Remember When? Students Reading in Eaton Library, ca. 1950 Photograph in 150th@Tisch Gallery Exhibit

Tisch Library Pilots Wireless Networking

Interested patrons may pick up an information packet at the Tisch Reference Desk. This packet contains maps of signal points within the library, some useful information about wireless computing in the library, and an authorization form that patrons must take along with their laptop computers to the Telecom Office in the basement of Ballou Hall, where a one-time driver installation will be performed. After that, they can bring the form to the Circulation Desk, where it is noted that they are authorized to check out wireless ethernet cards. Thereafter, each time they enter the library they can just check out a card from the Circulation Desk and be connected to the Internet just about anywhere in the library.

Approximately 60%-70% of the public areas in the library have good or excellent signal coverage. If this pilot program is successful, TCCS will look at adding coverage to all the public areas. For more information please feel free to contact Rick Heckbert, Library Systems Administrator, or Doug Herrick, Associate Director of Data Network Operations.

Information Literacy Program Underway

The information literate person can:

Determine the nature and extent of the information needed.

Access needed information effectively and efficiently.

Evaluate information and its sources critically and incorporate selected information into his/her knowledge base.

Use information effectively to accomplish a specific purpose.

Access and use information legally and ethically.

To incorporate these standards into the Tisch instruction program, reference librarians have drafted information literacy plans for first-year students, upper-level undergraduates, and graduate students. The draft indicates attainable and measurable goals specific to each student level, taking into account the above standards as well as the belief that information literacy skills are an essential element of a liberal arts education. Students who develop the skills to evaluate and use information effectively at Tufts will be able to utilize that expertise throughout their careers later on.

The program will be piloted over three semesters. The first-year student component was piloted in fall 2001 with a select number of English 1 classes, the upper-level undergraduate component will be piloted this semester with faculty teaching discipline-specific courses, and the graduate component will be piloted in fall 2002 with faculty teaching research methodology courses. The reference librarians will revise the program based on faculty and student feedback. The undergraduate program will be ready for rollout in fall 2002, and the graduate program in spring 2003.

To ensure the success of this information literacy endeavor, collaboration between faculty and librarians is essential. One important characteristic of a successful information literacy program is that instruction be course-related. Librarians hope that faculty will call on them when they assign research papers and projects, so that they may design workshops together that will teach students how to find, evaluate and use information effectively, while at the same time familiarizing them with course-related resources. New techniques will be used to draw students into discussion of research skills and resources and to assess what they gain from the lessons.

More information is available from the Boston Library Consortium about this Virtual Catalog Project.

Collections Expand to New Ground-Level Shelving Area

Newly Installed Shelving Units

To alleviate the overcrowding, the library will move back runs of selected periodical titles to the ground level by January 15, 2002. Recently Tufts received a grant of $100,000 from a local foundation, and this money, together with an additional amount from Arts, Sciences, and Engineering, has funded the purchase of 10,000 linear feet of compact shelving for a portion of the Tisch ground floor. This space was always intended for library expansion, but because it is not yet finished for public use, the materials stored on the ground level will have to paged for the next several years. Fortunately, Access Services has worked out a paging system that will allow these materials to be retrieved within twenty-four hours of a request.

The primary criteria guiding the selection of material to be transferred were accessibility and use. Those titles for which the complete back run is available online through JSTOR or other electronic databases were chosen first. For the titles not accessible online, the bibliographers attempted to select those titles least likely to be actively used in daily teaching and research. Patterns of use within different disciplines were considered. In general, longer runs of humanities and socials sciences journals were retained on open shelves than were journal runs in the sciences and engineering. Even within these broad subject areas, different disciplines were treated differently depending upon the way they make use of the journal literature. In all disciplines, heavily used important journals were kept on level 1.

A draft list of titles to be moved to compact shelving was distributed to the faculty for their comments late in November 2001. Whenever possible, faculty comments and recommendations have been taken into account in the final move. However, the overriding goal remained filling the new shelving and making more room for the library's collections. Funding to complete the ground floor of Tisch is being sought so that it can be opened to the public. At that time, all of Tisch's collections will again be directly available, so the present paging system is only a temporary, but necessary, way of accommodating our growing collections.

Sesquicentennial Celebration Continues

Students Dining Together, 1961 Photograph in 150th@Tisch Gallery Exhibit

Exhibits

Through May 30: Along the wall next to the reference collection, a 150th @ Tisch Gallery illustrating scenes from Tuft history continues its run. The entire Tufts community is invited to stop by to view these fascinating glimpses of Tufts' past.

In addition, look for the following exhibits in the library lobby:

January 1 to March 6: Display highlighting Tufts faculty and alumni who received national recognition as poets.

March 7 to May 3: Display featuring the evolution of library technology from the manual to the digital.

Rooftop Café Celebration: Participation Invited!

More information, including an application form, is available.

Creativity and diversity are two strengths of the Tufts community. We invite you to enjoy a celebration of these values by visiting the Tisch Rooftop Café on April 17th and perhaps also by contributing a production of your own.

"Friends of Tufts Libraries" Events

Author's Talk

On March 6, from 6:30-7:30 p.m., the Friends of Tufts Libraries will host Anne Sauer of the DCA Library (J91 and G98), who will discuss Tufts University Through Time, a commemorative photography book published in honor of Tufts' 150th birthday. She will share humorous stories and behind-the-scenes information about how the photo history was compiled.

John Holmes Poetry Walk

On May 18 from 10-11 a.m., the Friends of Tufts Libraries and the English Department will host a walk to remember and celebrate the contributions of Professor John Holmes, "Tufts Poet" and professor of English from 1934 to 1962. The walk will go to a selection of Tufts campus sites associated with Holmes, where selected readings of his poems will take place.

New Acquisitions Lists Return

Contributors to this issue:

Richard Heckbert, Jr.

Laurie Sabol

Regina Raboin

Wayne Powell

Jo-Ann Michalak

Laura Walters

Stephanie St. Laurence

Connie Reik (photograph)

(Other photographs from DCA Library image file)

Editor: Margaret Gooch