The J.D. Williams Library is offer\u00ading Wednesday workshops for students, faculty and staff at the university.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese workshops are designed to help our patrons access and use our library resources with hands-on prac\u00adtice in our instruction classrooms,\u201d said Ruth Mirtz, reference librarian. \u201cWe design all of the workshops to support research and library skills, but we hope they are fun and engag\u00ading as well. There is no homework! We want students, faculty and staff to see the library as a place of adventure and learning, not just a building full of tables and chairs.\u201d<\/p>\n
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An estimated 200 patrons have at\u00adtended Wednesday workshops to date. Topics vary, ranging from da\u00adtabase training to creating your own podcast.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of the workshops highlight specific discipline-related resources such as the ProQuest History Vault\u2019s collection on the civil rights move\u00adment of the 20th century,\u201d Mirtz said. \u201cOther workshops are designed to help our students and faculty improve their research skills, such as our \u2018Pow\u00ader Searching\u2019 workshop.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jonathan McMichael, reference li\u00adbrarian, gave a workshop on One Search, a new search engine that helps patrons find books, articles, archival material, government docu\u00adments and reference items from one search box. The workshop helped students and faculty learn about how the search engine works, how to re\u00adfine and limit their hits, and how to access the full text of materials that are available online.<\/p>\n
Mirtz encourages people to attend the workshops so they can receive personal assistance with topics of in\u00adterest to them. She said she enjoys teaching the workshops.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been wonderful to reach pa\u00adtrons who wouldn\u2019t normally try out new resources or who hesitate to ask questions in the library,\u201d she said. \u201cAs librarians, we enjoy working with pa\u00adtrons one-on-one in these targeted workshops, where we have time to answer questions and concentrate on a specific feature of the library. Plus, we always learn new things from our patrons, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
A new workshop schedule will be available in the fall. Registration is not required but encouraged. For registra\u00adtion information and the full schedule of upcoming workshops, visit http:\/\/ www.olemiss.edu\/depts\/general_ library\/intro\/news.html.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"