Tuesday, September 08, 2009

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!

Friday, September 04, 2009

The Kindle is here!

As promised in our Fall 2009 library newsletter, we now have two Kindle readers available for you to check out. You can read about the particulars of borrowing them and the current list of books available on them here. In sum, these devices check out for a week at a time, have 12 preloaded books, and offer a lightweight, enjoyable reading experience.

We are really curious to see what you think of them. Consider checking one out today. We are also maintaining a waiting list for them -- please contact the library to get your name on it.

The web site is all new!

That's right! We switched over to our new web design today. We designed the site to better integrate with the changes to the University Libraries' site and to continue our abilities to better serve you with information resources and information on our services.

Take note of the blue tabs at the top of the page. Each will lead you to a particular type of information and a suggested group of databases and other resources to help you find what you need. Research resources, service information, and other library-related facts make up the three columns below the tab areas. The upper right corner links to the various methods you can use to contact us. And the News and Notes area will feature blog posts and tweets.

The Gardner-Harvey Library staff is extremely grateful to Beth Gray who did the design and HTML programming work needed to make these changes. She also ran a usability testing program for the older site during the summer. This was all done as part of a practicum Beth is completing with the Kent State University School of Library and Information Science toward her Master of Library and Information Science degree.

Is there something you can't find on the new site that you used to use on the old one? Has our work to correctly link documents on the page oft gang aglee? If so, please contact us forthwith so that we can help you navigate and/or fix the issues with the site. We hope you will enjoy this fresh interface to information!