Allow myself to introduce... myself

Hello everyone, I'm Adam, I'm new here but excited to be working at the Park Library. You'll see me at the front desk, ready to assist with your research, help you locate and check out books, and anything else you might need assistance with.

So you'll know what I look like, here's a portrait my artist friend Eliza painted of me:



You'll see the resemblance, I'm sure. Eliza also gave me a holiday on a calendar she produces annually called "Every Day is a Holiday." Because I'm a librarian and in school studying library science, she made my birthday "Library Day."

Now, my birthday won't come around again for quite a while, but if you need some help designing cakes, birthday cards, party invitations, etc. for Library Day, a good place to start is with the National Library Symbol, below:



This sign has been around about as long as I have, originating in the early 80s. For more information you can head over to the American Library Association.

I hope to see you soon in the Park Library!

Sign image is from the Manual of Traffic Signs, by Richard C. Moeur.

Apologies to Austin Powers for the title.

Welcome to the Park Library!

The Park Library is designed to help students, faculty, and other folks interested in journalism and/or mass communication find useful resources for their work ... blah blah blah ...

My experience with college students and the library suggests that when we librarians talk, students hear "blah blah blah," if they hear anything at all. Savvy librarians know this and have come up with clever ways to communicate our ability and willingness to help. Here at the Park Library, and at the UNC Libraries more generally, we are just such clever librarians, and

we have wonderful resources to make your library research easier and more efficient. srsly.

My experience with college students also indicates that students learn well from librarians, but they learn even better from their peers. (See a few of my peer-to-peer training articles.) Which is one reason I'm giving the six Park Library student staff so much training, such as

• How to find scholarly and newspaper articles quickly & efficiently - for free!
• How to manage and reformat articles (also for free)
• How to find out what kind of material students really need to get for their assignment

In short, they are mini-librarians, happy to help other students find good stuff, fast.

I've also asked them to blog about their experiences in the library. They're finding good resources for their own academic pursuits, and I've heard them say "this is great!" or "I wish I'd known that sooner!" They'll be blogging about their experiences in the Park Library (with a wee bit of editing from me), sharing some of their favorite resources, and doing librarianship over the interwebs.

I hope you'll find some of their resources helpful to your own work. Feel free to come to the Park Library (or call, or IM) and ask us questions - trained library staffers are standing by.

Welcome to the Park Library!