Category: Friends of the Libraries

Libraries Honor the 2024 Spring Semester Library Student Assistant Awards Recipients

Image of Spring 2024 LSAA Recipients
Left to right: Alondra Mallia, Darrell Blevins Jr., Ciara McCarthy, Mariah Paynter, Anna Jones. Not pictured: Elijah Capasso

The University Libraries held our biannual Library Student Assistant Award reception on March 15, 2024. Six students were selected for the Spring semester awards and received a $500 award for their excellent job performance in the University Libraries. Library Student Assistant Awards are funded by contributions to the Campus Scholarship Innovation Campaign from the University Libraries’ staff and other donors, and interest earned from the Friends of the Libraries endowment fund. To date, 439 awards have been distributed to 255 students totaling over $205,650.

University Libraries staff and the Friends of the Libraries Board would like to congratulate this semester’s winners:

Darrell Blevins Jr., a graduate student majoring in History, began working for the Special Collections and Archives Department in the fall of 2023. Since he first visited the archives in the spring of 2023 to do research, he absolutely fell in love with SC&A and had an immediate interest in a student employment position here. When a position came open the following fall, his was the first application received and soon after he was hired. Darrell is extremely enthusiastic in his work and his enthusiasm shines through in our reading room and on the phone when he is assisting patrons. He has been instrumental in completing an extensive research request that has required thousands of drawings from our Curtiss Wright Engine Drawing Collection to be located/identified on numerous rolls of microfilm and digitized for the user. He takes time to ensure that the images produced are high quality and legible. Darrell has requested additional work to broaden his experience and is currently working on a small exhibit on the Xenia tornado. His dedication to the SC&A department and his pleasant demeanor make him a great addition to the library and will take him far in the future.

Elijah Capasso is a junior majoring in History who has worked for the Information & Research Services Department since September 2022. Eli was initially hired to assist at both the Information Desk and in Resource Delivery Services where he primarily shelved materials, but as service desk schedules shifted, he transitioned all of his hours to the Information Desk. When answering patron questions, he takes his time and does his research. If he isn’t sure how to answer a question, he’s not afraid to ask his colleagues for assistance. He demonstrated an eagerness and determination to learn all of the equipment in the Information Commons so he can assist patrons in the Educational Resource Center as well as provide in depth assistance on the photocopier/printer/scanner, and with basic technical questions on any computer. When he has down-time on the Information Desk, he asks for additional work and has assisted with the Dayton Holocaust Resource Center display for Black History Month, pulling old book displays, and the subject guides best bets databases list. Eli is a fantastic addition to the Dunbar Library.  

Anna Jones, a senior majoring in History, began working for the Information & Research Services Department in March 2022 as the Dayton Holocaust Resource Center student assistant. She is very creative and task oriented and has excelled at every task she has been assigned. She played a key role in creating entries and images for our special library guide commemorating Black History Month, accessible at https://guides.libraries.wright.edu/black-history-month/dhrc. In addition to our special library guide, The DHRC also initiated a visual display honoring the Black Experience in the Holocaust and World War II. Anna conducted passionate research on the topic, crafted graphics, designed posters, digitized items, and contributed to assembling the display pieces. Each year she works on the Holocaust Remembrance Month DHRC display in the library. We’re looking forward to the April display, titled “Artists of the Holocaust” and are confident that Anna’s hard work will contribute to its success. Anna is a valued member of the DHRC and we’re lucky to have her as one of our student assistants.

Alondra Mallia, a senior majoring in Classical Languages & Cultures, has worked for the Special Collections & Archives Department since August 2023. Alondra has proven to be a conscientious and dependable part of the SC&A team. She quickly learned the ropes by asking questions and diving into projects. She hit the ground running working on a preservation project to properly house oversize photographs in the Dayton Ballet Collection, which required investigative work to identify names, event, and dates. Alondra produces high quality work in neatness, accuracy, and timeliness. She has completed a number of preservation projects to rehouse materials and does a wonderful job staffing the reference desk, helping patrons on the phone and in person. She displays excellence in her work every day in the library. She’s extremely flexible with her schedule, working evenings and during breaks and plans to work over the summer as well. Alondra is an asset to the Dunbar Library and we’re fortunate to have her as a student assistant in the Special Collections & Archives Department.

Ciara McCarthy, a senior majoring in Acting began working for the Resource and Delivery Services Department in October 2020.  As an acting major, Ciara’s schedule can be complicated and extremely demanding. Her exceptional organizational and time-management skills allow her to thrive both as a student and a student employee. During her time with us, she has grown into a leadership role with grace and ease. She takes initiative in her position as a student assistant and is willing to go above and beyond to assist a patron in need. Her attention to detail is on stage when searching the monthly missing list of books so much so that she’s been tagged as our number one detective. She loves searching for missing books and is eagerly excited when she finds one. Her cheerful attitude, outgoing nature, and theatrical skills shine when providing great customer service to our patrons and as she works harmoniously with staff and her fellow student workers. She is quick to help out where needed and to point out any potential issues that may arise. Ciara has been a wonderful part of the RDS department and all have appreciated her friendliness, reliability and adaptability. This is her last semester before graduating and we’re all happy for her and confident that she will succeed wherever her path takes her in the future.  

Mariah Paynter,  a graduate student majoring in Student Affairs – Higher Education, began working in the Resource and Delivery Services Department in August 2023. Mariah has been a quick learner and immediately started covering day shifts where we are often short-staffed. Mariah provides professional and friendly customer service, takes initiative, has a positive attitude and eager to learn all that the RDS department does to ensure all patrons have a positive experience in the library. While performing tasks such as processing OhioLINK  returns, searching for missing items, and learning a new responsibility in helping with Interlibrary Loan, Mariah stays calm and collected. Mariah catches on quickly to new skills and has become a valuable asset for the RDS day operations.

Friends of the Libraries’ Annual Luncheon

Photo of Vick Mickunas
Vick Mickunas

The Friends of the Wright State University Libraries proudly present:

Author Interviewer and WYSO “The Book Nook” Creator

Vick Mickunas

Wednesday, April 24, 2024

11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.

Wright State Nutter Center

Berry Room

Register Now!

You’re invited to join us at the annual Friends of the Libraries luncheon as Vick Mickunas shares his literary adventure and interactions with writers, books, and one inspirational librarian. Vick has been interviewing authors for 30 years.

Vick created “The Book Nook” author interview program for WYSO Public Radio in 1994. His conversations with a vast range of writers, from the famous to the obscure, has been a staple on the radio dial for decades. It is currently one of the longest running radio shows about books.

In 2004 he began writing a column about books for the Dayton Daily News. His book reviews, author interviews, and musings about the book publishing industry have appeared in print ever since.

Last year he filed his 1000th weekly Book Nook column for the Cox Ohio newspapers.

Mickunas and his partner, Amy Achor, live just outside Yellow Springs with their eight cats.

A lunch buffet will be provided, which includes Italian garden salad with Italian Vinaigrette and Ranch dressings, blackened chicken, vegetarian stuffed peppers, mashed potatoes, roasted vegetable blend, assorted breads, variety of desserts, and iced tea, regular and decaf coffee.

Registration is required for this event and must be completed by April 17, 2024. All proceeds benefit the Friends of the Libraries. If you need accommodations for this event, please call (937) 775-2380 five business days in advance.

The THREE Who Flew at Kitty Hawk: Charlie Taylor and the Wright Brothers Engine

Friday, October 13, 2023

11:00 am – 12:30 pm

Room 441 Dunbar Library

Register Now

Image of Charlie Taylor
Charlie Taylor
Image from the Wright Brothers Collection

Join us as Dr. Rubin Battino tells the story of Charles E. Taylor, the mechanical genius who built – in 36 days – the engine that powered the Wright Flyer in 1903. Using numerous original slides, he will discuss the design and construction of the engine, along with other interesting material from Taylor’s life. The talk will include biographical information about Charlie Taylor, the construction of the 1903 engine, and two movies – one of Charlie Taylor talking and one of a replica of the engine running.

This talk will also include a section entitled, “the Flight of the Vin Fiz,” the fascinating story of Calbraith Perry Rodgers, the first man to fly across the United States. Taylor was Rodgers’ mechanician for this historic flight, which he made in 1911 to win a prize of $50,000 offered by William Randolph Hearst. Rodgers ultimately did not win the prize, but he made aviation history.

Dr. Battino, an emeritus professor of chemistry, served on the faculty at Wright State University from 1966 to 1995, and helped construct the full-size replica of the Wright Flyer that now hangs in the atrium of the Dunbar Library. He has given many presentations on the Wright brothers and Charlie Taylor in the United States and abroad. He was named “Speaker of the Year” by the Royal New Zealand Aeronautical Society and was a special speaker at Farnham Air Force Base in the UK.

The talk is cosponsored by the Wright State University Retirees Association and the Friends of the Libraries. The presentation is free and open to the public. Registration is required and must be completed by Tuesday, October 10.

University Libraries 2023 – 2024 Book Club

Join us for the 2023 – 2024 Book Club sponsored by the Friends of the Libraries, WSU Alumni Association, and the WSU Retirees Association.

When and Where:

Thursday evenings at 5:30 p.m. on WebEx. Registration is encouraged but not required.

What We’re Reading:

September 21, 2023: The Summers by Ronya Othmann, translated by Dr. Gary Schmidt

Book Cover Image of The Summers

Special guest, Dr. Gary Schmidt, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and translator of The Summers, by Ronya Othmann, will join this discussion.

The Summers narrates the coming of age of Leyla, who spends the school year in her mother’s home country of Germany but travels every summer to her father’s Kurdish village in Syria, near the Turkish border. There, with her grandparents and Yazidi friends, she comes alive. She knows the village’s smells and tastes; she knows the villagers’ stories. She knows where they keep their suitcases hidden, should they need to escape again.

As Leyla grows older, her sexual awakening takes a back seat to her cultural discoveries. She becomes increasingly disenchanted with her German classmates and friends’ indifference when ISIS troops enter the village, threatening the lives of her grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends.

Thoughtful and poignant, The Summers addresses issues of gender, sexuality, cultural difference, politics, and identity. Ronya Othmann draws readers into multiple worlds, ultimately revealing the hopes and dreams that bind us all together when forces threaten to tear us apart. (Description from the publisher).

November 16, 2023: Calling for a Blanket Dance by Oscar Hokeah

Book Cover Image of Calling for a Blanket Dance

A moving and deeply engaging novel about a young Native American man as he learns to find strength in his familial identity. 

Told in a series of voices, Calling for a Blanket Dance takes us into the life of Ever Geimausaddle through the multigenerational perspectives of his family as they face myriad obstacles. His father’s injury at the hands of corrupt police, his mother’s struggle to hold on to her job and care for her husband, the constant resettlement of the family, and the legacy of centuries of injustice all intensify Ever’s bottled-up rage. Meanwhile, all of Ever’s relatives have ideas about who he is and who he should be. His Cherokee grandmother urges the family to move across Oklahoma to find security; his grandfather hopes to reunite him with his heritage through traditional gourd dances; his Kiowa cousin reminds him that he’s connected to an ancestral past. And once an adult, Ever must take the strength given to him by his relatives to save not only himself but also the next generation of family.

How will this young man visualize a place for himself when the world hasn’t given him a place to start with? Honest, heartbreaking, and ultimately uplifting, Calling for a Blanket Dance is the story of how Ever Geimausaddle found his way to home.(Description from the publisher).

January 18, 2024: Lucky Red by Claudia Cravens

Book Cover Image of Lucky Red

It’s the spring of 1877 and sixteen-year-old Bridget is already disillusioned when she arrives penniless in Dodge City with only her wits to keep her alive. Thanks to the allure of her bright red hair and country-girl beauty, she’s recruited to work at the Buffalo Queen, the only brothel in town run by women. Bridget takes to brothel life, appreciating the good food, good pay, and good friendships she forms with her fellow “sporting women”.

But as winter approaches, Bridget learns just how fleeting stability can be. With the arrival of out-of-towners – some ominous and downright menacing, others more alluring but potentially dangerous in their own ways, including a legendary female gunfighter who steals Bridget’s heart – tensions in Dodge City run high. When the Buffalo Queen’s peace and stability are threatened, Bridget must decide what she owes to the people she loves and what it looks like to claim her own destiny.

A thoroughly modern reimaging of the Western genre, Lucky Red, is a masterfully crafted, propulsive tale of adventure, loyalty, desire, and love. (Description from the publisher).

March 21, 2024: Horse a Novel by Geraldine Brooks – The Dayton Literary Peace Prize Winner for Fiction

Book Cover for Horse a Novel

A discarded painting in a junk pile, a skeleton in an attic, and the greatest racehorse in American history: from these strands, a Pulitzer Prize winner braids a sweeping story of spirit, obsession, and injustice across American history.

Kentucky, 1850. An enslaved groom named Jarret and a bay foal forge a bond of understanding that will carry the horse to record-setting victories across the South. When the nation erupts in civil war, an itinerant young artist who has made his name on paintings of the racehorse takes up arms for the Union.

On a perilous night, he reunites with the stallion and his groom, very far from the glamor of any racetrack.

New York City, 1954. Martha Jackson, a gallery owner celebrated for taking risks on edgy contemporary painters, becomes obsessed with a nineteenth-century equestrian oil painting of mysterious provenance.

Washington, DC, 2019. Jess, a Smithsonian scientist from Australia, and Theo, a Nigerian-American art historian, find themselves unexpectedly connected through their shared interest in the horse – one studying the stallion’s bones for clues to his power and endurance, the other uncovering the lost history of the unsung Black horsemen who were critical to his racing success. Based on the remarkable true story of the record-breaking thoroughbred, Lexington, who became America’s greatest stud sire, Horse is a gripping, multi-layered reckoning with the legacy of enslavement and racism in America. (Description from Publisher)

Book titles are available for borrowing from the WSU Libraries collection, click on book titles above to check current availability. Don’t have a WSU library card? Join our Friends of the Libraries for borrowing privileges and help support the Libraries’ collections and programs.