Library Gazette

Craig Races to the Toilet!

Craig Watches Heather and Prentice in the Water Balloon Toss

Another successful, fun filled Summer Olympic Challenge came to an end yesterday with a final “Mystery Event” Relay. The Zephyr Relay Team for the challenge was Craig (who competed in the toilet plunger toss), Prentice and Heather (water balloon toss) and Mary Beth (Cracker eating whistler!).

Can MB chew and whistle at the same time?

The Annual Staff Summer Olympic Challenge took place this year over a 7 week period. This year there were 12 teams from departments across campus. This year’s weekly events included some old favorites like archery and water polo, but introduced some new ones like the adventure race and bowling. The event has been offered by Campus Recreation since 2003, with ZSR Library fielding a team every year except 2007. Over the years, we have fielded winning teams, bringing home the gold three years, silver last year, and bronze this year (like Lance at the Tour this year!). Each Zephyrs team member received a Starbucks gift certificate as our prize (very handy, don’t you agree?) In addition, Erik secured third place in the men’s individual competition that rewards daily lifestyle points earned for exercising and taking classes.

This year’s Zephyrs team was Heather Gillette, Travis Manning, Prentice Armstrong, Mary Beth Lock, Craig Fansler, Carolyn McCallum, Susan Smith and Erik Mitchell.

Way to go, Zephyrs!

As one of the newer employees at ZSR I understand it’s my turn to make a “Did you know…” entry so here goes.

Did you know…

I first started working in a library in junior high school because I was bored in study hall and the library was looking for volunteers.

I met my husband at my high school lunch table in my senior year. Several years later when he worked for Piedmont Airlines, he proposed with, “If you marry me you get free flight benefits.” We’ve been married for 23 years.

We have 2 sons.Jimmy is on his way to Appalachian State as a freshman this fall.Danny attends Forbush HS.They will both be in the marching band for their respective schools.My husband is the president of the Forbush Music Boosters and our spare time is spent following our sons to band and choir events.

I love to travel and have been in 46 states. I intend to get to all 50 ASAP. I have lived in 7 states but have been in NC the longest.

I first worked for WFU in 1987 and except for taking 8 years off to start my family, I’ve worked here since then. I spent 13 ½ years at the WFU law school, 10 of those in the library.

The Zephyrs took on the Summer Olympic Challenge quadrathalon on Wednesday and came home with a respectable third place finish. Susan started the event with a 500 meter row, Craig rocketed a 1.5 mile bike ride, Travis sped through a .5 mile run and to finish the event Prentice hit 50 pushups.

The rest of the team cheered our core team on and watched (amazed) at Prentice knock out 50 pushups as if he was warming up for a light workout.

As the black plastic and noise indicate, the construction to convert the ITC into the IS Service Desk is well under way! The new door to the multimedia lab has been cut and framed allowing the lab to reopen (and offering a great view through the lab windows of the ongoing construction in the rest of the ITC!) Here are a few photos from my iPhone. Better photos (taken by Charles Bombeld, Susan Smith, and others) throughout the building process will be on the ZSR Library Flickr page in the coming weeks!

On Sunday, July 12th, the 34 new student athletes who began classes on the previous Tuesday came to the ZSR Library in small groups of 6-10 students each. They were participating in a program called “Deacon Discovery”, a scavenger hunt around campus to introduce these news students to the various services available at WFU! In the 10-20 minutes I had with each group in Reference, we talked about the services the Library has to offer. We also checked out the Library’s home page and learned how to contact a librarian, find the Library catalog, databases and research guides. After each group was done, they took a picture of me and group in Reference as their scavenger hunt item! It was a fun, fast way to introduce them to ZSR and the services we have to offer!

I’m told it’s my turn …

Did you know . . .

I have 6 brothers & 5 sisters, and somewhere around 60 nieces & nephews.

My bachelor’s degree is in music, but I started college as a math major, and studied Spanish translation for a time.

My favorite dessert is ice cream; I also like cake, but prefer it without frosting.

I like Kakuro, but not Sudoku.

Although I don’t have time to read as much as I used to, I love a good mystery or adventure, and some of my favorite series are Constable Evans (by Rhys Bowen), Amelia Peabody (by Elizabeth Peters), Father Dowling (by Ralph McInerney), Sharyn McCrumb’s ballad novels, the Jason Bourne trilogy, and Jack Higgins’ World War II novels.

–D.H.