Episode 2 – Tour of the Library, part I
January 2007
MEGHAN: Good Morning College Station! How you doing today 12th man? I’m Meghan Wall and welcome to Write Right, the University Writing Center’s student podcast. In the next two episodes we’ll be taking you along to the Texas A&M Universities main campus for a tour of the Evans library and the University Writing Center, where there is a whole host of wonderful people who are going to tell you what you your paying for and what services are available to you, whether you are a 1st year, 2nd year, or even 5th year student. The librarians and staff there are friendly and ready to help you with your research, writing, and reference needs. So don’t be afraid and remember, all you have to do is just ask.
[SCHOOL BELL RINGING]
BORAT: Jagshemash! Welcome students to your first day of Popular Music in the 20th century! Your first assignment is make paper on your favorite music from any decade in late 20th century. I expect you to use scholarly resources and show great research as well as have citations. Don’t worry, Evans library has everything you needed to get started. That’s why were going to speak with Instructional Services librarian Christina Hoffman–very nice–and get tour of the library. There’s a lot I don’t know either so we’re going to learn a lot today. You watch. Chiqui…
STUDENTS: Do we have to? This is totally ridiculous!! Homework on the first day!!? I’m bored! [YAWNING SOUND] I’m batophobic I have a fear being in or around tall buildings.
BORAT: Suck it up, Scaredy Face! I want to see tallest book building on 12th Man campus.
[BUGLE CALVARY CHARGE SOUND]
SELENA SYNTAX: Howdy, and welcome to the library. I’m your tour guide Selena Syntax.
[WHISTLE]
MALE STUDENT: Hey, how you doin????
SELENA SYNTAX: Great! I encourage you to ask as many questions as possible. Our library staff is ready to help you. And this is Instructional services librarian Christina Hoffman. She’s going to tell about what instructional services can do for you as well as point out some of the services of the library while we are on this tour.
[STUDENTS CLAPPING]
MS. HOFFMAN: My name is Christina Hoffman Gola. In instructional services, we provide classes, we do online tutorials, we do one on one on instructions; we have about 50 different handouts that can help students with research.
STUDENTS: OHH!
FEMALE STUDENT: This is a huge building where are you guys at?
MS. HOFFMAN: Well we’re located in Evans library, it’s on the first floor, kind of in the middle, you have to walk past the first set of elevators and then our lounge is on the right. And it’s really cool, we have a forty-two inch flat panel TV.
STUDENTS: WOAH!!
BORAT: Wo-Wo-Wee-Wo-Wo, good for faculty I hope too?
[AIR HORN]
MALE STUDENT: Soo… about this paper, I have no idea where to begin.
MS. HOFFMAN: There’s so many ways to start. You can actually just go onto our website. We have class guides for students that we set up, so we can actually pick the resources for you. Or we always have the resource desk available.
[WHISTLE]
MALE STUDENT: How can I get some help with the research? That’s the hardest part.
BORAT: Yes! Yes! Where are these reference people?
[WHISTLE]
MS. HOFFMAN: The reference desk is on the first floor of the library. What you don’t see all the time is our reference librarians, the people who actually are experts in a particular subject areas. We have over 50 faculty reference librarians.
[CARTOON PIANO NOISE]
BORAT: Wo-Wo-Wo-Wo 50! Very nice.
FEMALE STUDENT: Where am I supposed find all this information?
BORAT: Is it possible to find information using what you called the Google website or Yahoo? Isn’t all information on website?
[BUZZER FOR WRONG ANSWER]
MS. HOFFMAN: It would be great if Google had all the information but it’s actually searching public information websites out on the web.
BORAT: But why would it be bad for glorious 12th Man to use Google search for research paper?
MS. HOFFMAN: There’s a whole vast amount of information that’s not in the public domain, meaning you and I cannot just access it freely.
[WHISTLE AND BUZZER]
BORAT: What? Not free?
MS. HOFFMAN: So the library spends millions of dollars a year on these databases to get access to students and faculty on this campus.
STUDENTS: WOW!
BORAT: Free information, great success!
MALE STUDENT: I’ve heard that J-Stor is a good program to use.
[BUZZER FOR WRONG ANSWER]
MS. HOFFMAN: A lot of our students do use J-Stor, but while it’s a great database, it doesn’t have the most current content; it’s actually just an archive. But there are many, many other databases that have current content, which sometimes, depending on your research is a lot more relevant.
[INFINTRY CHARGE SOUND]
SELENA SYNTAX: We have a total of 600 different databases updated every year so you can find the information you need.
[BUZZER]
BORAT: 600 databases, Wo-Wo-Wo!
STUDENT: What if I can’t come to the library, how can I do my research?
MS. HOFFMAN: All those online databases, students have access to those anywhere that they have a computer just by using their Net ID and password.
STUDENTS: OOOH!
VALLEY GIRL: Well I’m kind of afraid to do all this research by myself. Is there a way I can get some one-on-one instruction time from home?
[MAGICAL MUSIC]
MS. CLEO: Hello children, this is Miss Cleo. You can chat online with a librarian from home who can even co-browse with you to help you with your research. Just click on the “Ask Me Now” button on the library home page.
FEMALE STUDENT: Well, I work after school, and I’m in classes all day long so is there a way that I can get the research I find emailed to me?
[INFINTRY CHARGE SOUND]
SELENA SYNTAX: We also have Deliver E-Docs which could be of great help to you students.
ARNOLD: We will copy up to 50 pages for you and email them to your deliver E-Document account. If we don’t have it the book, we will get it from another library. And if you want more that 50 pages, we’ll send you the whole book. It’s very easy, so don’t work hard, work smart, we’re here to pump you up about copying pages if you don’t have time.
MALE STUDENT: How many articles a day can I copy?
THE COUNT: Let me count them….1 article…2 articles…3 articles…10 articles for free ah, ah, ah, ah! [THUNDER SOUND]
MEGHAN: If you are a student excited about the topics discussed in today’s podcast, then tune in for part two of this tour of the library, where we’ll be taking you up to the second floor to learn about the writing center, getting free textbooks, renting iPods and DVDs, as well as much more. And until then swing by the library! It’s a great place to study, work on a paper, or just chill out. And don’t forget to stop by the Writing Center on the second floor for all your writing needs. Thank you for listening to Write Right our vocal talent included John Port, Megan Guerra, Chelsea McGill, Jennifer Jaynes, Mark Kohutek and several anonymous contributors. I’m Meghan Wall, hoping you’ll join us next time for another exciting episode of Write Right!
