Fall 2010Volume 1, Issue 1

KNOWLEDGE IS FREEDOM

In this Issue:

• Off Campus Access to Library Databases

• Questions? Try Library Chat !

• Library Highlights 2009-2010

Contents:

From Head Librarian 1

Off Campus Access 1

Faces in Library 2

Archivist Retires 2

Library Chat 3

Student Assistants 3

Highlights 2009-2010 4

Print Periodicals 5

Freshmen 6

A Newsletter of D.W. Reynolds Library and Technology CenterPhilander Smith College, Little Rock, AR

Teresa Ojezua

Welcome to the premier issue of “Knowledge is Freedom”—our library newsletter! We want to show you what the library can offer you personally to help with your educational plans and scholarly goals. In this newsletter, we will point the way to library services, staff, and

From the Head Librarian:

Off Campus Access to Library DatabasesLicense agreements for most of the library’s electronic resources permit access from off campus to current PSC students, faculty, and staff. PSC users must authenticate with a username and password before gaining access to these licensed resources. Contact the circulation desk to set up your username and password.

EZProxy

When you are off campus, EZ Proxy enables access to the fee-based websites

Knowledge is Freedom Page 2 of 6

Katie DavisReference/Instruction

Librarian

Faces in the Library

Gracie Carter Retires as PSC Archivist

Lydia IsbellLibrary Technician

Circulation

Bennie TaylorLibrary Technician

Circulation/ Acquisitions

Carol BivensLibrary Technician

Circulation/ Cataloging

Lisa FullerLibrary Technician

Circulation

Lucille CurruthLibrary Technician

Circulation/ Archives

Gracie Carter retired on June 30, 2010 after two decades of service to the college as a librarian and archivist. Friends, colleagues, and family members attended a retirement party organized by the library. We wish her a happy retirement!

Knowledge is FreedomPage 3 of 6

Asking questions at the library’s reference desk can now be done online via the chat window on the library’s homepage. When you are in your dorm room, home, or office and have an information query, just go to the library’s webpage (http://www.philander.edu/academics/library.aspx).

From 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., PSC Library is online will appear in the box, and we are here to take your questions. Just follow the directions: type your question in the space indicated and hit enter to send a private message.

Questions? Try Library Chat!

There is much to do in the daily workings of a library. With limited professional staff, student assistants help make it possible for us to do our jobs in public services, technical services, periodicals, and stacks maintenance.

Student Assistants

“With limited professional staff, student assistants make it possible for us to do our jobs in public services, technical services, periodicals, and stacks maintenance.”

Our chat session will be confidential and visible from your computer and ours. In the space beside “edit nick,” you can type in a personalized screen name. Adding a nickname enables librarians to recognize you when you send messages.

The Meebo widget has been present on the library’s page since last year, but now we are launching a full-scale commitment to have a librarian logged on and ready to answer your questions in the daytime.

According to the librarians at Morehouse and Spelman College library in Atlanta, virtual reference became one of the most popular library services when it was launched two years ago.

Reynolds Library is riding a wave of change in library services that try to dynamically accommodate users’ needs. Services like chat reference are implemented for convenience to our users, but most importantly, they enrich the quality of access—putting library services literally at your fingertips.

Students play a vital role in the process of getting new books processed and on the shelves for new patrons. They help us keep things flowing smoothly. Most of them are proficient in the use of the online catalog and they are happy to

demonstrate it for new library users. A few of them are avid library users themselves and love to share their interests and their growing expertise.

During the summer months, we had four students working here. Two of them assisted the Archivist while the remaining two helped with periodicals processing, shelf-reading, and re-shelving of books. In the Fall and Spring semesters, the library may have upwards of twelve student assistants in all.

Caption describing picture or graphic.

Ready to chat…

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The past year has been an active one in the library. From Spring 2009 to Spring 2010, the library established a book club; began an author speaker series; received grants from Picturing America

Library Highlights 2009-2010“Alice Randall, whose books include The Wind Done Gone and Rebel Yell spoke of her prolific writing career and the uplifting power of the written word.”

“In fall of 2010, the book club will resume,

hopefully attracting both new and old members.”

and the National Endowment for the Humanities; held celebrations for Hispanic and Women’s History Month; displayed artifacts

from PSC Archives at Mosaic Templars; and successfully completed the HBCU Library Alliance Leadership Institute. We plan to build on these initiatives in the coming year.

Book Club

In fall 2009 the first book club selection was The Naked Truth: Young, Beautiful, and HIV Positive by Marvelyn Brown. Ten freshman students met every Friday to share their thoughts on the book. Occasionally, they would spend a fun afternoon making Halloween crafts or seeing who knew the most trivia about the book. Meetings were coordinated through a Facebook group page, and the club’s name became “Panther Readers”. In fall of 2010, the book club will resume, hopefully attracting both new and old members.

Visiting Authors

In Spring of 2009, PSC Archivist Ms. Gracie Carter was asked to moderate Janis F. Kearney’s book talk at the Arkansas Literary Festival. Ms. Kearney also expressed interest in speaking to the PSC community at Reynolds Library. The former diarist to President Clinton, Kearney has penned two memoirs, a novel, and has her own publishing company in Little Rock. She spoke at Reynolds Library in March 2009 for Women’s History Month.

After this event, Patrick Oliver, host of the radio

program “Literary Nation” on KABF 88.3 and director of the Say it Loud! Readers and Writers Program, wanted to collaborate with Reynolds Library to host more author readings and book signings. In Fall of 2010, Mr. Oliver brought in local authors Celia Anderson (Love, Ocean), Kareem Moody (Raise Them Up), and Janis Kearney for “An Evening of Prose and Advocacy: Arkansas Writers Speak Out”.

(Continued on page 5)

Panther Readers

Local Authors Speak to PSC studentsAlice Randall spoke about her novels and music.

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Reynolds Library has over twenty online databases containing full-text articles from magazines, newspapers, and academic journals.

We cannot emphasize enough the value of these electronic resources for research, staying current in your academic field, or for general knowledge and reading pleasure. But do you miss having an old-fashioned print periodical in hand? Do you long for the tactile pleasures of turning real paper pages? Do you sometimes wish that you didn’t have to be tethered to a computer

Spend an Afternoon with Our Print Periodicals

(Continued from page 4)

During National Library Week in Spring 2010, the Arkansas Literary Festival sent another prominent author to our library. Alice Randall, whose books include The Wind Done Gone and Rebel Yell and whose songwriting credits are extensive, spoke of her prolific writing career and the uplifting power of the written word.

HBCU Library Alliance Leadership Institute

Since August 2009, Ms. Ojezua and Ms. Davis

Library Highlights 2009-2010

“Since August 2009, Ms. Ojezua and Ms. Davis have been actively engaged in strengthening their skills through leadership development.”

screen while reading your favorite journal? Don’t forget that the library has over 250 current magazines, journals, and trade publications in our print periodical section (first floor, south of the circulation desk).Stop by and browse!

You may be pleasantly surprised that we have the following periodicals in print:

News and Popular Titles:

Art in AmericaConsumer ReportsEbonyEconomistEssence

Natural SolutionsNewsweekO MagazineParentsPeoplePreventionSports IllustratedTime Today’s Black WomanWashington Post

have been actively engaged in strengthening their skills through leadership development. The HBCU Library Alliance Leadership Institute’s one-on-one coaching, online classes, team projects, and reading assignments have exposed both librarians to a wide range of leadership development activities, including developing a project for Reynolds Library. The goal of the project was to install an information literacy component in the general curriculum. By expanding the Library Committee and holding a

series of forums, a resolution was drafted and passed unanimously by Faculty Senate. This was the first step in institutionalizing an information literacy program at PSC. The library’s project was presented at final session of the Leadership Institute in Atlanta, GA this past June.

point.

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For this reason, you must set up your username and password with the library prior to accessing EZ Proxy from off-campus locations.

Each new school year, the Head Librarian invites incoming freshmen to participate in a program that recognizes them for library use. Every time a student uses the library s/he is advised to come to the circulation desk and ask for a sticker to be placed next to his or her name. At the end of the

Freshman Library Use Program Exceeds Expectations

Off Campus Access to Library Databases

D.W. Reynolds Library and

Technology CenterPhilander Smith College

900 Daisy L. Gatson Bates Dr.Little Rock, AR 72202

PHONE:(501) 370-5264

FAX:(501) 370-5307

E-MAIL:tojezua@philander.edu

We’re on the Web!See us at:

www.philader.edu/academics/library.aspx

grow. Before the program was put in place, no one was sure if students would get on board with the “sticker” initiative. However, “Can I get my sticker?” has become the most commonly heard request from freshmen. Library staff are happy to learn the new names and faces.

year, the number of stickers each student has received is tallied and the ten students with the most stickers get recognized at the Renaissance Awards Banquet.

This was the third consecutive year that freshmen have asked for stickers, and the numbers of participants continue to

This information will be different from your email login. To set up a username and password, contact Mary Davis at mdavis@philander.edu. The process is very fast, and in no time, you will be able to use the library’s

resources from any location.