JEWL magazine 2023

for

de-stress success

Library’s semester-ending event calms anxiety over final exams

Middle Tennessee State University library.mtsu.edu

Fall 2023 | Volume 10, No. 1

DEAN

Kathleen L. Schmand

EXTERNAL RELATIONS

Clay V. Trainum

SENIOR EDITOR

Drew Ruble

ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Carol Stuart

DESIGNER

Micah Loyed

SENIOR DIRECTOR OF MARKETING

Kara Hooper

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF MARKETING

Keith Dotson

UNIVERSITY PHOTOGRAPHERS

Cat Curtis Murphy, James Cessna, Andy Heidt, J. Intintoli

CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

Nancy Broden

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Clay V. Trainum, Stokeley Ellison, Nancy DeGennaro

UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT

Sidney A. McPhee

UNIVERSITY PROVOST

Mark Byrnes

VICE PRESIDENT FOR MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS

Andrew Oppmann

810 copies, printed at Pollock Printing, Nashville, Tenn. Designed by Creative and Visual Services

0723-2245 / Middle Tennessee State University does not discriminate against students, employees, or applicants for admission or employment on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, disability, age, status as a protected veteran, genetic information, or any other legally protected class with respect to all employment, programs, and activities sponsored by MTSU. The Assistant to the President for Institutional Equity and Compliance has been designated to handle inquiries regarding the non-discrimination policies and can be reached at Cope Administration Building 116, 1301 East Main Street, Murfreesboro, TN 37132; Marian.Wilson@mtsu.edu; or 615-898-2185 The MTSU policy on non-discrimination can be found at mtsu.edu/iec.

Cover photo by James Cessna

Table of contents photo by Priyanka Modi

From the desk of DEAN SCHMAND

Is summer one of your favorite times of year? The idea of a summer vacation at the beach and a little quieter time on campus is positively appealing, although not always realistic, at least for me. While I love summer, I honestly look forward to fall. Not only is it a fresh start to the academic year, but temperatures start to cool, the colors begin to change, and football returns. It is hard to believe that we just started the Fall 2023 semester. Now is a suitable time to reflect on what the library accomplished in the past year.

Walker Library faculty and staff have been busy supporting MTSU students and faculty with their courses and research projects, accessing both physical and online collections, providing a robust technology experience, and more. The library filled two vacant faculty positions: a new research and data librarian as well as an open education and student success librarian. Both are outstanding faculty advancing these library programs and initiatives. Plus, we welcomed several new staff members. You will learn more in this issue about the growth of our Digital Scholarship Initiatives (DSI) with the launch of MT Open Press. In January, MT Open Press published its first book, Privacy and Safety in Online Learning, an edited collection that contributes to the literature on online learning environments. DSI faculty and staff are working on publishing a second book.

Congratulations to Special Collections for becoming an official Government Publishing Office (GPO)

Preservation Steward for government publications connected to the Distilling, Fermenting, and Brewing Collection. Additionally, Special Collections hosted two exhibits this year: “I may as well take one glass,” featuring items from that collection, and “A Serious Collection of Fun Books: Pop-Up and Movable Books, Past and Present.” Each year, I look forward to seeing how creative Special Collections gets with every new exhibit.

Throughout the past academic year, we saw increasing numbers of visitors to Walker Library, and we hope this trend will continue. During 2022, Walker Library saw 489,825 visits to the building. From January through June 2023, we had 244,206 visits. We placed 100 new Dell computers throughout our public computing spaces and will soon add another 20 new Mac minicomputers in our Makerspace. Use of our circulating laptops has grown now that we are offering two-week checkouts for more than half of our laptops.

As I look back on what we accomplished this past year, I am excited to consider the possibilities for the coming year and the user experiences we create for students and faculty. Walker Library faculty, staff, and student employees are deeply committed to providing a responsive and user-friendly experience to everyone across the University. I am honored to be part of such an amazing organization advancing the mission of Middle Tennessee State University.

Kathleen L. Schmand, Dean of James E. Walker Library

STUDENT WORKERS NEED YOUR BACKING

Give to the David Robinson or James E. Walker scholarship funds to assist student workers with college costs

Library’s semester-ending event calms anxiety over final exams

de-stress success

The end of the semester is always a hectic time at MTSU, and it’s no different at Walker Library. A building that sees the equivalent of the student body walk through its doors every week will sometimes see its numbers double during those final few weeks, but on this warm and pleasant April evening, some of that lively activity is coming from the Walker Library staff as they prepare for the popular Stress-Free Zone on the first floor.

Clay Trainum, who serves as the library’s marketing and communications coordinator, is in his usual late-day rush, making sure the i’s are dotted and the t’s are crossed before making an announcement to the building. This event marks the culmination of his sixth school year working for the library. Trainum’s duties include running many library events over

the course of each semester, and the Stress-Free Zone event has quickly become the biggest.

While a lot of events at the library may have multiple components, the Stress-Free Zone adds in event partners, a food menu, and a guest count that regularly exceeds 400 students, making it easily the best-attended event every semester.

“When we did the first one, I had no idea what to expect,” Trainum admits. “We’ve had activities over the years that have attracted maybe a hundred or two, but that first time we did this, we got everything set up, and then the students just kept coming. The line floored me, and I couldn’t believe that we ran out of literally everything we had for them. It was a truly eye-opening experience.”

Photos by James Cessna

Pet Therapy

While that first event may have surprised Trainum, there’s one individual who knew it would be successful from the start: Walker Library Dean Kathleen Schmand.

Schmand organized a similar event for her previous institution and saw it grow with each passing semester. When she started at MTSU in 2021, it was one of the first ideas she proposed to Trainum.

“I didn’t start our Stress-Free Zone at Northern Arizona. It began relatively slowly, and then I took it over in 2015,” Schmand said. “We wanted to encourage students to take a break during the most stressful time of the semester, and they truly appreciated all the support.

“When I arrived here at MTSU, it was only natural to bring the same type of event to Walker Library. Every student needs a little bit of support during that last stretch at the end of the semester.”

The Stress-Free Zone is a multifaceted event, but its purpose is clear from its name. The goal is for MTSU’s library

to provide a brief reprieve from the pressure and anxiety that come with the start of finals. The first collaborator Trainum sought out for the event was Music City Pet Partners, which organizes therapy dog teams. Four teams participated at the most recent event, and the star of the show was once again Caity, a corgi from Franklin ( photo on cover). She and her handler, Geralda Aubry, are the only tandem that has been a part of every de-stress event at the library.

“Caity is a rock star!” Schmand said. “I love my cat, don’t get me wrong, but I am a dog person. Students’ faces light up the minute they see us bring the dogs into the building, and Caity has become such a regular that the students now know her by

Students’ faces light up the minute they see us bring the dogs into the building.

name. It makes me so happy to see the connections between the pups and the students, and a few minutes with one of the therapy dogs is one of the very best ways that we have to help

“Caity has developed a bit of a cult following here,” Trainum added. “She was the last dog in the building at this most recent event, and a stream of students followed her as she and Geralda got set up.”

Health Help and Free Food

With the therapy dogs lined up, Trainum happened upon a successful partnership with the Raider Health Corps, a student organization affiliated with MTSU’s Office of Health Promotion. When the Stress-Free Zone was described to former director Lisa Schrader, she thought it’d be a perfect

fit. In addition to being one of the library’s largest events, the Stress-Free Zone has now become one of the most successful annual activities for the Raider Health Corps, which helps students create their own de-stress kits. Frequently the line for that table is just as long as the food line.

“One of the things we always joke about working on college campuses is that as long as we have food, we’ll always have students in attendance,” Trainum said. “What really struck me over these events, however, was the fact that students were buying into the health aspect of this event as well. I’ll never forget seeing the line this past April and thinking, ‘Oh no, they think it’s the food line!’ So I rushed over, and the students were well aware. They wanted to get some help from the Health Corps too. It made it feel like we were really making a difference here.”

Having food on offer is crucial to the event’s continued success, though, and it was a top priority for Schmand to

make sure that it was a fulfilling meal. Gone were the days of fruit and veggie platters. Hot food would mark the difference between this and any similar events on campus.

With this past April marking the third Stress-Free Zone for the MTSU library, Trainum was used to the routine. After all the prep was completed, he would go make the announcement of the opening of the event over the public address system. The previous two times this happened, Trainum enjoyed watching the rush of students from the library’s second, third, and fourth floors down the main staircase to grab their de-stress kits and food.

“In my experience, students don’t always have the time or money or feel they can stop to get a real meal while they are studying,” Schmand said. “We really feel that we can help a student refresh and reset for that final push on a paper or project by bringing substantial food to them in the library. It represents a creative budgeting challenge, but it’s been worth it to deliver a successful event.”

But this time around, it was different. Trainum excitedly rushed back to the library’s atrium after making his announcement and saw no rush of any kind. Doubt started to creep in. Was it too nice a day? Did enough people know about it? Had students lost interest?

All those worries were misplaced. Students had started lining up 10 to 15 minutes early. They just couldn’t wait any longer.

The Raider Health Corps . . . helps students create their own de-stress kits.

IMPRINT ON

Library’s new publishing arm produces its first book and free digital resources

by Clay V. Trainum

While the world claws its way out of the changes triggered by COVID-19, it’s only natural to look back at how the pandemic affected online learning. Walker Library’s new publishing imprint, MT Open Press, does just that with its first book, Privacy and Safety in Online Learning, released in January.

The book, edited by MTSU faculty librarians Denise FitzGerald Quintel and Amy York, features essays, case studies, and pedagogical approaches that explore how educators managed the privacy, security, and safety concerns that rushed into our lives as we shifted into emergency remote learning in 2020. The collection includes dozens of perspectives from K–12, higher education, and libraries.

MT Open Press is a project started by the award-winning Digital Scholarship Initiatives (DSI) team, which works with various campus partners to build out the library’s digital collections. DSI has been publishing peer-reviewed journals and web projects since 2014, and this foray creates yet another avenue for distribution.

Everything published by MT Open Press is open access, meaning that readers can access the books for free online. Currently, the imprint publishes scholarly, creative, and educational works from the MTSU community and region.

More than two years of work went into launching MT Open Press. It will allow authors to publish digital books and limited print-on-demand versions that will be indexed in databases and search engines, delivering their work to readers around the globe.

“Walker Library has set its mission to be ‘your partner in research, learning, and knowledge,’ and I believe this directly speaks to the value of MT Open Press,” Walker Library Dean Kathleen Schmand said. “Publishing models continue to change, and more libraries than ever are engaged in supporting and advancing open scholarship and open access. MT Open Press provides a key mechanism for us to make accessible a selection of relevant and credible publications to a broader audience.”

Working with authors and/or editors, the press provides all the technical infrastructure and long-term preservation services to support the access, discovery, and use of these digital publications.

As MT Open Press charts its path forward, it will be guided by the principles of academic excellence, financial stewardship, and transparency. As such, each publication will be peer-reviewed. The press will operate with financial integrity, seeking to remain sustainable through a variety of funding streams while never charging readers or authors. It also will be intentional in its inclusiveness of meaningful and diverse perspectives and advance the reputation and standing of MTSU in scholarly publishing communities while helping address the need for zero- and low-cost textbooks and monographs.

“We are not in the game to make money; rather, we make quality works accessible, where there are no charges to the authors for our services and no charges to the readers for the online versions of our books,” said Alissa Miller, who serves as the press director. “We practice an inclusive approach to identifying author and reader needs, along with a transparent production process with a team that includes both professionals and graduate students. We are looking to improve our methods through each book that we publish.

“Library presses are different from commercial and other academic presses,” Miller added. “We make the differences clear when we talk to prospective authors. The authorpublisher relationship match has to make sense to the author who is looking for a venue to publish their work.”

One member of the MT Open Press team is Emma Sullivan, a former student worker for the library who has since returned to become the library’s digital publishing manager. “Putting together a book is a lot more work than you think it is,” Sullivan said. “In the process of putting it together, each of us on the team would pick up different errors and issues while editing, and this first book would not have been as great as it is without all of our efforts and individual contributions. We’re looking forward to working with more authors. Publishing scholarly material with fellow MTSU faculty and staff is a rewarding part of our job.”

The next book to come out of the MT Open Press, slated for fall 2023, will focus on intercultural competencies in faculty-led study abroad programs. Later this year, MT Open Press will launch a call for proposals as it continues to build its offerings.

MTSU library gets shot at preserving federal documents related to the liquor industry

by Nancy DeGennaro

Orson Welles used to sell Paul Masson wine with the famous line “We will sell no wine before its time.” Aging has long been a part of the process of fermenting and preparing alcoholic beverages, with spirits such as Tennessee’s own Jack Daniel’s whiskey often stored in oak barrels to boost and preserve flavors.

Documents undergo a natural process of aging as well, but they instead need efforts to preserve them for posterity and consumption by future generations.

Recently, MTSU’s James E. Walker Library was named a Preservation Steward for the U.S. Government Publishing Office. Through the agreement, the library will obtain and preserve publications relating to agricultural, legal, and cultural aspects of brewing and distilling from the 1800s through 1980.

The topic falls in line with MTSU’s Fermentation Science program and School of Agriculture and provides tangible items the University community can use for research and exploration.

“Our goal is to collect as comprehensively as we can,” said Susan Martin, chair of Collection Development and Management at Walker Library. “And because the liquor industry is highly regulated, there are lots of documents coming from the government.”

The efforts also add another component to the library’s 3-year-old Distilling, Fermenting, and Brewing Collection. The collection covers the history and production of the liquor industry from colonial times through present day, with an emphasis on Tennessee.

Distilling the Past

Items already in the collection include law books, informational pamphlets, plant and pest control handbooks, and how-to guides.

“This [designation] allows us to operate and elevate our collections at a national level because this is a federal program,” Martin said. “We are part of a collective preserving government material and want to make sure this material is available in the future.”

All the print documents and ancillary items are meticulously cataloged and housed in a temperature-controlled vault.

In addition to Martin, four other Walker Library staff members were instrumental in getting the stewardship program off the ground: Alan Boehm, head of special collections; Beverly Geckle, continuing resources librarian and federal depository coordinator; Susan Hanson, special collections cataloging; and Toni Butler Click, continuing resources coordinator and federal documents assistant.

“We don’t care if it’s coming from the ATF or Department of Agriculture; if it fits topically into our collection, we want it,” Martin said.

Almost everyone in the group has a favorite find. Boehm is fond of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s booklet on “Home Utilization of Muscadine Grapes.” An exploration of glass bottles used in distilling spirits is a favorite of Martin’s, while Click enjoyed learning about the ecological impact bees have on pollinating the agricultural products used in making spirits.

Preserving for the Future

The Government Publishing Office stewardship also parallels the library’s 110-year participation in the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP), which makes U.S. government documents and publications available to the public at no cost.

“One thing the federal depository requires is regional libraries,” Click said. “They are hoping to have a document held in every region and spread out the collections so [print items] are protected from natural disasters.”

Libraries seeking to preserve documents they are withdrawing from their own inventories can be reimbursed for shipping expenses through the stewardship program.

Walker Library special collections staff members use two main databases to find documents to preserve:

• the Association of Southeastern Research Libraries documents disposition database, which lists FDLP documents that Southeast libraries plan to withdraw

• the FDLP eXchange, which is the Government Publishing Office’s national database of documents that FDLP libraries wish to withdraw

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LIBRARY “ROOMMATES” LIBRARY “ROOMMATES”

LIBRARY “ROOMMATES”

University Writing Center and other services share accommodations in campus hub

by Clay V. Trainum

The new school year marks milestones for many places on campus. James E. Walker Library itself will be celebrating its 25th year in its current location, but the library isn’t the only resident of the building celebrating an anniversary. That last sentence may sound a little confusing, but as we remind people every day, there’s more to a library than just books, and in MTSU’s case, there’s more to a library than just the library.

Given Walker Library’s location on campus and its reputation, it’s only natural for numerous University services to take residence in the building to simplify the college experience for so many students. In 2010, that’s just what the Margaret H. Ordoubadian University Writing Center (UWC) did, moving from its previous location in Peck Hall to the current locale on the third floor of Walker Library.

Working on Writing Improvements

This year the UWC is celebrating 45 years on campus after its founding by Bené Cox and Larry Mapp in 1978, and it remains a crucial part of MTSU’s English Department, helping writers from all backgrounds improve their writing across every format and concentration.

“I think being in existence for 45 years serves as a testament to the importance of the Writing Center,” said Erica Cirillo-McCarthy, director of the center since 2018. “It’s more than just the role we play in student success, though. We are trying to instill our writers with confidence going forward, giving them an effective toolbox for any writing situation they encounter.”

Ordoubadian, who also was involved in the founding of the UWC in 1978, served as its director from 1996 to 2001. And the library represents a fitting location for her namesake center to call home, as she played a crucial role in expanding the library’s Children’s Book Collection in 2002.

The UWC boasts three full-time staff members as well as a cadre of undergraduate and graduate students who can help with one-on-one support in brainstorming, outlining, formatting, organizing, revising, and editing writing projects.

Whether a student has walked into the center with an empty sheet of paper or a fully composed five-sheet essay, the staff on hand is there to facilitate and help MTSU students reach their full potential as writers.

“We have nearly 30 tutors every year, with a good mix of both undergraduate and graduate students,” Cirillo-McCarthy said. “All of them are trained by us, and they may work with the same student over the course of a whole semester.

“Some of the most meaningful interactions we have are through writing partnerships between students and tutors where they meet with each other every week to try and navigate through a big project. The pride that they feel when they see what they’ve done is reflected in the tutors they’ve been working with as well.”

Tutoring Spot for Students

The UWC isn’t the only place in the library that offers free tutoring. The first floor is home to the Tutoring Spot, run by MTSU’s Office of Student Success. And while the library isn’t the only place on campus where students can receive tutoring, it is certainly one of the largest.

Tutoring in the library began exactly a decade ago, in 2013, and following this initial program, it was expanded with the creation of the Tutoring Spot in 2016. As time has gone on, usage of the University’s tutoring resources has only grown as instruction is offered for more than 200 courses. With the expansion into remote tutoring, in addition to the in-person sessions at the library, the tutoring staff regularly holds in excess of 10,000 sessions per semester.

The benefits of tutoring have paid off for the University, which routinely shows that nearly every student who has sought tutoring has gone on to pass the class in which they needed help. Data also indicates that students who seek out tutoring are more likely to remain in school to finish their degrees.

Tutors are available in the areas of biology, history, computer information systems, physics, math, economics, recording industry, study skills/learning strategies, and many more.

Accessible and Adaptive Assistance

In addition to helping students navigate specific classes and assignments, the library also houses a very important center for those on campus with disabilities: the Adaptive Technology Center (ATC), located on the first floor. The center, operated under guidance from MTSU’s Disability and Access Center (DAC), is a campus resource that provides

alternative formats of print material, adaptive hardware and software, and any other form of access via technology that is necessary.

The DAC is the cultural, social, and academic support hub for disabled students at MTSU. It serves to help level the academic playing field on campus, and the ATC plays a vital role in just that, offering not only alternative formats, equipment, and software for students, but a dedicated computer lab as well in its location at the library. In addition, the ATC has established three more accessible workstations in the public areas of the library, plus stations in computer labs inside Kirksey Old Main and the Business and Aerospace Building.

“We use technology to try to eliminate barriers for students in the classroom,” said Bonnie McCarty, manager of the ATC. “We aim to provide important support to them academically. The library seems like a very logical place for the ATC to be because there are so many other great technological resources all around us. We fit in well to this area, and since students will be here anyway because it’s the library, it helps us operate where our students already are.”

Faculty Innovation and Tech Support

While most library roommates are student-focused, the third floor is home to the Lucinda Taylor Lea Learning, Teaching, and

Innovative Technology Center (LT&ITC), whose mission is to “create a community of faculty who develop, improve, and integrate creative and effective use of appropriate pedagogy and technologies to enhance student learning.”

Founded by Barbara Draude and Faye Johnson, the LT&ITC will celebrate its 20th anniversary in 2024, and its services are on offer for all MTSU faculty members and graduate teaching assistants. The center puts together workshops, professional development opportunities, and events.

Now led by Psychology Professor Tom Brinthaupt, the work of the LT&ITC includes consultations on a variety of topics, from the development of teaching, research, and service activities to data collection and online teaching methods. The center also helps faculty members with redesigning courses and updating syllabi.

The partnership of all these centers and Walker Library has proven beneficial over the years and has helped the library maintain its status as one of the busiest and most-utilized resources on campus. Students and faculty alike have lauded the library’s support for their pursuits over the years, and it only makes sense that the building would house the services that help them succeed even further.

OVERNIGHT

Checking out the library until 2 a.m. closing time

by Stokeley Ellison

You can tell it’s finals week at MTSU— because everyone is in the library. This is a great thing, though. Everyone should visit MTSU’s James E. Walker Library. We have so many different resources and cool features here.

One of the best things about the library is that it stays open until 2 a.m. And I’m going to tell you what it’s like to stay in the library until 2 a.m. during finals week.

8:29 P.M. 9:30 P.M.

I arrive at Walker Library with a checklist of things I need to do in my hand. I am almost done with classes, but I have a couple of end-of-thesemester papers to wrap up. Once I walk in, I do my usual thing. I typically walk immediately over to where the booths are and hope that one is open. Luckily for me, one is available! I set my things down, open my laptop, and get to work.

My objectives for the night are to finish a 1,200-word critique, take a final, and write this article.

I reach 600 words on my critique. This is a major milestone, so I decide to treat myself to Starbucks! I find enough coins in my backpack to get a cake pop. When I get up to get my cake pop, I run into a couple of my friends. Did you know that Starbucks is the only franchise on campus that takes gift cards? I know, kinda crazy. I get my treat and slowly saunter back to my booth to get some more work done.

SENSATION

I am starting to get tired. I’ve been staring at my computer screen all day, but I must finish these things tonight. I have 967 words down, so only 300 more to go.

The library is still very crowded. Many people who are here are using the free printing on each floor. Some people are using whiteboards.

Did you know the service desk will let you check out markers for the boards? I haven’t done that, but I may someday. You can also check out study rooms.

The clock has rolled well past midnight. I finished my critique and my final! I completed both those things so early that I have time to study for my final that’s tomorrow, well actually today.

I am getting extremely tired, but I have so much more to do. The rest of the students in the library are starting to call it a night. There are a strong few who are still working, though.

The warning announcement has gone off twice now. The announcement tells you how much time you have before the library closes. It goes off at 30 minutes until close, 20 minutes until close, 15 minutes until close, and five minutes before close.

I am about to start packing my things up. I need to go to my bed. Good night!

Stokeley Ellison is a senior studying Public Relations with a focus on the Recording Industry.

Pop-up book displays attract attention to library content

by Clay V. Trainum

A common misconception about Walker Library and academic libraries in general is that there isn’t support for recreational reading. As the library started to return to normal business in the last couple of years, Kristen West and the team from User Services began to feature some of these books and online offerings through pop-up collections on the first floor as well as online. “People often think of a university library as a place that is buying books to support you in classes and your research, but recreational reading can also be an important part of the university experience,” said West, interim department chair for User Services.

“We were talking about recreational reading as a library, and we felt that it was sometimes hard for users to find recreational reading. So the idea was to use topical and special displays to help showcase some of the offerings that we have.”

There are nearly 700,000 books available in the physical library, but more than a million are at the fingertips of any online user. And the collection is intended to serve both an in-person and online audience—each pop-up exhibit has a corresponding website that features related ebooks, podcasts, and available streaming media.

“It kind of evolved naturally because before we did that first display, we had already done a purely online collection,” said West, who usually builds the website for each exhibit. “I had already been doing rotating ebook shelves for recreational reading, so we just started to incorporate those into our collection websites.”

Picking a Topic

That first foray into pop-up collections was an online exhibit that featured history and context into the conflict between Ukraine and Russia.

From there it was decided that perhaps a physical display could be useful as well. So, coinciding with last fall’s opening of MTSU’s new Concrete and Construction Management Building, the first book display was a "Celebration of Concrete."

“That was probably one of our most visually interesting displays, and we’ve tried to find a good mix of fun subjects, topical displays, and ones that line up with particular months,” West said.

While West has spearheaded many of the projects, help has come from every facet of the building. Special collections librarian Susan Martin worked on an exhibit to highlight the library’s Distilling, Fermenting, and Brewing Collection. Inclusion and education librarian Jordan Nielsen created an exhibit featuring the historical contributions of drag performances, and the whole library was involved in submitting recommendations for staff picks.

“It’s become a collaborative process with the library, from coming up with a topic to figuring out the content that matches with it,” West said.

Drawing Notice

The displays and exhibits have also been a venue for driving student engagement. The most memorable component of February’s Black History Month collection featured an opportunity for visitors to write a figure from Black history that they admire. By the end of the month, the board was filled with names of figures from around the world that students, faculty, and staff could look to for inspiration.

Other notable book exhibits featured the American Library Association’s Banned Books Week as well as National Women’s History Month and National Hispanic History Month.

One of the biggest contributors to all the displays has been Keneisha Mosley, who has helped in designing and setting up nearly every exhibit since the program started.

“I have a bit of a background in archives and curation, so it’s fun for me to try and put something together that will catch a patron’s eye,” Mosley said.

“It’s also an outlet for me to kind of see what’s in our collection as well. I spend a lot of time with students at the reference desk, so I’m more focused on helping them with research. This project has let me see a lot of books we have in this library that I wouldn’t have otherwise noticed.” And students can now know more about those resources for outside enjoyment, too.

To check out the latest book exhibit, visit the commons area located just beyond the elevators on the library’s first floor, or check out the website at library.mtsu.edu.

Inside Walker Library

With its expert staff, dynamic collections, and electronic resources, Walker Library is the University’s hub for study and research. But the library is also the place where students come to mix and mingle, learn, and discover new ways to work together.

The library also has an active exhibit and event program. In partnership with various University departments, student organizations, and local groups, Walker Library displays collections and historical objects and hosts cultural events and concerts. Here's a look at recent news and events.

PANTRY PARTNERSHIP FOR STUDENT SNACKS

After collaborating the past several years with the Student Food Pantry for food drives every February, the library has created a Student Snack Station to fight food insecurity. Students on campus can access snacks and small food items on the first floor of the library.

DRAWING CROWDS AT MAKERSPACE EVENTS

Walker Library is home to the first makerspace in a library in Tennessee, and annual events in the space have only gotten bigger and better with each passing year. Every fall, hundreds of students come into the space, often for the first time, and have a chance to get familiar with all its offerings during the Makerspace Open House, put together in partnership with MT Engage.

Later in each semester, the Makerspace also hosts a virtual reality night where entities from around campus and the community present uses of the VR technology available to MTSU students. The space then opens up for a number of experiences, from playing VR games to landing a plane in the flight simulator.

LIT GRANT AWARDED

Every year, the library awards Information Literacy Curriculum Integration grants, and this year’s winner was Associate Professor Shannon Harmon (Elementary and Special Education). Over the next year, she will be working with librarian Jordan Nielsen to revise her ELED 4200 course, Assessing the Elementary Level Learner.

SOOTHING HARPS AT A HECTIC TIME

One of the library’s most popular programs, Arts in the Atrium, finally returned this past spring as Sarah Crocker and her students Kaelan Allen, Claire Cifonie, and Alana Green performed a 25-minute harp recital at the entrance to the library.

The performance, which took place in the last month of the school year, allowed students to enjoy an instrument that they rarely hear in their day-to-day lives and offered a chance to take a brief break from studying in the often hectic final weeks of a semester.

HONORING DONORS

Special Collections would like to thank the following individuals and companies who donated gifts-in-kind over the past three years: Alan Boehm, Jayme Brunson, Beverly Geckle, Susan Hanson, Tony Johnston, Alfred Lutz, Susan Martin, Kathleen Schmand, David Schuster, Big Creek Winery, True North Ale Company, Nelson’s Green Brier Distillery, and MPI Label Systems.

ASSISTANCE FOR VETERANS ON A NEW MISSION

Every semester, Walker Library partners with a variety of campus entities to support the Charlie and Hazel Daniels Veterans and Military Family Center at the Newcomer Briefing. The Daniels Center is one of the largest and most comprehensive veterans centers on any Tennessee campus, and it serves as a one-stop shop to meet the needs of military-connected students.

The semiannual briefings serve as an opportunity to let military-connected students know that the library is there to support them as they begin their new mission: graduation from MTSU.

STUDENT ART EXHIBIT MAKES IMPRESSION

In a process that took years to get going, Walker Library hosted a student art exhibit during the 2022–23 school year that featured cardboard sculptures from students of MTSU Art Professor Mark Mcleod.

The project focused on anti-monumentalism, which intentionally challenges the ideas behind traditional public monuments. Examples from the students involved in the class included a take designed to challenge the notion of pulling oneself up “by their bootstraps,” prison overpopulation, and the historical treatment of indigenous cultures in North America.

WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS AT WALKER

In partnership with the University’s Health Services, Walker Library hosted Wellness Wednesdays in the atrium every week. The program was designed to let students know all the services available to them, from consultations with nurses and doctors through necessities like filling prescriptions on the MTSU campus.

If a student had a question, no matter how minor or major, staff from Health Services was right there to help them with it or set up an appointment for further evaluation.

Health Services has been a frequent collaborator with the library over the years, as the building has served as one of the most accessible places for many students, faculty, and staff to get their annual flu vaccines.

A VERY BIG BOOK!

The Dimensional and Artists’ Books collection is one of the highlights of Walker Library’s Special Collections, and this past spring’s exhibit ”A Serious Collection of Fun Books” featured much of what’s on offer up on the library’s fourth floor. However, in April, staff from Special Collections brought its biggest book down to the first floor as they opened up the award-winning Opening the Forbidden City by Wang Wei.

The book, which at first doesn’t appear to be all that large, is a three-dimensional masterpiece that is more than 10 feet long and features countless pieces of pop-up architecture. The process of opening the book took nearly two hours.

MURPHY CENTER’S FABULOUS 50TH

The library once again played a role in a University-wide celebration as MTSU’s iconic Murphy Center marked its 50th anniversary last December. In coordination with the Albert Gore Research Center and MT Athletics, the library’s first-floor exhibit space featured items and memorabilia from the five decades of concerts, athletic events, and graduations that have taken place on the historic hardwood of the Monte Hale/ Jimmy Earle Arena.

JEWL Magazine

James E. Walker Library

1301 E. Main St.

MTSU Box 13

Murfreesboro, TN 37132

A LIBRARY FOR THE 21ST CENTURY AND BEYOND

James E. Walker Library delivers exceptional services in an environment that inspires learning and interaction, uniting the intellectual and social aspects of our University. Support from alumni and friends helps us to provide exceptional experiences for our students through the incorporation of technologically rich study spaces, an interactive writing center, about 700,000 physical volumes, a Makerspace, and almost 600 carefully selected databases and millions of full-text articles, ebooks, streaming audio and video, and many more online resources for research.

Visit library.mtsu.edu/give to make your online gift, or email devofc@mtsu.edu or call 615-898-2502 for more information.