Congratulations to UNCG LIS student Emily Graves, who will be serving as a Junior Fellow for the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. this summer. She will be working on the World Digital Library Project, gaining experience with digitization and writing copy for new items as they expand their collection.

We took the chance to ask her a couple questions about her upcoming fellowship:

Q&A with Emily Graves

1. Why were you interested in being a Junior Fellow?

I’m always looking on USAjobs.gov, and when I saw the posting it looked really interesting. I wanted an opportunity to work with a government institution and to gain some experience doing more nontraditional library work.

2. Why were you particularly interested in working on the World Digital Library project?

The World Digital Library project was my first choice because I’m very interested in working internationally and I love working with technology. This was a rare opportunity to combine the two! I also liked how the project expands the accessibility of primary sources, especially since they’re expanding their collections from parts of the world where information is more marginalized.

3. What will you be doing with the project?

I’ll be doing some basic administrative work, like writing copy for new items in the collection, and helping out with new initiatives (like the expansion of the African portion of the collection).

4. Why are you interested in working on the African portion of the collection?
I studied abroad in Madagascar, and I learned a lot of fascinating history and information of which I was previously unaware. We don’t learn a lot about documents generated in or about, say, precolonial Africa in Western society. I’m looking forward to working with a project that makes these materials more widely available.

5. Are you looking forward to spending time in Washington, D.C.?
I love D.C.! I am so excited about a summer in the city, and I’m interested in moving there when I graduate so it’ll be nice to scope it out.

6. What are your goals for your library career?
I’m very interested in government and NGO libraries, and I’m really hoping to live abroad eventually. I have no idea how this will all fit into a library career, but I’m going to see where it will take me.

LaTesha Velez is finishing up her second year as a diversity fellow at UNCG’s Jackson Library as part of the Diversity Residency Program. She is the second resident to complete the program, which she will finish in July 2012. We asked her a couple questions about the Diversity Residency Program, her experience at Jackson Library, and her plans for the future.

1. What experience did you have coming into the Diversity Residency Program, both academically and professionally?

I started college at the University of Maryland in Germany. After two years, I transferred to UNC Chapel Hill where I got a BA in English. While at Marlyand and UNC-CH I was a student assistant in the library (Davis Library when I was at UNC-CH). Once I got my BA, I stayed at Davis as a paraprofessional. After doing that for a year I left libraries for about 10 years and worked in Market Research and owned a taxi company. I returned to a paraprofessional job at the Burlington Textiles Library at NCSU, where I worked full-time and went to NCCU SLIS full-time nights and weekends. I was part of the Diversity Scholars program which had more requirements than the rest of SLIS but covered tuition, gave us a stipend, bought us each a laptop, and allowed us to go to one professional conference a year. I received my MLS from NCCU in May 2010.

2. What are the most important things you’ve learned while working at Jackson Library? What departments did you work in? What skills did you learn?

The most important thing I learned was the power of making professional contacts. GO TO CONFERENCES! That is where you meet or reconnect with people and they will remember you. I worked in Reference, SCUA, the Music Library, ERIT, and currently Administration. Too many skills to name, but some of them include creating tutorials for the library’s Web site, writing grants, and processing an archival collection.

3. How do you feel the program has prepared you to work as a proponent of diversity in your future career?

I’m not sure how to answer that. I would have been a proponent of diversity with or without this position, and I believe you can affect change (or at least try) wherever you are. I guess because I had greater visibility from being the Diversity Resident I was asked to participate in things specifically related to diversity issues such as the iDEAL Summit. So, this position allowed me to explore aspects of diversity in librarianship, and I can take those experiences wherever I go.

4. What do you see as some of the key diversity issues in libraries, and are there any issues in particular you hope to address in your career?

Staffing is one, there still isn’t a whole lot of diversity in library staff. There are not enough foreign language materials or access to information in other languages (like most OPACs I’ve seen are only in English. You have some also in Spanish but those aren’t the only languages in the world). Although libraries are trying, the buildings themselves aren’t always accessible or welcoming. Right now I am interested in looking at academic library learning spaces and whether they meet the needs of all demographics of students or only some. Who knows what I may look into in the future.

5. What have you enjoyed most about the Diversity Residency Program at Jackson Library?

The ability to rotate departments.

6. How has the Residency Program helped you determine the kind of work you would like to do in libraries?

I came in with a good idea of what I wanted to do, work in an administrative role in either a library system or an LIS department, with the eventual hope of being a Library Director or LIS Dean. This program helped me get experience in some of the areas that would be important for me to know about in a position like that, particularly in a Library Director position.

7. As your residency concludes, what are your goals for the future? Where do you see yourself going from here?

I’m going back to school. I applied to 4 PhD programs and, with the help of both LIS faculty and faculty here at the library coaching me, looking over my application materials, and writing me letters of recommendation, I’ve been accepted at 3 programs so far. One day you will be calling me Dr. Velez!

LaTesha Velez will be recognized at the Residency Recognition Program and Reception on June 14 at 2 p.m. in the Hodges Reading Room (2nd Floor, Main Building of Jackson Library). A light reception will follow outside the Hodges Reading Room.

UNCG Photo by David Wilson

Dear LIS Community,

I wish to congratulate the Spring 2012 LIS Graduates and invite graduates, faculty, staff, family and friends to attend the Spring Graduation Celebration which will be held Friday, May 4th, 2:30-4:00 at the School of Education Building #120.
Directions and parking information at: http://lis.uncg.edu/about-us/locations/greensboro/
Please RSVP by May 1st https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dGRyUFJxMUljSkZaeEdpUXBLYVY4QlE6MA

The LIS Celebration will be held between the general university commencement http://www.uncg.edu/reg/CommencementCentral.html which takes place in the morning and the School of Education Commencement which will take place at 6 pm. Please register at: http://www.uncg.edu/soe/news/graduation.html. North Carolina Teacher of the Year Tyronna Hooker will be the School of Education Commencement Speaker (6 pm). The general university and SOE commencements have different registration requirements, please register at their respective web pages.

For the LIS celebration, please come dressed in your cap and gown or in business formal for the cake and punch reception, where we will have the opportunity to recognize the graduates, have photos taken, and have the UNCG community meet the graduates family and friends.

Best,

Clara M. Chu, Ph.D.
Chair and Professor
Department of Library and Information Studies

Gerald Holmes, a Reference Librarian and Diversity Coordinator at Jackson Library, has been invited to serve on a panel at the American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference 2012 in Anaheim, California. The title of the panel is “Winning on Two Fronts: How Library Residencies are Placing Libraries at the Leading Edge of Innovation and Diversity Initiatives.” Holmes will be discussing his role as the first (and current) Diversity Coordinator for the Post MLS Diversity Residency Program at Jackson Library, in which he works to bring in recent MLS graduates for two-year fellowships at the university library.

“I think for many years we were looking at what we can do to help as far as recruitment and retention in our profession for underrepresented populations,” Holmes says.

First the library formed a diversity committee, and then, after Holmes attended several national conferences, including those of The Black Caucus of the American Library Association, The Joint Conference of Librarians of Color, and some former ALA National Conferences. Holmes served as chair for a Libraries Planning Committee that created a planning report for a Post-MLS Diversity Residency position. Then, they began a national search for their first fellowship candidate.

“I think it’s an opportunity for them to gain real-world professional experience in different areas of the academic library. It’s a two-year residency; the first year they actually rotate between three different departments for four months each, and then the last year is designed so that they have one full year in a department,” Holmes says.

Holmes sees many advantages to the library and the university as well: “I think it’s an opportunity for us to bring in someone who has some ideas that are different than what we already have in place and they can help us to try out some new services, resources, and promote the library in a fresh new way,” he says.

The second diversity resident, LaTesha Velez, is finishing up her second year in the program, and the search committee has already begun to look for the next candidate. (Check back next week for a Q&A with LaTesha.)

Holmes admits that the program takes a lot of work, and “some libraries would rather bring in someone permanent, but we knew that we wanted to help somebody [and] shape them,” he says.

Gerald Holmes has been a reference librarian at Jackson Library since 1998. He also works as residency coordinator, as well as helping out with other areas including collection development, serving on the library’s Administrative Advisory Committee, development, and presently assisting with projects related to alumni affairs and archives. Holmes is a Greensboro native, graduating from Dudley High School and going on to college at UNC Charlotte and receiving his MLS from UNC Chapel Hill.

He serves on the LIS Department’s Advisory Board as well as the African-American Studies Program’s Advisory Board, and he helped create the ACRL Residency Interest Group, which he encourages MLIS students to join.

Holmes believes that the diversity fellowship program great for the library and the university in terms of diversity initiatives.

“I think, especially for our field, a successful library is one that meets the needs and can communicate with all the patrons who walk through the door,” Holmes says.

Dr. Chow’s research with his students entitled, “The Information Needs of Virtual Users: A Study of Second Life Libraries” has been accepted for publication in Library Quarterly, one of the top journals in the LIS field. The students who collaborated with Dr. Chow as part of an independent study include Caroline Baity, Marilyn Zamarripa, Pam Chappell, David Rachlin, and Curtis Vinson.

The major findings of the study were that the overall usability of developing and maintaining virtual library branches in Second Life of traditional libraries was low as both library peers and administration viewed virtual libraries as a low priority leading to librarians spending much of their development and design time at home. In addition, the information needs of traditional and virtual library patrons were found to be disparate as they come from different populations. As younger generations, however, comprise 95% of all virtual accounts worldwide, the comfort level and demand for virtual information provision is expected to increase over the next 5 to 10 years as more digital natives reach college age.

Ultimately, the primary findings emphasized that social engagement and networking were the biggest benefits and demands for both librarians and virtual users and that utilizing the unique medium of 3D virtual experience may be the ideal way to provide information services and meet the virtual demands of virtual users and traditional patrons in a virtual world.

The following opportunities have solicited possible interns for the summer. Please contact Dr. Nora Bird (njbird@uncg.edu), LIS faculty practicum summer for LIS 691.

Charlotte Observer. We cannot offer a salary, but hopefully the experience will be priceless! [mpaynter@charlotteobserver.com]
Wake Forest University Instruction Department
Western Carolina University -Mountain Heritage Center Internship, Summer 2012
Dates: late June – early August subject to negotiation.
20 hrs per week except full time for the week of July 23, 2012.
Not less than 160 hours total. $1250
DUTIES: Assist with Mountain Heritage Center and WCU Art Department Summer co-sponsored camp the week of July 23. Help plan and deliver the week-long cultural history and arts summer camp. Also assist with development of an exhibit on Horace Kephart. Tasks assigned may include research, object preparation, label writing, and exhibit installation.
QUALIFICATIONS: Candidates with experience in exhibit-related research, object handling, condition reporting, and exhibit installation preferred. Experience with youth educational programming also preferred.
HOW TO APPLY: Submit a cover letter describing your qualifications and why you are interested in this internship. Include your current resume and a list of three references. Deadline for application is April 23, 2012. Send by e-mail to Peter Koch, Education Associate, Mountain Heritage Center: pkoch@email.wcu.edu .
Wingate University – possibly more than one opportunity to aid in collection management.

Dear LIS Community,

We need your help.

National Library Day in Washington D.C. will be on Tuesday 4/24 and North Carolina will be sending a large contingent of library advocates to Capitol Hill to seek support for libraries.

We have created a state library advocacy site to tell the stories of public libraries but currently are missing stories from two of the 13 congressional districts and 66 of the 100 NC counties!

Please go here to tell your library story.

We are also seeking people to join our Facebook group so that legislators and their aides know we are serious and have access to a lot of voters and taxpayers through our social network sites. Three weeks ago we had less than 200 and now we have 600 friends.

Please join our Facebook group.

Our goal is 1,000 friends, which means we need 400 friends in the next two weeks. Have your voice heard and “friend” us as your vote of support for libraries. Please ask you friends, colleagues, family members, and patrons to join us to have our voices unite in our common support for libraries!

Dr. Chu and I will be representing UNCG on the bus so join us in spirit and voice in advocating for libraries statewide. If everyone could have four or five of your NC friends and family join then we will easily reach our goal of 1,000.

In addition, by joining our FB group you will have an opportunity to speak directly to your national and state legislators who will be given a link to both when we visit them . Have your voices heard and take action now by supporting us as we state the case for all of our state’s libraries.

Study in Reference and User Services Quarterly
Dr. Chow’s research with UNCG alumna Becky Croxton entitled, “Information Seeking Behavior and Reference Medium Preferences: Differences among Faculty, Staff, and Students” is the featured research study in ALA’s Reference and User Services Quarterly (RUSQ) spring issue coming out on March 31, 2012. The study examined the preferences of university faculty, staff, and students in using virtual reference services at an academic library. Statistically significant differences were found: Faculty and staff preferred email while students preferred chat/instant messaging. The primary factors for virtual reference preference were familiarity with the technology and convenience. Overall, in-person reference services were still preferred by all library users over virtual reference mediums.

Presentation at N.C. Technology in Education and Society Conference
Dr. Chow presented a research paper along with LIS student Amy Figley entitled, “Designing Age-Appropriate School Library Websites: Why, What, Whom, and How” at the North Carolina Technology in Education and Society (NCTIES) Conference on March 7-9 in Raleigh, N.C. The nationwide study examined the general design and usability of school libraries at the K-12 level. Preliminary findings suggest school library websites do not utilize many of the recommended web design best practices and are not age-appropriate for youth information seeking on either the cognitive or affective levels.

Chair of research and grants in Social and Behavioral Sciences subcommittee
Dr. Chow also chaired UNCG’s research and grants Social and Behavioral Sciences subcommittee. The review committee of faculty from various departments reviewed and selected award recipients for the 2011-2012 new faculty and summer excellence awards. Formal announcements of the recipients will be made shortly.

You are all invited to this event at the UNCG campus.

Dr. Camila Alire, ALA  past president and Dean Emerita University of New Mexico & Colorado State University, will give a presentation,

“Emotional Intelligence (EI) Leadership: Why It Really Works,” on Friday, March 30, 2012, 10:30 —11:30 a.m., at EUC Maple Room at UNCG.

Refreshments will be provided.

Through her professional positions, professional service, and scholarship, Dr. Camila Alire is recognized as a
library leader. She is Dean Emerita at the University of New Mexico and Colorado State University. Her
doctorate in Educational Leadership from the University of Northern Colorado and her MLS from the
University of Denver helped prepare her for leadership in the library profession. She has served the
profession well as president of ALA (2009), president of the Association for College and Research Libraries
(ACRL 2005), and president of national REFORMA (1993).
Camila has co‐authored books on academic librarianship, emotionally intelligent leadership, library services
to Latino communities; and disaster planning/recovery. She has also written and presented on various
aspects of diversity, on library advocacy, and library marketing.
Because of her leadership and scholarship ability, Camila was honored with the ALA/Lippincott Award for
Distinguished Service; the CALA Presidential Recognition Award, and the ALA Achievement in Library
Diversity Research Award. She also received the first ALA Elizabeth Futas’ Catalyst for Change Award and
the National REFORMA’s Librarian of the Year Award. Camila was named Scholar‐in‐Residence for the
Chicago Public Library System and was honored one year by Hispanic Business Magazine as one of the 100
most influential Hispanics in the U.S.

My NC Library Advocacy Project

By Brandon Lewter

In the fall of 2009, I took my first class in pursuit of a Master’s Degree in Library and Information Studies. At the time I was starting my third year as a high school English teacher and, to say the least, this was an overwhelming point in my life. I am now a full-time graduate student, scheduled to graduate this summer, and I no longer teach high school, except for the occasional substitute teaching job.

Advocacy Project
Currently I’m working on an exciting independent study with Dr. Anthony Chow in which our goal is to create an advocacy campaign for libraries across the state, which in turn will increase funding and support from national and state legislatures.

During the summer of 2011, Dr. Chow; Ben McFadden, a doctoral student in UNCG’s TEHE program; and several leaders from North Carolina public libraries put together an ad-hoc advocacy committee called The Library Advocacy Task Force. Members of the task force from the NC Public Library system include Pam Jaskot of the State Library of NC; Carol Walters, Director of Libraries at the Sandhill Regional Library System; Karen Foss, Director of Catawba County Library; and Mary Sizemore, Director of the High Point Public Library.

Since I started working on the task force this semester, I have taken on several responsibilities. First of all, I am the acting Web master for the task force’s Web site, North Carolina Library Advocacy. I manage our social media tools, such as our Facebook page, Twitter account, and YouTube channel, which are all linked to the Web site. Also, I am a facilitator to the advocacy movement in that I help determine agenda items for our meetings and help Dr. Chow stay on top of critical action items.

The Web Site
The Web site is the foundation for our advocacy movement. One of the main purposes of our site is to act as a place to collect library stories from all over the state. The stories we collect are from library patrons, and they tell about a time in their lives when their library has had a positive impact on them, whether it be for personal gain or as a tool for an economic gain. The stories are collected through a survey tool that allows us to organize them into a specific formula.

The formula for the stories comes from Jamie LaRue, an experienced library advocate and Director of the Douglas Greene County Library in Colorado. I heard Jamie speak about advocacy strategies during a task-force organized workshop held in November 2011. Jamie’s presentation can be seen on the advocacy Web site and the formula for the stories can be seen at Jamie’s blog. According to Jamie, the stories we are collecting from library patrons can be used as powerful advocacy tools.

Going to Washington
The Library Advocacy Task Force is preparing for and looking forward to April 23 and 24 when we, along with many other library advocates, will board a bus headed to Washington D.C., where we will meet with state and national legislators with the hopes of showing them how important our libraries are to North Carolinians. When we travel, our main instrument to help win legislators support will be the stories we’ve collected. Our hope is that when legislators see the value of libraries through voters’ and taxpayers’ eyes, they will support us.