Vol. XVI, no. 2 THE LIBRARY AT TUSCULUM COLLEGE November 2005

Saturday Hours Opinion Requested:
 The Greeneville campus is currently open on Saturday  from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. These hours were selected to accommodate classes meeting on the library first floor on Saturday mornings. For whatever reasons (and you can guess as to what they are), visitation during these hours has not been an overwhelming success. We have, in the past, operated from 10-2 and from 12-4, with equally low turnouts. Except for tourists and e-mail readers, usage by students doing serious work during those time periods has  been minimal (we are talking average of 2-5 minimal).

Given the necessity to provide physical service  for working students from off campus who cannot easily come on other days , we believe it essential that Saturday daylight operations be maintained at some level. We have sufficient staff to provide four hours of coverage.

If you believe a change in the library’s Saturday daylight schedule is necessary, we want to hear from you.  The library staff anxiously seeks your suggestion as to how we might change our current Saturday hours to better accommodate students who might come during any four hour time frame between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m.  Please send your comments to Jack Smith jsmith@tusculum.edu.

Current regular hours, any changes to these library hours including holiday schedules, and  other activities, continue to be posted on the library website http://library.tusculum.edu.

New Books/Videos:

We continue to add copious quantities of new books and videos to the library’s collections in both Greeneville and Knoxville. These can all be ascertained from our online catalog and our new book lists.

In early 2006 after we all come back from Christmas, the library will, once more,  seek  bulk recommendations from  faculty for those  book and video titles to be acquired in the 0607 school year. It is not too early for you to begin thinking about items you may wish to suggest.

 For the benefit of new folks, our annual procedure is this. The library  receives most of its recommendations for titles to be added to the circulating book or video collections  in  lists provided by faculty, via their  schools and divisions, around  graduation day in early May. It  then orders the titles as soon as the new budget is available during the summer and spends the  remainder of the year  receiving materials and cataloging them. The exact process, dates, funding levels, etc.  is communicated when the call goes out in January.

As always, should you want to recommend  particular items outside the spring schedule, you are invited to do so via the “Recommendation for Purchase” form on the library’s home page < http://library.tusculum.edu/facpurchaserecommend.html>.

We are continuing to work with our automated system to develop a way by which all faculty can be notified when new titles, that they have requested, arrive. That procedure is being Beta tested at the moment. If it works, we hope to have it fully in place and communicated  in the next school year. In the spring in old days, faculty filled out and sent us little request cards for acquisitions. We’d get a max of maybe 35-50 cards.  Once the items were in and processed, we just sent back  the cards with  the call #  information penciled in.  Given our growth as an institution, electronics, and the fact that we are no longer ordering just a few books every year for one rickety old building,  the  ways of the past must give way.

Two Notes from Mr. Tunstall:

  Class Visits:

We are having an increasing number of class visits to the Information Commons.  To ensure your class will be accommodated, please call in advance as soon as possible.

  Information Literacy and ADA:

Our new building is accessible to all users regardless of physical challenges.  However, if there is a situation such as a student on crutches, please notify us, and we will bring our information literacy presentation to your class.

ACA Library Directors:

The library directors from the 34 member institutions of the Appalachian College Association are holding their 2005 annual conference in Greeneville. They will be here in celebration of our new building. Although most of their meeting will occur at the Comfort Inn,  they will  take a tour and  hold breakout sessions here in the library on the evening of November 10. If you encounter any of these folks on campus that day or next, please give them a hearty welcome.

Society of Cicero:

 Jack Smith will be the Society’s speaker on November 8 at 7 p.m. here in the library.  The majority of his talk will consist of a walking tour of the new building, including much of its non-public areas (save offices, of course). If you or your family have not had a chance to see the facility as yet or if you just want to hear a few library tales, please consider joining us.

Smith and Reever on the road:

 Jack and Anne presented a visual capsule history of the College library, with special attention to the new building, before the Exchange Club downtown on October 28. This follows presentations made before other local organizations since July. If you belong to a civic group that needs a program, we just may be available.  Reever is an actress of note and Smith is a jolly bearded elf whose best season is fast approaching. 

Library Grand Opening: 
The remodeled Greeneville library’s Grand Opening was held in the lobby at 10: 30 a.m. on Friday, September 23. A ribbon was cut and appropriate remarks made before a large audience numbering more than 200 people from the Tusculum College community, the local area, and alumni here for Homecoming. The brief ceremony was one of those memorable events in the history of the institution. Full coverage appeared in the Greeneville Sun the next morning.

Halloween:

  In recognition of the growing national popularity of the day and to demonstrate  that the Library can be “with it,” Jennifer Wilcox of the Greeneville staff came costumed as a 1920’s “IT” girl on Halloween night. Candy was made available in a big bowl on the circulation desk to all who visited. Judging from comments and the handful of goodies left the next morning, the effort was a big success.  We are not,  seeking volunteers to dress as turkeys for Thanksgiving!

Use Statistics (September 2005): 

 Website (library only) Visits: 8,745; Subscription database searches (total): 17, 434  Total electronic visits to The Library at Tusculum College: 26,179.

 Interlibrary Loans:

Greeneville to Knoxville, 0;  Knoxville to Greeneville, 0;Greeneville to Gray, 0;  via OCLC from other libraries for both campuses, 18; via ARIEL from other libraries for both campuses, 0. Books by Mail: 0.