One of the Hardest Patron Conversations for a Library Supervisor to Have?

So a patron has – for whatever reason and there can be many – a significant
body odor, dental odor, or other hygiene problem. This is not a patron who rode his
or her bike to your library and didn’t towel off properly; this is a person who we can all
smell from several feet away. It could be a combination of body odor, mouth odor, a
personal toiletry problem, and/or unclean clothes (wearing the same unwashed
garments day after day). Either way, this a library workplace issue, which can really start
to bother the staff who have to serve or work near this person. It demands a “patron
coaching” conversation...

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What Do High School Students Know About Information Literacy?

» A Case Study of One University’s Feeder Schools

Students begin college with a wide range of experiences, competencies, and attitudes
around information. Academic librarians often do not know what students have
learned about research and information literacy (IL) in high school, which can be a
challenge for those who teach first-year students. This localized study contributes
to the body of literature on the topic of IL and the transition from high school by
serving as a case study of one small, private, suburban university’s students’ experiences
with libraries, librarians, research, and IL instruction prior to enrollment. Having a
sense of incoming students’ baseline IL skills and level of exposure to IL concepts can help librarians who work with first-year college students to tailor instruction to more
effectively help students build on existing knowledge, develop skills, and think about
information and research in more sophisticated ways...

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Emory University’s Changing Atlanta Exhibit
>> Documenting Local History through Archives

A current major theme in the promotion of archives is outreach to users beyond
academia. Another important goal for most repositories is acquiring new collection
material. By presenting the activities of archives in a visually stimulating way, exhibits of archival material are a useful way to both promote archival awareness and encourage
placing of papers and records with archives.

Events related to exhibits are a further way to promote the mission of the archive. This
article discusses the Changing Atlanta exhibit displayed at Emory University as a case
study to demonstrate how exhibits can spur greater public engagement with archives
and archival materials. The exhibit used archival collections to illuminate the stories
of individuals and groups who participated in the city of Atlanta’s expansion in the 20th
century. This article will discuss the historical content of the exhibit itself, along with
the opportunities for outreach generated by the exhibit...

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When a Repository Is Not Enough

>>Redesigning a Digital Ecosystem to Serve Scholarly Communication

Over the past decade, under the banners of scholarly communication, special collections,
collection development, and digital scholarship, academic libraries have taken
on greater responsibilities for collecting, publishing, and preserving a range of digital
assets. These include the creative and scholarly output of libraries’ host institutions,
digitized or born- digital general collections holdings, and a diverse array of materials
from special collections and archives.

Broadly, “digital asset management consists of management tasks and decisions...

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