Changes are coming to "New (and New to Us) Materials in the BDC" Column

I am so accustomed to having to do such a variety of work tasks on my own due to almost perpetual staffing challenges in the past that I am having to learn what I can let others do to advance the BDC's unit goals on my behalf. I am getting a bit better at it but there's still improvements to be made. 

It's been awhile since I've had time to compile an update about what's new and new to us here in the Research Room. So long in fact that we ran out of room on the display shelves and have had to rotate some titles to the closed storage area for lack of display space several times. Rather than continue to delay, I've decided to redeploy some of the BDC's current resources for greater productivity. 

In other words, I really don't have to do this particular column myself. Thus, ch-ch-ch-ch-changes are on the horizon with regard to how the BDC let's you know about our recently arrived materials.  I have competent staff who are able to help with this task on a regular basis. Of course, I'll still have to put my 2 cents worth in and edit the column - but that is a far less onerous task than writing summaries of umpteen new materials for the column. As you know, 'tis far easier to edit than to create. Besides which, I am the materials selector so I already know what's coming in whereas Cassandra and Sydney do not. 

Now that Sydney is in the Reading Room to assist customers but often has some downtime between customers and/or has a mix of customers who need a lot of hands-on one to one help using our resources and those who do their research largely independently of staff assistance - though researchers are always under BDC staff supervision -- and since this is yet another way in which Sydney can "learn" the BDC's collection as she goes along and she writes well, I have decided to turn over the reins for a quarterly summary of "New (and New to Us) Materials in the BDC" to Sydney. Cassandra will add information about the archival collections she's processing, too. Some quarters the write-up will be long; in other quarters the write-up may be quite short. 

But first, we have to catch up as there is a considerable amount of new and new-to-us materials to highlight for you. The three of us have decided that the catch-up will result in two columns: Sydney will do the library materials in one column and Cassandra will do the archives materials from July 1, 2024 - March 31, 2025 in another column. We are aiming for the catch-up posts to be uploaded to Connections in mid-to-late April. 

Thereafter expect a "New (and New to Us) Materials in the BDC" post in mid-to-late July 2025; mid-to-late October 2025; and in mid-to-late January 2026, etc. I made this decision in order to comply with some of the Communication Strategies in the Library's current Strategic Plan, viz.:

• Deliver timely, relevant communication both internally and externally
• Inform and educate cardholders through print and digital media/communications

New Materials in the BDC, January - April 2018

The Library's Strategic Plan has three priorities: Communications; Facilities; and Collections.

Given that the term "Collection" is in our title and is our primary mission, we give a lot of thought and put our money where our mouth is when it comes to strengthening our holdings. Stabilization in the Library's budget has facilitated purchase of new materials and in the case of this department even of some older but new-to-us materials that help us meet our core mission to acquire, preserve, maintain and make accessible a research collection of permanent value that records the history of this area. We have biographies and other nonfiction books, maps, video materials and archival collections about local history including Gullah traditions, natural history, archaeology, and genealogy as well as other topic relevant to Beaufort, Hampton, and Jasper Counties. With that in mind, we are always on the look out for appropriate materials to add to our holdings. Here is a list of the latest books to arrive in our Research Room to support your study of our area:  

A History of the 20th South Carolina Volunteer Infantry Regiment, 1861 - 1865 by James B. Clary joins the author's A History of the 15th South Carolina Volunteer Infantry Regiment, 1861 - 1865. Both are parts of the South Carolina Regimental Roster Set by Broadfoot Publishing. Clary spent countless hours compiling detailed information about the individual soldiers in these units. Other titles that we have in the Research Room from this series are:  No Prouder Fate: The Story of the 11th South Carolina Volunteer Infantry by Neil Baxley; And Were the Glory of Their Times - Artillery and And Were the Glory of Their Times - Cavalry both by Herbert O. Chambers, III; A History of the 3rd South Carolina Volunteer Infantry Battalion (James Battalion): 1861-1865 by Sam B. Davis; The 14th South Carolina Infantry Regiment of the Gregg-McGowan Brigade, Army of Northern Virginia by Robert K. Krick; A History of the Hampton Legion Infantry by O. Lee Sturkey; A History of the 13th South Carolina Infantry by Mike Wadsworth; and A History of the 3rd South Carolina Infantry Regiment: Lee's Reliables by Mac Wyckoff.

Making a Slave State: Political Development in Early South Carolina by Ryan A. Quintana which according to Seth Rockman, Brown University, "makes the social history of enslaved people central to the processes of state building and the political economy of capitalism. Indeed, the book's great value is its recognition of enslaved people as crucial historical actors whose everyday lives created the infrastructures of the state."


The BDC also collects some natural history materials. A Field Guide to Mushrooms of the Carolinas (A Southern Gateways Guide) includes hundreds of full-color photographs of Carolina mushrooms, information about mushroom edibility and toxicity thus filling a gap for regional information on southeastern fungi populations.  

(I'd probably grab this book if we were bombed by North Korea or there was a zombie outbreak. If one has to take to the woods, it would be a good idea to know which of the many wild mushrooms were edible.)


Paradise by Nell and Ora Smith recounts what it was like to live on Hilton Head Island from the 1960s into the 1990s as development forever changed a quiet coastal island into the premier resort destination it is today. We will host two book talks with the authors, one on May 31, 2018 at Hilton Head Branch Library and a reprise at Beaufort Branch on June 26, 2018.

According to the blurb on Amazon.com, The Researcher's Guide to American Genealogy by Val D. Greenberg instructs the researcher in the timeless principles of genealogical research, while identifying the most current classes of records and research tools. This 4th edition provides a clear, comprehensive, and up-to-date account of American genealogy--no sound genealogical project is complete without it.

It joins complementary genealogical reference books The Red Book, The Source, and Black Roots in the Ready Reference section of our Research Room.



Deceit, Disappearance & Death on Hilton Head Island by Charlie Ryan with Pamela Martin Ovens recounts the mysterious circumstances surrounding the disappearance of prominent Hilton Head Islanders, John and Elizabeth Calvert, and the death of their accountant Dennis Gerwing after he was questioned about their disappearance in 2008. The authors gathered together existing documents via Freedom of Information Act requests to shed light on what remains an open investigation. (FYI: The BDC does not do programs on topics or events that are less than 30 years old.)

A New Plantation World: Sporting Estates in the South Carolina Lowcountry, 1900 - 1940 by Daniel J. Vivian explores the massive land transfer of property along the coast and the transformation of the term "plantation" from an agricultural pursuit based upon the labor of the enslaved into a term usually describing large acreage for sporting at leisure, predominantly by Northern owners. This book complements the very popular Northern Money, Southern Land: The Lowcountry Plantation Sketches of Chlotilde R. Martin edited by Robert B. Cuthbert and Stephen G. Hoffius. We hope to be able to bring Dr. Vivian down to Beaufort for a lecture about his book later this year.

Drop by the Research Room to see this books and ever so much more.

Please note: All units of the Beaufort County Library will be closed Mon., May 28, 2018 for Memorial Day.

National Library Week, April 14 - 20

Beaufort County Library joins libraries in schools, campuses and communities nationwide in celebrating National Library Week, April 14–20.  It's a time to highlight the value of libraries, librarians and library workers who enrich and shape our communities.  Please share with others that you value the libraries of America as a group, particularly those in our state and county!

Libraries continue to be busier than ever helping families, students, seniors, etc., during these tough times. But as we all know by now, public libraries, school libraries, and academic libraries are still struggling to maintain budgets, staff, and resources to serve the needs of their communities.  

Libraries today are more than repositories for books and other resources. Often the heart of their communities, campuses or schools, libraries are deeply committed to the places where their patrons live, work and study.  Libraries are trusted places where community members can gather to reconnect and reengage to enrich and shape the community and address local issues. 

(If you've been keeping up with the BDC Facebook page, you will have learned some surprising statistics about our own Beaufort County Library's materials and services this week.  For those of you who love numbers, statistics regarding materials and services in South Carolina are posted online in the State Library Annual Reports at http://www.statelibrary.sc.gov/annual-library-statistics.) 

Librarians work with elected officials, small business owners, students, government employees and the public to discover what their communities needs are and meet them.  Beaufort County Library will soon start mapping out our institution's Strategic Plan, during which we will ask our community to tell us what they need.  Whether through offering e-books and technology classes, materials for English-language learners, programs for job seekers or those to support early literacy, librarians listen to the community they serve, and they respond as they are able by maximizing limited resources as cost-effectively as possible.

State, county, and oftentimes local governments provide much needed funding for libraries to provide public access to the Internet to everyone, critical databases for individuals and small businesses, homework help, and much more. Beaufort County Library is funded mostly by the taxpayers of Beaufort County.  This means that the individuals elected as representatives to the Beaufort County Council hold the purse-strings for all county agencies, including Beaufort County Library.  If you value the services and programs of our library system, please share that belief with them.

On the other hand, should you feel that the library system is not a positive asset to our community, please contact Jan O'Rourke, Assistant Library Director, and Chair of the Strategic Planning Committee to share your thoughts about how the Library system can better serve you and your family.  Data collected will help form the 2014 -2017 Strategic Plan. 

Everyone On! Libraries Play Essential Role in Connect2Compete Campaign

Recently announced:  A partnership among the Public Library Association, a division of the American Library Association, the Institute for Museum and Library Services, OCLC’s Web Junction, the Chief Officers of State Library Agencies, the Federal Communications Commission, and the non-profit Connect2Compete to provide access to broadband Internet services and digital literacy training for the 100 million Americans who do not have access from home. There is common agreement among the partners that libraries are essential to get “EveryoneOn” and competitive in the 21st century.  EveryoneOn is a public awareness effort designed to help all Americans access free digital literacy training in their libraries and community centers - a topic near and dear to the hearts and activities of librarians and public libraries across the country.    

On the national level, Susan Hildreth, Director of the Institute for Museum and Library Services reports that "Libraries are already stepping up to this challenge. Eighty-three percent of them offer informal training in digital literacy, helping people learn how to use computers, navigate the web, and find the best and most useful information. And 44 percent offer formal classes."

So how does our Beaufort County Library stack up against the national effort? We offer informal and formal training in digital literacy.  We help people learn how to use computers, navigate the web, and find the best and most useful information. According to the recent report of our assistant director, Jan O'Rourke, to our Library system's Board of Trustees regarding our system's progress towards meeting literacy related goals set in the 2011 - 2013 Strategic Plan, we have accomplished a great deal towards our goals:

GOAL 2

Make informed decisions by understanding how to find, evaluate, and use information in all formats. Beaufort County residents will have access to information in all formats and will acquire the skills needed to search for, locate, evaluate and effectively use information to meet their personal goals.

Continue and expand the “WorkStarts” initiative

ü As of December 2012, our WorkStarts presence on our website has been visited 6,713 times.

ü 78 job seeker labs have been offered

ü 158 one-on-one sessions have been held.

ü 353 classes of interest to job seekers have occurred (resume preparation, how to set up an e-mail account in order to apply online, etc.). These numbers, thus far, have exceeded our targets.

ü Additionally we have convened 2 breakfast information-sharing meetings with other entities involved in workforce development.

Continue to provide high speed internet to online information

ü Instruction on proprietary databases, as needed:  approximately 15.

ü Monthly classes on software applications and/or basic computing: 92 total.

The BUILD Team will stay abreast of new technologies and service innovation trends

ü The concepts of makerspaces in libraries, participatory librarianship, using iPADS as early literacy tools, promoting media literacy and transliteracy, using social media tools for programming, book discussions and forums are all ideas that are being explored.  A full report on this as well as what the library of the 21^st Century might look like will be available by spring.

Goal 3

Advance all forms of literacy for all ages. Beginning at birth, Beaufort County residents will have the programs and services that enable them to enter school ready to learn and, throughout life, residents will have the support they need to improve their literacy skills in order to meet their personal goals.

Obtain an early literacy grant to develop and implement a targeted early literacy service plan to pre-schoolers, families and caregivers

ü In 2011 we received a grant for $18,000 + from the Community Foundation of the LowCountry to create a training kit that included board books, resources and a DVD on best practices for providing early literacy tools for parents, guardians, and caregivers.

ü The program, WeeRead, debuted in the Hilton Head and Bluffton branches and will be expanded north of the Broad this year.

At the conclusion of 2012:

·         585 children have participated in some capacity (Summer Reading and/or Story times) along with 467 adults.

·         77 story times have been given.

·         We held 23 training sessions.

·         383 surveys indicated that parents, guardians and caregivers felt that the program was worthwhile.

Continue and expand involvement with the Born to Read Program with funding from the Friends

ü Although we continue to participate in this program we may face some difficulty in expanding the service as the Friends groups are experiencing reduced to support this program.

ü New card registrations increased from 45 in 2011 to 60 in 2012.

By the end of 2012, establish a homework help program through system-led research, development and implementation

ü In 2012 we received a Library Services and Technology Act grant for $2,500.00 that enabled us to hire a consultant to help us develop a model program. Ms. Suzy Lange provided a detailed report that included a recommendation to purchase the 24/7 live homework help product, Brainfuse. 

ü Brainfuse is now available on our website and usage is beginning to climb as of January 2013.

ü Pilot Homework Centers were opened in 2012 in St. Helena and Beaufort.  St. Helena’s program is active and providing homework help every Saturday.  Customer response to Beaufort’s Center was unsatisfactory and the center closed in November 2012.  Subsequent to the setting of this goal in 2011, the United Way created a Women’s Leadership Council that has recruited an impressive number of volunteer tutors to provide reading assistance in the early grades.  Additionally, Title 1 schools are able to provide free tutoring services to children eligible for the school lunch program.  Thus, we have suspended plans to establish homework centers south of the Broad as we feel we are duplicating services and our limited resources should be redirected as a result.

Partner with the Literacy Volunteers of the Lowcountry and other literacy organizations to provide tutoring space for ESL and other literacy volunteers

ü One of our reference managers is on the Board of the Literacy Volunteers of the Lowcountry.

ü Space is available at our branches for tutoring.

Work with the Literacy Volunteers of the LowCountry to establish an adult literacy collection in all branches

ü Our staff member, who is on the Literacy Volunteers of the Lowcountry Board, is assisting in developing recommendations for a core collection.  However, due to budget realities, we are going to pursue grant opportunities for funding of literacy collections.

To read the announcement from IMLS, click Everyone On! Libraries Play Essential Role in Connect2Compete Campaign.  

Jan O'Rourke, Assistant Director of the Beaufort County Library system, stands ready to answer any questions you might have about our current Strategic Plan and our plans for preparing another one to begin in 2014.  Contact: jorourke@bcgov.net; 843-255-6464.