Issue date: 3/31/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Jonny Green [Click to enlarge]

West Campus Library, known to many students as one of the most popular places to study on campus, is working to promote Internet databases, e-journals and other library services, through the creation of a student street team.

The street team concept, usually referring to volunteers promoting local musicians and groups, came to the library through the brainstorming of West Campus Library Director Leslie Reynolds and librarian Michael Smith. They wanted to increase student use of library resources and decided that using student leaders would be the least intimidating for college students.

Jennifer Foster, a class of 2006 library fellow, was assigned the task of organizing the student team last summer. She felt that many students were coming to West Campus Library but ignoring the valuable information sources that can be found there.

"Often they only use [West Campus Library] as a place to study without realizing that there are so many electronic resources that could help them with their research, so they can get better grades on their projects," Foster said.

By fall, Foster had begun recruiting a team, which now consists of five students in varying majors. Jennifer Coffin, a senior management major and student worker at the WCL, was one of the first students to join the team. Coffin also sees the importance of the street team as a library outreach.

"Research has shown that many students, particularly undergraduates, do not know about many of our resources, much less how to use them," Coffin said. "We want to show them that the information they need, whether it's for class or for personal use, is available to them. And we want to help them find what they're looking for."

Events hosted by the student team so far include a movie marathon during last semester's dead week and a Super Bowl party this semester. The events were better attended than was expected, with over 300 students participating in the movie marathon alone, but Foster still feels that the focus should be on spreading awareness of library resources.

"The challenge we are having is ensuring that we connect the fun activities to the Street Team and the library, and that we promote the resources in every fun activity we develop," Foster said.

Continued...

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