Prompted by the COVID-19 Pandemic, the MSU Libraries completely revamped the lending process for Reserved Reading Materials, including material in the Affordable Textbook Project. To give MSU students, faculty and staff quick access to Reserve material, the MSU Libraries now offers Controlled Digital Lending (CDL) for our high-use Reserve items. We are scanning Reserve items and uploading them to Sharepoint, which allows patrons to request these items via the ‘Get it!’ button in the catalog.  A form is then sent to a Patron Services staff member who emails the patron a link to a digital copy of the requested item. These links expire after a specified time so the MSU Libraries are not violating copyright laws. Low-use Reserve material is still available for check out at Patron Services. Returned items must be quarantined for five days before they can circulate again. It has required the collaboration and hard work of several departments in order to make CDL a viable resource for our MSU patrons.

For more information: https://lib.msu.edu/things-to-know/

MSUL through the University Archives and Historical Collections is the caretaker of MSU's rich history including its born and digitized content. Currently, very little of this digital content is available to students, faculty, staff and the public. This project was proposed as one method of preserving and providing access to these resources. The project is executed with the MSUL's Digital Preservation Working Group as an opportunity to experiment with this tool for use among MSUL units. It also provides an opportunity to collaborate outside MSUL and MSU through our membership in this consortium for hosting Preservica. Ideas and documents are shared using the BaseCamp tool.

Timeline

• Original start was summer 2019 but was put aside due to other priorities after some initial successful testing with basic functionality and training courses.
• Resumed late summer 2020 after merging of the UAHC and SPC collection management tool, ArchivesSpace. Basic functionality rechecked.
• Integration with ArchivesSpace was setup and verified in fall 2020.
• Ingesting of content from previous Archivematica system begun fall 2020. Continue into 2021.
• Other test cases from evaluation plan execution began late 2020. Continue into 2021.
• Preservica user procedures drafting Nov 2020 - Jan 2021.
• Evaluation report draft started December 2020.
• Ingesting content for user experience evaluation Dec 2020 - Jan 2021.
• Public Interface support from MSUL Web Services, Jan - Feb 2021.
• Selected User Experience Evaluation Jan - Mar 2021.
• Complete Evaluation Report Spring 2021. Make recommendations.

Per their website, the Summer Research Opportunities Program (SROP) is a gateway to graduate education at Big Ten Academic Alliance universities. The goal of the program is to increase the number of underrepresented students who pursue graduate study and research careers. SROP helps prepare undergraduates for graduate study through intensive research experiences with faculty mentors and enrichment activities. SROP has been happening at MSU for more than 10 years, but not until 2019 did Erik Ponder get involved to promote the library as a resource for SROP interns while on campus. After his brief talk to the 2019 cohort, Erik realized the library could be much more involved in the program, and he set out to convince program director Steven Thomas to give MSU Libraries a larger role. Steven agreed to bring the interns to the library for an afternoon at the beginning of the 10-week program, and Erik created a committee tasked to plan a tailored library introduction. When campus closed, SROP was reimagined as a virtual 4-week program with 28 interns rather than 80, and the MSUL session went virtual as well.

https://grad.msu.edu/srop

The exhibit “Women at MSU: 150 Groundbreaking Years” in the Special Collections Gallery celebrates 150 years since the first women were admitted to what is now Michigan State University. The project brings together colleagues and materials from the MSU Museum, the University Archives and Historical Collections, and the Main Library as well as Special Collections. Spanning from the admission of the first women in 1870 to the Women’s Rights Hearings in 1972 called by President Wharton, the exhibit includes pamphlets, textbooks, women’s handbooks, photographs, student notebooks and scrapbooks, and an audio recording from the 1972 Women’s Rights Hearing. There will be a companion online exhibit for those who are not able to visit the gallery in person.

This exhibit has provided a unique opportunity for colleagues across the libraries, archives, and museum to collaborate and connect to increase our visibility in the MSU community. This collaboration is especially important considering the relatively new reorganization of the University Archives and the MSU Museum under the leadership of the Dean of the Libraries. The exhibit offers a chance to connect the community to the history of women at MSU and to reframe our history from their perspective through the collection items that will be displayed. It will also surely be a way to bring awareness of our collections to Alumni. Since this exhibit is a collaborative effort across departments, it will also expose the community to the different resources and services available at the Main Library, the Murray and Hong Special Collections, the University Archives and Historical Collection, and the MSU Museum.