One common theme rings true across the college and university strategic plans abound, "to provide a transformational student experience." Suppose we put the student at the institution's heart and consider the university a business with students as its, "customers." The student experience should be a top priority for higher education leadership without question. And in this time of limited college experience, with declining enrollment, now is the time to connect with students on their terms. One way many institutions are bridging this gap is through the use of campus mobile apps. 

In this podcast, “Closing the Great Digital Divide Between Students and the University.” Eric Hines, President, North America, at Ex Libris, leads a roundtable discussion with three institutional leaders: Mark Doughtery, Dean of Student Development at Tri-County Technical College in Pendleton, South Carolina, his colleague, Luke VanWingerden, CIO at Tri-County Technical College, and Sasi Pillay, Vice-President and CIO at Washington State University in Pullman, Washington. 

Together they provide key insights on how campus mobile apps provide opportunities for interdepartmental collaboration and help bridge the digital divide between campus leaders and students. 

Episode 15: Maximizing Funding Opportunities with Efficient Communication Strategies
 
Research development offices are continuously being tasked to do more with less resources. In this podcast, Eddie Neuwirth, Senior Director of Product Management, Research Solutions at Ex Libris is joined by Ryan Champagne, Assistant Director for Research Development at the University of Pittsburgh. They discuss how forming simple communication strategies and leveraging tools of a funding discovery service can enable a small office or one-person department to scale their efforts to proactively promote and efficiently share information about funding opportunities across a large (or small) institution. Real-world examples from multiple institutions are provided with ideas for how to deliver targeted communications to specific groups that maximize exposure to the most relevant funding opportunities for their research interests and, in turn, increase proposal activity. Discover how to broaden the scope and scale of your funding communications capabilities, while actually lessening your workload!
 
Host:
Eddie Neuwirth
Senior Director of Product Management, Research Solutions, Ex Libris
 
Guest:
Ryan Champagne
Assistant Director for Research Development, University of Pittsburgh

Episode 14: Increasing the Competitiveness of the Research Enterprise in Comprehensive Institutions

The California State University is a public university system with 23 campuses enrolling almost 500,000 students and is the largest four-year public university system in the United States. In this Inside Higher Ed panel discussion, Dr. Sara Branch, Research Solutions Specialist at Ex Libris, is joined by three chief research officers from the CSU system: Dr. Mohamed Abousalem, Vice President for Research and Innovation (VPRI) and President of the Board of Directors at San José State University, Dr. Yvonne Harris, Associate Vice President for Research, Innovation, and Economic Development at California State University at Sacramento,  Dr. Elizabeth A. Lowham, Interim Dean of Graduate Education at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. 

Drawing on their diverse backgrounds and previous experiences, they discuss what it means for a comprehensive institution to build, sustain, and grow a competitive research and innovation enterprise, the challenges to doing so, and how they are doing it on their campuses.

Host:
Dr. Sara Branch
Research Solutions Specialist, Ex Libris

Guests:
Dr. Mohamed Abousalem
Vice President for Research and Innovation (VPRI), and President of the Board of Directors at San José State University
Dr. Yvonne Harris
Associate Vice President for Research, Innovation, and Economic Development at California State University at Sacramento
Dr. Elizabeth A. Lowham 
Interim Dean of Graduate Education at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo

Episode 13: Propelling Open-Access Publishing at UCL: An Interview with Paul Ayris

Academic libraries play a key role in supporting a university’s research, and their involvement can amplify the work of researchers significantly. University College London (UCL) is a fitting example. The UCL Library Services team is driving open-access publishing across the institution in ways that are raising the visibility of research output. We spoke with Paul Ayris, Pro-Vice-Provost (UCL Library Services), for an inside view.

Host:
Dani Guzman - Director of Product Marketing, Ex Libris
Guests:
Paul Ayris - Pro-Vice-Provost for Library Services, University College London

Episode 12: UNLV: Collaboration Between the Library and the Research Office Pays Off

Dr. Mary Croughan, previously Vice President for Research and Economic Development, University of Nevada, Las Vegas , scouted the campus and the surrounding neighborhoods to see if the environment would be a good fit for her. What sold her on coming to UNLV was discovering that the library played a key role in the research process.
“When I walked into the library and saw they had research consultation rooms right on the first floor, that to me was concrete evidence the library was involved in supporting university research,” she recalls. Join her in this podcast as she recalls the experience.

Host:
Dani Guzman - Director of Product Marketing, Ex Libris

Guests:
Dr. Mary Croughan - previously Vice President for Research and Economic Development, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Maggie Farrell - Dean of University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Research is at the core of higher education institutions’ success. To better understand how institutions are meeting the challenges of today’s research environment, we sat down with Dr. Martin Kirk, director of research operations for King’s College London. Dr. Kirk compares the task of leading world-class university research to launching a spacecraft to the moon.

Host:
Dani Guzman - Director of Product Marketing, Ex Libris

Guests:
Dr. Martin Kirk - Director of Research Operations, King’s College London
Dennis Pierce - Independent Writer

With many libraries closed or in different phases of reopening, interlibrary loan has become more important than ever in order to continue and provide library resources to students and faculty. Today's podcast will be covering stories from RapidILL customers, a summary of the RapidILL COVID-19 Pod, and resource sharing tips from our panel.

Host:
Bob Banerjee - Director of Marketing, Ex Libris
Guests:
Gail Williams - Senior Library Information Specialist, University of Missouri
Sarah McHone - Chase Head of User Services, Northern Illinois University
Erika McNeil - Head of Interlibrary Services, University of Connecticut
Mike Richins - Director Product Management - RapidILL, Ex Libris

Timothy Jackson, Resource Sharing and Fulfilment Program Manager, SUNY Library Shared Services, discusses how members of the very diverse and geographically dispersed set of institutions collaborate on resource sharing, including future potential joint opportunities. He explains in detail, the migration from individual, stand-alone Ex Libris Aleph systems to the cloud-based Ex Libris Alma library management system and key consequences of that move.

Host:
Bob Banerjee
Director of Marketing, Ex Libris

Guest:
Timothy Jackson
Resource Sharing and Fulfilment Program Manager, SUNY Library Shared Services

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to highlight the critical role of OER efforts, we will explore how Leganto is helping institutions put OER firmly into the hands of students via the learning management system.
This moderated panel of experienced librarians and OER specialists will explore the key topics associated with the rapid move and continued support of online learning by the library, as well as its proactive role in further affordable learning.

Host:
Jessie Ransom
Teaching & Learning Product Specialist, Ex Libris

Guests:
Kelly Ann Sam
Library Services Specialist, California State University San Marcos
Lauren Magnuson
Head of Collections, Delivery and Access, California State University San Marcos
Greg Argo
University of St. Thomas; John Lassiter, Georgia Northwestern Technical College

In this episode Milersville University’s Krista Higham discusses her short and long-term plans for how to open the library and sustain services in the Fall 2020 semester and beyond. With a special focus on her role in resource sharing and inter-library loans, she explains how remote teaching and learning has affected everything from re-balancing collections to professional and from copyright to communications.

Host:
Bob Banerjee - Director of Marketing, Ex Libris
Guests:
Krista Higham - Access Services Librarian, Milersville University