Year: 2018

Staff Spotlight on… Bette Sydelko!

Posted on by University Libraries

We bring you a very special Staff Spotlight this month – it is both a celebration of the contributions of one of our librarians, and a congratulations on her retirement! Bette Sydelko has served the Wright State University community for a total of 27 years; for 18 years at the Fordham Health Sciences Library and for the past 9 years in Dunbar library. In her most recent position as Medical & Education Librarian she is the subject librarian for the Boonshoft School of Medicine and the College of Education and Human Services. (Did you know we have subject librarians?)

Bette began working as a reference librarian at the Fordham Health Sciences Library in 1991, having just graduated from the University of Illinois School of Library Science. In those early days she was assigned as the subject librarian for the College of Nursing and Health where she taught in the (then) newly created nursing informatics courses. What exciting times those were – moving from print indexes to CD-ROMS on single workstations to networked access, and eventually to internet access. Change was the name of the game as it still is today. Roles evolved at Fordham and Bette eventually became the primary liaison to the Boonshoft School of Medicine. The timing was right for the introduction of a new course in the BSOM, that of Evidence-Based Medicine, and Bette participated from the beginning. Helping medical students learn more about library research has been the most rewarding aspect of Bette’s career. Closing the Fordham Health Sciences Library in 2009 brought more changes. Remembering to drive to Dunbar Library every morning was the first challenge! Liaison work with the BSOM continued and more recently the College of Education and Human Services was added to keep her busy.

If you’ve ever gotten help from our Ask a Librarian service, Bette is one of the many people you can thank for the early years of online library chat in Ohio. When OhioLINK got involved with statewide chat services many years ago, Bette was on its WebRef committee, which first started its own service and then got involved with the public libraries’ 24/7 KnowitNow service. Bette says these statewide services faced major issues: “Imagine chatting online with a student from Bowling Green who asked about research materials from the Browne Popular Culture Library, or a faculty member from UC who wanted to access library resources from home but didn’t know the proper way to authenticate.” We owe a lot of thanks to Bette and her fellow early-adopters for the fast, friendly, local service we enjoy today. Bette considers it a privilege to have helped online reference service, an ever-growing field, get started in Ohio.

Bette has contributed to Wright State and the library profession in a number of other ways, including:

  • Providing RefWorks instruction and administration
  • The University Libraries Assessment Team Member and former Coordinator of Assessment
  • Former Head of Reference at the Fordham Health Sciences Library
  • Contributor to Horizons in Medicine program for high school students from disadvantaged or minority backgrounds
  • Member of the WSU Institutional Review Board
  • Longtime member of the OhioLINK User Services Committee as the medical librarian representative
  • Active participant in professional service as committee member or elected officer at the local, state, regional, and national levels of several health science librarian organizations
  • External member and consultant of the Review Committee for the Library at NEOMED
    Contributed as a selector for Doody’s Core Titles for Health Sciences since its creation 15 years ago

Sue Polanka, Interim University Librarian, says of Bette: “I have always admired her dedication to librarianship and to the success of our students and faculty. I feel very fortunate to have worked with Bette for 14 years of my career.”

Bette’s last day will be February 28, 2019. Please join us in congratulating her and wishing her a happy retirement!

How can I use the library during the carpet installation project?

Posted on by University Libraries

On December 17th, the Dunbar Library will begin a one-month project to replace carpet on the 2nd through 4th floors and public stairwells.  The upper floors of the library will be temporarily closed during the carpet removal and installation period; 2nd and 3rdfloors, approximately December 17th – January 10th and 4th floor, approximately January 10th – 18th.  The first floor Group Study Room (Starbucks area) will remain open through the entire process.   As upper floors are complete, we will reopen them.  Check our posters in the library lobby to see which floors are open during your visit.

Our Information Desk, public computing, printing, and scanning will be temporarily relocated to the 1st floor Group Study Room from December 15th through early January.  Information Desk staff will be available for assistance.  Our Ask A Librarian chat and email service will be available during our scheduled service hours. If you need to reach us by phone, please call 937-775-2525.

Our bookable rooms – Small Group Study Room, Presentation Practice Room, The Pod, and eLearning Studio will not be available for bookings during this project.  They will reopen January 14th.

Need a book from the 3rd floor during the project?  Our book stacks will not be accessible, so instead, use the green “request” button in the online catalog for the item you need.  Our staff will notify you via email when the book is ready for pick-up at our first floor circulation desk.

We are pretty excited about our new carpet!  We thank you for your patience and flexibility as we work to make much needed improvements to our Dunbar Library.

Funding for this project was made available by the State of Ohio Capital Funding process.  No University funds were used.

Friends of the Libraries Sponsor New Internship Program

Posted on by maureen

The Friends of the Libraries are sponsoring a new internship program for Wright State University students. The interns will develop a new video series called In The Archives.  The video series will be developed, written, recorded and produced by the student interns under the direction of Friends of the Libraries Board Member, Dr. Jennifer Ware.  The video series will feature unique items from the special collections, selected by University Libraries’ staff.  This advanced internship opportunity allows students to further refine their media production skills and gain new research experiences. The 3 – 7 minute videos will be placed online and made available to the University Libraries for educational and promotional purposes.

Meet the FOL student interns!

Name: Amanda R Harris
Year: Senior
Major: Communications Studies
Why did you want to be a FOL student intern?
I wanted to work on this project not only for the experience in the field- but because of my background and passion in preserving history (specifically art history).
What are you most excited about with the project?
I am particularly interested to see the items that we will be filming episodes about as I am not certain of all the things the Wright State archives offer to students.

Name: Nicolas Green
Year: Senior
Major: Mass Communication
Why did you want to be a FOL student intern?
I wanted to be a FOL student intern so I could both utilize and hone my videography skills while building up a professional video portfolio.
What are you most excited about with the project?
For this project, I’m most excited about the opportunity to work with fascinating archival materials and artifacts, and help spread public awareness about everything that’s stored in the archives at WSU.

Friends of the Libraries Photo Contest Winners

Posted on by University Libraries

WSU students showed us what they love about the Paul Laurence Dunbar Library!  23 students submitted 109 photos in the Friends of the Libraries sponsored photo contest.  Students were asked to submit photos from the Dunbar Library that highlighted library spaces, services, resources, a variety of users and groups, smiling faces, and technology.  A team of library staff judged the contest.  There were many great photographs and selecting the winners was not an easy task.  The winners are:

First place: by Soham Dipakbhai Parikh
Prize: $100

Second place:
by Nishanth Gottumukkala
Prize: $50

Third place:
by Jaelynn Thomas
Prize: $25

Congratulations to all of our winners.

We’ll be hosting another installment of our photo contest in spring of 2019. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook or subscribe to this blog for details.