1. Librarians as Friends:
Social Media
& Reference Service
@ the Graduate Center Library
Shawn(ta) Smith-Cruz
Reference Librarian
& Reference Coordinator
The Graduate Center, CUNY
@CUNYGCLibrary
@ShawntaDeshawn
ssmith4@gc.cuny.edu
METRO Reference SIG
Thursday, June 26, 2014
2. Overview
i. Friends via Photos
ii. Social Media & “the Profile”
iii. Digital Signage @ the GC
iv. Other Social Media Factors
v. Other Libraries Do It too!
vi. The Photo-Process
vii. Considerations for “Friendship”
viii. Shifts in library service.
3. i. Friends via Photos
•A way for students and staff to
‘relate to’ the librarians
•The Social Media ‘profile’:
– Librarians as ‘friends’
– Adding a face to a name and a
service
Personalizing Reference as
People instead of Information
4. II. Social Media and ‘the
Profile’ at the Graduate
Center
Graduate Center Website Services
http://ws.gc.cuny.edu/
•Builds a website
•Allows for an online presence
Open CUNY
•Student-Run
•Off CUNY servers
CUNY Commons
•Unlike other CUNY schools,
includes all Students & Faculty and
Staff
•Led by a team of developers
GC Digital Signs
5. Designed as a flexible
online space for discovery
and collaboration between
faculty, graduate students,
administration and staff
of CUNY.
Check it out!
commons.gc.cuny.edu
6. OpenCUNY!
What will you do on OpenCUNY this year?
OpenCUNY.org @OpenCUNY /OpenCUNY
OpenCUNY!
What will you do on OpenCUNY this year?
Build your digital
presence in
conversation with
others.
7.
8. Amiri Baraka and Edward
Dorn: The Collected Letters
Claudia Moreno Parsons
Join Claudia Moreno Parsons for a discussion and
presentation of this newly published collection of
letters, which began as part of Series I in the Lost &
Found: The CUNY Poetics Document Initiative
chapbook series.
Cosponsored by Lost & Found: The CUNY Poetics Document Initiative, the PhD
Program in English, and The University of New Mexico Press
Monday, March 24, 6:00pm
The Skylight Room (9100)
9.
10.
11.
12. •New Initiative led by the Office
of Marketing and
Communications and Office of
Information Technology
•Access to key employees per
department
•Used for all types of on-
campus advertisement
III. Digital Signs at the
Graduate Center
14. Faculty library fines for overdue items
will take effect January 27th
.
25 cents per day
All faculty will be subject to fines
for overdue materials.
Attention GC Faculty
GC Faculty Research Assistants
GC Doctoral Faculty
GC Retirees
IMAGE
17. iv. Other Social Media
•GC Library Blog
• Twitter
• Facebook
•Hiring
–Growth of Public Services
•Interactive Website
–Logo Design
–Development of new GC
Website
•Departmental Relationships
• JustPublics@365
• Supplied Podcaster
• Marketing & Communications
• Supplied a photographer
18. VI. What Other Libraries
are Doing
Mathew Harrick at
Brooklyn College
20. The Photo-Process
• Collaborations
– With the Office of Marketing and
Communications
– Staff Photo Day Collaborative effort
• Benefits
– Image for staff to use in profiles
– Uniform visual library
representation
• Challenges
– Scheduling Staff Photo day
– Emotional response to photographs
21. The Photo-Process
• Challenges
–Scheduling Staff Photo day
–Emotional response to photographs
–How to Classify Photographs?
• Not all librarians are liaisons
• Not all interfacing staff are librarians
• Not all liaisons are Faculty
–Do we make a sign for every staff-
person
–Are staff mandated to use their
photos?
22. VII. Considerations for
Sign Deployment
• Quantity of Signs
• How would signs represent
librarians
• Design of Signs to fit Library
Template
• How do Signs Reflect the person
featured in the sign?
• Do we use different photos?
24. Every department has a designated librarian.
Find out more:
• Meet your librarian
• Schedule a one-on-one consultation
• Visit the reference desk
Meet Your Department Liaison
Gioia Stevens, MLIS
gstevens@gc.cuny.edu
Librarian for Comparative Literature,
French & Linguistics
IMAGE
25. Every department has a designated librarian.
Find out more:
• Meet your librarian
• Schedule a one-on-one consultation
• Visit the reference desk
Meet Your Department Liaison
Michael (Mike) Handis, MLIS
mhandis@gc.cuny.edu
Librarian for Classics and Special Collections
IMAGE
26. Every department has a designated librarian.
Find out more:
• Meet your librarian
• Schedule a one-on-one consultation
• Visit the reference desk
Meet Your Department Liaison
Stephen Klein, MLIS
sklein@gc.cuny.edu
Librarian for Business, Demography,
Economics, History, ITP, Philosophy, Political
Science, Public Policy and Urban Studies
IMAGE
27. Every department has a designated librarian.
Find out more:
• Meet your librarian
• Schedule a one-on-one consultation
• Visit the reference desk
Meet Your Department Liaison
Shawn(ta) Smith-Cruz, MLIS
ssmith4@gc.cuny.edu
Librarian for Africana Studies, Anthropology,
LGBT Studies, Psychology of Political Behavior,
Public Health, Social Welfare Sociology, Theatre,
Urban Health & Society, Women's Studies
IMAGE
28. Every department has a designated librarian.
Find out more:
• Meet your librarian
• Schedule a one-on-one consultation
• Visit the reference desk
Meet Your Department Liaison
Beth Posner, MLIS
bposner@gc.cuny.edu
Librarian for Nursing and
Head of Resource Sharing &
Interlibrary Loan
IMAGE
29. Every department has a designated librarian.
Find out more:
• Meet your librarian
• Schedule a one-on-one consultation
• Visit the reference desk
Meet Your Department Liaison
Alycia Sellie, MLIS
asellie@gc.cuny.edu
Librarian for
American Studies, Art History,
English & American Literature,
Fashion Studies, and Film Studies
IMAGE
30. Library Circulation helps keep books .
Find out more:
• Register your library barcode
• Check your fines
• Visit the circulation desk
• Renew overdue items
Meet the Library Circulation Team
Curtis Matthew, MLIS
cmatthew@gc.cuny.edu
See Curtis for questions on
Reserves, Circulation, CLICS,
Fines, and Missing Books
IMAGE
31. VIII. How the Photo
Project has led to shifts in
library service.
• Photos for Circulation Staff
• Photos on the new Library
Website for all staff
• Larger Message for Library and its
Mission
• One-On-One Appointments may
be the bulk of Instruction
• Liaison Roles
