Tim Bucknall
Assistant Director for Libraries, and Head of Electronic
Resources
and Information Technologies
University Libraries,
University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
The Electronic Resources and
Information Technology (ERIT) Unit is responsible for developing service
programs for electronic media; for exploring, selecting, and implementing
new technologies; for writing and supporting custom programs; for desktop
and server hardware support and maintenance; for software selection,
installation, customization, and support; for the support of multiple
operating systems; for the maintenance and development of multiple server
environments; for building and maintaining databases and custom front
ends; and for developing and delivering instruction to library staff in
electronic resources and microcomputer
applications software; for the maintenance and develepment of the
Library's electronic journals and databases; and for support of academic
web pages campus-wide. ERIT currently has 14 full
time staff, including the Interlibrary Loan unit.
If you're a glutton for punishment, you can check out my seventy or so
presentations and about a dozen publications on my CV :)
Current Projects
Some of the more interesting projects with
which I am involved to some degree include:
NC LIVE is
comprised of all the public libraries, the community
colleges, the UNC system schools, and the private and independent colleges
in North Carolina. It creates a level playing field by making diverse
resources available to citizens across the state. I serve on NC LIVE's
Librarians Council and chair its Web Advisory Committee.
In 2004, I co-authored with Dr. Loren Schweninger of the UNCG
History Department a successful NEH grant for $200,000. The end
product will be a searchable database of all state and many county
legal petitions relating to slaves or slavery in the American South from
the Revolutionary period until the end of the Civil War.
I am the negotiator, founder, and convener of the Carolina Consortium.
In its first year (2005), the consortium saved its 38 member institutions
approximately 70 million dollars. The group has since grown to about 50
members, with even greater savings.
I helped design and create the first OpenURL link resolver to go into
production in the United States. Journal Finder currently has nearly
thirty institutional customers in six states.
Open Access and Free Ejournals
One of my areas of research interest. I'm fascinated to see how/if
these will transform the landscape of scholarly research journals. On a
more basic level, I have discovered and harvested thousands of free titles
for the Journal Finder knowledge base and have done several presentations
on usage patterns.
Ejournal access mechanisms
Journal Finder includes pay-per-view, free, directly subscribed,
aggregator, consortial package, and unmediated document delivery titles.
I am currently doing research on how these different mechanisms alter
usage levels and satisfaction rates.
Making the catalog user-friendly
Although my staff rarely lets me do any hands-on programming of our
catalog any more, I was involved in creating the "first in the country"
automatic OpenURL linking of book MARC records to their corresponding book
reviews in InfoTrac. I was also involved in creating the first intergated
DRA/eReserves system in the U.S. and in the automatic "on-the-fly"
creation of ejournal and document delivery links from every serials record
in our catalog. I'm still looking for ways to make our SIRSI catalog more
useful.
Electronic Resource Selection
I chair Jackson Library's Electronic Resources Committee, which
decides on
all database renewals and subscriptions for UNCG. And I coordinate all the
deals for the fifty schools of the Carolina Consortium.
What I do when I'm not at work
I'm a librarian, so its hardly surprising that I love to read. I also
like backpacking, cooking (especially Italian food!), woodworking, and
soccer.
How to contact me
My office is located in the back of the ERIT area on the second floor of
the main building of Jackson Library.
Phone (910)334-4238
E-mail tim_bucknall@uncg.edu