:luPont>Rall Lib
STETSON
tlJN IVERSITY
NEWSLETTER Spring 2010
Message from the Director
I have written in the past about the rapidly
changing world of librarianship and the provision
of well-chosen information resources for our
students and faculty. It is an exciting time to be
a librarian because of the challenges and
opportunities to make the transition from a print
world to a combined print/electronic world. We
are now responsible for finding a way to
evaluate the overflow of digital information,
collect and organize that which we determine
will help our users, and help those users learn
how best to use it.
A retired Stetson professor recently gave me a
copy of her May-June issue of Harvard
Magazine which has a cover story on "What
Future for Libraries?" The major article,
"Gutenberg 2.0," quotes Professor of East Asian
Languages Peter Boll on librarians in this new
age: "Who has the most scientific knowledge of
large-scale organization, collection, and access
to information? Librarians." Boll realizes that
librarians cannot operate as in the past, and so
do we at the Stetson University Library. We
recognized the need to re-evaluate the
responsibilities and expertise of our librarians
and staff. Changes have occurred in the
Technical Services area over the past two years
to bring about more efficiency in handling the
combined print/digital collections. This summer,
after long study, the old model of "reference
librarians" is being changed as those librarians
become true research librarians, no longer
wedded to a static reference desk and reference
collection. Read more about these changes
inside.
You will also see some changes in the library's
appearance as we remove the reference desk,
reconfigure the front desk, and recarpet the
main area - all thanks to our Library Associates.
Betty Drees Johnson, Library Director
(bjohnson@stetson. edu)
duPont-Ball Library's 2010 R. Neil Scott and
Evans C. Johnson Research Prize Winners
The library presents two prizes each year,
honoring students for research papers written
during courses in their first year. The second R.
Neil Scott Research Prize was awarded to
Kathryn M. Gower for her paper "Stem-Cell
Research: Start the
Funding." Kathryn is a
pre-nursing major from
Seffner, Florida, who
enjoys singing, the arts,
and volunteering. She
plans to become an
Obstetrician/Gynecologist
Physician's Assistant.
The sixth Evans C. Johnson Research Prize
was awarded to Tara M. Formisano, for her
paper, "Evolving Feminism: Angela Carter and
'Glam Rock' Feminism."
Tara chose Stetson after
attending high school in
Ridgefield, Connecticut. A
member of Stetson's softball
team, Tara is majoring in
Integrative Health Science
and minoring in French and
Women and Gender Studies.
Library Instruction 21 Century Style
Our research librarians, led by Jane Bradford,
were asked by faculty to teach 38 classes in
research techniques during the spring term -
more than twice as many as the year before,
reaching 530 students. Our goal is to teach
students how to search information resources
more effectively and how to assess the
relevance and value of the information they find.
This will provide a life-long skill, long after the
specific databases have disappeared.
