This week I got to give a tour of Gorgas Library to a group visiting campus, called College for Every Student. I really enjoyed this group. It was a large group, with students from a variety of backgrounds. It was really exciting for me to share the library with this group of students who are about to enter their college years and show them what a college library has to offer, no matter where they end up going to college. I started the tour with them at the Sanford Media Center, which as usual was a big hit. They were interested in seeing the recording studio, but it was unfortunately being used at the time. However, they got the experience of what all the SMC has to offer. We then visited the circulation desk, and they really liked how you can check out laptops to use. Next we visited the third floor. In the art history section I explained how call numbers work and then we did a call number activity where the students worked in pairs to find the book with the call number that I gave them. Once they had all found their books, we discussed the experience as a group with each pair sharing the title and author of the book they found followed by a discussion of the experience as a whole. We discussed any challenges they faced finding the books, or if they thought overall it was a pretty easy task. I had a really smart group, so they found their books easily! We then visited the Williams Collection, which was also a popular stop on the tour. They really enjoyed the paintings in the collection. We then went down to the lower level of the library. I told them the story of how the basement is supposedly haunted, and they all found it really exciting. We talked about favorite scary movies and most of the girls were like me and didn’t have a favorite movie because they didn’t like being scared! AFter that we toured the first floor and talked about all the services provided on that floor. We visited the information desk, the printing station, the music library, as well as the coffee shop Java City. They also loved the cell phone charging station there on the first floor. As they were leaving, the students even made a point to thank us for showing them the library. Overall, it was a really great group and I hope the students got as much out of it as I did!
Jennifer