Friends of the Library Summer 2014
Library Instruction
Teaching library patrons how to locate the information they need quickly and effectively
C.G. O’Kelly Library Newsletter
Contents | Summer 2014 3 | WSSU Friends of the Library Forethinkers A successful Friends of the Library event featuring early pioneers of theWSSU Mathematics Department.
6 | Memorials 7 | Cost Saving: DVD Collection Impact of budget on O’Kelly’s DVD collection
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7 | Library Instruction 8 | Embedding librarians into courses 8 | O’K Scholars and Library Instruction
8 | Staff News
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8 | Professional Development 10 | C.S. Rodney Memorial Travel Fund
11| Library Programs: Focus Groups and Relevant Services
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8 2 | Friends of the Library
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WSSU Friends of the Library Forethinkers formed after the liberal arts curriculum was adopted in 1964. But it was the appropriate choice for the March discussion because of the number of retired faculty members who still live in Winston-Salem and who were in good health and had clear memories of those decades.
Current and former members of the WSSU Mathematics department (l to r) Carmen Rossitch, Margaret Poston, Merdis McCarter, Billie Jones, Sandria Kerr, Mr. Kerr, Manour Samimi, Frank Ingram. Second Row Gloria Upson, Vincent Snipes.
Seven stellar retired mathematics faculty members energized an historic reunion in March as they reminisced about the university’s mathematics curriculum and the department during nearly four decades of profound change: 1962 to 2000. The almost family-like relationship among the participants as well as their deepseated respect for each other kept the discussion lively and entertaining. It was fulfilling to experience an event that focused on the history of mathematics as an instructional department. The WSSU Friends of the Library sponsored the event to help the Archives staff expand and diversify the university’s oral history collection. Personal reflections from alumni and faculty are important because written history is only captured from correspondence, board of trustee minutes, university catalogs and a few newspaper articles. In many instances,
a department’s history does not provide specific data about the “who, what and when” of a department’s formation. In addition, oral histories offer a personal perspective on watershed events that occurred at the university.
Nathan Simms, Jr. represented the earliest chairperson in the discussion group. Kerr and McCarter credited him with creating an environment that was conducive to change. The independent department was created under his leadership. From Simms’ administration forward the math department faculty was committed to developing a curriculum that would help students acquire the requisite skills to be successful. The discussion clearly documented that the math faculty was committed to student success. The interviews uncovered that Kerr possessed minutes for departmental meetings. These documents have been scanned and are now in the collection. In addition, she was able to provide the staff a comprehensive list of faculty members and their tenure in the
This event captured the reflections of faculty members who were instrumental in transforming the WSSU mathematics curriculum prior to 1985. Incidentally, five of the participants -Nathan Simms, Jr., Virginia Newell, Merdis McCarter, Carmen Rossitch and Margaret Poston -- served as department chairpersons. Mathematics was not one of the departments Nathan Simms, Jr. (rt) greets David Peay at the event
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(l to r) Rossitch, McCarter and Newell at the front of the room on the panel
Virginia Newell shares stories of her time in the WSSU Mathematics Department
department. A fairly comprehensive history of the mathematics department was written with McCarter’s assistance. After some revisions and citations, the history will be included in the Chronicle of the Rams Encyclopedia (CORE) which is on the library’s website. Several important facts about the department and the impact on students emerged during the event: For several years WSSU students conducted Saturday math classes to benefit local public school students; math students routinely attended professional conferences; the faculty was heavily engaged in other campus activities and committees; and, over the years several math instructors were appointed to higher positions at the university. The audience was diverse and included six members of the current math department, retired faculty and staff members, as well as former students of the department. A former student of Simms traveled from Georgia to express her appreciation to him for being a good teacher. The event wasn’t all math talk. The Raminiscence Jazz Combo, under the capable direction of L. David Legette, set the tone for the occasion with swinging background music. Mesia Moore Steed, Assistant Professor of 4 | Friends of the Library
A full room of guest enjoyed the discussion and tales the “forethinkers’ shared and a hot meal while listening to the sounds of the Raminiscence Jazz Combo.
Cell and Molecular Biology, gave an original spoken word tribute to the participants and the occasion. She was accompanied on the keyboard by Myron Brown, Assistant Professor of Music. Without a doubt, the participants made the program successful. The list of potential contributors to the oral history project was expanded significantly. The faculty and alumni who attended have stories and images that can be utilized in the archives collection.
Frank Ingram, Chair, Department of Mathematics, speaks at podium to the audience in attendance
Mesia Moore Steed during her spoken word tribute accompanied by Myron Brown.
Jeanette Lewis and Tasmin Washington
David Peay reads the Forethinkers program
Student Jr. Hostesses and Hosts: (l to r) Chelsea Monger, J’Lysa Robinson, Tashara Killian, Joy Greene, Harvey Long and Lewis Miller Summer 2014 | 5
Memorials Two student employees who will graduate during the 2014-15 academic year will be designated as Gerald Pauling Fund and Judge Roland Hayes Fund interns. The students must have worked in the library at least two years and exhibit excellent customer service skills and reliability. Initially, the funds were established to hire graduate students but several factors did not allow that concept to come to fruition. The selected students will be assigned to Archives and Reference. One of the benefits of the funds is the selected students will work side-by-side with a librarian their last year at the university to expand their technology, research or media skills. The goal is to give these individuals a capstone experience that they can carry with them into the job market. The selected individuals will be awarded between $2,500 and $3,000 depending upon their availability to work. Contributions to either of the established funds are always appreciated.
C.S. Rodney Memorial Travel Fund (staff travel) contributions January – June 2014 Timothy Grant Edward Hanes Merdis McCarter Alberta Mickens Mae L. Rodney
Judge Roland H. Hayes Fund Barbara S. Hayes
Gerald Pauling Fund Rosetta Pauling
Faustina L. Holman
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Cost Saving: DVD Collection these requirements, hopefully the budget reduction will only impact areas that do not relate directly to students’ academic success.
Student worker J’Lysa Robinson works on the relocation of O’Kelly DVD’s in Information Commons
As a result of declining enrollment and ongoing reductions in federal and state allocations, the O’Kelly Library’s operating budget and service model must be reconfigured. Although a tighter budget is a reality, an adequate staff must be retained to respond to service demands in a customer-friendly manner and to support strong instruction and research programs. These activities remain paramount to the library’s mission. The instruction program has increased in value and should continue expanding to satisfy the university’s goal of producing information literate graduates. With
The DVD collection was originally established to offer an inexpensive leisure resource for the university family and is not relevant to the university’s instructional mission. Although the DVD service was the second most used, it became the area targeted to reduce costs. A librarian, and eventually the collection development committee, researched viable solutions; the desired outcome was to facilitate ease of use and reduce costs. The staff considered transforming the collection into a streaming video service. But after several efforts, it was determined that there was no streaming DVD service available for an academic library subscription. The committee decided to downsize the collection and relocate it to the Information Commons storage area. The updated DVD collection guidelines recommend acquiring only “box office blockbusters” and limiting the time span titles remain in the collection. Patrons will be able to search the collection through a dedicated computer terminal at the service desk. Savings will occur with the smaller staff used to service the collection, the time required to process the collection and the supplies purchased. As much as possible, student employees will service the DVD collection.
Library instruction Librarians Ronunda Claiborne, Michael Frye, Carl Leak, and Terrance Martin worked with WSSU faculty members Stephanie Dance-Barnes, Kenneth Brown and Mesia Steed to create an Information Literacy Manual for the university. Leak chaired the committee and
Claiborne
Frye
Leak
provided the energy and direction for compiling the manual. The manual is part of the series commissioned by the university to help faculty members develop courses relevant to the seven learning outcomes that were established in 2010.
Martin
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Embedding Librarians Into Courses Embedding librarians within courses is a way of making librarians physically available to students in their classes and academic departments. The embedded librarian model addresses students’ expectation for immediate access to information. Bringing the librarian and library to the user, is the goal. The immediate access to librarians hopefully will encourage students to do research and not just search the Internet. Librarians Ronunda Claiborne, Carl Leak and Melinda Livas demonstrated during the spring 2014 semester that there is a major difference in teaching methods and effectiveness when they were embedded in three online courses: physical education, birth to kindergarten education and nursing. A major difference between traditional and online courses is the embedded librarian has more flexibility in class presentations and can create unique oneon-one learning packages for online sessions since students can access the information at their convenience and as
frequently as needed. The teacher schedules assignments and announces when the librarian will offer instruction sessions or chat sessions when students can ask questions directly to the librarian. The faculty member can invite the librarian to post additional information relevant to a class assignment as needed; librarians offer valuable support to both the student and faculty member. The librarians found that there were major differences between how students responded to face-to-face experiences and online learning. In addition, they discerned a difference in how traditional and nontraditional students approached their learning processes. Some students in the online classes seek assistance and/or continuously view videos that have been uploaded. Successful experiences will occur when the librarian and instructor review and discuss the class outcomes, and adjustments are made to ensure students are successful.
O’K Scholars and Library Instruction The O’K Scholars Institute continues to be a primary force in assisting WSSU librarians with keeping the number of instruction sessions at the same or higher level than the previous year. Approximately 42 percent of the instruction sessions were courses taught by institute graduates. The institute’s primary goal is to help the university reach its goal of producing information literate graduates which can only be accomplished by incorporating many information literacy assignments within courses. The Summer 2014 Institute was held June 6, 2014. Fourteen faculty members participated, representing Behavioral Science, Business, Clinical Laboratory Science, Computer Science, English, Health Care Management, Mathematics, Nursing, Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy and Social Work. Nearly 250 faculty members have fulfilled the institute’s requirements since it was founded nine years ago. Librarians continue to emphasize and share directions for including information literacy within the instructional process. Just as importantly, they provide vital information about other library services including one-shot instruction sessions, media production, research consultations and embedding librarians within Blackboard shells. 8 | Friends of the Library
WSSU faculty member Pamela Moses-Snipes works alongside O’Kelly librarian Melinda Livas, during the Summer 2014 O’K Scholars Institute
Staff News Professional Development
and telephone. In addition, she has made significant in-roads with the math faculty – her assigned liaison area. She attended departmental meetings and increased face-to-face instructional sessions from zero to three. Her nomination also recognized her professional involvement in several regional and national library organizations.
Flynn
Foster Luchrita Fulton (top) and Melinda Livas (below) were nominated for and received the 2014 Chancellor’s Staff Recognition Awards. Fulton, Library Graphic Artist, received $1,500 for her outstanding work with library publications. Her nomination also noted her exemplary work with a Mass Communications intern during the Spring semester. The student developed InDesign skills to the point that she was able to independently create a number of products and designs. The final statement on Luchrita’s nomination application was that “her final products always make the library and university look good.” Livas, Distance Services Librarian and liaison to the math department, was nominated because of her outstanding work with the Distance RN to BSN program. During 201314, she visited all 21 sites where instruction is provided. She was also embedded in two RN to BSN online courses. Melinda assisted students via Blackboard, face-to-face, email
Thomas Flynn, Assistant Director for Archives and Special Collections, has recently been appointed to serve on a joint task force with the Society of American Archivists and the Association of College and Research Libraries / Rare Books and Manuscripts Section. The committee is charged with establishing performance measures to describe the services provided within archive departments. The appointment is for two years. Forrest Foster, Access Services Coordinator, participated in a panel discussion on Let’s Talk Learning Spaces in Academic Libraries at the Texas Library Association Conference in April 2014. Lynne Simpson Harding, Edmon Low Library, Oklahoma State University, and Julie A. Leuzinger, University of North Texas Libraries, were also on the panel.
The speakers elaborated on innovative ways to integrate and facilitate access to library resources to meet research needs. They also shared different models for developing information learning spaces and promoting information literacy techniques. Foster talked about how O’Kelly Library’s Information Commons came to fruition and how new apps and web 2.0 tools are being shared with the university community. He also mentioned how “Let’s Talk Learning Spaces,” O’Kelly’s Blog Talk Radio Show, has helped create dialogue among academic libraries in relation to learning-space models. Melinda Livas, Distance Services Librarian, presented the flipped classroom experience at conferences for the Metrolina Library Association and the American Library Association in June 2014 . These presentations were based on her experiences in her distance classes and her presentation at the 2013 O’Kelly Library Flipped Classroom Challenge.
Levine
Cynthia Levine, Technical Services Coordinator and Cynthia George, Systems Administrator, attended the Innovative Users Group conference in Detroit in May 2014. They have continuously attended this conference since an Innovative server was installed in O’Kelly Library in 2008. These conferences allow them to discuss issues Summer 2014 | 9
with both Innovative staff members and front line users. In addition, they acquire valuable information about new services or planned system upgrades which help with planning and training needs. Many librarians are interested in knowing what new system is being installed by other libraries. Levine also traveled to Portland, Oregon in May 2014 to attend the Timberline Acquisitions Institute. The conference, which is heavily focused on collections, has been sponsored since 2008. Levine was able to attend all of the presentations but found the sessions on middle management, streaming videos and medical collections to be particularly relevant to O’Kelly Library. This past May, five librarians traveled to Raleigh to visit N.C. State University. Ronunda Claiborne, Patricia Commander, Michael Frye, Melinda Livas and Janet Malliett toured the university’s James B. Hunt Library. This tour was an edifying experience because of the building’s “hyper-modern” structural design and the service concepts. The Malliett library received a national award from the American Institute of Architects/American Library Association and also received the award for Green Design: Non-Residential from the City of Raleigh.
James B. Hunt Library “book bot’ in use
The staff indicated that they had many “WOW!” moments during the tour. A wide array of technology, uncommon seating arrangements and a host of individualized study spaces loaded with the latest technology are a few items that make the environment so unique. One librarian was fascinated with the “book bot” and another loved the smart rooms that allowed individuals to write on the walls and floors. It is great to have a world-class, high-tech library in North Carolina that people can get inspiration from and perhaps imagine what could be at O’Kelly. Luchrita Fulton, Sandra George, Justin Grandison, Linda Linton and Carla Parrish attended the first Triad Academic Library Association (TALA) conference for paraprofessionals. Headlined, “Academic Libraries: Staying Relevant in Times of Change,” the event was held at UNCGreensboro in May 2014. There were several breakout sessions for participants that included technical services, email etiquette, customer service, technology and getting the best from student employees. Attendees appreciated a conference that offered interesting information related to their areas of expertise.
James B. Hunt Library
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C.S. Rodney Memorial Travel Fund A steady stream of donations to the Cedric S. Rodney Memorial Travel Fund has enabled another newlyappointed librarian to attend her first American Library Association Conference which was held in Las Vegas, Nevada. Ronunda Claiborne, education liaison, graduated from UNC-Greensboro in 2013 with a Masters in Library and Information Studies. During the conference she was mentored by Melinda Livas, Distance Services Librarian. Claiborne was hired June 2012 as a University Library Technician in Archives. She was appointed as Vicki S. Miller’s replacement in September 2013. As a first-time attendee, Ronunda’s goals were to better understand how different libraries and library systems implement customer service and instructional programs to better serve patrons. She also aims to learn how to get involved in national association committees in order to gain a broader perspective of the library field. The memorial travel fund is particularly helpful since the library budget will be reduced again because of lower state appropriations and enrollment decline. It is vital for the staff to participate in face-to-face professional experiences to keep the library program and services vibrant and relevant. Librarians exposed to new perspectives and fresh ideas are better prepared for shifting student expectations and new technologies.
Library Programs: Focus groups and Relevant Services If the library is to remain relevant to the collegiate experience, serving the needs of different student populations will require different approaches. The university is attracting a large number of non-traditional students (over 25 years of age). These more mature students have different study habits and learning requirements than their traditional counterparts. To address these differences, the library staff hosted two separate focus groups to collect information about service needs and better ways to connect with both populations. The information collected from the groups diverged widely but it points the library staff in the right direction towards developing specialized approaches.
(right) Naeem McGregor, former Technology Specialist and (left)Carla Parrish, University Program Specialist
Patricia Commander, Thomas Flynn, Michael Frye, Carl Leak, Harvey Long and Janet Malliett were the primary members of the traditional student focus group. Several student groups were invited to share information with the committee in April. Commander and Malliett conducted random face-to-face interviews with students to determine how librarians can better connect with students, and what services they require to be successful. Summer 2014 | 11
Librarians are seeking strategies to connect with traditional students that will help them become familiar with the staff early on as a means to encourage face-to-face, email, or telephone assistance. Another recommendation is for the library to incorporate more opportunities within the university orientation experiences for students to meet the library staff. Ronunda Claiborne, Carl Leak, Melinda Livas, Naeem McGregor, Carla Parrish and Lizzie Reeder were members of the non-traditional focus group. These individuals were selected since they had either been nontraditional students themselves or were working with a large portion of WSSU’s non-traditional student population. Students in O’Kelly Library Information Commons McGregor, Technology Specialist, had been lobbying for the last academic year for a program to assist non-traditional students with adapting to a technology-based learning environment. For the last 18 months, he has worked with students in the Information Commons who have issues with using computers, Microsoft Office products, email, Blackboard and all university computer-based systems. Most of these students are 35 years and older. They enter the library every day and don’t hesitate to seek assistance from the employees working in the Information Commons area. The non-traditional focus group has decided to address these technology issues by offering a series of Saturday workshops during the upcoming fall semester. The workshops will offer participants a small-group learning experience where they can develop their skills. Another goal for the workshops is to increase library attendance on weekends. After fall break, more advanced workshops will be offered in Excel, PowerPoint and other media based software. The library staff will inform the non-traditional student organizations like Veterans Affairs and the Office for NonTraditional Students about the workshops. The major challenge will be publicizing the workshops and attracting 10 or more student participants. The planning committee thinks these sessions will add significantly to nontraditional student success and reduce some of the early frustrations they experience because of having been away from the educational environment for an extended amount of time.
Non-Traditional student, Carlos Sawyer
An unexpected by-product of the focus group was a calendar of student activities which will be posted on the library website. The activities are designed to engage more students in library services.
Winston-Salem State University C.G. O’Kelly Library 601 S. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive Winston-Salem, NC 27110
http://www.wssu.edu/cg-okelly-library
Publishing Team Mae L. Rodney Editor
Jeff McGill Photographer & Proofreader
Luchrita Fulton Publisher, Photographer
Printing G Graphics