With the recent passing of one of my idols, Bill Moyers, I am compelled to share my connection, albeit via electronic means only, to someone who was part of my daily existence during one of the most meaningful periods in my life.
As an art student in NYC in the 1980s-1990s, I had the priviledge of meeting a few famous people: Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring, to name two; with the latter being a lecturer-in-residence at my school (Pratt Institute) as I was tasked with ‘handling his slide carousels’ (ask your parents, or grandparents).
But the highlight of my time as a graduate student supervisor in the Media Library was circulating, viewing, and analyzing a multi-series program on VHS tape (with the master on Beta - ask your great-grandparents) entitled “Joseph Campbell and the power of myth”, a set of tapes that we would regularly have to review and re-master in order to manage their playback quality.
The buzz in the academic art world (and others I suppose) was to “read Joseph Campbell,” but as a visual artist, me and many of my classmates, including little Bobby Mapplethorpe (he grew about a foot right after he dropped-out and became famous with his whips and such) lined up, patiently awaiting the rewinding of a tape so we could watch the magic interactions between Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers, sharing insights, questions, and interpretations between the myth and reality of idols, icons, gods and goddesses.
As an anti-social art-punk trying to learn how to conduct an adult conversation - let alone a librarian interview - these guys -these 2 guys- were full frontal in my daily analog memory glands of how words talk mouth use to… (sic)
Not only a gateway to the fabulous writings of Joseph Campbell, such as The Hero with a Thousand Faces among others, the videos were thought provoking and packed with enough subject matter to last any art student multiple semesters of imagery.
Beyond the melancholy I can see Bill and Joseph flowing alongside in the the Golden Bough, perhaps with Keith, Jean-Michel and Robert, but back on Earth we can celebrate a great series of moments recorded on film, video, or copied to DVD (as allowed by Section 110 (1) of the Copyright Act of 1976).
I'm sure one could easily locate a stream or YouTube clip, but below are links to the library holdings of the video series as as well as books authored by these two beautiful entities.
Other works in our library by-or-about:
Bill Moyers
Joseph Campbell
The library is excited to announce that Jocelyn Codner has been promoted from Reference & Outreach Librarian to Head of Library Instruction & Outreach. This new position was crafted to reflect both the work that Jocelyn has taken on over the years and the increased priority on information literacy instruction by the JKM Library.
“I’m very excited about taking on this new role and strengthening the library’s focus on instruction,” Jocelyn said. “It is my opinion that interacting directly with students, while already critical to their success, will becomes increasingly important in the years to come."
Jocelyn joined the JKM Library team in August of 2017 and jumped right into the Chatham community, serving on many varied committees and working groups. She has innovated library services and programs, such as the Personal Librarian Program, the library's social media presence, and it's involvement with the ENG105: First Year Writing course. She also increased the library's visibility and community engagement by creating a monthly eNewsletter (The Page Turner) and increasing library events.
She received her MLIS from the University of Pittsburgh in 2016, graduating with a 4.0 GPA. She is also a member of Beta Phi Mu, the selective honor society for library and information science and information technology, and a member of the English honor society Sigma Tau Delta. She graduated from Ithaca College with a BS in film and screenwriting in 2010.
Prior to her career in librarianship, Jocelyn worked as a media producer and held roles in marketing and customer service. She was also a freelance writer and culture critic for publications such as The Ithaca Times and Famous Monsters of Filmland. These skills and experiences inform her work in libraries every day.
Jocelyn has particularly loved working closely with students in her role as Reference & Outreach Librarian. She prioritizes one-on-one research meetings and has regularly traveled to all Chatham locations and campuses to meet students where they are.
In 2023 she took over coordinating the library session in all ENG105: First Year Writing courses. She also became the sole librarian teaching those sessions, a task that once was split between three librarians. While instruction has been part of her duties from the beginning, it was during this time she discovered a real love for teaching. She redesigned the session's lesson plan to be more interactive, and she incorporated more opportunities for assessment.
From there, Jocelyn increased her professional development around information literacy instruction, taking courses through Library Juice Academy, completing the Ohio State University’s Teach Information Literacy certificate, and experimenting with different techniques in the classroom.
As Head of Library Instruction & Outreach, Jocelyn will look at ways to cohesively approach information literacy instruction throughout the curriculum and sustainably engage students with meaningful thinking and learning concerning their relationships to information and the technology used to create, communicate, and disseminate it.
“While I absolutely want to reevaluate how librarians collaborate with faculty and work with students in the classroom, I also want to find creative ways to reach students and teach information literacy through collaborations with other departments on campus,” Jocelyn said. She looks forward to collaborating with staff and faculty on these initiatives in the future.
Outside of Chatham, Jocelyn serves as the Chair of the Horror Writers Association’s Library Advisory Council and is very active in the horror literature world, connecting librarians and horror authors as well as promoting horror literature in libraries.
Please join us in congratulating Jocelyn in her new role here at the JKM Library!
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