Winter 2010
Friends of the Library C.G. O’Kelly Library Newsletter
Editorial Team: Mae L. Rodney, Staff Writer Jeff McGill, Contributor, Photographer, & Proofreader Mel Rutledge, Photographer & Reporter Luchrita Fulton, Photographer, Publisher, & Graphic Artist
Contents
4| O’Kelly Library: An information and Teaching Center
Strengthening the library’s role in the teaching process
5| NC LIVE Staff Visits O’Kelly Library The library instruction team hosted NC LIVE staff members on August 14, 2009
5| Library Staff and Freshmen Orientation “The Ramdition” experience
6| Interlibrary Loan Services and the World Catalog Improving systemwide access 7| Focus on Student Workers Role of student workers in O’Kelly
7| O’Kelly Staff Trek to Greenville for NCLA Conference Four members of O’Kelly Library staff attend the North Carolina Library Association’s 58th Biennial Conference
8| LIS Think Tank Held at Inaugural IDEAL Summit “...information, diversity, engagement, access and libraries within education, research, practice and the community”
9| A Change Has Come…Now What? C.G. O’Kelly
Library Benefit
This past year’s event included the always anticipated music, and visual imagery intertwined with a very different mix spoken word, poetry, and commentary on significant change in America.
12| WSSU Friends of the Library 25th Anniversary:
Won’t You Be My Friend?
An upcoming celebration of 25 years for the WSSU Friends of the Library
C. G. O’Kelly Library: An Information and Teaching Center Information literacy is the strategy used by academic librarians to counter the internet’s invasion into research. A structured introductory information literacy program was designed for the university’s faculty since they initiate library assignments. Faculty members were also targeted since some of their assignments resulted in students cutting and pasting information directly from the internet for their research assignments. Finally, faculty needed an updated overview of the services that the library staff could provide to support their learning assignments and of the ever changing electronic collection.
portantly, instruction sessions were presented across the curriculum, not just in freshman seminar or English classes. This is a goal that was defined several years ago.
major strategies to place writing in the forefront within the curriculum. The Quality Enhancement Program (QEP) related to the upcoming 2010 Southern Association of Colleges and Schools reaccreditation visit will focus on improving students’ writing skills within upper level courses. Also, plans are being developed to restructure the general education courses to include a strong emphasis on writing and information literacy.
Teaching has become the engine behind the library instruction/reference services, as a result of presenting the new perspective on electronic research techniques to 55 faculty memTo further strengthen the library’s bers. Librarians’ role as teachers is role in the teaching process, as adminparamount within library services istrators seek to increase the writing because users must be educated on requirements within the curriculum, how to effectively locate, evaluate, analyze and ethically use the information which can be Several factors moved C. G. O’Kelly Library staff to accessed electronically from market the library as an information/teaching center the internet and the various including: library electronic resources. • 323 library instruction classes offered during Librarians teach students 2008-09 how to identify and locate information from reliable • A significant increase in the number of contacts sources; they also emphamade by the media production staff size the importance of citing • Over 16,000 reference and one-on-one contacts where the information was during the same period for librarians acquired. Users are provided Much of this new activity can be attributed to the with strategies to avoid cutting and pasting information strategies shared with WSSU faculty in the O’K into assignments and plagiaFellows Institute for the last two years. rism. Monday through Thursday instruction was offered from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm during September and October, the peak months for instruction. Most im-
librarians are developing workshops which will assist students and faculty with research and writing. Specifically, university planners are outlining two
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These two thrusts are prime opportunities to encourage a partnership between librarians and faculty to create effective library experiences which will assist students with improving their writing. Quality, wellplanned library experiences can direct learners to locate new information; to prove a point with the appropriate documentation; to avoid using unreliable sources and to avoid plagiarism. The services offered by the media staff will also continue to evolve as more faculty members require media-based assignments.
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NC LIVE Staff Visits O’Kelly Library Collecting library use statistics is a daily task for every staff member; statistics are used to describe what happens annually in the library, especially in the annual progress report. It was a unique experience to have staff from an outside agency to seek information about our service output! The library instruction team hosted NC LIVE staff members on August 14, 2009, while visiting several libraries in the state on a fact-finding mission to identify best practices which caused high usage of the databases. The NC LIVE staff indicated that WSSU was one library that got a high value from the NC LIVE databases because of our unusually high level of use (1,408,998 searches). The instruction team gave an informal panel presentation pointing out the techniques utilized to educate our users and how we encourage students and faculty to use the databases.The librarians indicated how they are constantly using the databases while teaching and during consultations. Librarians also demonstrated our marketing strategies, which includes creating and posting videos or PowerPoint slides to help users learn how to use the various databases in the collection. These “mini tutorials” are broadcast on the LCD panels in the library and placed on the library website so
NC LIVE staff members (l to r): Sarah Kahn, Online Services Librarian; Jill Robinson Morris, Outreach & Promotions Librarian; Leslie Sierra, Online Services Librarian
local and off-campus students can access the information. The NC LIVE staff was impressed with the quality and variety of video presentations which had been developed. Staff members’ presentations illustrated that the success of our comprehensive instruction effort is a result of the partnership between the automation, media and instruction staff, all participants have an equal role in creating a successful program.
Library Staff and Freshman Orientation “Have laptop, will travel” or “show the staff a crowd and we will start teaching.” Both slogans describe the O’K instruction team. For Fall 20209 the University College staff redesigned the orientation sessions for entering students. “The Ramdition” experience sought to acquaint new students with the ins and outs of being successful scholars at Winston-Salem State University. The sessions were structured and scheduled in a pattern similar to a regular academic schedule. The library was provided 50-minute time slots to acquaint students with C. G. O’Kelly Library. Since the scheduled time was shorter than in years past, the instruction team redesigned their presentation to use time effectively and to ensure that the important information was covered. A new twist was that the staff had to make presentations to over 30 groups at four different locations on campus. In August, the teaching staff was smaller than usual, so library technical assistants - Patricia Mack, Kizzy Lewis-Phillips and Mel Rutledge, who are enrolled in library school - were given the opportunity to lead several of the orientation sessions. Julie Dornberger, coordinator of library instruction, provided them a script and ample time to A welcome sight: Eager WSSU students during “Ramdition” 5 | Winter 2010
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practice their presentation with the instruction team prior to the orientation week. A schedule of presentation times and locations was made to ensure that all sessions were covered and no one person had an excessive number of sessions to teach.
O’Kelly Library staff members Julie Dornberger (above) and Melde Rutledge (below) interact with students during Ramdition sessions
The technical staff members were the knights in shining armor, since the sessions were not offered in the library. They went to each of the designated classrooms and checked the equipment to ensure that it was operational. In several cases, library equipment had to be utilized to give instructors reliable equipment. The staff successfully met all the classes and several freshman students came to the library in September to remind the staff that they were instructed to come to the library when they needed assistance. What a wonderful group of students!
Interlibrary Loan Services and the World Catalog For decades the research and academic libraries across the University of North Carolina system have leveraged their collections and those of other research libraries in the region to reduce costs and make the greatest range of materials available to faculty and students. Now, from one link on our website, patrons can search the libraries of all 17 schools in the UNC system and have materials they need delivered to their doorstep in a matter of days. UNC Library Express improves discoverability of library materials readily available across the state, creating a virtual library throughout the UNC system community and making better use
of university resources by making them easy to find and quickly obtained. Students, faculty and staff at the UNC institutions can now conveniently choose to search in the “UNC Libraries” tab, and pick from resources available across the UNC system. Books and other items are then delivered by UPS Ground service, usually within two days of the request. The end result: UNC Library Express increases the amount and variety of books and other resources available to all members of the UNC system community, whether they are engaged in teaching and learning on campus or through distance education. By ensuring rapid delivery of library materials and providing virtual library access across the system, UNC Li-
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brary Express meets several of the key goals laid out in the UNC President's Advisory Committee on Efficiency & Effectiveness (PACE) report commissioned by UNC President Erskine Bowles as a system-wide initiative to assure the state's legislature and taxpayers that the University’s resources are utilized as efficiently and effectively as possible. Providing system-wide access to information is a major building block for many of the program enhancements described in The University of North Carolina Tomorrow Planning Document for 2008-2012 (UNC Tomorrow) which guides future focus and curriculum expansion.
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Focus on Student Workers Our student workers perform tasks that help keep the library humming. Many of them have worked in O’Kelly for four years and are fast approaching their graduations. For the last ten years, a small portion of the library budget has been set aside for student intern salaries. The library student wage budget is important to ensure that a sufficient number of students are available to complete routine work. Unfortunately, the number of students assigned through the financial aid office to the library continues to decline each year. This led some student workers to become concerned when the library director unfortunately could not promise them employment during the fall semester because of budget uncertainty.
Library services are created and designed to support student learning and research. Without the assistance of student workers, the library would have trouble operating smoothly and supporting academics. These workers are an essential part of a whole. So this month we will profile one of O’Kelly Library’s student workers. Davina Metts is a junior from Durham, NC. She returned as a student employee after a year’s absence. Previously, she worked in stack management; Metts during the 2009-10 academic year she is assisting in the director’s office. In a recent interview, Davina indicated that working in the library is a very different experience because she has increased her
O’Kelly Staff Trek to Greenville for NCLA Conference Four members of O’Kelly Library’s staff were part of a vast gathering of library professionals on October 6-9, 2009 when the North Carolina Library Association’s 58th Biennial Conference opened its doors in Greenville, NC. The four-day event was held at the Greenville Convention Center with a host of pre-conferences, seminars, panel discussions and vendors to keep guests engaged. Phyllistine Poole, Patricia Mack, Forrest Foster and Melde Rutledge were the O’Kelly Library staff members who participated in the conference. This was the third visit to the NCLA conference for Poole, our Business Librarian, but she says that there is always something new to obtain when she attends. She explained, “There is always new information, Web sites, 7 | Winter 2010
training, teaching methods, techniques and contacts to experience.” Poole attended the entire conference, including a pre-conference sponsored by the Business Librarians in North Carolina (BLINC) that was designed to help teach research skills to support the business and economic development needs of local communities. She was also a table leader on October 7, for the session entitled “Training That Works: Design Tips from the Master Trainers.” Poole Forrest Foster, Access Services Coordinator, attended the conference October 8-9. This was his second time
knowledge and skills in so many different areas. Of course she has learned how to shelve books according to the Library of Congress classification system, but she’s also increased her knowledge developing and maintaining databases; just as important is her experience learning to work in a diverse environment with so many different people who also work there and the many students who use the library daily. One of her most challenging experiences was an introductory greeting and short public address to the nearly 300 people in attendance at the WSSU Friends of the Library annual benefit in November. In preparing the greetings, she accepted the fact that being an Early Childhood Education major will require her to speak to groups of children and parents, however she did not initially anticipate having to present to such a large group. Undaunted, Metts successfully addressed the audience and helped kick-off the event. participating. The O’Kelly instruction team selected him to present information about the O’K Fellows Institute and WSSU’s use of the NC LIVE databasFoster es in a Thursday session with the NC LIVE staff. This was the first time that Mack and Rutledge attended the NCLA conference. Currently enrolled in UNC Greensboro’s Master of Library and Information Studies program, the two were able to attend free of charge, via the Academic and Cultural Enrichment (A.C.E.) scholarship, which was awarded to them through UNCG this past summer. Mack is an assistant in technical services. Rutledge is the library instruction assistant. (Continues on next page)
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Rutledge thought the conference provided him a broader scope of the library profession, and what fields are in more demand—such as medical and science librarians. Mack said that she enjoyed speaking with the vendors and finding out about the new products available. She said. “Basically, going to conferences shows what my future could be like.”
LIS Think Tank Held at Inaugural iDEAL Summit
Mack
Rutledge ALA President Camila Alire with UNC-Greensboro ACE Scholars: Front row (L-R): Patricia Mack, Camila Alire, Kris Brown, and Tammy Graham; Back (L-R): Melde Rutledge and Leatha Mile-Edmonson
O’Kelly Library staff members, Patricia Mack, Carl Leak and Melde Rutledge were among many who participated in the inaugural Information, Diversity, Engagement, Access and Libraries Summit (iDEALS) on November 9, 2009. The program was held on the campus of UNC Greensboro and was intended for faculty, staff, students, alumni, the regional professional community and other stakeholders to discuss and work on how to tackle issues pertaining to “information, diversity, engagement, access and libraries” within “education, research, practice and the community.” Carl Leak, the Distance Services Librarian at O’Kelly Library, said that the iDEAL Summit was a great way for individuals to network, as well as an opportunity to mentor students who attended. He added that the summit was a great way for students and midlevel professionals to find a focus for their career.
Leak
The summit focused on four themes: Real World, Educational and Professional Development, Research and Community. Attendees were divided into four groups giving all participants an opportunity to share their reactions to the themes. Responses from the groups, in part, addressed the skills that a new library graduate needs to succeed in a real workplace, research needs or issues that exist in some workplaces and ways to strengthen the library and information science (LIS) community. WSSU Friends of the Library
Bill Kealy, a group leader and a visiting professor in UNCG’s LIS department, said that themes of collaboration, mentorship and being able to bridge between theory and practice were common among the groups. The summit closed with an evening keynote address from Camila Alire, president of the American Library Association (ALA). She spoke on the importance of being “culturally competent.” Throughout her address, she stressed this statement to the predominantly white audience. “You do not have to be a member of an ethnic, racial minority to be culturally competent.” Alire pointed out the fact that the racial and ethnic makeup of the United States is changing, and that there is a vast number of minorities in public libraries that are underserved. She added, “If we truly believe that an informed population in this country helps us maintain our democratic principles, then we need to make sure that that onethird of the population are lifelong learners and are part of the informed public.” Patricia Mack, Library Technical Assistant at O’Kelly Library, said that Alire’s address prompted her to analyze how she is contributing to diversity in the library field. Overall, she said that she enjoyed the summit, as it provided a great means to network.
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A Change Has Come…Now What? C.G. O’Kelly Library Benefit Change and friendship were two themes carried throughout the evening during the 2009 annual C. G. O’Kelly Library benefit. This past year’s event included the always anticipated music, and visual imagery intertwined with a very different mix spoken word, poetry, and commentary on significant change in America. Along with, getting some answers on what African Americans should do now that an African American has been elected into the presidency was a primary goal. The WSSU Raminisence Jazz Combo, comprised of WSSU students under the direction of master musician, L. David Legette, kicked off the evening.The group made the university proud by providing sweet jazz sounds as nearly 300 guests entered the McNeil Banquet Hall, enjoyed their meal and chatted with each other.
Winston Salem State University Raminisence Jazz Combo
Advertisements are one of the primary techniques used to raise funds for the library endowment. In an effort to increase the revenue potential for the Friends of the Library, a 9 | Winter 2010
new concept was introduced. Ads valued at $500 and above were projected on a large screen as our guests entered the McNeil Banquet Hall.These visual presentations will also run on the Library’s LCD panels January 4-31, 2010. Although the ad from the Division of Lifelong Learning, was below the defined value, it will be included in other ad rotation since the copy was received after the program was printed.
A large portion of the benefit revenue comes from ad sales in addition to ticket sales
Donations Names Received after Printing of Program Mr. & Mrs. Donald Benson Dr. Irene Chief Mr. & Mrs Kenneth CrumbMs. Velma Frende Ms. Cynthia George Mr. & Mrs Jerry Hariston Dr. Lawrence Hopkins Mr. John Jackson, III Dr. James Phillip Jeter Mr. Willie King Mrs. Janice Lambert Ms. Patricia Mack Ms. Beverly R. Mitchell Ms. Avon Ruffin Mr. & Mrs Reginald Smith Mr. Ted Stewart Mr. & Mrs Alfred White WSSU Former Miss Alumni Chapter (Continues on next page) WSSU Friends of the Library
Brenda Allen, Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs was introduced to the audience as the new leader of the academic units and a true “Friend of the Library” by Mae L. Rodney, Director of Library Services. Allen commended Winston-Salem State University’s library staff for offering services which are on the cutting edge of present-day academic library techniques and best practices. Allen also challenged the audience Allen © Garrett Garms, 2009 and especially educators to produce more scholars in medicine, science, research and environmental science. She indicated that Ebony was able to spotlight lots of athletes and entertainers as standouts in their chosen professions, but only a few individuals in the more technical areas were identified. She encouraged the audience to change that trend and encourage students to excel in all disciplines. Lorenzo Meachum, special friend and master entertainer, recruited a host of very talented individuals to entertain the audience and provide them a rich segue to the next chapter of the documentary. A pleasant surprise of the evening was Rachel Simon’s flawless presentation of experts from Lorraine Hansberry’s 1960’s speech to the “Negro Writers Conference.”
Meachum and Simon
A second major surprise was WSSU Assistant Professor of Sociology Nkrumah Lewis’ acappella version of Sam Cooke’s “A Change is Gonna Come.” His vocal talents wooed the audience giving many guests a sweet trip back in time. Surprisingly, none of Lewis’ colleagues was aware of his hidden talent. Avis Gray, WSSU speech instructor, shared a spirited and entertaining version of the poem, “When a Black Woman Says She’s Tired.” The women in the audience really related to the presentation, which was very appropriate for a Saturday night, possibly after a hectic week preparing for the upcoming Thanksgiving and Christmas Holidays.
Nkrumah Lewis’ rendition of Sam Cooke’s song, “A Change is Gonna Come.”
Gray’s spirited words really got a reaction that evening from the crowd! (Continues on next page)
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Songstress Robin Easter closed the show with a rendition of Whitney Houston’s, “I Look to You.” Meachum introduced her by describing her voice as being as strong and powerful as Pattie La’Belle’s. He was right and the audience wholeheartedly agreed! The O’K media production team - Jeff McGill and Chris Screen- interviewed over 30 individuals from the WinstonSalem business, education, political, and religious communities to capture their reflections on the impact of the 2008 election. An African American as president has been a dream no one dared to share aloud. The dream has been realized, now what? The respondents were asked to give their deepest thoughts on what should happen now. The production team used some of the newest and best technology to weave the individual interviews into a documentary which offered some answers to “now what.”
Above: Robin Easter singing Center: A large audience enjoys the nights entertainment Below: Guests Ed Greene and Joyce Williams Greene
None of the interviewees believed that America or African Americans are home free. Instead, they indicated that we need to remember and utilize the strategies that were successful when African Americans owned their own businesses; teachers were excellent educators and leaders of the community; children were successful because parents would seek assistance from the wise, seasoned parents in the community, instead of thinking that they were wise enough and had all the answers themselves. Change is going to happen but we must continue to improve with the change and not be complacent. (Continues on next page) 11 | Winter 2010
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INTERVIEWEES from “A Change Has Come...Now What?” Darryl Aaron C. P. Booker Michael Clements Jim Conrad John Davenport Terry Edwards Mutter Evans Fleming EL-Amin Cassaundra EL-Amin Danny Freeman John Gladman
James Grace Avis Gray Wendy Hanes Denise Hartsfield Roland Hayes, III Beth Hopkins Elwanda Ingram Sandra Miller Jones Nkrumah Lewis Robin Lewis
WSSU Friends of the Library 25th Anniversary: Won’t You Be My Friend? C. G. O’Kelly Library staff members, alumni and friends of the university joined together to form the WSSU Friends of the Library (FOL) in 1985 with the goal of providing an alternate funding source for the library. The FOL 25th anniversary is an excellent milestone for these groups to partner again and bolster the funding that the organization has sought to create for 25 years.
Sheldon McCarter Sir Walter Mack Chris Martin Marie Matthews Virgina Newell Albert T. Porter Donald Reaves Holly Stepp Benay Williams Stacey Williams
brary. As the general economic condition of the state changes the need for extra dollars also change. The goal for this anniversary year is to reach that magic $250,000 goal. Having an endowment of this size will provide the interest income to fund projects, such as providing small scholarships to one or two long-term, top-quality library student employees during their final year to help them pay a small segment of their tuition. Income would also be sufficient to provide a travel grant to two librarian/faculty teams who have collaborated on a project or an article to make a presentation at a national or regional conference.
The fundraising efforts will be an opportunity to recognize the contributions that so many people made to sustain the organization such as past presidents, Mavis Lloyd, Cheryl Bradshaw Super, Sylvia Spinkle Hamlin, Glynis Whitted Bell, Melva Daniels, Jim Nanton and our deceased board members including Louise Smith, Caroline Shelton, C. B. Hauser, Henry Stepp, and Stacy Williams.
If the goal for a substantial endowment is reached, sufficient funds would also be available to sponsor innovative staff projects during tight budget periods such as the current economic downturn. Many of the changes in library services have been a result of staff creativity. Being able to encourage new ideas keeps the staff engaged in their assignments and fosters the general growth of library services.
The library endowment was established in the early 1990’s to raise enough money to fund the extras needed in the li-
Watch the library website for the announcement on the activities planned for the anniversary year.
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