Category Archives: C-MACS

C-MACS will restructure the committee as follows:
•Norie Guthrie will serve as a new co-chair.
•Debra Kolah will continue serving as a co-chair through summer 2016.

The following staff will become permanent members by virtue of their positions:
•Jeff Koffler
•Judy Howell
•Debra Kolah

The following staff will serve two-year terms representing their respective areas:
•Woodson (Norie Guthrie)
•Reference (Sandi Edwards)
•Access Services (Michael Chiles)
•Tech Services (David Bynog)
•DSS (Jean Aroom)

Other topics of discussion included:
•Social media;
•Creation of a new “Welcome Video” for Fondren’s website;
•Marketing services: The idea of a master calendar for Fondren events as well as a Survey Monkey training class was discussed;
•Fondren’s participation in O-Week activities;
•Service-point banners: Digital signage is very expensive, and we may explore other options;
•OwlCards updates: Including creation of a card for the Kelley Center.

Fondren Research Support fair–we plan on having this event next year again. Debra reported that the Asst. Director of the Office of Academic Advising shared that they were very happy to be a part of the event, and want Fondren to participate in their event during O-Week Orientation.

CMACS will hold Social Media Training in early 2015, but date will be dependent on other events. This will be lecture style, in KMR, but we will offer one-on-one sign-ups at the event for folks that need/want some additional support. Training will include: Facebook posting changes, Best Practices, and our current channels.

CMACS recently completed and will send to the Welcome Center a new script for the library portion of the general Rice University tours.

CMACS will be involved in the Ithaka S+R survey to be implemented in the Spring. CMACS will think of ideas to increase faculty and student participation.

C-MACS is hosting a Bingo Night for students on Monday, October 6th. The scavenger hunt event will start at a table across from Access Services, and take students throughout the building as they look for the locations on their bingo card. There will be packaged snacks, in the spirit of our new Food & Drink policy, at several locations: the 6th floor study area, the 4th floor vending machines, CWOVC service desk, the Government Information librarian service desk, and Fondren 156. The snacks will be labeled with additional information about services and policies. We hope the event will be a fun, lively way for students to learn about Fondren, and navigate the building! Prizes include:  maze pens, highlighters, carabiners, and small notebooks. For the energetic students that get a “black-out” by visiting every stop on their card, additional small prizes include: owl magnets, owl erasers, owl LED lights, and dust cloths. A big thank you to Friends of Fondren for helping with some of the prizes!  Marketing of the event will start later this week. Please encourage your student workers to attend!

Prizes for Bingo night

Bingo Night black-out prizes

Questions or comments? Please contact a member of the committee: Debra Kolah (Chair), David Bynog, Sandi Edwards, Jeff Koffler, Jean Aroom, Norie Guthrie, and Judy Howell

The C-MACS committee is rolling out a new marketing campaign this Fall. A series of “owl cards” will be placed at service points throughout the library this week, to help inform visitors and students on commonly asked questions. The cards look great displayed graphic-side out, but could also be displayed information-side out.

Each major service point will receive two holders, and the set of 12 cards that make up the collection. Topics include: Food & Drink, Special Collections & Archives, Feedback, Prints, Scans & Copies, Expert Advice, Visitor Services, Research Planning, Geographic Data & Mapping, Study Spaces, Learning Opportunities, Audio Visual Equipment, and Expert Advice.

Inspiration for this project came from the nice “moo cards” Andy Damico, Preservation Librarian, used for Preservation Week in 2013 & 2014.

Information-side displayed

Graphic-side displayed

Owl card close-up

Several students assisted in the usability and quick identification of the topics of the card, based on just looking at the original designs of the cards, and Jeff tweaked the designs to be cute, and instructive. We hope you love them!

Questions or comments? Please contact a member of the committee: Debra Kolah (Chair), David Bynog, Sandi Edwards, Jeff Koffler, Jean Aroom, Norie Guthrie, and Judy Howell

C-MACS is investigating interesting freebies and “swag” for students during O-Week and for patrons during the renovation. If anyone has suggestions or sees fun items at upcoming conferences, feel free to pass details along to Debra Kolah.

Committee members are also reviewing Fondren’s brochures with an eye toward revising or consolidating some of the offerings (see list of reviewers below). A centralized method of stocking brochures for each public services area is also being explored.

Jean Aroom: GIS and Govs-Pubs
Sandi Edwards: Collections
Norie Guthrie: Woodson Research Center
Jeff Koffler: Circulation

Access Services will once again turn Kyle Morrow into a study room during finals, based on the successful response from last semester. As in the past, the library will have study break events. Dates for events so far include:

Monday April 28: Popcorn and Coffee break hosted by Access Services
Thursday May 1–Saturday May 3: Pet Therapy hosted by Research Services
Sunday May 4: C-MACS Study Break