The Library Out and About on Campus

For the library team, the year officially started with the Class of 2021 coming to us to explore our space and resources as part of their orientation tour. The library tour is a fun way for our students to get know our staff as they visit each floor and collect prizes. While the year started off with the staff and students at the library, the rest of the year has kicked off with our staff being out and about on campus.

Our research and instruction librarians have been all over campus teaching classes covering communication, fake news, politics, biology, and conversational Italian. Jake Vaccaro is offering his popular “Italian: Basics & Beyond” for Meredith faculty and staff. Jean Rick, who is the library liaison for the biology department, taught a class in the research biology course. During her class students discussed the effects of water pollution on various aquatic organisms. They also learned how to find good, scholarly articles using our resources and then forwarded the articles on to their research advisor.

Research and Instruction Librarians Jeff Waller and Amanda Sullivan were asked to teach a class to POL 100 students concerning fake news and facts versus opinions. The session was held in Carswell Concert Hall, which was almost filled to capacity. The students got to share where they get their news and work through exercises to help them in discerning fact versus opinions in articles.  Waller and Sullivan are also teaching a FYE Fake News section that teaches students how to spot when a news item could be fake. Over the summer, Sullivan made a Fake News Research Guide to support the classes and so all students have some guidance when trying to decipher what is real news.

At the Wellness Festival on September 8, the library had a table set up and along with a game. Katherine Gaitens, a library marketing student worker, came up with the great concept of having people match a book with a “wellness” activity from it. There were two boards and depending on how many someone got right they could choose from the prizes such as apples, pencils, highlighters, and little books that have sticky notes in them. Students, faculty and staff from all over campus like, Rick McBane, Ann Gleason, Jeff Langenderfer, Rebecca Duncan and Nathan Woolard, stopped by to play the game.  Even volunteers from the Women’s Shelter and the Hope Line tables stopped by to play as well. View some examples of the books and wellness activities used.

Keep your eyes out for library staff around as you never know where we will turn up!

–Submitted by Amanda Sullivan, Research and Instruction Librarian

Melyssa Allen

News Director
316 Johnson Hall
(919) 760-8087
Fax: (919) 760-8330

allenme@meredith.edu