Oviatt Spotlight: the Award-Winning Learning Commons
Summer 2015
After almost two years, CSUN students, campus administrators, and the surrounding community all agree that the Oviatt Library’s Learning Commons is an all-around award winner. On any given day during the semester, the open, bright, collaboration-friendly space is crowded and buzzing with a variety of activities.
Oviatt Spotlight: Weeding
Spring 2015
With spring in full swing, we thought it an appropriate time to share some insights into the essential work that is involved in the ongoing care and cultivation of our Library garden. It is difficult for librarians, book lovers that we are, to take part in a process that actually removes books from the shelves. Yet, as libraries are becoming more assessment driven and therefore more data driven, we are discovering that student requirements are changing.
Oviatt Spotlight: CSUN Cat People
Winter 2014
Squirrels aren’t the only wildlife living in the trees and shrubbery that surround the Oviatt. A small population of feral felines is lovingly cared for by the CSUN Cat People, a volunteer organization that also works to help educate the community.
Oviatt Spotlight: Freshman Common Read
Fall 2014
With CSUN’s Freshman Common Read Program, the Department of Undergraduate Studies and the Oviatt Library offer an incoming class of highly diverse new students a communal point of connection in the pages of a shared book.
CSUN’s Freshman Common Read Program is turning 8 this year. Cheryl Spector, Director of Academic First Year Experiences, began contemplating the idea in 2004. She was inspired at a First Year Experience Conference by similar initiatives at other campuses.
Oviatt Spotlight: Student Employees 2014
Summer 2014
We have long suspected that the Oviatt’s dynamic mix of student employees represent the very best and brightest that CSUN has to offer and – as it just so happens – our students agree.
The Oviatt employs approximately 150 CSUN students at any given time. This large and essential component of the Library’s workforce consists of a remarkable cross-section of the university’s highly diverse student population. Library student employees come from across the street and from around the world.
Oviatt Spotlight: Women in Science and Engineering
Spring 2014
The Oviatt Library is proud to highlight the contributions and activities of the Bonita J. Campbell Endowment for Women in Science and Engineering (WISE), which have enriched the Library, individuals across campus, and the larger community.
WISE was established in 2009 by Professor Emerita Bonita J. Campbell, with a mission “To encourage women to build careers in the fields of science and engineering; to advance in their careers; to preserve the story of women who have pioneered in the science and engineering disciplines; and to inform leaders and educators about the contribution that women make in these important fields.”
Oviatt Spotlight: Learning Commons Technology
Winter 2013
Side by side Learning Commons Technology and Information Technology bring a variety of new and existing support services for students and faculty to one convenient and centrally located space. The recently opened Learning Commons is home to a wide range of technology-based support services. And while many of these services were available in the Library’s former layout, they were not always readily apparent or easily accessible. The new, welcoming, open concept design of the Oviatt’s first floor has changed all of that.
Oviatt Spotlight: Learning Resource Center
Fall 2013
We are excited and very proud to welcome the Learning Resource Center to its beautifully remodeled new home in the east wing on the Library’s third floor.
After a very ambitious summer-long renovation that resulted in a wall- to- wall transformation of the third floor’s east wing, the Learning Resource Center (LRC) is happily settling into its new digs in the Oviatt Library.
Oviatt Spotlight: Student Awards Ceremony
Summer 2013
Student employees are the backbone of the Library. Just ask any staff or faculty member, and they will tell you that their department could not possibly function without the small army of student employees who come to work every day in the Oviatt Library. Each year the Library employs an average of 145 CSUN students who work in part-time positions ranging from shelving books to greeting the public at service desks. They are loyal and hard-working, and many go on to work in the Library or even go on to become librarians after graduation.
Oviatt Spotlight: NIH/NLM Grant
Spring 2013
Congratulations to librarians Lynn Lampert, Marcia Henry and Anna Fidgeon for securing grant funding from the National Institute of Health and National Library of Medicine for a project that will increase campus-wide understanding of both gender research differences and women’s health and wellness.