Middletown -Textbooks on Reserve, D.E.I. and student support

Good afternoon,

I hope winter break has given everyone a chance to rest and re-group. Gardner-Harvey Library has been preparing for the start of the spring semester with some updates to our services.  GHL has provided the Textbooks on Reserve (TOR) program for over 15 years and starting this spring we are expanding our collection by adding a special selection of textbooks for Middletown classes that we feel support diversity, equity, and inclusion at Miami.  

For a full list of classes/textbooks or to learn more about the program, check out our TOR page. Books that fall under our new DEI selection are highlighted in red on our main list. The DEI TOR initiative is a university wide program, so please check with your home campus for their offerings.  

If students or faculty members would like to have a textbook added to our TOR program I would be happy to help. The library is also a great resource for students who need to find free class materials. If you are a student struggling with textbook costs, or know someone who is, we would love to help you find resources at our library or help you request textbooks through other Ohio academic libraries.

While I have your attention (hopefully), located in The Lounge @ GHL students have access to free coffee and snacks, a fridge, and microwave. Also located in The Lounge is our Care Cabinet. Students can find hygiene supplies and other items that are free to take. We are always happy to accept donations. Please don’t hesitate to come over or send students over who could benefit from our free services.

Hoping you have a great semester!--

--

Jennifer Hicks, MLIS

Circulation & Reserves Supervisor

Gardner-Harvey Library

Miami University Middletown

513-727-3221

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How do I find out if the Library has the textbook I need?

Good question!  Finding a textbook can be simple or involved.  This is the process.  

Best case scenario:  the Gardner-Harvey Library has a copy of the textbook you want on Reserve for your course.  The Gardner-Harvey Library buys textbooks for about 30 Miami Plan courses.  In other words, we have many, but not all textbooks.  (Still the library is not the bookstore.  Just because the bookstore is selling or renting the 2014 print or electronic edition, it does not mean the library will have it too.)

At the Gardner-Harvey Library, all Textbooks on Reserve are listed by Course Number and Title so you can easily check.  In these cases, you may usually borrow the item for 2 hours.  You can keep it longer if you check the item out 2 hours before closing.  Then you may have it overnight and return it by 9 a.m. the next day the library is open.

If the textbook is not on reserve, search Books & More (the Miami University Libraries online catalog) to see whether any Miami library owns the title.  Search by Title or Author/Editor.  Sometimes the exact title and edition you want is in the collection!  Then you only need to find it in the stacks or click the Request Item button and enter your Miami ID and Password and Pickup location so that it can be shipped free by van to the nearest library.  You will receive a Miami email notification when it is ready for pickup.  Sometimes the library owns an older edition of the title and it is available.  If you are satisfied with this version, just request it as above.

If the textbook is unavailable at Miami University Libraries, then click the OhioLINK link displayed in your search results or go directly to the OhioLINK Library Catalog.  This allows you to check whether any of the 90 academic libraries in OhioLINK have a copy they are able to lend for several weeks with options to renew.  However, it is unlikely you will be able to keep the textbook for the entire semester.

 

To request an OhioLINK textbook, click the green Request button, Miami, and enter your Miami ID, Password, and Pickup location so the available item can be shipped in 3-5 days.  Sometimes you will find the exact edition you want; at other times you will only see older editions.  It is your decision.  If you see Due Date, Local Use Only, or Missing, the item is not available.  You may choose to pursue another option. 

Other options include:
Finding an eBook of the title, in one of Miami's databases or electronic collections
Checking to see whether a local public library might have the title you want
Going to the bookstore to buy or rent a copy
Buying the textbook online

Textbooks on Reserve for Fall

The Textbooks on Reserve program at the library has recently been updated. Thanks to the efforts of the MUM Bookstore posting the list of required textbooks (with ISBNs and prices) and to faculty members who placed their orders early, we were able to add many new and updated books well ahead of time this semester.

Though a few books are still being added, we now have textbooks for 124 courses offered at Middletown (most of these were purchased by the library, and others are personal copies added by faculty members or purchased separately by academic departments). The full list is available here.

We had a very strong summer of textbook use. From the middle of May through the end of July we had 179 checkouts (easily our biggest summer ever, even without having all of the stats in). Don't forget the other methods we have for accessing textbooks through the library.

If you can help further spread the word that the textbooks are available, that would be most helpful. If you would like to correct information on our list or if you have suggestions on other courses we should consider buying textbooks for, please let us know.

We thank you for your use and support of this program!

Accessing Textbooks Through the Library

Students have a variety of options to access required course materials through the Gardner-Harvey Library:

1. The library may have purchased the course textbook as part of our Textbooks on Reserve program. The current list of available textbooks (arranged by course) is available at http://www.mid.muohio.edu/library/textbookreserves.htm The library will also purchase additional textbooks as requested for Summer Semester. Each textbook may be borrowed from the library for two hours, or if checked out after 5:00pm, it can be kept until 9:00am the next morning.

2. Faculty members may have placed textbooks or other materials on library reserve. Many of the textbooks provided by faculty members are on the list linked above. If a faculty member would like to place an item on reserve, please consult the information at http://www.mid.muohio.edu/library/reserves.htm and use the online form at the bottom of that page.

3. Students may be able to borrow a copy of the textbook from another Miami University Library or from one of our OhioLINK library partners around the state. Materials may be borrowed for up to 15 weeks through OhioLINK. The starting point is to use our library catalog at http://www.lib.muohio.edu/multifacet (this searches all Miami libraries) and then to click on “Request Item.” Library staff would be happy to run searches and assist anyone in checking the availability of a title in OhioLINK.

4. Some textbooks are available as electronic books purchased through OhioLINK. A quick way to search these e-book collections (along with the print collections of OhioLINK libraries) is to use the University System of Ohio’s Textbook Portal at http://textbooks.uso.edu/ Enter either the ISBN or a combination of the title and author of the book to see if it is available.

The library stands ready to assist any student or faculty member who needs help with these matters. Please contact us at 513-727-3222, midref@lib.muohio.edu, IM us @ askghl, or contact any of our staff members directly using the information at http://www.mid.muohio.edu/library/contactus.htm

Free textbooks? A new source for course texts

While we've been trying to help cut students' textbook costs by keeping Textbooks on Reserve and encouraging students to search OhioLINK for copies of their textbooks owned by other libraries in the state that they can borrow or use as online e-books, another tack to take is for faculty to adopt textbooks that are freely available online.

A new site devised for California's community colleges identifies and offers peer review of over 400 open textbooks and links to the textbooks themselves. Check out the Open Educational Resource Center for California to see the collection they've amassed.

We've been using a free Web version of a textbook for the EDT 251: Effective Use of Libraries course, and it has worked well so far.

Textbooks for Fall: where we stand

The Textbooks on Reserve program at the library has recently been updated. We have (starting in the summer and working through the first tow weeks of fall) added 24 new editions of existing textbooks and added 14 new books (either for existing courses or new courses). It is always a little tricky for us to get new books on our shelves right at the beginning of the semester, and we are grateful to the MUM Bookstore and to faculty members for assisting us to make this possible.

We now have books for 94 courses offered at Middletown that the library has purchased, and textbooks on hand for at least 17 other courses provided by individual faculty members or departments. The full list is available here.

We've already had 79 checkouts of these items in the first two weeks of class. If you can help further spread the word that the textbooks are available, that would be most helpful. If you want to correct information on our list, please let us know. If you have suggestions on other courses we should consider buying textbooks for, be sure to contact me.

We thank you for your use and support of this program!

Textbooks on Reserve: Ready for Spring!

The library's collection of Textbooks on Reserve (TOR) has been revamped for Spring 2009 courses. You can see the full list of books that we have on reserve here. We provide the main texts for 87 Miami courses, in addition to the many textbooks and additional readings placed on reserve individually by faculty members..

Last fall, the TOR program was heavily used, with 341 individuals checking out a book from the collection during the semester. The ten most popular textbooks checked out by students at MUM are the following (based on lifetime checkouts):

- ELEMENTARY AND INTERMDIATE ALGEBRA (MTH 102)
- MATERIALS AND PROCESSES IN MANUFACTURING (ENT152)
- ENGINEERING MATERIALS - (ENT 151)
- HOLE'S HUMAN ANATOMY & PHYSIOLOGY - (ZOO 171)
- PREALGEBRA (MTH002)
- PSYCHOLOGY (PSY 111)
- New perspectives on Microsoft Office 2007 : first course (CIT 154)
- BASIC COLLEGE MATHEMATICS (MTH001)
- ART THROUGH THE AGES (ART 187)
- CONTEMPORARY MANAGEMENT (BTE 111)

Remember that the textbooks are available for two hour checkout during the day, but may also be taken home overnight if checked out within two hours of the time we close that day.

Textbooks on Reserve Wrap-Up

The Textbooks on Reserve (TOR) program has been in place at the Gardner-Harvey Library since Fall Semester 2006. I thought it would be a good idea to let you know how the program has been used during the past academic year (2007-2008) and what changes and additions lie ahead.

TOR started as a collection of textbooks that covered about 40 courses at Miami Middletown. We now offer textbooks that serve as the main text for over 70 courses, along with supplementary materials that accompany several texts.

Use of the program has grown steadily over the last two years. This fall (2007) we tallied 232 items being checked out for use, and that was exceeded in the spring (2008) for a total of 369 checkouts. As of May 12, 2008, the textbooks included in the program have been checked out 793 times since the inception of TOR. Just last week we passed the 800 checkout mark, meaning that items held in the program have circulated an average of nearly 8 times each.

The ten most popular textbooks used by students at MUM are the following (listed with their total lifetime checkouts):

• Elementary and Intermediate Algebra (MTH 101/102) - 98
• Panorama (SPN 101/102) - 77
• Prealgebra (MTH 002) - 74
• Materials and Processes in Manufacturing (ENT 152) - 55
• Engineering Materials (ENT 151) - 48
• Hole's Human Anatomy & Physiology (ZOO 171) - 35
• General Chemistry (CHM 137/141) - 34
• New Perspectives on Microsoft Office 2007 (CIT 154) - 29
• Psychology (PSY 111) - 28
• Microbiology, a Systems Approach (MBI 111/161) - 23

Panorama had been our most popular book for four straight semesters, but Spring 2008 uses pushed the MTH 101/102 book ahead.

The numbers only tell part of the story. Each checkout represents a student who needed to use a given book; perhaps for just two hours, perhaps overnight. Students have taken books to class, studied them in the library, and worked on problem sets at home. The stories that we hear as we interact with these students has continued to motivate us to build and maintain TOR.

In building this collection of textbooks we have benefited tremendously from the donation of textbooks by faculty members and students, funds provided by Miami Middletown Student Government, the use of department library acquisitions funds to purchase textbooks, and the library funding we are provided by the campus. In the year ahead, we will receive further funding for TOR from a donor (more on this later) which will help us keep up our current coverage of courses and expand that reach.

So, we head into summer with the goal of buying new texts, replacing changed editions, and looking for more needs we can meet. One thing we would like to work on this year is a Textbook Donation Program at the end of each semester. Students might decide to donate their used texts to the library for TOR rather than keeping them or selling them back. Again, more on this later.

Thank you to everyone who has supported TOR and helped us spread the word among students! We greatly appreciate your help.

John