From May 17 through August 6, iMasonLibraries Chat Reference Service is online

• Monday – Thursday:  9:00 am – 9:00 pm
• Friday: 9:00 am – 5:00 pm
• iMasonLibraries will not be online Monday, May 31 and Monday, July 5

Congratulations to Phat Le, Digital Programs and Systems Division, who is ITU Employee of the Month for June 2010!  Phat is being recognized for his positive dedication to his work, the Libraries and the University.  Phat will be receive his award on June 8, 11:30 am in Mason Hall Room D105.  Kudos!

Kudos!  Everett Seamans, Evening Circulation Supervisor, Mercer Library – Prince William, received the Outstanding Paraprofessional Award from the Virginia Library Association (VLA) Paraprofessional Forum at its annual conference on May 18, 2010.  The Outstanding Paraprofessional Award was launched in 1996 as a means of recognizing excellence among the library paraprofessionals in the Commonwealth of Virginia.  Everett was recognized for “his professional expertise, knowledge of the substantive issues facing academic libraries, success and development as a paraprofessional and strength as a proven collaborator”.  Congratulations, Everett!

Dr. Michael G. Chang, Associate Professor, Department of History and Art History, is the 2010-2011 Fenwick Fellow.

Chang’s project, Network Formation at the Imperial Court and the Making of Qing Rule in Eighteenth Century China, 1680-1820 sets out to provide a better understanding of China’s pre-modern state during the Qing dynasty (1644-1911) with particular focus on the Qing court as an arena of political interaction and social network formation.

Professor Chang plans to immerse himself in recently published archives collections in order to analyze and reconstruct the interpersonal interactions and actual practices that constituted the historical processes of the Qing state.  He will enhance and strengthen the Fenwick Library’s holdings of Chinese language scholarship and materials with the acquisition of extensive and newly available Qing period documents.

The Fenwick Fellowship is awarded annually to a Mason tenured or tenure-track faculty member to pursue a research project that uses and enhances the University Libraries’ resources while advancing knowledge in his or her field.  It provides the recipient with a research office in Fenwick Library, and an award of $5,000 to support the research project. In the spring of the following academic year, the Libraries sponsor a public lecture in which the fellow presents the results of his or her work.