Library Gazette

A year ago, Steve Cramer initiated a get together of UNCG and WFU library staff to talk about reference technology. We had a great time visiting our colleagues, talking about common issues, and brainstorming about the future of our distinct part of the field.

Yesterday, we met for a second time. A similar group from UNCG came to visit, and we broadened the group to include NCSU. It was a great time! We met in Starbucks from 10-12:30, had lunch at Shorty’s, and gave the NCSU folks a short tour before they went on their way.

Roz, Giz, Sarah, Mary, Kaeley, Bobbie, Kevin, and I participated from ZSR, and we had nine visitors from the other schools. We talked a bit about how our different institutions are organized, discussed current tools that have potential for instructional work, talked about current projects, and where our work was headed. If you’re interested in seeing the links we discussed, you can find them here.

It’s really energizing to connect with others doing similar things and to see how we’re approaching the same issues from our different institutional perspectives. NCSU was interested in hosting a get together in the fall, and I’m looking forward to seeing everyone again!

Today some of the RITS team members, Kevin, Kaeley, Sarah, and I, traveled to UNC-G to meet with reference librarians interested in technology at Jackson Library. It was a good meeting with a turnout of about 12 library staff members between UNCG and WFU.

The conversation was casual, with short demonstrations of some of the different things we are doing followed by discussion of similarities and differences in our experiences. Here’s Kaeley talking about marketing:

On the WFU side, we talked about marketing, blogs as a CMS, the toolkit, and libguides. UNCG shared their IR project, chat widget, use of Facebook in marketing, and their Blackboard project.

We had a good time meeting our colleagues, and a tasty lunch at Jack’s Corner. It was good to hear what local colleagues are doing, and to know that we’re all looking at some of the same issues and challenges though our communities are quite different.

Hopefully, once the renovations are done, we can have our UNCG friends to come see the improvements first hand!