Library Gazette

Wake Forest undergrads Corinne Ung, Alana Wilson, Aaron Green, and Marshall Milliken completed the first video project in the ITC Filmstudio late last week. After two days of filming and over six additional hours worth of editing and compiling, the students, with assistance from ITC, created an evening news program for a Spanish class project. Utilizing the green screen setup in the Filmstudio, the students anchor their newscast in front of a Mexico City skyline, conduct an interview in an office setting, and even appear live on location as a street brawl breaks out in the background, each scene created right here in ZSR. Below is the final product, please watch and enjoy!

A special thanks to Corinne Ung, Alana Wilson, Aaron Green, and Marshall Milliken for allowing us to show this video online, as well as to IS, Rick Matthews, and Yip Ching-Wan for making this Filmstudio a reality. We hope to see even more creative use of our facilities in the future.

“Any time we either produce or understand an utterance of any reasonable length, we are employing dozens if not hundreds of categories: categories of speech sounds, of words, of phrases and clauses, as well as conceptual categories. Without the ability to categorize, we could not function at all, either in the physical world or in our social and intellectual live” — George Lakoff - Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things.

Categories in the library staff wiki help us automatically organize our pages. There are special pages such as

• Special:Categories
• Category:Technology_support

that are automatically created when you use categories on your wiki pages. This makes it alot easier to find and re-find that important piece of information!

To create a category, enter the following tags at the bottom of you wiki pages [[category:name]]. For example, putting [[category:technology support]] on a page will have it automatically show up on the technology support page.

Tag away & have fun . . . . .

We all are too aware that the holiday season is barreling down upon us all. In addition to family plans, we all enjoy the various celebrations that take place here at the Library. Traditionally, as part of its holiday party, the Tech Team has done a “Secret Santa” gift exchange between team members. As the years have gone by and the season seems to get more hectic, the exchange has become more of a “gift card” exchange. It dawned on us that we are simply exchanging money.

So, this year we all decided to put the money to better use and to donate what we would normally spend to a worthy cause. The team voted to pool our money and donate a bike and helmet to a child through the local cycling group’s “Bikes for Kids for Christmas” annual program (done in conjunction with WXII). All five local bicycle shops support the program by making the bicycles and helmets available at cost and then donating their time and expertise to assemble the bikes for the children. Last year the group was able to donate 50 bicycles to children in Forsyth and surrounding counties. Their goal this year is 75 bikes. I’m sure nobody in the library would be surprised at our choice of this particular program as the team is full of cycling enthusiasts (Caroline, your inner cyclist just hasn’t emerged yet!). But how many of us received our first bicycle under the Christmas tree, and still remember that year as one of the best ever? So, we hope to give one child that same excitement, plus an introduction into a fun and active lifestyle.

What are other teams doing this holiday season?

Over the years, the Information Technology Team (aka “Tech Team”) has held fall retreats to set aside time to plan the upcoming year and reflect on the past year’s efforts. Our goal is to have an annual event away from the library, so we have quality uninterrupted time to team build and conduct planning activities. For most years, we have retreated to Wake Forest’s Lodge at Fancy Gap. That doesn’t always work out, but this year we were able to schedule our 6th visit to Fancy Gap in 9 years (Has it been NINE years?). The participants have varied through the years due to personnel changes and one-time conflicts that prevent a member from attending. This year, we were disappointed that Erik had to miss for the first time, but he was accepted to present a poster session at the ASIS&T Conference in Milwaukee and they declined to change their dates to accommodate our retreat. I do think I’m correct in saying that Tim and I are the only original Tech Teamers to make all scheduled retreats! Caroline Numbers, Giz Womack, Tim Mitchell, Kevin Gilbertson and Susan Smith made the journey for the 2007 event.

We have streamlined our retreat process over the years so that our “typical” retreat is an overnight where we travel to our destination Friday afternoon. Friday evening is spent preparing and sharing a meal, followed by a “social” activity of some sort. This year, we went “high tech” and left our board games at home. We set up Giz’s Wii game, complete with a screen and projector. It was like we held a mini Get Game@ZSR. Giz and Caroline had the edge, since they both own Wii systems, but everyone had a blast playing tennis, bowling and boxing (ask Tim about knocking me out). Then the group consensus for the movie of the evening was to watch “Snakes on a Plane.” Which goes to prove that every group decision isn’t a good one.

Saturday morning, after breakfast, we always hold the business session of the retreat, which typically lasts until lunch time. This year, it became a long session because, in addition to our normal topics of planning next year’s capital budget requests and assessing YTD progress of team and individual goals, we grappled with issues and opportunities that have arisen due to the library’s and university’s strategic plans. As a team, we want to be proactive in promoting and accomplishing the library’s mission in the context of the new administration and the overall strategic plan. We discussed potential scenarios that might result in new or different roles for the team and what would be required to succeed with new initiatives and directions. It was a stimulating, productive exchange that produced many action items and desired conversations with other teams and the library administration.

After we finish business, we have a hearty lunch, pack up all our stuff and depart the Lodge to have an afternoon team activity. This year, it was Caroline’s choice, and months ago she decided a hike would be fun. Since the Lodge is right on the Blue Ridge Parkway, we drove down to Cumberland Knob, 18 miles away - the site where construction of the Parkway was started in 1935. It was a beautiful fall afternoon and we chose a challenging 2.5 mile loop that took us down along a rocky creek bed and back up. Next time, it’s Tim’s choice - wonder what we’ll do?

If you are interested in viewing our retreat photographs, the authoritative collection is on my personal Flickr site.