Library Services wins the college's Environment Week Challenge!

From June 5th to 11th, various departments in Medicine Hat College participated in the Environment Week Challenge. This event prompted departments and staff to reflect on how they interact with the environment as groups and as individuals.

Part of the challenge entailed staff members in each department scoring themselves in various categories about the degrees to which they practice environmental conservation. Personal scores were totaled as a department and then divided by the number of participants in each department, producing an average score.

Library Services proudly took top honours for this year’s challenge! In recognition of our win, we were awarded a certificate of achievement from the college’s Environment Committee and the honour of displaying Kermit the Frog in our service area.

Pictured (l-r): K. Walker, B. Banasch, J. Malinsky, A. Baxter (with Kermit), J. MacDonald, G. Rose, J. Clarke, L. Cunningham, R. Smith, H. Lewis-Futrell

Individual honours were also won by Vera Bracken Library staff members! Darlene Graham and Gloria Rose tied for the top personal scores. Each received a $20 gift card to the Windmill Garden Centre.

As a department, Library Services has been very conscious of environmental concerns. We recycle as many consumables as possible, which includes batteries, cardboard/paper, electronic equipment, glass, and plastics. Library Services has also added more than 15,000 e-books to its collection in the past couple years and also employs Kobo e-readers for many popular titles, which means less paper being used and more space for our patrons.

Library Services was not without stiff competition from the other departments though, so congratulations to all the participants and we look forward to next year’s event. In the end, we all know that the environment is the real winner!

Library Services Employee Honoured

On Monday, November 29, 2010, the United Way of Medicine Hat presented a plaque to Library Services’ Darlene Graham for her years of service as their Campaign Coordinator at the Medicine Hat College.

Regarding her experience, Darlene states that, “I think it is important to let everyone here at the college know the United Way appreciates everything we, as a community college, do for our community. I was part of the campaign for 20 years, enjoyed it, and appreciated all the help I received from staff and students over the years. The silent auction was always a success thanks to all the departments who donated items or gift certificates to it. Everyone seemed to enjoy it. Once again thanks for allowing me to do this for so many years.”

Congratulations to Darlene for her dedication and work with the United Way from her coworkers in Library Services.

Plaque inscription:

“In Appreciation For Your Years of Service & Dedication”
Darlene Graham
Medicine Hat College
Employee Campaign Coordinator
2010

Successful Partnership with MHC Division of Business

A book launch party was hosted in the Vera Bracken Library to celebrate the successful partnership between Library Services and the Division of Business. The book is a compilation of business student projects instructed by Glen Allan with the research support from the library. The students were excited to see their projects turned into a published work and listed with many other books collected by the library. The highlight of the event was that each individual student was able to retrieve the book through the online catalogue by searching their own name as the author!

- Lilian Li, Information and Technology Librarian

You can view their book, Business Math 183: Class Project: Statistics, by clicking here.

Library Staff Complete Their Own Torch Relay

1 country, 25 participants, 106 days, 26,000 kilometres – Go!

In October of last year, 25 library staff members signed up to participate in the Library Services version of the Olympic Torch Relay. The challenge was to convert any physical activity into steps and as a team, to follow the real Olympic Torch across the land portion of its journey across Canada. 26,000 kilometres in 106 days!

Each participant was handed a pair of Olympic red mittens, a pedometer and the encouragement to go ‘swifter, higher, stronger’. We totaled our step counts for walking, cycling, running and climbing stairs. We calculated our minutes of aquasize, swimming, weight lifting and yoga. We tallied dog walks, dancing, grocery shopping and vacuuming. A large map of the relay route was posted as motivation and as a visual representation of our efforts. A record was kept of each person’s activity and the number of steps they contributed. While this might have discouraged some of the non-competitors in our group, in reality it had the opposite effect. We encouraged each other in our physical activities, we discussed what people did in their spare time and admittedly it did generate a little bit of friendly competition.

So, did we manage to finish the relay in time for the opening ceremonies on February 12th? Yes we did, with a few hours to spare. But perhaps the bigger achievement was the sense of community and teamwork that developed as a result of the challenge. And isn’t that what the Olympics are meant to inspire in all of us?

Happy 40th Anniversary Barb!

It is a rare accomplishment, but our Barb Banasch (Circulation Supervisor) has been with Medicine Hat College Library Services for 40 years! To honour this accomplishment, we present some statistics about her career here:

TIME SERVED . . .

• 14,600 days of service
  
  
• 350,400 hours of service
  
  
• 21,024,000 minutes of service
  
  
• 1,261,440,000 seconds of service (not counting trips to Brooks, speeding along the Deerfoot Trail, or bus rides to Elkwater)
  

SERVED WITH . . .

• 8 Library Directors
  
  
• 46 Circulation Clerks
  
  
• 47 AV Clerks
  
  
• 25 Brooks Clerks
  
  
• This does not count all those other wonderful people she has worked with throughout the college over the years.

CONDUCTED . . .

• 470 job interviews (acquiring staff, not job hunting for herself)

Barb (née Wells) then (1970) . . .
















Barb now (2010) . . .




What does Barb have to say about all of this? Click here to read more.