A love for the written word and a willingness to embrace new technology have made Charlotte Bruce, Director of the Learning Resources Center at Olney Central College (OCC), an innovator in the field.
The Olney native’s interest in library science began as a teen-ager working alongside her high school librarian, Dolly Gahllagher, who employed a unique method of expanding the teen’s literary pursuits.
“She would put a book in the bottom right hand drawer of her desk and tell me not to read it because it was for adults only. Well, of course, I had to read it. She introduced me to great books by authors I may not have found on my own, such as The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins.”
Charlotte went on to do her library training at the University of Illinois, Urbana where she received a minor in Library Science as an undergraduate majoring in English in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. She also completed an M.A. in English Literature at the U. of I., and post-graduate courses in library information science at Catholic University in Washington, D.C., the University of Virginia and James Madison University in Virginia.
Charlotte became the OCC LRC Director in 2003 and has made substantial changes in access to
Using Technology to Extend & Expand Library Services
CARLI Membership & Migration to I-Share (Voyager)
“With Olney Central College’s membership in the CARLI system, community college students in rural southeastern Illinois who previously only had access to limited library instructional resources, now have access to a world-class library system that equals that of students attending four-year colleges and universities in Illinois.”
Jackie L. Davis, Ed.D., President, Olney Central College
Virtual Reference Service 24/7
Charlotte’s interest in technology that helps library patrons connect to information efficiently and easily began even before her arrival at OCC. Her interest in virtual reference services began in the early 1990’s when she served on the ALA/AASL KidsConnect Task Force, an online question-answering, help and referral service to help K-12 students learn to use information available on the Internet effectively and efficiently. KidsConnect became part of the ICONnect technology initiative that included online classes, mini-grants and curriculum connections for school library media specialists, teachers, parents, and students.
This interest in technology innovation led to a partnership with the Library of Congress when they needed a pilot site to test their translation product to be used with the QuestionPoint VR service. As head librarian at McLean High School in Fairfax County, VA, Charlotte provided services to a highly diverse student population (52 native languages spoken other than English), so this partnership with the Library of Congress was strongly supported and successful.
When she became academic librarian at Olney Central College in 2003, she looked for a VR service because the college is in a rural area and 75 miles from the nearest metropolitan area. She could visualize benefits for students and faculty by their being able to connect to others with more resources, as well as provide potential economic benefits for local businesses. She eagerly participated in the first VR grant sponsored by the Illinois State Library and organized a group of 15 multitype libraries in south central Illinois. She a served on the state VR Advisory Committee for that grant and now serves on the state VR Advisory Committee for the current Illinois AskAway Project as PR/Marketing subcommittee chair.
“Being linked to a virtual reference service 24/7 is like having a dozen extra library workers on hand when students need help and the physical library may be closed.”
Digital Divide Grant
The Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity awarded the Anderson Library at OCC and the library at Frontier Community College a Bridging the Digital Divide Grant in 2007 to help bring area residents who lost their jobs up to speed with computer skills necessary for many jobs in the 21st Century. Free classes were taught in the library lab at OCC and in various off site locations in the IECC District to meet the needs of these residents. Seven computers are available in the Anderson Library for helping area citizens improve job skills and seek employment.
Assistive Technology
Library Web Pages
Charlotte contributed to IECC libraries by developing their web pages. She collaborated with the other three IECC library directors about content and continues to manage all four IECC Library web pages and assists the district IT Department in maintaining connectivity to the colleges’ electronic resources. Web pages were designed to put in one place the tools and information the four library directors use to instruct students in how to access information they need for papers, projects and assignments. The four directors routinely collaborate to add information to the pages, such as a recent addition of four tutorials for commonly used library resources and functions. http://www.iecc.edu/occ/lrc/libtutorials.htm
Recognizing that you are most effective if you are where your patrons are, Charlotte added a blog and a Facebook Library page link to OCC’s library web page to offer students and faculty morel ways to connect to the library and offer their suggestions for additions or changes. A texting service pilot was added in the summer of 2009.
Texting Service Pilot
Charlotte joined the Alliance Library System’s My Info Quest: TXT 4 Answers pilot project in its initial stages, making it possible to offering a texting service to her students. http://www.myinfoquest.info/ Adding this service to the I-Share Voyager Catalog feature of “Text me this call number,” has given students additional access and saved online students and commuters time.
Interesting Collaborative Experiences
Library of Congress American Memory Fellow
One of the highlights of her library career came when she and a fellow social studies teacher at McLean High School were selected to be American Memory Fellows in a 5-year Library of Congress program which gave her access to the incredible collections of materials which were limited to onsite access until this program and other digitization programs like it were developed. Librarian/Teacher partners selected topics and developed lesson plans based on LOC digital collections. “When Work is Done…” is a result of this fellowship and can be viewed at http://memory.loc.gov/learn/lessons/98/album/intro.html Charlotte was selected to participate in the remaining American Memory Fellow Summer Institutes as a staff development trainer from 2000 – 2003. Results of the American Memory Fellows Institutes can be found on the Learning Page at http://www.loc.gov/teachers/ under “lesson plans.”
McLean High School (Virginia) CIA Liaison
The CIA’s reputation needed improvement and the agency was looking for some good publicity. The high school needed help maintaining their growing number of computers. Students at McLean High School spoke 52 native languages other than English when Charlotte became their head librarian in 1994. One wouldn’t necessarily think that being the McLean High School (Virginia) business liaison would be connected to running a library, but the alliance between the two institutions became valuable for both parties. In addition to setting up computers and helping to maintain them, the CIA assisted the high school with one of the first collaborations between the CIA’s PR Office, the UMI ProQuest Company, the library, and the MHS English creative writing classes where students wrote the first chapter of a spy novel based on real spy devices they saw on exhibit at the CIA during a field trip. The UMI ProQuest Company contributed their SiteBuilder software making it easy for Charlotte to create a web page of resources, Charlotte taught the students the key components of spy novels, and the CIA PR Office answered espionage questions during the writing process and read student work for veracity. This partnership generated unusual excitement and interest in this high school located three miles from CIA Headquarters.
“I enjoy working in libraries very much, particularly because of the variety of work available and the opportunities to help students and staff find the information they need, anytime, anywhere, for whatever reason. I love change and realize now how the power of collaboration has driven many of my interests. We can accomplish much more together than separately. AskAway Virtual Reference, My Info Quest: TXT 4 Answers, CARLI, WebJunction, Library2, Illinois’s library systems, webinars, meetings, and pilots are great examples of collaboration and sharing -- vitally important for our development into high quality service libraries. I am curious to see what else is out there and what’s coming next that will develop into an invaluable service for students, faculty, and staff.”