Key Activities and Accomplishments
Staff technology knowledge improvement and workflow changes with implementation of Confluence
- chosen by Jasmine Clark, Resident Librarian, during her rotation at the Ambler Library as a new tool for better control of staff procedures and policies
- buy in from all staff as a more useful means to provide each other with written procedures to ensure patron satisfaction. With a small staff we had already trained at least one other staff member to serve as a "fill in" when needed, but we had no written procedures to serve as a resource for our cross training so that patron services would not suffer
- successful training and staff authorship of sections has improved efficiency and collaboration among the staff
Successful transition to ALMA as our library automation provider and Primo as our Discovery tool
- Ambler staff served as members on a number of migration groups and committees
- Ambler staff attended training and watched (and re-watched) tutorial videos and assisted in testing various components of the system
- Ambler staff provided feedback on Primo as we tested different search strategies and results to prepare for assisting patrons with both searching and using the request capability
Continued collaboration with Professors leading the Design/Build Studio which results in the award winning exhibit prepared for the Philadelphia Flower Show
- began first by providing materials for the instructors who are planning the the title and breadth of the content emerging from the show theme determined by the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, this year being "The Wonder of Water"
- true to our history and concept of providing an educational experience the instructors developed the exhibit subject as: “Within Reach: Unlocking the Legacy of our Hidden River". In it the history of the Schuylkill River, the changing of tides on a river, and the effect of the river on the surrounding environment and economy was showcased.
- the students were regular patrons of the library as they worked on their piece of the overall exhibit, utilizing materials and resources from all different subjects in the library: searching for information on wall construction, tidal changes, building of water wheels with a motor on a small scale, lighting, pathway construction, appropriate native species plantings, depiction of debris from flooding and other areas used in the exhibit
- as usual, Library staff volunteered to work the Flower Show floor and to serve as ambassadors for the program, the campus and the university Ambler Library continued its programming with our Financial Literacy Program
- presented by a staff member for the bursar's office downtown and a representative of Ambler's Student Financial Services
Initiated partnership with the recently hired Director of the Arboretum at Ambler Campus
- she eagerly joined the staff and immediately began new programming and with the assistance of a few Ambler staff members used our long standing EarthFest celebration as a branding element to provide new efforts for an environmental learning opportunity year round
- one of the first attempts was a successful "Ambler Arboretum BioBlitz". BioBlitz was introduced by the National Park Service as a way to study the biodiversity of a specific and defined area
- to support this effort which included students, staff, scientists, community members and other interested people the library provided resources to aid in the identification, description and field guides to use as the participants filled in their Species Recording Sheet to begin collecting their findings
- data was recorded at this first attempt to study a 25 acre area on campus and 236 unique species were observed, tallied and listed by the participants.
- 120 observers were on campus of which 81 were from the Temple Community, and 39 from other neighboring areas
Invited to participate in a special May Day event presented on the same day as the Temple University Board of Trustees and the University President were on campus for their regular May Board of Trustees Meeting
- a few Campus units were invited to prepare an "exhibit" of interesting efforts, materials, student interest engagement, new technology and any results from classroom use of technologies or research - the Library provided an exhibit of "A Celebration of Spring" showcasing the May Day events popular and important to the Pennsylvania School of Horticulture for Women, spring activity in the life of a plant and its surrounding environment, and spring flowers and their resulting use in arrangements and floral displays
Collection Development efforts at Ambler
- due to the programs offered on campus, the purchases we made provide resources for all topics within Landscape Architecture and Horticulture - these areas include a wider base of titles that might not be considered "scholarly" in the research definition of the word, but are definitely appropriate for our patrons: i.e., titles concerning building outdoor furniture and gardens, flower arranging, homesteading, horticultural therapy, etc.
- purchasing titles to satisfy needs in the community development area and also pursuing titles in areas like food deserts, food insecurity, housing and designing for the elderly, transportation concerns and parking, etc. - enlarging our collections for children and young adults, building from the material that had been in our Instructional Materials Collection. We have made a special effort to support classroom and learning opportunities for nature studies and stories - the ability to access these materials on-site has contributed to fulfilling the needs of the students and provided for their academic success as they author papers, prepare projects, build exhibits and prepare 3D fly overs for their senior design studios
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