Virtual Library Staff Visits Perry, VGCC Libraries
Ralph Kaplan from North Carolina Libraries for Virtual Education (NC LIVE), based in Raleigh, visited the H. Leslie Perry Memorial Library in Henderson and the Vance-Granville Community College Learning Resource Center on Feb. 19 to share valuable insights about NC LIVE.
NC LIVE is North Carolina’s source for high quality information resources and provides the people of North Carolina online access to complete articles from encyclopedias, newspapers, and thousands of magazines, more than 22,000 electronic books, and historical documents and maps. Topics are broad and cover areas such as business, health, education, psychology, science, literature, and much more.
Kaplan made presentations to staff members at both the public and community college libraries. He provided background on NC LIVE, outlined resources for library staff, and discussed ways to customize the resources to fit the exact needs of library patrons. Library staff will ultimately be able to use this information to provide better service to their patrons.
The visit by NC LIVE staff is part of a three-year statewide outreach program, in which NC LIVE staff will visit each of the 200 NC LIVE institutions, providing information and learning about the unique needs and challenges at each library across the state.
Officials at both the public library and the college library praised NC LIVE and its value to their patrons.
“NC LIVE is an extremely valuable resource,” said Jeanne Fox, Perry Library director. It is available to all at the library and accessible from home or office by all library card holders.”
Doree Critz, reference librarian at Perry Library, said, “It is rewarding to introduce library users, who have been relying on the Internet for information, to the NC LIVE databases.”
“This cutting-edge technology is an enormous research tool packed with a wide variety of subjects for the students, staff, and faculty of Vance-Granville,” said Sondra Oakley, director of VGCC’s Learning Resource Center. “The remote access element further provides total convenience in delivery by allowing students to research within the privacy of their own homes.”
NC LIVE started in April 1998 and the web site currently receives more than 1.7 million hits per month. NC LIVE ( http://www.nclive.org ) can be accessed free of charge from the Perry or VGCC libraries or from home. Funding for NC LIVE comes from an appropriation from the North Carolina General Assembly and from the members of the North Carolina Independent Colleges & Universities. For further information, visit H. Leslie Perry Memorial Library or call 438-3312.
