Westminster College Librarians Attend American Library Association Annual Conference
Posted on Thursday, July 26, 2012
NEW WILMINGTON, Pa. - Three Westminster College librarians attended the American Library Association Annual Conference June 21-26 in Anaheim, Calif.
Dorita Bolger, reference librarian and professor, attended the SAGE Reference Review Board Meeting. SAGE is one of the premiere publishers of books and journals in the social sciences. In 2001 Rolf Janke, SAGE Vice President and Westminster alumnus, created the advisory board, which advises the publisher on subject matter to be covered, platforms in which they should be provided, pricing structure, format and more.
Membership on the board is by invitation only and highly selective. Only 12 members from among the many libraries in the U.S. are selected to be on the board.
Jamie Kohler, cataloging and acquisitions librarian and assistant professor, presented "Training Friendly Student Employees - What Works?" She shared tips on using online tools and technologies to teach student employees good customer service skills when a library has limited staff, time and budgets available for training.
Erin Smith, director of the library and associate professor, chaired the College Information on Policy and Practice Committee (CLIPP) meeting. CLIPP is a monographic series that provides college and small university libraries with in-depth analysis of important trends in library administration. This month Smith was appointed to a second term as chair of the CLIPP committee.
Smith also attended several lectures and discussions, including a panel discussion about new trends in reference services and a presentation on recent advances in the arena of "discovery services," which is best described as Google for libraries.
The librarians also networked with colleagues from various academic libraries, and heard research on topics such as instruction, interlibrary loans and reference. There were also presentations on web management tools, and the newest interlibrary loan tools; information pavilions, including one providing help to libraries that want to go "green;" and a chance to meet many well-known authors. Those present included: John Irving, author of The Cider House Rules; Chris Colfer from GLEE and author of his first children's book; Jodi Picoult, author of My Sister's Keeper; and Dan Rather, award winning journalist and author of Rather Outspoken.
Contact Smith at (724) 946-7327 or email for more information on the conference.
Westminster's McGill Library is open to the public and houses material on the fine arts, humanities, mathematics, natural sciences, social sciences and technology. It also features a community section with a children's library.
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