Dewey would be proud, too.

Deba Dutta
Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Diversity

The Purdue University Libraries Collection & the Digital Revolution

What is a collections strategist?  It’s a new position in large academic libraries and involves activities related to ensuring that the right kinds of research materials are available in the right place and in the right format for Purdue’s students and faculty.  In my role, I identify publishers whose journal backfiles are now available in electronic format and recommend adding these so that Purdue’s scholars have immediate access to more articles.  In consultation with Libraries faculty colleagues, I also arrange to move low-use print material from the active collections to the repositories.  I have worked in the Purdue Libraries for 28 years, and was appointed to this position in July 2015.

Suzanne M. Ward (left) 
Professor, Collections Strategist

There’s no denying that the thrust of our collections is electronic. With a little over 1.9 million ebooks, almost 103,000 online journals, and over 300 database subscriptions, Purdue faculty, staff, and students have 24/7 access to the majority of our collection from both on and off campus. In my role as Director for Information Resources, I oversee our $14.4 million budget for library materials, ensuring that the appropriate scholarly research materials are subscribed to, purchased, or borrowed for our users.

I also oversee the four units that make up the Information Resources division: Acquisitions, Metadata Services, Digital Programs, and Access Services. Each unit plays a critical role in making sure that our print and electronic materials are accessible to the Purdue community.

In collaboration with Suzanne Ward, Collection Strategist, we monitor and evaluation the changing resources environment and work to build a robust collection of scholarly materials that meets the needs of our users.

Rebecca A. Richardson (right)
Director of Information Resources

New Possibilities in Publishing

It is an honor to lead the Scholarly Publishing Division of the Purdue University Libraries. Purdue is a recognized innovator in the field, and the commitment and passion of our team is inspiring. We already have an impressive array of Open Access (OA) publishing projects and, as a team, are prepared to reach “One Brick Higher” from here.

As a newcomer to Purdue, I just learned that phrase and love it. It captures the spirit of the place and the team in the Libraries and the Press and everyone I have met so far. Fresh from business school, I find it captures our prime MBA directive as well: no matter how good things are, we will find ways to improve them. I will need that training, too, because things are pretty darn good right about now; just a few highlights from the summer:

We hit our 10-millionth article downloaded from Purdue ePubs! We are striding toward 11M currently, with some Purdue scholars passing tens of thousands of downloads, per articles, and one scholar passing 111,000 downloads for his top 20 articles combined. We are all are pleased by these successes, but imagine how happy the thousands of people around the world are who are learning from and acting on Purdue research?

In Knowledge Unlatched (KU) news, we had two more Purdue University Press titles chosen for the next round! KU is a revolutionary approach to funding OA publication of monographs. Dozens of the best presses have been competitively selected to participate. The Press has placed titles in both rounds. We also learned that one of our titles from last year, Understanding the Global Energy Crisis, edited by Eugene D. Coyle (Austin) and Richard A. Simmons (Purdue) is leading all other titles in total downloads, outpacing titles from Michigan, Cambridge, Duke, Bloomsbury, Brill and others—at a rate of 2.75 STDV above the mean, for the quants in the crowd! We can all celebrate that more than 3,000 copies of the book have been downloaded, in the first year!

Where to go from here? One place is the Web. We are sitting down with Libraries’ IT professionals and with Purdue Marketing & Media to reimagine Scholarly Publishing’s web platforms and strategies. Together, we will present our strengths to potential authors more clearly and well, and better present and promote our scholars’ works to the world. We may be holding an open contest for a new logo design and perhaps a little branding competition. We are also discussing sponsoring a new writing contest for students and alumni. We have many other initiatives underway. These are just a few. Stay tuned for news!

What sets Purdue apart, and makes all this planning and progress possible, along with the exceptional support we all enjoy from Purdue leadership, is the level of collegial integration between the visual and textual communications professionals in Scholarly Publishing and the scholarly communications faculty throughout the libraries. Together, we will continue discovering and collaborating with areas of excellence on campus, sharing resources, and scaling operations, to pave the way for new possibilities in publishing for Purdue.

Peter C. Froehlich, MBA
Director, Purdue University Press and Head, Scholarly Publishing Services

Library Scholars Grant Program: The Art of Research & Collaboration

Through the generous support of the Library Scholars Grant Program, Purdue University Libraries provided me with a grant to support a two-week trip to Rennes, France to review the archives of several art critics housed at the Archives de la critique d’art, which pertain to the reception of American art in postwar Europe.  I had two research objectives as part of the grant: to finish collecting quantitative data for the “Triumph of American Art,” a research project I am developing as part of Artl@s in collaboration with the Purdue GIS Library (http://www.artlas.ens.fr), and to collect qualitative data for a book-length manuscript.

Growing out of my research on the historiography of the postwar Western art world, this project aimed at reconstructing, mapping, and analyzing the diffusion and reception of American art in Europe between 1945 and 1970. It advances earlier scholarship by bringing the story of the so-called “triumph of American art” up to the 1970s (most studies end in the 1950s), and by adopting a transnational approach (most studies focus on one country’s response to American art).

Methodologically, the significance of this project is twofold: first, it involves the creation of a database of exhibitions, purchases, and publications of American art in Europe from 1945 to 1970. Systematically collecting this data was a daunting task, but was necessary to ground interpretation in facts and move beyond the many myths that surround the “triumph of American art.” In order to retrace the circulation of artworks, artists, and other art professionals between the United States and Western Europe, I created maps. Mapping allowed me to see relationships that didn’t appear by merely reading or interpreting textual and quantitative sources.

With support of Purdue University Libraries GIS specialists including Nicole Kong, we are building a mapping interface that allows specialists and non-specialists to query and visualize the data through maps, thereby learning about art, history, geography, and digital tools.

The research trip to the Archives de la critique d’art, supported by the Library Scholars Grant Program served as a significant step toward the successful completion of both my book manuscript, which was published as The Rise and Fall of American Art, 1940s–1980s (Ashgate, 2015), and a long article on the reception of American art entitled “To Drip or to Pop? The European Triumph of American Art.” (Artl@s Bulletin, Spring 2014): , by providing me with access to the personal papers of several art critics who witnessed and reported on the arrival of American art in Western Europe.

I am grateful for the research support and collaboration with Purdue University Libraries.

About the Library Scholars Grant Program

Through the Library Scholars Grant Program, Purdue University Libraries provide grants to untenured and recently-tenured Purdue professors to help them gain access to unique collections of information necessary for their research. Annual awards of up to $5,000 are made possible through the generosity of the 50th anniversary gift of the Class of 1935. The funds may be used for expenses associated with travel to archives or collections beyond Purdue. Upon completing research, grant recipients present a seminar about the information-related activities supported by the grant. Interested applicants should visit http://www.lib.purdue.edu/info/scholars/guidelines.html for further information.

Catherine Dossin
Associate Professor of Art History

Student Engagement & Outreach: Commitment to supporting student needs

Beyond its efforts to impact student outcomes through innovations in instructional and learning space programs on campus, Purdue University Libraries is also actively engaged with students through a variety of activities both within Libraries divisions and across the university.

Student Ambassadors

This past year, the Libraries created three new student ambassador positions to support Libraries student engagement and outreach efforts on campus and on social media.  The student ambassadors also support regular Libraries events such as end of semester study break activities and GIS Day at Purdue.  Student ambassadors rotate around various Libraries divisions to support divisional and system-wide needs, while also serving as Libraries representatives for campus and community outreach opportunities. Student ambassadors also engage and communicate Libraries services, resources and activities on a variety of social media and digital communication mediums, offering a student voice and perspective as part of the Libraries strategic communication efforts.  These students provide important feedback to Libraries administration in Libraries planning, communication and decision-making, as needed.

Why I Love Purdue Libraries Video Contest

Purdue University Libraries is launched its third annual “Why I Love Purdue Libraries Video Contest,” this past fall, with a top award of $1000. The contest is open to all current, enrolled Purdue University students. Finalists are selected by Purdue Libraries Undergraduate Student Libraries Advisory Council (USLAC), Dean of Libraries, Libraries associate deans and director of strategic communication. Contest finalists and/or award winners are featured on Libraries website, social media and digital signage.  All awards will be distributed through Purdue University Financial Aid Division. These videos have been shown to alumni, donors, Board of Trustees members and the community so they hear in students’ own words, the value of Purdue University Libraries.

Study Break Events

As the end of the semester approaches, Hicks Undergraduate Library offers a wide array of events during prep and finals weeks to help Purdue students alleviate stress. Each event is free and refreshments are served. Examples of some of the programming offered this past semester included: Game Break Hicks Undergraduate Library offered a variety of classic board and card games to allow students to de-stress and have fun. Therapy Dogs Therapy Dogs, International, Inc. brought several dog teams to the main common area in Hicks. Students were allowed to visit with the dogs to help lower their stress levels. Music Therapy Julia Lopez-Kaley, MT-BC, provided customized activities with goals of decreasing stress and ways to recognize and manage the symptoms in a musical context. A Taste of Relaxation Instructors from the Purdue Recreation Center provided instruction on various stress reduction techniques including meditation, progressive muscle relaxation and guided imagery.

Student Events, Outreach and Orientation Activities

Purdue University Libraries also sponsor a range of events that engage the Purdue community, but especially students. These include events that welcome students to the Libraries and help to make them aware of our facilities. For example, Libraries faculty and staff members are active participants in Boiler Gold Rush (BGR), Purdue’s annual orientation for new students. In addition to providing an overview of Library resources to the entire freshman class, Libraries faculty members also lead small group exercises throughout the orientation process, providing the opportunity to interact with undergraduate students from the first week they are on campus. The Libraries also sponsor competitions that allow students to demonstrate their creativity, use their information literacy skills in a fun setting, and of course, engage with the Libraries.

Student Award and Scholarships

PULSE Award

The PULSE Award program is an endowed fund started and funded primarily by the faculty and staff of the Libraries to recognize the hard work and dedication of the students who work in the Libraries. Each year, one or two awards are given for the top student workers in the Libraries. Awards are $500 to $1000 per piece.

Albert Viton Scholarship

Established in 2006 and endowed by Dr. Albert Viton, an author and retired economist, the scholarship is awarded annually to a student employee from the Purdue Press or the Libraries.

Dorothy Newby McCaw Scholarship

Established in 2004 by Dorothy Newby McCaw in honor of former Libraries dean Emily R. Mobely, the McCaw scholarship is awarded annually to a Libraries student worker.

Shannon Walker, MS
Director of Strategic Communication

From USLAC to U.S. Navy: Student Leadership Lessons Learned

Prior to my chance encounter with Dean Mullins, I had not really utilized the Libraries to their full extent, nor did I know what they had to offer.  After he extended me an invitation to join the USLAC, I really began to learn about where libraries in general have been, where they are, and where they are heading.  The council provided a venue for the Libraries’ staff to garner a variety of student input for the future of the University.  Various staff members provided lectures on information literacy, current and future projects, as well as some history.  The Council members would in turn provide feedback for projects, and those ideas were taken on board and often implemented.  It was extremely gratifying to witness some of our suggestions appear several years down the line.

Purdue, under Dean Mullins’ leadership, has been forging the way ahead across the nation with regards to information literacy.  The libraries are no longer the stereotypical repositories of books, but of information.  The difference may seem subtle, but it is important.  Purdue Libraries have shaped themselves to meet the changing needs of students and researchers, and have adapted to current technologies.  The enhanced student experience that stems from the changing culture was certainly of benefit to me, as it is to many other students today.

My experience on the Council has paid dividends since graduation.  It has taught me that within an organization, the end-user has a strong say in the products and methods that they utilize, as long as motivated advocates exist.  Additionally, having an appropriate forum to voice ideas is equally important.  Purdue Libraries have found a way to marry the two, and the end result is a unique, more robust library that better serves not only the Purdue student population, but libraries and students across the country and around the globe.

Lieutenant John Milne
Helicopter Pilot, United States Navy

The Next Generation of Informed Leaders

Current business students, budding executives, will graduate into a business world where decision making is dependent on the information they have available to them. Information Literacy, or the set of integrated abilities enabling the actionable use of information, is key to success in this age of proliferating information and data. At Purdue University Libraries, we encourage information literacy through the efforts inside and outside of the classroom as part of a strategic effort to integrate information literacy into students’ learning. As part of this effort, I teach MGMT 175: Information Strategies for Management Students, an eight-week course that challenges our students to think deeply, research widely, and use their business and communication skills to create innovative new solutions for stakeholders.

When I teach, I try to focus on research skills as only the door-opener to a larger struggle the students will have to engage in their entire lives to make decisions using information. Students must gather information in the spirit of transformation of their own actions as well as their potential firm, group, or community. How do you translate what you know to what you do not know? What if what you learned previously or thought you knew was wrong? What happens when you cannot find what you need because it does not exist?

MGMT 175 is a flipped course redesigned as part of the IMPACT (Instruction Matters: Purdue Academic Course Transformation) program. Students watch videos and undergo tutorials before class, and then in class they engage with a specific real-world problem. During these group challenges, teams in a short time frame (50 minutes) research and provide recommendations using skills they learn before class. My research has shown that not only do students learn during MGMT 175, but I also have found that they build upon that knowledge in other classes, achieving far higher information literacy scores than their peers who had not taken MGMT 175.

Teach MGMT 175 for the past two years has taught me many things, one of which is the huge potential of students to surprise you. They have such a capacity for growth, reflection, and change. At Purdue Libraries we not only teach skills students need for the workplace now, but also management approaches and analytic thinking that will prepare students for the fast-paced and evolving information world of the future

Ilana Stonebraker
Assistant Professor, Business Information Specialist

Creating a customer service-oriented approach through Outreach & Engagement

In my role, I serve as a liaison to the departments of Physics and Astronomy, Mathematics, and Statistics departments in the Physical Sciences, Engineering and Technology (PSET) division at Purdue University Libraries.

With experience and background in both academic and public libraries, I work hard to bring a customer-service and outreach oriented perspective to my position, collaborating with fellow faculty, students and researchers across the university.

I have been leading several initiatives at Purdue University Libraries including the Graduate Research Information Portal (G.R.I.P.) project.  G.R.I.P. is an informational gateway targeted towards Purdue University graduate students.  The portal provides graduate students with critical resources, tools and contacts within a streamlined, comprehensive webpage, or portal.  I enjoy working collaboratively with fellow colleagues to help enhance awareness of this this portal and advance the tools and resources to best fit the needs of the graduate student population.

In addition, I recently led an information literacy project, “Embedded information literacy within an introduction to design process course: successive citation analyses and student reflections as an assessment of learning” supported by the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL’s), Assessment in Action (AIA) national initiative, designed to inform the campus community and the larger library community about the impact of embedded library instruction on student performance and students’ information literacy skills, both perceived and actual.

I felt extremely encouraged as a result of this study, which showed statistical significance in students’ academic growth, development, and competence in their information literacy skills as a result of the librarian cooperation with professors. I also gained the confidence to talk to stakeholders and campus administrators about library assessment and library impacts.

I am excited to continue my research and work as part of a profession-leading team of Libraries faculty in the areas of information literacy, data services and student-centered, active learning.

Nastasha E. Johnson
Assistant Professor, Physical and Mathematical Sciences Information Specialist

Advancing Discovery & Research through Data Integration

The importance of data literacy and research data integration is critical in today’s research environment – especially in the health and life science disciplines.

As part of my role at Purdue University Libraries, I develop programs to support discovery and learning in molecular biosciences, establish collaborations with researchers, and advance initiatives in data management and publishing in the areas of biochemistry, bioinformatics, medicinal chemistry, molecular biosciences and molecular pharmacology.

I also evaluate, select and integrate molecular biosciences resources into the Libraries’ collections and serve as a liaison to the College of Agriculture’s biochemistry department, the College of Pharmacy’s medicinal chemistry and molecular pharmacology department, and to other faculty, staff and students who utilize bioinformatics in their research.

I enjoy working collaboratively with fellow faculty members across these divisions to address the needs of students and researchers in courses and to help identify effective ways to integrate bioinformatics into their research.

As a key member of the Libraries’ data services team, it is very gratifying to see the growing interest and understanding of the importance of data literacy and research data integration as an integral part of the research process.

Purdue University Libraries data services team is leading the profession in these efforts, and I frequently work and interact with this group to explore data issues and solve problems for researchers.

Pete. E. Pascuzzi
Assistant Professor, Molecular and Biosciences Information Specialist

Message from Purdue Student Government President and Vice President

The role of libraries in fundamentally shaping education and learning cannot possibly be overestimated. As soon as we began reading, back when we still fumbled clumsily over the most rudimentary words, educators prodded us towards the boundless resources offered by libraries. Today, tremendous advances in technology have transformed the landscape of scholastics, and libraries have been tasked with keeping pace.

The prior necessity of physically visiting the library in order to access its wealth of volumes diminished as technological progress gave way to the vast archives available online today. As we grew up, our generation in particular directly witnessed this pronounced evolution in daily interaction with libraries.

Here at Purdue University, we are fortunate enough to experience the immense benefits of the creativity, innovation, and dedication of Purdue University Libraries’ faculty and staff. This isn’t just prejudice talking, either.  In 2015, Purdue University Libraries was selected by the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) to receive a top honor, the Excellence in Libraries Award. It’s not difficult to see why. As students who have spent countless hours poring over our textbooks in various quiet corners of the many Purdue libraries, we can personally attest to the essential role of these spaces in our college careers.

They offer a quiet escape from the madness of your residence hall, apartment, or fraternity house when you want to buckle down with your studies. They catalyze future research endeavors that earn Purdue her national accolades as a top research university. They provide a forum for both individual study and collaborative work. And, perhaps most importantly, they function as a training ground for building strong work habits that will last after graduation.

Whether we tangibly engage the libraries on campus or access the library archives from the comfort of our homes, we, as students, are ever grateful for the role the libraries play in our education. On behalf of the student body as a whole, we would like to extend an enormous expression of thanks to Purdue University Libraries faculty and staff for fostering such a positive, enriched, and conducive learning environment.

Ever grateful, ever true.

Sincerely,

Mike Young, Student Body President

Becca Wilmoth, Student Body Vice President