Shapiro Award
The Shapiro Library Staff Innovation Award is an annual award presented to a Fondren staff member, project group or committee who has developed an innovative program to provide library services at Rice University or who has shown exemplary service to the university.
Ian Mellor-Crummey was honored with the Shapiro Award in 2023 for his efforts to support digital media production. Ian supports the library community with excellent photography, video production, and media production skills. In his time at Fondren’s Digital Media Commons he has developed short courses for students and contributed his expertise towards an overhaul of the department’s photography studio. This space can be used by classes or individuals to learn and put studio skills to practical use.
New Staff
Emerson Kovacevic, Access Services
Gilberto Zapata, Access Services
Ivan Acero, Woodson Research Center - Doctor Cuthbertson Books Project
Matt Furman, Woodson Research Center - Teapot Dome Scandal Project
Skilltype Debuts at Fondren
Faced with rapid changes in technology and library operations, library staff continually pursue professional development. However, it can be difficult to find out about training programs. To enable staff to identify and access training, Fondren Library recently began participating in a pilot program to use Skilltype, a skills development platform. This pilot, sponsored by Amigos Library Services, also includes several peer libraries such as Washington University and University of Texas at Austin. Skilltype recommends training materials based on interests that staff members select, sending out customized lists weekly with links to relevant content. Skilltype also supports setting up groups so that their leaders can share training materials. Through Skilltype, library staff have discovered training materials in areas such as artificial intelligence, leadership and user experience. Skilltype also reveals what expertise library staff already have and where there are gaps. As more and more training materials are available online, Skilltype makes library staff aware of those that match their interests and makes it easy to view them.
Skilltype CEO Tony Zanders presented at a Library Town Hall Meeting to kick off the Skilltype pilot.
Woodson Research Center Staff Retreat
Woodson Research Center staff took a collective moment in June 2023 at the Moody Center for the Arts to discuss successful aspects of our work, pain points in our work, and what our aspirations would be if we could change anything.
The resulting changes to date have included:
- reorganized staff roles to make email and phone reference more efficient
- approved design for improvement of stacks space where interviews and other film work often takes places
- improved workflow for cataloged books entering the department
- increased engagement across campus for use of printing presses, beginning a book arts / printing arts program
- expanded programming of outreach and educational events, in collaboration with FOFL
The retreat format was incredibly helpful for team brainstorming and reflecting. We plan to take this time again in June 2024.
Woodson staff enjoyed a visit to the Moody Center for the Arts during their retreat.
DSS Research Services Strategic Retreat
In the fall of 2022, the entire Digital Scholarship Services (DSS) team held a retreat to set priorities for the next year. These include:
- Identify user needs.
- Support open access publishing projects, including journals and digital scholarship projects.
- Strengthen support for research data.
- Continue to develop expert staff.
The DSS team has been working together to advance these goals, including by creating a survey on data support needs (in collaboration with the Center for Research Computing) and designing a workshop on data visualization taught by representatives from several DSS departments, including the GIS/Data Center, Digital Media Commons, Kelley Center for Government Information, and data services.
Digital Curation Coordinator Monica Rivero Retires
DSS wished digital curation coordinator Monica Rivero a happy retirement and began recruiting for her replacement. Monica worked at Rice for about 16 years, providing expertise in digital preservation, project management, metadata creation, file management, and more.