Music in the Archives: A Celebration of Detroit's Aural History

• Lead: Bart Bealmear & Meghan Courtney
• Funding Amount: $2,000
• Visionary Pillar(s): Community Engagement
• Outcome: Funding was used in two ways: (1) to exhibit the historic Blue Bird Inn stage on loan from the Detroit Sound Conservancy, which served as a focal point for a 2019 Noel Night musical performance, and (2) to host a musical event with Melvin Davis and his band as well as Ron English and his trio, which brought in 80-100 guests. This event was covered on Fox 2 Detroit, MetroTimes, and WDET's CultureShift, which featured a 16-min interview that highlighted the value of the WSU Library System to the local community. 

Personal Librarian

• Lead: Veronica Bielat & Serena Vaquilar 
• Funding Amount: $1,000
• Visionary Pillar(s): Student Success and Retention
• Outcome: The Personal Librarian Program aimed to establish individual relationships between freshman students and librarians, increase students’ comfort with visiting the libraries and using library resources and services, and enhance students’ information literacy skills in support of their academic success. After several iterations of this initiative were launched in both online and in-person environments, the project will be resumed when face-to-face programming in possible.

Archive-It

• Lead: Sarah Lebovitz & Alison Stankrauff  
• Funding Amount: $2,250
• Visionary Pillar(s): Community Engagement, Scholarship
• Outcome: Over the past year, funding was granted for an initial trial subscription to Archive-It. During the testing period, we captured 67 different websites, scheduled regular captures of specific websites, and expanded our capture criteria to include labor and urban affairs related websites. We implemented a metadata and quality assurance project in order to assist students finishing out their semesters remotely, with a goal to continue the project in the long-term and provide opportunity to learn about web archiving theory and systems.
  

Seed Library

• Lead: Robin Darling, Lori Rinaldi, Alexandra Sarkozy, James Sechelski,  Michelle Serreyn, Nancy Swenskowski, Cynthia Zwolinski
• Funding Amount: $2,000
• Visionary Pillar(s): Community Engagement
• Outcome: The Seed Library is a community engagement initiative that promotes knowledge and resources of food sustainability for the Wayne State University community and the community-at-large. Research has been conducted about other local seed libraries and their processes, with a multi-year program being developed. Preliminary programming was launched in July 2020, with a screening of Seed: the Untold Story, and a follow-up Q&A with Ben Cohen. Future programming will be developed as COVID-19 is better contained and face-to-face interaction and distribution of materials is possible.

Dolly Parton Imagination Library

• Lead: Betty Adams, Stefanie Caloia, Megan Hakala, Lori Rinaldi, Sarah Sorensen 
• Funding Amount: $2,000
• Visionary Pillar(s): Community Engagement
• Outcome: The WSULS is spearheading an effort to bring the Dolly Parton Imagination Library (DPIL) to Detroit and thereby provide one free book per month to all children aged 0-5 years. To start, the program encompass the two zip codes (48201 and 48202) occupied by the WSU campus, which are home to many children with limited access to literacy programs. This initiative stands to greatly increase the libraries’ status in the immediate geographic community and offers many promising public relations opportunities. The team continues to develop partnerships to expand the initiative reach and develop sustainable funding models to maintain the program.

Noel Night

• Lead: Meghan Courtney
• Funding Amount: $500
• Visionary Pillar(s): Community Engagement
• Outcome: Funds were spent partially on decoration and partially on snacks for attendees. Offering a completely free experience for visitors enables us to be known as a truly welcoming location during Noel Night. We have heard from several visitors that we are their new favorite spot and truly embody the spirit of Noel Night by opening our doors and offering our materials freely.
  

Pick your Poison (National Library of Medicine Traveling Exhibit)

• Lead: Wendy Wu
• Funding Amount: $1,000
• Visionary Pillar(s): Community Engagement
• Outcome: Refreshments and parking were provided to encourage attendance by the community and make the event more welcoming and enjoyable.

Coffee Series

• Leads: Monique Oldfield
• Funding Amount: $200
• Visionary Pillar(s): Student Success and Retention
• Outcome: Coffee was provided to visitors of the session, which promoted Library Services to the campus community.

Game Night

• Lead: Veronica Bielat
• Funding Amount: $300
• Visionary Pillar(s): Student Success and Retention
• Outcome: Candy was provided to attendees who participated in various activities. 

"Generous Thinking: Working in Public" Lecture and Workshop

• Lead: Cheryl Ball
• Funding Amount: $1,000
• Visionary Pillar(s): Scholarship, People and Culture, Community Engagement
• Outcome: An honorarium was given to Dr. Kathleen Fitzpatrick from Michigan State University to give a lecture on her book, Generous Thinking, and lead a workshop on the Humanities Commons repository.

Haircut-A-Thon

• Lead: Cathrine Trautman & Matthew Wisotsky
• Funding Amount: $100
• Visionary Pillar(s): Community Engagement
• Outcome: Food was provided for hair donors and promotional materials were created to help inspire monetary and hair donations for the event.

Noel Night

• Lead: Meghan Courtney
• Funding Amount: $480
• Visionary Pillar(s): Community Engagement
• Outcome: Food, drinks, disposable goods (cups, button blanks, etc.), and a green screen and frame helped attract more attendees to participate in library activities during the event.

Collaborative Study Space

• Leads: Richard Buboltz & Rachael Clark 
• Funding Amount: $750
• Visionary Pillar(s): Student Success and Retention
• Outcome: Six mobile dry erase boards were installed on the fourth floor of Purdy Library to transform the floor into a collaborative study space for students, mirroring similar spaces in the Undergraduate Library.