Week in Review
April 14, 2014
This week is National Libraries Week. We are partnering with the Calloway County Public Library and the College of Education's School Media program to provide interlocking promotion of this week. The message that I drafted is something I would like to share with each of you, below, as we are all involved in "changing lives" through the work and service we provide. Thank you all again for all the work you do daily.
National Library Week is a chance to reflect on and acknowledge the positive impact libraries have on society. The theme for National Library Week this year is “Lives change @ your library.” This is true across each of the types of libraries, from the public libraries in our communities, to the libraries in ourschools, to the academic libraries serving institutions of higher education.
Lives change at the Murray State University Libraries, through the use of the many services and resources provided to the university community. Whether through the serendipitous finding of research that can inspire a life-long passion for learning, by learning the skills to evaluate information that can prove to be life-altering in unlooked for circumstances, or by the interaction with other cultures and viewpoints that takes place in Waterfield or Pogue Libraries, the MSU Libraries help create opportunities for people to grow.
Last week, Academic Council approved the formation of the new Information Studies minor. This minor will allow us to become more integrated in the curriculum of the university, while continuing to provide information literacy instruction on a deeper and broader level. Marketing for the minor will start this week.
I will be sending an email to all university administrators this week regarding our new electronic subscription to the Chronicle of Higher Education. This has been a long-requested resource for the university community, and I'm glad we are able to offer it.
Last week I followed up with several campus leaders regarding issues that came up during the weapon on campus emergency, such as the lack of an officer at Waterfield and Dining not fully closing the coffee shop. Thankfully that incident did not result in a negative outcome, and it provided the campus a chance to evaluate its response to such situations. I encourage and remind everyone to be thoughtful about our response to these types of situations, and to lock the buildings down whenever such incidents happen.
Last week was also the deadline for submitting end-of-year supplies/equipment/etc. requests. I'll begin looking through those requests and working with Tonya on our projected account balances so that we can get some of those requests ordered.
Also last week, Aleeah and I met with Melanie and Misty in Development to discuss alumni data within Development's database. By collecting use data for our retention study, we now have a practical way to make good on the "every student is an alumni of the library" talking point. Aleeah and Misty will be testing methods of updating fields within the Development database on alumni who were library users.
Thanks again for the many "congratulations" I've received over the last few days following my dissertation defense. I still have a few hoops to jump through, such as getting the final approval from the Director of the Doctoral Program and the Dean of WKU's Graduate School, but hopefully a little more patience will see this long process finished.
Best,
Adam