Core Operations

Taking advantage of the summer’s lower foot traffic in the library, members of Public Services team rearranged furniture in Reynolds 609 and 611 to enhance usability while longer-term space design configurations are being developed.

Internally, the department is working with Human Resources Learning and Development team on a climate assessment within Public Services to identify strengths, challenges, opportunities, and priorities to support the ongoing improvement of the workplace environment.

Collections

Summer shelf-reading has been busy! The PR and PS call numbers have been completed, and scanning of the plain M music scores on Reynolds 4 has begun. The M music scores are difficult to shelf-read since many of the items are tall and thin, but that hasn’t daunted the amazing Patrick Ferrell and Public Services student employees who have already scanned in over 10,000 barcodes. Meanwhile, the ongoing shifting project has reached the PN4888 call number range.

User Services

Book Displays

July Displays

• Disability Pride Month, curated by Erin Jones
• Independence Day through the Lens of Immigration, curated by Setayesh Nowruzzadeh (ZSR Student Employee, Public Services)
• Conditions Remain Unstable: Reading Through Uncertainty, curated by Will Ritter
• Understanding Human Trafficking, curated by Safa Akhter (ZSR Student Employee, Public Services)

Upcoming Displays

• People Have Always Been People: A Look at Human History Through Art, curated by Erin Jones
• America’s Best Idea: National Parks & the Threats They Face, curated by Erin Jones
• Rarely Making History: Overlooked People Who Contributed to Modern Inventions, curated by Erin Jones
• AI in Law, curated by the Wake Forest Law Library (part of the upcoming ZSR & Law Libraries display sharing collaboration!)
• Connecting the Library and the Classroom , curated by Laura Milcarzyk and Will Ritter

What’s on Your Mind? Comment Board

This month, 13 comments were left on the board, with students were mainly interested in animals, expressing their general amazement, and wondering if they’re about to incur the wrath of the Demon Deacon (spoiler alert: yes, they are).

Content Access & Delivery

James Harper and Kevin Gilbertson are working to make the ZSR Delivers suite of online services accessible via Google Authentication. Currently, the suite uses LDAP authentication which is an outdated system. Once done, ZSR Delivers will be accessed the same way as email or any other WFU resource, simplifying login steps for patrons.

Off-Site Storage

In July, the Offsite team

• delivered 150 physical items,
• fulfilled 23 electronic requests,
• accessioned 424 items,
• and audited 16,940 items.

Alayna Veasey is learning more about artifact handling and storage from the Lam Museum of Anthropology. She continues to conduct SCA shifting projects to make room for new university publications.

In July, Alayna

• fulfilled 5 SCA offsite requests,
• returned 19 SCA offsite requests,
• and shifted 2 SCA boxes offsite.

Professional Activities & Development

On July 17, Ty Wilson traveled to Charlotte to attend the Train-The-Trainer course offered by Carolina Handling. This course is designed to teach experienced users of order pickers and other powered industrial trucks how to train new drivers and re-certify existing operators on this equipment through a combination of theoretical and practical training. Ty is now certified to train operators on the Offsite lift and now knows more about OSHA and ANSI than he knows what to do with.

Collaborations

• Fall Hours: The Public Services team developed a draft of the library’s Fall 2026 hours of operation, which has been submitted to the Administrative Council for review.
• Staff Lounge Policy: In collaboration with Veronica Escamilla-Brady and Tanya Zanish-Belcher, Rodrigo Castro worked on updating the staff lounge policy, which has been submitted to the Administrative Council for review.
• Facilities Ticketing Submissions: In collaboration with Thomas Dowling, Veronica Escamilla-Brady, Tanya Zanish-Belcher, and colleagues from Facilities, Real Estate and Planning, Rodrigo Castro is working on the development of a dashboard to track the progress of Facilities’ work at ZSR in (almost) real time. This initiative aims to provide employees with a centralized resource to monitor the status of active facilities tickets.

Statistics

View full statistics here.

Browse previous editions of What’s Happening in Public Services here.