The Pups Were Here!

We brought the Paws & Effect pups back again this semester and it was a hit!

The first day there were some unexpected hiccups: 2 of our 3 pups didn't show up, but the pup we did have was awesome! Hunter was a sweet, patient, well-trained dog that had enough love to go around (though it was nice to have the problem fixed and have more pups visit our students on Tuesday). It was also the first day back from Thanksgiving Break, so I think that - paired with the fact that we only had 1 pup - made an impact on attendance. I think in the future for fall we will do a Tuesday/Wednesday program, and for spring a Monday/Tuesday (depending on how Easter falls), and would like to continue partnering with GV NAMI and Psych Club.

But that's not what you came here to see. You want puppy pictures! Here are a few previews of what you will find in our Monday and Tuesday event albums on Facebook.

 

And the report:


I hoping we can continue to improve this program for the future -- The students really seem to enjoy it!

Before, During, and After Finals: The Library Has You Covered

Something I sent out this week (it's finals already!).

Whatever it is, we’ve got you covered at the GV Library.

Sick of reading stuff for class? Have a long trip coming up? Check out these leisure books (and more!) over break!

The Pups are Back!

I'm excited to announce that the pups will be coming back again this semester! I've been working with Paws & Effect, and two student groups on campus (GV NAMI and Psych Club) to get the details ironed out for their arrival on Dec. 1 & 2.

We've had students asking about it:

From the student newspaper, The Grand Views

And the student paper ran a full story to preview the upcoming event in their latest edition:

The Grand Views, 11/21/14

I can't wait for more of this!

Updating Leisure Displays

I'm (surprisingly) caught up with lesson plans right now, and so I'm planning ahead a bit to get another display ready for the leisure collection (and am brainstorming for upcoming events, like round 2 of pup-therapy)!

There are some memoirs coming out that I'm absolutely excited about, so why not feature them in our displays for November? Now, not all of these are available quite yet (as you can see by the call number placeholders), but they're ready to go once these items are processed!

For this display, I created it entirely in Google Docs. If I haven't previously mentioned it, I absolutely love Google Docs and use the rest of the Google suite to prep all of my lesson plans and presentations. Now I'm learning more about bells and whistles in the Docs portion itself (I love editing images right there in the document!).

More later, but I wanted to be sure to get these up while I was thinking of it!

P.S. I know B. J. Novak's book is fiction, but I just couldn't resist pairing it up with Mindy Kaling's memoir. A nod to their friendship and work together on The Office and other great projects!

Off and Running!

Well, we've certainly hit the ground running around here!

This year we're fully adopting Facebook as a tool for communication and connection with students (and the rest of the GV community). I've enjoyed planning ahead and scheduling posts using Buffer. It's a great time saver, and lets me schedule things while I'm thinking of it (so I don't miss out on sharing a fun link or helpful resource).

We've done some website redesign (within the constraints of the University's website tool). Our redesign reduced the number of clicks it takes for students to access the resources they need, and moved the help resources to the top of the page.

We've updated and expanded or video tutorials based on the questions we've been asked by students and instructors, and we continue to add to the list as new questions arise.

We've also hosted a few events already (see photos below).

And I've lost track of how many classes I'm embedded within. 7?  8? I keep picking up more, which is awesome because that means I'm connecting with that many more students! I'm very impressed with the students this year! They have been great about taking initiative and planning ahead, asking questions both in and out of class, and they've been coming to me for research help outside of the classes I'm embedded within.  That's really one of the best parts of the embedded librarian program--that the students know that the library is a one-stop-shop for any help they might need!

Beyond that, we're gearing up for midterms this week (yikes! Already?), and planning for the rest of the semester.

Here are a few photos from the year so far! (Click through on each photo to see the full event album.)

Banned Books Week

Constitution Day

Library After Hours - Author Visit

Library Book Sale

NAMI Book of the Month

Summer Reading Wrap Up and Reflections

We've wrapped up our second summer of having a summer reading program! Here are some reflections and stats!

Stats

• Participants Signed Up: 41
• Event Attendee Totals: 48
• Total Books Read: 134
• Total Number of Prizes Given Out: 25 (all generously donated to me from friends, family, and colleagues)
• Total Number of Events: 5
• Total Number of Days: 57
• Photos Taken: (at least) 14 -- View them here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.617459095017892.1073741831.588772717886530&type=3

Books Discussed

Reflections

It was another great bunch to discuss summer reading/movies/tv shows with! This year I shortened the SRP season to hopefully help with the end-of-the-summer slump in attendance, but it didn't seem to make that much of a difference for the final event (we wound up with about the same amount of people at each final event). Last summer we held 6 events; this summer we cut that back to 5 due to financial considerations (needing to go with on-campus catering rather than purchasing snacks) and time considerations. I also modified the prizes to be only book prizes for the Lemonade Lunches (rather than offering candy, small gift cards, etc.) because 1) I had friends giving me books to be used as I wished, and this was a great way to provide prizes, and 2) because they were some of the most popular options last summer, and that proved to be true this time too! In order to win anything at the Wrap Up Party, attendance was required, and that's when I gave away the Grand Prizes (a brand new messenger bag, some personal doorknob dry-erase boards, a gift certificate to Half-Price Books, 2 gift bags generously donated by East Village Spa in Des Moines, a small, plush bear, and a Zhu Zhu Pet (you never know...someone might want it! Though it did go unclaimed as a prize this year).

This year we tried some new things: catering through GV; donated prizes at all levels; shorter season; recording a list of the books we discussed.

For the most part, I'd say the program was a success--I'm looking forward to trying more new things next summer! 

Leisure Reading Displays: At the Movies!

I decided to change up the reading displays to get them ready for the fall. While I don't yet have in our possession many other books I'd like to feature along with the others for this theme (ordering delays), we do have several books already processed and in our collection that are being released as movies this fall. Why not showcase them?!