Online Newsletter of
September 2010
The
library has had an unusually productive and exciting series of projects over
the summer. See below.
New Furniture &
Physical Changes
Three categories of newly purchased furniture have been added over the summer. This is the first new furniture in twenty years so it is an exciting development. The changes include:
· Discarding
worn and dirty chairs and replacing them with 120 wooden straight back chairs
which go well with older tables, still in good
condition.
· In
the library classroom, adding new stylish tables and chairs to seat 24 students
creating a much improved space for instruction.
· Moving
all regular tables and chairs from the main section of the first floor to the
Group Study Room. This room, which has
always been attractive, now looks even better.
· Replacing
the tables moved to Group Study with quad carrels. These provide semi-private study areas for 24
students. They also emphasize that most
of the first floor is for silent, individual study.
· Phuong Tang of Marketing designed new and very
attractive signage which identifies the 3 study zones in the library:
o
QUIET ZONE,
2nd floor, for whispering and low talking;
o
SILENT ZONE, most of 1st
floor, for silent, individual studying;
o
GROUP STUDY ZONE, Group Study Room, 1st floor, for group
study and discussion.
· Tables
in the student computer area on the second floor have been rearranged into
“islands” for a more intimate feel, more appropriate in a library. Tom Galvin
of Facilities has been very helpful arranging all the moving and setting up
that these furniture changes have entailed.
· There
are new computers in the student computer area and the library classroom,
thanks to Patrick Jean-Louis and the IT crew.
· We
have also moved low shelving units next to the computer area to house a new
collection of computer books. Computer books
go out of date quickly so the library is now leasing them in order to always
have the latest editions. Here are the
titles on hand now. This collection will
grow to a couple of hundred. If you do
not see the kinds of computer books you can use, let us know.
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Some of the 120 new chairs, shown here with older
tables in the Group Study Room. |
Quad carrels in the Silent study zone. |
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New signs to delineate the library’s 3 study zones. |
New computer books. |
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New furniture in Library Classroom along with new
computers. |
Tables in student computer area arranged in 4 islands
with new computers. |
More Library Instruction
In coordination with Dean Mark Garth of Student Success, library staff strategized ways of giving library instruction sessions for all students of the introductory College Experience classes starting in September. The library has always given instruction to many College Experience sections and this will be an expansion so that all new students have the advantage of this instruction early in their college career. For efficiency in transmitting more training using the same staff, the following steps are being taken:
· Regularizing library sessions so that all library instructors are presenting the same material.
· Creating an online research guide for all College Experience students. Link to it right here.
· Simplifying the library Treasure Hunt activity.
New Library Video on YouTube
Part of the College Experience research guide is a new Library Virtual Tour, an introduction to the library, for new students and others. It is a 9-minute, narrated video with musical background available from the library’s main webpage and at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhtwAx98A5Q on YouTube. Bill Hoag, of the library staff, did the technical work on this using Camtasia software.
5,600 Streaming Videos!!!
In an exciting development, the library has
started providing access to 5,600 educational streaming videos through the Films
on Demand service. The films can be used
in class using an LCD projector with laptop or students can be assigned to
watch on their own either on a college computer or at home. Films on Demand is
the web-based digital delivery service of Films Media Group which has a long
history of providing videos to educational institutions. The 5,600 titles, with about 600 more added
per year, are also divided into 62,500 segments. Most titles are in the 30 to 50 minute
range. Most segments range from 3 to 8
minutes. The whole video library can be
searched to find the exact subject in a title or segment so that instructors
have wide latitude in how to use these materials. Links to titles and segments can be inserted
in Moodle and other online environments.
The library is able to obtain this service at discounted price by cooperative
buying with other libraries at Massachusetts publically supported academic
institutions. Marketing to faculty has begun and initial
response is very positive.
To access:
- Go
to library website www.rcc.mass.edu/lib
and choose Streaming Videos. If off
campus, enter library barcode number when prompted.
RCC Archival Photos on 
Flickr is the best known photo management
and sharing application on the web.
Thousands of people use it daily to share personal photos. But Flickr is also used by thousands of
librarians at hundreds of libraries, including the biggest: the Library of Congress in Washington, to
share millions of pictures in library and archival collections. During the summer, RCC Librarian Archivist Gena Pliakas ran a project to scan and then upload
hundreds of photos which document several events in the history of the
college. They are now available at the
library website (www.rcc.mass.edu/lib,
select Archives and Special Collections, select Digital Photographic
Collection). The direct link is http://www.flickr.com/photos/rcclibrary/collections/.
This summer’s project is just the
beginning of what is likely to become a much bigger collection of visual and
text documents showing the history of RCC.
Graduation at old Huntington Ave. campus, 1983
or 1984.
New Special Collection
During the summer, new shelving was installed in the Special
Collection Room. Immediately, a new
collection was donated to the college.
It contains records of the Massachusetts Experimental School System (M.E.S.S) also called
Experimental School System of Massachusetts (E.S.S.M). M.E.S.S. was a part of the larger
African-American community movement and effort to empower youth and to instill
a sense of personal responsibility and community. Operating from 1971-1975,
M.E.S.S. consisted of 3 “parallel” school systems – lower, middle, and high
[upper school], which were authorized by the Commonwealth in 1967. The upper
school system (records donated to RCC) was a state-supported experimental
public secondary school, located in Dorchester, which enrolled students between
14-18 years-of age. The City of Boston became the learning environment, and
graduation requirements were competency-based.
John
Breemer,
one of the principal architects of M.E.S.S. (along with Mel King) hailed the system as
a “high-school without walls.” Following the resignation of Principal Carroll McCloud, which resulted from
tension with the MA Board of Education and problems internal to the
organizational structure of the school, M.E.S.S. collapsed in 1975.
Student Photographic Display
An interesting collection of student work
entitled “Black and White Plus” has been on display since the summer. These works were created in the Photography I
summer class, Bobby Stevens, Instructor. They have been
mounted on the windows of the Group Study Room so that half are visible from
inside the room and the rest are visible from the hallway outside. Come take a look.
New Staff
By coincidence, the 3 part-time library assistant positions went vacant about the same time. New staff members have come aboard just in time for the fall student influx. They are Yvens Boucicaut-Louis, Becky Ferris and Ry Burgess. Yvens is a graduate of Suffolk University. He is putting together his part-time position at RCC with another similar one at Suffolk Law School Library while working on an MPA degree concentrating in health policy administration. Becky is a graduate of Massachusetts College of Art and Design where she has been a part-time library assistant for the last several years. Her RCC position will dovetail with her Mass Art job while she is applying for the master’s program in Library and Information Science at Simmons. Ry has a master’s degree in activism and social change from New College of California. He has worked as an art’s administrator and in grantsmanship and plans to finish his master’s program in library and information science in 2012. Becky and Ry work evenings and Saturdays; Yvens works mornings.
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Yvens
Boucicaut-Louis |
Becky Ferris |
Ry Burgess |
To build a better
college library and provide superior customer service, we need your
comments. Send both praises and gripes
to mlawrence@rcc.mass.edu.
If you missed earlier issues of Welcome to the Library,
click on “Read the Library’s newsletter” on the library website http://www.rcc.mass.edu/lib.
Welcome to the Library, published by Roxbury Community College Library,
Mark
Lawrence, Library Director