Terry Plum

Terry Plum Assistant Dean for Technology and Director, Simmons GSLIS at Mount Holyoke College

As Director of the GSLIS at Mount Holyoke program, Terry Plum is responsible for all administrative details as well as the recruitment and advising of students. His role as Assistant Dean for Technology entails leading and coordinating GSLIS technology initiatives and developing strategic new directions that include both teaching and research. Plum, in conjunction with the Institute for Training and Development (Amherst, MA), received a grant of $350,000 to train Kosovo librarians. His background is in academic and special libraries with reference, document delivery services, bibliographic instruction, network services, and information technology. Professional affiliations: American Library Association (ALA), Association of College and Research Libraries, American Anthropological Association. Research interests: Assessment of networked electronic resources, technologies for reference/patron interaction, networking, technologies for information access, human rights and libraries.

Teaching and Research Areas

LIS 403 - Role of Research (sample syllabus)
LIS 407 - Reference/Information Services (sample syllabus)
LIS 454 - Online Information Services (sample syllabus)
LIS 485 - Management of Information Technology (sample syllabus)
LIS 488 - Technology for Information Professionals (sample syllabus)

Publications

MINES methodology, Measuring the Impact of Networked Electronic Services.

MINES is a web-based, transaction-based survey method that collects data on the purpose of use and demographics of electronic resource users. It addresses specifically the twin web survey problems of response rate and sampling, so that inferential statistical tests can be legitimately run on the data. This protocol was developed by Mr. Brinley Franklin, Director of the University of Connecticut Libraries, and myself, and has been adopted by ARL as part of their New Measures toolkit

2004. "Library Usage Patterns in the Electronic Information Environment." Information Research: An International Electronic Journal. July. (with Brinley Franklin). http://informationr.net/ir/9-4/paper187.html

2003. "Documenting Usage Patterns of Networked Electronic Services." ARL: Bimonthly Report. 230/231(October/December): 20-21. (with Brinley Franklin). http://www.arl.org/newsltr/230/usage.html

2002. "Networked Electronic Service Usage Patterns at Four Academic Health Sciences Libraries." Performance Measurement and Metrics. 3(3): 123-133. (with Brinley Franklin). http://www.emeraldinsight.com/1467-8047.htm

2001. SPEC Survey 267: User Authentication. Washington, DC: Association of Research Libraries: Office of Leadership and Management Services. 104 pp. (with Richard Bleiler).
http://www.arl.org/spec/267sum.html

Scholarly communication:

2004. "Efficiency, Journal Publishing, and Scholarly Research -- A Discussion Paper." Middlebury College Discussion Paper No 04-14. (September). http://web.middlebury.edu/NR/rdonlyres/A94D7223-2A21-4554-9C5C-7B4FA4D66B9C/0/0414.pdf (with David Colander). Also available through RePEc. http://econpapers.hhs.se/paper/mdlmdlpap/0414.htm

Grants

$350,000 proposal with the Institute for Training and Development (ITD) in Amherst, Massachusetts to the US Department of State to train a cadre of librarians from the University of Pristina, in Pristina, Kosovo. Nine newly hired librarians from the reconstituted and reorganized Central Library of the University of Pristina will be brought to the United States for a semester long training program that will take place both in Boston at GSLIS, and in Amherst, near the South Hadley satellite site campus of GSLIS at Mount Holyoke College.

Kyrgyz library program through the Institute for Training and Development, Amherst, Massachusetts. Visited Kyrgyzstan to assess the success of the ITD grant that brought eleven Kyrgyz librarians to the US.

Workshops and Presentations

2004. "IT for Archivists." Society for American Archivists. Boston, MA. Panel discussion. August 6.

2004. "Impact of Technology on Library Services." Institute for Training and Development Kyrgyz Library Administrators Exchange Program. Amherst, MA. Half day. April 19.

2003. "Networking and Telecommunications for Archivists." Yale University and Simmons GSLIS. Boston, MA. Full day. October 25.

2003. "Library Usage Patterns in the Electronic Information Environment." Presented at the 2003 Conference on Users in Electronic Information Environments. "Toward a User-Centered Approach to Digital Libraries." Espoo, Finland. September 8. (with Brinley Franklin).

2002. “Networking 2.” Simmons GSLIS. Institutes for Continuing Education. Mount Holyoke College. South Hadley, MA. Half day. October 26.

2002. “Networking 1.” Simmons GSLIS. Institutes for Continuing Education. Mount Holyoke College. South Hadley, MA. Half day. October 19.

2002. “"Is the Gateway to Electronic Services Open or Closed? Current Issues with Firewalls and Proxy Servers." North Atlantic Health Sciences Libraries Annual Conference. Bartlett, NH. September 23.

2002. “Technologies of Internet Security.” North Atlantic Health Sciences Libraries Annual Conference. Continuing Education program. Bartlett, NH. Half day. September 22.

2002. "Scanning Maps for Information Content for Small Libraries and Local Historical Collections." International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA). Glasgow, Scotland. Half day. (with Patrick McGlamery, University of Connecticut). August 22.

2002. "Patterns of Patron Use of Networked Electronic Services at Four Academic Health Sciences Libraries." International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA). Glasgow, Scotland. (with Brinley Franklin, University of Connecticut). August 22.

2002. “Access Management.” Southeastern New York Library Resources Council. Marist College. Poughkeepsie, NY. Half day. March 26.

2002. “Networking: From Cables to Protocols.” Simmons GSLIS, Institutes for Continuing Education. Simmons College. Boston, MA. Full day. March 23.

2002. “Networking: How to Speak and Understand the Lingo.” Massachusetts Health Sciences Library Network (MAHSLIN). Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine. Boston, MA. Half day. March 12.

Book Reviews

Journal of Academic Librarianship
Library and Information Science Research
RUSQ
Technicalities

Committee Service to GSLIS and the College (2004)

GSLIS Technology Advisory Committee (ex officio)
GSLIS Web Advisory Committee (ex officio)
GSLIS West Committe (ex officio)
GSLIS Information Technology Curriculum Committee
Simmons Information Technology Governance Advisory Committee (Tech Gov)

Academic Background

B.A., Middlebury College
M.Libr., University of Washington
M.A., University of Connecticut
Ph.D. (Candidate), University of Connecticut