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Library Offers New Features for Faculty

Get ready for the new improved Francine G. McNairy Library and Learning Forum.

Fifth floor of the new library

Special to the Exchange – Written by Millersville student Alicia Morrissey

Exciting new features will be available to all faculty, staff and students who have been anxiously awaiting the opening of the new library, which has been under construction since the summer of 2011. Everything is on schedule for the opening. Construction will be completed by the end of this semester, and after all the books and furniture are moved in over the summer, the library will be officially open for business in the fall. The rededication ceremony for the library, now called the Francine G. McNairy Library and Learning Forum, will be held during homecoming weekend in October 2013.

The fifth floor of the library will be the new hot spot for faculty members. Various offices on campus will make this floor their new home, including the Center for Academic Excellence, the Instructional Design Teaching and Learning Team and the Office of Sponsored Programs and Research Administration.

The Center for Academic Excellence provides programs, services and resources for faculty members in order to help them develop professionally. For example, various informal discussions are held for faculty members that cover topics such as class curriculum, technology in the classroom, as well as the current projects faculty members have been working on. Some of these programs include Brown Bag Discussions, POP-in! Events and Scholarship Socials.

The Instructional Design Teaching and Learning Team offers workshops to faculty on how to make better use of D2L as well as how to best teach an online class. Several workshops are held, but faculty members also have the option of meeting with a member of the team for more individual help.

The Office of Sponsored Programs and Research Administration helps faculty in different departments get grants. This office will help faculty members flesh out their proposals, create their budget and help get authorization from the Institutional Research Board.

Study room of the new library

A new room on the fifth floor that may appeal most to faculty is the Faculty Collaboration Room, which is uniquely nicknamed the “Collaboratory.”  Faculty from anywhere on campus can come and work together in this room. Filled with couches, movable tables and chairs, movable whiteboards, a sink, refrigerator and flat panel television, this room can have a variety of uses. For example, if faculty members are working on a conference presentation, they can use this room to work and practice. Or, if a faculty member’s office is too small to hold a meeting, that member can use this room to hold the meeting instead. This room is an opportunity for faculty members to collaborate not only with each other, but with students because the fifth floor is also filled with many study rooms available for student use.

3 replies on “Library Offers New Features for Faculty”

I am bummed that I won’t get a chance to see the new and improved library since I graduate in May, but I’m sure it will be great!

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