Browsing by Author "Nault, Andre"

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    E-supplement to: Efficacy of antibiotic and non-antibiotic interventions in preventing and treating necrotic enteritis in broiler chickens: a systematic review
    (2022) Bueno, Irene; Ricke, Isabel; Hwan, Haejin; Smith, Emily; Nault, Andre; Johnson, Timothy; Singer, Randall S.
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    Report of the Current Awareness/Personal Information Management (CA/PIM) Subgroup of the Web Services Steering Committee
    (2011-04-04) Arth, Janet; Brooks, Kate; Haycock, Laurel; Kelly, Julia A.; Kempf, Jody; Lafferty, Meghan; McKinney, Paul; Nault, Andre
    In late 2008, the Web Services Steering Committee at the University of Minnesota Libraries created the Current Awareness/Personal Information Management (CA/PIM) exploratory subgroup, charged with discovering opportunities and possible solutions in which the University Libraries can help provide researchers with current and useful information in their research areas. In addition, investigate the group was asked to look at opportunities around personal information management, including existing tools (both internal and external), how other libraries are tackling this problem, and possible development and/or partnership opportunities. The group was asked to make recommendations in these two areas. Completed in April 2009, the report is based on a literature survey, results of a survey of faculty, staff, and students at the University of Minnesota, and a scan of the available tool. It spells out guiding principles and recommendations for future action.
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    Taming the Tempest: An Initiative to Help Users Cope with the Information Flood
    (2011-03-28) Brooks, Kate; Fransen, Jan; Bach, Virginia; Haycock, Laurel; Kelly, Julia A.; Kempf, Jody; Lafferty, Meghan; Nault, Andre
    The Current Awareness & Personal Information Management (CAPIM) Collaborative at the University of Minnesota Libraries was organized in response to results from a user survey. Faculty and students alike indicated frustration with keeping current and organizing their personal information, and they indicated that they wanted our help. Along with the user survey, librarians also conducted a scan of the available electronic tools in the area of CAPIM. One of the results was a recommendation that as we helped users, we should consider these characteristics for any software tools: efficiency, simplicity, stability, and effectiveness. Other academic libraries have done work in this area, including guides that spell out the characteristics of different citation managers, or assistance with setting up alerts or RSS feeds. Building on this preliminary work, a number of other recommendations were made for the work of the Collaborative, including 1) educate the library staff about these topics and tools, 2) build a Web toolkit to support both staff and users, 3) more fully supporting the range of citation managers that our users employ, 4) identify experts among the library staff and cultivating more, 5) reach out to library users with information about how they could enhance or simplify their CAPIM tasks, and 6) map out how all of our local tools work together, and improve the connections when possible Our poster will highlight our work to support citation managers as well as develop staff education and a Web presence. As we developed materials, these four themes emerged: * Current Awareness and Social Tools * Citation Management Tools * File and Data Management Best Practices * Organization and Process Tips. The category of organization and process tips includes a wide range of tools and skills that fall into personal or group tasks. The personal area includes annotation software, note-taking software, syncing multiple computers and mobile devises, storing passwords, and customizing/personalizing your electronic workspace. Group tasks and tools cover citation sharing, collaborative writing, project management software, communication tools, and tagging. We feel that this is a new area where librarians can make a contribution to students and researchers in all disciplines. Our survey revealed that users believe we have the right skills and knowledge, and a quick scan of nearly any academic library should yield a number of staff with expertise.
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    Warm Fuzzies: Boosting Staff Engagement with a Traveling Gopher
    (2018-05) Chew, Katherine; Nault, Andre
    Objectives An institution-wide employee engagement survey was conducted fall of 2014. One survey metric centered on gauging employee perception on how they were valued and acknowledged for their contributions to the organization. While the results were generally favorable, management decided this could be higher as staff recognition is core to employee engagement, satisfaction, retention, and ultimately patron satisfaction with the organization. Methods A staff recognition committee was put together to brain-storm ideas of how to recognize employee contributions that didn't involve the more standard recognition types like "employee of the month". One of the ideas that rose to the top was that of a "traveling award". The idea is for staff to present the traveling award to an individual from whom they received great service (to either patrons or a fellow staff member) or who made their job easier in one form or another. The traveling award is meant to be a peer-to-peer and the award nominator is encouraged to submit a brief description to the internal bi-weekly newsletter of who received the award and why. In addition, all persons receiving the traveling award have their names entered into a quarterly drawing to enjoy coffee or lunch with the library director. Results To make the traveling award more fun, a pair of stuffed institutional mascots was purchased (in case of one traveler going astray). The designated traveling award and its cousin were ready to start visiting staff in May of 2015 and proved to be a huge success. Since its roll-out, the traveling award has visited staff 28 times with accompanying write-ups posted in the library's bi-weekly emailed newsletter. Staffs has embraced the traveling awards and have used them to call out colleagues for a wide variety of reasons such as project leadership, administrative support, great customer service, or just "general awesomeness. " Conclusions Staff wants to be respected and valued for their contributions and respond to appreciation through recognition of their good work because it sends an extremely powerful message that their work is valued and that they are an important part of the organization. Staff that feels that their contributions are valued by their peers and the organization is more likely to have greater job satisfaction, work better together as teams and feel a sense of pride in the organization's goals and values.