Porter Fleming Literary Competition

This writing competition is held in memory of Porter Fleming, a prominent Augusta, Georgia, citizen and one of the city’s foremost philanthropists. With grant support from the Porter Fleming Foundation, the competition is being administered this year by the Morris Museum of Art, the first museum in the country to focus on the art and artists of the American South. Writers residing in Georgia, Florida, Alabama, South Carolina, and North Carolina may participate. Check out the Porter Fleming Literary Competition web site for details.

Study/Media/Conference Room Availability

We've got a new way to see which study/media/conference rooms are currently available in the LITC: http://www.coker.edu/static/library/studyrooms.htm

This web page will list the current availability of keys for these rooms. As mentioned in a previous blog entry, all study rooms will now be key access only.

Rogers Library - FMU

We hosted Library Dean, Joyce Durant and the library staff from the Francis Marion University's Rogers Library this morning. Nell Bradley, Library Director from Florence-Darlington Technical College joined us.What a great crew! We toured our building and talked about some of the projects we have worked on since moving into the new library. It was a wonderful visit and a morning well spent by all.

New Library Items RSS feed

If you want to keep track of new items here at the library, there are a couple of ways to do it.

I periodically update a Google Spreadsheet with new items. It is subdivided by collection, so you can see new titles in DVD, Art, or our Reference collections.

A newer method uses RSS feeds -- also known as Really Simple Syndication. Put this link in your RSS reader -- Google Reader and My Yahoo! are two popular readers -- and keep track of the newest additions to the Coker Library. Note that everything that gets added to our catalog will show up, including equipment and odd items like study room keys.

Study Room Keys

All study rooms will now be accessible only by key. Stop by the circulation desk and check out a key for any available study or media room.

Thanks!

Devastating Fire at Columbia International University Library

Some astute users of our library catalog may have noticed that we share our catalog with several other colleges and universities in South Carolina. One of these schools, Columbia International University, had a devastating fire in their library this weekend. We worked extensively with the staff and librarians at CIU when we trained on our current library catalog system.

The heat was so intense that when firefighters entered the building, books were undergoing spontaneous combustion. Metal shelving warped due to this heat. The entire building has smoke damage and has suffered severe structural damage. Every item has some smoke damage, and an estimated 20,000 volumes were completely destroyed.

Although there is never a "good" time to have a fire in a library, CIU is heading into final exams this week, with commencement scheduled for May 15th.

The state academic library partnership -- PASCAL -- will be mobilizing to help CIU's library get back on its feet.

We will keep everyone informed with whatever statewide recovery plans emerge in the next few days.

Friday Afternoon Humor