New look for the Proctor Library web pages

As the spring semester has now started up, students and faculty will notice a change in our Proctor Library web pages, beginning with the home page (http://www.flagler.edu/library ). We felt very good about our previous web pages, but as with anything there is always room for improvement. For example, we had built in some intentional duplication when the web pages were redesigned a couple years back, but we realized during several semesters of use that this duplication could sometimes be confusing and needed to be part of a change.

Reference & Instruction Librarian Blake Pridgen took on the responsibility of reviewing redesigning the pages, and he succeeded in launching the new set of pages January 7.

Blake took a hard look at our pages, undertook some investigation and study of other academic library web pages and library web page design in general, and he reworked our pages to make them even better to use. One will notice from the new design that many of the elements of the previous pages were retained, but Blake adjusted the look with the thought of making everything even easier. He added some new items as well. Now in the “Find Information” column on the home page, one can initiate a search specifically for “DVDs. CDs and VHSs” as easily as searching for books. And in the far right column one can check lists of both new book and video additions to the Library. And, of course, a link to this “Library Director’s Blog,” plus a link to Polaris, the Library’s research tutorial, also appear in that same column. Directly under the banner on the top of the home page, one will also find quick direct links to the heavily used College tools: “Flagler Home,” “Flagler Email,” “My.Flagler.Edu,” and “WebCT.”

Our set of Proctor Library web pages will always be considered a “work in progress,” and we will always be looking for improvements, so I hope any one who has ideas for improvements or adjustments to our existing pages will feel free to get in touch with the Library, or even directly with Blake. We will appreciate the help.

Seeing the Proctor Library in a Different Light

The normal bright lights in the Library were dimmed slightly following normal closing time on December 18, and the Library’s first floor was transformed from its normal role as a learning center into a venue for a wonderful holiday celebration.

The celebration was organized by the College’s Office of Institutional Effectiveness to honor those friends of the College who have supported the College and Library over the years, especially those donors who have recently made special gifts as a part of the current campaign celebrating the Proctor Library on its “Decade of Excellence.”

Attendees at the celebration were greeted upon arrival with a beautiful five foot tall flower arrangement occupying the center point on the Library’s marble entryway floor.

It also didn’t hurt that the same table supporting the arrangement also supported an inviting variety of dessert creations. We obviously suspended our normal prohibition against consumption of food in the Library…and everyone was certainly glad we did.

In addition, very creative and substantial hors d'oeuvres were prepared and served by an exceptional caterer and her team, and they were enjoyed by all. The whole affair was a wonderful way to celebrate both the holidays and the work of the Library. Many of the benefactors and other guests had their first real opportunity to visit and see the Library, and the Library staff had a chance to meet these people who care so much for Flagler College.

Library staffers Brian Nesselrode, Katherine Owens and Christine Wysocki

All of us clearly appreciate the initiative and work of the Office of Institutional Effectiveness in putting this celebration together. We also appreciate Library staffer Catherine Norwood for capturing the images of the celebration.

New Year’s Resolution met – at last

Well it is now January 7, 2008 so I am already late in meeting my New Year’s Resolution to post my blog more frequently and regularly than my postings (only 3 blogs) during the fall semester.

Actually I am still excited about how well things went in the Library during the fall semester. The Library continued to be a busy place through the semester with our gate count often recording 300 to 400 additional entries over last year’s average of about 2,464 entries per day. And a couple days (6 to be exact) the count went over the 3,100 mark.

Several days we also noted there were times when every one of the public computers on the first floor of the Library was in use, and we saw students “cruising” looking for a computer to become available. It reminded me of a shopping center parking lot during the holidays. We obviously will need to seriously consider adding some additional public computers on the first floor. Even the availability of WiFi and the increased use of laptops has not reduced the need for the public computers.

It is really wonderful to see the Library used as heavily as it has been during the fall semester, and the end of the semester completion of project and preparation for exams really made the Library a place where students felt comfortable gathering in group study and collaboration. It was another great semester.We're looking forward to a similarly great semester in the spring.

Library and Career Services working closely together

We have been very pleased that during the past couple weeks the Proctor Library and the Office of Career Services have been working out arrangements that will greatly help students gain improved access to information resources related to: identification of potential careers; resume and cover letter writing; interviewing techniques; graduate and law school testing aids; and other information associated with careers beyond Flagler. The Office of Career Services currently has a collection of over 150 print titles providing this important information, and this collection will be growing through the semester. You can browse this collection simply by visiting the Office of Career Services, located in Suite 253B, second floor of the Ringhaver Student Center. Also, visit the Office of Career Services web page http://www.flagler.edu/page2.aspx?id=2033 to learn more about the valuable support that can be provided.

Now if you can not visit Career Services to browse their collection of print titles, you can still locate titles they have there, as well as many other print and electronic books on career related information available through the Proctor Library by checking the Library’s Catalog in the library or remotely. Link is https://research.flagler.edu:2048/login?url=http://voyager.flagler.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?DB=local&PAGE=First . All the titles within the Office of Career Services collection, as well as all those available through the Library, are listed, together with specific Location information. This will allow you obtain any item of interest either from Career Services or the Library.

Finally, at the beginning of the semester, the Library and Career Services jointly acquired access to a very interesting and information packed career database entitled Vault https://research.flagler.edu:2048/login?url=http://www.vault.com/cb/careerlib/careerlib_main.jsp?parrefer=6143 . We encourage you to look at it using the link provided. You can also find it listed on the Career Services web page and via the Proctor Library web page. If you have any problem using it or have any question, either Career Services or the Library can help you.

We hope these cooperative efforts between the Proctor Library and the Office of Career Services provide great value to you.

My Favorite Words in New Princeton Review Survey -- "Great library"

After reading a report in the local St. Augustine Record several days ago about Flagler College’s rankings in the most recent edition of Princeton Review’s "Best 366 Colleges," I could not wait until our print copy arrived so that I could read what the survey really said. The newspaper report indicated that Flagler ranked high on two very positive lists--“Best Southeastern Colleges” and “America’s Best Value Colleges.” Unfortunately, however, it also reported how Flagler was included on two less flattering lists—“Their Students (Almost) Never Study” and “Is it Food?” The newspaper report seemed to dwell a bit too long on each of these elements for me.

Fortunately, I was very pleased when I found that the print copy of the book provided a quite positive view overall on Flagler. I guess one should expect this when being included in a book with the phrase “the best 366” as part of its title. Both positives and negatives were present in the write-up, but to me the total package was mostly positive. Good things were said about the teaching, the relationship between teachers and students, and the Flagler environment, among other good things.

This should especially be good news to one of our senior accounting majors who had followed up on the St. Augustine Record article with a “letter to the editor” in which she expressed her displeasure with the report of the Princeton Review’s portrayal of Flagler students as slackers who never study. She argued that this portrayal is far from the truth, and that on a walk around campus or the library one can see a majority of students “all working to get good grades and to further our education.”

As one who obviously walks around the library every day, I agree with this young woman. Our students are indeed working hard and dedicating themselves to learning and it a real pleasure for me to have them in our library.

Which brings me at last to my final point and my favorite words coming out of the surveys of our students and presented in the print copy of the book -- “Great library” What wonderful words to hear from a wonderful group of young people!

Opening of both Sevilla Street and the Director’s Blog

I had been thinking for some time about producing a blog about things here in the Proctor Library, but I found I just could not seem to get my first posting finished. The only thing that made me feel better was looking out the front door of the Library during the days of July and August and seeing how tough it was getting the newly designed Sevilla Street finished and reopened. I really thought I was going to win the race against Sevilla, but when it finally reopened last week, it forced me to get moving and open my blog.

As most of us know, this has been a very exciting summer of construction and improvement here at Flagler College. I am thrilled that students and faculty were able to return to the campus last week and find such a great new environment here. I particularly love what I view as a great “triangle of student life and learning” consisting of the new Ringhaver Student Center, the Proctor Library, and Kenan Hall. Naturally I am pleased to have the Library as the center of two legs of the triangle, and I know we will continue to do our best to support student life and learning at the College.

For those returnees to the College, you will see some changes in the Library. Library staffers Jenny Eason and Mitzi Skeen moved on to other careers this summer, and fortunately other wonderful people joined our staff. Katherine Owens has joined us as a Reference & Instruction Librarian, Christine Wysocki is our new College Archivist and Reference Librarian, and Adam Ehrenberg is our evening Circulation Manager.

To support the growing use of wireless laptops in the Library, we installed easily accessible electrical power outlets on the group study tables on the first floor and similar power is easily available at some 31 other study location throughout the Library. Batteries are nice, but unfortunately they run down at the most inopportune times.

Deaf Education majors may be surprised to find that during the summer we pulled off our shelves most of our books and audio-visual items in any way related to deaf education, deaf life or deaf culture, and we have now consolidated them into a more centralized location which is now called the “Deaf Studies Collection.” This collection is identified by an overhead sign and it is found on the 2nd floor, the low shelves on the north end.

We have recently added a couple other very valuable resources and tools for you to use this academic year, but I must admit that they are so new that we are still learning them ourselves and I will hold off describing them until my next blog posting. As a hint, just remember “ebrary” and “360 search.” And if you find them, try them out.