By Tamara Weintraub, Palomar College

When my college closed to on-campus classes and services back in March 2020, I remember thinking that things would be back to “normal” within a few weeks. Yet here we are in Fall 2021, starting a third academic year where no decision or action occurs without considering the effects of COVID-19. Much of what we do continues to occur remotely, and although most California Community College (CCC) Libraries appear to be offering some level of on-campus services and resources to students this term, we are operating in a very different world from the one we shut our doors to 19 months ago. We successfully reinvented all the essential things we do for a remote learning environment; now we face the challenge of restoring much appreciated in-person programs in a way that is safe and responsive to our students and staff.

During this entire time, one thing has remained constant: library e-resources and the Council of Chief Librarian Electronic Access & Resources Committee, or CCL-EAR.  As I wrote in last September’s Outlook, the value of having an advocacy group (CCL-EAR), processes (product reviews, ordering system), and resources (Consortium products) already in place to serve our community in a largely-remote learning environment proved to be invaluable. We may experience other hiccups in our work, but e-resources provide information continuity to both us and our students.

I’m proud of the way the CCL-EAR Committee supports CCCs in meaningful and familiar ways. Last year we wrote and published several product reviews (ScienceDirect College Edition, Leganto, LibGuides vs LibGuides CMS, LibAnswers, Statistics Resource Comparison, Visible Body); undertook projects that help us help member libraries meet their e-resource needs (annual survey of member libraries, shared ebook deselection project); and supported the antiracist and inclusive values of our community by exploring ways to assess our content and providers through an equity lens.

Moving forward for 2021/22, we will continue to pursue initiatives and respond to the needs of our library community, including:

• Examine products and write reviews to help Consortium members select the most appropriate products for their colleges.
• Seek out and examine content with an equity lens. CCL-EAR is committed to ensuring that Consortium products accurately represent the many dimensions of diversity in perspective, subject matter, authorship, and audience.
• Proactively address our members’ values and concerns with vendors, including content inclusiveness, accessibility, integrity, and user privacy.
• Finish the 2nd CCLC NetLibrary/EBSCO eBooks shared collection deselection project. CCL-EAR will reconsider appealed titles and start the process of removing deselected titles.

Before any titles are removed, communications about how this will be done, and timelines will be sent out through the CCL listserv. We will also work on a procedure for ongoing review and deselection of shared ebooks moving forward.

CCL-EAR is composed of volunteers from CCL member libraries. We share the same interests and concerns as you and will address these together. Feel free to reach out to me or your Regional Representative, or attend CCL-EAR meetings (all CCL members welcome). Learn more about who we are, what is involved, and meeting dates and times.

Amy Beadle, Director

Welcome back. I hope that you all are adjusting to being back in school – whatever that looks like for your college!

DEI Proposal
As most of you are (hopefully) aware, the League submitted a proposal for federal funding to purchase $1 million of DEI-focused resources late last spring. While none of our congressional members opted to fund the proposal, Senator Padilla expressed interest. We have been working with his staff over the last few months and the Senator included our funding in his request to the Senate Committee on Appropriations. We are so grateful to the Senator and his staff for their generous support. If funding is finalized, we will ask for participation on a committee to evaluate possible content for purchase. League staff is continuing to monitor progress and process and should know more in the next four-six weeks. 

Operations
We have a new CCLC Library Consortium team member. Marissa Jackson has joined us an Account Specialist. She comes with great experience working with statewide technology projects in our system such as CVC/OEI, CCC Assess and you might even remember her from the LSP project in its early stages. We’re thrilled to welcome her to the team. Marissa’s primary focus will be to serve as the link between Consortia Manager and our accounting software; as well as to ensure that our vendor accounts are reconciled and paid in a timely manner. As she gains experience, she will become responsible for invoices and credit memos as well. 

LSP Funding
We are continuing to work with the Chancellor’s Office on LSP funding. They are currently reviewing our proposed Scope of Work. Funding will not be dispersed until early Spring 2022, so we will be using that time to plan and survey the field about statewide technology needs to complement/improve our functionality as a library consortium. More information to come as it becomes available.

Calendar Year Renewals and New Products
Vendors are finalizing their pricing for January 2022. Renewal and new pricing will be available in Consortia Manager by September 30th and due by October 29th. We will host a webinar in October as well as bookable office hours to assist you with your orders.

Consortia Manager
We’ve been meeting with Consortia Manager leadership and development frequently. They have implemented some improvements that are beginning to assist our internal processes, as well as working with us to find ways to improve our members experience with the platform. When the Consortium first implemented the software, we opted to purchase the most basic version. We’re now looking at additional modules that will improve our workflow and provide a better end-user experience. More to come on that during a Wednesday Webinar later this fall.

CCLC LibGuide
All LSP project documentation was moved over to the new CCLC LibGuide. Many thanks to Caroline Sinay Gudiel and our amazing Work Group Leads/members for managing that process. It was a tremendous task to bring over all of that historic documentation from the previous LSP Wiki. Please take a look at: https://caccleague.libguides.com/LSP.

Wednesday Webinars
Our Wednesday Webinar series is back, as of September 1. If you missed previous webinars, you can find the recordings here: https://caccleague.libguides.com/LSP/eventrecordings

Upcoming Webinars include:

• September 29, Gale All-Access Program
• October 6, O’Reilly for Higher Ed, ProQuest Central and Academic Video Online
• October 13, Using Alma Analytics for the Chancellor's Report

We are soliciting topics for upcoming webinars and looking for presenters, so please contact Caroline Sinay Gudiel with your ideas.

Communications
We are always working at improving communications and lessening response time as a library consortium team. A couple of reminders and requests:

The best way to communicate with us if you need something done – is via FreshDesk. The one exception to that is pricing requests for Consortium resources. Please do that via the “Price Request” feature in Consortia Manager. 

Please do not send an email and submit a ticket on the same issue. It slows down all response times if we have to cross-reference and resolve via multiple platforms.

Thank you for bearing with us as we continue to find our way as a growing library consortium.

CARLDIG-S: “Failure Remix: Stories of Failure, Setbacks, and Where We Go From There”
Virtual
Friday, December 3rd, 2021, 9:00 AM - 1:00 PM

More info: https://carl-acrl.org/ig/carldigs/

Internet Librarian Conference
Virtual
October 26-28, 2021

More info: https://internet-librarian.infotoday.com/2021/Default.aspx

Charleston Library Conference 2021
Charleston, SC
November 1 – 5, 2021

More info: https://www.charleston-hub.com/the-charleston-conference/

CARL 2022 Conference: The Equity Minded Academic Library
Holiday Inn San Jose-Silicon Valley
March 31-April 2, 2022

More info: https://carl-acrl.org/

By Stephanie M. Roach, San Mateo County Community College District & Pawel Szponar, Foothill College

The California Community College (CCC) library consortium of 110 colleges using a shared Library Services Platform (LSP) has completed a “Change the Subject” project in which racist and offensive Library of Congress Subject Heading terminology related to undocumented immigrants and noncitizens has been replaced in all shared bibliographic records across the consortium. The project aims to improve the user experience for students and other library users across our state, particularly those that are described by the terminology, and are most impacted by problems such as the systemic racism that persists in library systems. The project was approved by the LSP Governance Committee in early February 2021 and technical work was completed in September 2021 by LSP Network Zone Administrator Pawel Szponar (Foothill College) with support from LSP Network Zone Task Force member Stephanie Roach (San Mateo County Community College District). Cheryl Cruse (Shasta College), who served as LSP Cataloging Work Group lead for the 2020-21 academic year, also supported throughout the process. The project was previously written about in the April 2021 CCL Outlook.

The Student Senate for California Community Colleges (SSCCC) represents students from the most diverse student population in the nation, California community colleges. After the unjust murder of George Floyd in May 2020, the SSCCC began to work actively within the higher education system to initiate change because we had seen too much of others talking about the issue without taking meaningful action. Their efforts resulted in the adoption of Anti-Racism: A Student Plan of Action, which can also be found on CCL's Resources page.

The Black Caucus of the American Library Association bestowed its prestigious Trailblazer Award to Laney College Librarian Shirley Coaston on July 29. Coaston received the award virtually at the National Conference of African American Librarians. 

Last December, Shirley Coaston celebrated 50 years at Laney College. She served many years as the Head Librarian at Laney and has been active in a wide range of professional organizations, including as CCL Secretary. Although she retired in 2011, she continues to work as a part-time librarian, providing invaluable contributions to the library and the profession.
 

We welcome Ben Wingard as the new librarian at our Nevada County Campus library in Grass Valley. Ben previously worked at Cosumnes River College where he provided reference and instruction services and participated in various campus committees and workgroups.  The NCC library is currently undergoing a renovation, so Ben will have the opportunity to provide input on the design of this exciting new learning commons space.  Ben, it’s great to have you on board!

We will have to say goodbye to Sabrina Pape, Dean of the Library and Learning Resource Center, as she is retiring at the end of October. Sabrina served as director of libraries at Vassar College in New York before she came to Sierra in 2014. In addition to supervising the library, she was also responsible for distance learning, tutoring and the writing center. One of her proud accomplishments was overseeing the renovation of the Rocklin campus library space into a colorful, dynamic learning commons. Happy retirement, Sabrina!
 

The Crafton Hills College Library welcomes Natalie Lopez as our new Technical Services Librarian. Natalie joined the library in August and is responsible for overseeing cataloging, the Library’s LSP, and electronic resources. She received her MLIS from San Jose State University. Natalie brings numerous years of academic and specialized library experience to the Crafton Hills College Library. Most recently she was the Outreach Librarian at Palomar College. She enjoys writing, reading, hiking, road trips, baking, building LibGuides (many of which have been adapted and reused) and spending time with family and visiting theme parks.

Cabrillo College Library welcomes Joanna Messer Kimmitt, Director of Library Programs & Services, and Kelsey Shapiro, Lead Library Technician. Also joining their adjunct faculty are Jolene Kemos and Shannon Greene.

Jolene Kemos started at the Library in August 2020. Jolene is also a local Teacher Librarian for Santa Cruz City Schools at the Branciforte Small Schools Campus Library. Her K-12 library serves public alternative school populations of The Ark, AFE, Costanoa and Monarch Community School.

Kelsey Shapiro is the new Lead Library Technician. She started at the Library in January 2021. Kelsey moved to Cabrillo from UCSC, where she worked in Resource Sharing and Interlibrary Loan. She is also a Cabrillo alumna, of both the College and the Library's student colleague program.

Joanna Messer Kimmitt is the new Director of Library Programs & Services. She started at the Library in July 2021. Joanna moved here from southern California, where she worked as the User Services Coordinator & User Experience Librarian at CSU Dominguez Hills for four years. She has extensive experience as a systems and metadata librarian, instruction in both professional development and academic programs, public and academic library consortium services, personnel management, and user experience assessment in online and face-to-face environments.

Shannon Greene is new to Cabrillo College this fall. She's also the Library Media Teacher at Harbor High and has been since 2012. She studied History at UCSC and received her Masters in Library and Information Science at San Jose State University.

The Ohlone College Library is very happy to announce our new full-time Public Services Librarian, Nnekay FitzClarke. An East Bay native, Nnekay graduated from UC Santa Cruz with a BA in English in 2005, and a Master’s in Library and Information Science from San Jose State in 2007. She’s worked in many aspects of librarianship including the Oakland Public Library, St. Ignatius College Prep, and various Community Colleges around the SF Bay Area. She is coming to Ohlone College from Dominican University where she spent the last six years as a Reference and Instructional Librarian. Outside of librarianship, Nnekay is the co-creator and part time host of the podcast Minority Korner, and loves a good craft or two.