NCSU Libraries Focus Online

Volume 21 number 2 - Winter 2001

By Tripp Reade, Access and Delivery Services

The NCSU Libraries has been developing tours of the main D. H. Hill Library to introduce students in the K-12 age group to library research at NC State. Josh Boyer (Distance Education) and Tripp Reade led three tours, each offering a different approach to provide not only information, but also to encourage a sense of wonder about libraries.

The first tour, for seventeen East Clayton fifth graders and Media Coordinator Sherri Godwin, occurred last January. It offered selective coverage of various library departments, a spin through the maps collection to see aviation and nautical charts as well as a U.S. Geological Survey map of Clayton, a catalog search for UFO material, and a visit to Special Collections to see beautifully illustrated books. The students took photographs and later compiled a media scrapbook of the trip.

In April media coordinator Virginia Penny and her seven assistants at South Johnston High School visited the D. H. Hill Library as part of a day-long trip that included a collection-building excursion to Barnes & Noble. The library shaped the tour to their purpose. Orion Pozo (Collection Management) spoke with them about collection development and management, which tools are most useful, and where one looks for purchases. The students then visited a computer lab in the library, where they explored netLibrary, electronic books, and MyLibrary@NCState. The tour concluded in Special Collections, where a feast of bibliographic treasures covered a table: novelist Lee Smith’s papers, an NC State cheerleader uniform, photographs of the 1893 football team, and entomology books illustrated with insects colored like gemstones.

Linda Pearson and her fifth-grade media helpers from Rand Road Elementary School visited in May. Barb Dietsch (Research and Information Services) and Suzanne France (Interlibrary Loan and Document Delivery Services) worked with Special Collections to craft a treasure hunt. The group, subdivided among four computers in the reference area, received a list of five items to find--first the call number in the catalog and then the actual item in the library. Among the items were the works of Shakespeare written in Urdu, newspapers made of rice paper, and a 1906 ROTC sword.

The library has learned to fit each tour to the audience. There is a way to reach just about anyone, and the library can create customized tours to reach a variety of individuals. The secret for the guide is to make the tour as interactive as possible and then to know enough to get out of the way.