Released - March 23, 2010

Eureka College’s Melick Library hosts consortium open house

Staff at Eureka College’s Melick Library hosted one of a series of open houses sponsored by the Public Services Working Group of the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries of Illinois March 11.

Attendees included representatives from 17 CARLI institutions, including Illinois State University, Southern Illinois University, Principia College and Columbia College. The event was the best-attended downstate open house since the program began in 2009, according to Melick Library Director Anthony Glass.

Kelly Fisher, who is Melick Library Public Services Librarian, is a member of PSWG and began coordinating the event with the group and library staff last fall.

The event consisted of two morning programs, lunch sponsored by CARLI and three half-hour breakout sessions in the afternoon. The morning programs gave visitors an overview of college history and its effect on library services and also included a presentation on the “hot topic” of copyright policy development and its impact on course reserves, according to Glass.

The afternoon sessions were roundtables on a number of library topics, including follow-up discussions on the subject of copyright, collection issues, archives, reference services and instruction. Optional tours of the library and the Reagan Museum followed.

The open houses are designed to give consortia partners an opportunity to see how others work and deal with the day-to-day realities of librarianship in the 21st century. While the focus is on public services issues, other topics include archives, collection development and other library activities that impact working relationships with patrons and constituents.

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Contact:

Michele Lehman

Media Relations Coordinator

mlehman@eureka.edu

(309) 467-6318