Library and Archives News

The University Libraries held our biannual Library Student Assistant Award reception on March 14, 2025. Six students were selected for the Spring semester awards and received a $500 award for their excellent job performance in the University Libraries. Library Student Assistant Awards are funded by contributions to the Campus Scholarship Innovation Campaign from the University Libraries’ staff and other donors, and interest earned from the Friends of the Libraries endowment fund. To date, 448 awards have been distributed to 258 students totaling $210,150.

University Libraries staff and the Friends of the Libraries Board would like to congratulate this semester’s winners:

Darrell Blevins, is a Public History Graduate student who has worked in the Special Collections and Archives since Fall semester 2023. Darrell has portrayed superior qualities in many of the student assistant categories, especially in comprehension and initiative. He demonstrates his outstanding familiarity and confidence in the job when he is working the desk in the reading room. He warmly greets all walk-ins, explains the procedures in an understandable way, encouragingly brainstorms about ways to meet the patron’s requests, and shows interests in their research topics.

He shows increasing interest in taking on additional responsibilities, especially regarding exhibit displays. SC&A has a small, rotating exhibit called Treasure Box. The idea is to highlight parts of the collection every two weeks so students and patrons can return to the reading room and see something new. Darrell expressed keen interest in being part of the rotation. He came up with a list of ideas, accepted feedback and used it to refine his display. The outcome was a very professional arrangement highlighting a local and historic library and the many different sources students can use in the archives.

This is Darrell’s second year and final semester. He has been a dedicated, dependable, hard-working employee, and an inspiration to all as well. Although we will miss Darrell, we wish him all the best in his next chapter of life.

Elijah Capasso, is a Senior majoring in History who has been working for Instruction & Research Services since September 2022. Eli was first hired to assist both at the Information Desk and in Resource Delivery Services where he primarily shelved materials. As service desk schedules shifted, he transitioned all his hours to the Information Desk. Eli staffs the Information Desk on his own many hours each week. His love for research is evident in the way he eagerly assists students, staff, and faculty, always ensuring they find exactly what they need. Beyond his work at the Information Desk, Eli takes on additional responsibilities in assisting the Instruction & Research Services department with great dedication. He shelves new Government Documents which is no small feat given the complexity of the filing system, and he does so with accuracy and care. One of his newer contributions is creating book displays throughout the library. He researches monthly themes, selects books, designs graphics, and assembles displays with creativity and attention to detail. Most recently, he put together an outstanding display for Black History Month, introducing fresh ideas and striking visuals.  

Eli is a rare find. He communicates proactively about his schedule, is always punctual and dependable, and consistently goes above and beyond in his role. He is graduating at the end of this semester and we will miss him. We have been incredibly fortunate to have him on our team. He’s considering a career in librarianship and we hope he does pursue this – he would make an excellent librarian! We wish Eli all the best.

Alondria Mallia, is a Public History Graduate student who has worked for Special Collections and Archives since Fall semester 2023. Alondra has grown tremendously since she first started working in the archives and now knows various archives processes like the back of her hand. She is in her second semester of the Public History graduate program and is doing excellent work for Special Collections and Archives.

SC&A started Alondra with more general types of work which she continued to complete at a high level, which resulted in her being pushed to do more archival work. She became increasingly curious about the type of work archivists do and continued to push to learn more. What sets her apart is she not only catches errors or inconsistencies in our collections and related tools, but she problem solves and recommends solutions. She has gotten to the point now where she is helping review and reprocess archival collections and seeking out additional projects at a steady pace, accomplishing as much for our collections as many practicing archivists. She has brought such interest and dedication to her work that as she is now going through the graduate coursework, much of it has become review for her as she has gained so much practical experience already. It is evident that the education she is receiving at Wright State is giving her confidence in the professional world. She regularly applies what she is learning in the classroom to her work here and the Special Collections and Archives department is better for it.

Mariah Paynter, is a Graduate student in Education Leadership. Mariah has been working for Resource Delivery Services since Fall semester 2023. Mariah is a stellar Library Student Assistant who exhibits a high level of professionalism. Mariah frequently covers the front desk when RDS is short on staff as we know our patrons will be greeted with excellent assistance and friendly, knowledgeable customer service. Mariah is frequently given out-of-the-ordinary projects because we know the effective problem-solving and feedback Mariah regularly provides. In working alongside new students, Mariah has been extremely helpful in helping to answer questions and provide feedback to them and is an excellent example for our new students to follow.

New for Mariah this year, is a role on the Library Student Advisory Board. In this role, Mariah will strive to take initiative in helping the Libraries find ways to improve the University Libraries experience for all students while learning even more about what the library has to offer. Mariah is graduating after this semester with a master’s degree in Public Administration. We wish Mariah all the best.

Emma Scott, is a Freshman majoring in Marketing. She has been working in Special Collections and Archives since September 2024. Emma’s primary work entails helping the archivists prepare collections for use by patrons at which she is meticulous at her work. She not only wants to complete her work, but she wants to do it well and strives for perfection. This shows in the way that she makes sure she understands every project  whether large or small, easy or challenging, and gives it her all. Before starting work on a project, Emma makes sure she understands the project and keeps staff informed of her progress and is motivated to complete each project in a timely manner with quality results.

Emma also staffs the Archives’ reference desk, and is welcoming and helpful in assisting researchers, while making sure the rules for using materials are followed for long term preservation. She uses her time wisely on a variety of projects. She has identified duplication in the book collection, rehoused several boxes of archival records, and updated box and folder inventories, and worked on projects with the University Archives records. Emma is a good listener, eager to learn and contribute, and extremely conscientious about her job. She is dependable, displays a great work ethic, always polite, courteous and professional. She displays a quiet confidence and a maturity beyond her age. Most importantly, she’s very good at her job. Her pleasantness to her interactions with coworkers and patrons alike, is much appreciated by all. She provides excellent support for the department and hopefully she is with us for years to come as she works her way through WSU. 

Ray'Ven Tillis, is a Freshman majoring in Psychology, who has been working in Special Collections and Archives since September 2024. Ray’Ven works primarily as a scanning specialist, a position that is crucial in fulfilling research scanning requests. It is a position that requires technical training, hours of meticulous, repetitive work using a digital scanner, as well as quality control skills. Ray’Ven came into the position eager to learn. She listened closely during training sessions, asked very good questions, and was eager to watch the training videos and do the required reading. Whenever she scans, she will refer back to the videos and the book if need be. This shows she has a genuine interest in learning and doing the job correctly. In the first few weeks, the quality of her scans was exceptional. She’s very precise and careful in how she handles the negatives. She has a good eye for detail and this shows when she is doing quality control.

In addition to Ray’Ven’s work on the digitization side of Special Collections and Archives, she also provides support in the reading room during our evening hours when we have no other students available to staff our reference desk and assist researchers. Her flexibility and willingness to provide evening hours frees up regular staff to carry out our collections work while she manages the reading room. She picked it up quickly, always polite with a big smile, and goes out of her way to help the department with whatever is needed. She is an employee who truly appreciates her job here, takes her responsibilities very seriously, and enjoys the work.