West Tennessee Academic Library Consortium

Spring Meeting, 2008

LeMoyne – Owen College

April 26, 2008

 

The Spring meeting of WeTALC directors was called to order on April 26, 2008 at LeMoyne-Owen College. Present for the directors’ meeting:

 

Steve Baker                 Union University

Lan Wang                    Lane College

Annette Hunt               Lemoyne Owen College

Pam Dennis                 Lambuth University

Darlene Brooks           Rhodes College

Lynne Blair                  Rhodes College

Mary Carpenter           University of Tennessee - Martin

Chris Matz                   Christian Brothers University

Sharon Tabachnick      Southern College of Optometry

Carolyn Head              Southwest Tennessee Community College

 

Food and Drink in the Library

Mary Carpenter – UT Martin- reported on the coffee bar survey that the Library Directors had taken in the Fall 2007.  58% were sensitive to students’ desires for a coffee bar.  This report led to a discussion on food and drink in the Library. 

·        Smell of food in Library is offensive

·        Work study students cannot eat at the desk

·        Librarians cannot continuously police students

·        Effects of food and drink waste on computer keyboards- is this an issue?

 

Departmental Book Budget

Sharon Tabachnick – SCO- asked why do some departments order materials and other departments do not?  Tom Medina-U of M- explained that the mechanisms in place at University of Memphis is not streamlined and is cumbersome.  U of M does not require faculty to fill out order cards.  Lynne Blair-Rhodes-explained that Choice Cards are used and are sent in order of LC classification so it is easy to send the correct cards to the correct departments.  A liaison program could make this process more streamlined.  Also Rhodes is doing away with dividing up the budget by departments.  English department, the test case, agreed this was a good idea – take a big chunk off the top for journals and standing orders and everything else goes into general fund.

 

Staffing of Reference Desk

Carolyn Head-SWCC-how to keep up with stats for Reference, because at SWCC there are no stats kept.  Sharon Tabachnick – SCO- students do not know how to answer a question.  There has to be serious training of students for the reference desk.  Mary Carpenter – UTM-no tic marks are made at UTM.  Training questions are on Blackboard for the students to access.  Lynne Bair-Rhodes- is anyone using virtual reference?  UT Martin stated that it had been used in the past—but was not being used now.

 

Buildings

Pam Dennis- Lambuth-explained that until an elevator can be placed in their Library, they are severely limited what they can place on the top floors.  An elevator for the Library will cost at least $250,000. 

Carolyn Head – SWCC-is currently bringing a new building online.  They are going from 29,000 square feet to 69,000 square feet. 

 

Student Workers

Steve Baker –Union University-reported diminishing returns with student workers – 35 student workers in 22,000 square feet. Lan Wang – Lane College- what do the work study students do?  The Library at Lane College has 29 work students, but they do not have enough to do.  Sharon Tabachnick – SCO- is a big believer in training.  Training programs have to constantly tweaked, and planned.  Student workers have to have their feet held to the fire.  Good idea to have students practice in front of you on various things.  It is also good for the staff to know the students names.  This is an issue of accountability.  Carolyn Head – SWCC – stated that assignments are made for each student.  This can help with accountability.  Mary Carpenter – UTM – student of the week program works great.  The Student of the Week picture is placed on the wall.  The students vote on the winner.  A student can win more than one time and the most wins becomes the student of the semester.  Pam Dennis – Lambuth – Circulation leader uses Facebook to communicate with the student workers.

 

Memphis Public Library issues

Chris Matz – CBU - handed out information concerning the issues affecting the Memphis Public Library.  Pam Dennis – Lambuth – stated that this issue is a political issue and this is the way to fight it by placing on the ballot.  Sharon Tabachnick – SCO – why close Libraries?  What is the bottom line to this question…is it money?  The mistake is being made by not answering the issues point by point.  Upper echelon do not listen to the branch libraries.  Carolyn Head – SWCC- Fiscal and political issues.  The two branches that are scheduled to close, Pop/White and Highland, are prime real estate and the city will make a great deal of money from the land.  What is the value to the community?  There is power in the voice of the people.  Annette Hunt – LeMoyne-Owen – how do you close a Library that is downtown, when Memphis is building downtown up?  The community’s voices are dying down.

 

Other Thoughts

Pam Dennis – Lambuth- The Jackson, TN public Library is now run by LSSI, which was a purely political move to get rid of the former Library Director.

 

Mary Carpenter – UTM – behooves us (academic) to redefine ourselves and be proactive.  We are destined to fail if we expect the people to come to us and we would impart our knowledge to them.  We need to get out there and show the people what we have.  Memphis needs a functional board that does things.  Memphis is operating outside of the Tennessee Code by not have a Library board.

 

Library Directors meeting dismissed.

 

After a delicious lunch provided by LeMoyne-Owen College, the Libraries gave reports of things that have happened at their institutions since the Fall 2007 meeting.

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

Darlene Brooks


WETALC Library Reports

Spring 2008

 

WETALC Report for Lambuth University

Spring 2008

 

This semester has been one of outreach to the community for Lambuth’s library.  We began working collaboratively with our admissions consultant in the late Fall to help transition high school students to the college level.  We visited with several high school librarians and English teachers and have successfully worked with four English classes with a total of 90 students.  Students are taught the difference in Dewey Decimal and Library of Congress classification systems, how to select a “good” Web site, how to search Literature Resource Center and other databases, and how to locate literary criticisms for assigned authors and poets.  The students gain not only better research skills but have a collegiate library at their disposal.

 

Through the suggestion of our president and with the monetary gift of a trustee, we acquired one of the 799 reproductive copies of the Processus contra Templarios, a recently discovered document in the Vatican Secret Archives.  The document, reproduced in the style of the original manuscript, exonerates the Knights Templar from accusations that resulted in their torture and deaths in the 14th century.  We scheduled a week of speakers and events beginning with Dr. Peter Kreeft, Boston College theologian, and ending with John L. Allen, Jr., senior correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter and senior Vatican analyst for CNN.  The document is available for viewing during the library’s regular hours.

 

We received a large portion of the literary library of local author, Alan Asnen.  The nearly 2000-book collection includes biographies, collected poetry, criticisms, collected stories, and literary encyclopedias covering all areas of literature from the most well-known and beloved to obscure authors and poets.  The collection fills major gaps in contemporary poetry, literary criticism, and twentieth-century American and European fiction.

 

The Lambuth-B’Nai Israel Center for Jewish Studies, located in the library, received $5,000 from businessman Julien Hohenberg to support additional speakers, and we received grants from Gannett and from Rudi Scheidt of Memphis that allowed us to hire Judy Pennel, former program director at the downtown library, on a part-time basis to work on grant writing and programming.  In the Fall, we will host an entire semester of events related to genocide awareness, including panel discussions, films, speakers, and book talks.  Noted speakers will include Inge Auerbacher, Holocaust survivor from New York, and Samantha Power, Harvard University professor and expert on genocides.  We will also be working collaboratively with Jackson State Community College to promote the events and take information into the school system.  Expected funding for additional events will come from Tennessee Humanities.

 

Additionally in the Fall, we will be actively involved in encouraging our students to register to vote and supporting the new SGA-sponsored recycling program.  We will also host, along with the Friends of the Library of the Jackson-Madison County Library, a community reading program featuring Jane Austen addict, Laurie Viera Rigler.  Faculty from other schools in Jackson will be involved in a month-long series of related events.

 

Staff-wise, Jackie has been busy attending archival conferences to learn ways to better display and catalog our collection.  Our students are campaigning for an elevator in the library.  When that is installed, we will move the archives to the top floor and create a student lounge and individual and group study areas where the five rooms of archives formerly existed.  Sammy attended TLA in Johnson City and the Tennessee Library Association Government Documents Round Table at Middle Tennessee State University, learning better ways to make our government documents collection more useful to our students.  Jimmy will complete his MBA in May and will take on more of the system administration responsibilities as we say goodbye to our Technical Services Librarian, Laura Simpson, who will be taking at position at the University of Alabama at Birmingham after May 20.  We hope to hire a cataloguer within the next few months.  In my spare time, I have enjoyed indexing Etude magazine (1883-1957) which will be published by A-R Editions, a musicology publisher, and presented and published several papers, the most recent of which was at the Mid-Atlantic Germanic Society concerning the German musicians who taught at Lambuth and Union in their early academic histories.

 

A transformation has taken place on our campus in the past few months, including new windows in every building, refurbishing of dorms and the chapel, and improvement in landscaping.  A collective effort is taking place on campus as we prepare for our SACS accreditation team visit in November.  With a theme of “Made to Think” and a QEP dealing with critical thinking, the library will be centrally involved in working with faculty and staff to reach goals.  We look forward to hosting you on our campus in Fall 2009 as we continue to work together to educate the millennial generation in West Tennessee.

 

 

 

 

LeMoyne- Owen College - HOLLIS F. PRICE LIBRARY

WETALC REPORT

SPRING 2008

The Hollis F. Price is hosting the spring 2008 WeTalc meeting April 26, 2008. Cassandra Jackson is facilitating the discussion for the groups.

LeMoyne-Owen College was successful with National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) visit.  The library did not receive any recommendations.

The Library staff continues to operate and support the academic programs on the campus. The Librarian serves on standing committees, the Curriculum and the Library Committee, The Circulation/Reference Librarian taught more bibliographic classes this academic year and offered specialized instruction in use of the online catalog, Microsoft word and electronic resources. She also attended an Information Literacy Leadership Institute at Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, North Carolina February 10-15, 2008.

Mrs. Marian Morrison, part-time librarian secured a volunteer Ms. Robbie Tunstall to assist with the collection and organization of material for the Vertical File. Much of this material will transfer to the Archives.

In celebration of National Library Week we compiled a scavenger hunt for students, staff, faculty and administrators. While our participation was low it was a rewarding and learning experience for the Library staff. The first place winner will receive $50.00 and a LeMoyne-Owen College gift bag.

We have one student intern to assist with the filing and arrangement of material in the Archives. She is completing the last order of provenance with Institutional Development.

We have added the African American Studies Center online database and NetLibrary 7th collection this year.