Clare's December 2011/January 2012

Collection Development

• Ordered a few JUV titles including Newbery, Caldecott, Geisel 2012 award winners.

Weeding

• Started weeding the Career Resources Collection based on year of publication and circulation history.
• Weeding will continue in the H’s as soon as the elevator is back in service.
• Assisting David with the special weeding project. Learned (and still learning) new weeding procedures using the tools WorldCat Collection Analysis, Bowker RCL Web, GDM Gist and OCLC Connexion. BC’s and BD’s have been completed. Will begin working on a range of the PS’s in Feb.

Display

• Soul Food for Black History month.

Research Guides

• Soul Food research guide created for Black History month
• Updated a few guides including TAT121, Introduction to Hospitality.  Minor updates to some other guides.  Will be reviewing all my guides in Feb./March and will update or revamp as needed.

Library Instruction

• Prepared for TAT121, Introduction to Hospitality (Wixted).  Handouts associated with class may be found as links on the TAT121 research guide.
• Prepared for SOC125, Introduction to Social Work (West-Davis). Handout on J Drive:  J:\shares\Library\sort\Clare\SOC Handouts

MLA Style Guides

• Close to submitting draft 1 of a consolidated Works Cited guide to the Learning Center. This would combine all Works Cited handouts but Music into 1 handout.

Caitlin's December/January Update

Weeding- In the course of weeding Reference I found the title 10,000 Ideas for Term Papers, Projects, Reports, and Speeches. It contains sections that have ideas for topics in sociology and anthropology which I had several students ask for help with last semester, so after discussing it with Carrie, this title has been moved to the Ready Reference desk. I'm hoping we can get some use out of it the next time a student says "I need a topic in sociology. My professor says it can be anything, and I don't know what to choose."

Graphic Novels- I recently made three "mock-ups" for graphic titles that have a history of disappearing from our shelves without ever being checked out. The actual volumes are located in the circ office. For now there are only three titles that are to be kept in the office (they are going to be marked as such next to the barcode inside), but as more titles come in I will probably make more mock-ups for those titles that I deem to be at risk, such as ones by a popular author or ones that have a history of being stolen from bookstores or other libraries.

QuestionPoint- I have taken a QuestionPoint shift on Wednesdays and so far it's been quite busy. I also got to answer a question about laptops through our new Text a Librarian service! In doing so I noticed that the character limit for replies is apparently 320 characters instead of 160--that's a two-page text rather than the one page that seems to usually be the limit. Unless this is some kind of error, this will make it easier to answer questions that require a more in-depth answer.

Black History Month Activities- I helped compile a list of bios to be used in the college's Black History Month activities. I had a lot of fun researching lesser-known figures and their accomplishments and found some really cool people. Did you know that cook Dorie Miller who was stationed on the USS West Virginia during the attack on Pearl Harbor jumped up to man an anti-aircraft gun he'd never been trained to use, and without being asked, and then shot down at least one Japanese plane? Or that Mae Jemison, the first African-American woman in space was also the first real astronaut to appear in an episode of Star Trek? I hope the campus community finds these bios as interesting as I did!

Tracy's Dec 2011/Jan 2012 Update

-Selected 25 low-circulating Leisure Reading books for return to McNaughton, and ordered 30 new ones from the January 2012 catalog for the collection; researched overdue McNaughton books and provided list to Charlene to check on whether they will be returned or deemed "lost."

-Completed first pass of weeding art collection, an ongoing project throughout the fall semester. Did final shelf count (1,676 books). David's initial circulation number was 2,029 books. Thus, 353 books were weeded, which is approx. 18% of the collection thus far.

-Researched and selected 11 African-Americans for upcoming Black History month; wrote the bios for the exhibit; selected accompanying books for display; e-mailed all information to reference colleagues.

-Updated Law, Astronomy, McNaughton Leisure Reading, Chinese History, and Native American Resources LibGuides

-Researched paralegal books and submitted order to David.

-Researched potential library grants and submitted list to Lynne.

-Provided my McNaughton account files and updates to Carrie; also, submitted my 11-page operating manual on Adobe's "Captivate 2" software to Carrie for staff usage.

-Covered Ask Us 24/7 online reference sessions

-Looking forward to seeing everyone soon!

Construction Update

If you weren't able to make the construction meeting on Tuesday, here are some highlights:

• Starting on the 23rd, the crew will be demolishing the hard ceilings in classrooms and hallways.


• New acoustical tiles will be installed on the ceiling.


• If all goes as planned, work on the first floor should be done by the end of break. Work on the second floor may continue into the spring session.


• New heat pumps and heaters will be installed! Yay!


• While the work is being done, it may be cooler in here than usual, so dress appropriately.

Caitlin's November Update

LibGuides- I started two new guides in November. One will be a resource for the Viking World course which recently was approved as a permanent class. The other will be a resource and promotional tool for the graphic novel collection in the library. Once more of the GNs that I've been ordering are in and ready to go on the shelf I will be publishing the guide that will feature descriptions of the new additions to the collection.

Collection Development- Due to the high-loss rate of the GNs, with Carrie's permission I've taken over part of the tall wooden bookcase that is stuck on the end of the DVD shelf in an effort to get the volumes closer to the Reference desk where they will be less likely to wander off. I'm also going to implement a system of mock-ups for some of the more at-risk titles. Basically, a piece of foam board with a picture of the book's cover will hold the book's place on the shelf, and if someone wants to check out the title they will bring the foam mock-up to the circulation desk like they do for the DVDs. It won't stop people from forgetting to return our Graphics, but it will at least keep the ones that are checked-in in the collection.

Weeding is still going on in Reference.

Leisure Reading Survey Results- I have tabulated the results from my Leisure Reading Survey, and present some of the more interesting facts here for your reading pleasure (if you haven't already seen them).

• 68 students filled out and returned surveys
• 38.2% of the respondents said that they "Sometimes (once a month or less)" read material outside of what is assigned for class.
• The top three responses to the question "what types of material do you like to read" were magazines, books, and blogs.
  
• Only about 15% of students said that they were "very likely" to check a book out from Begley Library to read in their free time. 31% of students said they were "not likely at all." The biggest reasons for not checking out free time books were that students felt they "don't have free time" or "don't like to borrow materials because [they] always forget to return them on time."
• When asked to list specific types of books/materials or specific titles that students thought the library should have, some of the top answers were fiction, epic fantasy, sci-fi, comics/graphic novels, and specifically works by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett (who each got two requests).

Conducting the survey was fun and informative for me, and, for my own collection development focus, justified at least one of the titles I've added to the collection so far (Neil Gaiman's graphic novel Sandman). I hope others will find the results useful as well!