It’s no secret that our basketball team just isn’t anything to be excited about this year, but luckily, we have another honor akin to an NCAA championship to celebrate … at ZSR! That’s right, our own Z. Smith Reynolds Library won the 2011 Excellence in Academic Libraries Award, given each year by the Association of College and Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association.
That’s right!
This is a big deal, according to library dean Lynn Sutton. “Previous winners of this award were … all big-time research libraries,” Sutton said. “We are the second-smallest library to ever win the award.” Besides the honorable title, ZSR also received a $3,000 monetary award which will be put in the Rhoda Channing Fund, formed in honor of the beloved library director who recently passed away in 2003.
Late-night texting need not merely apply to our social lives now. Indeed, we can text message references or, for those late-night crises, access 24-hour basic reference videos! Both are aspects of ZSR’s student services which Lauren Pressley, the Instructional Design Librarian, speaks proudly of. “We really put ourselves out there wherever there might be a chance to help people … we have strong presences on social networks like Facebook and Twitter,” Pressley said.
Even the most anti-library-minded will begrudgingly admit that we’ve got some cool stuff going on. “One program that we think the students really enjoyed was our mural contest,” said Susan Smith, Director of Research and Technology Services at ZSR. The entrance hall into Starbucks – another fun facet of our library – is certainly much brighter now that student contest winners have painted their pieces. There’s even a Hogwarts Banquet in the plans! Alas, it looks like it might be held in The Pit because of Aramark’s sponsorship, but ZSR can keep its fingers crossed!
On a more serious note, “the selection committee was impressed with the strong alignment of the library to institutional values and ambitions as evidenced through the variety of programs developed to support and foster student learning,” Erika Linke, chair of the 2011 Excellence in Academic Libraries said in American Libraries, the American Library Association’s official magazine. “The Z. Smith Reynolds Library is a catalyst bringing together faculty, students and staff. The library values and celebrates its employees whose teamwork creates the energy and vitality evidence in their application.”
Dean Sutton echoes that sentiment. “I think ZSR has always been student-centered,” she said. “I came to Wake in 2004 and was struck by the strong student-library relationship.”
So, don’t be afraid to be a library lady from here on out! This semester’s activities will likely include the traditional Library Lecture Series, a Senior Showcase, a Faculty Author dinner, Wake the Library finals week (that always means free food!) and a 5k run.