Farewell Stephen Blackford

Posted on October 28, 2026 Written by

The Ross Pendergraft Library would like to extend best wishes to Stephen Blackford, our Interlibrary Loan Assistant and Public Services staff member, upon his forthcoming retirement at the end of November.

Photograph of Stephen Blackford

As the Interlibrary Loan Assistant, Stephen plays a critical role in the library by obtaining articles, books, and other materials not in our collection for our faculty and student researchers. Additionally, he serves researchers around the country by lending our materials to other libraries in a cooperative partnership that elevates the importance of our own collections at Arkansas Tech University.

When he is not managing this core service, you’ll find him at the main Research Help Desk on the first floor of the library, assisting students, staff, faculty, and community users with just about any question under the sun—from article sleuthing to printer troubleshooting. His speed, accuracy, and friendly service have been a tremendous asset for nearly 35 years, not only to our library and ATU, but to other libraries and scholars at countless institutions.

Photograph of Stephen Blackford sitting in a window reading a periodical

Stephen pictured in the 1981 Agricola Yearbook reading one of the thousands of periodicals in the Tomlinson Library

Stephen grew up in Russellville and graduated from Arkansas Tech in 1981 with a bachelor’s degree in business administration; he received a Master of Education in Instructional Technology from Tech as well. While at Tech, Stephen worked on the Agricola Yearbook Staff and was a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity.

Stephen started working full-time for the library in 1992 when it was located in Tomlinson Hall, seven years before the opening of the Ross Pendergraft Library & Technology Center. He then had an opportunity to serve as the Library Director at the National Guard Professional Education Center in North Little Rock where he would work for twenty-three years. During that time, however, he continued to work for the library part-time on the weekends until 2018 when he was promoted to the full-time position of Interlibrary Loan Assistant.

Stephen said he considers himself most fortunate to end his career as the Interlibrary Loan assistant, having loved this role more than any other in his years in library services. He has enjoyed working in Interlibrary Loan because he likes the thrill of hunting down a challenging source for students and faculty. He finds great satisfaction in scoring a win, whether locating an obscure dissertation or pulling up a hard-to-find article to scan on microfiche. Stephen also loves interacting with all of our patrons while he works his Research Help Desk shifts, especially when he can help students find the resources they need.

Stephen will miss the daily routine of coming to work at the library and interacting with the faculty and students. He has been at the library for a long time and has seen people come and go: many colleagues who have moved on to retirement or another job, and some who have passed away. He will carry fond memories of all of his friends from the library staff.

Stephen said that he is looking forward to retiring, but he hasn’t made any firm plans yet. He plans on taking time to find a new routine, do some yard work, and enjoy walking and biking outside. The library faculty and staff will miss Stephen—especially those of us who are trying to learn all of the details of his job before he leaves.

If you, too, will miss Stephen, please stop by the first floor Research Help Desk and congratulate him before his last day on November 30th. You can also send a note of gratitude and well-wishes to library@atu.edu. We plan to collect and share all of those messages at a small, private celebration in his honor.

Best wishes to Stephen! We will miss you!

–Contributed by Kelly Wiggains
Filed Under: Library Tagged: ,

Pardon Our Shelves

Posted on August 31, 2026 Written by

The Ross Pendergraft Library is making major changes to the arrangement of our collections.  Beginning the summer, the Library has begun a project to reorganize and relabel the collection from the Dewey Decimal Call Number System to the Library of Congress Call Number System.

The vast majority of books, housed at the Ross Pendergraft Library are classified in the Dewey Decimal call numbers system (DDC). While popular in public libraries and school libraries, most university and research libraries have moved away from the Dewey Decimal system and adopted the Library of Congress Classification System.

As of this summer, the Ross Pendergraft Library is joining this movement to organize our collections in a more modern way that helps researchers browse books on a similar topic next to each other on the shelves.

What Does A Library Of Congress Number Look Like?

Each book will have a label to help you identify where it is located on the shelf.  In the online database of library materials, Find It, searching for a book may result in an entry like this:

A screenshot showing a call number in Library of Congress classification: PS3604.I49 O64 2026. This image links to the catalog entry for the item pictured, a book called Operation Bounce House by Matt Diniman.

Think of it like the residential address of a book:

This table compares elements to a Library of Congress Call number, in this case, PS3604 .I49 O64 to that of a residential address for the book PS - City, State - Find it alphabetically (P, PN, PR PS…) - Identifies the main topic of the book. In this case, American Literature 3604 - Street Name - Find it in numerical order (360, 3000, 3603, 3604). - Identifies a narrower subtopic, like individual authors publishing after 2001 and whose last name begins with D. .I49 - House Number - Find it alphabetically first, then by decimal number (.I4435 comes before .I49) Often associated with the author of the work. This alpha-numeric combination refers to the specific author, Matt Dinniman. O64 - Apartment Number - Same as above, first alphabetically then by decimal number. Sometimes used to denote the title of the work. This combination refers to the title, Operation Bounce House.

On the shelf, the items will feature labels like this:

Image of books on the shelf showing four different spine labels containing call numbers in Library of Congress Classification in order. The first number is PS3604.E349 K55 2025 The second number is PS3604.I467 M66 2023 The third book is PS3604.I49 O64 2026 The fourth book is PS3605.R59 P67 2025

Where Do I Find My Book Now?

Some of the library’s smaller collections have been converted to this system already.  These include the New Books collection, the Popular Reading Collection, the Graphic Collection, and the Reference Collection.  These are located on the first floor.

Some collections are partially being converted a little bit at a time.  For example, the Book Collection on the 2nd floor has been divided into two sections:

  1. The North Section includes all of the book collection still in Dewey Decimal Call number order. This is the majority of the collection at this time.
  2. The South Section includes any new or returning books to the book collection that have been newly converted to Library of Congress Collection.

The range of shelves containing the new Library of Congress numbers will feature green labels on the ends, and a flyer with a map of the two distinct sections.

An endcap, or the end of a range of shelves, containing green labels denoting the sections Q and PN-PR. It also includes a flyer indicating the changes.

How Long Will This Project Take?

Because each book must be reclassified in our system and relabeled, the project will likely take more than a year to convert most of our book collections to the new system.  Some collections like our children’s book collection in the Curriculum Materials Center will remain in Dewey Decimal call number order to preserve the style of most school libraries for the students in our K-12 Education focused disciplines.

If you find yourself confused or daunted by the new system, you can always request a book via our Hold System.  When looking up a book in Find It, click on the title. In the Access Options window at the top, you’ll see a button to PLACE HOLD.  After filling out the required information, a staff member will retrieve the item and place it at our Research Help Desk.  You’ll then receive an email (usually within one business day) that your item is ready for pick-up.

A screenshot of a button for an item offering to Place Hold. Clicking on this image will go to a blog post about how to place hold requests.

Thanks for continuing to support the library as we modernize and transform our collections to help making locating research materials easier within our shelves.  If you have questions, need help finding a book, or would like to know more about why the Library of Congress Classification System is far superior to the Dewey Decimal System, just ask us!

Gif of Conan the Library threatening a patron and asking, "DON'T YOU KNOW THE DEWEY DECIMAL SYSTEM???" Clicking on the GIF will take you to the full clip of this skit from the 1989 film UHF, starring Weird Al Yankovich.

Filed Under: Library

Welcome Kelly Wiggains!

Posted on August 28, 2026 Written by

 

The Ross Pendergraft Library is excited to welcome our new Head of Instruction and Outreach Librarian, Kelly Wiggains, who will be leading the library’s efforts to provide general information literacy and library instruction to students in a variety of majors, as well as taking on the library’s outreach activities. In addition to instruction, she will serve as the liaison for the Teaching andEducational Leadership department, as well as for the School of Professional and Community Education (PACE). 

Photograph of Kelly WiggainsWhile Kelly is originally from Quanah, Texas, she spent some of her formative years in Arkansas while attending Harding University in Searcy to obtain a bachelor’s degree in English and a master’s degree in education. She then moved back to Texas, where she has worn a variety of hats as a writer, editor, curriculum developer, educational coordinator, and K-12 teacher in the Austin, Texas, area. She later obtained a Master of Library Science from the University of North Texas and served as the librarian at Studio Preparatory in Austin before arriving here. 

Photograph of Kelly Wiggains with her familyShe brings with her three children, Keynan (20), Parker (18), and Hannah Beth (16), as well as her spouse, Tyler. Her hobbies include being chronically online since 1997, pop culture, movies, reading, writing, and reading books about reading and writing (see Anne Lamott’s Bird By Bird for one of her recommendations).

Her special interests include human information behavior, information literacy instruction, information grounds theory, neutral questioning, and user experience.  

When asked what she thinks is the most fun about this job, she said, “I get to convince students that databases are cooler than the rest of the internet. Plus, I get to have all the fun of teaching students without having to grade essays!”

Like most librarians, Kelly enjoys recommending books to other people. She also loves history when it sounds like gossip and diving down a good rabbit hole. If you need a good rabbit hole or if you have some juicy history gossip, stop by to visit her on the first floor of the library in RPL 121, just behind the Research Help Desk. You can also request classroom library instruction, individual research help, or a good book recommendation by emailing her a kwiggains@atu.edu.

 

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New Episodes on the ATU Library Podcast

Posted on August 24, 2026 Written by

In the latest episode of the ATU Library Podcast, host Luke Heffley sits down with longtime Arkansas Tech University English professor and author, Dr. Stanley Lombardo, to talk about his curious family history, career, travels, and his writing.

Image with text: ATU Library Podcast. Find it on YouTube and Spotify. Special Guest Dr. Stanley Lombardo.

In From Sicily to Lake Dardanelle, Dr. Lombardo discusses his roots in Sicily and his family connections to legendary bandleader, Guy Lombardo.  The professor also discusses his nearly 50-year career teaching English literature here at ATU.

Dr. Lombardo is also the author of several science fiction and historical fiction novels including Paxton at Bosworth Field, Who Murdered Shakespeare?, and A Rumor of Innocents.  He has also written poetry and children’s books, including the popular Lucas and Nellie series set on Lake Dardanelle.

Tune in to the latest episode to hear his writing inspirations and stories about his decades of guiding students here in the River Valley.  For more episodes featuring interviews with musicians, artists, geologists, and more, check out our YouTube Channel or subscribe via Spotify to get updates when new episodes drop.  You can also listen to the archive on both platforms at any time.

Want to start your own podcast?  Be sure to check out the library’s Audio Lab, located on the 2nd floor of Ross Pendergraft Library, for access to the equipment, software, and space needed to tell your own story.

 

 

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License to ILL

Posted on March 30, 2026 Written by

If you need a book or article that the library doesn’t seem to have, don’t give up—get it through Interlibrary Loan (ILL).  This free service enables all ATU students, staff, and faculty the privilege of getting a book from just about anywhere in the world.

Through borrowing agreements with other libraries, you could get an article emailed directly to you within a couple of days.  Books or media may take up to a week or longer.  But they will be delivered to your home library (Ozark Campus or Russellville Campus) for convenient pick-up. If you are a distance education student, we can even mail them to your home address.

When you submit a request, we ask our library friends from all of the state, region, country, or the world if we could borrow their copy, and they will loan us the book or scan a copy of their journal article. In exchange, we loan our books and scan articles here for other libraries.  Last year alone, ATU students, faculty, and staff borrowed 475 items from other libraries.  We also lent 1933 items to libraries all over the world.

If you need a book or article we don’t have, you can fill out this simple request form or email our ILL office at ill@atu.edu.

Alternatively, if you searching for something in our main library database, Find It, and can’t find it, try clicking the filter dropdown Held By Library and select Libraries Worldwide.  This initiates a search for the title found at other libraries.

A screenshot of a dropdown filter called "Held By" with the option selected for "Libraries Worldwide"

Once you find your item, click on the Title.  You will see the Access Option: Request Item through Interlibrary Loan:

A screenshot of the Access Options menu with the text "Request from Libraries Worldwide" featuring a button below stating "Request Item through Interlibrary Loan."

This will immediately fill out the ILL request form with most of the required fields, making this a faster method to request materials.

You will find this option available in many subject databases like Academic Search Complete for articles without an immediate full-text PDF or link.

When you see Access Options: “Check Find It for Availability or Request through interlibrary loan,” you should FIRST select “Check Find It”—this will search our main library database in case we have full-text available through another provider.

A screenshot of a dropdown menu labeled, "Access options". The options below the text include "Request through Interlibrary Loan" and "Check Find It for Availability."

If we still do not have full-text, you’ll be presented with another option: “Request Item through Interlibrary Loan.”

Screenshot with the text "Request a copy of this item" and a button underneath it displaying the text, "Request Item through Interlibrary Loan"

Click this button will also fill out most of the required fields on the ILL request form, saving you time.

For more information about this remarkable service, visit the ILL Homepage or watch this video tutorial on how it all works.

Filed Under: Library

Spring Break At The Library

Posted on March 23, 2026 Written by

The Ross Pendergraft Library & Technology Center is now on Spring Break, but that doesn’t mean we are on vacation.  Even with reduced hours, we’re still serving up high quality online and physical resources to help you enjoy a little R&R: Reading and Research.

If you are looking for a good beach read (even if you are miles from the beach), take a look at our newest selections in Popular Reading:

book cover of Heated Rivalry featuring an illustration of two hockey players facing each other.Heated Rivalry / by Rachel Reid

See what all the buzz is about by reading the source material for the hit Netflix series about rival hockey players heating up the ice with their steamy love affair. This book is actually the second in the Game Changer series—the library has the first three volumes in the Popular Reading Collection.  But if you were hoping to listen to it on a long road trip, we also have all seven books in the series through the Libby

Book cover for operation bounce house featuring an illustration of a man standing in front of a house that is on fire.Operation Bounce House / by Matt Dinniman

If you liked the hit series, Dungeon Crawler Carl, check out this stand-alone adventure of a planetary colonist fighting to save his family ranch from Earth-bound gamers piloting AI robots to carry out eviction orders. It’s a perfect read who like their science-fiction with a side of comedy.

book cover of innamorata featuring a photograph of a woman's face surrounded by moths.Innamorata / by Ava Reid

If fantasy is more your thing, check out this lush, gothic romance set in a magical world of necromancers, conquerors, and forbidden libraries. Don’t worry—this library won’t forbid you from checking out this gorgeous book.

Book cover for Woman Down featuring a woman's face in a vertical striped shadow

Woman Down / by Colleen Hoover

This latest thriller from the best-selling author features a crime novelist trying to find inspiration with a quiet cabin retreat. When Detective Nathaniel Saint shows up with disturbing news, she finds out her new source of inspiration comes with a serious cost.

Book cover for Half His Age featuring the mouth of a woman sucking on the tip of her middle finger.Half His Age / by Jennette McCurdy

Author of I’m Glad My Mom Died has a new novel about a seventeen-year-old girl struggling to be seen and loved, navigating her desires for her much older creative writing teacher. This coming-of-age novel has been described by Los Angeles Times as “a thorny examination of power, lust, shame and rage.”

Book cover for More Weight: A Salem Story. Features an illustration of a Puritan male figure shaped like a cracked egg with an illustration of a puritan woman and child inside of itMore Weight : a Salem Story

This graphic novel explores the history of the Salem witch trials through hand-drawn illustrations depicting the events of the trial as well as its impact throughout history.

Explore more best sellers, thrillers, romances, horror, and drama in our Popular Fiction Collection on the first floor of the library.  If you are currently enjoying the sun and surf elsewhere, check out Libby for more fun fiction through digital audiobook or ebook.

Follow us on  Instagram and Facebook for new updates to our collections or check out our New Book Collection for more new arrivals.

Happy Spring Break!

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Bestselling Author, Ayana Gray, at RPL on March 19th

Posted on March 17, 2026 Written by

You are invited to a special night with author, Ayana Gray, at the Ross Pendergraft Library on March 19th in RPL 300B.

A black and white photograph of Ayana GrayThe event will begin at 5:30 with a reception and meet-and-greet sponsored by ATU Black Student Association and the ATU Black Faculty and Staff Organization.   At 6:00 PM, she will give a talk as part of the Ross Pendergraft Library’s Author Series.  These events are free and open to all.

Ayana Gray is the author of three young adult fiction novels and one adult novel.  Her debut young adult novel, Beasts of Prey, was published in 2021, and became a New York Times bestseller.  It is now optioned for a film adaptation by Netflix.  The success of Beasts of Prey led to two more books in the trilogy called Beasts of Ruin and Beasts of War.

Cover of book, I, Medusa, featuring a shadowed profile picture of a women with snakes for hair. Picture links to the library's catalog entry for the book.Her most recent publication, I Medusa, was released in 2025 as her first adult novel and re-imagines the tale of Medusa from Greek mythology.  It debuted as no. 13 on the New York Times bestseller list.

A native of Atlanta, Georgia, she moved to Little Rock at age 13 and graduated from the University of Arkansas in 2015.  She currently lives and writes in Little Rock.  Her forthcoming book, Hawk and Sparrow, will be published in September of 2026.

Dog Ear Books will be on hand to sell copies of her novels.  Please join us on the 19th to meet Ayana Gray, get copies of your books signed, and enjoy a night filled with stories, inspiration and connection.

For more events at the Ross Pendergraft Library & Technology Center, follow us on  Instagram and Facebook.

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Movie Night at the International Film Festival

Posted on March 6, 2026 Written by

The Ross Pendergraft Library is once again proud to host their International Film Festival between March 3rd and March 17th.  Grab your date or your favorite friends and enjoy the cinematic experience of watching captivating, funny, and thought-provoking films (with subtitles) on the big screen.

Each film begins at 7:00 PM in the Doc Bryan Student Services Lecture Hall at 1605 Coliseum Drive.  A Q&A session covering themes and topics from the film’s selector follows each screening. Here are this year’s selections and dates:

This is the 11th anniversary of the film festival which features selections chosen by the ATU World Languages faculty showcasing films in their respective languages.  Students taking Spanish, Japanese, German, or French have an opportunity to immerse themselves in the language through these films.

However, the festival is open to all students who might enjoy films in general or are just looking for something free and fun to do with their friends on a weeknight in Russellville.

To learn more about the films and watch their trailers, visit the International Film Festival website: http://filmfest.atu.edu.  If you missed any of the films and would like to watch them at home, most are available at the library on DVD or via streaming video.  You can search the film titles in our library database, Find It.

For more events at the Ross Pendergraft Library & Technology Center, follow us on  Instagram and Facebook

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Power Up Your Academic Searches With Consensus

Posted on October 30, 2025 Written by

From now until August 31, 2026, the Ross Pendergraft Library is offering a free trial of the AI-powered academic search engine, Consensus, to all Arkansas Tech University students, faculty, and staff.

A screenshot of the Consensus search engine featuring a search box that says "Consensus: Research starts here"

What Is Consensus?

Consensus is a search engine for academic content that uses artificial intelligence to provide summaries of a given result set that may provide insight, answers, or a ‘consensus’ of highly-cited academic research on a given topic.  It claims to make academic searching easier and less time-consuming for busy researchers.

How Do I Create An Account?

Tech users can create an account with Consensus using their atu.edu email.  This will automatically grant them Consensus enterprise level account status from now until next year.  If users have already created an account with their atu.edu email, users will see the premium icon in the bottom, left-corner of the Consensus homepage:

The current trial enables users to have unlimited Pro searches, unlimited Study Snapshots, and 50 Deep Searches a month.

What Content Does Consensus Search?

Unlike general search engines like Google, Consensus will only search academic articles and peer-reviewed studies.  It uses sources like Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Pubmed, and its own collections licensed through other academic publishers.  Some of the results include preprint versions of articles before they were peer-reviewed and published elsewhere. According to their website, users can search over 220 million peer-reviewed articles. While most results will be comprised of open access content, it may also include articles with abstracts only or restricted access.  These articles can be searched by title or DOI in the library’s search engine for immediate full-text access or access through Interlibrary Loan.  You can see some illustrations of their included content at their dashboard.

How Do I Use It?

Like any search engine, the website features an open search box where users can query the database.  It supports both semantic searching and structured, Boolean searching.  A semantic search, like a whole phrase or question, searches for synonyms and contextual meaning rather than the exact search terms.  A Boolean search will give you a more precise result set featuring articles using exact keywords, and the ability to recognize operators like AND, OR, and NOT, as well as quotation marks for phrase-searching.

If you ask Consensus a “Yes” or “No” question, this will activate a meter which will synthesize results from the top 20 papers to provide an illustration of where academic consensus on your question would fall:

A screenshot of the consensus meter featuring a yes or no bar, and the question Do vaccines cause autism. The bar for "NO" is longer (93%) than the "possibly" bar (7%)

View their Best Practices page to get more out of your Consensus search.

What Makes Consensus Different Than Other Academic Search Engines?

Like all academic search engines, Consensus uses search filters to help users refine results.  It also ranks results by relevancy to your search query.  It does have a few features that make it stand out:

  • The first twenty results of every search are summarized to give a broad overview of the result set.
  • Consensus uses citation count, recency, and journal impact in result ranking.
  • Users can use an embedded chatbot to ask questions about an individual paper.
  • Paper “Snapshots” provide a quick list of a study’s methods, sample sizes, population, location, outcomes, and results.
  • Advanced filters on study methods, citation count, sample size, duration, and journal ranking are available.
  • Users can create a table, draft outlines, or upload other papers to analyze, summarize, or query.

Unlike the Library’s collection of databases, it cannot access our own licensed content, nor can it search across our own premium collections.  It also lacks robust controlled vocabulary searching features (subject searching).

Additionally, some library databases from Ebsco and Proquest already include article summarization in their results.  JSTOR users with individual accounts can also access a “Chat With A Paper” feature and view an AI summarization of the first twenty results.

Should I Trust Consensus?

While this search engine cannot hallucinate by fabricating citations (like ChatGPT), it can provide misleading summaries of real articles.  Researchers should treat any AI-generated summary with the same skepticism reserved for any second-hand source of information.  It can leave out important details or misinterpret results.

Students should also be made aware that copying an AI-generated summarization without attribution can constitute plagiarism.  They should review the Academic Integrity policies of ATU or discuss using this content with their professor.

Interested users should review their Security and Privacy Policies before creating an account.  While the product claims to not use customer data to train AI models or sell data to third-parties, it is still a private company, and individuals should carefully assess risks to their data and privacy before creating accounts.

What’s the Consensus On Consensus?

We want to know your feedback and experiences using this new tool—good or bad.  As artificial intelligence changes the way we learn and conduct research, it is important to use these opportunities to be curious, be skeptical, and be responsible in our practices.   If you want to give us your impressions on the tool, or if you have additional questions or concerns about using it, reach out to the library by contacting us via email at askus@atu.libanswers.com.

Filed Under: Library

Hear About Haunted ATU On Oct. 29th

Posted on October 27, 2025 Written by

Have you heard of the ghostly piano player at Witherspoon?  Have you felt a cold presence in Caraway Hall?  Are you worried that your classroom was built on an old Cherokee burial ground?  Does Tucker terrify you?

Illustration of an old building with trees and bats. Text across the top says "Ross Pendergraft Library 'Haunted Sites' at Arkansas Tech University. Wednesday, October 29th, 6:00 PM, Pendergraft Library 300B. Amy Milliken Department of Arkansas Heritage. Ms. Milliken will showcase ghost stories about several historic buildings at ATU!." Text at the bottom says, "For more information, library.atu.edu"Prepare to be totally creeped out this Wednesday, October 29th at 6:00 P.M. in RPL 300B as we welcome a guest presentation from Amy Milliken on the spooky stories and folklore centered around several historic buildings at Arkansas Tech University.

Amy Milliken is the Education Outreach Coordinator at the Department of Arkansas Heritage. She will share not only historical information about the buildings and grounds, but she will also separate the myths from the facts behind the campus’s most famous ghosts and ghost stories.

This event is free and open to the public.  For more information about the event, contact Luke Heffley at 479-964-0546 or lheffley@atu.edu.

Filed Under: Library