Meet Julie, a student worker in Paley Library.    She has worked there for the four years that she has been at Temple, but you may not have seen her.  She works in the Special Collections Research Center, but when she started, it was “just” the Urban Archives.  As a student worker Julie has had the opportunity to assist patrons, but also did photocopying, retrieved boxes, and filed away newspaper clippings and photos.  In her last few days of work, she continues to work on an ongoing project of transferring  the Philadelphia Bulletin clippings from the big cabinets into archival boxes   Julie has really enjoyed working in the Urban Archives ,not only because of the staff and her supervisors, but because she learned many new things about Philadelphia history.  Working with the various documents, photographs and news clippings have given her insights into Philadelphia neighborhoods and landmarks, as well as the surrounding suburbs.  On one occasion she found development plans for her hometown, Lansdale, PA.  Julie loves going to the beach, and frequents Ocean City, NJ.  She enjoys supporting the Philly sports teams, especially the Phillies.  She notes one exception that during football season, she wears black and gold as she roots for her mom’s hometown team, the Pittsburgh Steelers.

 Julie’s major is Speech, Language Pathology.  She started out at Temple as undeclared.  She really did not know what she wanted to do.  Of her three older sisters, who attended Temple before her, two were in the education field.  Julie loves working with children, but did not want to be a teacher.  In August of 2010, in the Temple bookstore, while buying books for the upcoming fall semester, Julie met an excited student who was graduating that day with a degree in speech pathology. The brief conversation from this chance meeting gave her the idea to look into this major.    She hopes to combine that with her desire to work with children and work in an elementary school, or an early intervention program.   Before that, however, she is going on for her master’s degree in Speech Language Hearing Science here at Temple.

Graduation, on Thursday will bea proud time for Julie.  She has studied and worked hard, and achieved dean’s list every semester.  In April, President Theobald presented her with the honors cords that she will wear on graduation day.

While I have never worked with Julie, I do know her very well.  In fact, I have known her since the day she was born, and I will be watching with pride as she graduates on Thursday, May 16, 2013!

Thursday May 2, 2013 was the date that the library celebrated students and undergraduate research.  The 9^th annual Library Prize for Undergraduate Research and the 3^rd annual Library Prize on Sustainability & the Environment were awarded on that afternoon with a welcome by the Interim Dean of University Libraries, Carol Lang; and Peter Jones, the Senior Vice Provost of Undergraduate Studies at Temple University.  A Temple alumnus, John H. Livingstone, Jr. a 1949 graduate of the SBM, has supported this undergraduate prize since its founding.  Gale, a part of the Cengage Learning family of research products, has provided funding for the prize for sustainability and the environment.

The scholarship introduced to us that day continues the heritage of our earlier prizes, each award reminding us about what research is: the language of new knowledge.  Please take the time to visit the Research Guide for the Library Prize for Undergraduate Research. If you are interested in the sustainability prize visit the Research Guide for Undergraduate Research on Sustainability & the Environment. At both these sites you will find information about the prize itself, and also the winners and their entries.  Amongst these, there might be an entry to inspire you to apply next year, or perhaps discover a new area of interest for you to pursue! The Libraries, the resources we provide and our staff are here to help you in either case!

Whether or not you were able to join us on May 2, you can watch the Library Prizes Awards Ceremony right here. We were so impressed with this year’s winning research. We know you will be, too.

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To help you get through those study days and finals, Paley Library will be open 24 hours starting tomorrow, May 2 at 8am, through Wednesday, May 15 at 8pm. Good luck with the end of the semester!

Congratulations to the winners and honorable mentions for this year’s Library Prize for Undergraduate Research and Library Prize for Undergraduate Research on Sustainability and the Environment. Join us to celebrate in the Lecture Hall on May 2 at 4PM.

2012-2013 Library Prize Winners

Eamonn Connor

“Miasma and the Formation of Greek Cities”
GRC 4182: Independent Study (Fall 2012)
Faculty Sponsor: Sydnor Roy

Emily Simpson

“”Represion!” Punk Resistance and the Culture of Silence in the Southern Cone, 1978-1990”
History 4997: Honors Thesis Seminar (Spring 2013)
Faculty Sponsor: Beth Bailey

Nicole Wolverton

“The Murder at Cherry Hill”
English 3020: Detective Novel and the City (Fall 2012)
Faculty Sponsor: Priya Joshi

2012-2013 Library Prize Honorable Mentions

Jordyn Kimelheim

“The Persistence of Chattel Slavery in Contemporary Mauritania”
Political Science 4896: Theories and Practices of Slavery, Then and Now (Fall 2012)
Faculty Sponsor: Jane Gordon

Kyle Repella

“False Pretenders and Friends of Truth: Pennsylvania, the Keithian Controversy, and the Reorientation of the Quaker Empire in the late Seventeenth Century”
History 4997: Honors Thesis Seminar (Spring 2013)
Faculty Sponsor: Travis Glasson

2012-2013 Library Prize for Research on Sustainability and the Environment Winner

Andrea Gudiel

“Deforestation and the spread of non-native species”

BIOL 4391: Accelerated Research in Biology (Spring 2013) 

Faculty Sponsor: Brent Sewall

2012-2013 Library Prize for Research on Sustainability and the Environment Honorable Mention

Veronica Anderson

“Urban climate catalyst: Lima, Peru”

ARCH 4699: Thesis Studio (Spring 2013)

Faculty Sponsor: Sneha Patel

Penelope Myers, 2009. Head, Access Services at Paley Library, Temple University Libraries.

When Penelope Myers graduated from Temple University in 1968 with a degree in Political Science, she didn’t expect she’d one day return to her alma mater as a librarian. Last week I sat down with Penelope, Head of Access Services at Paley Library, to discuss her life, family, and service to Temple University. She’s seen plenty of change in her three decades at Temple University Libraries and has had fun in her adventures getting here.

As the Head of Access Services, Penelope oversees all Circulation and Reserve services, which includes patron accounts and borrowing privileges, interlibrary loan, and course reserves. She said it’s useful to have a “slow fuse” in the position, although she claimed not to have one herself. She does, however, have a sense of humor: a trait she said is useful in public service. “Personality is important when working with the public, and the ability to make people feel comfortable.” When I asked about her professional role models or supervisory philosophy, she said she follows the motto of “you get more flies with honey than you do with vinegar. If you want your staff to give good public service, you must give good service to your staff.”

Change is Inevitable

During her tenure at TU Libraries, Penelope has witnessed many changes both on campus and in the libraries. She’s watched the the campus expand and transform itself from a primarily commuter campus to a residential campus, including the construction of numerous buildings. She spoke about many changes in the libraries, most of which were public service improvements largely due to technological advancements and an increasingly more proactive staff.

First online circulation system at TU Libraries. Templar Yearbook, 1983.

During her first years in Paley Library in the mid-1980s she helped to “wean the patrons off the card catalog” to the library’s first online catalog system. The next biggest improvement, she recalled, was the switch from paper to online journals. That transition began in the mid to late 1990s with the advent of CD ROMs, which replaced print periodical directories. Full-text articles wouldn’t appear in prominence until the 2000s, so staff were still left with locating bound journals in the stacks, which she referred to as “the biggest service challenge of the time.” As smaller libraries across campus closed, Penelope assisted with the opening of The Depository, which is closed-stack shelving facility that houses lower circulating volumes, rare materials, older bound journals, and duplicates. “This was a huge project, but I enjoyed it,” she noted.

Who is Penelope Myers?

Penelope posing with her father’s pipe and The Times (London) cross-word puzzle. [n.d.].

Born in Trieste, Italy in a British military hospital on November 16, 1946, Penelope was raised in the suburbs of London, in Beckenham Kent. She describes it as an “absolutely fabulous place to grow up.” Penelope has three siblings, two older and one younger. “When you’re #3 of 4, you learn to get along with people,” she commented. This trait, she found, comes in handy as a public services librarian. Her father was a physician in the British army and moved the family to England when he took a position as a professor of physiology at the University of London. When he accepted a position as a medical researcher on arterial blood flow at the then Research Institute of Presbyterian Hospital, the family moved to the Philadelphia area in 1963. Penelope remained in England with friends and family while she finished high school. She joined her parents and siblings in Drexel Hill in July 1964.

Penelope’s senior picture in Temple University’s 1968 Templar Yearbook.

Two years later, when her family moved again for her father’s work to Birmingham, Alabama, Penelope stayed in Philadelphia to attend Temple University where she lived in the Peabody dorm, then an all girls dorm. At the time, the main library was Sullivan Memorial Library in Sullivan Hall. The stacks were closed to undergraduates, and she recalls filling out slips to request each book she wanted. The ‘new’ three story Paley Library, which featured open stacks, was finished by the time she graduated.

Sullivan Memorial Library, 1963.

Penelope graduated in 1968 with a BA in Political Science and a minor in History. Her first “real” job out of college was as a caseworker at the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Welfare Department. She “didn’t last long at that position”, as she recalls, and did what many twenty-somethings do when they can’t figure out what to do with their lives; she traveled around Europe. Her gallivant included Morocco, Spain, Scotland, and England, and she still reflects on that experience as “the most exciting and exhilarating year of her life.” Through a mutual friend, she was introduced to a Philadelphia photographer named Laurence Myers who was living in southern Spain at the time.

When Laurence moved back to Philadelphia, Penelope returned to Philadelphia too, and they married in 1972.

“Librarians Are Fun”

That same year, the Myers moved to Rochester, NY so Laurence could attend graduate school for Photography at the University of Rochester, and Penelope got her first library job as a bindery clerk in the Rochester Institute of Technology library. There, she started hanging out with the Reference Librarians, who were “fun,” she thought, and she “wanted to have fun, too.” So, she enrolled part-time at the nearby library school. Before she even finished her degree she was hired to fill a Librarian vacancy at the Institute of Technology. Penelope spent three years in that position and “loved it.” “I worked with great colleagues and got to do a little of everything,” she reminisced.

In 1976 the Myers left Rochester to settle in Philadelphia, where they had two children: Evan and Rachel, both of whom received undergraduate degrees from Temple University. Penelope devoted seven years to the stay-at-home mom profession until Valentine’s Day

Penelope, son Evan, daughter Rachel, and Lawrence Myers. circa 1981

1983 when she took a part-time Reference Librarian position at the Zahn Center library (now closed) in Ritter Hall at Temple University. A month later she moved over to the Paley Library. In summer 1983 she transferred to Paley’s Circulation Unit. Two years later Penelope was hired as a full-time TAUP librarian in the Circulation Unit making a glorious annual salary of $20,000. She attained her current position of Head of Access Services in 1986. She assured me her salary has since increased.

500 Birds and Counting

This avid bird watcher, who has logged over 500 birds, but does not Tweet, looks forward to retirement, which she will spend reading, traveling, and perhaps volunteering at a wildlife refuge. In the meantime, she continues to enjoy her work where, in her words, “the people are great” and “there’s always something interesting going on.”

Uncompromising, fighting and writing for justice is the testimony to the rich legacy of Ida B. Wells (July 25, 1862-March 25, 1931).  Her fearless voice, advocacy and investigative journalism is the link to the modern Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.  She used her pen as her weapon for justice that inspired hundreds of journalists, especially women around the world.  For journalists, Meredith Broussard and Karen Turner, Wells challenged them to think differently.  “She was an inspiration … her tenacity and passion reminds me of what my purpose is in life,” said Turner.  “She was an audacious and passionate social activist and anti-lynching advocate,” said Broussard. “I loved her because she stood up for what she believed in to remove the evil of lynching.”

Moderated by Kammika Williams-Witherspoon, co-organizer of “Chat” and Associate Professor of Theater, Broussard and Turner were presenters in the Chat in the Stacks program – “Ida B. Wells and the Continuing Legacy of African American Women in Journalism” on March 28, 2013.  The dialogue addressed issues such as the state of journalism, the Black press and representations of African Americans and the lack thereof in journalism at large.  At the center of the conversation was integrity and quality at risk on the Internet because of “cheaper new journalists creating communities,” said Broussard.  Turner suggests that “seasoned journalists are at risk…and cheaper college grads are not asking the right questions.” Her advice to young journalists is to “identify your passion and go for it; sacrifice can change lives; benefit and impact may be realized now or in next generation.”  Ida B. Wells’ life and legacy emphasizes the importance of this.

The Chat in the Stacks series is co-presented by the Faculty Senate Committee on the Status of Faculty of Color, and is part of the Libraries’ ongoing programming series, Beyond the Page: Exploring the Cultural, Historical, and Scholarly Record at Temple University Libraries