Pet of the Week: Max

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Max!

Meet Max! Max, at 9 years old, is the senior cat in our household. He doesn’t seem that old to us because we’ve had cats that lived ‘til 16 and 17.

We’ve had Max since he was a baby, literally. One evening we were sitting in our living room on a July evening and heard a tiny animal noise that sounded like squeaking. We opened the door to our front porch and but could find nothing. We thought possibly it was a bird. We went to bed that night, but I found it hard to put out of my head.

Max the night Lisa found him in 2011.

The next evening the noise was back but this time it was easily identifiable as a kitten. We looked again and finally found a tiny kitten crouched in the drawer of an old armoire we had put on the front porch. It took us about two days to get our hands on the poor little kitten, but we finally did. He was tiny! He could not have been more than 4-5 weeks old.

We brought him in the house and kept him in the living room with the doors shut so he didn’t give our other cats the fleas he was covered in. He was starving so we gave him canned cat food softened even more with some water, so he’d get some extra hydration. He was so small that his big ears took over his entire face. After a flea bath, Max and my husband became fast buddies.

Max with his new buddy, from 2011.

Max is the sweetest cat we’ve ever had. Wouldn’t hurt a flea, literally! We’ve since brought home several other cats, and Max immediately makes friends with them all. Max now weighs around 16-18 lbs. and is a far cry from the tiny kitten we discovered on our front porch that summer night. His favorite thing to do is go out on the front lawn and eat grass. He’s the only male in a house full of female cats but he’s the sweetest by far!

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LITS recent headlines and upcoming events

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Recent LITS headlines:

Upcoming LITS events:

(go HERE for more information for each event)

  • June 18IT Briefing: 10:15 am – noon, Zoom Link
  • June 18LEAF Virtual Coffee: 1:30 pm – 3:00 pm, Zoom Link
  • July 7InfoForum: 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm, Zoom Link
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Emory to hold online solidarity vigil today for victims of racial violence

The Emory Libraries staff and administrators share the pain and frustration felt by the University and Atlanta communities over the ongoing racial injustice. Emory University will hold an online solidarity vigil today (Friday, June 5) at 4 p.m. to mourn the victims of racial violence and focus on the university’s vision for an anti-racist world. Read more and register at the link included in the article.

Read more: https://news.emory.edu/stories/2020/06/upress_online_vigil_mourn_racist_violence/campus.html

Additionally, Emory Libraries Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Committee, Library Employees Advocacy Forum, and Librarians’ Assembly Council invite you to a forum to learn about advocacy resources available to you and opportunities to take action against racism, xenophobia, and all forms of oppression. We will also facilitate a conversation to generate ideas for how we can show up for each other in solidarity and integrate anti-oppression work into the fabric of our organization.

When: Monday, June 8, 2020 at 3:30 PM – 5:00 PM in (UTC-05:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada).

Location: https://emory.zoom.us/j/91247861840.

For more information, please contact Saira Raza at saira [dot] raza [at] emory [dot] edu or Becky Sherman at rebecca [dot] thaler [dot] sherman [at] emory [dot] edu.

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Spotlight on ECR Team

The Electronic & Continuing Resources (ECR) Team has been working diligently during these strange times. Much of the team’s regular work can be done remotely, and its members are tackling several projects. During normal times, the ECR team manages the lifecycle of electronic and physical continuing resources. The ECR team is responsible for acquiring and managing electronic resources, including the licensing, ordering, renewal, management, and maintenance of these resources. The team oversees all physical serial management, including managing the subscriptions, cataloging serials, receiving and binding physical serials.

Since we began to work from home, the ECR team has accomplished most of its regular duties, including receiving and processing 51 invoices, managing 8 electronic resource trials, and resolving several access problems. There’s the regular work of monitoring serial titles changes, platform changes, and URL updates that is all being done as well. Licensing has continued, dealing with new licenses, renewals and amendments. In addition to regular tasks, the team has been able to tackle several projects. Staff are checking links in Databases@Emory, working to resolve issues with access. So far, 313 links have been checked, with 122 of those being in April and May. Over 900 serial titles have been added to Scholars Trust, a cooperative print retention program sponsored by ASERL. Various data clean-up projects have been identified, and are being worked on, including reviewing purchase order encumbrances and correcting reference title locations.

In addition to all of this, the staff on the ECR team has taken advantage of the multitude of free training and webinars available, attending various sessions offered by professional organizations like ALA and ALCTS, as well as training provided by Ex Libris. We also have 2 staff members currently enrolled in MLIS programs!

The ECR team has done a fantastic job pivoting to remote work during this time, learning new skills and supporting one another. They all deserve a big thank you. The team consists of Kayleah Brown, Holli EremineRichard GessKat Hart (manager), Susan Kellett, Tracy Preyer, and Katie Sparks.

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Staff Fest 2020 Fun Run/Walk medal winners from LITS

GOLD Medal Winners – Under 20 minutes

  • Lee Clontz (Director, Academic Technology Services)
  • Ike Ikegwuonu (DB Admin II, Database Administration)

SILVER Medal Winners – 20:00 – 29:59 minutes

  • Joel Burke (Enterprise Middleware Admin IV, Identity Management)
  • Andrew Chin (DB Admin III, Database Administration)
  • Patricia Goddard (Education Analyst II, Teaching and Learning Technology)
  • Norman Hulme (Multimedia Developer, CCR)
  • Jennifer King (Director, Rose Library)
  • Katie Sparks (Library Specialist Electronic Content Resources)
  • Amy Walker (IT Product Manager, Product Management)

BRONZE Medal Winners – 30:00+ minutes

  • Lanta Blue (PS Developer III, PS Financials)
  • Stan Brooks (Sr. Network Engineer, Network Engineering Build)
  • Chaun Campos (Library Specialist, Oxford College Library)
  • Dawn Francis-Chewning (Education Analyst III, Teaching and Learning Technology)
  • Raj Garrepally (Applications Integrator, PS Administration)
  • Camille Hyatt (Assistant Manager, Financial Operations)
  • Anne Pineault (Teaching and Learning Librarian, Oxford College Library)
  • Jenny Vitti (Program Coordinator, ILL Reserves)
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Solomon Hilliard, Enterprise Middleware Admin II, Library Technology and Digital Strategies

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“I like the focus of this new role.” – Solomon Hilliard

Solomon Hilliard joins the LTDS team, after spending nearly four years on the LITS Web Management Team. He recently partnered with the libraries on the digital repository development effort during the launch of Emory Digital Collections. He also spent the last year serving on the LITS PATH Committee. Solomon originally came to LITS after a one-year stint as a web developer at AT&T (via Apex Systems contracting company) and four years as a GC-MS (Gas Chromatography Mass Spec) Technologist for LabCorp.

A native of North Carolina’s Triangle area (Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill), Solomon earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from North Carolina Central University. He is also certified in Ruby on Rails through the Iron Yard Academy. Lately he’s been training on AWS, Terraform, and Docker.

When he’s away from work, Solomon enjoys nature walks and exercising. He has also been doing more travel, with Puerto Rico and San Francisco as two of his favorite locales. Solomon likes gaming, photography and working on cars.

“I like the focus of this new role,” says Solomon. “This move will give me more end-to-end control and the chance to architect a service from top to bottom. I’m looking forward to doing more automation using my Ansible training. It’s an exciting opportunity to put my stamp on things here in the Library.”

You can reach Solomon at solomon [dot] hilliard [at] emory [dot] edu.

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LITS recent headlines and upcoming events

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Recent LITS headlines:

Upcoming LITS events:

(go HERE for more information for each event)

  • June 5Solidarity Vigil: 4:00 pm, Registration info
  • June 8Emory Libraries Anti-Racism Forum: 3:30 pm – 5:00 pm, Zoom Link
  • June 9InfoForum: 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm, Zoom Link
  • June 18IT Briefing: 10:15 am – noon, Zoom Link
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