Read it and Weep

 The Vernon and Doris Bishop Library is a place to study alone or with friends, check out materials, or hang out and drink coffee. It’s also a place where students can find campus employment.

Bishop Library employs 19 student workers from 10 majors. Though you’ll usually see them behind the circulation desk, there’s much more they help with behind the scenes.

Student workers Rayanne Hawk ’20, an early childhood education major, and Patrick Younes ’18, a fourth-year physical therapy major, collaborated on a unique project during break. Working with librarians Maureen Bentz ’00 and Julia Harvey, they compiled displays of books and other media on the first floor of Bishop Library.

“[This] was my first time working on a display,” said Hawk, who joined the team last fall.

She helped compile the Winter Olympics, drug and alcohol facts week, and “series other than Harry Potter” displays.

Younes helped with those displays, along with a health awareness display and a “things you don’t learn in college” display, the latter of which included books on crafts, cooking, and hobbies.

The veteran Younes, who has worked at Bishop Library for two years, said, “If there’s an event, upcoming holiday, or monthly theme we’ll do a display.”

For instance, two displays for the month of February are themed around Black History Month and Valentine’s Day.

Putting together a nice display requires finding interesting titles. Younes and Hawk used the library catalog and Google to help them out.

“I looked at the covers, and I’m like, ‘are these exciting looking covers or not?’ And I selected the best-looking ones,” Younes said.

The adage doesn’t hold when it comes to making eye-catching displays.

Additionally, there’s only so much space on the library counters, so the students had to make the best of it.

“We did trial and error to see what looked good,” Hawk said.

Hawk and Younes are student supervisors, which means they have many duties in addition to working the circulation desk.

Hawk checks in and shelves magazines and periodicals, and she gets the mail from the mailroom. Younes has previously entered new books into the library system, checked in and shelved periodicals, processed interlibrary loan requests, and filed documents in the LVC archives.

Hawk and Younes enjoy working at Bishop Library. They have made many new friends, both students and librarians.

“I like that you can go at your own pace and still get your work done,” Younes said.

Both student workers said they appreciate the library more because of their jobs.

“Before I worked here, I occasionally studied in Bishop,” Hawk said. “Now I appreciate the books and everything more since I have firsthand experience.”

 

-- By Julie Wiker ’18 for ENG 430 Feature Writing