Library Teams Overview
Access and Technical Services Team
Overview and Objectives: The ATS Team coordinates workflows between library units to ensure timely resource availability and catalog accuracy. Their primary objective focuses on optimizing workflows between access and technical services aiming for quick material turnaround and minimal cataloging errors.
Fall Update: The Fall 2024 period saw extensive improvements in resource management: Aarika conducted comprehensive searches for missing books using advanced technology like video cameras for difficult-to-reach areas while Haley successfully trained 9 students across mending and newspaper processing tasks. These efforts significantly improved turnaround times and helped address long-standing ‘in transit’ status issues.
Spring Update: Spring 2025 showed continued success with 1575 periodical issues and 1029 books/serials processed, while 1401 item records were deleted. Student workers excelled in mailroom management, reducing lost items by over 100 from Fall to Spring. Technical Services continued Herbarium cataloging work, processed the new SPEC Kolln Collection, managed WEST Archive withdrawals, and handled emergency flooding response while completing the IGI Global EBA plan with 28 new e-book titles.
Final Outcomes: AY 24-25 proved very successful in optimizing workflow between Access Services and Technical Services. The most prominent success was expanded student use in the mailroom, achieving daily turnover for donations, periodicals and papers. Lost, missing and in-transit materials remained stable throughout the year, indicating well-functioning processing and handling systems. The team successfully maintained efficient operations while adapting to challenges.
Members
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Ramirose Attebury
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Suzie Davis
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Aarika Dobbins
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Haley Hunter
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Clinton Johnson (lead)
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Rachel Kerr
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Victoria Kerr
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Abby Kirkham
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Alisa Melior (lead)
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Matthew Strupp
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Samantha Thompson-Franklin
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Dakota Willett
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Dakota Woodward
Collections Team
Overview and Objectives: This team leads the development of general library collections while managing budgets and gathering community feedback. Their objectives include reviewing existing resources maintaining communication with the campus community about collections and making recommendations on renewals and subscriptions.
Fall Update: Throughout Fall 2024 the team maintained rigorous monthly reviews of usage statistics for resources approaching renewal providing timely recommendations to the Dean. They successfully met all renewal deadlines and maintained active communication through the library newsletter. A significant development was the progress on new circulation reports for approval plan and firm order titles.
Spring Update: In Spring 2025, the Collections Team continued their systematic approach to collection evaluation, adding overlap analyses to the renewal process and initiating approval plan modifications based on circulation data. They successfully maintained all renewal deadlines while eliminating underperforming resources and promoting collections through newsletters. The team implemented demand-driven acquisition channels, developed new CPU evaluation methods for non-journal content, and achieved significant budget management with $25,360 in savings from 2 cancelled collections while adding 1 new collection for $373.
Final Outcomes: The Collections Team achieved strong progress on all objectives while maintaining fiscal responsibility. Key accomplishments included developing better circulation analyses, identifying process improvements, consistently meeting renewal deadlines, and trimming $103,694 from continuing resources despite $96,000 in inflation. Challenges included the complexity of evaluating Read and Publish agreements, declining print usage, and limited liaison feedback. The team successfully added the ASTM Compass engineering database and established systematic processes for non-journal resource evaluation while maintaining quality scholarly collections.
Members
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Ramirose Attebury
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Clinton Johnson
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Jeremy Kenyon (lead)
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Jylisa Kenyon
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Rochelle Smith
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Samantha Thompson-Franklin
Digital Collections Team
Overview and Objectives: This team establishes policies and workflows for digital collections to ensure consistent user experience across platforms. Their objectives focus on creating guidelines for digital archives ensuring accessibility compliance and improving user engagement.
Fall Update: The Fall 2024 period was marked by significant progress in accessibility compliance with all team meetings focused on WCAG 2.1 Level AA requirements. The team completed extensive work including the creation of 230 audio file transcripts and development of new browse page features. While maps and data visualizations remain challenging for accessibility the team has made substantial progress.
Spring Update: Spring 2025 focused on successfully capturing high-priority web content using Archive-It before university website overhaul, improving accessibility through collaboration on Oral History templates, creating Linux laptops with Orca screen readers for testing, hiring summer student workers for LCOH transcription, and redesigning key digital collection pages including Browse, Docs, About, and Special Collections pages while implementing new search functionality and analytics tracking.
Final Outcomes: The Digital Collections Team made significant strides in accessibility compliance, web archiving, and user engagement throughout 2024-25. Key achievements included comprehensive accessibility improvements, successful Archive-It implementation, development of testing infrastructure with screen readers, and major redesigns of digital collection interfaces that improved navigation and search capabilities across all collections.
Members
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Ariana Burns
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Kevin Dobbins
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Erin Geslani
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Rebecca Hastings
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Dulce Kersting-Lark
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Maryelizabeth Koepele
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Kelley Moulton
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Zoe Stave
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Andrew Weymouth (lead)
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Evan Williamson
Discovery Team
Overview and Objectives: This team optimizes the discovery of library resources through systematic testing of features. Their objectives center on maintaining Primo as an accessible discovery tool and ensuring cohesion among various discovery tools.
Fall Update: During Fall 2024 the team conducted thorough evaluations of four new Primo VE features ultimately deciding against implementation. They developed a comprehensive review plan focusing on search scope accuracy design consistency and user experience barriers. A key meeting is scheduled for February 2025 to analyze findings.
Spring Update: Spring 2025 continued feature evaluation with three more Primo VE features tested but not implemented. The team successfully completed comprehensive testing of nine discovery tools, documenting findings on search scope, design consistency, and user experience. Several identified inconsistencies in search mechanisms, design, and branding among discovery tools were corrected during this period.
Final Outcomes: The Discovery Team fully accomplished both major objectives for the year. They systematically evaluated seven total Primo VE features across Fall and Spring, making informed decisions not to implement any at this time. Most significantly, they successfully tested nine discovery tools, identified and resolved inconsistencies in search mechanisms, design, and branding, ensuring improved cohesion among the library’s various discovery tools.
Members
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Ramirose Attebury
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Hanwen Dong (lead)
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Rachel Kerr
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Pamela Martin
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Kelley Moulton
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Kelly Omodt
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Diane Prorak
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Evan Williamson
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Dakota Woodward
First Year Experience Team
Overview and Objectives: This team supports students’ transition to collegiate studies through instruction and engagement. Their objectives focus on providing orientation and instruction to English 101 and 102 students.
Fall Update: Fall 2024 demonstrated remarkable success with first-year student engagement: 86% of ENGL101 students completed the survey with 99.66% indicating plans to return to the library. They facilitated 20 tour times serving 45 sections and 852 students. In ENGL102 76% of students submitted library assignments with a 95% success rate.
Spring Update: Spring 2025 continued the successful implementation of required library tours for ENGL101 students, with positive feedback from both students and instructors. Many students indicated they had never attended a library session before, making these tours particularly valuable. The tour requirement during spring semester was well-received and proved effective for new campus students.
Final Outcomes: The First Year Experience Team achieved consistent success throughout 2024-25. Library tours and instruction sessions continued to be highly effective, with both students and ENGL101 instructors expressing strong support. The activities successfully improved student confidence in library use, with the majority of participants in book and article activities reporting improved confidence in finding resources by the end of sessions.
Members
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Pamela Martin
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Kelly Omodt
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Diane Prorak (lead)
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Tyler Rodrigues
Instruction Team
Overview and Objectives: This team enhances instructional practices through community building and assessment. Their objectives include hosting faculty conversations scaffolding learning objectives and aggregating online content.
Fall Update: The Fall 2024 semester featured three successful faculty conversations covering crucial topics: scaffolding information literacy teaching methods for one-shot presentations and AI in information literacy instruction. The team also made significant progress on curriculum mapping and began work on a public-facing document for learning objectives.
Spring Update: Spring 2025 continued building faculty engagement through professional development opportunities and collaborative conversations. The team maintained focus on developing scaffolded learning objectives, improving instructional assessment methods, and creating resources for faculty development in information literacy instruction across various formats and contexts.
Final Outcomes: The Instruction Team successfully gathered faculty for professional development and conversation throughout 2024-25. They effectively facilitated collaborative discussions on key instructional topics, developed valuable resources for scaffolding information literacy instruction, and advanced assessment practices. The team’s efforts strengthened the library’s instructional community and improved teaching effectiveness across the institution.
Members
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Hanwen Dong
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Dulce Kersting-Lark
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Norman Lee
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Pamela Martin
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Diane Prorak (lead)
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Rochelle Smith
Liaisons Team
Overview and Objectives: This team builds relationships between the library and university departments to enhance learning opportunities. Their objectives include engaging with faculty and students across departments sharing information about liaison areas and providing feedback on library initiatives.
Fall Update: Fall 2024 presented mixed results: while the team still needs to establish interactions with 15 departments across various colleges four liaisons successfully presented their areas covering CNR CBE CLASS (Social Sciences) and CDIL. These presentations generated productive discussions and service improvement suggestions.
Spring Update: Spring 2025 involved shifting priorities and approaches. Due to lack of interest and complexity of tracking departmental interactions, the team decided to move away from formal metrics-based goals. Individual liaisons continued relationship-building within their subject areas while the team refocused on information sharing, collaboration, and supporting each other’s liaison work through regular meetings and informal networking.
Final Outcomes: This was the first year operating as a mostly informational/social group, and the reconfiguration proved valuable for team cohesion and support. While formal departmental interaction goals were challenging to achieve, the team successfully maintained important liaison relationships and developed stronger internal collaboration. The shift toward a more flexible, relationship-focused approach better aligned with the diverse nature of liaison work across different subject areas.
Members
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Devin Becker (lead)
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Bruce Godfrey
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Jeremy Kenyon
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Jylisa Kenyon
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Dulce Kersting-Lark
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Norman Lee
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Marco Seiferle-Valencia
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Rochelle Smith
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Samantha Thompson-Franklin
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Andrew Weymouth
Library Website Team
Overview and Objectives: This team maintains and improves the library’s digital platforms. Their objectives include improving content discoverability implementing university branding and maintaining current information.
Fall Update: During Fall 2024 the team completed a comprehensive content review implementing immediate improvements to page structure. They successfully updated to Bootstrap 5 developed new Analytics dashboards and led a library-wide workshop on Analytics data usage. Significant updates included refreshing various sections and improving the Hours feature.
Spring Update: Spring 2025 focused on substantial content updates and reorganization following the comprehensive fall review. The team implemented significant improvements to page structure, updated content across multiple sections, and continued developing analytics capabilities. Major reorganization efforts enhanced navigation and user experience while maintaining current and accurate information throughout the site.
Final Outcomes: In 2024-25 the Library Website Team continued developing internal skills that contribute to sustainable website management. They successfully completed comprehensive content reviews, implemented major structural improvements, advanced analytics capabilities, and maintained current information across all digital platforms. The team’s systematic approach to updates and reorganization significantly enhanced user experience and content discoverability.
Members
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Hanwen Dong
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Rebecca Hastings
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Clinton Johnson
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Victoria Kerr
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Maryelizabeth Koepele
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Norman Lee
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Seth Thompson
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Andrew Weymouth
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Evan Williamson (lead)
Marketing and Communications Team
Overview and Objectives: This team ensures coordinated messaging about library offerings to the university community. They focus on creating newsletters maintaining social media presence and distributing internal communications.
Fall Update: Throughout Fall 2024 the team maintained consistent distribution of newsletters and social media content while implementing comprehensive tracking of engagement metrics. They are currently planning their annual survey and continuing to monitor analytics data to measure impact.
Spring Update: Spring 2025 continued consistent content distribution and engagement tracking. The team maintained regular newsletter publication, social media presence, and internal communications while refining analytics processes. They focused on improving request workflows and measuring the effectiveness of various communication channels and promotional activities.
Final Outcomes: The Marketing and Communications Team successfully created a comprehensive request form system (https://tinyurl.com/LibraryMarComForm) to streamline communication requests and improve workflow efficiency. They maintained consistent messaging across all platforms, implemented effective tracking systems for engagement metrics, and provided coordinated promotional support for library programs and services throughout the year.
Members
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Ariana Burns
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Ben Hunter (lead)
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Clinton Johnson
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Jylisa Kenyon
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Norman Lee
Mentorship and Scholarship Team
Overview and Objectives: This team enhances faculty development through the creation of formal and informal mentorship opportunities and fostering a supportive academic community via co-working and professional development opportunities. Their main objectives involve creating mentorship opportunities for new librarians and facilitating collaboration.
Fall Update: Fall 2024 activities focused on supporting new faculty through two virtual gatherings covering library culture, processes, and practical tips including preparing for annual reviews, formatting CVs, and general productivity hacks. The team also organized three ‘Friday Faculty Meet-ups’ attracting 4-8 attendees each session at various locations (IRIC, Brink Hall, One World Cafe) and developed a new tracking system for proposals and publications to better celebrate colleagues’ successes.
Spring Update: Spring 2025 organized one virtual gathering in January where Jylisa Kenyon gave an overview of the scholarly publication lifecycle, and one in-person gathering in May covering university hierarchy, communicating across campus, and scheduling meetings, facilitated by Dean Ben Hunter, Devin Becker, and Dulce Kersting-Lark. Four Friday Faculty Meet-ups were held alternately at One World Cafe and IIRC with steady attendance of 4-8 people. The Faculty Scholarship Wins form launched in November was used 19 times and submissions were shared during faculty meetings to celebrate colleagues’ success.
Final Outcomes: The team had a successful year meeting the majority of its goals. The New/er Faculty Cohort was a useful vehicle for mentoring seven recently hired librarians, with outlines from the four gatherings serving as templates for future mentoring. Key achievements included developing a scholarship tracking system, maintaining consistent Friday Faculty Meet-ups, and creating structured support for junior colleagues. Challenges for next year include supporting librarians going through 3rd year review and tenure, planning office hours with Associate Dean for CV/scholarship plan reviews, and organizing brown-bag meetings to discuss evolving scholarly landscape including grant terminations and open access publication changes.
Members
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Devin Becker
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Dulce Kersting-Lark (lead)
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Marco Seiferle-Valencia
Open Strategies Team
Overview and Objectives: This team promotes open access and scholarship practices throughout the university. Their objectives include making education more affordable and leveraging Verso for OA publication tracking.
Fall Update: During Fall 2024 the team implemented multiple practices to increase affordability while actively managing the OAPF program. They maintained detailed tracking of both cost savings metrics and publication statistics through VERSO to measure impact.
Spring Update: Spring 2025 focused on planning Open Access Week for October 2025 to build faculty awareness around open access practices. The team continued evaluating and refining strategies for promoting open scholarship while planning educational initiatives. They maintained ongoing support for faculty publication needs and tracked cost savings achievements through various open access initiatives.
Final Outcomes: The Open Strategies Team achieved significant cost savings for students through continued Think Open Fellowship support and open access initiatives. While no new Think Open Fellowships were awarded this year, existing OER materials continued generating substantial student savings. The team successfully maintained OAPF program operations, supported faculty open access publishing, and laid groundwork for expanded awareness initiatives in the coming year.
Members
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Bruce Godfrey
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Victoria Kerr
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Maryelizabeth Koepele
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Leesa Love
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Kelly Omodt
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Tyler Rodrigues
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Marco Seiferle-Valencia (lead)
Physical Spaces and Public Programming Team
Overview and Objectives: This team maintains safe and accessible public spaces in the library. Their main objective focuses on ensuring spaces meet diverse patron needs.
Fall Update: Throughout Fall 2024 the team conducted regular space assessments and maintained detailed usage metrics. They continued implementing improvements based on patron feedback and monitoring space utilization patterns.
Spring Update: Spring 2025 involved comprehensive walkthroughs of all four floors and Special Collections offices. PSPP Team members split into groups to conduct thorough assessments, identifying maintenance needs, usage patterns, and improvement opportunities. The team continued monitoring space utilization and implementing patron-requested enhancements to ensure optimal functionality across all library areas.
Final Outcomes: The Physical Spaces and Public Programming Team successfully maintained consistent use across all four floors with well-attended sponsored events. Space utilization remained strong, and the team effectively responded to maintenance needs and patron feedback. Their systematic approach to space assessment and improvement ensured the library environment continued meeting diverse patron needs while maintaining high standards for accessibility and functionality.
Members
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Aarika Dobbins
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Bruce Godfrey
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Sammantha Green
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Haley Hunter
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Victoria Kerr
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Kelley Moulton
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Kelly Omodt
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Tyler Rodrigues
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Rochelle Smith
Research Impact Team
Overview and Objectives: This team manages VERSO and promotes university research endeavors. Their primary objective for the period was creating clear policies and procedures for VERSO users.
Fall Update: Fall 2024 saw the development of comprehensive documentation sites and internal procedures for recurring tasks. The team established a new workflow for policy proposals and continued to refine VERSO management processes.
Spring Update: Spring 2025 saw significant achievements including VERSO becoming the preferred data repository for U of I with all 413 IIDS datasets now represented in VERSO. The team collaborated with RCDS to develop the Collaboration Network using VERSO profiles and LLMs for researcher discovery, began closed beta testing in November 2024. Major documentation updates included enhanced public-facing procedures with U of I branded examples, accepted key policies on research definitions, pre-prints inclusion, file size limits, and data preservation workflows. The team worked to scrape open access UI publications from OpenAlex and received enhanced metadata for 8k VERSO assets.
Final Outcomes: The Research Impact Team achieved substantial progress across all three main directions: documentation development, policy implementation, and VERSO data quality improvement. Key successes included 100% faculty profile coverage with 98.4% accurate biographical information, 3,337 new IR materials ingested through collaborations with multiple colleges and units, comprehensive internal and public-facing documentation, and established policy decision workflows. Main challenges were difficulty measuring profile accuracy due to lack of comprehensive publication benchmarks and limited user feedback for documentation priorities. The team successfully positioned VERSO as the campus research repository while developing essential infrastructure for future data-intensive improvements.
Members
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Ramirose Attebury
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Devin Becker
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Aarika Dobbins
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Rebecca Hastings
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Jeremy Kenyon
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Abby Kirkham
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Norman Lee (lead)
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Leesa Love
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Seth Thompson
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Andrew Weymouth
Student Employee Development Team
Overview and Objectives: This team standardizes hiring and training practices for student employees. Their main objective focuses on ensuring justified student employee pay across library units.
Fall Update: During Fall 2024 the team continued successful implementation of the Tier system for raises and skill development. They began planning for a comprehensive spring assessment of campus-wide student worker pay scales to ensure competitive and equitable compensation.
Spring Update: Spring 2025 involved several departments providing raises for both longevity and skill acquisition. The team met with leadership regarding budget constraints that limit additional increases to maximum student hourly pay. They adjusted evaluation timing with Fall evaluations due in February and Spring evaluations by end of September for returning students. While formal evaluations proved challenging across units, the team maintained high-quality training systems and continued developing unit-specific training approaches rather than one-size-fits-all solutions.
Final Outcomes: The Student Employee Development Team successfully maintained the Tier system while navigating budget constraints and evaluation challenges. Key achievements included adjusting evaluation timelines for better completion rates, maintaining successful existing training modules, and developing plans for more effective unit-specific training approaches. Despite technical issues with survey data collection, student feedback remained overwhelmingly positive. The team’s focus on formalized evaluations and targeted training improvements positioned them well for enhanced student employee development in the coming year.
Members
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Suzie Davis
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Kevin Dobbins
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Jessica Fleener
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Erin Geslani
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Brittni McNeill
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Alisa Melior (lead)
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Dakota Willett
Student Engagement Team
Overview and Objectives: This team creates opportunities for students to engage with library resources and build community. Their objective centers on maximizing student awareness and comfort with library spaces and services.
Fall Update: Fall 2024 showed remarkable growth with a 206% increase in student participation across 16 events reaching 938 students. The team saw increased engagement across multiple metrics including an 81% whiteboard engagement rate and a 134% increase in board game circulation.
Spring Update: Spring 2025 maintained strong student engagement momentum with continued programming and interactive activities. The team sustained high participation levels in events and activities while adapting programming based on student feedback and seasonal patterns. Interactive elements like whiteboards and board game circulation remained popular throughout the spring semester.
Final Outcomes: The Student Engagement Team achieved remarkable success with significant increases in student participation and engagement across all metrics. They successfully expanded programming reach, improved student awareness of library services, and created a welcoming community atmosphere. The dramatic increases in event attendance, whiteboard engagement, and board game circulation demonstrated effective strategies for connecting with students and building comfort with library spaces.
Members
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Suzie Davis
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Jessica Fleener
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Alisa Melior
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Kelly Omodt
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Tyler Rodrigues (lead)
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Matthew Strupp