Monthly Report for September 2012

Access Services Department
Monthly Report
September 2012

Access Services Activities

We had a fairly typical month.  Student assistant management remained busy – both with timesheets, needed updates to our Blackboard training site, getting their pictures in so that we can learn who is who, and their day to day task management.

Study room requests were heavy this month, and seemed higher than normal, which means we could be in for a very busy exam season.

Additionally, I updated reserves policy to reflect the change in the access point from the Library to Blackboard, and dealt with numerous student fee issues.


Library Activities

I participated in/attended the following Library events in the month of September:

September 19th – Information Literacy session for Beth Froeba’s Freshman Seminar class
September 25th – Goodreads book club meeting
September 27th – Liaison Luncheon
September 27th – Second Life book club reading from George Orwell’s 1984

See pictures here

Additionally, I worked on SACS Assessment reports and spent quite a bit more time than usual on duty at the reference desk, including my scheduled weekend.

I planned, gathered materials, and with the help of my student assistant Brittany, assembled the Library’s annual Banned Books Week Display.  Jean and I are both posting on Facebook this week about our favorite banned books to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Banned Books Week.  I am also participating in the Banned Books Week virtual read out on YouTube later in Banned Books Week.

See pictures here

Access Services staff participated in/attended the following Library events in the month of September:

September 6th and 24th – FOL meetings – Chris Bowyer
September 24th – Staff Development meeting – Chris Bowyer
September 26th – Pembroke Day – Chris helped with selling hot dogs for FOL and Penny and
Tela worked at the Library’s Pembroke Day Table.
September 28th – FOL Calendar Sale at the football game – Chris Bowyer

University Activities

I participated in/attended the following University events in the month of September:

September 4th and 20th – SAGA meetings
September 5th – Faculty Senate meeting
September 10th – SPARC meeting and reception
September 12th – Town Hall meeting
September 20th – FIAC meeting

Professional Development

Tela Brooks participated in an OCLC webinar “Document Delivery using OCLC Article Exchange.”

Community Service

I am volunteering with Girl Scouts again this year, and attended the first meeting of the year for Daisy Troop 498 on September 20th.

Respectfully submitted,

June L. Power
Access Services/Reference Librarian
October 3, 2012

Kicking Off Banned Books Week

It's my favorite week of the year as a librarian.  Welcome to the 30th anniversary of the American Library Association's Banned Books Week, presided over by the Office of Intellectual Freedom. Libraries are at the forefront of many censorship battles, not solely because we are a provider o

f many banned and censored works, but because our code of professional ethics requires us to stand up for peoples' right to read without judgement or censorship. Does this mean that we agree with all viewpoints for which we argue a voice be heard? Not at all. However, we will defend its right to exist, because it may be the right work for somebody and that person deserves access to that work. You don't have to agree with the sentiment to disagree with its censorship.

"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - Beatrice Hall, The Friends of Voltaire, 1906

In celebration of Banned Books Week, myself and another library will share this week with our patrons on the library's Facebook page, some of our favorite banned books.  The following is my share for today: 

 In 2011, the popular Hunger Games made the list of challenged books kept by the Office of Intellectual Freedom. Some people claimed it was anti-ethnic, anti-family, insensitive, satanic, and contained offensive language and violence. Celebrate Banned Books Week by reading a banned or challenged book. Read the book or watch the movie - the Library has both.

http://uncclc.coast.uncwil.edu/record=b2104353~S3

More information:

BBW 2012: Most Challenged Books of 2011http://
wp.me/piNYx-1HU 

It's Banned Books Week Sept.30-Oct.6th: follow#BannedBooksWeek hashtag & see http://bannedbooksweek.org/  for more info.

PS - Band practice outside the library?  Why? 

PPS - I updated contract spending spreadsheets, worked on student worker paperwork, dealt with reserves issues back and forth all day, and still am behind on everything.  Hate being so productive yet feeling that I am not accomplishing anything.

Banned Books Week Display

Always excited every year to get my banned books week display done.  My thanks this year to my student Brittany, who helped assemble the display.

Banned Books in Second Life

More reference - mostly spent it preparing for book club.  This was followed by a quick breeze through the library liaison luncheon, held every year.  This is a chance for the department liaisons from the academic areas on campus to meet their library liaison, learn about their materials budget, and ask other general information questions.

Later on I did my Banned Books Week themed book club.  Book Club was in Second Life today, and I read from Chapter 1 of George Orwell's 1984.  Scary how that book still seems so relevant. This is my avatar reading to the book club attendees in world.

Might be hard to see, but my avatar is wearing one of her Banned Books Week outfits - my black t-shirt with "Censored" across the front.   I wore this as I thought the black censor bar bikini might be pushing it a bit. 

Randomosity

Still working on my Banned Books Week display for this year, my student assistant Brittany is going to help me assemble the display this year.  I gave her a list of books to choose from to highlight in the display, can't wait to see which she will pick.  Should have it up soon and will post pictures.  

Follow Banned Books Week on Twitter with the following hashtags: #bannedbooksweek #bbw#censorship

Today was also the rain date for Pembroke Day, which got postponed last week.  It is an event with the University and larger town of Pembroke community.  Interest groups, student groups, vendors, academic departments and more set up tables all over the quad and there is music, food, and door prizes.  The library, for the second year, sold hot dogs to benefit the Friends of the Library.  I really don't like going out in the crowd, but I did see that my student group got their table set up and I bought a couple hot dogs for the FOL before retreating back to the peace of my office.  Thankfully, I was on reference for most of it and so had a reason to avoid the chaos.


Reference was per usual today.  Helped someone look up articles in Hispanic American Review and answered some questions about ILLiad requesting.  Also overheard patrons talking - "my sister murried a furrener" - typical for this area.  Le sigh.

Goodreads Book Club

After my morning at reference and working on assessment statistics and reports, today I hosted the monthly meeting of the library Goodreads Book Club.  For any not familiar with Goodreads.com - it's a reader's dream.  A way to record books you have read and want to read, see what your friends are reading, find online book clubs, and oh so much more. Our first book club was being held in Second Life, a virtual world, and we had a number of requests from people interested in a face to face book club.  However, as anyone that has run a book club can tell you, getting everyone to read the same book and show up to book club ready to discuss said book is often much more difficult than one would think.  Instead, we modeled ours on the Goodreads web site, and set up a corresponding Goodreads group in order to facilitate sharing among group members.

http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/69970-uncp-library-goodreads-book-club

We haven't had many member discussions yet, but I hope to get that part rolling soon.  In the meantime, we meet once a month, bring lunch, and discuss whatever books the attendees are currently reading or have recently read.  We add these to our group list on Goodreads so that anyone that missed can look up what was discussed, and so that members can add group books to their personal Goodreads lists.  So far it has been a moderate success, with anywhere from 1-8 members attending meetings.  I hope to see an increase in activity, but book clubs are like the lottery sometimes.  Doesn't help that the other two members in the library that were really active have resigned, but I am determined to try to carry it on.  Luckily the format makes that easy, little prep needed for me and little needed on the part of participants.  Definitely takes the pressure off.

Randomosity

Reference, reference, and more reference.  It's my night at the desk again, so after rushing through student time approval I made my way to desk duty.

The first person to approach was one of the maintenance guys working on the library's HVAC system, which is completely FUBAR, in my opinion.  They needed the key to get into Special Collections and work.  Since my specialty in library school was archives and special collections, this made me nervous.  I hate letting people in that room.  What if they touch things?  Mini-librarian stroke out.

Then I had the joy of helping a student access and print from microfilm, since full-text on JAMA was down.  I hate microfilm - the screen nauseates me.  Luckily, it was a short article.  Nothing much else happened, other than helping some students find documentaries.  The nerd in me loves this, as I watch this stuff for fun.  Our students sometimes act as if documentaries are a foreign world, so it's nice for me to see them get something other than films just for entertainment.  Not that the latter is wrong, but mixing it up is a good thing.