The Emory Libraries is introducing several changes for the 2022-2023 academic year, designed to make the library experience more productive and enjoyable for Emory students, faculty, staff and visitors.
New vice provost of libraries and museum
In July, Dr. Valeda F. Dent began as the new vice provost of libraries and museum for the Emory Libraries and the Michael C. Carlos Museum. She will work closely with the Office of the Provost and provide support in planning for the future of both areas, including advancing shared discovery and conservation of the university’s collections while continuing to expand access, equity and diversity initiatives, and community engagement. Dent is also hoping to amplify conversations focusing on the role of artificial intelligence and machine learning in the libraries and museum.
Dent comes to Emory from Hunter College of the City University of New York in New York City, where she served as acting provost and vice president for academic affairs as well as vice president for student success and learning innovation. She was also co-chair of the Presidential Task Force for the Advancement of Racial Equity. Prior to that, she served as dean and university librarian at St. John’s University in Queens, New York, and dean and chief operating officer for the libraries at Long Island University. She holds a PhD in information science from Long Island University, an MSW and MILS from the University of Michigan, and a BA in film studies from Hunter College.
Read more here.
Changes to Woodruff Library building
The first thing visitors will notice when they enter the Woodruff Library building is the remodeled lobby. It’s brighter and more expansive, with new lighting, paint, and flooring. The entrance desk is smaller and relocated between new ADA accessible turnstiles. Visitors will be greeted by a sign that displays “welcome” in 14 different languages. The words represent the 11 most prevalent primary languages of recent Emory College of Arts and Sciences students as well as Hebrew, in acknowledgment of the cultural and historical focus for the university including Hebrew Studies and Holocaust Studies; and Cherokee and Muscogee languages, in acknowledgment of the Native Language Path.
New furniture and exhibit cases will be installed in the lobby in the next several months, providing comfortable seating and glimpses at the exhibits throughout the Libraries. The New Books display, taken down during the remodeling, will be re-established with new shelving on Level 2 sometime after winter break.
The lobby will also include a memorial to C.J. Jones, a beloved operations and access team member who passed away in June. Jones’ affable personality, friendly greetings and chats, and knack for remembering names made him well known among the many visitors to the Woodruff Library during his years at the entrance desk. Patrons can leave a comment in a tribute book that will be given to his family.
Beyond the lobby, a Service Zone has been developed around the Library Service Desk on Level 2, with more self-checkout stations. New this year: on-hold items will be accessible to patrons, who will be able to retrieve their requested items themselves and use the self-checkout stations for faster service.
The former One Button Studio on Level 1 has been converted into a new Podcast Studio, which features industry-standard equipment for up to four on-site participants and seamless remote guests integration. Students, faculty, and staff have found the studio, which opened in March, easy to use. As of mid-August, the Podcast Studio had been reserved 118 times by 46 unique users since it opened, said Alex Kyrychenko, educational technology specialist for the Emory Libraries.
The Student Production Studio added a large 16.5-inch professional teleprompter and tripod-based laptop stand, as requested by students and faculty.
For more information about all four production studios (Podcast Studio, Music & Audio Recording Studio, Streaming & Recording Studio, and Student Production Studio), please visit the Academic Technology Services’ production studios webpage.
MediaLab, in the Music and Media Library on Level 4 above the lobby, now offers higher-powered Mac Minis with Apple’s new Studio Display for improved performance and a better user experience.
Online resources
Librarians have prepared a welcome page for Emory College students. Here, they can find links to anything they need to know about the library (and beyond), from how to find a book and where to find a quiet study space, to how to check out a laptop or video camera, to where to sign up for free workshops, either online or at any of our libraries or the TechLab. Even those who aren’t new students will find this page useful.
For instructors, Canvas Online Training Courses have been revamped for the new academic year. Emory’s Canvas training calendar reflects the updated techniques and tools instructors need to teach this year, including Canvas Poll Everywhere and teaching with video. The Canvas support site includes flexible on-demand training offerings and many updated resources.
Emory Digital Collections, the home of digitized items from the Woodruff, Rose, Oxford College, Pitts Theology, and Health Sciences Center libraries, reached a milestone this past summer of over 30,000 items. The site provides direct access to new material not discoverable in the Libraries catalog, with many of the materials open to the public. Materials include the Rose Library’s Chester Topp yellowbacks collection and the Robert Langmuir African American Photograph Collection; the Woodruff Health Sciences Center Library Artifact collection; and the Oxford College Collection of Asian Artifacts, among many other collections.
Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library
Hundreds of new videos from the Rose Library collections are available through its Aviary platform, including oral history interviews with Emory students in the Underrepresented Voices at Emory collection and with civil rights icons in the Veterans of Hope Oral History collection.
Two physical exhibitions showcasing Emory’s diverse collections are on display, featuring items from both the Rose Library and Emory Libraries collections: Forbidden Loves and Secret Lusts: Selections from the Golden Age of Queer Pulp Fiction (Rose Library, Level 10), drawing primarily from Rose’s LGBTQ collections; and Graffiti: A Library Guide to Aerosol Arts (Woodruff Library, Level 3), containing materials from the Libraries’ collections and Rose’s photographic collections.
Computing Center at Cox Hall
Many people don’t realize the Computing Center at Cox Hall, run by Student Digital Life, is part of the Emory Libraries, but it is. It’s where students can find computers with specialty programs, gaming rooms, TechLab (with 3-D printers) and ArtsLab, board games to check out, EaglePrint stations, and more.
New equipment has been added for Emory users:
A sublimation printer in TechLab for creating custom-designed T-shirts, coasters, and other items
- Additional do-it-yourself 3-D printers in the Computing Center
- A 36-inch academic poster printer in the Computing Center
For more resources, classes and collection updates, please visit libraries.emory.edu.