Behind the Scenes – Page 3 – Mary and Jeff Bell Library Blog

I-Create Student Worker Spotlight: Alex Esquivel

Post author:Bell Library
Post published:March 19, 2021
Post category:Behind the Scenes Hello, from the Staff We Made This

At I-Create, our student workers are immensely talented and creative. For this month’s spotlight, we would like to shine a light on one such student, Alex Esquivel. Alex hails from the small town of Eagle Lake, Texas. He began his education at a junior college, before catching word of Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. Upon reviewing the TAMU-CC fine arts program, Alex decided that the Island University was the institution for him. After he began attending TAMU-CC, Alex became drawn to…

Comparing Journals – What’s the “use”?

Post author:Derrik Hiatt
Post published:February 9, 2021
Post category:Behind the Scenes

I was given an assignment this week—to list all the library’s subscriptions from a particular journal publisher, then rank them according to their priority for TAMU-CC. The library subscribes to more than 2,700 of this publisher’s journals. How would you go about determining the relative importance of each one?Obviously, your personal favorite journal should be at the top of the list, right? (Hang on, I’ll say more about that later.) But what about the rest?As it happens, librarians like to…

Welcome to the Archives

Post author:Bell Library
Post published:January 29, 2021
Post category:Behind the Scenes Today's Special

Many students complete their educational career without interacting with the archives, possibly without knowing they exists. Having studied psychology for the entirety of my six years in higher education, I have never had a reason to interact with or investigate the contents of the archives available to me until recently.After being accepted at TAMU-CC, I began applying to available Graduate Assistant jobs indiscriminately. When the archives staff contacted me, I had to pretend to remember applying for this particular position…

A Look at 2019-2020

Post author:Catherine Rudowsky
Post published:January 26, 2021
Post category:Behind the Scenes Dean's Corner Service for You

I would like to welcome everyone to a brand-new year and the Spring 2021 semester! Every spring semester, pandemic or not, the Library is busy gathering and reporting data, which makes it a perfect time for reflection. The Academic Libraries Survey (ALS) portion of the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) and Academic Library Trends and Statistics Survey of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) are both due in the first quarter of the calendar year. In addition,…

A Degree in University Life

Post author:Bell Library
Post published:December 1, 2020
Post category:Behind the Scenes Hello, from the Staff Library Randomness

I started working in the Mary and Jeff Bell Library, March 18, 1998. The Library is a division of Academic Affairs reporting to the Provost. During the past 22 years, I have seen three Presidents and six Provosts in administration. I have worked directly under three Directors, one Interim Director, two Management Teams, one Associate Vice President, and currently the Dean of Libraries. There was a point when we had a void in library leadership and I was the only…

Rivalry in the I-Create Lab

Post author:Bell Library
Post published:October 16, 2020
Post category:Behind the Scenes Library Randomness We Made This

There is a bit of a rivalry brewing in the I-Create Lab. Since we have new rules set in place because of COVID-19, the I-Create Lab must work in two teams. So, the staff has worked on finding ways to stay connected. Now, some would immediately jump to thoughts of nice and encouraging notes, but those individuals don’t know the I-Create Lab team well enough (not yet at least). To stay connected (and entertained) two teams have been created -…

I-Create Student Worker Spotlight: Stormie

Post author:Bell Library
Post published:September 18, 2020
Post category:Behind the Scenes Hello, from the Staff Library Randomness

The I-Create Lab loves to talk about our student workers and in this blog, we will flex on our student worker, Stormie! Stormie has worked for the I-Create Lab for almost a full year and is currently a Sophomore at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. She is working on her Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Psychology. Stormie sees this degree as a step in the right direction to obtain a career she wants, “I would like to become a type of…

The Longoria Affair

Post author:Eric Christensen
Post published:August 28, 2020
Post category:Behind the Scenes Books & More Today's Special

It has been a challenging year for the residents of Planet Earth. We’ve all had to make adjustments to nearly every facet of our lives. The United States has been at war with itself over its past and for its future. Undeniable fundamental and systemic racism is being laid bare, and it is an unfortunate part of our culture that we will continue to have to confront and correct. An example of it sits in our own Special Collections Archive…

TAMUCC Joins the Texas Library Coalition for United Action!

Post author:Catherine Rudowsky
Post published:August 25, 2020
Post category:Behind the Scenes Dean's Corner News @ Your Library

I am excited to share with the Island Community that Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi recently joined forces with 26 other universities from across Texas to form the Texas Library Coalition for United Action (TLCUA). Unified fronts such as this provide greater leverage when negotiating with publishers who often hold all of the cards. Similar to action taken by the University of California System and MIT, Texas as a state is acting together to push back against unsustainable business models that…

What’s on Emily’s Bookshelf?

Post author:Bell Library
Post published:August 14, 2020
Post category:Behind the Scenes Library Randomness

If you’re watching the news or any live tv show, you’ve probably noticed that folks like to have a bookshelf in their background. It makes them look cultured, literate, or sometimes downright scary (C’mon Betsy, what’s going on over there?). Some folks on twitter and in the New York Times have taken up sleuthing through the images to see if they can identify any of the books and thus learn glean a fuller picture of the books’ owners. Since I was at my…