Newsletter Edition: Fall 2019
We who work in university libraries often wonder how our resources and services affect students. What is the real impact on their studies and in their future careers? In other words, what difference does our work make in the lives of CSUN students?
Several articles in this issue of Oviatt Library eNews address this important question. One article discusses recent data analyses conducted by a CSUN librarian that finds a correlation between student success and library use. Another article is an interview with our Map Curator to learn how he interacts with students and how he helps them in their coursework and beyond. A third article examines the effects of student scholarships on the lives of library student employees, and still another article looks at Rick Nupoll, a CSUN library student assistant in the late 1960s who has just created a major endowment in the Oviatt Library.
One of the most interesting articles in this issue of the Oviatt Library eNews is a recounting of the Creative Media Studio’s Five Year Anniversary celebration. A link to a CMS “testimonial” video is provided in the article, and it contains interviews with CSUN students (past and current) who have greatly benefited from creating, designing, and learning in the Library’s Creative Media Studio. One student explains how the CMS was a very real community for him that taught him how to compose and record music, and prepared him for a future career as a musician and sound engineer. Another described the CMS as a “second home” that has brought her much joy along with knowledge. A third student discussed his experience with the CMS as transformative in his quest to become a filmmaker and film editor. I’ll leave you with a final quote from another student, a graduate of CSUN who sums up her experience in the CMS thusly: “Without the CMS I wouldn’t be in the career I have today. I wouldn’t have the knowledge and skillset that I have now. I learned everything from being in there with people and learning from them and getting that time with myself and my projects.” These testimonials are deeply inspiring and encouraging to those of us who labor in libraries and chose this career because we want to make a difference in the lives of students.
A wise person once said that “success is not measured in the amount of dollars you make, but the amount of lives you impact.” The staff and faculty of the Oviatt Library tend to resonate with this philosophy. We know that the tens of thousands of students who walk through our doors every year will leave our campus changed for the better, transformed by our mentoring, resources, and services, and prepared for life and work in ways that they could never have imagined before they first entered the Library. I am hopeful that we in the Oviatt Library will continue to prepare CSUN students for the future through the teaching of critical thinking skills, a passion for learning, and the ability to discover the information and tools that they need in an ever-changing world.