Hi everyone! Just a quick note to let you know that students and staff now have full complimentary access to NYTimes.com and NYTimes mobile apps, thanks to our school-wide subscription.*
We encourage you to take advantage of The New York Times to enrich your educational experience.
NYTimes.com covers a variety of topics with quality and depth through breaking news articles, blogs, videos and interactive features. In addition, you will be able to share content on social networks, save articles of interest, subscribe to email newsletters and set up personalized alerts. Your access to NYTimes.com is available from any location, on or off campus.
Activate your Pass for free access to NYTimes.com by clicking here and following the simple instructions. You may also wish to view this short video.
 
* Users must have a valid email address from Alfred University. Mobile apps are not supported on all devices. Does not include e-reader editions, Times Premier content or digital versions of The New York Times Crossword. This program provides only select access to The New York Times Archive and does not replace database services to which your institution may currently subscribe. Other restrictions apply.

When the Confucius Institute was established at Alfred University in 2008, Herrick Library received a collection of several thousand items about Chinese language, history and culture. The collection supports the Confucius Institute’s mission of teaching Chinese language and culture and furthering understanding of China today.

The collection is wide-ranging, including hundreds of Chinese films and television programs, books on Chinese philosophy and art, classics of Chinese literature, reference books on Chinese medicine, travel guides, and, my personal favorite, cookbooks.
There is extensive material for learning Chinese language, including textbooks, workbooks, CDs, software, and flashcards. Some language material is designed specifically for children.
 
You can find the Confucius Collection on the lower level of Herrick Library. Materials may be checked out of the library.



 
 
– Ellen Bahr

Beginning this fall, you can print from a personal computer to a library printer without having to download any software or printer drivers! Below are step-by-step instructions. If you need assistance, ask for help at the library’s front desk.
1. Go to http://my.alfred.edu. On the left-hand menu, hover your mouse over “My Printing” and select “Status.”

2. Log into PaperCut using your Alfred University username and password. This is the same username and password that you use for AU email. Do NOT include @alfred.edu as part of your username.

3. After logging in, select “Web Print” from the side menu.

4. Click the link “Submit a Job” to get started with choosing a document to print.

5. Select the printer you’d like to print to. The three printers highlighted in the image below are the printers available in Herrick.  After selecting the printer, click the “Print Options and Account Selection” button to continue.

6. You will now be able to indicate the number of copies you’d like to print. Choose a number and place it in the box labeled “Copies.” Then click the button “Upload Documents.”

7. Select the file(s) you’d like to print by selecting the “Choose Files” button. This will open a dialog box where you can select your file(s). You can also see which file types are accepted for web printing. After selecting the files, click the “Upload & Complete “ button to start printing.

8. Your job should have been sent to the printer. PaperCut should display the status of your print job, as in the example below. Be patient for large files, which may take longer to print. To print another document, choose “Submit a Job” from this screen.

— Brett Arno and Ellen Bahr

The end of the academic year is a good time for us to reflect on the many benefits of having student employees in the libraries. Graduation is a bittersweet time for us – we’re excited to see many of our students moving on to the next phase of their lives but we also know that their shoes are going to be hard to fill.
The benefits of having student employees in the libraries are many! It’s no exaggeration to say that we couldn’t maintain our current service levels and open hours without the help of student workers. Together, Herrick and Scholes Libraries are open almost 200 hours per week during the academic year. During any given semester, we employ nearly 100 students. In addition to staffing our front desks, students serve in a variety of other roles in the libraries, from preparing materials for circulation to doing data entry, assisting with projects, shelving, and much more.
The relationship between student workers and the libraries is symbiotic: students gain valuable work experience and we benefit in numerous ways from having them here. After all, most of our patrons are students, and our student employees are their peers. Natalie Skwarek, who supervises students at Herrick’s front desk, notes that, “because student workers are students, our patrons, who are also mostly students, feel comfortable approaching them with comments and questions.” Student employees frequently find creative and unconventional solutions to problems, and make suggestions for improving library services.
Because our student employees are here to learn, and not just to work in the libraries, we do our best to provide a supportive work environment. This means giving constructive feedback, and ensuring that each student has an opportunity to grow. Librarian Brian Sullivan, who coordinates Herrick’s front desk, says, “I believe in empowering student workers to come up with creative solutions to the various situations they encounter at the front desk. This gives them opportunities to build their problem solving and leadership skills while they are here.” 
Steve Crandall, Director of Herrick Library and Dean of Libraries, describes the libraries’ approach to student employment, saying, “We try to do everything we can to make it a real job, not just a way to collect work-study money. We make sure that the students know how important they are to us. We try to be clear about expectations and provide good training, infusing it with humor to make it memorable.”
Connections between the libraries and their student workers often endure beyond graduation. “The relationships we foster with our student workers can prove helpful in securing future employment,” says Dave Snyder, Access Services Coordinator at Herrick. Prospective employers regularly contact library staff for references and Snyder says that, because he works so closely with the students, he can often relay a story that illustrates a student’s positive character traits and capacity for growth.
As we move towards the start of a new academic year, we look forward to hiring a new group of students who will become part of this ongoing cycle. If you are an incoming student who is interested in working in the libraries, we invite you to stop by to see us after you’ve arrived on campus.
– Ellen Bahr

Anyone who visits the Alfred University libraries is sure to notice the helpful students working at our front desks. You might be surprised to learn, though, that the Alfred University libraries employ nearly 100 students in a typical semester. That’s a lot of students!
I contacted some former student employees to ask how the experience of working in the libraries impacted their job searches and career plans after graduation. As the following examples illustrate, students gain highly marketable skills while working in the libraries and the experience can have a strong influence on their eventual career plans.

Working at Herrick Library had a big impact on Catherine Dillon’s career aspirations after graduation. She says, “I have a great amount of respect for my supervisors at Herrick Library and they were key figures in guiding my career focus.” After graduation, Catherine became an evening and weekend supervisor at Binghamton University’s Bartle Library, and was later promoted to Library Reader Services Coordinator. She is working towards a Master of Library and Information Services degree at the University of Buffalo. She credits her time at Herrick with helping her to “learn to approach work with an open and flexible mindset, which in this job market is key.”
For Kristin Eklin, working as a student supervisor at Herrick Library made her realize that she wanted to eventually work in a leadership or management position. Working with student supervisees and patrons gave her a chance to sharpen her communication skills and helped prepare her for her current position in event planning and marketing at St. John’s Foundation in Rochester. Kristin says that her experience at Herrick was “extremely valuable during job interviews. Many employers prefer job candidates that have maintained steady employment through out college and demonstrated growth in to the role of supervisor. This position also displayed my ability to work with peers, faculty, and staff.”

After graduating from Alfred with a BFA, Olivia “Liv” Tsistinas wasn’t sure what she would do next. Her experience at Herrick Library helped her to land a job as an evening and weekend supervisor in a library. She went on to earn a Master of Library Science degree and is now a Clinical/Outreach Librarian at Upstate Medical University’s Health Science Library. While it may seem a long way from art school, Liv says that she has found ways to use her background in art, including coordinating library exhibitions in two gallery spaces. She says, “I love being able to incorporate all the facets of my Alfred University experience into what I do!”
Caitlin Brown, who works as a monograph cataloger at the Indiana University law library, says that she “liked working in the library so much that I got an MLS and became a librarian!” At the Scholes circulation desk, where she worked from 2006 to 2008, she found herself “kind of in the middle of everything” and used the experience to improve her research skills. In grad school, where positions were very competitive, she found that her experience at Scholes was a definite plus.

Working at Herrick Library was the first step in a career in libraries for Oceana Wilson, eventually leading to her current position as Director of Library and Information Services at Bennington College. While at Herrick, she had the opportunity “to see some of the behind the scenes work that went into creating the innovative services and responsive environment of Herrick Library. “ It was getting to know the librarians at Herrick that encouraged her to become a librarian. She says, “They really believed in the work that they were doing and that was very inspiring.”
When Jessie Baldwin sought work at Scholes Library, she already knew that she wanted to be a librarian. She gained lots of practical experience at Scholes, from working at the circulation desk, to helping students to find books, and being responsible for opening the library.

The experience helped her to get into a library science graduate program and, while she was still in school, to be hired at the Upstate Medical Library. She says, “I learned a ton that I still carry with me. I always felt I had one of the best work study jobs at Alfred.”
At Herrick Library, Greg Arnold gained skills in customer service and staff supervision, both of which helped him to land his current position as Lead Library Assistant at the Werner Medical Library in Rochester. He says that he wouldn’t have known where to start if he hadn’t “supervised student workers, handled patron questions and complaints, interacted and communicated with my supervisors, and dealt with the occasional craziness that comes with libraries.” Greg’s experience at Herrick gave him a greater appreciation for what libraries do and helped to clarify his career goals, which includes a desire to own his own business one day.

After graduating from Alfred University, Joy Thomas worked briefly in retail before taking a position at the Cornell University Library, first in access services and, for the last six years, as Borrowing Coordinator for Interlibrary Loan. She says that it was her experience working in access services at Herrick Library helped her to get her first library position. She “really loves working in the library and can’t see that ending anytime soon.”
These are just some examples of ways in which students have benefited from the experience of working in the Alfred University libraries. Of course, the libraries benefit as well! Without student employees, the libraries couldn’t function at anywhere near their current levels of service – students open and close the libraries, and provide essential services in the evenings and on weekends when full-time staff and librarians have gone home. Students bring other benefits to the libraries, too. As Herrick librarian Brian Sullivan notes, “Student workers keep the library’s culture, perspective, and values centered on our primary patrons, AU students!”
— Ellen Bahr

This blog, which we’ll more fully start posting to in January, is a replacement for the previously separate Herrick and Scholes Library blogs.  Since much of our news was relevant to both libraries, we decided to consolidate!

While we’ll certainly be using this blog to keep you up to date on official library news, it will also be much more than that.  We’ll be covering everything from our collections and services to theme posts dealing with university events, interviews with students and faculty, and, of course, news about upcoming library events or policy changes.  This eclectic mix will be made even more varied by our range of contributors, librarians and staff members from both the Scholes and Herrick Libraries.  Though many of our posts will be relevant to both libraries, some will give you the opportunity to explore a facet of one of the libraries more in-depth.

We welcome your feedback and questions in the comments section, and, while we’re at it, any suggestions for future blog posts!  Feel free to leave us a note about anything you think we should write about in the future.

More coming soon!