Friday, August 08, 2025

How was the Gardner-Harvey Library used in 2024/2025?

 

Street view of the Gardner-Harvey Library.

Here are the full annual statistics from fiscal year 2025 (the 2024/25 academic year) for several of the Gardner-Harvey Library's (GHL) services. I hope you will find them useful to see how people use the library.

We experienced a staff shortage late in the fall of the academic year, in addition to our ongoing budget reduction. That forced us to change our semester hours from 8am to 7pm from Monday to Thursday and open on Fridays from 8am to 5pm in the fall to remain open from 8am to 5pm Monday through Friday year round (semesters and breaks) starting in January. We did decrease the percentage of face to face courses at  Middletown even further in FY25 (to 32% for the year), and that meant we saw a smaller number of students and faculty on campus and therefore in the library.

These statistics reflect what happened between July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2025. Some stats we keep locally, others we pull from university-wide or OhioLINK-wide systems, and some are provided by database vendors.

Read on for full details on these and other activities.

On Average

Taking the statistics below and guesstimating a total Middletown community of 1000 students, faculty and staff members (and including community patrons), here's what can be said about the average person on campus. She:

- checks out nearly three items from the library each year (reserves and local/MU/OhioLINK collection items)

- visits the library 18 times per year

- accesses the library web site nine times per year.

- participates in a library instruction session or an embedded librarian course once every two years (if she is a student).

Now on to the detailed analysis!

Both a Borrower and a Lender Be

- GHL patrons checked out 873 books and DVDs from us (738 from our local collection, 42 ordered from other MU libraries, and 93 items ordered from OhioLINK - that means that 16% of the items used by campus patrons came from libraries beyond GHL). That is a 10% decrease in GHL patron borrowing over 2023-2024.

- The GHL collection registered 2085 checkouts (that's the 738 items checked out by Middletown patrons above, plus 1036 items sent to OhioLINK users, and 311 sent to other MU libraries - that means that 65% of the uses of our materials came from libraries beyond GHL). That is a 36% decrease in total lending over 2023-2024. We should note that during our move to install our new MIami University Libraries Search from Ex Libris, OhioLINK borrowing was suspended right after finals week in Spring 2025, and did not pick up again until the new fiscal year. 

- GHL patrons checked out 2016 reserve items from us (this includes faculty-placed course reserves, textbooks on reserve, study rooms, laptops, and other equipment). That is a 19% decrease from 2023-2024. 

- In terms of building up our collection, Middletown faculty, staff, and students ordered 120 items to add to our collection this year. That is an 89% decrease from 2023-2024.  Since our FY25 42% operating budget cut has become permanent going forward, we will be able to buy fewer books than we have historically, but we hope to add a larger number in FY26 than we did in FY25.

- We registered a total of 4101 checkouts of items in our collection (reserves and circulating materials). The circulating items at GHL number 31,150, so each item in the collection circulated 0.13 times this year (all items in our library circulate).

The Quest for Information

- An average of 25 people visit our web site every day of the year. That's a total of 9,065 visits for the year, by 3,022 unique individuals. That's a 6% decrease in visits and a 4% decrease in unique visitors from 2023-24.

- Gardner-Harvey Librarians also create and maintain (with our colleagues at the Rentschler Library in Hamilton and University Libraries in Oxford) subject and course guides called LibGuides for our databases and other information sources. You may find guides for each of the Regional degrees, plus guides for individual courses and specialized areas of research.

Helping You Find What You Need

- Every day we answer questions from students, faculty, and staff through multiple means of contact. You may see the various ways to reach us on our Contact Us page, including in-person, by chat, text, e-mail, or phone, or by setting up a Research Consultation.

- In face to face and synchronous Zoom sessions, we gave library instruction presentations in 15 classes this year, reaching 278 students (an increase of 36% from 2023-2024).

- Our Embedded Librarian program reached students from 16 course sections in their Canvas course sites during the academic year (that is a 24% decrease from 2022-2023). We helped over 461 students with their information needs through the program.

A Place for Work, Study, and Remove from the World

- GHL was open 45 hours per week during the majority of 2024-25 (we were open 53 hours per week during the Fall 2024 semester). 

- We averaged 74 visitors per day, for a total of 18220 visits this year. This reflects a 7% decrease from 2023-2024. Our best attended day was August 26, 2024, with 230 visitors. We had 174 days with 50 or more visitors (70% of our open days).

- The demand for GHL study rooms has remained strong, for individual study, Zoom participation, and small group meetings and study sessions, but checkouts did drop this year. Our ten study rooms were checked out 1473 times this year by students, faculty, and staff members. That represents a 27% decrease from 2023-24. It was the second highest number of annual checkouts of our rooms since FY19.

- We hosted 46 events in FY25, a mixture of in-person and in-person/Zoom simultaneously.  These included:

  • Ten MUM Book Discussion Group meetings.

  • Two Diversity Book discussions (co-sponsored with the Rentschler Library and the Regional Center for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion).

  • Seven TEC Lab workshops and three pop-up making workshops.

  • Six National Parks geology/archaeology presentations by Dr. Tammie Gerke.

  • Four Know Your Body talks by Dr. Al Cady.

  • Seven Underground Academy presentations by Janelle Allen.

  • Five "Camper's Choice" sessions for the STEAM Studio program in July 2024 and June 2025.  

Total attendance for the events was 548 participants, for an average of 12 people per event.  

Helping to share ideas and spread the word

People may not know that we offer poster printing services for departments and individuals at the Regionals. You may use our form to request a poster print job for a final product that can be as large as 42" in one dimension and almost any size in the other dimension (since we print from a roll of paper). We print a number of academic posters for conferences and capstone projects, and also many marketing materials (a 24" x 36" poster is our most common requested item). We have two printers, and offer printing in both a standard coated poster paper and a photo quality paper. You are able to pick up your poster at our library, or we can send it to Hamilton in campus mail.

What don't we know about how the library is used?

- One key part missing from these figures is off-campus use of library resources: all off-campus use is tallied as MU-wide use, so we do not know how many Middletown patrons are using databases from home (we estimate a lot of you are).

- We don't have campus-specific stats for all database searches - we're missing uses of Nexis Uni, the EBSCO databases, and other databases that are tracked on a whole-university level.

- We hope you'll continue to let us know what you think about the library, what you need from us, and what materials we should order for the collection. 

Thanks to everyone for making the library and its resources a vital part of your academic lives! We really appreciate the opportunity to meet your needs in the library and remotely during this year, and we look forward to even more interactions in 2025/26.

The Gardner-Harvey Library Staff

Wednesday, August 06, 2025

A new way to search for information, thanks to Miami University Libraries and OhioLINK!

The search box for Miami University Libraries Search.

The Gardner-Harvey Library is happy to announce that we have a new way for you to search for books, articles, e-books, and many other types of information: Miami University Libraries Search! This one-stop search blank will give you access to the digital and physical collections of Miami University and our OhioLINK partner libraries across the state.

OhioLINK libraries have reached an extraordinary milestone with the successful upgrade of shared system software to support teaching, learning, and research for Ohio higher education. The on-time and on-budget project was the culmination of more than two years of planning and collaboration, encompassing the migration of more than a million titles.

The entire OhioLINK consortium, composed of 115 libraries at 86 four-year and two-year institutions of higher education across Ohio, is now fully operational on the state-of-the-art Ex Libris Alma/Primo VE system. The new system’s user-friendly features include:

  • Unified search capabilities: A single search box to find relevant media, print, and electronic resources, including immediate access to licensed e-journals and e-books.

  • Resource-sharing improvements: Real-time tracking of user requests, facilitating fast and easy access to the OhioLINK consortium’s shared print catalog.
  • Modern discovery tools: An intuitive user interface supported by AI-assisted research recommendations, citation trails, and citation management software exports.

We have a new back-end system to make our work easier, adding books and e-resources into the system and shipping items around the state. But you only need to worry about the front-end: the unified search box (shown above, and available from our website) to get to the information you need for research, coursework, and recreational pursuits.

Gardner-Harvey Library staff are working on new tutorials and guidance to help you make the most of this tool. Please give it a try, and if you have questions, do not hesitate to contact us.



Thursday, July 31, 2025

August's Middletown Book for Discussion: In the Woods (August 22)

 

Killarney Forest Trail

The MUM Book Discussion group will next meet on Friday, August 22.  Our title is In the Woods by Tana French.  Here is a brief summary:

"Detective Rob Ryan and his partner, Cassie Maddox, investigate the murder of a 12-year-old girl near a Dublin suburb. The case resonates with similarities to a murder committed twenty years before that involved two children and the young Ryan. Now, with only snippets of long-buried memories to guide him, Ryan has the chance to uncover both the mystery of the case before him and that of his own shadowy past."  (publisher)

Here is where you can find the book:
  • There are several copies available from Miami and OhioLINK libraries, using the Miami University Libraries Search, or by checking at your local public library (our statewide access to public libraries' collections, SearchOhio, will be down from August 1 to the end of October to allow for technical upgrades).
  • Amazon has the hardcover, paperback, and Kindle available, and Bookshop.org has links to purchase the title from independent booksellers.
Our group is always finding interesting titles to share, and we look forward to the new things you'll bring to the table. In addition to discussing Be Ready When the Luck Happens, the group also shared these titles for consideration at their July 23 meeting:

The Best Cook in the World: Tales from My Momma's Table, Rick Bragg (and other cookbooks of his) 
Born a Crime, Trevor Noah
Educated, Tara Westover
Sharks Don't Sink, Jasmin Graham
Finding Freedom in the Lost Kitchen, Erin French
These Precious Days, Ann Patchett
Eat Cake and Calling Invisible Women, Jeanne Ray
Small Things Like These, Claire Keegan
Original Sin, Jake Tapper
Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell
This is How You Lose Her, Junot Diaz
The Trespasser, Tana French
A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini
An Elderly Lady Must Not Be Crossed, Helen Tursten
Heaven and Beyond, Michael Phillips
Let Me Tell You What I Mean, Joan Didion (also The Year of Magical Thinking, and Slouching Toward Bethlehem
Invisible Influence: The Hidden Forces That Shape Behavior, Jonah Berger
The Lost Passenger, Frances Quinn
The Lion Women of Tehran, Marjan Kamali

We will meet at 12 pm on the 22nd both in Room 123 in the Library and in Zoom at 

Passcode:  323196
Add this event to your Google Calendar!  (which includes the Zoom information) 

Please come along to our discussion to share what you've been reading/watching/listening to/experiencing!

If you're looking for something interesting to read, check out our page of past and future reads at http://www.mid.miamioh.edu/library/bookdiscussion.htm



Tuesday, July 01, 2025

July's Middletown Book for Discussion: Be Ready When the Luck Happens (July 23)

 

Photo of a flag cake

The MUM Book Discussion group will next meet on Wednesday, July 23.  Our title is Be Ready When the Luck Happens by Ina Garten.  Here is a brief summary:

"Ina Garten, the author of thirteen best-selling cookbooks, beloved Food Network personality, Instagram sensation, and the cultural icon whose face has launched a thousand memes, shares her personal story with readers hungry for a seat at her table."  (publisher)

Here is where you can find the book:
  • There are several copies available in Miami and OhioLINK, and SearchOhio libraries.  
  • Amazon has the hardcover, paperback, and Kindle available, and Bookshop.org has links to purchase the title from independent booksellers.
Our group is always finding interesting titles to share, and we look forward to the new things you'll bring to the table. In addition to discussing By Any Other Name, the group also shared these titles for consideration at their June 27 meeting:

Mad Honey, Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan 
Hello Beautiful, Ann Napolitano
Mind Games, Nora Roberts
The Woman with the Blue Star, Pam Jenoff
Water Finds a Way, Megan Perry
The Power and The Future, Naomi Alderman
The Stolen Queen, Fiona Davis
Preston and Childs series of suspense novels
The Wilderness and Orbital
, Samantha Harvey
Elderhood, Louise Aronson


We will meet at 12 pm on the 23rd both in Room 123 in the Library and in Zoom at 

Passcode:  146420
Add this event to your Google Calendar!  (which includes the Zoom information) 

Please come along to our discussion to share what you've been reading/watching/listening to/experiencing!

If you're looking for something interesting to read, check out our page of past and future reads at http://www.mid.miamioh.edu/library/bookdiscussion.htm

John

Monday, June 02, 2025

June's Middletown Book for Discussion: By Any Other Name (June 27)

 

New York - Broadway

The MUM Book Discussion group will next meet on Friday, June 27.  Our title is By Any Other Name by Jodi Picoult.  Here is a brief summary:


"A captivating novel about two women, centuries apart, fighting to be heard - one of whom may be the real author of Shakespeare's plays."  (publisher)

Here is where you can find the book:
  • There are several copies available in Miami and SearchOhio libraries (with the OhioLINK suspension until June 23, you may still use your Miami credentials to request books from any Miami campus. SearchOhio is still operating, but requests must be made using your public library card number (and delivered to your local public library)).  
  • Amazon has the hardcover, paperback, and Kindle available, and Bookshop.org has links to purchase the title from independent booksellers.
Our group is always finding interesting titles to share, and we look forward to the new things you'll bring to the table. In addition to discussing Honor, the group also shared these titles for consideration at their May 30 meeting:

The Henna Artist, Alka Joshi
Dark Winds (novel series), Tony and Anne Hillerman
By Any Other Name, Jodi Picoult
The Gown and Coronation Year, Jennifer Robson
The English Understand Wool, Helen DeWitt
Dogland, Tommy Tomlinson
The Dragonfly Sea, Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor
Junie, Erin Crosby Eckstine
White Heat: The Friendship of Emily Dickinson and Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Brenda Wineapple
Babel, R. F. Kuang
The Paris Library, Janet Skeslien Charles
The Book of Doors, Gareth Brown
The Life Impossible, Matt Haig
The Anomaly, Herve Le Tellier
When We Cease To Understand the World, Benjamin Labatut


We will meet at 12 pm on the 27th both in Room 123 in the Library and in Zoom at 

Passcode:  411616
Add this event to your Google Calendar!  (which includes the Zoom information) 

Please come along to our discussion to share what you've been reading/watching/listening to/experiencing!

If you're looking for something interesting to read, check out our page of past and future reads at http://www.mid.miamioh.edu/library/bookdiscussion.htm

John

Thursday, May 08, 2025

Have AI questions? Try our Generative AI Quickstart modules

The modules of the Generative AI Quickstart

The Gardner--Harvey Library announces the availability of our
 Generative AI Quickstart, a set of nine short modules that cover different aspects and uses of AI tools. While the original project these are based on was targeted toward faculty, the material included should be quite helpful for students, faculty, and staff to build their familiarity and skills.

Each module provides key information on its theme using short videos, interactive quizzes, and text. They may be viewed independently or in any order. The nine modules are:
  • What is GenAI?
  • Types of GenAI Tools
  • Tips for Using GenAI
  • Responsible Use Considerations
  • Potential Uses in Teaching
  • Potential Uses in Learning
  • Potential Uses in Research Potential Uses for General Workplace Tasks
  • Privacy & Security Considerations
We have also included a short survey on the main page of the Quickstart to gather reactions to the modules and your input on other AI education and training we can offer in the future. We also have a short guide to using AI tools for research and other purposes available at https://libguides.lib.miamioh.edu/ai

We're sorry that it took us this long into the semester to complete this first attempt at an AI tutorial. Please have a look and let us know what information you need to more effectively use AI (if you choose to do so). Thank you, and best of luck on finals and completing the semester!

--

Wednesday, April 30, 2025

Join us for these May events at the Gardner-Harvey Library!

Mark your calendar for these great events happening this May at the Gardner-Harvey Library!

You Can Make It @ the TEC Lab Makerspace!
Bluegrass performers
Wednesday, May. 7 2 p.m.
Gardner-Harvey Library 125 & 014 TEC Space, Middletown
Road Trips and Summer Fun! Making Before Finals
Are you ready for summer? Take a break from studying, learn about our tools and materials, and make a gift or something beautiful to take home! We’re featuring fun air fresheners you can adorn with your face, a pet, or whatever strikes your fancy.
The Underground Academy Presents...
Bluegrass performers
Community Partners
Wednesday, May. 7 
| 4 p.m.
Gardner Harvey Library 014 TEC Space, Middletown
Zoom and In-Person event
Take a tour through Rumpke Landfill with Biology faculty member Janelle Allen. Learn about what happens to waste in our region and how we can partner in our community to reduce our waste footprint and increase human health and the health of our ecosystem.
Visit for Zoom Link

Know Your Body!
Bluegrass performers
Nerve Signals and Muscle Movements
Wednesday, May. 14 
| 4:30 p.m.
Zoom Only Event
Al Cady, professor of Biological Sciences at Miami University Regionals, will take us on a journey through the inner workings of the human body. Get your biology questions answered as Cady shares the secrets of our insides!

Visit for Zoom Link
--

May's Middletown Book for Discussion: Honor (May 30)

 

Sunday in an urban village in India

The MUM Book Discussion group will next meet on Friday, May 30.  Our title is Honor by Thrity Umrigar.  Here is a brief summary:

"The story of two Indian women, one a victim of a brutal crime and the other an Americanized journalist returning to India to cover the story, and the courage they inspire in each other."  (publisher)

Here is where you can find the book:
  • There are several copies available in MiamiOhioLINK, and SearchOhio libraries.  
  • Amazon has the hardcover, paperback, and Kindle available, and Bookshop.org has links to purchase the title from independent booksellers.
Our group is always finding interesting titles to share, and we look forward to the new things you'll bring to the table. In addition to discussing How to Read a Book, the group also shared these titles for consideration at their April 29 meeting:

Housekeepers, Alex Hay
Spoon River Anthology, Edgar Lee Masters
The Bookbinder of Jericho, Pip Williams
The Dictionary of Lost Words, Pip Williams
Sweet Bean Paste, Durian Sukegawa
The Ministry of Time, Kaliane Bradley
It Ends With Us, Colleen Hoover
The Nightingale, Kristin Hannah
We Were the Lucky Ones, Georgia Hunter
The Tattooist of Auschwitz, Heather Morris
The Wolves of Eternity, Karl Ove Knausgaard
Circe, Madeline Miller
Spare, Prince Harry
Welcome to the School by the Sea, Jenny Colgan
Honor, Thrity Umrigar
Bruno, Chief of Police Series, Martin Walker


We will meet at 12 pm on the 30th both in Room 123 in the Library and in Zoom at 

Passcode:  478451
Add this event to your Google Calendar!  (which includes the Zoom information) 

Please come along to our discussion to share what you've been reading/watching/listening to/experiencing!

If you're looking for something interesting to read, check out our page of past and future reads at http://www.mid.miamioh.edu/library/bookdiscussion.htm

John