Super Busy at the MIC bring Technology out into the Open

School started today and getting the Library ready for the influx of 475 new first years as well as returning students, new faculty, new deans, and new adjuncts has been a whirlwind. But the results are outstanding. Largely this is due to our library crew embracing and taking technology to a whole new level. We are starting out the year with a series of new initiatives that are pretty cool. Here are some of the highlights:
1. We have started using wikis to create subject guides. What a relief! You can actually update and modify the pages to accomodate instructor's needs, students' feedback and new additions to the collection. Awesome and very well received. Hopefully they will be very used.
2. We are trying chat reference. We've held back from chat in the past because we are such a small staff but with more of our students going abroad and a new librarian in the mix, we thought it was time to give it a go. More on that as the school year progresses...it's hard to know how that's working on day 1.
3. We are blogging (as you well know since you are reading it!) We are maintaining a library blog to highlight events at the library but also things the librarians think are cool. (Oh, there are so many).
4. We are tracking reference questions using a free, online tool from zoho. We just stareted it today but it was so much easier to keep track of questions. We kept the screen open and the form is easy to fill out and WHAM, we've got improved data on reference.
5. We have been spending most of the summer adding our newest additions to the collection into Flickr. I think it will be a cool way for faculty, and maybe even students, to share books with one another, comment, suggest other books, and get to know our collection better, which is changing rapidly.

We are giving these technologies a go and I am so proud to work somewhere that is willing to take that chance. It's a great way to kick off the school year: invigorated, excited, and trying new things. It might make all of us insanely busy, but it feels insanely great.

A First for First Years

Orientation has been growing like crazy at Champlain so this year the Library decided to participate in the Scavenger Hunt. It's a first for them and a first for us!

Here's how it goes, each group of students will receive a question that once answered will take them to a spot in the Library that we wish they would know about.
Here are some of the spots in the MIC that are included:
Newspapers
Writing Center
Math & Accounting Lab
Quiet Study Rooms
Main Stacks
Circulation Desk
Reference Desk

To answer the questions, the students have to use skills we wish they'd use:
Find a book in the Stacks and in Reference
Look up a book in the Catalog
Ask a Librarian for help
Find a book on Reserve

How would you do? If you are scratching your head as to where to find any of these spots or how to do any of these things, come by the MIC and ask! That's why we're here.

And yes, we will give you a new MIC bookmark too!