Archive for May 2007
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May 31, 2007
UT Libraries Celebrates Staff with Spirit Awards
For fourteen years, the UT Libraries has recognized the many contributions and talents of its employees with the Library Spirit Awards. The 2007 awards ceremony theme was Library Spirit: Past, Present, and Future. The event was arranged by committee members Hannah Miller, Rebecca Smithey, Micheline Westfall, Greg Womac and co-chairs Connie Steigenga and JoAnne Deeken.
Award winners for 2007 were:
Customer Service Award: Roger Weaver, Library Training
For designing an online training system and setting up automatic email alerts to help library employees keep track of their scheduled training courses.
Good Colleague Award: Nancy Bright and Chris Reynolds, Technical Services
For assisting and arranging care for an infirm coworker.
Personal Achievement Award: Wanda Rosinski, Technical Services
For achieving challenging goals including graduating CEP, beginning a graduate school program, and developing Web skills.
Skill Development Award: Bobbie Doyle-Maher, Pendergrass AgVetMed
For spending many hours in training and consultation to learn to catalog government documents.
Team Work Award: The Media Services Transformation Team: Pauline Bayne, Trisha Brady, Michelle Brannen, Josh Butcher, Andrew Hock, Steve Milewski, Steve Pursiful, Sheila Stephens, Terrel Whitaker and Greg Womac
For planning, creating, and achieving the interim Summer Commons workspace in the Media Center.
Unsung Hero Award: Paul Cummins, LTS and Special Collections/Digital Library Center
For his vigilance and dedication to support and assist. From building Web applications to keeping servers up to date, he is always looking for better ways to do things.
Student Library Assistant Award of Excellence: Michelle Kenley, Volunteer Voices; Dabrielle Myers, Media Services; Jade Sexton, Pendergrass AgVetMed Library; Rosann Wilson, Music Library
Miles 500 Award: Michelle Brannen, the Studio
For creative thinking that improves the libraries efficiency or services to the public, Michelle's idea was to install a CD/DVD vending machine so students can purchase Cds and DVDs to save their work.
UT Library Friends Service Endowment Award: Ellie Read, Reference
For her eagerness to serve UT and her service to undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, and staff.
Dean's Award: Betty Painter, Technical Services
For dedicating her career to serving the library and the research community
The UT Libraries Spirit Awards would not be possible without the support from our dean, Barbara Dewey, interim associate dean, Jill Keally, and interim assistant dean, Pauline Bayne and from the generosity of private donors whose gifts make cash awards possible.
Posted by Laura Purcell at 03:46 PM in Good News
SUMMER 2007 CULTURE CORNER FEATURES DISABILITY AWARENESS
The Summer 2007 Culture Corner features a wide variety of literature covering topics related to persons with disabilities. The selections included are intended to broaden the reader's knowledge of one of the largest minorities in the world, who have often been overlooked and even shunned. The literature includes such broad themes as life as a disabled person, covering issues of identity, employment, gender, and education; types of disabilities and profiles of individuals who have them, including blindness, deafness, and less obvious ones such as autism and psychological disabilities (termed in the display as "Hidden Disabilities"); and how those with disabilities interact with society and vice-versa, including personal and global perspectives. The history of disability is examined, as well as more recent topics such as Disability Law and the Disability Rights Movement, which aim at establishing a more typical lifestyle for individuals with disabilities.
In addition to the sources available at the Culture Corner itself, lists of resources available in other locations are provided and include the Media Center, the Reference Collection, and the Music Library. Visit the Culture Corner online at www.lib.utk.edu/diversity/culturecorner/
The Culture Corner is located in the first floor of Hodges Library and feature a variety of topics, which change each semester. For more information, or to suggest a theme, contact Laura Purcell at lpurcell@utk.edu or 974-4725.
Posted by Ashley Barcel at 10:44 AM in Exhibits
May 25, 2007
Renovations Begin at the Commons
The sky is falling at Hodges Library! Or maybe it is just ceiling tiles in the Commons.
The Commons is undergoing major renovations this summer. Changes include reconfiguring the space by knocking down and building walls, adding more ports and power to support computer workstations, reconfiguring the lighting, painting, and installing new carpet and furniture.
The Commons first opened in Fall 2005 in what had been the Reserves room in Hodges Library. In Fall 2006, the Commons expanded into the former Periodicals room. While the Commons had staff support, computer workstations, and other necessary equipment, the physical space had not changed since Hodges was built in 1987. With these new renovations, the Commons will better meet the needs of students, faculty and staff.
Commons services have scattered to accommodate the construction. Computers, laptop checkout, the practice presentation room, media services and the Studio are part of the Summer Commons, located in the Media Center on the second floor of Hodges. OIT HelpDesk and Computer Support have moved to 103 Aconda Court. Library reference help can be found in the Reference room on the first floor of Hodges. For more information, see the Summer Commons service locator.
All Commons services will resume when construction is complete. You can keep up with the changes in the Commons by visiting our photo blog at commons.utk.edu/photo.
Posted by Laura Purcell at 07:49 AM in Commons
May 24, 2007
Center for Children's and Young Adult Literature hosts Tomie dePaola
The noted children's author and illustrator will be in Knoxville on June 1 and 2
Tomie dePaola, author and illustrator of more than 200 books for children, will be in Knoxville on June 1 and 2 to discuss and celebrate children's literature. His books include Strega Nona, Meet the Barkers, and 26 Fairmount Avenue. Mr. dePaola and his work have been recognized with the Caldecott Honor Award, the Newbery Honor Award, and the New Hampshire Governor's Arts Award of Living Treasure.
The Center for Children's and Young Adult Literature, in cooperation with the Dollywood Foundation and Penguin Putnam Books for Young Readers, is sponsoring Mr. dePaola's visit.
Mr. dePaola will give a presentation about his creative process at 7 p.m. on Friday, June 1, at the University Center auditorium on the UT Campus that is free and open to the public.
On Saturday, June 2, Mr. dePaola will be the star presenter at the Knox County Public Library's Third Annual Children's Festival of Reading in the World's Fair Park. The festival is the kick-off to the library's Summer Reading Club, which provides over 150 programs throughout the summer to encourage young people to read. Children and parents will also have an opportunity to speak with Mr. dePaola at the festival's Meet the Author's tent. For more information about the festival, please visit www.knoxcounty.org/library or call 215-8767.
The Center for Children's and Young Adult Literature was created through the cooperative efforts of the University of Tennessee Libraries, the School of Information Sciences, the College of Education, Health, and Human Services, the Knox County Schools and the Knox County Public Library. The center works to promote the use of literature in the education and lives of children and young adults by providing workshops for teachers and librarians, and sponsoring talks by authors and illustrators which are open to the public.
Publishers of children's and young adult books place review copies of their most recently published books in the center, where they are displayed for a period of eighteen months. These books are available for study by librarians, students, teachers and the public.
For additional information about the Center for Children's and Young Adult Literature or any of its programs, contact Ken Wise at 974-2359 or kwise@utk.edu.
Posted by Laura Purcell at 11:50 AM in Center for Children's and Young Adult Literature, Events
May 10, 2007
eForum: Electronic Issues for the Academy presents Tecnologías en las Bibliotecas Ecuatorianas
Library Technology in Ecuador
Presented by Enrique Abad, Library Director at the Universidad Andina Simon Bolivar and president of the Asociación de Bibliotecarios de Pichincha
Tuesday, May 15
2 pm
Hodges Library, Room 605
University of Tennessee
Free and open to the public; refreshments will be served
Librarianship in Ecuador presents a variety of challenges for information specialists. Join the UT Libraries for a discussion with Enrique Abad, Library Director at the Universidad Andina Simon Bolivar, to learn more about how academic libraries in Ecuador are establishing policies, raising awareness, promoting best practices and increasing information literacy in an era of great technological change.
Posted by Laura Purcell at 03:46 PM in E-Forum
May 04, 2007
Letterboxing comes to the UT Libraries
"Ascend the great staircase. Look up at the stars. See Shakespeare, Newton, Dante, and many others in gothic arched glory," reads part of a clue guiding visitors through UT's Hoskins Library building. This isn't just any scavenger hunt, but rather an example of a complicated, eccentric and highly-addictive pursuit called letterboxing.
Letterboxing is a kind of treasure-hunting, half-sport, half-hobby, that involves using maps, clues and compasses to look for hidden containers. Once the letterbox container is found, the letterboxer inks a unique stamp found in the box and presses it into his notebook. Then he inks his personal stamp (most letterboxers carve their own unique stamps) and leaves his mark in a small book that is kept in the box. The letterboxer then reseals the box, returns it to its hiding place, and is off to seek the next letterbox.
Letterboxing can be traced back to 1854 in England, when a Victorian gentleman placed his calling card in a bottle and stuck it into a bank at Cranmere Pool in a remote part of Dartmoor National Park in Devon. Other walkers who found the bottle left their cards or a postcard that the next walker could send back to its owner. As late as the 1970s, there were only a few dozen letterboxes on Dartmoor, but by then rubber stamps had replaced calling cards and postcards. Since then, the number of boxes has exploded. There are now thousands of letterboxes hidden on Dartmoor and the hobby has spread internationally. There are more than twenty letterbox sites in Knoxville, and many more throughout the region.
Visit www.letterboxing.org to learn more about letterboxing and to find clues to letterbox sites. Visit Hoskins Library Monday-Friday from 9 a.m.-5:30 p.m. to find their letterbox site.
Posted by Laura Purcell at 01:53 PM in Announcements
May 01, 2007
Construction plans for Commons shuffles services
The Commons will undergo major renovations this summer, and its many services will relocate until the project is finished. (Check out our podcast.)
"While the construction will cause services to move for the short term, I think the long term results will be more beneficial to everyone who uses the Commons," Barbara Dewey, Dean of Libraries, said.
At midnight on May 8, the Commons, rooms 220 and 235 in Hodges Library, will close. The Summer Commons will reopen on May 14 at 7:30 a.m. in the Media Center of Hodges.
The Summer Commons will have computer workstations and printers, photocopiers, and laptop and equipment checkout. The DART machine will also be located in the Summer Commons.
Computers will also be available in the Reference and Documents, Microforms and Periodicals room on the first floor of Hodges Library.
Before the Summer Commons opens, May 9-13, loaner laptops will be available for checkout at the Melrose circulation desk.
The Summer Commons will be open from 7:30a.m. through midnight Monday-Friday, 8 a.m.-midnight on Saturday and noon to midnight on Sunday. For more information about hours, please visit www.lib.utk.edu/hours.
The practice presentation room will be relocated to room 251, just outside the Media Center.
Reference services will be located in the Reference Room on the first floor of Hodges. The Stat Lab will also provide office hours in the Reference Room. The Writing Center will only offer hours in room 212 of HSS during the summer, but will resume Commons hours in the fall semester.
OIT Help Desk services, including password resets, and student computer repair, will move to rooms 103 and 104 in Aconda Court during the construction. Call 974-9900. Their summer hours will be 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. Monday-Friday.
For more information about the Commons, please visit commons.utk.edu.
Posted by Laura Purcell at 11:03 AM in Announcements, Commons, Library Facility Updates