Each of our librarians are assigned specific subject areas to assist students and faculty with all of their library needs. Our personal librarians offer library instruction and collection development. They are always willing to help faculty with assignment structure and identifying the best resources for students.
Our librarians meet with faculty at the beginning of Fall semester and are available to attend department meetings throughout the academic year. They will also be glad to meet one-on-one with faculty and can provide assistance as needed.
Your Personal Librarians:
Beverly Eskridge - Education
Beth Pye - Humanities, Nursing & Health Sciences
Brenda Rutherford - Biology & Physical Science, History & Political Science
Jim Rickerson - Fine & Performing Arts, Business & Public Service
Dr. Sonya Gaither - Mathematics & Computer Science
Education librarian, Beverly Eskridge, attends department meetings at the beginning of fall semester and new student orientations. She makes presentations about our personal librarian program and GALILEO. She is always on the look out for new education resources such as databases, books/picture books (early childhood development), and activities to add to the library's collection. Ms. Eskridge is always open to suggestions from faculty on collection development. Faculty, as well as students, can email Ms. Eskridge at any time with questions, or make an appointment for more in depth needs. She enjoys helping students with their portfolio assignments and interviews by speaking with them for an hour; and is always willing to assist students in any way. She provides library instruction in many ways including having provided bibliographic information for the Early Childhood Development Colloquium in the past, and informing students and faculty about the online databases GALILEO offers for education, and the Online Library Catalog. Ms. Eskridge is happy to assist with putting items on reserve as well. When faculty or students ask Ms. Eskridge for assistance with their assignments, she helps identify the best resources by informing them about specific databases and reads book reviews to consider the best ones for their topics. She also uses websites such as the Department of Education to stay up-to-date with news and changes in the education field, the teachers association and other professional websites to view statistics. Ms. Eskridge also recommends ILL & GIL Express for students, if applicable.
Humanities and Nursing & Health Sciences librarian,
Beth Pye, serves her subject areas by attending orientations, providing collection
development, and assisting with nursing accreditation.
She will give orientations at the professors' request, as a group, or one-on-one
for library instruction. To assist with collection development, Ms. Pye
looks at circulars and catalogs that come out, and book, print, and
database reviews. She will also look over any requests
made by faculty members to add to the collection. She is always willing
to help faculty with assignment structure, or help with research needs
if the faculty member has an issue finding what they are searching for.
One way Ms. Pye can help faculty members and students, is to point them
towards specific libguides she has created. Faculty and students may make an appointment
with Ms. Pye for help identifying the best resources for their
assignments. Ms. Pye likes to prepare before her appointments by working
through the assignment given and using her background knowledge and research skills to find resources. Once she has understood the
assignment, she will use the online catalog, GALILEO, and, if time permits, the universal catalog and ILL.
Once she has identified sources, she will find the best books and
search terms to help guide the research. For example, if a student is
writing a literary criticism paper, she will recommend literary
criticism databases. For nursing students, she will recommend Ovid,
Academic Search Complete, or JSTOR
databases available on GALILEO.
Biology & Physical Science and History & Political Science librarian, Brenda Rutherford, provides information about Affordable Learning Georgia, which is an initiative by the Board of Regents to fund grants for faculty to adopt or create open educational resources and to promote student success by providing affordable alternatives to textbooks. Ms. Rutherford attends department meetings at the beginning of each academic year, where she informs faculty of available services our library offers. She also gives classes to discuss our resources and available databases. Faculty and students may make research appointments with Ms. Rutherford, where she will guide them through the process and inform them of available tools they can use to help. "Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime." As far as collection development goes, if Ms. Rutherford finds something relative to her subjects, she will ask for faculty input before deciding to purchase; as well as reviewing requests from faculty. When helping a professor with assignment structure, she will ask for the syllabus and specific rules for the assignment, confirm her understanding, then guide them based on the criteria. Ms. Rutherford will have research consultations with students by appointment, where she informs students about resources available such as the GALILEO Discover Tool as a research starter, or helping history students find archival sources.
Fine & Performing Arts and Business & Public Service librarian, Jim Rickerson, is available at faculty request to provide bibliographic instruction for classes and to also meet one-on-one with faculty and students if they need help with their research. Mr. Rickerson will host bibliographic instruction classes in our library's classrooms, or in the professors' classrooms. He is also available for bibliographic instruction classes at our McDonough site. To assist with collection development, Mr. Rickerson downloads database trials to see if they will be helpful before purchasing; he will also look over other electronic or physical resources he feels will meet the needs of the students and curriculum. Faculty members can search and make recommendations for new materials using GOBI, email Mr. Rickerson to place an order, or sit and talk with him one-on-one. He will first make sure of the cost of the material and library's funds before purchasing materials. Mr. Rickerson receives the professors' syllabi at the beginning of each semester so he may look through the assignments to help with collection development and get an idea of what the students will be studying. To identify the best resources, Mr. Rickerson searches GOBI's lists of materials by subject area and reads reviews. He also likes to see what other USG institutions are purchasing. Mr. Rickerson prefers to purchase items that have already been reviewed, with good standing.
Dr. Sonya Gaither is your personal librarian for Mathematics & Computer Science.
She serves these departments by attending their meetings at the
beginning of each academic year and introduces herself not only as their
personal librarian, but also as the Director of Library Services.
During these meetings, Dr. Gaither gives an overview of our library's services
and lets faculty members know she is available to help them put
together their assignments and to work with students. Dr. Gaither is
also available to teach library instruction classes. Feel free to contact
her if you have any questions about our library's resources. Our
library offers any technology a faculty member or student may need to
conduct research and assignments, as well as individual and group study
rooms, and other study spaces throughout the library. The study rooms
have writable surfaces, providing plenty of room for those long
equations and problems. Faculty members may email Dr. Gaither items of
interest for their department to add to the library's collection.
If the item is a book, she will look to see if it supports the current
curriculum before she buys it. As far as databases go, Dr. Gaither will
review their relevance to the curriculum before purchasing, as
Mathematics and Computer Science are always updating and databases have
an annual cost. Because of the importance of staying up-to-date with
these departments, the library is constantly weeding through the
collection. If an item is still desired, but not as current, it may be moved to Guillebeau Hall. Dr. Gaither is available
to help with assignment structure and for help understanding the
library's resources needed for students for specific assignments, and
she provides the opportunity for collaboration with faculty. All
of our personal librarians ask that faculty members send their course
syllabi at the beginning of each semester so we may look over
assignments and get familiar with what they consist of so we can better
prepare for student needs. To identify the best resources needed
per assignment, Dr. Gaither reviews the topic of interest and decides
whether she needs a book or a periodical. She then searches by keywords
or subject headings to see which online resources are relevant. Dr.
Gaither will show faculty and students how to research and use key
information. Like in Drivers' Ed, she will put the student or faculty
member in the seat and sit beside them, watching and answering questions
rather than doing the work for them. "Experience is the best teacher,
it is no good if I do the work for them." Faculty members are more than
welcome to meet with each other or students in our library. We offer a
consultation room for faculty that seats 2 people, as well as plenty of
available public seating space.
