Message from the Director
by Dawn Emsellem-Wichowski, M.S.L.I.S.
Since my appointment as library director in July, I have collaborated with our library staff to develop specific areas of focus for the coming year. We have set a course that incorporates several exciting trends on the horizon in academic libraries.
Information Literacy:
Our students are constantly navigating a complex, dynamic information environment. New forms of media arise quickly and become major conveyors of information. As we collaborate with faculty to support advanced research skills within disciplines, the library seeks to help Salve Regina students develop the dispositions and habits of mind to function skillfully and ethically in this environment. This wide-ranging set of skills is what we call information literacy. One of our major goals is to work closely with faculty and other campus divisions to appropriately integrate information literacy throughout the curriculum and student life. We look forward to working across campus in support of the university’s goal to continue to improve the level of academic excellence at Salve Regina.
Advanced Collections and Search Tools:
The purpose of McKillop Library’s collections is to support the curriculum, and we’re grateful to faculty members for continuing to request materials that support teaching and student research. Within the limits of the library budget, we seek out new resources and research tools to support our community’s research needs. We also monitor new developments in librarianship to offer our community the latest search tools and instruction on how to use them. Our new catalog is an example of this.
Digital Scholarship:
Digital scholarship is a major area of growth on campuses nationwide, with libraries, faculty, and students developing collaborative projects that engage students in the scholarly conversation, create new modes of scholarly communication and interdisciplinary research, and showcase the intellectual production of their universities. The library is piloting several projects that we hope will develop into opportunities for faculty and students to share their research, creating spaces where others can access their ideas and develop new interpretations.
Civic Engagement:
Libraries are traditionally spaces where citizens come together to investigate, debate, and discuss challenging ideas. We already serve as a major community space on campus, and we hope to develop more programs, events, and displays that provide space for fostering civic engagement.
I’m excited to take on the challenge of my new role at McKillop Library, and look forward to working with all of you.
Worldcat Discovery: Our New Search Tool
McKillop Library took advantage of a period of transformation within our HELIN academic library consortium to make a radical change in the type of catalog/research tool we offer to the Salve Regina community. After a period of thorough review and research, the library staff and our HELIN colleagues chose to replace the old HELIN catalog with a new “discovery service,” Worldcat Discovery, to help members of the Salve community find information on their research topics from a network of libraries
worldwide. Researchers will notice a new search box on the library’s homepage, along with a new look when results are displayed after a search.
Library staff ask the Salve community for patience and feedback during this period, as we will continue to configure and refine the new search tool over the fall semester. The entire migration should be completed by Dec. 15.
Please consider scheduling an appointment with a librarian to learn about the library catalog’s new features. To schedule an appointment please contact the library at salvelibrarian@salve.edu or 401-341-2289.
New Features:
- Displays a huge range of materials through the ability to search libraries worldwide for books and media.
- Provides a quick summary of items in your result list, so researchers can quickly browse and gauge relevance.
- After a user completes a search, results can be more easily fine-tuned to quickly find the most relevant and accessible items.
- Streamlines the interlibrary loan request process for users.
- The information service provider is more responsive to feedback, and has already made updates based on libraries’ suggestions since we switched to the new catalog in July.
- Utilizes a modern cloud based system which is faster and more reliable than previous catalog.
- Designed to display well on all types of mobile devices.
- As a new system it will be capable of evolving as future advances are made in search tool technology.
- Easier off-campus access, simply by entering Salve username and password (going fully live in January).
Digital Collections
University Archivist and Special Collections Librarian Genna Duplisea and her summer work study student Brittany Fox created and added to several digital collections this summer.
Student Newspapers:
The student newspapers collection contributes to our mission to preserve a record of student life at Salve Regina through providing access to digitized editions of student newspapers Ebb Tide and The Nautilus, dating from the 1950s to the 1980s. Visit https://digitalcommons.salve.edu/student-newspapers
University Catalogs:
Digitized versions of the university catalogs allow users to chart the development of the Salve curriculum and help departments find historical information about the types of courses offered. https://digitalcommons.salve.edu/catalogs
Newport Ephemera:
New digitized materials were added to the Newport Ephemera Collection, which contains a variety of short publications, brochures, souvenirs, clippings, and other materials on the social history of Newport. Visit https://digitalcommons.salve.edu/newport_books
Shared Shelf:
The archives now uses media management system Shared Shelf to organize and provide access to digitized images from Salve’s history, and to create collections related to faculty and student research. Archivist Genna Duplisea and Brittany Fox '18 worked over the summer on preparing the archives’ photo collections for digitization. In honor of the Jubilee Year of Mercy, the first photographs added were from the Campus Ministry and Sisters of Mercy record groups. In the coming months, additional new images and collections will be organized, digitized, described, and published in Shared Shelf.
Salve Votes
 This fall the library teamed up with the Pell Center for International Relations and Public Policy, the Office of Student Activities, the Student Government Association (SGA), and the Southern Poverty Law Center on Campus (SPLC on Campus) to promote voting and civic engagement at Salve Regina University. McKillop Library put up displays on evaluating the candidates, voter registration and acquiring absentee ballots. In addition, the library, SGA, and SPLC on Campus set up voter tables at the Welcome Back Barbeque, several lunches in Miley Lobby, and both of the Debate Watches hosted by the Pell Center. In total, the library mailed 109 voter registration and absentee ballot forms, and to date Mail Services has mailed at least 300 absentee ballots.
Banned Books Week
 This year the library sponsored and hosted several events to highlight Banned Books Week, with a special focus on diversity in banned books. According to the American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom, over half of all banned books are by authors of color or contain issues dealing with diverse communities. Through events including Blind Date with a Banned Book, the Banned Books Read-out, and a screening of the movie "The Color Purple," issues including diversity, censorship, and discrimination were explored. A blackboard was also setup in the basement of Miley. Students were asked to answer the question: "What book has changed your life?" By the end of each day the board was filled with book titles, all written in different colored chalk. Titles like To Kill a Mockingbird, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Catcher in the Rye, Brave New World, and many other classics were mentioned.
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An Interdisciplinary Approach to Empowering Survivors of Domestic Violence through Stress Reduction
Drs. Mary Montminy-Danna and Lisa Zuccarelli’s pilot study of female survivors of intimate partner violence aimed to design an interdisciplinary model of stress reduction through the use of safe conversation, structured interviews and the use of a commercial biofeedback program. This approach is not typical of most domestic violence services, which usually provide counseling, advocacy and shelters. The opportunity to discuss with these women the amount and source of their stresses and their current coping mechanisms created an emotionally supportive environment for performing this study. Read more...
Open Access Week - Open in Action
McKillop Library supports open access (OA) via the Digital Commons @ Salve Regina, the university’s institutional repository. The Digital Commons provides faculty and students the opportunity to make their research freely available. For more information on Digital Commons and the impact of OA you can view the webinar Open Access – 100 Stories of Impact. If you are interested you may contribute your research to Digital Commons. Read more...
Crafting in the Makerspace
Dawn Emsellem-Wichowski was appointed director of library services.
Olga Verbeek has a new title of associate director of information systems and collections services.
Beth Blycker-Koll has taken over reserves from Sarah Dupont. All correspondence related to reserves should now be directed to Beth at bethany.blyckerkoll@salve.edu or 401-341-2278.
Welcome to our newest staff member, Bea Grimmitt, who will be our new evening circulation supervisor.
Gale Literary Sources
Artemis Literary Sources has a new name and is now called Gale Literary Sources. View database.
Slavery in America and the World: History, Culture & Law
All known law related materials on slavery in the United States and the English-speaking world. This includes every statute passed by every colony and state on slavery, every federal statute dealing with slavery, and all reported state and federal cases on slavery.
View database.
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