Faculty/Staff Library Newsletter

In this issue:

Welcome 

Welcome back to returning members of our community and welcome to the new faces who have joined Grove City College! We hope you had a relaxing and restful summer. Each new semester brings new faces - students, faculty and staff to our campus. In our first newsletter of the semester we want to share with you the many library services and resources available to you as new members of our community and we hope that it will serve as a nice refresher for returnees as we get back into the swing of things. In this issue (on our newly formatted newsletter! Please let us know what you think in the comment box at the bottom) you will find an overview of faculty services, new resources and information about our upcoming Open House. We hope that you'll stop in to say hello, we would love to catch up and hear about your summer and we look forward to sharing with you more about what Buhl library has been up to these past few months. Have a wonderful start to the semester! 

Open House

Wednesday Sept 4, 2019 from 1 - 4pm

We're hosting our annual Open House event welcoming students, faculty and staff back to campus. This event is open to anyone who is interested in learning more about what resources and services we have to offer. Take a tour of the library, learn about our different collections, navigate how to find materials in our two floors of stacks, explore our digital databases, newspapers and journal collection and last but not least, meet with library staff. We're here to help you and your students succeed academically. 

Why should you encourage your students to come? Our students come from different backgrounds and have different experiences navigating their school or home library or possibly never navigating a library at all. It can be an intimidating experience. We want to take away that intimidation factor and welcome our students, particularly our new students into the library to learn about how we can help them find resources and provide research guidance for their assignments. Studies show that students who make use of library resources have higher retention rates and GPA.

Academic success in college is fundamental to overall success during a student's time here at GCC. We want to help them be as successful as possible. We encourage you to pass on our event information and encourage and/or require your students to attend. Plus, it's a fun event. We strive to make it informational and entertaining. To see the fun that we had last year, take a look at the photos below. 

Library Anxiety

by: Kim Marks

The syllabi have been passed out and your students may already be dreading that research paper you’ve assigned this semester, not because its homework, but due to something else entirely – library anxiety.

What is Library Anxiety?

Library anxiety is defined as a feeling ‘characterized by tension, fear, feelings of uncertainty and helplessness, negative and self-defeating thoughts and mental disorganization that appear only when students are in or contemplating a visit to the library’ (Jiao, Onwuegbuzie, and Lichtenstein 152).

If you’ve never encountered the term library anxiety, then you probably aren’t aware that research has shown that nearly half of students experience library anxiety, particularly during their first semester (McPherson 319).

What Does the Library Do to Help Students who Suffer from Library Anxiety?

The library provides information literacy instruction at all levels and one-on-one research assistance, but one of the best ways we can reduce this type of anxiety among our incoming students is to have them visit and learn about the library in a more relaxed way, before they need to visit the library for their assignments. For this reason, we created the Library’s Fall Open House, which will be held on Wednesday, Sept. 4th from 1-4 pm.

What Can I Do to Help my Students who Might be Anxious about Using the Library?

Encourage your students who are having trouble with research to stop by the Reference Desk or make an appointment with a librarian. Our research into library anxiety showed that the top reason students sought research help from a librarian was that their professor recommended it.

References:
Jiao, Qun G., Anthony J. Onwuegbuzie, and Art A. Lichtenstein. "Library Anxiety: Characteristics of ‘At-Risk’ College Students." Library & Information Science Research, vol. 18, no. 2, 1996, pp. 151-63. 

McPherson, Marisa Alicia. “Library Anxiety among University Students: A Survey.” IFLA Journal, vol. 41, no. 4, 2015, pp. 317–25. https://doi.org/10.1177/0340035215603993.

>> Librarian News

In addition to raising awareness about library anxiety among students and faculty, librarians Megan Babal and Kim Marks have been researching this phenomenon and best practices for combating library anxiety. They will be presenting a poster session of their literature review and proposed best practices at the Pennsylvania Library Association Conference this October in Erie.

Faculty Services

Did you know that you learn about all of the services available to you as GCC faculty members from one convenient page of our website? Check out our Faculty Services page. 

You can also print out a handy overview of our services and contact information below

Comment Box 

New Interlibrary Loan Policy

Please note that at the start of the 2019 school year we updated the fine policy for our interlibrary loan service. The policy is now as follows:

>> A fine of $1.00 per day with 1 day of grace is charged for all overdue Interlibrary Loan items. Other late fees and charges for damage and loss may be imposed by the lending library.

>> We will not process any additional Interlibrary Loan requests until you return all due or overdue Interlibrary Loan items.

>> If your interlibrary loans accrue a combined fine total of $10 or more, all ILL borrowing privileges will be suspended until the fine has been paid and the library is informed of the payment.

Electronic & Print Reserves Reminder

If you would like to place course readings on print or electronic reserve for your students to access through the library please contact Conni Shaw.

Meet your Library Staff

Each month we will feature a Q&A with a Buhl permanent staff member or student from the library.

 Meet Barbra Munnell, Buhl Library Director

How long have you worked @ Buhl Library? Over 26 years. 20 years as Assistant Library Director, 6 as Director of Library Services, and I actually worked here when I was a student too!

Tell us a little about your educational background & work at GCC: I graduated from GCC in 1992 with a BA in Communication and Sociology. I received my Masters of Science in Library Science from Clarion University in 1994. I can mostly be found in my office which is located behind the check-out/reference desks. In addition to my duties as director, I select books for the collection (my favorite part of my job!). I also work at the reference desk anxiously awaiting questions from students.

Name 2 things that people might not know about you?

1.There are a few movies I can watch over and over again – Finding Nemo, Secretariat, Major League 1 & 2, and Shawshank Redemption.

2. I have been a part of the GCC community since 1988.

Book & Movie Recommendations