Michigan State University Libraries CCDO Report for ALA Annual (June 2018)
Budget for FY19
The library has not yet been told any specifics about support for the materials budget in the coming year. There are some campus-level uncertainties: legal settlement costs, state support, international student admissions.
Additions to the collection
During academic year 2017-18, some additions to the collection include:
- Digitized periodical backfiles: Women’s Magazine Archive parts 1 and 2 (ProQuest), and National Geographic 1888-1994 (Gale)
- Historical newspapers: Rand Daily Mail 1902-1985 (Readex), Dallas Morning News 1885-1984 (Readex), Pravda 1959-1996 in English translation (Readex), and International Herald Tribune 1887-2013 (Gale)
- GIDEON (Global Infectious Disease and Epidemiology Network) for public health
- 2017 and 2018 launches of journals from Springer Nature
- Current Adam Matthew Digital releases
- Annual updates to ProQuest Congressional series such as Legislative Insight and US Digital Bills
- Reveal Digital’s 1920s KKK newspaper digitization project
- We are ending the first year of a PDA for Kanopy streaming video, with concerns about runaway costs
Facilities
Having reached a tipping-point in terms of overcrowded stack space (due to branch closings), we are well into a project to move about a million monographs to an improved and larger Remote Storage facility, with paged book retrieval or desktop delivery of scanned articles/chapters. Transfer decisions are based on SCS Greenglass data and subject librarian review. These transfers allowed us to increase basic user seating; move the Special Collections Reading Room and a new associated Seminar Room to the main floor, with better visibility and facilities; and open a new Digital Scholarship Lab in partnership with the College of Arts and Letters, a versatile space that includes VR capacity and a circular projection space offering 360 degree visualization and film viewing. Future plans in the Main Library include a Special Collections stack floor with improved climate control.
Hiring and staff
Cliff Haka will retire during July after 21 years as Director of Libraries. Joseph Salem, Jr., will be his successor as University Librarian. Other staff hired this year include subject librarians for music, public health, American history, chemistry, and African studies. The next round of searches and hiring includes positions assigned to business, media preservation, and turfgrass.
Accessibility in digital collections
We continue to cooperate with our Big Ten Academic Alliance partners to develop and seek license terms that support ADA accessibility and vendor commitments to help remediate inaccessible content. BTAA now tests specific products and platforms, and posts the test results at https://www.btaa.org/library/accessibility/library-e-resource-accessibility--testing. On campus, the Libraries finished the second year of a 5-year process of reviewing digital resources for compliance with ADA accessibility guidelines, to meet internal university guidelines managed by Purchasing (with an intent to stop exposing the university to legal exposure). Where we have discretion in spending, such as end-of-year one-time purchasing, we like to buy content from publishers who are willing to work with us, and for other publishers, they may find that we aren’t buying in those end-of-year periods.
Open Access and Open Educational Resources
There is campus interest in affordable textbook initiatives and OERs. We already support student cost-saving through a Course Materials Program housed in the Libraries. Collection funds are being directed away from support of faculty-author APCs, toward more student-centered needs.
Steven Sowards
Associate Director for Collections
Michigan State University Libraries