Feature: Two Public Services Student Employees Named 2026-27 Wake Forest Fellows
The Public Services department is excited to announce that two of its student employees, Alaina Wheeler and Lulu Clark, have been named 2026-27 Wake Forest Fellows! Lulu (’26, Critical and Creative Media) will serve as the President’s Office Fellow and Alaina (’26, Biology) will serve as the Wake Downtown Fellow. Join us in congratulating these two outstanding ZSR graduates as they pursue the University’s Pro Humanitate mission as our Wake Forest colleagues.
Read the official announcement here.
Core Operations
Managers in the Public Services Department (Rodrigo Castro, James Harper, and Will Ritter) are exploring ways of streamlining mechanisms to report and submit facilities-related issues. Their recommendations will be presented at the June 2026 Admin Council for discussion and approval. Additionally, the department’s leadership are exploring alternative desk staffing models, with the purpose of ensuring that there is adequate desk coverage and additional support should situations arise.
Public Services is working on the reconfiguration of work spaces, including cleaning and reconfiguring Room 230 and the reconfiguration of Room 210.
Collections
Collection shifting continued throughout May, with work on the 8th floor completed and efforts now focused on the 5th floor. Thank you to everyone assisting with the project and helping keep materials accessible during the transition. Members of the Public Services team, both staff and student workers, are also working on removing a surplus of shelves currently stored in Reynolds 1 carrels.
User Services
Student Employee Initiatives: Public Services student supervisors continued reviewing student employee survey feedback and training materials. Updates under development include expanded professional behavior guidance, clarification of shift-makeup procedures, and the discussions around a transferable skills resource to help students articulate the experience they gain through employment in Public Services.
Student-Curated Displays: Student employees have collaborated with Laura Milcarzyk to create several library displays this semester. We appreciate the creativity and effort students have contributed to these projects and look forward to highlighting additional displays in the future.
Newsletter Development: Work continues on the Public Services Newsletter (this newsletter!). Recent discussions have focused on improving communication, highlighting important departmental updates, and identifying opportunities to share information that may be useful to the library at-large. A big thanks to Jemma Johnson for working on this!
Accessibility & ADA Resources: Public Services is reviewing accessibility-related language to add to student training and documentation as part of ongoing efforts to support an inclusive environment.
Book Displays
May Displays
- Mental Health Awareness, curated by Erin Jones.
- Celebrating AAPI Heritage, curated by Erin Jones.
- From Page to Screen, curated by Erin Jones.
Upcoming Displays
- Delayed Freedom: Echoes of Juneteenth, curated by Alaina Wheeler (ZSR Student Employee, Public Services)
- We’ve Always Been Here: LGBT Historical Fiction, curated by Erin Jones.
- Preparing for Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, curated by Maddie Soultanian (ZSR Student Employee, Public Services)
- Summer Beach Reads, curated by Erin Jones.
- Summer of Science Fiction, curated by Erin Jones.
What’s on Your Mind? Comment Board
The What’s on Your Mind? comment board wraps up the 2025-2026 school year with a total of 88 comments left during the spring semester, ranging from words of encouragement to fellow orgo students, shrimp memes, and an obsession with mayo (don’t ask). Thank you to Erin Jones for the tireless meme sleuthing, dedication, and fun she’s brought to this initiative!
Off-Site Storage
- delivered 30 physical requests,
- fulfilled 12 electronic requests,
- and 3,025 audited items.
Alayna Veasey is pursuing professional development at Wake by auditing ANT 190 – Introduction to Museum Studies. This practical course will allow her to connect with the Wake Forest Historical Museum and the Lam Museum of Anthropology, providing many opportunities to expand her museum knowledge and artifact handling skills.
In May, Alayna:
- fulfilled 2 SCA offsite requests,
- returned 4 SCA offsite requests,
- and shifted 18 SCA boxes offsite.
Professional Activities & Development
On May 15, Jemma Johnson attended the 2026 NC Live Conference at NC State University’s Hunt Library in Raleigh, NC. Themed “Libraries & Democracy,” she attended sessions about creating new networks of support, hosting innovative civic programming, and collaborating on new instructional approaches to meet the moment. You can read about her experience in her blog post here.
From May 26-29, Erin Jones attended the 2026 Southern Library Support Staff (SLSS) Conference at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN. This year’s theme was “From the Heart of the Library: Stories of Engagement, Innovation, and Leadership.” Erin will be sharing her takeaways in a blog post in the coming weeks.
On May 27, Kylie Bradley, James Harper, Tara Hauser, and Jemma Johnson attended the 2026 Triad Academic Library Association (TALA) Conference in Greensboro, NC. Held on the campus of UNCG, this year’s conference featured several ZSR members, including Dean Lauren Pressley’s keynote address as well as James and Melde Rutledge (SCA) on the conference planning committee. An upcoming group blog post sharing their experiences is coming soon.
Collaborations
Crafternoon Program: On May 4, Jemma Johnson, Danielle Key (RIO), and Celina Seo (Fellow) handed out snacks and craft kits during exam week as part of the Public Services and RIO’s ongoing Crafternoon series. This special Wake the Library Crafternoon featured DIY pet rock study buddies as well as friendship bracelet kits and coloring pages.
Senior So Dear Party: Laura Milcarzyk staffed the library on Saturday, May 16 to support the Senior So Dear event, which was attended by over 500 people celebrating 2026’s graduating senior students.
Record Maintenance: In collaboration with Resource Services and the Technology Department, Public Services is working on addressing system issues affecting items with conflicting statuses (e.g. an item that has both an “in transit” and a “checked-out” statuses) as a part of the ongoing work to clean up item records.
Summer Construction Preparation: Public Services worked with Resource Services to temporarily relocate approximately 4 ranges of materials from Reynolds 8 to Reynolds 1 to support the construction work that will take place during summer.
Statistics
View full 2026 statistics here.
Browse previous editions of What’s Happening in Public Services here.
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