Staff Picks

Looking for a good book to read during winter break? Need a suggestion for a good movie to watch? The library has a nice collection of staff picks on display that are sure to entice. With everything from mystery and suspense to comedy and drama, we have something to please everyone.

Coffee, Tea and Hot Cocoa @ the Library

Need a break from the cold weather? Or a recharge in between finals? The library has free coffee, tea and hot cocoa available all week to provide some warm relief and a caffeine boost. Stop on by when you have time.

Resource of the Week: STAR Lounges and Group Study Area

Need a quiet place to study or somewhere to work on a final presentation or group project? The library has a number of chairs and desks spread throughout the building for private studying as well as our two STAR Lounges and our group study area, which are this week’s Resource of the Week.

STAR Lounges 1 and 2
These two rooms are dedicated Space for Technology And Recreation. They may be used for small groups or individuals to study, jointly prepare projects, practice presentations, or view DVDs or videos. STAR Lounge 1 has seating for six people and a whiteboard. STAR Lounge 2 has seating for 13 people and a whiteboard.

Group Study Area
This area on our lower level offers tables and chairs along with comfortable seating for large and small groups or individuals. Wireless access is available, along with a whiteboard and convenient access to our vending area.

Winter Break Hours

With the conclusion of finals week next week, the library will conclude our regular semester hours and enter into Winter Break territory. Here are the changes you will need to be aware of past Friday of next week:

Saturday & Sunday, Dec. 18-19 - Closed
Monday-Thursday, Dec. 20-23 - 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM
Friday, Dec. 24th to Sunday, January 2nd - Closed
Monday-Friday, Jan. 3-7 - 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM
Regular Hours start again on Monday, January 10, 2011

We wish you a restful and productive Winter Break!

Library survey results are in!

From October 18 - November 12, 2010, the library had a web-based and paper one-minute survey in place to gather suggestions for improvements to the library. We had 40 responses from the MUM community: 15 students, 11 faculty members, 11 staff members, and 3 Middletown community members.

After identifying their status, respondents made one or more suggestions of ways we could improve the library.
We are still analyzing the responses, and have thus far grouped them into ones involving: (1) the library environment, (2) the collection, (3) our services, (4)needs for marketing/information, (5) staff.

Will we add a Starbucks, buy more music CDs, offer a drop-off spot in Johnston to return library items, or hire more staff? All of these suggestions are possible, provided that they fit our mission and our future budgets. We realized from the results that there are some services we need to market more and facets of the library (books and computers) that people really like.

We are grateful to members of the MUM community for taking the time to give us input. Our mission is to help you meet your informational needs, and we welcome your feedback at any time to help us fine-tune our services.

To give you an idea of the subjects We created a Wordle below to display the most common words that came up in the survey (the capitalized terms Faculty, Students, Staff, and Community reflect the status choices of the respondents and the other terms were drawn from the open comments of the respondents).

Get the library's number! Text us when you have a question

We have set up a new number for our text-a-librarian service at the Gardner-Harvey Library:

513-393-9141

Whenever you have a question, send us a text for a quick response to your information need (standard text messaging rates apply).

We'll answer your question right away when we're open, and if we're closed when you text, we'll receive your stored text as soon as we login.

And be sure to make use of our other contact methods.

It's easy to reach an information expert.

Resource of the Week: Laptops

Looking for a computer with Microsoft Office to finish your paper or presentation? The Library has them. In addition to our public access computers, the Library also has 15 laptops and netbooks with wireless network cards available for students to check out. These items check out through closing time on the following day (one-day loan). A set of laptops and tablet PCs are also available for checkout to faculty and staff.

World AIDS Day

"Every year on December 1, we commemorate World AIDS Day to bring attention to the tremendous impact of the HIV epidemic in the United States and around the world. In observance of World AIDS Day, today CDC launched a special report, CDC Vital Signs on HIV Testing in the United States, in recognition of the pivotal role that HIV testing plays in our national HIV prevention strategy."

To learn more about HIV and AIDS, go to AIDS.gov.