September 5, 2018

Reviewing the topics for this issue of In Circulation, the common theme that emerged is the hope that the changes the Libraries is introducing inspire engagement with information. The theme reflects our ongoing commitment to making improvements, and in turn, transforming the Libraries to address changes in how students learn and study, how faculty communicate research to laypeople, and even how readers of this newsletter stay interested. 

As I hope you will have noticed, our Communications Manager introduced a redesign of In Circulation this month. We expect this change to inspire continued VIP readership and relationships by making engagement with the Libraries’ news easier from mobile devices.

This month we are pleased to announce the new academic year’s ScholarSip series. We expect to explore through our faculty “food for thought” discussions how sharing research inspires civic engagement with science and greater interest in discovery of knowledge, and with that a shift to seeking truth over not questioning fake news.

A campus story aimed for students featured 5 things you didn’t know about the Libraries that we expect will disperse misconceptions about what a library has to offer. We hope that it will entice more students to take advantage of our environments, inspiring them to become savvy, information-hungry learners.

Each of these changes may be small in the scheme of things, but collectively and over time, their impact accumulates to build the Libraries’ relevance. After all, scientists have helped us appreciate—metaphorically—that the flapping of a butterfly’s wings in one part of the world might contribute to the start of a tornado far away. Perhaps our interpretation of this element of Chaos Theory is that what we do, as illustrated by this month’s highlights, may contribute in due time to a powerful storm of activity whereby people become inspired to form habits of seeking authoritative information.

Happy Academic New Year!  

Danuta A. Nitecki, PhD
Dean of Libraries