Public Services+ : Summer 2022 Report

Eleanor Witmer, Librarian and Professor of Education at Teachers College, Columbia University (1931-1961), once wrote, "The library offers more opportunities for learning than any classroom. Getting acquainted with its resources and studying how to use them is, therefore, one of the first things the student veteran will wish to do." Decades past, her words resonate with the mission, vision, and growth of the Gottesman Libraries. During a year of great transition in technology and personnel, we maintained programming, partnerships, and services for our patrons, new to "veteran" student, current to emeriti faculty, alumni to community. We report on key elements, including the Gottesman Libraries Education Program; general reference and circulation services; and administrative work which demonstrate the Library as an engaged, creative, and multifaceted learning environment -- and one that reflects a high level of professionalism and dedication. In these quieter summer days at Teachers College, with fewer students on campus and lesser classes in session, projects and planning also brightened our contributions.

Education Program

From May through August, we delivered select instruction and sponsored events for members of Teachers College to facilitate use of library collections; collaboratively build community, and celebrate scholarly and artistic achievements.  The Gottesman Libraries Education Program hosted 117 offerings, including 24 instructional sessions, comprising tours (3); workshops (17); and self guided resources. The workshops were titled: Research Basics; Introduction to Course Resource Lists (4); Comparing Citation Management Tools; Open Education Resources; Advanced Searching; Children's Literature; Cited Reference Searching; Accessibility in Research; Academic Integrity; Zotero (2); Understanding Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Sources; Database Demos; and Grant Seeking Tools. Including library tours, we saw an attendance of 45 persons. Complementing a growing collection of LibGuides focused on research resources for academic programs of the College, we contributed blog posts and news items highlighting databases on topics relevant to current offerings: National Bike Month (May); Ethnography in Research (June); Geography and Education (July); and Storytelling (August) to encourage greater awareness and usage.

Talks recognized the scholarly contributions of Teachers College alumni and current students. Gamechanger: World War 2, Radar, the Atomic Bomb, and the Life of Kenneth Tompkins Bainbridge, by his nephew David Bainbridge, was coordinated with the Horace Mann School's Alumni Relations Office and Horace Mann library. Sliding Doors, a lively, pop-up set of talks given by and for members and affiliated members of the Teachers College community, concluded with "What Now? Personal Narrative Prompts to Debrief your Graduate Study Journey," with MA candidate Kartika Putri (Adult Learning and Leadership), and "Reading Other People's Stories: An International Student's Experience Of Learning About Racism in the American Graduate Classroom," with doctoral student Xiaoyi Wei (Curriculum and Teaching). Co-sponsored by the Digital Futures Institute, the latter talks took place in the Smith Learning Theater. Attendances at talks totaled 20 persons.

Music filled the library atrium, sending pleasant notes up the main Russell stairwell, thanks to monthly performances by our longest running and sole professional group, Claremont Strings and Ensemble, a division of Wadsworth Strings, founded by Vivian Penham, Columbia University and Julliard School graduate. Genres included classical, swing, and popular French music, with Jacques et Marie, complete with accordion, on Bastille Day.

Book displays in Everett Cafe were entitled: Ukraine: Tracking the Journey of the Sun Across the Sky and Wanderlust; while Staff Picks comprised The Power of Our Subconscious Minds, curated by Library Associate Vanishka Ahuja, and Take a Closer Look: Reading with Cross Sections, by Library Associate Will Bangs. Challenged Books, curated by Rachel Altvater, now Library Staff alumni, populated the Rocketship displays, also on the second floor as a continuation of staff picks in the Spring Semester. Together these displays built awareness of current affairs; supported learning, teaching, and research; and promoted the depth and breadth of our collections, including many new books.

News displays featured on the Library Blog and in Everett Cafe, strengthening the Today in History series which drew upon historical research resources, as well as current material available through the library's collections: Bike to Work Day; Indian Citizenship Act; Remembering Salem Witchcraft; James Weldon Johnson Is Born; Brexit; Hong Kong Is Returned to China; TC Teaches Music to Babies; Bastille Day; TC's Speyer School Is Established; and ADA Signed Into Law. These special news topics ran alongside daily news curations in the Everett Cafe, which looked to Newseum for inspiration in featuring stories relevant to the broad field of education.

The Offit Gallery hosted Art for a Purpose from May 6 through June 23rd. This multi-venue global exhibition, a partnership with Adephi University and Sing for Hope, concluded a year's program of sponsored guest talks for Artivism: The Power of Art for Social Transformation, an iniative that began in 2020 and is now moving into a new season. Artivism: The Power of Art Social Transformation, grew out of Illuminations of Social Imagination: Learning From Maxine Greene, (Dio Press, 2019), edited by Teachers College alumni Courtney Weida and Carolina Cambronero-Varela, and Dolapo Adeniji-Neill, of Adelphi University. The Offit gallery exhibit, as well as Everett Cafe and second floor book displays, were creatively executed by Trisha Barton, Gottesman's Lead Designer, and Scarlet Cheng, Library Associate for Art and Design in both physical and virtual formats.

Reference Services & Instruction

Staff stayed abreast of needs in providing timely and thorough responses to reference and information requests. Through Ask a Librarian, our online support system, we addressed 517 queries, meeting various levels of research. Via our online chat service (real time text messaging) we engaged in 90 sessions, also with efficient delivery of responses.

We provided 20 research consultations, held mostly over Zoom, meeting one-on-one with Teachers College students. These sessions are typically topic specific and cover tools and strategies to find and navigate relevant scholarly literature and encourage critical thinking. Subjects included: performance based assessment tasks; the treatment of deafness in ancient civilizations; immigrant education after DACA; spiritual care outcomes in nursing education; STEM education and BIPOC student voices; reflection in medical education; communication psychology of first-responders; theater for health; and inclusive education and assistive technology, among others.

Becca Gates, Research and Instruction Librarian, and Allen Foresta, retired Senior Librarian as of July 1st, 2022, co-presented one scheduled class: the Incoming AEGIS Cohort, on Monday, June 13, 4:45 – 5:30pm, for which there were approximately 10 attendees.

Thinking ahead to the new academic year, we launched the Gottesman Libraries' Instagram account  to increase visibility of offerings through an attractive narrative or storyboard; fine-tuned a "research journey" for students to guide them in academic and scholarly success; and planned a new series of faculty workshops to strengthen research services.

  Access Services

Staff attended to queries pertaining to circulation and patron accounts, answering 93 tickets via online support during the summer months. Circulation matters dealt with check-outs and check-ins of books and other items; overdues and replacements; recalled materials; member and visitor access to the library and campus libraries; general facilities; printing, scanning, equipment; and other needs.

Loans, including "In-House" items (scanned, but not checked out, such as non-circulating materials that are used by patrons, then scanned and re-shelved by staff) and "Out of House" items, books and other materials actually checked out, amounted to a total of 2,482 items. Book returns totalled 3,050 items, including materials that had a maximum loan period of six months, including automatic renewal.

 Staff worked diligently to review the condition of circulating books held in the Fifth Floor Stacks, completing ranges 1-29, or call numbers  CB5.E4 - HQ767.9 .K363 2005. This project has been essential to safeguard printed materials in Russell Tower, historically vulnerable to a leaky rooftop. We coordinated with Facilities to provide dehumidifiers and kept paging services consistent, while planning to expand retrieval of materials from the entire circulating collection as a courtesy to our patrons.

We continued to partner with New York Public Library in providing reader cards to current Teachers College students as a way to enhance access to materials not held here or through the Columbia campus.  Over the summer months, we provided approximately 10 New York Public Library cards and foresee increasing demand with the fuller return of students in the Fall.

In order to ensure our services desk stays fully staffed during fall term, we reviewed over 60 applications submitted for the Library Associate position and chose two candidates to join our team. Associates are highly visible -- a welcoming and important "face" to the library, as they staff the first floor services desk during all opening hours (89 hours per week, plus extended hours during finals), and provide direct support to patrons, whether in-person, online (via ticketing and chat), or via telephone.

 Other

Bulleted here are examples of other collaborative work undetaken during the summer months:

• Completion of the Myers Report 2022 and Tudor Room brochure 
• Planning for "Peacing Shirley" by Monben Mayon and "I Was Made in Shapes", by Lindsey Jones, 2022 commissioned artists
• Work on the Passow Collection of Israeli Children's Peace Art Collection (Fall 2022) - wall text, music selection, curriculum handout
• Recruitment and hiring for several new staff positions, including Circulation and User Experience Librarian (Louise Choate); Head of Reference and Reader Services Librarian (Ralph Baylor); Web Services and Systems Librarian (Tim Conley-Abrams); and Library Associate / Art and Design (Emily Sang)
• Budget review and recommended allocations for collections' spending in 2022-2023
• Participation in select library vendor meetings to review subscriptions
• Review of selections for the curriculum collections 
• Completion of Performance Reviews of 6 full time professional staff
• Insurance Review of library resources (collections and technology)
• T4 Migration (homegrown CMS to college's platform), with new September launch date 
• Space review and preliminary redesign of staff office areas
• Guidance in the development of special collections and sponsorship of a new unified resource management system
• Participation in monthly Widen-Metadata meetings, with advisory and planning for the management of the College's digital assets
• Review of the 5th floor Tower Stacks for climate control and better maintenance of the circulating collections
• Prepping for the Fall (New Student Orientation, New Faculty Orientation, and offerings of the Education Program)
• Continuing participation in Columbia University Libraries committees: Access Services Planning & Strategy, Collections' and Access forums; Library Directors

For additional information and narrative reflections, please read the staff reports posted to the Library Blog.

References: 

Witmer, E. M. (1946). Using the Library. Teachers College Record, 47(8), 1–4. https://doi-org.tc.idm.oclc.org/10.1177/016146814604700807

Flowers, by Maria Joaquina, The Ziegfeld Collection of International Children's Art, Courtesy of Teachers College, Columbia University

Practice Teaching: Detail Of GL00-BB04-FF05-DR03-0053, from The Students of Arthur Wesley Dow Collection, Courtesy of Teachers College, Columbia University