“So, what do you, like, DO at the library all summer?” is one the most frequent questions students and faculty ask library staff as one school year ends and another begins.  I mean, it’s only reasonable to expect that library staff  play Scrabulous and Minesweeper in an empty library all summer while kindergartener-sized tumbleweeds roll past the periodicals racks.

Well, it may surprise you to learn that we do quite a bit!  Though we still have plenty of summer students, faculty and staff, and camp kids to keep us company, we still find time both to carry out our normal duties and to work on bigger projects and initiatives.  Here’s a taste of what we’ve done between graduation and today…

• Our biggest news first…we completed our library staff by hiring two new library staff members:  Jack Weinbender, our new Library Assistant whose first day with us was June 17, and Meredith Sommers, our new Information Resources Librarian/College Archivist, who will begin  July 13.  We’ll post profiles of both of them soon on this blog so you can get to know them better!
• Mary Jackson tagged dozens of new web resources for the library’s del.icio.us page
• Ordered, cataloged, processed, and shelved hundreds of new books, DVDs, and CDs
• Gary Daught, Mary Jackson, and Jeff Harbin attended BCLA Shared Catalog Committee meetings at Maryville College at the end of May
• Jeff cleaned up and shifted photography lending shelves
• Jeff shifted S-Z section of lending books
• Gary presented on the peer review process to two Scholarly Communication classes in Milligan’s M.Ed. program
• Jeff refreshed new book display with over 150 new books, not one of them published before 2008
• Jeff attended two online Interlibrary Loan tutorials and exponentially expanded pool of potential DVD and CD lenders
• Gary attended a webinar on WorldCat Local, and implemented Milligan’s “quick start” WorldCat Local environment
• Readied reserve shelves for next year, removing many outdated items and adding course-relevant materials, and moved out empty shelving unit to create more space in reserves area
• Gary closed out the fiscal year, reconstructed acquisitions fund code hierarchies, and reallocated funds in the library management system
• Gary initiated a review of current periodical/journal subscriptions with faculty
• Added extra shelving unit to provide more room for growing DVD collection, shifted current items and moved furniture to create more space in DVD room
• Jeff cleaned up and organized both the circulation desk and the Interlibrary Loans area
• Gary and Jeff wrote a grant proposal for the library’s “Librarians Bearing Gifts” faculty outreach project
• Worked with faculty to improve our lending collection of music books
• Gary and Jack organized receipt of and binding requests for M.Ed. theses
• Gary and Jack eliminated backlog of periodical check-ins
• Obtained ten additional circulating student-use laptops, bringing our total to twenty.

Whew!  And though the days of summer are quickly sifting through our fingers like so many grains of Myrtle Beach sand, the library staff has much more to accomplish in the 5 1/2 weeks (!) before the fall semester begins.  Be sure to check out Part 2 of this update as the new school year draws closer.