Library creates blog to gather students' input
Popular Reading Collection gets best-sellers for the Chester Fritz.
Megan Ewert
Issue date: 2/8/08 Section: News
The Chester Fritz Library is reaching out to students in a new way with an online blog about their Popular Reading Collection, where students can make comments about books.
The Popular Reading Collection program started in 2002, according to Reference Librarian Kristen Borysewicz.
"It's changed, though," she said. "It's geared more toward bestseller items and that wasn't always the focus, but that's what students are looking for."
The Student Senate gave initial funding in 2002, but the funding dropped in recent years and was picked up again this year.
"The university budget was not really sufficient, and we really wanted to get it updated," Borysewicz said. "The library funding would have run out in December, but with the new senate funding, we can go through the summer and get a lot more items."
Student input
In order to draw attention to the newly funded program, the reference librarians launched the blog so that students can get involved. "We were kind of working on it over the holiday break," she said. "It's really going to depend on student input if we want to keep it going, if it's something that students like."
The credit, Borysewicz said, goes to the Student Senate.
"Everyone should thank their student senators, as this is definitely a student-focused program, and they deserve recognition."
She said that she hopes people become interested in the blog. "I hope they want to share information on books, commenting like this in a centralized spot, so that we know what people want," she said.
Suggestion forms are available on the blog, in the library and the UND Bookstore. The UND Bookstore helps the Popular Reading Collection by telling the library what the top sellers for college students are and giving a discount on the best-seller titles.
"They give us a very good discount," Borysewicz said. "They're helping out in a lot of ways and money goes back to the university. The sales of the books and the cooperation for the program benefit everyone involved."
The Popular Reading Collection program started in 2002, according to Reference Librarian Kristen Borysewicz.
"It's changed, though," she said. "It's geared more toward bestseller items and that wasn't always the focus, but that's what students are looking for."
The Student Senate gave initial funding in 2002, but the funding dropped in recent years and was picked up again this year.
"The university budget was not really sufficient, and we really wanted to get it updated," Borysewicz said. "The library funding would have run out in December, but with the new senate funding, we can go through the summer and get a lot more items."
Student input
In order to draw attention to the newly funded program, the reference librarians launched the blog so that students can get involved. "We were kind of working on it over the holiday break," she said. "It's really going to depend on student input if we want to keep it going, if it's something that students like."
The credit, Borysewicz said, goes to the Student Senate.
"Everyone should thank their student senators, as this is definitely a student-focused program, and they deserve recognition."
She said that she hopes people become interested in the blog. "I hope they want to share information on books, commenting like this in a centralized spot, so that we know what people want," she said.
Suggestion forms are available on the blog, in the library and the UND Bookstore. The UND Bookstore helps the Popular Reading Collection by telling the library what the top sellers for college students are and giving a discount on the best-seller titles.
"They give us a very good discount," Borysewicz said. "They're helping out in a lot of ways and money goes back to the university. The sales of the books and the cooperation for the program benefit everyone involved."
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