Fall 2022: Letter from the Interim Dean

Welcome all to a new school year!

It is an honor to serve as the Interim Dean of Libraries and Information Resources for as long as it takes to find a permanent replacement for former Dean Stephanie Walker. The librarians and library staff have been working hard all summer to be ready for the new year. We were very pleased to host the New Student Orientation week in July. Many other orientation tours are also scheduled. Meaghan Farrell is just starting as our new Engineering and Sciences librarian. She comes to us from Texas A&M. And we have started a search for an Open Educational Resources librarian.

Under Laura Egan’s guidance librarians have continued reviewing our print subscriptions to move more resources online and identifying low use subscriptions to reinvest in higher impact resources, enabling us to add the following:

• ARTFL U Chicago
• Communication Source
• CQ Researcher
• Ethnic Diversity Source
• Literary Encyclopedia
• New York Times Education Program (not law or med)
• MIT Direct to Open eBooks Collection
• Political Science Complete
• Proquest Dissertations & Theses Full Text
• Kanopy (for faculty to license requested videos for course use)

We also upgraded an EBSCO subscription to Academic Search Ultimate and have the funds to continue the Project MUSE and JSTOR EBA, AIP conference proceedings, ACM digital library EBA collection, ASTM Compass, and SPIE Digital Library. We have also added Gaming Law Review and we are setting up ICAO Essentials and the AASTHO Standards.

Student Government has graciously assisted with funding our popular reading collection. Look for some fun new titles to read soon!

The Knowledge Commons is ready to assist students at the Information Desk with everything from general campus or community questions to connecting them with advanced research help. Our Peer Research Consultants are ready to do consultations with your students to help them find resources for their projects and will be staffing the PRC / Ask Us desk the following hours: Monday and Wednesday 8 am – 8 pm, Tuesday and Thursday 10 am – 6 pm, Friday 8 am – 5 pm.

Librarians will be in the Consult Room from 9 am – 4 pm and Sundays 1-4, with virtual hours from 7-9 pm Monday – Thursday.

National Scholarship will be staffing a desk a few days a week in the Commons, and Learning Services will be providing some tutoring sessions within the building.

If you have pop up events or would like to staff a station for special short term promotions, the library would be happy to provide space at a desk in the Commons.

The Research Skills Instruction Librarians continue to connect students with lessons important for academic success whether on or off campus. This year brings new resources to support the Ethical Use of Sources and using Zotero for managing the research process. Fall library workshops include these topics as well as sessions on technology/software.

The Elwyn B. Robinson Department of Special Collections has worked alongside NEH grant personnel to digitize archival materials related to Native Americans and tribal governments including:

• Burdick Papers
• Langer Papers
• Indigenous Government Documents

They also have digitized University Senate meeting minutes and UND commencement programs. Both of these projects are on-going, but are expected to be completed during the Fall semester.

Special Collections is also set to embark upon a major processing project: the Judge Myron Bright papers. The Judge presided on the U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals from 1968 to 2016.

The Library Systems department has continued working on adding material to the UND Scholarly Commons. We have finished archiving Floodwall Magazine and Teaching and Learning: the Journal of Natural Inquiry and Reflective Practice, and our ongoing project to digitize all of the theses and dissertations ever produced at UND stands at about 44% completion (4,844 complete out of 10,999). We invite all UND scholars to deposit copies of their publications. Separately, we now offer regular technology workshops on 3D scanning, image editing, and Microsoft Office software, with more to come. Lastly, we continue to make improvements to behind-the-scenes library technology to help ensure smooth and easy access to the library’s holdings.

Technical Services as always has been cataloging a plethora of new books and online resources.

Sally Dockter