Page Comparison

Key Activities and

Accomplishments 

Our year began in late August with the sudden resignation due to health problems of our 15 year veteran Don Baldino, the Ambler part time evening librarian, leaving a void for our evening patrons

• As usual the Ambler team pulled together and immediately volunteered to work an evening shift so that our patrons would not be disrupted in their research or studies

o Every staff member worked one evening a week with the exception of our early morning person who opens the library

o Outcome was a success for our patrons, but the difficulty came with other scheduling for our staff with committee and other responsibilities due to a short staffing situation. Use of WebEx, Hangouts and Zoom helped with these situations, but there is a definite communication difference in attending meetings long distance and in person

o Our student assistants also rose to the occasion and were very responsible about getting replacements for their shifts when the need occurred

• After revising the job description, Andrea and I comprised the search committee for our new evening librarian and had a number of viable candidates o We were able to keep the number of candidates to nine and we conducted 6 telephone interviews o Two candidates were brought in for in person interviews, and we had one interview via Google hangouts o Our semester long search resulted in the successful hire of Nick Perilli, who joined our team on January 8, 2019. The week of January 14, when the spring semester began he shadowed us in the evening, and began working “alone” on the 22nd. o He immediately made a difference in our social media outreach, and received positive comments from both the libraries and the campus for these communications o He also has provided some interesting and thought provoking exhibits in our display cases. His impact has brought a new vibrancy to the library and the campus

• Major departmental and space moves happened on the campus bringing the administrative and student facing offices to this end of campus o This move brought the library any number of “gift” books as people emptied their offices and areas in their spaces, which we have waiting to process

o More importantly this easier access to the library has brought new activity and partnerships with us.

o We have prepared many more “pop up” libraries this year due to the activity of the Arboretum, the campus, the Hydroponics Lab and student life

• Our activity in Lab 1, now pretty much known as the Conference room has gained popularity and we now have to schedule the usage of that room, whether it’s for a meeting, for single study or group study. Groups that have scheduled that room include Ambler Program Board, Student Government, faculty meeting with research partners and students, the Society for Human Resource Management, Lifelong Learning, the Vice Provost for University College, and others. In between there are also slots for patron use and study groups. Student use is always given priority .

o With the physical office moves on campus completed, other venues for group meetings were created, so there will be an impact on the usage of our space • Major partnership with the Director of Academic Advising who has held all the student orientation sessions within the library itself. The furniture is moved to accommodate 4 simultaneous sessions and the students move to a different session every 15 minutes (the students have responded positively to this active approach).

o Everyone then moves to Lab 2 and students watch and learn how to find registration and student information and registration procedures • New Assistant Director for Student and Campus Life used library space for the Campus Coffee mornings, a Pizza and Puzzle lunch activity where the students worked on a jigsaw puzzle in our “Creativity Corner”, and a pop up Quizzo event

• Initiated two new Alma locations for Ambler in order that we have a higher success rate in finding materials more quickly. We have had the two physical locations of new books and leisure reading, but had no Alma location so these materials just read stacks. It would be up to the staff member to remember to check these locations, but with the addition of the Alma locations we know where they should be. New workflows and processes resulted from these changes

• Prepared documentation for the Master’s Degree Program in Ecological Restoration re-accreditation in Landscape Architecture. Met individually and with other campus support staff with the accreditation team. The program was successfully re-accredited

• Fox School of Business opened a location of the Small Business Development Center in the Library Building. One staff member is here daily, another staff office is available when a second staff member is here and there will be a Collaboration Space and an Incubator Space in the building. Their choice of this building allowed the library to negotiate for some small updates and upgrades and I was able to make some small positive changes for the entry space

• With the closing of Paley Library, I inquired if it was possible to move some of the furniture and equipment that was not being sent to Charles, to Ambler. This would continue to improve the physical space at the Ambler Library, especially with the small improvements made by the addition of the SBDC. These changes would result in creating a new atmosphere and environment for our patrons. I was able to make this happen and with the assistance of numerous staff at Paley, much equipment and furniture has been delivered and placed at Ambler. Some equipment is still waiting for installation, but we are confident that will happen

• As usual, Ambler Library worked in concert with the two instructors for the Design/Build class that designs, builds, and presents the Temple Ambler entry for the Philadelphia Flower Show to find and prepare resource material for them to develop the theme, concept and title for the show: this year it was “Hip Haven: Hangin’ Loose at a Home Refuge” to fit in with the overall show theme, “Flower Power”. We then began gathering material for the students as they began looking for images and ideas for all the separate pieces they would use as they put together their first concept and then build on that as a base and refine their particular areas of the exhibit. This exhibit put together by only a small number of students garnered 5 major awards at the show.