Ohio University Librarians Celebrate Faculty Collaborators

On Sept. 12, Ohio University faculty had the opportunity to attend the Libraries’ third annual “First Draft” event on the fourth floor of Alden. 

During this informal event, attendees had the chance to enjoy local brews, mingle with faculty from other departments, learn about the Libraries’ efforts to integrate more into the classroom—and meet the new dean of Ohio University Libraries, Neil Romanosky.

“The big goal is to allow faculty some space to interact with their colleagues, [and] to try to encourage conversations about how the librarians and the Libraries support their goals,” said Kelly Broughton, assistant dean for research and education services. “It’s really the only time that we feel like we get a wide variety of faculty across disciplines in one space.”

Additionally, six faculty members were honored for their work with the Libraries. The faculty members were nominated by the librarians and selected because of their work in promoting the Libraries’ goals of student information literacy, which is the ability to recognize the need for information and know how to find and evaluate it, reducing the cost of course materials for students, and “engaging students with primary and secondary sources and building world-class collections in support of research and teaching,” according to Broughton. 

“They’re doing some really innovative and interesting things in the classroom and using our collections and our services, and so we’re excited to be highlighting some of their work for their colleagues to see,” she said.

The honorees were Dr. Ashwini Ganeshan, Dr. Bayyinah Jeffries, Dr. Jennie Klein, Lisa Williams, Dr. Richard Wetzel and Dr. Rebekah Crawford.

To view more photos from “First Draft,” visit the Libraries’ Flickr page.

Neil Romanosky, dean of University Libraries, addresses the crowd at “First Draft.” Faculty were encouraged to attend this event to meet Romanosky, the new dean.

Dr. Wetzel (right), a professor of music history and literature, who was honored because of his promotion of information literacy and library resources in his classes, as well as his donations to the Libraries collections speaks, with Dr. Ghirmai Negash (left), a professor of English and African literature and associate director of the African Studies program.

Florenz Plassman (center), dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, mingles with two OHIO librarians, Erin Wilson (left), digital imaging specialist and lab manager, and Janet Carleton (right), digital initiatives coordinator.

All photos by James Year/Ohio University Libraries.