McKillop Library - Newsbrief

First Floor Renovation

Message from the Director

Dawn Emsellem, Director of Library Services

You may have noticed the shelves on the first floor emptying out over the past few months. This is because the library team has been busy preparing for an upcoming renovation of the library’s first floor which will hopefully begin after finals in May 2023. This renovation is part of the Salve Signature Experience strategic initiative led by President Kelli Armstrong.  The project arose out of a campus space analysis and focus groups of faculty, staff, and students conducted last year and further informed by meetings with faculty, students, and staff over the past months. Please look for a faculty and staff information session on October 20th from 2:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. in O’Hare 260 where faculty and staff can understand how this project aligns with our strategic initiatives, meet the architects, hear about the preliminary/early work underway, and ask questions.

The news of this renovation is exciting for many of us on the library team because we see an opportunity to fulfill years of student requests on our annual survey (coming in December! Your chance to tell us what you think of library services and spaces!). Over years, students have asked for more comfortable seating, more flexible options for study furniture, better lighting, and updated interior design. While we’ve sought to fulfill those requests little by little each year, we hope the renovation will achieve all these changes at once on the first floor.

The renovation will also bring student academic services such as the writing and tutoring center to the first floor, which I feel confident will lead to more opportunities for collaboration between librarians and other academic success colleagues. I believe this will be a wonderful new academically focused gathering space on campus, a place for scholarly discussions, exploration of new ideas, and students discovering where their intellectual passions and gifts meet their vocations.

The renovation also provides an opportunity for the library to review our collections and selectively remove titles that have not been checked out in 20 years, have outdated information, and are far outside the boundaries of Salve Regina’s current curriculum. These decisions are also reviewed by full-time faculty to ensure that we’re not removing titles that are important to their teaching and scholarship. This process should be undertaken regularly in an academic library, and the renovation provided us with an opportunity to subscribe to collection analysis software to help us make better decisions. All books that meet donation criteria are donated to several partners. By May, we plan that all library materials will be off the first floor. We look forward to greeting you in September from a newly designed circulation and welcome desk. Please feel free to email or fill out a comment form if you have comments or questions.

75th Anniversary Oral History Project

The library is collecting StoryCorps oral histories from students, faculty, staff, sisters, and alumni of Salve Regina in honor of the 75th anniversary. We hope to tell the story of Salve Regina on its 75th anniversary from the perspective of as many voices as possible. The interviews will be available through StoryCorps. If you would like to participate or know someone who should be interviewed, please fill out this form.

Updates to McKillop Library Collections

The newest addition to the library’s online resources, Social Explorer, provides location-based data and tools to visualize and interact with data. Users can create maps, charts, and reports. Social Explorer includes thousands of built-in data indicators related to demography, economy, health, politics, environment, and crime, and is especially useful for exploring US Census data.

Upgraded access to the database Business Source Complete is now available, and includes a wider range of business journals and more company profiles.

The New York Times digital edition is available, and all faculty and students can create their own account using their Salve email address.

Due to the upcoming library renovation and space constraints, the library is currently limiting the purchasing of new DVDs to those which are required viewing for a class. Faculty who wish to request a DVD purchase are asked to please complete the course reserve request form, and all DVD purchases will be placed on reserve for the class. Faculty are also encouraged to consider the thousands of videos available in Films on Demand and Academic Video Online.

McKillop Library welcomes three new team members

Regina Connolly is the new Education and Instruction Librarian. Regina comes to us from Bishop Hendricken High School in Warwick, where she served as Director of Library Services. Regina built a highly student-centered library at Hendricken, creating a welcoming space for all, which included co-moderating the school’s Book Club, Hawks for Her (gender inclusion advocacy group), and Born to Stand Out (BIPOC affinity group). She remains a member of the Rhode Island Teen Book Award Committee.

Katie Foley joined McKillop Library in May as our new evening and weekend circulation supervisor and will co-manage our busy interlibrary loan service. She also serves as a library assistant at Bristol’s Rogers Free Library. Katie earned her BA in English with a minor in Creative Writing from Rhode Island College.

Edward Iglesias is McKillop Library’s Systems and Technology Librarian. He joins us from Stephen F. Austin University in Nacogdoches, TX, where he was head of digital strategies and content discovery at Ralph W. Steen Library. Edward holds an MA in English from Texas A&M International University and his MLIS from University of Texas, Austin. Currently Edward is overseeing major updates to the library website and associated security infrastructure, as well as Digital Commons and WorldShare Management Services. 

Quick Updates

Fridays and Saturdays are back!

Come check out our new and growing Library of Things! After suggestions from our patrons, we have added some new games to our collection: Spikeball, Twister Ultimate, and Uno Flip!. For a full list of the games and bakeware we currently offer, and to suggest new Things to add to the collection, please visit https://salve.libguides.com/libraryofthings

Renovation Preparation

Please bear with us as we shift and condense our collections in preparation for the upcoming library renovation. If you’re having trouble finding library resources that are no longer shelved where they once belonged, please ask any circulation staff or reference librarians for assistance and we’ll be happy to point you in the right direction!

Book Donations

Due to a major collection evaluation project prompted by the upcoming library renovation, McKillop Library is not able to accept book donations at this time. Please consider routing your donations to the Rhode Island public library system, which is always accepting donations for their collections and book sales; visit https://www.oslri.org/library-locator/ for the address and contact information of your nearest branch location. Donations may also be sent to Better World Books; visit their website at https://services.betterworldbooks.com/individuals/ or contact a librarian at salvelibrarian@salve.edu for more information.

Library Displays  

3rd Floor From the University Archives: Celebrating 75 Years: What Salve Wore

From Salve Regina’s founding, its students have presented themselves as part of its community by what they wore. Tradition governed many of these garments in the early days, but even as the college evolved into a university, students have found ways to display their school pride. This display shows some of the garments that have helped create the Salve Regina identity over the past 75 years.

Display curator:  Genna Duplisea, Archivist and Special Collections Librarian  

2nd floor, Curriculum Resource Center

Hispanic Heritage Month

Explore dual-language books from the Curriculum Resource collection celebrating Hispanic heritage. Display by: Regina Connolly, Education & Instruction Librarian 

1st Floor

The Embattled Vote in America

Stop by to peruse our latest titles on critical issues related to voting. You'll find titles on gerrymandering, voter suppression, suffrage and more. 

Display by: Nancy Barta-Norton, Acquisitions & Cataloging Librarian

Coming of age novels 

Find newer titles of novels that explore young people's adventures as they grown and transform into adulthood. On display in the main lobby.  Display by: Lisa Richter, Assistant Director, Research and Instruction. 

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