To bring you up to date on what has recently been added to the collection, a new materials list is now available that reflects additions during July (a quiet month from an acquisitions perspective). We added 29 books during that time, thanks to your selections and suggestions. The list is sorted by call number, with items grouped roughly by subject area.
This tag will show you all of the prior lists of new materials.
Have a suggestion of something to order for the 2013/14 fiscal year? Use our online request form, email Jennifer Hicks or one of our other staff members, or drop by the library with your request at any time. We are still developing our acquisitions budget for the year, but we can start processing your requests now.
Thanks again for keeping our collection vibrant and your information needs met!
Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Monday, July 22, 2013
The Gardner-Harvey Embedded Librarians Invite You
A student said this about the service: “I found the link in our class page helpful,
especially the APA guides and databases of nursing journals. I was
pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to access this terrific resource.”
One instructor said: “…but
the students who reached out were met with a quick response, direct answers and
a supportive ‘go team’ tone. invaluable!!”
As Fall 2013 draws closer, please consider collaborating
with an embedded librarian to deepen student learning. Just let us know of your interest to begin
the process.
First you and your embedded librarian will discuss your
research assignment(s) and priority information literacy skills you want
students to develop. After you add the
embedded librarian to your Niikha courses, he/she will place course-specific
content in them.
In this way, Miami University Libraries’ resources and
services become readily visible and accessible to students learning to conduct
scholarly research. Students begin to
expand upon the few sources they typically rely on (course readings and Google). Your Niihka librarian might help your
students by:
·
troubleshooting
technology issues like authentication when off-campus
·
linking discipline-specific
databases, demonstrating how to apply various limiters as well as use the
cite tool.
Given
sufficient time, your embedded librarian is also able:
·
to assist in
redesigning research assignments to improve information literacy learning
outcomes
The Gardner-Harvey librarians hope you choose to collaborate
with us in 2013-2014! We want your
students to develop information fluency which aids academic achievement and is
expected by employers. Email us today:
Beth Tumbleson, tumbleb@miamioh.edu
Jessie Long, longjh@miamioh.edu
Thursday, July 18, 2013
How was the library used in 2012-2013?
With the fiscal year just ending, here are the full annual stats for several of the Gardner-Harvey Library's (GHL) services. I hope you will find them useful to see how people use the library. How do you compare to the average GHL user?
These stats reflect what's happened this year, between July 1, 2012 to June 30, 2013. Some stats we keep locally, others we pull from university-wide or OhioLINK-wide systems, and some are provided by database vendors.
Both a Borrower and a Lender Be
- GHL patrons checked out 3,739 books, DVDs, and videos from us (1,675 from our local collection, 1,265 ordered from other MU libraries, and 799 items ordered from OhioLINK - that means that more than half of the items used by campus patrons came from libraries beyond GHL). That is a 15% decrease from 2011-2012. We also received 29 articles, books, and audiovisual items from libraries worldwide.
- The GHL collection registered 4,506 checkouts (that's the 1,675 items checked out by Middletown patrons above, plus 1701 items sent to OhioLINK users, and 1,130 sent to other MU libraries - that means that more than 60% of the uses of our materials came from libraries beyond GHL). That is a 16% decrease from 2011-2012. We also sent 275 articles, books, and audiovisual items to libraries worldwide.
- GHL patrons checked out 2,594 reserve items from us (this includes faculty-placed course reserves, textbooks on reserve, laptops, iPads, Wii games, and other equipment). That is an 24% decrease from 2011-2012.
- In addition to the printed or physical materials above, Middletown patrons downloaded 3,108 e-books from the OhioLINK E-Book Center. That is a 66% decrease from 2011-2012.
- In terms of building up our collection, Middletown faculty and staff ordered 1,311 items to add to our collection this year. That is a 23% increase from 2011-2012. That total includes 80 e-books.
- We registered a total of 7,141 checkouts of items in our collection (reserves and circulating materials). The circulating items at GHL number 24,477, so each item in the collection circulated 0.29 times this year (our total number of items is 28,894).
- One additional item of interest on item checkouts that happen at our library is the number of items checked our to patrons of other OhioLINK libraries. We had 226 items sent from OhioLINK libraries checked out at GHL by patrons from other OhioLINK institutions (using our Pickup Anywhere service). We also had 41 of our items borrowed by these OhioLINK patrons in person.
The Quest for Information
- Middletown patrons downloaded 1,886 full-text articles from Ebsco databases provided to us by . This reflects a new way of measuring your search activity, mainly due to the addition of our OneSearch service in the fall of 2012. Since that service searches multiple databases at once, our number of searches was multiplied by the number of databases. So, we'll stick with article downloads and search sessions (2065 in 2012-2013).
- On their way to these databases, 47 people visit our web site every day. That's a total of 17,146 visits for the year, by 5,392 unique individuals. Visits and visitors are down about 7% from 2011-2012.
A Place for Work, Study, and Remove from the World
- GHL is open 65 hours per week.
- We average 191 visitors per day, for a total of 55,459 visits this year. This reflects a 34% decrease from 2010-2011, but we lost all of our gate counters from July through the middle of September, and then one counter was out of operation for much of the end of fall and beginning of spring (we also lost our stats entirely for 2011-2012).
- We regularly schedule the library learning lab (GRD 111) for single class sessions. We also had 12 classes meet there weekly during fall semester and 9 met there during this spring. With some breaks in the early parts of the fall and spring semesters, we have been scheduling COMPASS placement testing sessions in the lab on Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays for incoming Middletown students since March 2009. COMPASS testing ended in GRD 111 in July 2013 with the creation of a new lab in Johnston Hall.
- Our two STAR Lounges have been checked out 200 times this year.
Helping You Find What You Need
- We logged a total of 1382 questions that we answered from our InfoDesk during the year, which averages out to nearly 5 per day. We do not log every question,we answered, nor every time we check books out, but we try to capture all lengthy interactions with you. 39% of those questions involved technology questions, 34% focused on circulation procedures or policies, 15% were directing people to locations or resources in the library or on campus, and 12% were research-related. 73% of all questions were asked in-person at the desk, while 20% were by phone, 4% by text or instant messaging, and 3% came through email. Below is an image of the most common words that the questions involved.
- Inside and outside of the library, we gave library instruction presentations in 87 classes this year, reaching 1599 students (a decrease of 6% from 2011-2012). The courses represented were from 17 different departments.
- Our Embedded Librarian program reached students from 67 course sections in their Niihka course sites during the academic year (that is an 8% increase over 2011-2012). We helped over 1611 students with their information needs through the program.
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 have also lost meaningful data for on-campus use from some of our OhioLINK full-text resources.
- We don't have campus-specific stats for all database searches - we're missing uses of Lexis-Nexis and other databases.
- 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.
On Average
Taking these numbers and guesstimating a total Middletown community of 2500 students, faculty and staff members (and including community patrons), here's what can be said about the average person on campus. She:
- checks nearly three items out from the library in a year (reserves and local/MU/OhioLINK collection items)
- downloads about one full-text article each year.
- accesses the library web site seven times per year.
- views more than one e-book each year.
- participates in a library instruction session or an embedded librarian course once per year (if she is a student).
Thanks to everyone for making the library and its resources a vital part of your academic lives!
These stats reflect what's happened this year, between July 1, 2012 to June 30, 2013. Some stats we keep locally, others we pull from university-wide or OhioLINK-wide systems, and some are provided by database vendors.
Both a Borrower and a Lender Be
- GHL patrons checked out 3,739 books, DVDs, and videos from us (1,675 from our local collection, 1,265 ordered from other MU libraries, and 799 items ordered from OhioLINK - that means that more than half of the items used by campus patrons came from libraries beyond GHL). That is a 15% decrease from 2011-2012. We also received 29 articles, books, and audiovisual items from libraries worldwide.
- The GHL collection registered 4,506 checkouts (that's the 1,675 items checked out by Middletown patrons above, plus 1701 items sent to OhioLINK users, and 1,130 sent to other MU libraries - that means that more than 60% of the uses of our materials came from libraries beyond GHL). That is a 16% decrease from 2011-2012. We also sent 275 articles, books, and audiovisual items to libraries worldwide.
- GHL patrons checked out 2,594 reserve items from us (this includes faculty-placed course reserves, textbooks on reserve, laptops, iPads, Wii games, and other equipment). That is an 24% decrease from 2011-2012.
- In addition to the printed or physical materials above, Middletown patrons downloaded 3,108 e-books from the OhioLINK E-Book Center. That is a 66% decrease from 2011-2012.
- In terms of building up our collection, Middletown faculty and staff ordered 1,311 items to add to our collection this year. That is a 23% increase from 2011-2012. That total includes 80 e-books.
- We registered a total of 7,141 checkouts of items in our collection (reserves and circulating materials). The circulating items at GHL number 24,477, so each item in the collection circulated 0.29 times this year (our total number of items is 28,894).
- One additional item of interest on item checkouts that happen at our library is the number of items checked our to patrons of other OhioLINK libraries. We had 226 items sent from OhioLINK libraries checked out at GHL by patrons from other OhioLINK institutions (using our Pickup Anywhere service). We also had 41 of our items borrowed by these OhioLINK patrons in person.
The Quest for Information
- Middletown patrons downloaded 1,886 full-text articles from Ebsco databases provided to us by . This reflects a new way of measuring your search activity, mainly due to the addition of our OneSearch service in the fall of 2012. Since that service searches multiple databases at once, our number of searches was multiplied by the number of databases. So, we'll stick with article downloads and search sessions (2065 in 2012-2013).
- On their way to these databases, 47 people visit our web site every day. That's a total of 17,146 visits for the year, by 5,392 unique individuals. Visits and visitors are down about 7% from 2011-2012.
A Place for Work, Study, and Remove from the World
- GHL is open 65 hours per week.
- We average 191 visitors per day, for a total of 55,459 visits this year. This reflects a 34% decrease from 2010-2011, but we lost all of our gate counters from July through the middle of September, and then one counter was out of operation for much of the end of fall and beginning of spring (we also lost our stats entirely for 2011-2012).
- We regularly schedule the library learning lab (GRD 111) for single class sessions. We also had 12 classes meet there weekly during fall semester and 9 met there during this spring. With some breaks in the early parts of the fall and spring semesters, we have been scheduling COMPASS placement testing sessions in the lab on Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays for incoming Middletown students since March 2009. COMPASS testing ended in GRD 111 in July 2013 with the creation of a new lab in Johnston Hall.
- Our two STAR Lounges have been checked out 200 times this year.
Helping You Find What You Need
- We logged a total of 1382 questions that we answered from our InfoDesk during the year, which averages out to nearly 5 per day. We do not log every question,we answered, nor every time we check books out, but we try to capture all lengthy interactions with you. 39% of those questions involved technology questions, 34% focused on circulation procedures or policies, 15% were directing people to locations or resources in the library or on campus, and 12% were research-related. 73% of all questions were asked in-person at the desk, while 20% were by phone, 4% by text or instant messaging, and 3% came through email. Below is an image of the most common words that the questions involved.
- Inside and outside of the library, we gave library instruction presentations in 87 classes this year, reaching 1599 students (a decrease of 6% from 2011-2012). The courses represented were from 17 different departments.
- Our Embedded Librarian program reached students from 67 course sections in their Niihka course sites during the academic year (that is an 8% increase over 2011-2012). We helped over 1611 students with their information needs through the program.
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 have also lost meaningful data for on-campus use from some of our OhioLINK full-text resources.
- We don't have campus-specific stats for all database searches - we're missing uses of Lexis-Nexis and other databases.
- 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.
On Average
Taking these numbers and guesstimating a total Middletown community of 2500 students, faculty and staff members (and including community patrons), here's what can be said about the average person on campus. She:
- checks nearly three items out from the library in a year (reserves and local/MU/OhioLINK collection items)
- downloads about one full-text article each year.
- accesses the library web site seven times per year.
- views more than one e-book each year.
- participates in a library instruction session or an embedded librarian course once per year (if she is a student).
Thanks to everyone for making the library and its resources a vital part of your academic lives!
Thursday, July 11, 2013
MU Middletown and community partners receive Big Read grant
Miami University Middletown’s
Gardner-Harvey Library today announced that it has received a grant of $15,600 to
host The Big Read in Middletown. The Big Read is a program of the National
Endowment for the Arts, designed to revitalize the role of literature in
American culture and to encourage citizens to read for pleasure and
enlightenment. The Big Read is managed by Arts Midwest. Miami Middletown is one
of 77 nonprofit organizations to receive a grant to host a Big Read project
between September 2013 and June 2014.
The Big Read in Middletown will focus on The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien.
According to the Big Read website, “Tracing the tour of one American platoon
this book is not just a tale of the Vietnam War, although it's considered one
of the finest books ever about combat. This award-winning book is a brutal,
sometimes funny, often profound narrative about the human heart—how it fares
under pressure, and what it can endure.”
While being led by Miami Middletown, the
project is a joint effort among many community partners in Middletown,
including Middletown High School, MidPointe Library System, the Robert “Sonny”
Hill Community Center, Middletown Area Senior Center, Cincinnati State
Technical and Community College Middletown Campus, and the Middletown City Council.
Programming will include book discussions, with free copies of the book
provided to participants, as well as special events to be announced soon.
John
Burke, director of the Gardner-Harvey Library emphasized the positive impact of
the program: “I am excited to have our library join with such a wonderful group
of partners to bring this book to the Middletown community. We hope that the
book will shine a light into the experiences of military veterans (many of whom
live, work, and learn alongside us) and build a greater understanding for those
of us who have not served. And I hope that the practice of storytelling that
the book illustrates will encourage veterans and others to tell their own
stories and help us learn from one another.”
The Big Read provides communities
nationwide with the opportunity to read, discuss, and celebrate one of 31 selections
from U.S. and world literature. The 77 selected organizations will receive Big
Read grants to promote and carry out community-based reading programs featuring
activities such as read-a-thons, book discussions, lectures, movie screenings,
and performing arts events. Participating communities also receive
high-quality, free-of-charge educational materials to supplement each title,
including Reader’s, Teacher’s, and Audio Guides, which also are available for
download on neabigread.org. For more
information about The Big Read please visit neabigread.org.
NEA Acting Chairman Joan Shigekawa said, “It’s
wonderful to see that these 77 communities are making reading and the celebration
of books a priority. I look forward to seeing the innovative ways they find to
engage their communities in these great works of classic and contemporary
literature."
About the Gardner-Harvey Library
The
Gardner-Harvey Library (GHL; John Burke, director) of Miami University
Middletown provides resources, space, and knowledgeable staff to help patrons
find and use information. GHL includes a local collection of 30,000 books and
DVDs; virtual collection of many thousands of full-text articles, digital
reference sources, and e-books; and borrowing agreements with other
Miami/OhioLINK libraries for 46 million resources. The library is available for
use by Miami Middletown students and faculty, as well as by the general public.
The Community Borrower Card is offered to greater Middletown community members
over the age of 16. Community borrowers may borrow materials from the
Gardner-Harvey Library as well as from other Miami University and OhioLINK
libraries. To apply for a card, come to the Library’s front desk and be sure to
bring valid photo identification.
The National Endowment for the Arts was
established by Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal
government. To date, the NEA has awarded more than $4 billion to support
artistic excellence, creativity, and innovation for the benefit of individuals
and communities. The NEA extends its work through partnerships with state arts
agencies, local leaders, other federal agencies, and the philanthropic sector.
To join the discussion on how art works, visit the NEA at arts.gov.
Arts Midwest promotes creativity, nurtures
cultural leadership, and engages people in meaningful arts experiences,
bringing vitality to Midwest communities and enriching people’s lives. Based in
Minneapolis, Arts Midwest connects the arts to audiences throughout the
nine-state region of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, North
Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. One of six non-profit regional arts
organizations in the United States, Arts Midwest’s history spans more than 25
years. For more information, please visit artsmidwest.org.
Monday, July 08, 2013
Library materials added in June and 2012/13 wrap-up
To bring you up to date on what has recently been added to the collection, a new materials list is now available that reflects additions during June. We added 88 books during that time, thanks to your selections and suggestions. The list is sorted by call number, with items grouped roughly by subject area.
This tag will show you all of the prior lists of new materials.
We added 1311 items to the collection during the 2012/13 academic year, outpacing my expectation of around around 1200 items. Way to go!
Have a suggestion of something to order for the 2013/14 fiscal year? Use our online request form, email Jennifer Hicks or one of our other staff members, or drop by the library with your request at any time. We are still developing our acquisitions budget for the year, but we can start processing your requests now.
Thanks again for keeping our collection vibrant and your information needs met!
This tag will show you all of the prior lists of new materials.
We added 1311 items to the collection during the 2012/13 academic year, outpacing my expectation of around around 1200 items. Way to go!
Have a suggestion of something to order for the 2013/14 fiscal year? Use our online request form, email Jennifer Hicks or one of our other staff members, or drop by the library with your request at any time. We are still developing our acquisitions budget for the year, but we can start processing your requests now.
Thanks again for keeping our collection vibrant and your information needs met!
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