NEWS AND EVENTS

With a change in personnel in the summer of 2010, Hackney Library needed a new video to replace its "Hackney Bunch" video, which featured former faculty staff members.

The resulting video, entitled "The Library," introduces current library personnel to Barton students. "The Library" was shot in November 2010, recreating the title sequence of the hit TV series "The Office." Click on the Play button below to view the one-minute video.

A new shipment of popular fiction and non-fiction books for the library's Popular Reading Collection has arrived, and these titles are now available for checkout.

The library recently contracted with McNaughton Books to lease a number of popular fiction and non-fiction titles; The McNaughton contract replaces the New York Times bestseller plan. This arrangement allows us to provide more variety in popular reading material.

The Popular Reading Collection titles are located on the same shelves as those formerly housing the New York Times bestseller titles on the first floor (and the New York Times titles have now been moved to the permanent collections).

Come and explore newly-added titles in our popular reading offerings!

Thanks to an LSTA* grant and matching funds from the Friends of Hackney Library organization, the library recently purchased for its classroom a variety of digital components to aid both instructors and students in using cutting-edge educational technology. Installation of various components began on September 2, and testing of and refinements to the equipment continued through mid-September.

The new classroom features an interactive Promethean ActivBoard with ceiling-mounted projector and an ActivSlate for mobile use throughout the classroom, as well as ActivExpress interactive voting technology (32 clickers). In addition, we have purchased an HP Touchsmart for the instructor's computer, complete with wireless keyboard and mouse. Twenty wireless Netbook computers have also been purchased for use in the classroom (which, when not in use in the classroom, may be checked out for student use from the circulation desk. Soon to come will be video cameras for student and faculty/staff use within the classroom for creation of podcasts, and more.

To support the additional wireless Netbooks and other technological components, four new wireless access points have replaced the original two access points to boost the speed and capability of the library's overall wireless network. Many thanks to IT staff, as well as Technology and Digital Services Librarian Jason Fleming, for their work in configuring the various components and making them operable.

The library held three faculty "teas" in the classroom on September 23 to demonstrate the new technology to a total of 16 interested faculty members. Faculty may on occasion want to make use of the classroom with their own students. (Reservations for use of the classroom on a class-by-class basis may be made by calling the reference desk at x6502.)

* Federal LSTA funds are made possible through grants from the Institute of Museum and Library Services and are administered by the State Library of North Carolina, a division of the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources.

The library faculty and staff have converted the southeast corner of the library's first floor (near the current magazines display) into a Learning Café area, complete with diner-style booths and café tables, as well as small portable dry-erase boards on wall hooks and markers to be used for collaborative study. The Learning Café area was repainted by library staff over the summer to distinguish it from the rest of the library.

The impetus for converting this area is the success many academic libraries across the country have experienced in installing cafés; they have proven to be extremely popular among both students and faculty in institutions that have implemented them. The café idea was also proposed by the consultants who conducted the Hackney Library space utilization study in 2005, which was funded by an LSTA grant. This partial renovation of the library provides a relaxing place for students to work collaboratively or to take a break from studying. The area has already proved extremely popular with our own students, who have already made extensive use of the booths in the short time they've been available.

Funding for the Learning Café area and its furnishings has been provided by the cash award that accompanied the American Library Association's prestigious John Cotton Dana Library Public Relations award, which Hackney Library received in June at the ALA annual conference in Washington, DC in recognition of its 2009 Band Book Tour Open House.

Performing a quick search of Hackney Library's online catalog while in the library just became even easier. The library's dedicated online catalog computer (which does not require a user log-in) has been moved from its former location within a multi-computer student work station to a new stand-alone location near the front door. The function of this stand-alone station is to make it easier for both Barton and non-Barton community patrons to look up and retrieve items in the library without requiring a log-in, unlike the rest of the library's computers.

Not only will the relocation make the purpose of the stand-alone catalog computer more obvious to all patrons, but it will also free up space for an additional student computer at the multi-computer work station.

Look for the new free-standing catalog station just inside the front door under the "Library Information Center/Library Catalog" sign.

Once again, Hackney Library's wildly popular "Study 'Round the Clock" will return during final exams in December. As before, for much of this exam period, the library will remain open 24/7.

The library will be open the following hours during Reading Day and Exams:

• Thursday, December 9 (Reading Day) and Friday, December 10: From 8 am Thursday until 6 pm Friday
• Saturday, December 11: 10 am - 5 pm
• Sunday, December 12-Wednesday, December 15: Open 2 pm Sunday and remain open continuously until closing at 6 pm Wednesday
• Thursday, December 16 and Friday, December 17: 8 am - 5 pm

"Study 'Round the Clock" provides an additional 38 hours that the library will be open during exam period compared to the regular semester.

During these 24/7 periods, library services will be available from 8 am until midnight only. From midnight until 8 am the following morning, no library services will be available, but a police officer will be on hand providing security during that time. (Access will be limited to Barton students only during the midnight to 8 am time slots. Barton ID will be required for admission from midnight until 8 am).

The event is being sponsored Hackney Library and the Friends of Hackney Library, the Barton College Office of Student Affairs, and the Barton Student Government Association.