May 2020 Newsletter

Professional Development Highlights from 2020

The ASERL Professional Development Series has grown substantially in 2020. Because of the pandemic, we increased our offerings from two webinars a month to an average of eight webinars per month. Leadership, instructional design, conflict resolution, pandemic support, and DEI-related training topped the list of requested topics. These webinars have also been a platform for ASERL libraries to showcase their accomplishments in front of a national audience. They also serve as a vehicle where diverse presenters can talk about a variety of topics; ASERL has received much praise for our commitment to supporting the BIPOC community.

Our top 5 webinars in 2020 (in terms of attendance):

Recordings and slides from ASERL's webinars can be found at www.aserl.org/archive.

2021 Professional Development Webinars

Into the new year, we continue to field requests for topics of interest, along with opportunities to highlight the accomplishments of our member libraries. If you are working on a project that you think would make an interesting webinar for others, please contact Elaina Norlin at enorlin@aserl.org.

Coming soon: In the near future, we have several sessions that are attracting heavy interest. Here are the webinars that have received the highest number of registrations for January-February 2021. Please go to www.aserl.org/#webinars for a complete listing of all our upcoming webinars.

A new series
We are currently developing an “An Afternoon With…” series that highlights diversity success stories from pioneers in the library profession and beyond. The first webinar in the “An Afternoon With…” series will feature Kim Haas, host and producer of “Afro-Latino Travels” now airing on PBS television. This webinar will be offered on February 16, 2021. Upcoming panelists will include Tracie Hall (American Library Association), Anthony D. Smith (Institute of Museum and Library Service), and Athena Jackson (newly appointed Dean of Libraries at the University of Houston).

Shared Print Updates

CRL joins Rosemont Alliance: On January 14, the Rosemont Shared Print Alliance announced the Center for Research Libraries had become the newest participating library. Judy Russell, Dean of University Libraries at the University of Florida and outgoing Chair of the Rosemont Alliance Executive Committee, added, “Since its initial founding, the Rosemont Alliance has focused on collective action in responsibly stewarding serials and journals in libraries across the United States. A number of the Rosemont Alliance member programs have worked with CRL on collection analysis initiatives in the past and we look forward to further collaboration with CRL. They are an important partner in improving our ability to work at scale to preserve these valuable resources for the scholarly community.” The addition of CRL brings 44,000 new titles to the Rosemont corpus of retained print scholarly journals – 4,000 of which are the only known copy within the Alliance. CRL’s collection will also fill more than 3,000 gaps in sparsely-held titles, to build more complete runs. See https://rosemontsharedprintalliance.org/ for the full announcement.

Doug Way appointed to Scholars Trust Governing Council & Rosemont Alliance Executive Committee: The ASERL Board of Directors recently appointed Doug Way, Dean of Libraries at the University of Kentucky, to serve as one of ASERL’s representatives to the Scholars Trust Governing Council and the Rosemont Shared Print Alliance Executive Committee. Doug is successor to Don Gilstrap (Dean of Libraries at the University of Alabama), whose term on these bodies rotated as of December 31, 2020. ASERL is most grateful to Don for his service, and we welcome Doug as he becomes more involved with ASERL activities. The Board also offered its thanks to the other ASERL Deans who volunteered to help with these duties.

Last Known Copy Initiative: The Rosemont Shared Print Alliance was formed with the vision “To ensure the preservation and availability of print journal literature.” In advancing this vision, the Rosemont Alliance Executive Committee has recently approved a new initiative to identify and retain those print journal titles that appear to have only one copy held by libraries participating in the Rosemont Alliance and for which only one copy was reported in OCLC (U.S. holdings). Using data generated through collection analysis projects with the Center for Research Libraries, there are approximately 61,500 journal titles that fit these parameters and have not yet been committed for long-term retention. The Rosemont Alliance has invited a representative sampling of libraries to join a pilot project to analyze the data on the last known copies, weigh commitments for their retention, and develop best practices for future use. ASERL libraries participating in the pilot project are Emory University, Johns Hopkins University, the University of Georgia, and the University of North Carolina – Charlotte.

Update on Adam
Matthew Digital offer

Under Development: ASERL Licensing Principles

ASERL has secured an extension of our group-purchase offer with Adam Matthew Digital (AMD) through March 15, 2021. If ASERL members’ combined expenditures with AMD for the period December 1, 2019 – March 15, 2021 equal or exceed a total of $2.9M, all ASERL libraries will receive perpetual access to the 79 titles published by AMD through 2016. That portfolio of content is valued at $3.6M. As of this writing, ASERL libraries have reached 87% of the group-expenditure goal. For more information about this and all offers available to ASERL libraries, please see http://www.aserl.org/offers/.

Coming Soon:
Controlled Digital Lending Resource Guide

Coming Soon:
Member Input for new ASERL website

For the past year ASERL has been convening an informal discussion group to provide a forum for members to discuss their interests and concerns about Controlled Digital Lending (CDL). As a result of these discussions, we are putting the final touches on a new, concise Resource Guide to assist libraries that are considering if and how they might implement a CDL program. The “ASERL Resource Guide for Controlled Digital Lending” is expected to be published in early February 2021. Watch the ASERL website for more information.

Want to stay up to date about ASERL activities?

Our day-to-day announcements are shared with ASERL members via numerous listservs. If you'd like to stay abreast of our work, please subscribe to the email list that most closely matches your roles and interests. See http://lists.aserl-lists.org/mailman/listinfo

Reminder: Amazon Smile & Kroger Rewards

Thanks to COVID-19, most of us are doing a lot more online shopping these days.

If you use Amazon, please consider designating ASERL as the beneficiary organization of your online purchases. More information can be found at https://smile.amazon.com/ch/58-2598596.
If you use Kroger (online or in-person) for grocery shopping, you can add ASERL to receive donations from your Kroger Rewards card. The benefits to ASERL do not impact/reduce the Kroger Reward points you earn as a shopper. To add ASERL to your Kroger account, login at www.kroger.com, click on “My Account” then “Community Rewards.” You can search for ASERL via our Kroger number:
BB910 and then click on “Enroll” to add ASERL to your profile.

These are both free and easy – and great new ways you can support ASERL!