Thursday, January 12, 2017 by Mary Lynne Bartlett
Welcome back UWaterloo! We hope you had a restful and happy holiday. We are looking forward to an exciting semester and year ahead. There are a few new faces joining the Library Ambassadors this semester!
Preethi Rao (Pree) is the new co-lead for the program. She is on co-op here from the University of Western Ontario until August, 2017 as a project coordinator at the library.
The Library Ambassador team has changed slightly since last semester. Rabia, Brenna, Jacque, and Dennie have all returned, as well as Karolina who was a Library Ambassador in the Spring term 2016.
Taylor Hodson, Anna Quijano and Leona Vuong are the newest staff to have joined the Library Ambassador team for Winter 2017.
The Ambassadors will be out and about around campus this semester. You will see them at the Campus Life Fair, in the Dana Porter and Davis Centre Lobby the first two weeks of class, March Break Open House, as well as at the Academic Integrity events throughout the month of January and February.
If you don’t have a chance to come meet the Ambassadors at one of the events, they will also each be writing a blog post about what they are working on and their experiences as a Library Ambassador. Stay tuned each week to learn more about them!
One of the new initiatives that the Library Ambassadors are doing this semester are feedback sessions with the student body. The Library Ambassadors are going to be asking you questions and gathering feedback about the library, the services offered, the events that are run, and anything else you would like to share with them. The best part about the feedback sessions is that there will be pizza! Watch for more information about the dates and times of these student feedback sessions on our social media accounts.
Each term, the Library Ambassadors work on self-directed term projects. These term projects build their skills in the areas of critical thinking, time management, communication, organization, event planning, and leadership skills. The term projects are one of the highlights for us as co-leads to watch come to fruition. The Ambassadors are tasked with writing a proposal for their project, and then we work with them on figuring out the fine details and directing them to the information they will need to be successful. Each term the Ambassadors have come up with very interesting and diverse projects geared at engaging with the student body. Although the project proposal deadline isn’t until January 27th, here is a sneak peak of what you can expect to see this term:
Rabia and Brenna are bringing back the B Mindful Challenge Colouring Table. This project gives students the opportunity to de-stress during exam time. Students can also colour and write positive messages in the mandala cards, which will be delivered to patients at the Cambridge Memorial Hospital. This project brings the university and the community together through kindness.
Taylor’s project will give students the opportunity to discover features of the UWaterloo libraries have to offer through an ongoing post card scavenger hunt. The post cards will be limited in quantity and the students will have to travel to various locations in order to get one. Scholar the goose will be focus of each image on the postcard, in various themes.
Jacque and Leona are working together on a Harry Potter Trivia fair with three ways to play and two ways to win prizes! This is going to be a fun opportunity to test your Harry Potter knowledge.
Karolina is working with the Circulation Department on 'Blind Date with a Book'. Books will be wrapped in paper with clues on what the book is about. It is up to you if you wish to take the book out on a blind date so to speak.
Anna is working on ‘A Very Sherlock Scavenger Hunt’. There will be a murder story read aloud, and it will be up to the teams to find the clues in order to solve who done it. The clues will be hidden around the library and each team must correctly answer the riddle clue they are given to find the next clues. The team who brings back the most clues and solves the mystery wins.
Dennie is continuing her project from last semester, creating displays focusing on works from marginalized groups. Dennie is meeting with different organizations e.g. AIDS Committee of Cambridge, Kitchener, & Waterloo Area as well as SPECTRUM to create partnerships for her project.
It looks like it is going to be a busy term ahead!
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