It's Academic

Pennsylvania Libraries: Research & Practice (PaLRaP) Seeks two Co-Editors

This is a two-year renewable-term volunteer opportunity, beginning in January 2024.

Responsibilities

• Work in close collaboration with a co-editor to manage all aspects of Pennsylvania Libraries: Research & Practice, producing 2 issues each year.
• Oversee all submissions moving through the publication process from initial submission to peer review, revision, layout, and final proofreading.
• Work closely with a volunteer editorial team including news editors, copy editors, and layout editors.
• Recruit and communicate with peer-reviewers as needed.
• Communicate and work with authors to provide feedback on submissions as well as strong editorial guidance as needed.
• Prepare updates and editorials as appropriate.
• Oversee use of Online Journal System (OJS) software platform by authors, reviewers, and editorial staff, answering questions about its functionality and recommending best practices
• Conduct or assist with training of new editorial staff
• Remain in close communication with the journal publisher, the University Library System, University of Pittsburgh and the journal sponsor, the College & Research Division (CRD) of the Pennsylvania Library Association (PaLA).
• Solicit submissions for all types of articles.

Required Qualifications

• Experience writing for professional publications.
• Significant experience working in Pennsylvania libraries.
• Current member of the Pennsylvania Library Association and the College & Research Division.
• Excellent communication skills required. Co-Editor must be willing and able to respond to numerous email messages in a timely manner.

Preferred Qualifications

• Editorial experience.
• Knowledge of issues related to open access scholarly publishing.

Submit a letter of interest and a resume to Andrea Pritt, PaLA College & Research Division Chair, at ALP5088@psu.edu by October 31.

Presented by 

Cecelia Lasley

Tuesday, October 17, 2023 at 11:00 am

Registration Link

Do you feel stuck in a universe of one-shots for first year information literacy instruction? Come to this session to hear about Washington & Jefferson College’s “multiverse” approach to the first year experience, combining sessions in First Year Seminars and English Composition with the Orientation experience. We’ll discuss the successes and challenges of this program, including faculty buy-in and librarian workload distribution. Share your own experiences with your first year instruction and collaborate with fellow librarians to better improve first year student success!

Cecelia Lasley is currently the Instruction and Student Success Librarian at Washington & Jefferson College. She earned her MSLIS with a concentration in Cultural Heritage Informatics from Simmons University in 2022. Her work centers around advocating for Primary Source and Information Literacies and fostering student engagement in academic libraries.

We will mute participants on entry into the Zoom room. Session will be recorded and available on YouTube after the session. We will enable Zoom’s Live Transcription feature during the session.

If you would like to present with C&CS, please contact the C&CS team.

This project is made possible by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services as administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Education through the Office of Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Josh Shapiro, Governor.

Support is also provided by the College and Research Division of the Pennsylvania Library Association.

At the Community College of Beaver County (CCBC), we take the “Community” in our name seriously! Within our campus community, we offer many events and student organizations to connect students, faculty, and staff. Within the larger community of our county, CCBC’s presence is at the heart. Events such as our “Touch a Plane” Day (coming up October 23!) and Community Days offer exciting opportunities for families to engage with the campus. Our pet-friendly walking trails have been featured in numerous county publications and invite the public to experience the beauty of our campus. Our evening and weekend Community Education programs attract community members seeking knowledge and personal growth.

The Library at the CCBC is well positioned to support these efforts, particularly in our partnership with the Beaver County Library System. This partnership offers unique advantages for both our campus and the wider community. Just last week, this partnership brought about a literary event: “An Evening with Marie Benedict”. This evening brought together students, employees with over 200 avid readers from our county community for a celebration of history and literature. Leading up to the visit, ‘Book Pairing Events’ such as crafting nights and history seminars were held around the county and advertised on our campus. The evening event was initially scheduled for one of our lecture rooms but, within weeks, registration exceeded capacity. Our partnership allowed us to transition to the use of our “Golden Dome” which can accommodate up to 2,500 attendees.

In October, we will join the Beaver County Library System in the space again for the third annual “LibraryCon” on Saturday, October 21! This family friendly event is in the style of a Comic Con and partners with dozens of local parks, museums, vendors, and other organizations to provide an afternoon of free activities and resources for all. Our library space will feature a Tiny Art Gallery, tours of our space, and a quiet room with therapy bunnies!

This partnership has fostered incredible opportunities for growth, education, and enhancing the sense of community county-wide.  I’d love to learn of other academic library partnerships and the unique benefits they’ve brought to other campuses. Please share your stories!

The “Golden Dome” at CCBC

“An Evening with Marie Benedict”

Previous LibraryCon setup at the CCBC library!

By: Kim Karim

In a supervisor and employee relationship, understanding the expectations that each party has is crucial to a healthy working environment. Working in the realm of academia, it can be tough to connect with student employees, especially since their job as a library assistant is only one small aspect of their overall journey on the path to graduation.

To make my student circulation assistants’ experiences meaningful and fulfilling, I felt it was important to lay out expectations they had for myself and our Head of Access Services during the student training sessions we hold at the beginning of our fall semester. While I am directly responsible for the supervision of the circulation assistants, our Head of Access Services supervises our evening proctors, which was transitioned from an outside-hire position to a student-led position within the last few years.

We asked students during the first day of our training to list up to three expectations they had for their peers and three they had for their supervisors. Their answers are listed below and give an insight into the kind of leadership they are looking for when it comes to doing their job successfully:

• Communicate about library events and any important information students need to know. Continue with the weekly updates (a weekly email sent out to circulation students and proctors.)
• Give us opportunities to build trust, listen to student ideas, and treat all students equally.
• Be respectful and understanding about our needs and issues.
• Continue being nice.
• Give frequent feedback – good or bad – on job performance. Be consistent with rules.
• Help manage conflict if needed or help if someone hasn’t showed up to take over the next shift.

This year marked the second time we have held our fall training sessions, and the feedback listed above is fairly like what we heard in 2022. Students appreciate being kept in the loop of library events, and rightfully so as they are the first point of contact for our patrons.

I firmly believe that being a supervisor of college student employees goes well beyond being able to teach them library policies and procedures. It is often being a mentor or lending a listening ear on their bad days. Giving students space to be themselves, while also making sure library tasks are completed efficiently and properly. This balance can be tough to navigate, but at our library, students often say this is their favorite place to work and in general be on campus.  

Have you held a similar activity with your student employees? If so, share your feedback! I’d love to read what students are saying in your library.