Luria Library

As we enter the 8th week of the Zaca Fire, I am certain most tire of this long fire. Since the SBCC community is so large, there may be students or employees who live very close to the fire and are living a distracted life. The web has a wealth of resources for this type of incident and I encourage you to explore what is available. A good place to start is the Zaca Fire Information and Resource Page at the Ojai Post. If you are interested in newspaper and magazine reporting, try a search in ProQuest for zaca fire or review some of the books we have in our collection on wildfires. Feel free to use the comment link below to make other suggestions or to share your experience.

We welcome our new students arriving on campus this year, especially those coming right out of high school. Every year Beloit College puts together a list of items about their incoming freshman; this year it is those born in 1989. The list is called Mindset List for Class of 2011. It is a fun list for those of us who are a little older to get a glimpse of our students' experience and memory. Enjoy.

Image source

The Luria Library, like most organizations, has developed a mission statement. “The Library seeks to facilitate and improve learning by providing collections and services to meet the educational, cultural and professional needs of students and faculty.” -- the mission statement of Luria Library. Also, like most organizations, we forget our mission statement because it is long. This summer I attended BBWorld, a users conference for Blackboard and WebCT users. The keynote speaker, Guy Kawasaki, encouraged organizations to develop a mantra – a word or short phrase – that conveys the meaning of the organization. Some examples he provided include:

Wendy’s “Healthy fast food”
Nike “Authentic athletic performance”
FedEx “Peace of Mind”
eBay “Democratize commerce”