The Idaho State University Eli M. Oboler Library has recently implemented a system called “Zombies in the Library,” featuring the Gale Virtual Reference Library. Roughly 1,200 reference e-books, or electronic books, have been converted to a physical form and placed around the library, hidden amongst the other books.
The brain child of librarians Jenny Semenza and Regina Koury, Zombies in the Library is focused on making the library’s e-book collection more accessible to students. Semenza believes that the best experience to be had at a library is “finding that perfect book next to the one you’ve been searching for.”
This experience, however, is usually unable to include e-books, which, prior to this program, have only been accesible via an online database. By turning many of the reference e-books into actual physical objects, the “zombie books” can be introduced to the general book collection.
The project is, according to Semenza and Koury, the first of its kind. The idea is “two pronged,” says Semenza.
The goal was to “increase serendipity” – to escalate the moments of happening upon an unexpectedly perfect book while searching for something else, as well as to “advertise our virtual library,” says Semenza.
According to Semenza, the problem with virtual libraries is that they can only be explored via an online database. While not all of the e-books in ISU’s virtual collection have been turned into zombies, Semenza says, “by showing some, we’re hoping [students] will be able to recognize there are more [e-books] online.”
This past summer, Career Path Internship (CPI) student Kate DeHart printed out labels, formatted them, and taped them onto 1,200 book-shaped blocks of wood, with each block representing a reference e-book. Each label contained a book title, reference information and a QR code for smart phones and tablets. In addition, a URL was included for those without smart phones.
In order to make use of one of the zombie books, students need only scan the QR code or visit the URL, and they will have instant access to the e-book in its entirety.
Other ISU CPI students have stepped in to help with the project. Onnolee Frongner and Matthew Bartosz recently created a video advertising the Zombies in the Library program, under the tutelage of Mass Communication program professor Tim Frazier.
Koury is thrilled with the help received from ISU staff and students, speaking happily of the “fantastic spirit so far.”
According to Koury, the project “had to be a team effort. It’s all kind of fallen into place for us.”
While over 1,200 e-books currently exist in e-book form in the Oboler Library, collections are also being drawn together in the Meridian and Idaho Falls libraries.