Statistics
Access:
25,257
total entrances
15,274 undergraduates
6,351 graduate students
1,785 faculty/staff
871 alumni,faculty/staff/student family members
976 visitors
Circulation:
10,267
charges at circulation desk
182 renewals at circulation desk
9,576 online renewals
396 laptop charges
503 reserve charges
204
patron rush requests
947 recalls placed (448 on web)
7,535 items discharged
3,238
items received from other libraries
18 faculty delivery requests
8,323 books shelved
657 bound periodicals shelved
757 unbound periodicals shelved
377 newspapers shelved
333 searches
Reference:
1,197
questions
956 (80%) at Reference desk
142 (12%) by e-mail
99 (8%) by telephone
Microform
Media Center:
360
items charged
79 reference questions
Government
Information:
136 reference questions
General
Martha
Young:
Martha announced her intention to retire in early December after 24 years at
the library. We will miss her and all the contributions she makes in her role
as as Central's administrative officer. We plan to celebrate her career and
wish her well with a party in late November.
Circulation (Janet Thomason)
Stacks
Maintenance:
Kelly Lockaby's student assistants worked steadily to change faded labels on
bound periodicals. Another of Kelly's students finished shifting in two areas
of the bound periodicals, which helped relieve severe overcrowding. Kelly changed
all the range labels for the shifted areas. She also almost completed changes
to all incorrect range labels in twelve other bound periodical sections. Additionally,
she made new labels for the newspapers in the periodical stacks.
Stephanie Dillard assessed, created, and installed end labels for Es, Fs, regular Arts shelves, and the entire 7th floor, excluding areas where shifting is ongoing. After consulting with Jim Webb, Stephanie created and posted a new call number guide for all three 5th floor maps because the old guides were incorrect. She met with Yvonne Boyer to discuss pulling and binding a number of Arts Zs and shelved and prepared many other serials for binding.
The Annex transfer project continues to consume a great deal of time. Stephanie and Kelly pulled carts from 7th and 3rd floors. They also finished pulling all the Zs, which completes the transfer project for original lists submitted for the 3rd floor. Mary Beth Blalock continues to find more titles that we can transfer from 3, which will hopefully make room for oversize materials from level 2 and/or the bibliography section on 4. We have to remove 624 shelves of oversize books and 210 shelves of folio books from level 2 by May to make way for the Divinity Library expansion. We transferred 34 trucks of books to the Annex.
Student workers continued shifting projects on the 3d, 5th, 7th, and 8th floors, and they are also doing an excellent job keeping up with the large volume of materials for sorting and shelving. We spent 41.2 hours shifting this month.
Janet received a list of
OCLC unique titles in the Arts collection and the 2d floor oversize collection
and pulled all those materials for the Annex. Ben Darling assisted with changing
item types on the materials to non-circulating.
Reserves:
We spent October break emailing and contacting faculty to pick-up reserve materials
from previous semesters. Current reserve requests continue to trickle in, and
LaRentina Gray prepared for solicitations of spring 2006 reserve requests.
Periodicals:
NamHang Kim, a graduate student who has worked in Reserve and Circulation for
a number of years, trained with Rachel Gray to manage periodicals while Rachel
is on maternity leave. On Oct. 19, Rachel and Jason became the proud parents
of a little girl. NamHang has done an excellent job of sending periodicals to
the bindery on her own. We sent 113 items to the bindery in October. In her
spare time, NamHang continued to work on changing out old shelf labels.
Circulation:
Janet hosted a surprise baby shower for Rachel on Oct. 3. We were quite successful
in pulling off the surprise. We invited Jason and Rachel's mother, Nancy Jackson,
and they made it even more of a surprise. Several Library staff came by to wish
Rachel well.
Dr. Richard Porter brought cookies for the Circulation staff to celebrate Halloween, and Janet brought candy for all of our patrons who happened to wonder by the desk.
Janet revised Reserve circulation
policies on the web and revised the renewal wording for the circulation policies.
She also revised the staff contact information on the Central staff web.
Collection Development (Mary Beth Blalock)
Electronic
Resources:
The Electronic Resources Committee approved trials for three databases: Shakespeare
Collection, Testaments to the Holocaust, and 19th Century House
of Commons Parliamentary Papers. We also discussed the ScienceDirect
Psychology Backfile Collection (data provided by Janice Adlington) and approved
its purchase if other libraries are willing to share the one-time purchase price
of $15,710. We did not approve MyiLibrary for subscription. The ERC meets
the second and fourth Wednesday each month. If you have resources you would
like to recommend, please contact any member of the committee. Members are Janice
Adlington, Yvonne Boyer, Sue Erickson, John Haar, Susan Widmer, and Mary Beth
Blalock.
Outreach:
Susan Widmer consulted with an Econ 226 undergraduate student regarding economic
resources and the history of the United States.
Peter Brush's book review of The Last Valley: The Battle That Doomed the French Empire and Led America into Vietnam, a book about the 1954 battle of Dien Bien Phu, is the lead review in the December issue of Vietnam magazine.
Yvonne Boyer met with Virginia Scott, French Department Chair, and John Haar regarding the W. T. Bandy Center. She also met with Professor Jay Bloom, a new Art faculty member, for an orientation, tour, and lunch.
Paula Covington worked on
two grant proposals involving the library's Latin American and Cuban digital
collections. Proposals included a Department of Education National Resource
Center Program Grant by the Center for Latin American and Iberian Studies and
an NEH Cuban and Colombian digitalization supplemental grant, P.I. Jane Landers.
She also worked with students on preparing an exhibit of our Brazilian collection
(travel accounts, plates, coin collection and rare books) for Brazil Week, which
begins Nov. 7. Paula spent time with a visiting scholar from York University
who is working on Haitian slavery.
Gifts:
Paula reviewed the remainder of the Rayfield collection, and duplicates are
ready to be sold. She also continued the review of the Davis collection and
received four boxes of Colombian materials from Professor Harold Hinds.
Yvonne continued processing the Morris Wachs books.
Peter continued his review of the Boorman Collection.
Bryan Kurowski received
15 gift titles in October.
Committee
and Other Activities:
Several bibliographers attended a Bowker's Serials Analysis product webcast.
Peter took advantage of training opportunities by attending a ProQuest Historical
Newspapers web session as well as completing level 1 of New Horizons' PowerPoint
training.
Yvonne Boyer attended a French 294 session and continued her participation in
the Survival French Workshop.
Paula Covington attended two CLAIS lectures, an Afro-Hispanic Review reception, and met with Marshall Breeding regarding a finding aid for Cuban digital images.
Mary Beth met with ProQuest
and Gale representatives to discuss electronic resources and finalized arrangements
for the Bowker Serial Analysis product.
Government Information & Microform-Media (Amy Stewart-Mailhiot)
Activities:
The staff and student employees in Government Information have been working
hard in preparation of the upcoming merger with Microform Media. We are nearing
completion of the Annex transfer phase of the project. We hired a new, temporary
part-time employee, Kenita Barrow.
Amy conducted two bibliographic instruction courses, one for CMST 100 the other for LA 290.
Larry Romans continues to volunteer his time a couple of afternoons a week depending on how he feels. His disability status officially begins Nov. 1.
Larry attended the Third Annual Readex/Newsbank Institute on Digitization in Vermont, and chaired the annual retreat of the ALA Committee on Legislation in Washington, DC. He has named Dale Poulter and Genny Carter to the Subcommittee on Telecommunications and Technology.
Larry and Amy attended the annual Fall meeting of the TLA Government Documents Round Table (GODORT) at the University of the South. The meeting focused on upcoming changes to the Federal Depository Library Program. The efforts being made by the staff at the Tennessee State Library and Archives to capture born-digital Tennessee state documents were also highlighted.
A
note from Nancy Dolinger:
I would like to thank
everyone for their kindness and support during the loss of my mother. I would
like to thank everyone for all their extra work in carrying my work load while
I was out. I would also like to thank everyone for the beautiful plants, flowers,
cards, memorial gifts, hugs, and support. Many people I spoke with during Mother's
illness and passing were amazed at the kindness and understanding of the people
at my place of work. I was proud to tell them what kind of people I work for
and with. Thanks so much for everything in the past month! I cannot thank you
enough!
Microform-Media
Center:
Patron volume held steady in the Center. Rachael Bankes continued shifting microfilm
of The New York Times to the Annex and expects to complete this project
in the next couple of weeks. Rachael posted signage to notify patrons of the
upcoming merger with Government Information.
Instruction (Melinda Brown)
The First Year Writing Seminars (FYWS) continue to have a significant impact on the number of class sessions offered by Central Librarians. Last year in October, we presented a total of 9 class sessions for 125 students. This year we presented a total of 25 class sessions to 374 students (and 10 professors). Librarians from Divinity and Science & Engineering also participated in the FYWS instruction. The FYWS sessions are indicated by the course number 115.
AAST 115 - Race and Sexuality in Contemporary Hip-Hop (Gines), Melinda Brown, 14 students and the professor.
AAST 115 - Race, Sports and American Culture (Whiting), Melinda Brown and Hilary Rudsenske, 17 students.
CLAS 115 - The Good Life: Classical Origins of Western Humanism (Wiltshire), Janice Adlington, 12 students and the professor.
CLAS 115 - Spectacle in the Ancient World (Tsakirgis), Janice Adlington and Melinda Brown, 16 students and the professor.
CMST 100 - Public Speaking (English), Amy Stewart-Mailhiot, 15 students.
ECON 115 - European Economic Integration (Hughes-Hallett), Susan Widmer and Melinda Brown, 9 students.
ENGL 100 - Composition (Hodges Hamilton), Melinda Brown, 9 students.
ENGL 102 - Visions of Desire (Childress), Dale Manning, 14 students.
ENGL 115 - Believers, Fanatics & Fundamentalists: Religion and Repression in World Literature (Moore), Melinda Brown, 14 students and the professor.
ENGL 115 - Like Nothing Else On Earth: Utopian Fictions (Kasibhatla), Dale Manning, 15 students.
ENGL 115 - Songs of Mourning (Kezar), Dale Manning, 15 students.
ENGL 120 - Politics and Language (Epstein), Dale Manning, 13 students.
FRE 294 - Montreal, Paris, NY (Barsky), Yvonne Boyer, 30 students.
FRE 300 - French Research Methods (Barsky), Yvonne Boyer, 6 graduate students.
GER 115 - The Artificial Body (Setje-Eilers), Susan Widmer, 15 students.
HIS 170 - US History to 1865 (Back), Peter Brush, 17 students.
JS 115 - Radical Jews: From Marx to Chomsky (Barsky), Janice Adlington, 12 students.
PHIL 115 - Five Theories of Human Nature (Perpich), Janice Adlington, 14 students and the professor.
PHIL 115 - Limits of the Human in Philosophy and Film (Oliver), Melinda Brown, 8 students.
PHYS 115 - What is Matter (Ramayya), Jon Erickson and Melinda Brown, 11 students and the TA.
PSY 115 - General Psychology (Fox), Janice Adlington, 13 students and the professor.
PSY 115 - General Psychology, sect. 1 (Odom), Janice Adlington, 14 students and the professor.
PSY 115 - General Psychology, sect. 2 (Odom), Janice Adlington, 12 students and the professor.
RLST 115 - Women of the New Testament (Hylen), Amy Limpitlaw and Melinda Brown, 15 students.
SOC 101 - Introduction to Sociology (Woods), Sue Erickson and Hilary Rudsenske, 44 students and the professor.
Additional
instruction activities included:
Paula Covington continues to teach LAS 290, Research Methods in Latin American
Studies Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Melinda met with Jen Holt
from the Writing Studio to talk about possible collaboration. Holt later observed
a general FYWS session. Melinda also met with Amy Hodges-Hamilton for a tour
of the Writing Studio.
Reference (Sue Erickson)
Scanner:
We moved our public scanner to the Reference room, where it is now a self-service
scanner.
New
Staff:
We hired Traci Irvin to fill our second student desk assistant position. She
will help with printing, scanning, and CD burning questions during some of our
busiest times. Traci will also assist with various departmental projects.
Activities:
Sue Erickson and Hilary Rudsenske continued Hilary's collection development
training for Anthropology. Also as part of Hilary's reference orientation, Marshall
Breeding gave them a very informative orientation to the TVNews Archive, including
its history and recent developments. John Lynch provided a tour of the physical
space and an overview of their workflow.
Hilary rounded out her reference
orientation with the following:
Tour of Science & Engineering Library Oct.17
Tour of the Law Library Oct. 20
Tour of Eskind Biomedical Library Oct. 24
Tour of Music Library Oct. 26
Tour of Special Collections & Archives Oct. 27
Sue created institutional scripts in QuestionPoint for the some of the frequently asked questions and demonstrated these at the reference meeting on Oct. 17. She also provided a review of some QuestionPoint features and procedures.
Hilary completed the transfer
of Sociology oversize books to the Annex. Sue had completed Anthropology and
done most of Sociology in the summer of 2004.
Both Sue and Hilary spent a significant amount of time reviewing the SocIndex
database and Hilary answered Sociology department questions about the trial.
Sue attended the Official
Representatives meeting of the Inter-University Consortium for Political and
Social Research (ICPSR) at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Oct. 20-23.
As part of her Data Services Librarian duties, Sue is Vanderbilt's "Designate
Representative" to ICPSR. The meeting provided useful information about
future plans for the ICPSR data archive and website. In a series of seminars,
faculty presented projects in which they have made use of data from the archive,
including some teaching modules. Sue enjoyed getting to know some of her data
colleagues and learning more about the content and potential uses of the ICPSR
archive.
Research
Consultations:
Paula met with the research assistant for the Center for the Americas director
on a research project and with a research assistant about a Spanish book on
Caribbean needs. She also handled a number of e-mail reference questions, most
relating to BI assignments.
Hilary provided two research
consultations.
Meetings, Conferences, Training
Many staff attended the open meeting on our new committee structure, the library newsletter open house, and the Library staff service awards ceremony.
John Haar was appointed to and attended two meetings of a College of Arts and Science committee to review the Student Learning Center.
Janice Adlington: Digital Library Steering Committee meeting; Technology Support Coordinators meeting.
Peter Brush: Technology Peer Support Forum meeting.
Paula Covington: Communications Committee meeting.
Sue Erickson: GIS Task Force, Newsletter open house.
Bryan Kurowski: Technology Support Coordinators meeting.
Daisy Whitten: Technology Support Coordinators meeting; Staff Development Committee meeting.
Susan Widmer: University Staff Advisory Council meeting.
Robert Wright: Technology Support Coordinators meeting.