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man with clip board inspecting a magnetic tape machine

When it comes to communications and outreach work, I think we often fall prey to the availability bias. This is the tendency to favor what is right in front of you, or what is most readily called to mind, and to assume it is the right or best available option. Case in point: Recently I was having a conversation with my team about how to best promote an event. Someone chimed in with “Put in on the homepage. That way everyone will see it.”

Breathe in.

As librarians, we see our homepage every day. It’s where we often start when helping students with their research. It’s how we most readily access our policies documents and forms. It’s where we go to look up another librarian’s contact information (because for some ungodly reason that information isn’t readily available in Outlook). 

Unfortunately, that’s not how non-librarians and staff experience our website. When most users come to our homepage, they immediately click on “Hours,” “Group Study Room Reservations” or the library catalog search. Mostly never scroll below the fold to see any of the promotional material posted there. Moreover, the 25% of users who access our site on handheld devices don’t see the promo content because it’s hidden in the mobile interface. A whopping 0.02% of users click on the promo material on our homepage.

That promo material has a purpose, but it’s not there to drive traffic (that’s a story for a different post). The point to understand is that the data doesn’t support the assumption that the homepage is a highly visible space. Or more specifically, that high visibility leads to conversion. It’s not like digital platforms such as Spotify or YouTube where users hang out for long periods of time, and which can use banner ads and takeovers: on our homepage, users are on their way to somewhere else and rarely come back in a single session.

The same could be said of fliers posted in the library. We walk by these spaces multiple times a day into and out of work, on our way to the bathrooms, or to a meeting. But that isn’t how most users experiences our spaces. Most users pop in to quickly grab a resource, to print something out, or to meet up with friends in a study room. At best, they might make two passes by a poster or a flier, and usually on the way to somewhere else. There are effective ways to use print media in a library context that might catch a student’s attention, but they don’t include a flier posted to a wall or sitting in an acrylic holder on a service desk. 

This isn’t to say that the library homepage and fliers are not somewhat effective. Perhaps in the “long tail” of library outreach, they do make a difference, especially over longer periods of time. But if we’re using metrics like engagement per visit, the numbers are essentially zero. 

Intentional outreach like email marketing, tabling, word of mouth via faculty, and social media (to an extent) are far more effective methods. The number of people I can get to scan a QR code to register for a workshop by talking to them 1:1 at a tabling event, or to click on an e-resources link in a personalized email, or engage with an entertaining social media post reminding students about a library policy, is far higher than any website embed or printed flier. Again, this isn’t to say those latter methods don’t move the needle at all, but our faith in their efficacy is grossly overestimated, I suspect, due to our overfamiliarity with them. 

I might even go so far as to suggest that passive outreach, like fliers and website posts, is more about making us feel better. We feel we’ve done something. We can brush off ours hands and go home. Promotion achievement unlocked! But the data doesn’t hold up. To effectively connect with students and faculty, you need intention. You need strategy. You need a plan. And you need to follow the data. 

Breathe out.

What I’m reading

🫣🇺🇸✏️ The Erasure of Diverse American Histories by Trevor Dawes. “American history is not a single narrative but a complex tapestry of interrelated stories. When we attempt to simplify this tapestry to showcase only certain threads, we not only do a disservice to historical accuracy but also deny future generations the full understanding of how our nation developed through the contributions of people from all backgrounds.”

🤝👊🏛️ Colleges Face a Prisoner’s Dilemma by David Asch. “If universities can see past the outcomes of any single encounter, and can reawaken the mutual trust they have long operated with, they may reset the terms of engagement between higher education and the state”

Links to the past

  • 1 year ago: At least one of these books is still in my TBR pile.
  • 5 years ago: I was only just beginning to understand what quarantine would do to my work-life balance, but I was coping as best as I could.
  • 10 years ago: I was publishing, presenting, and (most importantly) building a Battledecks competition for ACRL 2015. We should bring those back.
  • 15 years ago: I was reading André Cossette’s “Humanism and Libraries.” Wow, this is the first time I’ve added the 15 year marker to this section!

Overheard online

If they make a John Wick 5, I want it to be set in afterlife and Wick is contracted by the ruler of said afterlife to kill renegade demons/spirits. The payment is to be reunited with his wife and the puppy from the first film. The final scene shows him opening his wallet to look at his newly resurrected identity and it says John Constantine. — @fskornia on Mastodon 

banner image: Atlas Negative Collection Images on flickr

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Bottle of Epiphany 2020 Grenache and wine glass

It’s been a minute since I posted a wine tasting review! I’ve spent the last month experimenting with classic martini recipes and not paying as much attention to my first love, grapes. So it was refreshing to come back to something local with a distinct California flavor.

On the nose, there is raspberry and chaparral. Light to medium bodied, with hints of oak, rose water, and tart fruit. Maybe licorice as well? Good tannin balance and a tight/focused structure and a delicate finish. I would pair this with cheese and almonds. Possibly a light chocolate. Great to drink right now, but you could also hold back for 3-5 years.

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finder touching a printing of The Scream painting

News and announcements

🎶 Musical theatre students at the University of Georgia Libraries curated an exhibition of classic Broadway musical posters and artifacts. The selected items were then passed on to another performance-based class who will perform selections from the musicals at the exhibition’s opening reception. “The concert on March 24 will present standards from familiar titles like Brigadoon, Cabaret, Hair, and Kiss Me Kate. But it will also highlight songs from lesser-known shows such as Dear World, It’s a Bird It’s a Plane It’s Superman, Lost in the Stars, and No Strings.” I love the coordination and collaboration across multiple classes.

🏀 Not sure what library merch is most appealing to students? The University at Buffalo Libraries is hosting a March Madness-style bracket challenge to find out. They are putting 16 potential library merch items head-to-head. What a simple an effective way to see what students really want.

😌 “Sometimes the hardest part about studying is staying focused.” The University of Cincinnati Libraries has created a “Study and Focus Tools” collection of items such as fidget toys, blue light glasses, white noise machines, and more. The collection won’t be available until fall 2025, but they are showcasing the items at upcoming tabling events, which is a great way to pilot test the items before putting them into circulation. 

🇮🇷 The University of Pennsylvania Libraries has received an extensive collection related to the late Iranian poet Nader Naderpour, donated by his close friend Farhad Mafie and his widow, Jaleh Bassiri Naderpour. The collection spans six decades and includes correspondence with literary figures, 400 tapes of lectures and interviews, 45 videos, over 1,600 scanned articles and notes, 1,000 images of handwritten poems, and 200 photographs.

🎤 Berkeley Library has created and released an Oral History Agreement Toolkit, “a collection of templates, guiding documents, and resources designed to help transform how institutions approach oral history agreements.” These resources can help libraries and archivists protect narrators’ rights and address privacy concerns, adhere to best practices, resolve ambiguities in usage permissions, respond to common scenarios, understand legal issues, and standardize terms. 

🖨️ It’s always wonderful to see libraries increasing access to information resources in new ways. At UTA Libraries, they have added Braille and PIAF (Pictures in a Flash) printers (pictured above) to assist visually impaired students. These printers convert digital documents into tactile Braille and raised-line images, respectively. The Braille printer translates PDFs into Braille text, supporting over 100 languages, while the PIAF printer transforms visual content into touchable graphics. 

Notable mentions

Room with potted tree, pillows, and a carpet
The Peabody Library reflection room at Vanderbilt University

Finally, there were two notable themes this month. A handful of libraries celebrated Open Education Week, including The Catholic University of America, UMass Dartmouth, and Emory University. Additionally, a fair number of libraries curated collections for Women’s History Month, including Binghamton University, Berkeley, Wake Forest, Touro University, WashU, and San Diego State. 

On socials

I love that feeling I get when I’m watching a Reel or a TikTok and I just know the folks involved had a great time making it. That’s the vibe I get from a recent University at Buffalo Libraries Instagram post. Maybe it’s just the nostalgia for the TV of my generation, but I watched this at least twice beginning to end just for the feels. If I could convince my colleagues to do this type of content, I would do it all the time.

Speaking of folks having a great time on social, Kay P Maye at Tulane Libraries went around to students asking them basic facts about the library. The results are hilarious and include (because why not?) someone dressed as a crawfish. Unless you read the title of the video, it isn’t until the very end that you get the reveal that it’s a promo for an upcoming book event. And props to leading with the crawfish to hook folks in the first two seconds.

Library reconstruction projects begin with high excitement but then immediately enter a long period of stagnation, frustration, and possibly resentment. So to keep the positive energy looking toward the eventual reopening, it’s important to keep the campus communuty engaged with the library’s progress. James Madison University Libraries did a fabulous job collaborating with their univeristy president to showcase what is essentially a poorly-lit construction zone. They also managed to work in appreciation for their donors. (I honestly think the president was learning about the project as they were filming this, so nice work JMU connecting with that major stakeholder).

As a supervisor, as much as I rely on my student assistants to help with content development, I have to regularly remind myself that they need profession development opportunities as well. Here, Virginia Commonwealth University Libraries had their photography intern tag along with the university’s main marketing team on a photoshoot. I love all the BTS footage. 

Finally, I love the effect that UF Libraries is doing here by aligning faces of students in quick succession. It’s the type of template that could be used to highlight university photographs, buildings, mascots, or faculty and staff. With a title like “100 Years (and faces)” I would have expected to see a wider ranges of images, but the messaging is still the same: the university archives is the place where IHEs preserve their history.

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computer screen with numbers

Social media happens so fast. I mean, just over a week ago, saying that I can’t get anxiety out of my brain meant an entirely different thing. So in between the monthly “Recently in Academic Libraries” posts, I pull together regular updates on what AcadLibs are doing on social. Please enjoy these recent highlights.

The content is mysterious and important

I’m sure we’re not all watching Severance, but it feels like entire world is watching Severance (or maybe that’s just my fyp). Major props to Oklahoma State University Libraries for getting the dolly zoom elevator shot perfect. Over at University of Maryland Libraries, they put together a small set of Severance references to promote locking in at the library. I even jumped on the “outie/innie” trend at my library as a way to subtly poke fun at the things some students do in the library (and yes it’s true that someone actually left an entire bowl of spaghetti once).

Promoting OERs with high-quality content

KU Libraries used both video and still images to celebrate a faculty member who is an open educational resources advocate. The video is a solid interview with engaging b-roll footage, and a good example of what you can accomplish with skilled a videographer. The carousel works equally well, combining good photography with simple branded graphics. Instead of trying to put images and words together in a single slide, KU Libraries posted image, then graphic, then image, giving each its full space. I hope this is part of a series! 

Three pieces of trending content

1. “Last week, I just got two offers for the job that I want.” The J. Willard Marriott Library posted this solidly feel-good video across their socials, encouraging students to find the good in life. It follows on the heels of a trend I’ve seen many universities doing (including my own) but I love the tight camera angle and ASMR-style audio. It takes a familiar trend and makes it more intimate. 

Watch on TikTok

2. The “subtle foreshadowing” meme is a great way to take advantage of the rule that you have to capture someone’s attention in the first 1-2 seconds of a social media post in order to hook them. It’s an obvious gimmick, but the self-referentiality of the format works. CSU Fullerton’s Pollak Library pied their dean and associate dean as a thank you to donors following a Day of Giving. I really hope that was a student worker throwing the pies. 

3. I am always impressed by libraries that have the time and energy to hop onto the awards season bandwagon by posting timely content. The go-to meme is, of course, the juxtaposition of a book cover with a celebrity’s red carpet outfit. So it was refreshing to see a slightly different take by Georgia Tech Library who used high quality photography and Oscar Awards categories to highlight their library spaces.

And finally…

Ok, Chatham University Library, this is hot.

header image: still from the University of Maryland Libraries Severance parody video

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black pub holding a tennis ball chew toy

“Have mercy now, save poor Bob, if you please.” – Robert Johnson, Cross Road Blues, 1936

I am at a crossroads. If I decide to stay in academic libraries, I am well-positioned at this moment to either (1) move into a more administrative/leadership role or (2) move into a more creative, content development role. I have enough experience and have built enough skills in both areas to pursue one or the other more deeply and each offers a path to greater satisfaction at work. Regarding the former, I enjoy managing large, complex projects and supporting a team of skilled employees. Regarding the latter, I also enjoy delving into creating something that is fundamentally unique to my talents. 

In my current position, it seems unlikely that I would have the space or resources to pursue both paths simultaneously. Still, I’ve been thinking about what it takes to be successful in either role: a good manager and a good content creator. What follows is a short list of attributes/habits that I find useful. Perhaps I’ll be utilizing one of these sets more fully in the near future. Or perhaps I’ll continue to cultivate both to the best of my ability. 🤷‍♂️

Tips for being a good manager

  • Your employees don’t support you; you support them. Start every day by asking your team “what do you need?” 
  • Start from a place of curiosity, not criticism. When your team comes to you with an idea, begin by framing it this way: “this could be successful if…”
  • Make your team part of the story. Regularly tell your team how their work fits into the bigger narrative. 
  • And then, give them the space to write it their own way.
  • If you have to say no, try to think of at least one thing that would “get you to yes.” That might not change your answer, but it could change how you both approach the issue.
  • Always assume your employees want to be as successful as you do.
  • Staying informed is a two-way conversation. You shouldn’t rely entirely on your team to keep you in the loop. At the same time, they shouldn’t rely entirely on you to follow up on things. It’s a relationship and it takes both parties to do the work.

Tips for being a good content creator

  • Constantly be learning new skills and closely examine what the best in the field are doing.
  • Block out your schedule so you can have longer periods of uninterrupted work.
  • Keep the number of projects on your plate as small as possible. Three is good rule of thumb.
  • Focus on quality even if it takes more time. This is what will set your work apart from others’… not how “responsive” you are to emails. 
  • Have a standard workflow but be willing to abandon it if you have the option for uninterrupted focus time.
  • Never skip the pre-production stage. Plan, plan, plan.
  • Whatever step in the creative process you’re avoiding, that’s where you’ll find joy. 
  • Take a break if it’s no longer fun. There’s no problem a good walk can’t resolve.

What I’m reading 

🧑‍💻🏴‍☠️🪴 Why Personal Websites Matter More Than Ever by Joan Westenberg. “Personal websites matter – now, more than ever – because we can see, clearly, with our own eyes, what happens when a handful of companies control and own the medium and the message. It gets silenced, suppressed, and subtly reshaped without us.”

🧑🏽‍🏫✊🏽🎓 The Authoritarian Endgame on Higher Education by NYTimes. “For people in higher education, this is a moment both to be bolder about trumpeting its strengths and to be more reflective about addressing its weaknesses. […] University presidents seem to be hoping that if they keep their heads down, the threat will pass — or at least pass by their campus. They are unlikely to be so fortunate.”

Links to the past 

  • 1 year ago: I was singing the praises of using email marketing for outreach to college students. Some folks interpreted this as “libraries don’t need social” but that’s not what I said. Social media, as I’ve shown in recent posts, has a significant impact on how students view the library’s role on campus and how they feel about it. Feelings matter. Even if they can’t be quantified. 
  • 5 years ago: Nothing. It was March 2020. 🦠 I wasn’t focused on blogging at the time, though in hindsight I wish I had been.
  • 10 years ago: I was doing the “Day in the Life of a Librarian” post. We should all do that again.

Overheard online 

This historian gives you explicit permission to delete and destroy each and every bit of data (pun intended) that can put you or others in danger. Lives Saved >>> Historical Record Preserved – @lavaeolus on Mastodon

banner photo: Meet Poppy, the newest member of the family.

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rendering of large moss hanging from ceiling of a large room

News and announcements

🎙️ The University of Texas Libraries have digitized and published, with transcripts, more than 160 episodes of the radio program Latino USA. “The newly published episodes consist of over 80 hours of material covering Latin American and Latina/o topics, including interviews with figures such as labor activist Dolores Huerta, singer Little Joe Hernandez, San Francisco mayor Willie Brown, and writers Claribel Alegria, Américo Paredes, and Sandra Cisneros.”

🎒 The NC State Libraries have put together family backpack kits for students who are parents of young children. Similar to the UVU post from earlier this month, I love seeing libraries support non-traditional students, especially those trying to juggle caretaking. The kits contain age-appropriate books, activities, and toys. NC State developed this in consultation with their campus’s Student Parent Association and by examining what other academic libraries do to support parents.

⚛️ Chemistry. Lasers. Medieval manuscripts. Boy, you do know the way to this librarian’s heart. Dartmouth Libraries worked with their chemistry department to identify pigments in several of their pre-1600 manuscript fragments using Raman spectroscopy. What an amazing experience for their students! (I’m sure the librarians were into it as well).

🌿 File this under “things I want to do at my library.” LeHigh University’s Fairchild-Martindale Library has selected the winner of its library design contest. I highlighted this back in May. The winning submission, Mossgrove (prototype seen above), was co-developed by two students. “Studies show that indoor plants improve one’s productivity, focus, and wellbeing. Combining this with our personal experiences in nature, it made sense to create a timeless, biophilic design,” said one of the students.

🎵 Indiana University Bloomington is preserving the history of its state’s independent music scene through its Secretly Canadian publicity records, which consists of publicity material created and collected by the label from its founding in 1996 through 2012 including Bon Iver, Danielson, War on Drugs, Dirty Projectors, and more bands that I constantly have on repeat.

🤖 “Libraries are more than spaces for study—they are engines of opportunity, places where ideas are born, and futures are shaped.” Leo Lo, library dean at the University of New Mexico, recently spoke at the Global AI Forum 2024, and three institutions in Hong Kong. His reflections on artificial intelligence and the role that libraries could play in that field’s evolution is worth considering, if anything for its exploration of the adjacent possible.

🫱🏼‍🫲🏽 The University of California system, most of the California State University schools, and 30 private academic and research institutions (including my own place of work) have reached a comprehensive four-year transformative open access agreement with Oxford University Press through the Statewide California Electronic Library Consortium (SCELC).

✊🏼 The University of Maryland Libraries is working with Project STAND’s $1.5 million grant from the Mellon Foundation to support residencies that will “solicit 16 fellows from student organizers, memory workers, artists, and community organizers to think collectively about safeguarding histories of student-led liberation while imagining and developing primary resources to support the ongoing advocacy and education that make these critical histories accessible.”

Notable mentions

eighth-century wooden pagoda and paper strip imprinted with Muku jōkō-kyō: jishin’in darani, a Buddhist mantra
Hyakumantō darani, an eighth-century wooden pagoda and paper strip imprinted with Muku jōkō-kyō: jishin’in darani, a Buddhist mantra (The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, The University of Chicago Library)

Finally, as February is Black History Month, many libraries pulled together relevant resources from their collections. Notable examples include: University of San Francisco, Binghamton University, Stockton University, Southern Methodist University, Elon University, Emory University, Wake Forest, University of Cincinnati, Touro University, Berkeley, University of Arkansas, UNC, UC Davis, and Duke.

On socials

I am a glutton for well-produced video content. The KU Libraries created a promo video highlighting their participation in Douglass Day, during which students, faculty and staff joined a nation-wide effort to transcribe historical documents from the Library of Congress in honor of Frederick Douglass’ birthday. I love the mix of faculty and student voices, the b-roll footage, and the elegant lower-thirds. Very well done.

Speaking of simple, but elegant, I also love this collection highlight from UC Davis Library of their Food and Wine collections. Curator Audrey Russek gives a brief overview of the Beaulieu Vineyard Records. If I ever leave my current job, I hope it would be to work on a collection like this.

Not only is William & Mary Libraries’ Diversify It reading challenge a brilliant idea (Pizza Hut’s Book It anyone?), but this promo video is equally compelling. I love the challenge from a student spokesperson to prove the haters wrong! The thumbs up from the circulation staffer is the icing on the cake.

I don’t know if this is an original idea, but the Fondren Library Instagram Reel about bad ideas for bookmarks had me clutching my librarian pearls the entire time. The camera person not being able to control their laugh at the end was ::chef’s kiss::

Finally, long-form video can be difficult to pull off but a recent information literacy video from UF Libraries had me watching the entire time. April Hines, journalism and mass communications librarian, has a presence that is equally engaging, inspiring, and affirming. It’s clear she’s used to regularly connecting with students in the classroom.

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toy tiger at the beach

Social media happens so fast. I mean, less than a week ago the Duolingo owl was still alive. So in between the monthly “Recently in Academic Libraries” posts, I’m hoping to pull together regular updates on what AcadLibs are doing on social. I already have a post brewing about some of my favorite go-to libraries for discovering creative social media work. In the meantime, please enjoy these recent highlights of higher ed libraries on social!

Main character energy

One of the best ways to build a community of followers and encourage them to continually re-engage with your content is to establish familiar characters who over time become instantly recognizable and, if you play your cards right, will nurture their own lore.

For example, I am incredibly invested in the relationship between the team of creators at UCSB Libraries. Their playful mix of behind the scenes content, their self-referential nods, and the way they highlight their collaboration stops me from scrolling past every time a new post hits my FYP.

https://www.tiktok.com/@ucsblibrary/video/7470254310761319726

Of course, you don’t need to use actors if that’s not an option for you. I am just as invested in what the Auburn University Libraries’ toy tiger (his name is Ralph) is up to. Currently, he’s at the beach.

Memes memes memes

In both #HESM (higher ed social media) and wider SMM (social media manager) professional communities, there are regularly discussions about whether to use memes, how often, and for what purposes. Even before the ascendence of short-form video, academic libraries were always shy about using memes, or using them too frequently, but following the rise of TikTok and Reels, I’ve noticed a substantial increase in the AcadLibs trying to capitalize on trending content.

Here are two safe, easy, and evergreen memes that any library could adapt: Carroll University Library using the “Can Ashley change a tire” video meme and the Bass Library at Yale using the “how are you feeling today” meme with still images of architectural features in their building.

Of course, some memes are short-lived or age quickly. I would bet the “college acceptance letter” meme will eventually fall into that category (we can only handle so much emotional tension… plus I think the trending audio for this meme is a tad bit too long). But until then, I did enjoy how Willamette University Library used it to highlight their interlibrary loan services.

Keep it local

At the most recent Library Marketing and Communications Conference in November 2024, Krystal Ruiz and Keith Kesler from Los Angeles Public Library spoke about the importance of highlighting local history in short form video. For libraries especially, it’s the type of content that connects directly with their niche audience. Academic libraries can benefit from this advice: obviously, with university archives materials, but local city/state materials as well. Such as in this Ball State video on local buildings in Indiana.

It’s not just about the stats

Finally, I want to spotlight a recent TikTok from one of my favorite accounts, UVU Library. It’s a simple green screen-style post, but it recognizes an often-overlooked demographic in academic libraries: students who are parents of young children. The post did not perform as well as their other posts (at least not at first: it’s only a day old at the time of this writing), but that’s not important. What matters is that this type of content helps specific members of our community feel seen. Sometimes, it’s about more than shares, sends, and watch-time. It’s about how our content makes our users feel.

header image: Ralph the tiger at the beach

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deconstruction of library flooring showing exposed beams

News and announcements

🎭📈🗿 DePaul University Library received a state grant of $149,278 to develop OER materials for select undergraduate courses. Entitled “Open Educational Resources Design and Development Across Disciplines at DePaul University,” the grant will help create three faculty-led publications (both original and remixes) in theatre, business, and history. If successful, the project has the potential to save approximately 2,715 students a total of $234,480 over three years.

🎶📖🎤 “Do you wanna touch it? You can touch it.” Students at the University of Dayton had the opportunity to learn and sing from 15th- and 18th- century antiphon books. For their final project, the students planned a public vespers service and faculty from the music department sang from an arrangement of the antiphons.

🏀🗨📸 Basketball players from Arizona State University and the Valley Suns came together to learn about Black history in Arizona. In addition to exploring the Black Collections, part of ASU’s Community-Driven Archives Initiative, the athletes learned about Martin Luther King Jr.’s visit to ASU’s Tempe campus in 1964, including a speech by King that wasn’t made public until 2014.

📚💰📚 This was not a model I was familiar with. “All NC State undergraduate students have been automatically enrolled in the new Course Ready textbook billing program. […] The program charges students a flat fee each semester to provide access to digital-only versions of their required course materials within Moodle.” The NC State University Libraries created a guide to help students navigate the program and determine if it’s right for them. Related: They also support an alt-textbook program that awards grants to faculty to adopt, adapt, or create free or low-cost alternatives to expensive textbooks.

📜🧹👑 The J. Willard Marriott Library holds 770 fragments of Arabic language papyri, dating from the 8th through the 10th centuries CE, and is currently in the process of cleaning, repairing, and re-glazing the papyri. Personal note: even though I live in Los Angeles, I had not considered the need to earthquake-proof flat materials!

🔥💖🏙 The fires in Los Angeles have been devastating. Thousands of people have lost their homes and businesses. Even though much of L.A. was physically unscathed, the disruption and impact to our community stretches far beyond the areas hit most directly. The USC Libraries created a wildfire assistance resources guide for student and faculty affected by the fires.

🍎🏗📘 “Like coring an apple.” I’ve seen more than one library this past year remove its “old stacks” (you know, the ones with short ceilings) in favor of a more open and accessible layout. That’s what is currently happening at Duke Univeristy’s Lilly Library. It’s quite amazing to see these demolition photographs of what the stacks look like with their flooring removed.

✌🏾✌🏿✌🏽 The University of Maryland Libraries has established a new program, Truth, Reconciliation, and Understanding in the University Archives, in order to lift up marginalized narratives and bring more light more complex stories of the university’s history. “TRU-UA will address important issues regarding race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexual orientation, and difference in abilities in the University’s history.” This program is funded in part by a $9 million (!!!) gift made to the University Archives.

🗣📙🦇 Last year, Yale Library created a new residency program to support DEIA and student success efforts and to honor the legacy of the program’s namesake, Kenya S. Flash. The inaugural resident, Nick Wantsala, has partnered with the New Haven Free Public Library to promote early literacy and a local history project.

🎓🏫📄 Stanford University Libraries employs 5-7 part-time student assistants each year to help process collections in their University Archives. Students get to choose from among several collections which they want to process. “They’re having formative experiences and making intellectual connections without the pressure of writing papers and solving problem sets,” says Assistant University Archivist Claudia Willett.

Notable mentions

black and white photo of people assembled in a court room
Clarence Darrow addressing the jury (Sue K. Hicks Papers, Betsey B. Creekmore Special Collections and University Archives, University of Tennessee Libraries)

On socials

The J. Willard Marriott Library posts weekly meme round-ups. Whoever is running that account has their fingers directly on the pulse of the internet. In fact, all of their content is top-notch. Here is a simply, but beautifully-designed classic book recommendation. And this instructional video on how to scan a book chapter is 😘.

This “welcome back” video from Virginia Tech Libraries gives all the good vibes. No voice over, just good beats and high-quality b-roll.

The always creative UVU Library put together a quick-and-dirty Spotify “playlist” for their students. Honestly, my only complaint is that they didn’t share a link! And I want to hear a mash-up of all the title lines from the songs, à la DJ Earworm. Related: Lauren Tolman from UVU Library talks about how to capture students’ attention by “stopping the scroll” in the latest issue of Public Services Quarterly.

Finally, this was a trend that I wish I had time to put together, but feel I’ve missed the boat. The University of Washington Libraries created a “ins and outs” for the new year video. “You’re in college. Figure it out.” 😂

banner image: renovations at Duke’s Lilly Library (source: Aaron Welborn, “Last Act for the Old Stacks“)

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My colleague Ray Andrade and I recently published an article on our outreach successes (and some failures) with first-year college students. We utilize a home-grown mix of programming, communications, and 1:1 connections to foster student engagement.

Starting with the knowledge that using the library within their first semester at college is correlated with academic success, the outreach team and the Hannon Library have employed a variety of tactics to get students in the door. By creating engaging orientation videos, promoting the library at in-person campus fairs, fostering word of mouth by working directly with niche communities, leveraging existing communication channels and email marketing, and hosting an open house early in the semester, we have cultivated an ecosystem in which the library’s brand can take root and thrive.

Read the whole article at Marketing Library Services (now integrated with Computers in Libraries).

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praying mantis

The wheel is spinning, but the hamster is dead. – Swedish expression

The incongruity between the academic year and the calendar year has never felt so out of joint as it does right now. Already, the goals I set in June 2024 (which is when I set work goals for the academic year) feel a world removed. I’m ready to move on to other projects. While there is much to enjoy about working in academia, the temporal misalignment with the rest of the country’s annual work cycle is among the small annoyances.

Still, academics on the traditional semester schedule often have the weeks between late December and early January completely off so I’ve used that time to reflect and realign my work and play to my core values. (Previously: 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021)

This year, I’m hoping to finish the “reading and watching all of Shakespeare” project I stated in 2024. I made it through more than half the works before burning out in September. Now that I’ve had some time to read off the bard, I’m ready to tackle the second half of his oeuvre. Additionally, I hope to continue my occasional habit of posting “Recently in Academic Libraries” news roundups. I immensely enjoyed that process, so my goal this year is to find a way to work it into my schedule.

My theme for 2025 is “balance.” Prioritizing sleep and my physical health this past year was a huge boon to my mental health. I plan to continue that and additionally add in a new factor: music. My partner and I bought a piano last fall. I am never happier than when I’m playing music. It’s been two decades since I played (and I was never very good), but I intend to pick it back up. And possibly throw in a few additional instruments as well. 

My ultimate goal is to reduce the amount of time and attention I give to [library] work. It doesn’t bring me joy in the same way that it used to, so rather than getting mired in that feeling, I want to draw my attention toward those activities that make me happy.

What I’m reading 

🪧⛺️🚫 The Race to Pacify Protesters [paywalled] by Katherine Mangan. Universities are losing whatever moral high ground they once occupied. 

🇺🇸🕊️❤️ Jimmy Carter, Peacemaking President Amid Crises, Is Dead at 100 [gift article] Peter Baker and Roy Reed. May we all be so good with the time we have that folks wish there were more people like us around when we pass. 

🛶🕵️‍♀️📝 Archaeologists Are Finding Dugout Canoes in the American Midwest as Old as the Great Pyramids of Egypt by Jacqueline Kehoe. It’s great that folks are diving into the history of the lands where they sit. Even greater that they are working alongside indigenous communities to remap our understanding of urbanized areas. 

Links to the past 

  • 1 year ago: I was being very domestic this day.
  • 5 years ago: My son’s world is infinitely more interesting than my own.
  • 10 years ago: I have never not been obsessed with productivity systems. It’s just who I am.

Overheard online 

You may not believe in Count Orlok, but Count Orlok believes in you. – @chronodm on Mastodon

banner photo: found this lovely lady in the garden this past weekend