This year’s Library and Information Week (22 to 28 May) has a theme of ‘Celebrate’ to acknowledge ALIA’s 80th birthday. The week provides a chance to celebrate libraries and their role within the community, in education and research, in preserving our history and culture, and in providing an open door to all (and much, much more).JCU Library staff were asked what they celebrate about their workplace. There was, of course, a long and carefully constructed list, but we’ve had to cut it down to ten.
Here they are, ten things about your library – about our library – that JCU Library staff think are worthy of celebration (in no order):
- Student Success. We love helping students succeed and staff really enjoy watching students develop their skills from library novices to information wizards.
- Special Collections. Library staff are thankful to work with the treasure that is our Special Collections. It’s a privilege to preserve and present North Queensland focused materials within our Special Collections.
- The buildings. Townsville staff love working within the curves and concrete of a fine example of “brutalist architecture”, the Eddie Koiki Mabo Library building. Cairns staff love the views of greenery and hills visible from their library windows.
- Access to resources. Whether it’s getting a book from another campus or accessing a specialist database, there is an immense wealth or resources available to library users.
- Open to all. We love that the library is an all inclusive space, open to everyone and here to help our students, staff and the wider community.
- Use of space. It’s great to see students actively using the library, looking after the space and making the library work for them. It’s even nice that our students are comfortable enough in the library to fall asleep in a beanbag, although we don't think this is a productive way to use the library – it’s hard to read with your eyes closed!
- The smell of the books. Many librarians are still enchanted with the smell of the books within the library. From one staff member: “The library smell of books has such a meditative effect on me and I just love it!”
- Online resources. Our librarians remember a time before the Internet, when the library needed to be open to read a journal article and when print was the only option. Lucky for us (and for you), the good ol’ days have changed.
- Working with researchers. We love to hear about the exciting research that goes on at JCU. Library staff are thrilled to work with and support JCU researchers along the way.
- Staff. We took a vote and we all agree: we’re pretty awesome! We love watching colleagues do all they can to help staff and students with their queries, we love seeing the InfoHelp Rovers being technical gurus wherever they’re needed, and we love that students can use our Chat service and talk to a librarian during library opening hours.
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