PASCAL Member Conference

Join us for four lightning talks from PASCAL member library staff.

Patience, Persistence, and a Second Pair of Eyes
Alyssa Nance, Furman University
In June 2021, the Library of Congress Classification schedule was updated to replace the offensive N Cutters based on the word "Negroes" with B cutters reflecting the term "Black people." The physical nature of making changes to call numbers assigned to circulating materials presents several challenges to the completion of a retrospective project to update all instances of the changed Cutters; other complicating factors include limitations on time, personnel, and access to necessary hardware and software. Nevertheless, a two-person team consisting of a librarian and student assistant were able to complete updates to the nearly 900 items in the Furman University Libraries impacted by the Cutter changes. This lightning talk will report on the project background and execution, and share challenges encountered as well as strategies utilized to address those challenges.

Can You Open the Full Text? A Research Flowchart
Jean Thrift, Lander University
This presentation will cover how to create a flowchart to provide as a useful handout for research instruction. My research flowcharts mainly focus on navigating Primo, and they address several of the points of confusion where I observe students struggling, such as encountering item records for abstract-only results and unexpected resource types.

Sharing Our Story...
Tara Weekes, Greenville Technical College
Greenville Technical College Libraries has greatly improved our social media engagement by empowering all employees to contribute to our content. This has increased awareness of all our available spaces, resources, services, librarians, and staff, and it has also had team and morale building results. Simple steps and examples will be provided to help you share your stories!

We Read: A Campus Book Club Fostering Student Connectedness and Experiential Learning
Danielle Marak and Dr. Liz Hartnett, University of South Carolina Columbia
At USC Columbia, the University Libraries and School of Information Science have collaborated to create We Read, a student-led book club hosted by the library. Reading for pleasure provides an escape and gives us the power to shape our minds and change our thinking. The project team's work was motivated by knowledge of how vital a feeling of community is for students in terms of academic success, retention, and well-being. Join Dr. Liz Hartnett, Program Coordinator for the School of Information Science, and Danielle Marak, Book Club Coordinator, to learn about the process of starting a book club, the methods behind selecting novels, and the strategies behind promoting an organization to a large student body. This session will delve into the challenges of developing an organization, such as how to expand membership and build community, and the magic books have to unite individuals of different backgrounds and identities.