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All librarians, faculty & technologists interested in the digital humanities at AMICAL institutions are encouraged to join us 17 February for the next webinar in our AMICAL Currents series: “Setting up playgrounds for the digital humanities.” Overview In this webinar we will look at the general landscape of digital humanities around the world. We will explore digital humanities at the intersections between computational approaches to culture, knowledge design and curation, and scholarly networks. In particular, we will focus on the process of learning how to build projects and work collaboratively across university roles. Paradoxically, the best we can do at the beginning of an institutional engagement with digital humanities is to play in a spirit of ephemerality, while thinking the long term of the humanities and human technology. Speaker Alex Gil Digital Scholarship Coordinator for the Humanities and History, Columbia University LibrariesAffiliate Faculty, English and Comparative Literature Department, Columbia UniversityCo-Chair, Global Outlook::Digital Humanities Alex Gil is Digital Scholarship Coordinator for the Humanities and History at Columbia. He serves as a consultant to faculty, students and the library on the impact of technology on humanities research, pedagogy and scholarly communications. Current projects include an open repository of syllabi for curricular research, an aggregator for digital humanities projects worldwide and other initiatives at the intersection of technology and the humanities. He is currently vice-chair of global-outlook::digital-humanities (GO::DH) and the organizer of the THATCamp Caribe series. His scholarly heart remains betrothed to Caribbean Literature in the 20th Century. To attend When: Tuesday, 17 February 2015, 9:00-10:00am US Eastern time (see local time conversion) Where: Online (Instructions for attending the webinar will be sent by email to members with AMICALconnect accounts and posted to AMICALconnect Events. Questions about the event may be sent to contact@amicalnet.org.)

AMICAL members: help us build the program for AMICAL 2015! Present an interesting local initiative, organize a group discussion around a shared problem, teach a workshop, or lead a session on anything that might be of broad interest to librarians, technologists and faculty at AMICAL member institutions. See the call for proposals for targeted topics and other guidance, and submit your proposal no later than 11 February.

Clearing thresholds: information literacy & faculty–librarian–technologist collaboration The AMICAL Consortium, together with the American University in Bulgaria, are pleased to launch the AMICAL 2015 conference website, which includes information about the schedule, speakers, venue, sponsors and program proposals. This year’s AMICAL Conference will give special focus to information literacy, and in particular to new conceptual frameworks for information literacy in the context of international American universities. The program will also cover a broad range of other topics related to libraries, technology and learning, with sessions ranging from conceptual talks to hands-on workshops to unconference sessions created during the event. Staff and faculty from AMICAL member institutions are invited to propose program sessions for AMICAL 2015, with proposals particularly encouraged from the following areas: Information literacy, learning models and pedagogyStudents as creators & collaboratorsDigital humanitiesMarketing and communication of library and information servicesAssessment of library and information services See Proposals for complete guidelines and the form for submitting proposals.

AMICAL Currents 2014-2015 | November 6 webinar Threshold Concepts and the ACRL Information Literacy Framework: An Introduction The new ACRL Framework for Information Literacy has been inspired by threshold concepts, an emerging theory that urges instructors to engage students in the Big Ideas that guide their discipline. Threshold concepts represent a strikingly different approach to information literacy than has previously been widely implemented by most librarians. This webinar will provide an introduction to the theory, with a focus on how threshold concepts can shape information literacy instruction. We will discuss the form and function of the ACRL Framework as well as offer some examples of what teaching with Threshold Concepts looks like in the library classroom. For more information, publications, and past presentations, please visit ilthresholdconcepts.com Invited Speakers Lori Townsend is an Assistant Professor and the Learning Services Coordinator for the University Libraries at the University of New Mexico. She holds a BA in History from the University of New Mexico and a MLIS from San Jose State University. Silvia Lu is a Reference and Social Media Librarian and Assistant Professor at LaGuardia Community College, a CUNY institution. Silvia holds a BA in Literature and Government from Claremont McKenna College, a MLIS from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and a MA in English Literature from the University of New Mexico. When Thursday, 6 November 2014, 6:30-8:00am US Mountain time (see local time conversion) Where Online - Adobe Connect (link and instructions will be posted to the AMICALconnect event page the week before the event; AMICAL members not on AMICALconnect can create an account)

The AMICAL Consortium, together with the American University in Bulgaria, are pleased to announce that AMICAL 2015, our 12th Annual Meeting & Conference, will be held 27–30 May on the AUBG campus in Blagoevgrad. See the AMICAL 2015 Conference site for more information.

The American University in Bulgaria has graciously offered to host our consortium’s next annual conference, AMICAL 2015. Our initial planning meeting was held today, and we expect that another great conference for AMICAL librarians, technologists and faculty is on its way for next year! The dates are likely to fall around late May or early June; we will post the finalized dates in September, so keep an eye on this site and our various social media channels for announcements (@AMICALnet on Twitter, and for members: AMICALconnect and the AMICAL Facebook group). A Program Committee will begin work in September. We will take into account suggestions that were already offered in AMICAL 2014 evaluations, but members should feel free to send to contact@amicalnet.org other suggestions you have for the program - in particular for themes, topics, session types or speakers to invite. Raise awareness about AMICAL and the conference with local colleagues!The official conference web site will be launched this fall. For now, direct those less familiar with AMICAL to our member institution list and to the ‘About’ page from the 2014 conference web site, which describes the event generally and lists the themes covered by previous conferences.

Under the theme of student engagement and learning spaces, AMICAL 2014 brings together librarians, technologists and faculty from 26 American international universities to discuss shared problems and solutions, and to hear from exceptional thinkers and practitioners whose work is influencing library and information services in higher education. If you’re unable to attend the conference, you can still participate through the streamed and recorded conference sessions, through the sharing and conversations on social media, and through online discussions on AMICALconnect: Streamed and recorded conference sessions For the first time in an AMICAL conference, our keynote presentations, as well as a number of other talks, will be streamed live. Go to Watch AMICAL 2014 on the conference website for links to the streamed sessions and locally converted session times. Recordings will be posted to that same page after the conclusion of the conference. For descriptions of these talks, see the online schedule. Social media The tag amical2014 will be tying together our interactions on social media related to the conference. In particular, we’ll be using Twitter, Flickr and Slideshare, but other platforms are welcome too. You can find an amical2014 Twitter feed on the conference website and (for members) on AMICALconnect. Online discussions on AMICALconnect For more substantial and persistent discussions, AMICAL members can participate via the AMICALconnect Forum, where the amical2014 tag should be added to any conference-related posts. Discussion Groups and other discussion-oriented sessions will nominate a participant to post a brief report to the Forum, so that other participants, and AMICAL members unable to attend, can see what was discussed and get involved in follow-up discussion. Members can also interact using AMICALconnect chat.

As of yesterday, responses have been sent for all program proposals for AMICAL 2014. If you proposed a program session and have not received a reponse, please contact contact@amicalnet.org. A tentative program including information about all sessions will be posted on the conference site in the next few weeks. Conference attendees from AMICAL institutions: please remember to register for the conference by 20 March in order to receive support for registration fee and (for Full/Affiliate members) hotel.

AMICAL members: Join us Thursday for a webinar looking at two ways AMICAL can collaborate with Ithaka S+R to gain strategic insight on our library communities. Roger Schonfeld will talk about Ithaka’s faculty and now student surveys of library expectations, and how they might be adapted for AMICAL institutions; Nancy Foster will talk about ethnographic methods for studying library communities and how we might expand upon previous work in this area among AMICAL institutions. Together they will address how these methods complement each other to develop a clearer understanding of our library communities, providing a sound basis for strategic planning that supports our institutional missions. Guest speakers: Roger Schonfeld, Program Director for Libraries, Users, and Scholarly Practices, Ithaka S+RNancy Fried Foster, Senior Anthropologist, Ithaka S+R WHEN: Thursday, 13 March 2014, 7:30-9:00am US eastern time (see local time conversion) Instructions for attending the webinar have been sent by email to AMICAL members and posted to the event page on AMICALconnect (AMICAL members not on AMICALconnect can create an account). Questions about the event may be sent to contact@amicalnet.org.

Seeking alternatives to high-cost textbooks: a Case Study of the UMass Amherst Open Education Initiative The high cost and lack of availability of commercial print textbooks is a major concern to both students and their parents. To address these concerns, the Provost’s Office and the University Libraries of the University of Massachusetts Amherst launched the Open Education Initiative in the Spring of 2011, having saved over $750,000 to date. This model has an implementation strategy that is easy for others to adopt. Guest speakers: Jay Schafer (Director of Libraries, UMass Amherst)Marilyn Billings (Scholarly Communication & Special Initiatives Librarian, UMass Amherst) WHEN: Tuesday, 11 February 2014, 9:00am-10:00am US eastern time (see local time conversion) This is the second webinar of AMICAL Currents, a series of webinars for AMICAL members on hot topics of interest to librarians, technologists and faculty. AMICAL Currents invites key thinkers and practitioners on each topic to join us for an hour-long webinar, including a presentation followed by Q&A. The webinar is open to anyone in the AMICAL community. Information about how to join the webinar, and any updates for the event, will be posted to the event page on AMICALconnect (requires AMICAL membership). Marilyn Billings is the Scholarly Communication & Special Initiatives Librarian at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, a position she has held since 2006. She provides campus and regional leadership and education in alternative scholarly communication strategies and gives presentations on author rights, new digital publishing models and the role of libraries and digital repositories in today’s research and scholarship endeavors. Current projects include her oversight of the UMass Amherst’s digital repository ScholarWorks and her recent role as the leader of the UMass Amherst’s Open Education Initiative. Ms. Billings’ recent presentations include “Ditch Your Textbook: Academic Librarians Inspiring Faculty to go “Open” with Steven Bell (Temple University) at the Association of College and Research Libraries Conference in April 2013; “Documenting and Promoting Research & Engagement Using ScholarWorks, UMass Amherst’s Digital Repository” an invited webinar presentation for Berkeley Electronic Press, April 2013; “The Open Education Initiative @ UMass Amherst: Taking a Bite Out of High-Cost Textbooks” with Sarah Hutton at the UMass System Curriculum Redesign Symposium in Shrewsbury, MA Jan 2013; and “Transforming Library Services in a Time of Rapid Scholarly Communication Change” at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Sept 2012. Her most recent publication “Open Educational Resources as Learning Materials: Prospects and Strategies for Research Libraries” Billings et al was featured in the Research Library Issues (RLI) no. 280. For a more complete listing of presentations and publications, visit http://works.bepress.com/marilyn_billings/ Jay Schafer has been Director of Libraries at the University of Massachusetts Amherst since 2004. He combines his expertise in library collection-building, resource sharing, and facilities space planning with a deep dedication to providing innovative, high quality service to library users. The Learning Commons in the W.E.B. Du Bois Library is one successful example of his belief that libraries must evolve to meet the needs of today’s students while maintaining the high standards of a nationally-ranked research library. Director Schafer is currently a member of the Executive Board of the Association of Research Libraries. He is also a member of the Board of Trustees of LYRASIS, the nation’s largest regional membership organization serving libraries and information professionals. In addition, Director Schafer is past-Chair of the Five College Librarians Council, past-President of the Boston Library Consortium, and previously served on the BioOne Library Advisory Board. Director Schafer earned his B.A. degree from the University of Texas at El Paso and his M.A. degree in Librarianship from the University of Denver. He has served in library administrative positions at a number of institutions including the University of Colorado at Denver.