Online Newsletter of Roxbury Community College Library

December 2006

THANKS TO THOUGHTFUL LIBRARY DONORS DURING 2006

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Theresa Russ

Sue Kalt, RCC

Andre L. Suber

Mark Garth, RCC

Terrence Gomes, RCC

Patrick Seyon, RCC David Becker, RCC

Gretchen Jones, RCC Stephanie Janey, RCC

Jenene Cook, RCC Brenda Mercomes, RCC

Karen Hallet, RCC Omesa Spencer, RCC

Angel Amy Moreno, RCC Rita Padmore, RCC

Alane Shanks, RCC Marshall Hughes, RCC

Jennie Thrash, RCC Karen Walker, RCC

Angela Oneal, RCC Judith Kahalas, RCC

Roxie Williams , RCC Telehun Gebriwot, RCC

Rosemary Mowring, RCC Angie Delgado, RCC

Abdimalig Mohamed, RCC Antonio Perez, RCC

Michelle Howard-Harrell, RCC Belma Vallejo, RCC

David Updike, RCC Elizabeth Dorsey, Chestnut Hill, MA

Simmons College Library, Boston, MA Robbins Library, Arlington, MA

Emanuel Terezakis, Community College of RI Erica Lewis, Roxbury, MA

Sylvia Stokes, RCC Faye Naderi, RCC Justin Petty, RCC Virgilio Acevedo, RCC

Ramon Mojica, RCC Rudy Volk, RCC Ruth Kiefson-Roberts, RCC Shay Youngblood

Veronica McCormack, RCC Virgilio Acevedo, RCC Suffolk University Library, Boston, MA

Shirley Lesley, RCC Sterling Giles, RCC Syed Irshad, Boston, MA Vera Laska, Weston, MA

Karen Freeman, RCC Katherine Toll, Lynn, MA Martha Bullock, Brookline, MA Kyrsis Rodriguez, RCC

Linda O’Connor, RCC Martha Lambert, RCC Mauricio Soto, Jamaica Plain, MA Paul Bernstein, Chelsea, MA

Fred Tahmasian, RCC George Schiavone, Former division chair, RCC Holly Guran, RCC Joyce King, Boston, MA

Marie Magloire, RCC

Mike Walker, RCC

Jose Alicea, RCC

More thanks:

• Fenway Library Consortium directors for their high level of graciousness in welcoming RCC library staff to their first FLC staff development day in June 2006.
• Rob Moody of Facilities for creating a delivery box for morning newspapers so that they can be delivered by carrier in the morning instead of by mail in the afternoon.
• Suffolk University Library for donating 26 tables and 52 chairs to spruce up the library furniture.
• Robbins Library, Arlington, for donating security boxes for the library’s videos and DVD’s.
• The Facilities staff for delivering these heavy, bulky items.
• Electrician Bill Larson for doing extensive rewiring needed for two library improvement projects.
• Walt Geer and the IT staff for expanding computer presence in the library. Walt, also, for donating a Macintosh music computer which is very popular and used every day.
• Shelly Johnson-Payne for organizing the 1^st Annual Avon Gift Basket Fundraiser for textbooks in the library.
• Nancy Teel for conspicuous support of the library in many ways including the gift of the latest in a series of large plants which currently grace the front of the library.
• Brenda Mercomes for significant sage direction and advice.
• Mat Krug, the library’s third student volunteer from the Simmons Masters Program in Library and Information Science, for his enthusiastic attitude in helping students at the reference desk Friday mornings this fall.
• Simmons College Library for many boxes of recent edition reference books.
• The Armenian Library and Museum of America, Inc. of Watertown for lending the library a large display entitled “The Armenians: Shadow of a Forgotten Genocide.” Arranged by Veronica McCormack.
• RCC students who have patiently put up with the computer problems that the library has suffered this fall.
• Library staff for patiently working through the busiest and most hectic semester in five years.
• Joyce King of Boston for donating a large gift of African American materials.
• The Roxbury Trust Fund Committee Trust for providing $30,000 to expand the library’s collection of multi-cultural materials.
• Lennie Durant for telling the story of his work with the Boston Black United Front in a two hour videotaped oral history, which will become part of the RCC special collections, with Cat Holbrook asking the questions and Justin Petty’s student crew running the cameras.
• Erik Entemann and Joyce Kelly for delivering many boxes of books, formerly belonging to the late George Schiavone, who worked at RCC from 1979 to 1987 as professor and then dean of Math and Science.
• Marcy Gefter for suggesting to Prof. Vera Laska of Regis College that she donate some of her books to RCC. Following her death in 2006, in accordance with her will, a large donation of books on Hispanics and other topics was delivered to the library.
• Fred Tahmasian from IT and Scot Colford of the Boston Public Library for setting up a system so that library registration can take 20 seconds per student not five minutes.
• The library work study students, Candy Batista, Jhonnathan Guerrero, Uchechi Ihenetu and David Palomares, without whose assistance the library would have to cut back services or, who knows, just close up completely.

HUMAN RIGHTS DAY

Human Rights Day is December 10 every year. It marks the anniversary of the adoption of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. This year's theme is Human Rights and Poverty. In conjunction with other events at RCC, the library has contributed the following items.

· A large display in the front windows entitled “The Armenians, Shadow of a Forgotten Genocide.” This is on loan from the Armenian Library and Museum of America in Watertown. Arrangement by Veronica McCormack.

· A display of books and videos from the library collections on the topic of human rights.

· A special web site of human rights sources of information, designed by reference librarian Bill Hoag. This is available all through December as a special link from the library web page www.rcc.mass.edu/lib.

REFERENCE QUESTIONS UP 50%

In a four-step process over two years, the library is increasing reference service to students. The number of student reference questions has shot up 55% since last year. That is, 4,575 reference inquiries from January to November 2006 compared to 2,939 for the same period in 2005. Here’s how:

· 2005. Set up reference desk in the library for the first time since the mid 1990s. This allows students easily to identify professional librarians who can assist with information needs.

· April, 2006. Increase staffing at reference desk by increasing number of full-time professional librarians.

· September, 2006. Move reference collection so that it is next to the reference desk. This allows reference librarians to point out useful information tools quickly. Not surprising students are using the reference collection much more since September.

In 2007, the reference desk, which is just an ordinary desk, will be replaced with a taller, wider piece of furniture designed for this purpose. The symbolism of this improvement is the recognition that helping students find information that they need for class work is the fundamental reason for the library to exist.

All of these measures are very obvious and basic. Once in place, the library will be able to look seriously for the first time at other measures to help students, including various kinds of online reference service, for example.

TRANSITIONS

The library is sorry to lose two staff members who have helped the library grow.

• In September, Cat Holbrook traded in her part-time archivist position at RCC for a fulltime archivist position at Schlesinger Library, Harvard. Cat started the archiving program at RCC. In 19 months, she processed the papers of the Boston Black United Front, the collection of materials from Mel King’s run for Boston mayor, the Caribbean Focus Collection, as well as all of the archival papers of the college that the library has possession.
• At the beginning of the year, Kristin Motte, now the library’s Head of Access Services, will become Assistant Director and Head of Information Services at the Wentworth Institute of Technology library. Although only at RCC for eight months, Kristin worked to improve customer service at the circulation desk. She was also a big part of the expansion of reference and training services. The fact that RCC students doubled the number of their database searches for 13,000 to 30,000 in the past year, has a lot to do with her ability in showing them how to get quality information sources for research papers.

Good luck to both Cat and Kristin.

FISHER JOINS MBLN

When RCC library joined the Metro Boston Library Network (MBLN) last year, it was the first academic library in a network mostly composed of public and school libraries and led by the Boston Public Library. Now Fisher College Library, in the Back Bay, has joined the group. Members of the RCC community can now order books from Fisher using the online MBLN order request feature. RCC folks can also use the Fisher library at 118 Beacon Street, Boston and take out Fisher books using their RCC library barcode.

There are special services that academic libraries offer that public libraries have no need for, providing textbooks on reserve for example. The MBLN has been particularly accommodating in this and other ways to make sure that its academic partners are well served. Membership discussions are currently underway with two more academic institutions so that the number of college libraries in MBLN may expand again in 2007.

BOOKS RCC STUDENTS ARE ORDERING

Since RCC library joined the Metro Boston Library Network last year, members of the RCC community have increasingly been ordering books online for delivery here. Requests are for titles the library lacks or which are out on loan. Books are for research projects and for pleasure reading. Some videos were also ordered from the huge video collection at the Boston Public Library. Here are some of the items people have ordered. If you haven’t used this system yet, see directions below.

	Specimen Days Michael Cunnigham		Make Me Wanna Holler Nathan Mc Call
	The Ancient Gods Speak Donald B. Redford		Atlas of Human Anatomy Frank Netter
	The Standard Deviants		The Supreme Court William H. Rehnquist
	On Death and Dying Elizabeth Kubler-Ross		Shame On It All Zane
	A Project Chick Tracy Brown		Underage And Overweight Frances M. Berg
	Police Brutality Tamara L. Roleff		Me and My Boyfriend Keisha Ervin
	The Bluest Eye Toni Morrison		Against The Death Penalty Gardner c. Hanks
	Play Misty for Me Clint Eastwood		America Without the Death Penalty John F. Galliner
	The Spook Who Sat by the Door Sam Greenlee

Here’s how to order:

· Go to the library web site www.rcc.mass.edu/lib

· Choose Online Catalog

· Choose MBLN Online Catalog (at top of screen)

· Search for something

· Press the “Hold this for me” button for the book you want

· Fill in your RCC library barcode and PIN number.

If the item is available, it will be sent to the RCC library in about a week and you will be notified to come pick it up.

If you haven’t ordered a book through the RCC library yet, try it today. If you don’t have an RCC barcode, come to the library and register. If you have a barcode but don’t know your PIN, inform the library RIGHT HERE and we’ll send it right back to you.

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, Roxbury Crossing, MA

Mark Lawrence, Library Director