Hilda C. Landers Library & Archives

Meet Kate Pitcher – Director of the Library, Archives & Media Center

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We’re happy to finally introduce our awesome new director Kate Pitcher! Please give a (belated) welcome when you see her around campus!

Kate Pitcher

In July 2016, I became the Director of the Library, Archives, and Media Center here at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. Prior to SMCM, I was the interim Director of Milne Library at the State University of New York (SUNY) College at Geneseo.

I’ve worked in many different library capacities; including public libraries (I worked for the NYPL branch libraries for a spell) and in academic libraries doing collection development, instruction, government documents, web development, and as head of digital scholarship and publishing. In the latter capacity, I served as the Project Manager for Digital Thoreau, a collaborative digital project which encompassed a social reading platform for Thoreau’s works, a fluid text edition of Thoreau’s Walden manuscripts, and an Omeka digital collection collecting and studying the work and contributions of noted Thoreau scholar, Dr. Walter Harding.

Prior to SMCM, I was also the principal investigator of the grant-funded Open SUNY Textbooks project, which studied how libraries and colleges could develop services and infrastructure to support faculty development of open educational resources, open textbooks, and open pedagogy surrounding classroom teaching and learning. My research and writing interests are in these areas of open digital publishing and changing scholarly communication practices, as well as how libraries are evolving to assist faculty and their institutions in meeting the challenges of a digital, networked, and open academy. I’m also fascinated by the economics of information and the increasing need for democratic and sound information technology and public policy, especially as it relates to higher education.

I’m a native New Yorker (upstate, that is!) and so I’m used to snow, but really excited about being in a southern climate during the winter. I have three children, all in elementary school; one husband; three guinea pigs and a cat. When I have free time I like to read, swim, kayak, and bike. I’m also a politics junkie, so being this close to D.C. is a wonderful turn of events.

Student Employee Profile: Maggie Foust

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Maggie at the check out desk

Image credit: A VerMeulen Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Senior Maggie Foust is a familiar face at the SMCM Library circulation desk.

Growing up in both College Park and Annapolis (right on the water!), Maggie came to SMCM as an alternative to the large state schools too close to home. (And it didn’t hurt that she had older friends who were already St. Mary’s students.) Despite growing up on the water, the river setting wasn’t a draw for Maggie, who prefers to look at the water but doesn’t enjoy doing “water things.”

As a Film and Media Studies major, with an English minor, Maggie is currently finishing an SMP creating a podcast series that looks at female sexuality in horror, drama, and teen films, with all episodes posted on SoundCloud. Maggie was drawn to film studies not just because she likes movies, but because she believes it’s important to critically analyze what you like and understand why you enjoy it and to be more observant and understanding of the world around you.

If you’ve been to the library at all in the last three years, you’ve probably received Maggie’s enthusiastic help at the circulation desk, where she’s worked since the first semester of her sophomore year. Knowing people who already worked at the circulation desk, when she needed a job it was an easy decision where to apply. Her favorite part of working here? Getting to work with the “nicest people in the world.” Maggie also appreciates how caring her supervisor and coworkers are, how they’re there for each other and how they work together to accommodate and cover for each other when someone is sick.

Maggie will continue in the library field, having participated in a microinternship program this winter. Working with an SMCM alum at the Anne Arundel Public Library Headquarters sparked an interest in Outreach Librarianship in public libraries. Maggie enjoys the overlap between social work and librarianship when it comes to being on the ground and working in and with communities. She’ll pursue that passion in library school; after being accepted to both Simmons and Drexel, she will start a Library Science master’s program this fall at Simmons in Boston.

Library Comm[unity] Graduates

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library employee comm[unity] graduates
From left to right (name, office):
Veronica Arellano Douglas, Research Librarian, Library 127
Kat Ryner, Associate Director, Library 225
Amanda VerMeulen, Research Librarian, Library 125
Alan Lutton, Office Administrator, Library 236

Library Student Worker Named Point News Editor-in-Chief

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Student worker Miranda McLainLibrary student worker Miranda McLain was recently named the Point News Editor-in-Chief. At the Point News, she has work her way up from assistant editor as a first year student, to Arts and Entertainment editor, and finally Editor-in-Chief.

Miranda is currently a Senior English and Political Science double major, with a minor in Ed. Studies, working on an SMP to write a series of political, creative non-fiction, long form articles in which she interviews campus speakers and alumni to find out how their college experiences led them to their current field.

Miranda has worked in the Library as a circulation assistant since Fall of 2015. She volunteered at her school library in high school and thought the SMCM Library job would be a great way to stay involved on campus as a commuter student.

As a student worker, Miranda enjoys getting to talk to a lot of different people, and learning about the wide variety of classes and SMP topics while she helps people search for books in the collection.

 

 

New Quiet Study Space

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The second floor overlooking the river is now an official “Quiet Study Space.”

This change is in response to student feedback on the survey and in focus groups.

Through these methods, we learned that many students come to the library specifically for quiet study spaces. Responses identified the area overlooking the river (officially called the Reeves-Garner Reading Room) as the preferred place to create our first official quiet study space.

The first floor, third floor bean bag room, and group study rooms are still available for group work and other forms of “unquiet” study.

If you have questions about the new quiet study area, please contact Kate Pitcher, Director of the Library, Archives and Media Center.

Quiet area sign

Library, Archives, and Media Center Statement of Solidarity

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For more information and to see statements from other campus departments and groups:
Support & Solidarity for SMCM Students: Information and Resources
http://libguides.smcm.edu/support-and-solidarity

 

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOatdSHMshE&w=560&h=315]

 

We are part of a community that values: intellectual, creative, and scholarly exploration; the power of a diverse community; and relationships built on mutual respect, integrity, and trust. We also live in the real world, and we believe that by engaging in ongoing dialogue, our community can shape the changing world. We can try to make this world a better place.

As a library, we have a responsibility to be a space welcome to all, where the free access to information and the free expression of ideas foster and encourage open discourse in our community. As members of the St. Mary’s community, we recognize the important difference between expression of a dissenting point-of-view and expression meant to belittle, dehumanize, and harm others.

We in the library, archives, and media center condemn the recent events at the Natty Boh hunt and all previous incidents of bigotry, bias, harassment, and hate speech that have occurred on campus and through various social media outlets. These actions are antithetical to what we want our college and our community to be. We stand in solidarity with our students who are targets of hateful speech and actions.

 

Veronica Arellano Douglas
Curtis Barclift
​Cheryl Colson
​Justin Foreman
Raven Glidden
Conrad Helms
Bonnie Kangas
Alan Lutton
Pamela Mann
Alex McGough
Carol Morris
Kenneth O’Connell
Celia Rabinowitz
Kent Randell
​Brenda Rodgers
Linda Russell
Katherine Ryner
Rob Sloan
​Joe Storey
Amanda VerMeulen

Alan Lutton Honored with LGBTQ Advocacy Award

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Alan Lutton receiving advocacy award plaqueAlan Lutton, Library Office Administrator, received the LGBTQ Advocacy Award at the 2016 Lavender Graduation on April 8.

The award “recognizes contributions to or advocacy on behalf of gender and sexual minorities at St. Mary’s College of Maryland” by “students, faculty, and staff who have enhanced campus life, advocated or implemented campus policies that have improved campus climate, and/or increased visibility and awareness for all underrepresented gender and sexual identities.”

Previous recipients include Rachel Honig, Staff Therapist and Advocate (2015), and Celia Rabinowitz, former Director of the Library (2014).

Congratulations Alan!

Laptops and Chromebooks Policy Update

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Student borrowing laptop

Our Laptop and Chromebook Policies Have Changed (effective 2/26/16)

  • All of the laptops and Chromebooks at the SMCM Library are now available for two-week loan. There are no more three-hour loans for these devices.
  • They are now subject to overdue fines of $10.00 per day. If they reach seven days overdue, they will incur a replacement fee of $500.00. This fee will be waived if the device is returned, but any daily overdue fines will remain (i.e., if it is returned 10 days late, there will be a $100.00 fine).
  • If all the devices are checked out, you may place a hold on one using the SMCM Catalog (search for “laptop computer” or “chromebook computer”). The next one that is returned will be placed on the hold shelf for you. You will receive an email notifying you when it arrives and you must pick it up within 24 hours.
  • The devices are not renewable online. If you want to borrow the device again, you must bring it to the circulation desk and we will check it in and immediately check it out to you again. Note that if someone has placed a hold on the device, you will not be able to check it out again.

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns please contact Conrad Helms, Patron Services Librarian, at cahelms@smcm.edu or 240-895-3214.

Database Page New Look

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If you’ve been to the SMCM Library’s databases page in the last few weeks you’ve probably noticed some changes from the previous version.

Don’t stress! The new versions has all the same great features (and databases!) just in a slightly different format.

New database page layout

The main difference is the new version defaults to an A-Z list of allllll the SMCM Library databases. Want to find suggestions based on subject (like the old version)? Just use the “All Subjects” drop-down menu under the search bar.

Speaking of the search bar, you can easily go directly to your favorite database (*cough*JSTORE*cough*) by searching OR using the A-Z letter links near the top of the page.

As always if you have any trouble or questions, Ask Us by sending an email to ask@smcm.libasnwers.com or calling the Reference desk at 240-895-4272.

Contact Us:

(240) 895-4264

ask@smcm.libanswers.com
47645 College Drive
St. Mary's City, MD, 20686-3001

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