Library staff members Angela Wortham and Joe Franklin arrange bookmobile materials related to France during a Cultural Cafe event.
Library staff members are bringing the recordings and texts of various cultures to campus Cultural Cafés and other events.
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The project is an effort to make the library collections more visible on campus. In addition to books, CDs and DVDs related to the cultures being featured, the library staff members bring along materials and information on the library’s myriad resources and services.
Students, faculty and staff who’ve stopped by the bookmobile have responded with surprise, intrigue and nostalgia as they remember visiting the bookmobile in their home towns, said Angela Wortham, circulation library technician.
The advantage of the project is the ability for library staff to get out and talk to people, she said.
The project started with Why Treaties Matter, an October exhibit that focused on treaties between the United States and Minnesota’s Native American tribes.
The library has also partnered with the American Democracy Project film series, Global Goes Local Conference and A Healthier You-niversity, among other events on campus.
Not all the resources the library has available are tangible, physical objects. Much of the resources are available online and items in the physical collection aren’t always easy to find, Wortham said.
Library staff is also working with its displays inside the library to call more attention to its collections.
Recently the library partnered with the JP Network to display items related to Japan in conjunction with the group’s Japan Night cultural festival this March in its main display, said Marian Rengel, library public programming coordinator.
“Because of the size of our collection, we’ve had to move so much of it to the basement and in compact shelving,” Wortham said. “It may not be as easy to browse the shelves. This way we are bringing select topics and groupings of materials to the more trafficked areas of the library where they get a little better exposure.”
Any group interested in learning more about the bookmobile or displays in the library can contact Rengel at [email protected].
