Tuesday Times – July 25, 2017
Welcome, Lori!
Before joining the U of A as Head of Special Collections, Lori Birrell was a Special Collections librarian for historical manuscripts for 6 years at the University of Rochester. During that time, she pursued a doctoral degree of education from the university. She is interested in collaboration and leadership training within academic libraries.
Three Weird Questions:
If a genie gave you a wish, what would you wish for?
I would wish for the ability to fly, which is sort of ironic because I have a fear of heights. I think it would be incredibly liberating to just soar and see a whole lot of things.
If you could have chosen the era in which you were born, which would you choose and why?
I would want to have been a college-aged woman in the 19 teens and 20s because I have a strong interest in women’s rights and would want to have been part of the push for women’s suffrage.
What was your all-time, best-ever Halloween costume?
My favorite Halloween costume was when my mom made me an M&M in 6th grade. Blue M&Ms had just come out, and she got all of this blue and white felt. I love blue M&Ms, especially because contrary to what people think, they actually do taste better.
As head, I’m here to support and advocate for the work in Special Collections, which is to support the research enterprise of the UA, be it working with faculty, students or the public. I take our initiative as a land-grant institution very seriously and believe that libraries, and Special Collections in particular, play a vital role in serving the public. It is my aim to raise the profile of the department and the Libraries.
Kay Bjornen to Present
Please join us for special presentation to be delivered by Kay Bjornen. Kay recently served as our summer library intern in Instruction & Liaison Services. The presentation is scheduled for August 1 at 10 a.m. in Room 104 and will be followed by an open break. We hope to see you there!
The Hours are Moving
We are replacing the old library hours home-grown system with a new version that makes use of LibCal (from the LibGuides folks at Springshare).
We don’t think you will notice much difference in the public display, but the back end is modern and more robust than our old system.
Department and Branch Library Heads and Supervisors: you will no longer need to update your hours online (yippee!).
Instead, you can place your semester hours, (once approved) as a Word or PDF file at
\\alexandria\_Library\Library Collaborative\HOURS
LibCal supervisors (Sherryl Faulkner-Robinson, Beth Juhl, or Kathleen Lehman) will then get them updated on the LibCal system.
Questions or comments? Send them to libweb@uark.edu. Thanks!
Shout Out (n.) Informal. A message of congratulation, support, or appreciation.
Beth Juhl gives a shout out to Sherryl Faulkner-Robinson for adding all the library hours to the new system in record time!
Kathleen would like to give a shout out to all the people who helped out with the June New Student Orientation activities. These activities are important as they give in-coming students their first introduction to the libraries and all that we can offer to support them during their college career. All together, we spoke with 1,362 new students and their family members during the Information Exchanges (almost 300 more than last year) and we gave tours of Mullins to 294 people (down only 6 from last year). To talk to that many people over the span of 19 separate orientation sessions takes tremendous teamwork! Thank you to: Beth, Donna, Elaine T., Jon, Joshua, Jozef, Julia, Laura, Martha, Marei, Michelle, Molly, Necia, Norma, Phil, Sarah, Stephanie, Terry, Tess, and Tony.
Calendar of Libraries’ Events – mark your personal calendars!
| Date | Event |
| 8/1 | Kay Bjornen Presentation, 10 AM, MULN 104 |
| 8/8 | Mandatory Workplace Violence Awareness Training, 10-11, MULN 104 |
| 8/9 | ARL Campus-Wide Entrepreneurship Survey Webcast, noon-1, MULN 302B |
Out-of-Office Notices
| Name | Will be Out | Need Anything, Please Contact (479-575-XXXX) |
| Matthew Kelly | 7/17-7/28 | Kim Anderson 5-5519 or Deb Cheval 5-6639 |
| Lynaire Hartsell | 7/20-7/26 | Kathleen Lehman 5-7048 |