ULM Librarians Attend Islandora Training

ULM Librarians Heather Pilcher and Rebecca Yantis attended an Islandora training session for the Louisiana Digital Library (LDL) on March the 6th. According to the Islandora website https://islandora.ca/about, “Islandora is an open-source software framework designed to help institutions and organizations and their audiences collaboratively manage and discover digital assets using a best-practices framework.” Islandora gives LDL members, including ULM, an easy-to-use method of uploading, organizing, and displaying digitized collections. ULM currently has five collections on the LDL                                        (http://louisianadigitallibrary.org), and the "Gunby Letters Home" Collection is in the process of being added to the Louisiana Digital Library. A sample of letters from this new collection can be viewed below.

GPO Staff Visit ULM

On February 28th, ULM Library faculty and staff welcomed visitors Joe Paskoski and George Barnum from the Government Printing Office (GPO) in Washington, D.C. The GPO is a federal agency that publishes government information both online and in print, distributing it to libraries across the country through the Federal Depository Library Program. Our library is a depository for both federal and state documents, which can be found in print on the 4th floor or online through our catalog.

Paskoski and Barnum were also joined by Louisiana Tech librarian and ULM alumna Abigail Desoto, who oversees the depository programs for our region. The visitors toured the library building and met with administrators as well as faculty and staff in Government Publications. Finally, Paskoski presented an informative training session on “Basic Government Resources for Reference”. We were very happy to have them here, and hope to see them again soon!

George Barnum, Thomas Hoover, Joe Paskoski, Megan Lowe, and Maren Williams.

New Books in February

ULM Hires New CIO/Dean of the Library

ULM Library is proud to announce the hiring of Thomas Hoover who will serve as the Chief Information Officer and Dean of the Library at the University of Louisiana at Monroe. (ULM). In his last position, he served as Associate Vice Chancellor and Chief Information Officer at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC). He is the university's highest-ranking technology executive, responsible for creating and implementing the technology vision at ULM. Hoover has worked in Information Technology in higher education since 1999. Prior to his appointment at ULM and UTC, he served as the Director of Instructional Technology Support at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California. He was born in southern California and has a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science and History from the University of California at Davis and a Master's in Public Policy from Pepperdine University's School of Public Policy. He is married and has five children. He enjoys golfing and traveling.

“Greetings!  We are excited for this spring semester.  There is a lot happening at the library.  We will be rolling out some study resources throughout the semester so stay tuned.       Please let us know any suggestions you might have”. 

Thomas Hoover, CIO and Dean of the Library

Megan Lowe Promoted to ULM Library Director

Megan Lowe started at ULM in 2003 as a tenure-track Reference/Instructional Librarian. Since then, she obtained tenure and was promoted to the rank of Associate Professor. In 2012, she became the Coordinator of Public Services and in 2016 became the Interim Assistant Director of the Library.  Lowe was promoted to Director of the ULM Library in February of 2018.

In 2010, Lowe founded Codex: The Journal of the Louisiana Chapter of the ACRL, an open access, peer-reviewed journal focused on academic librarianship and still serves as editor. Megan published several articles on various topics, co-authored a book chapter on the statewide library consortium LOUIS, another on the emotional impact of the deselection process on librarians, and co-authored a full-length book on that same topic. She frequently presents at conferences on a variety of topics and is a huge supporter of information literacy, open access, digital textbooks, institutional repositories, and digital humanities. 

Megan is married to Eric and has several cats with definitive (and sometimes infuriating) personalities. In her spare time, she reads; writes poetry; freelance edits; and enjoys making jewelry, soap, and candles; putting together puzzles; and playing videogames. Lowe also likes to travel, especially to attend heavy metal concerts, and sends letters and cards to family and friends all over the world.

New Library Improvements Coming

Administration at ULM Library has been hard at work securing improvements to our facility for our campus community. The water fountain on the first floor of the Library building was updated to include a bottle filler. This will help our community reduce their carbon footprint and faculty, staff, and students may refill their own bottles with filtered water. Other changes include the addition of 10 rolling whiteboards to be dispersed between the 2nd and 3rd floors of the library. 

New Annual Reviews

The database Annual Reviews has recently changed its interface. You can get to it at its new URL here:
https://ulm.idm.oclc.org/login?url=http://www.annualreviews.org/library/start

Do note that we subscribe to most but not all titles, and not all new issues will be available. Click on "Current Volume" to see the latest full text available.

MLK Day 2017

(Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at Oberlin College-- whitehouse.gov)

The ULM Library will be closed on January 16, 2017 to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

We'll re-open to our full Spring Schedule hours on Tuesday.

Spring 2017 ULM Library Schedule now available

You can see the ULM Library's Spring 2017 schedule here:
http://www.ulm.edu/library/hours.html

Closed Thurs Dec 22, but OPEN Fri Dec 23

ULM Library will be closed on Thursday, December 22, 2016  for electrical maintenance on campus, but The ULM Library will be open on Friday Dec. 23.



After that, we will be closed until we open again on January 2, 2017.


Full Schedule here:
http://www.ulm.edu/library/hours.html

Wintersession hours

Wintersession has arrived! That means our hours have changed again:

Mon-Thurs:  7:30 am – 5:30pm
Fri:  7:30 am – 4:30 pm
Sat & Sun:  CLOSED

Thanksgiving and finals

The ULM Library will be closed part of this week for Thanksgiving, but after the holiday, we won't return to our regular hours. Instead, we'll be open longer for the approaching finals, staying open until 3am!

November 23	7:30 am – 1 pm	Thanksgiving Break
November 24 – November 26	CLOSED	Thanksgiving Break
November 27 – December 9	Mon-Thurs:  7:30 am – 3 am Fri:  7:30 am – 4:30 pm Sat:  10 am – 4 pm Sun:  12 pm – 3 am	Special Fall Semester

Improved access to Thomson Reuters Checkpoint

The Thomson Reuters Checkpoint (formerly RIA Checkpoint) database has now been configured for improved off-campus access! Registering an individual user login from on campus is no longer required for remote access. Clicking the link to Checkpoint on our website should lead to our usual library login and then directly to Checkpoint's search page.

Checkpoint is a tax, accounting, and legal database that focuses on tax law.

Offices moving out of library

For Ya'll's Information:  Several offices currently housed in the library have moved to the newly-renovated Sandel Hall (the old library), so please be aware that some offices might not be where you remember. These include Admissions, Financial Aid, and others.

FALL BREAK!

For Fall Break the ULM Library has this special schedule:

Wed Oct 19: 7:30 am – 10 pm
Thurs Oct 20: 7:30am–5:30pm
Fri Oct 21-Sun Oct 23: CLOSED

And we will resume a normal schedule on Mon Oct 24.

eTextbook Pilot Project Affordable Learning LOUISiana

This semester the ULM Library has been able to provide student with free online textbooks for their classes!
http://www.ulm.edu/library/etextbooks.html


These course eTextbooks have been funded by a pilot project from The Louisiana Board of Regents as part of their Affordable Learning LOUISiana Initiative which promotes Affordable Learning resources in the state. It's being implemented through our library consortium, LOUIS.

Fall semester schedule

Today the new semester begins!  The Library's Fall 2016 schedule can be found here:
http://www.ulm.edu/library/hours.html

Library personnel changes during the summer

During the Summer 2016 semester, the library underwent some personnel changes with the retirement of longtime Library Dean Donald Smith and the departure of librarian Carita Alexander. Best wishes to them both!

New Interim Library Dean Cynthia Robertson will oversee library operations and may be reached at crobertson@ulm.edu and the same x1050 office extension. If you were looking to contact Carita Alexander, former Allied Health & Pharmacy Librarian, you may instead contact Contact Asst. Dean Lowe lowe@ulm.edu. And Interim Coordinator of Special Collections Heather Pilcher can be reached at pilcher@ulm.edu for questions about Special Collections, Archives, and records management.

Former Library Dean Donald Smith receiving recognition plaque from Vice President Pani at June 2016 retirement party:

 Librarian Carita Alexander at farewell party with farewell placard

EBSCO database problems

Today all EBSCO-related databases are having server downtime issues and are unavailable. The problem is being investigated and we hope they'll be back online soon.

Independence Day: Recreation

ID4 is coming this weekend!  So the library will be closed this weekend and on Monday, the 4th of July. Normal intersession hours resume on Tuesday.

Independence Day hours:
Mon-Thurs 7:30 am – 4:30 pm
Fri  7:30 am – 4:30 pm
Sat Jul 2-Mon Jul 4  CLOSED
Full Schedule