New in Staley Library! Millikin University

(old chair)

If you have been in the library since Spring break, you have probably noticed that our study chairs have graduated from 1970's orange and brown to 1980's mauve! The explanation is that now that Illinois Wesleyan has a new library with all new furniture, we have inherited some of their older furniture, handsome pieces in good condition and definitely newer than what we used to have. The chairs include some with arms and a few with sleigh legs.

In addition to the chairs, we also have seven new (to us) oak study tables (one of them a big round one) on our main and second floors, six additional two-person sofas with large blue hassocks, and several floor lamps scattered among the seating groups throughout the library. If you haven't already, stop by to admire and enjoy!

We also acquired from Illinois Wesleyan some oak end panels for our stacks, not just to make them more attractive (though it will accomplish that too) but also to make them sturdier. The end panels will be installed as Physical Plant staff time permits.

Adding to our two successful library grant proposals described in my November 2001 newsletter, we recently were awarded funding through the Illinois State Library to implement a small wireless network in the library. Specifically, this is a competitive Educate and Automate grant for Wireless Local Area Networks; and our proposal specified five networked laptops to be made available for use in the library by Millikin University students, faculty and staff. The deadline for completion of installation of this network is August 2002, so you should see it in place when you return for the 2002/2003 academic year.

Librarian Jen Masciadrelli has been awarded an American Library Association 2002 EBSCO/ALA Conference Sponsorship that will cover her costs for attend the ALA Annual Conference in Atlanta, GA this June. This is a national competitive award with ten annual winners selected based on essays that address, "How will attending this ALA Conference contribute to [my] professional development?" Close to 20,000 people typically attend these summer conferences.

Recognizing that one part of any grant process is the review of proposals, during the week before Spring break I read and ranked twelve applications for a different Illinois-wide competitive library grant process. It is always both interesting and educational to read the ideas of others, as well as to experience from the agency side of things what makes for a successful proposal.

We have recently added a page to our web site explaining our existing policies for use of library computers and the Internet. That is, we have not changed our policies, just documented them. You will find the link to this documentation on our "Library Services" page, under Computer and Internet Guidelines.

Still Life (Master Study) by Beth Stofleth
(click on image for larger view)

Ben Gardner, our art exhibit curator, hanging our March show. (Ben has just had three of his own paintings accepted for inclusion in full color in the August 2002 issue of the bimonthly publication New American Paintings, "a juried exhibition-in-print." The issue will showcase the work of 40 emerging artists in the Midwest region.)

Our second Female Artists at Millikin art show will continue through the middle of April. Displayed works include paintings by Millikin University students Sarah Smith, Heather Semro, Beth Stofleth and Erica Warhaus, as well as ceramics by Dana Gardner.

From mid-April until the end of the academic year, the exhibit area will house artwork and poetry selected from Collage (Millikin's literary magazine), as well as student work from Art Education majors who are currently student teaching. Their displays will focus on the relationship between the students' own work and their methods of teaching art.

As you may recall from last month's newsletter, from time to time we recognize "over and above" performance in our student staff. So far this academic year we have honored three library student workers in this way. Now we are honoring two more, Jason Corum and Amanda Young (below). Both distinguish themselves through their positive and respectful attitude towards everyone, for unfailing courtesy and helpfulness towards the library's users, and for being consistently reliable, accurate, and efficient.

Jason Corum and Amanda Young

In addition, Jason's commendation letter notes that "We always know that we can count on you, something that is especially important on those evenings when you work without a full-time library staff member present for the last few hours that the library is open." And, Amanda's letter singles out "The way you ask questions about library procedures, and then share what you learn, not only helps other student workers but also leads the library staff to focus on those procedures with an eye towards keeping their usefulness up to date. Your assistance with shifting the music materials during the summer of 2001 helped us achieve a consolidation of those materials that has been much appreciated by music faculty and students."

Congratulations to both on their well-deserved awards!

Did you catch the new "100 years in the making" focus on our archives on the back page of the March 18, 2002 issue of Campus Connections? Along with some information about the archives you will find a mystery Millikin photograph. The caption asks, "Who are these people, why are they doing this, and when did this happen?" Do you know? You will find the answer in the succeeding issue, along with another mystery photograph.

Don't forget!

I leave you with the text of an ad for a Honda Accord V-6 Coupe, as reported on page 36 of the March 2002 issue of American Libraries, "The automotive equivalent of a really hot librarian. Good-looking, yet intelligent. Fun, yet sophisticated. All in a very eye-catching 200 horse-power package." The ad itself appears in the December 2001 Car and Driver, among other publications. On http://cartalk.cars.com/, the comment about the same car is that "It's fast, quiet, handles the rough roads and twisty bits with ease." Not to stretch the car comparison too far - but librarians ARE hot! As is the rest of the library staff.

University Librarian
kborei@mail.millikin.edu

Previous issues of this newsletter can be found here.

Staley Library Millikin University 1184 West Main, Decatur, IL 62522 phone 217-424-6214 fax 217-424-3992	©2001+ by Millikin University Board of Trustees MU web disclaimer Comments? Send us a message
This page is http://www.millikin.edu/staley/April2002.html The newsletter page was first created on Sept. 9, 1999 This page was viewed 1,012 times between March 29, 2002 and August 2006