������

Access Services is happy to share LibStaffer news! In Fall 2023, LibStaffer, a new scheduling platform, was implemented to manage student assistant schedules. This marks the culmination of months and months of hard work. Upon integrating the Spidell computer lab with Access Services, they restructured their student assistant program including recruiting, onboarding, training, and assessment. During the Fall semester, they managed 18 student assistants and relied on LibStaffer to ensure they had ample coverage at all service points, almost every hour they were open. Looking ahead, they will cap their restructuring with a new Student Assistant Handbook this Winter and will begin student assistant performance evaluations in the Spring.

Welcome Our New Access Services Staff!

Andrea Plascencia

Hello! I'm Andrea Plascencia, and I'm an Interlibrary Services Specialist for the ������ Library. I’m excited to continue learning about interlibrary loan and to broaden my horizons by pursuing an MLIS degree starting in January! I love science fiction above all other genres, but I can also be convinced to read fantasy if you've got a recommendation. An interesting little fact about me is that I do historical reenactment for the Renaissance Era. I'm currently working on sewing garments using the techniques and tailoring guides from Spanish masters of the late 1500s!
 

Jeanne Rasmussen

Hi! I'm Jeanne (pronounced like the blue guy from Aladdin). I started as a Library Services Specialist (I) at the Circ Desk this fall. I'm originally from South Dakota, but moved to LA a few years ago for my undergraduate degree at Pomona College, where I majored in Cognitive Science. As a student, I also worked at my campus library and at a few research labs. I'm enjoying SoCal so far (especially during the winter), and am looking forward to exploring Long Beach! In my free time, I like painting, cats, and playing instruments badly. Stop by and say hi, and bring your music or book recommendations!
 

Laura Serrano

Hi! My name is Laura Serrano and I am an Interlibrary Services Specialist II for the ILS department at the University Library. My library career began during my undergrad years here at ������. Once I graduated, I entered the world of public libraries and have now made my way back to my alma mater!

As an ILS Specialist, I process requests that grant patrons access to (physical & digital) library material from our collection and from institutions across the country!

In my free time, I enjoy reading psychological thrillers, trying out new recipes, and going to Disneyland.

What’s next? Earn my Master’s in Library and Information Science :)
 

Rose Tang

Hi, I'm Rose! I'm a Library Service Specialist I at the Circ desk. I graduated from UCI and lived in Japan for 3 years before I became a library intern at CCSF. Now I'm here! Here's a faves list to help you get to know me.

Fave book: Sherlock Holmes, Naomi Novik novels

Fave food/drink: pasta, udon, boba

Fave animal: cats

Fave flower: sunflower

Fave movie: Howl's Moving Castle, Black Panther

Fave hobby: collecting plushies, watching streamers, lately DIY art projects

Fave video game: Okami, Hades, lately Slay the Spire

Looking forward to seeing you around the library! 

Fall 2023 semester was an exciting and productive time in Technical Services. To support campus academic priorities and student success, Technical Services ensured prompt ordering and delivery of over 400 print and electronic books, hundreds of streaming films and music score in preparation for the new academic year. They also continued their renewal process for thousands of various electronic resources, including databases, video, and audio streaming collections, academic journals and serials.

The entire Technical Services Team worked diligently and with great enthusiasm to provide our Library’s users with the most up-to-date and accessible resources, cataloging of new materials, updating existing bibliographical records in Community and Network Zone, Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP), WorldCat/OCLC and others. This tremendous work has been supported by Dale Guerrero in ordering, Vann Ou in receiving, Amber Medvedovskaya in cataloging, Irene Warner and Ashley Evangelista-Mendiola, who joined us in June ‘23, in serials and periodicals, Laura O’Connor in federal and state documents.

After 45 years of exemplary service at the University Library, Dale Guerrero has retired at the end of December. We wish him great new adventures and happiness ahead.

We look forward to 2024 and ready to assist the University community with preparation for the Winter term and Spring 2024. 

User Role Templates: To avoid further confusion over which Alma roles to give to library employees, Austin Lenzen and Do Shin created User Role Templates for faculty and staff.  This allows your relevant user manager to easily apply a standardized set of roles to new hires and clarifies how current employee’s Alma roles should be configured.

System Notifications:  Austin and Do are working with Access Services to overhaul outdated patron activity notifications.  This area of Alma, called “Letters,” has not been updated since go-live.  The language of these notifications will be determined by Access Services, WebGroup will handle the design, and implementation will be carried out by Austin and Do.  This project will most likely carry on into Summer/Fall 2024.

Ongoing Electronic Resources Management:

• In 2023, 9,862 electronic portfolios (ebooks/journals/streaming media etc.) were activated.
• Usage statistics and Repository data has been compiled for our FY22-23 ACRL report
• The expansion of Central Discovery Index search availability has continued; this allows patrons to discover and request more content that we don’t subscribe to directly from OneSearch
• Approximately 12,000 electronic titles in our Skillsoft/Skillport collections have been audited since July 2023

Special Collections & University Archives (SCUA) held around seven class instruction sessions with a wide range of departments such as Music, History, Chicano & Latino Studies, Art, and English. They received wonderful feedback from faculty and students about their classes and materials. SCUA had a busy year, working with more researchers than ever. They helped students and patrons from all over campus, as well as researchers across the US, Canada, and Europe!

SCUA hosted a tour through University Staff Council- Staff Development.  It was a well-attended tour of the department, with over 65 visitors. They featured some of their most unique and interesting items such as handwritten letters from Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, medieval manuscripts, and the grossest item in the collection (you must ask them about it!). The tour also showcased selections from the Bixby Family Collection, and much more. SCUA received many thanks and positive feedback from those that attended across campus. They hope that tours like these will spark conversations campus-wide about the special offerings from the Library.

SCUA recently became a member of the (OAC), which provides access to the finding aids for primary resource material for over 300 institutions. Their student assistants have been busy processing collections in an effort to create finding aids to add to this important site. Notably, their Long Beach History Collection is being reviewed, re-foldered, and reorganized to create a more useful resource for local history researchers. They have also recently worked on their Illustrator Tear Sheet Collection, the Wesley Kuhnle Collection, and a few other small collections. SCUA is hoping to have a few finding aids up on OAC in the next year!

Finally, over 300 boxes of paper syllabi were recently digitized. They are examining the files to make sure they are labeled correctly. This digitization project will help save the department hundreds of hours of work each year. SCUA is looking forward to being able to use their new Syllabi Archive to help alumni and to assist with campus accreditation and curriculum needs. 

Three librarian interns will join us for the spring semester: Urusa Ali, Eddie Coro­na, and Marley Rodriguez. We are pleased to welcome them to the department!

The Reference and Instruction Curriculum Committee (RICC) has been hard at work this semester and would love to share the following highlights. This semes­ter has seen the implementation of the new Library Classroom 501. An active learning space with a fresh design and great views, has quickly become a library faculty favorite for instruction. We have also begun work on a new Assessment plan to assess students information literacy in our library instruction. Another highlight of RICC this semester has been the launch of the “Check Out the Library Canvas Course” in tandem with the FRA-EDI 2 grant Awardees. The awardees will be proposing a poster about it for the ALA 2024 in San Diego. The Canvas Course has seen increasing use by students and faculty, and additions to the course are welcomed from all departments.

Alexis Pavenick, PhD, MLIS and Michelle DeMars, MLIS were able to advise the purchase and installation of two book displays for the 3rd Floor Reading Room to showcase texts that relate to monthly campus themes and celebrations. Recent display themes include: Banned Book Week, OUTober and Native American His­tory Month.

Alexis and Efren Miranda collected 30+ boxes of books from Dave Samuelson, an English Dept emeritus who, through Tracey Mayfield’s outreach, support, and facilitation, has donated his SciFi/Fantasy Collection to our Library with an en­dowment to support the cataloging and programming to showcase the materials. These books are mostly hardback and in excellent condition and Alexis will soon bring them in small groups to Vann Ou to be cataloged as part of our collection.

In tandem, Alexis, Efren, Nina Antoville, Amber Medvedovskaya, and Austin Len­zin are working to revamp the Masback Collection with an intensive deselection project. Some items will be moved to ORCA while others will be reorganized in the 3rd floor reading room to allow for the integration of the Samuelson dona­tion as well as some Mystery, and Schwab fiction items in an effort to make them enticing to patrons. At a steady pace, the 3rd Floor Reading Room will come to contain fiction from a variety of fiction genres, with new signage and info cards explaining the history and value of each collection.