News from the Field

David Free

Choice podcasts named to Publisher Podcast Awards 2023 Shortlist

Two Choice podcasts—The Authority File and Toward Inclusive Excellence—have been named to the Publisher Podcast Awards 2023 Shortlist. Produced by Media Voices, a leading UK-based podcast broadcasting news, views, and interviews with key figures from around the media world, the Publisher Podcast Awards are a celebration of the best podcasts in the publishing and media industry. Award recipients will be announced in late April 2023.

Choice Editorial Director Bill Mickey remarked, “We’re thrilled to be shortlisted and I couldn’t be prouder of the teams behind Toward Inclusive Excellence and The Authority File. Many thanks to the judges and Media Voices for the initial nod.”

The Authority File podcast, which recently celebrated its 300th episode, was shortlisted in two categories, Best Commercial Strategy and Best B2B Podcast. Toward Inclusive Excellence, the newest podcast from Choice, was shortlisted in the Best Hobbies & Special Interest category. Learn more and listen to the latest episodes of The Authority File and Toward Inclusive Excellence on the Choice 360 website at https://www.choice360.org/podcasts/.

LibAnswers Chatbot from Springshare

Springshare recently launched LibAnswers Chatbot functionality. LibAnswers Chatbot can serve as the first point of contact for chat patrons, guiding them through search options, assisting with finding common FAQs and general library information, and passing them off to live chat operators whenever needed. Chatbot functionality combined with 24/7/365 Chat Cooperative Coverage gives patrons an option for self-service while providing on-demand live help whenever they need it—at any time of day or night. With LibAnswers Chatbot, libraries create their own “flows” to guide patrons toward the answers and resources they’re looking for, before they talk to a librarian. TheChatbot is rule-based, not AI, so libraries are in full control of the entire user experience. Chatbot analytics help libraries analyze the chatbot interactions so that they’ll always be able to identify places for improvement.

LibAnswers Chatbot can route questions to specific chat departments, prompt patrons to create a new LibAnswers ticket, and search the LibAnswers FAQ. In addition, Chatbot integrates with other Springshare tools to direct users to LibCal for event registration or equipment and space bookings, connect patrons to LibGuides information, and even send patrons to LibWizard forms or surveys. Learn more at https://buzz.springshare.com/springynews/news-56/chatbot.

PALNI, PALCI remove barriers to Hyku adoption with IMLS grant

The Private Academic Library Network of Indiana (PALNI) and the Partnership for Academic Library Collaboration and Innovation (PALCI) are midway through a two-year, $248,050 grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) to support Hyku for Consortia: Removing Barriers to Adoption. With this award, granted in 2021 as part of the National Leadership Grants for Libraries Program, the partners are increasing the flexibility, accessibility, and usability of Hyku, the multi-tenant repository platform system. The first year of the project culminated with PALNI and PALCI making significant progress on their initial goals to produce a comprehensive gap assessment for Hyku, focusing on the barriers to adoption; complete user-focused development sprints tightly scoped around high-priority features of the system; and create a toolkit to share with other library groups considering collaborating on a repository. The project’s next phases include continued UX research and data collection to identify and assign priority to other gaps in functionality, especially those that present a barrier to Hyku adoption. For more information on the project, visit https://www.hykuforconsortia.org/.

New from ACRL—Twenty-First-Century Access Services, Second Edition

ACRL announces the publication of Twenty-First-Century Access Services: On the Front Line of Academic Librarianship, Second Edition edited by Michael J. Krasulski and Trevor A. Dawes. This thoroughly revised and expanded edition captures the new and broadened roles of these departments, updated skills they need, and the myriad ways they contribute to institutional success.

Access services is the administrative umbrella typically found in academic libraries where the circulation, reserves, interlibrary loan, stacks maintenance, and related functions reside. These functions are central to daily operations and the staff are often seen as “the face” of the library. But while access services impact every user of the academic library, these functions can be unseen and often go unnoticed and uncelebrated.

This revised and expanded edition of 2013’s seminal Twenty-First-Century Access Services highlights the expanded duties of these departments; the roles these services continue to play in the success of the library, students, and faculty; and the knowledge, skills, and abilities these library workers need. In four parts it explores

• facilitating access;
• leading access services;
• assessing access services; and
• developing access services professionals.

Chapters take in-depth looks at functions including circulation, stacks management, resource sharing, course reserve management and controlled digital lending, user experience, and assessing and benchmarking access services. The book also contains the full text of ACRL’s A Framework for Access Services Librarianship and a look at how it was developed and approved.

Twenty-First-Century Access Services demonstrates access services’ value, defines their responsibilities and necessary skills, and explores how access services departments are evolving new and traditional services to support the academic mission of their institutions. It is geared toward both access services practitioners and library and information science graduate students and faculty.

Twenty-First-Century Access Services, Second Edition is available for purchase in print and as an ebook through the ALA Online Store; in print through Amazon.com; and by telephone order at (866) 746-7252 in the United States or (770) 442-8633 for international customers.

LoC launches Protests Against Racism Web Archive

A new web archive collection from the Library of Congress documents the civil unrest sparked by the police murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020. The Protests Against Racism Web Archive contains a selection of websites documenting protests against racism and police brutality against Black people, as well as grass roots movements and activism calling for police reform. The new web archive is a selective collection that partially documents websites between June 29 and August 7, 2020. It includes more than 200 web archives.

The collection covers Black Lives Matter protests and others with the same cause but not organized by the Black Lives Matter organization. In addition to coverage of the protests, the collection contains responses, reactions, and activism representing several sectors of society, including community organizations; local, state, and national governments; professional associations; trade groups; the business community; educational and religious institutions; national sports organizations; civil rights organizations; and others. More information is available at https://www.loc.gov/collections/protests-against-racism-web-archive/about-this-collection/.

GPO director to adopt recommendations for digital FDLP

US Government Publishing Office (GPO) Director Hugh Nathanial Halpern recently responded to the Feasibility of a Digital Federal Depository Library Program: Report of the GPO Director’s Task Force. In his response, Halpern noted that he broadly intends to adopt the task force’s recommendations to move to a digital Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) and has accounted for those few areas where the agency may diverge from the recommendation as written. The Task Force on a Digital Federal Depository Library Program, which was appointed by Halpern in early 2022, released its report recommending a digital FDLP in December 2022. Halpern’s full letter is available at https://www.fdlp.gov/file-repository-item/gpo-directors-response-final-report-task-force-digital-fdlp.

New EBSCO product focuses on financial literacy

EBSCO Information Services has launched FinancialFit, a new product focused on providing libraries, schools, colleges, and other institutions with resources for patrons and students looking to improve their financial literacy. This e-learning solution provides comprehensive, interactive resources to support each financial phase of a person’s journey.

FinancialFit is designed by experts in the financial industry and offers short, easy-to-understand lessons, videos, and interactive tools to empower people to understand the fundamentals of personal finance and make sound financial decisions to achieve financial goals. With more than 160 microlessons, FinancialFit covers topics including how to borrow money, budgeting basics, managing debt, building credit, setting long-term financial goals, and more. To learn more about FinancialFit, visit https://www.ebsco.com/products/research-databases/financialfit.

Gale Digital Scholar Lab adds collaboration features

Gale, part of Cengage Group, is bringing real-time team collaboration to the Gale Digital Scholar Lab platform to support project-based learning. The company has launched a new collaboration feature called Gale Digital Scholar Lab: Groups. Developed based on feedback from Lab users, this new functionality enables researchers, instructors, and students at the same institution to collaborate on digital humanities projects within the platform and explore Gale Primary Sources in new ways. This strengthens Gale Digital Scholar Lab’s use in a classroom environment and helps students develop workplace skills they can use well beyond college. Gale Digital Scholar Lab: Groups consists of two features. Workspaces is a virtual shared workspace that expands the tool’s use in a classroom environment, enabling students to work on projects together that better support the collaborative nature of digital humanities, and Notebook supports and encourages good research methodology and enables users to interact with each other within the platform. Learn more at https://www.gale.com/academic/digital-scholar-lab-groups.