Excellence in Service
The award celebrates creativity and innovation in providing service to our users. It is awarded to a person (s) for creating, developing or implementing an idea or design for a workflow, policy, procedure or plan that noticeably improves service to our users in the fulfillment of the Libraries mission . The recipient will demonstrate:
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Considering the Libraries or department as a whole by stepping outside the day-to-day box to look at how we do things, and figuring out a creative or innovation solution
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Initiative in suggesting new policies, procedures, or techniques as a need emerges rather than waiting until the need is overwhelming or requested by others
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Keeping the patrons' needs as a high priority
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Flexibility in production and service delivery
This should result in some or all of the following:
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New or improved services to our users
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Streamlined, barrier-free services
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Increased responsiveness to the requirements of our users
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High level of user satisfaction with the Libraries
Elizabeth White, Reference/SLC
Perhaps more than any other librarian Elizabeth White is in touch with Library 2.0 developments. Elizabeth had created a bibliography on social networking before many of us ever heard the term folksonomy. She reads library blogs avidly and keeps the Reference Department updated on new trends.
The initiative which Elizabeth promoted most persistently this year is the Department’s chat service through instant messaging. The Reference Department has had a variety of virtual Reference services over the last decade, but it wasn’t until Elizabeth convinced the Systems Department that IM was not a security risk that the service caught on. Now the Reference Department is encouraging students to chat online whenever they have a research need irregardless of whether they are at home or just a few hundred yards away.
Elizabeth is also the librarian who brought earplugs to the SLC vending machines. Students who do not want to be distracted by the activity around them can purchase earplugs and concentrate on their work.
Nadine Cohen, Reference
The Student Learning Center staff continues to try many ways to reach users, market our services, let student's know that there are PEOPLE somewhere in this big 200,000 sq ft building who care, who can help them, and who are there when they have questions or concerns.
Nadine took this to a higher level when she initiated a proposal (and she had to do a little convincing) for an actual SLC Suggestion Box and posting board. This is different from our online suggestion box, as it is paper, pencil, a locked box, and a display board, which Nadine quite rightly felt should go in a high volume area and placed beside the Jittery Joes where student queue up for their coffee. Nadine had the display board moved, "primed" the board with answers to commonly asked questions, and has taken on the task of reading the questions and finding out the answers.
Through her work on the desk and her work handling the SLC surveys, Nadine knew that this would be one way that we could get information directly to our users -- information that we knew that they wanted to know.
Not only has she maintained the project since Fall 2006, but Nadine has perfected a style for answering even those questions that might seem a bit ludicrous to us. Her dry wit, her kindness, and her empathy shine through -- even when she is saying "no" (ah, those repeated requests for microwaves!), or answering the same questions again and again. She has a real talent for writing responses.
Naidne's gentle persistence in seeking REAL answers to the queries is another talent she possesses. She won't allow a "we'll see" or "we're working on it" response. She fights for a "yes" or a "no" and "why" whenever she can.
In addition, several of the suggestions have resulted in us looking at services provided. Most notably, several suggestions were made about recycling at the SLC. Nadine pushed (and she did have to do some gentle prodding) this along and we have increased our program to include not only paper, but plastic, bottles and glass. In fact, it may in part be because of our own requests that the campus seems to have jumped more fully on the recylcing bandwagon.
I am convinced that this seemingly small service has given a face to the SLC where there was not one before. It is a pleasure to see the students reading the board and to get there queries. Most definitely the students use the service, we are able to respond to their requirements quickly and I feel that there is a greater user satisfaction with the SLC.
Nadine should be commended for initiating, implementing, and maintaining this service.
Mandy Mastrovita (DLG), Ben McCormick (DLG), & Nelson Morgan (Hargrett), Bob Kobres, and Mary Linneman (Hargrett)
I would like to nominate this group, led by Mandy Mastrovita, for their excellent work in creating and printing digital images of historic postcards for the SLC. We had been searching for some time for an engaging set of images to display at the SLC along the high-traffic second floor corridor in order to promote the Libraries and provide something interesting to look at in that popular space.
The creation this new exhibit in the SLC was a true inter-departmental effort, in that members of the SLC staff and Ms. Mastrovita selected the images, Ben McCormick and Ms. Mastrovita performed image capture and color corrections, Nelson Morgan pulled postcards (of the images that replicated the Historic Postcards collection images that were not of a high-enough resolution), Mr. McCormick scanned the items, and finally Bob Kobres and Mary Linneman in Hargrett printed everything off of the large-format printer in Hargrett.
As we continue to promoted the Libraries' presence in the SLC, these beautifully executed images will provide another example of our extensive collection as well as the technical sophistication and creativity with which we seek to share our treasures with our patrons.
Pete McBrayer
Pete has proven to be a vital and valuable asset to systems and NACS here at the Libraries.