RIS Newsletter | February 2021

RIS Newsletter February 2021 | Volume 4 Issue 2

In this issue...

PD Workshop Series
Reference Update
Scholarship
Service
Old Hobbies (and New)

Workshop Series

This year the unit will be piloting a RIS workshop series. Topics will focus on instruction and reference related themes, but sessions are open to any KSU librarian or staff member. Please contact Karen (kdosterg@kennesaw.edu) if you have any questions.

Reviews: Literature vs. Systematic with Olga March 26 at 9am | Join Teams Meeting

Accessibility with Amy and Mary Margaret April 23 at 9am | Join Teams Meeting

— Karen

Reference Update

Early in February, Karen gave me this good news: “During my VIP shift, I worked with a student who called the VIP service ‘cool!’ I was thrilled and very proud of all the work you have all done putting this service together. I know it's clunky at times and we miss working with the students in person. But it was so nice to hear the genuine appreciation from the student.”

Our reference statistics agree. During the first 5 weeks of Spring Semester 2021, we saw a slightly higher percentage of reference questions come to the VIP stations (than in comparison to the first 5 weeks of Fall 2020). A big thank you to Access Services for their help! What we hope and what we've observed is that patrons have adjusted to this set-up and are comfortable using it. Even after we return to face-to-face services, we have created an out-of-the-box model that presents future opportunities for reference services.

— Judy

Scholarship

Judy, Carey, and Karen's article "Pandemic as Opportunity: Creating and Implementing a Live Virtual Reference Desk" was accepted for the "On Innovation" column of the Journal of New Librarianship.

Mary Margaret's presentation "Reloading Gen Z" was accepted for the Georgia International Conference for Information Literacy.

Amy and Ashley's poster presentation "The Impact of the Interim Leadership Experience" was accepted by ACRL.

Jennifer Carter's poster presentation "The Tattoo Taboo: Professionalism and body modifications in libraries" was accepted by ACRL. She will be co-presenting with Manda, Sam, and Matthew.

Crystal's article "You Ought to Write a Book" was published in Georgia Library Quarterly. It has already been downloaded 41 times.

Leslie and Christina's poster "Sustainable Rapid Design for Online Tutorials" was accepted to the ACRL DOLS poster program.

Service

Nashieli and Olga are collaborating with the Writing Center to host two literature review sessions.

LaTiffany will be hosting a pop-up library series, the first at Bagwell.

Chelsee has been invited to speak about open access advocacy and programming at an OpenCon Community Call in July.

Hobbies (Old and New)

Top row: Ashley is continuing work on an 18th-century ensemble for an Outlander cosplay. She recently completed the "underpinnings", pictured here, which feature 30 boning channels, 30 grommets, and hand-sewn binding. At the end of October, Carey hiked part of the Appalachian Trail, exploring Blood Mountain trekking north through Neels Gap and Wolf Laurel Top toward Cowrock Mountain where he spent a cold, windy night in a hammock. Olga and her family are discovering the joys of foraging for mushrooms. Judy is learning the art of forcing narcissus bulbs to bloom indoors. Middle row: Nashieli shared her latest crochet project, a baby blanket for Rosemary’s newest family member. Crystal has been quilting. This is a quilt she created for her eldest sister. Bottom row: Jennifer has resumed her interests in bird watching and photography. Her lunch breaks are spent looking out the kitchen window to see who shows up at her bird feeders. Rachel's cat Luna has also become an avid birdwatcher.

Best wishes for a safe and healthy semester!

CC-BY 2021 RIS Unit. Layout by Jennifer Carter and Rachel Schrauben Yeates.

Appreciate

Credits:

Created with images by DariuszSankowski - "paper heart symbol" • castleguard - "heart sweetheart leaf" • Kranich17 - "mailbox love letters heart" • biancamentil - "heart leaves foliage" • shadowlessPhoenix - "heart water stone heart" • pixel2013 - "forest autumn ivy" • pasja1000 - "foliage yellow autumn"