Enjoy a hot beverage and mints while you study at the Library!

The Library will offer free coffee, tea, hot cocoa, and mints all during finals week, starting on Saturday, December 10th. It will be set up in our entrance area from roughly 12:00pm to 4:00pm on Saturday, 8:00am to 8:00pm, Monday through Thursday, and from 8:00am to 5:00pm on Friday. Please drop on by and enjoy a cup!

It's our way of making your last minute studying and paper/project preparation a bit more relaxing. Thanks for being a part of our library community!


The image above was provided through a Creative Commons CC-BY-2.0 license by Ian Brown.

Library Open on the Saturday Before Finals (December 10)

To help you prepare for final exams, the Gardner-Harvey Library will offer extra study hours to students on Saturday, December 10, 2016. We will be open from Noon until 4:00pm that day.

If you need a quiet place to study, please come to the library and use our computers and our study rooms. Staff will be on hand to provide assistance.

Coffee, tea, hot chocolate, lemonade, and mints will be available to help you stay aware and awake.

New Books added to the Gardner-Harvey Library in November!

See our new materials list of items we added to the collection in November! We added 88 books, e-books, DVDs, and other items during that time, thanks to your selections and suggestions. The list is sorted by call number, with items grouped roughly by subject area.

Here are seven titles from the list, to give you an idea of what we've been buying:

• A field guide to lies : critical thinking in the information age / Daniel J. Levitin
• A more beautiful question : the power of inquiry to spark breakthrough ideas
• Global inequality : a new approach for the age of globalization / Branko Milanovic
• Swing time / Zadie Smith
• The secret life of the periodic table : unlocking the mysteries of all 118 elements
• What have we done : the moral injury of our longest wars / David Wood
• Bridge of words : Esperanto and the dream of a universal language / Esther Schor

This tag will show you all of the prior lists of new materials, in reverse chronological order. We are eager to hear from you about individual items you would like us to buy, or types of items we should be on the lookout for, or general subject areas we should build up in the collection. Your input will help us keep the collection working well as add items in 2016/17!  We're looking forward to what you'll recommend next.

If you have a suggestion of something to order, please use our "Tell GHL to Buy It" form, email Amy Carmichael (carmicae@miamioh.edu), or drop by the library with your request. And pass your general suggestions or comments about the collection to us in those same ways.

Thanks again for keeping our collection vibrant and your information needs met!

Middletown Book Discussion Titles for January

The MUM Book Discussion group will next meet on Tuesday, January 10 to discuss not one, but two books:  Lucy Grealy's Autobiography of a Face and Ann Patchett's Truth and Beauty: A Friendship.  We will meet at 12 pm in Room 124 in the Library. These books in turn chronicle a woman's fight against cancer and a great friendship that grew during that battle.  

Here is a brief summary of each title, along with links to request the book from Miami, OhioLINK, and SearchOhio libraries (Just click "Request" and choose "Miami University" from the dropdown list.  Then enter your UniqueID and password, and the library from which you would like to retrieve the item):  

"This powerful memoir is about the premium we put on beauty and on a woman's face in particular. It took Lucy Grealy twenty years of living with a distorted self-image and more than thirty reconstructive procedures before she could come to terms with her appearance after childhood cancer and surgery that left her jaw disfigured. As a young girl, she absorbed the searing pain of peer rejection and the paralyzing fear of never being loved."

Miami, OhioLINK, and  SearchOhio 

"The author describes her twenty-year friendship with Lucy Grealy, tracing their introduction at a writer's workshop, the integral part their friendship played in their writing careers, and her witness to Grealy's medical deterioration."

Miami, OhioLINK, and SearchOhio

Read one, or read both over these last weeks of the semester and Winter break (or read something else interesting).  Then come along to our discussion to share what else you've been reading/watching/listening to/experiencing, and help us plan our future readings.  

Have an idea for a book to discuss?  Let us know and check out our page of past and future reads at http://www.mid.muohio.edu/library/bookdiscussion.htm

Make a Hologram Projector for your Phone at the TEC Lab!

Join us on Wednesday, December 7 from 11:00am-1:00pm or 6:00-8:00pm to make a hologram projector for your phone or tablet!  

You use your phone for a lot of things, but did you know it can project holograms?   These 3D images can jump out of your phone with the creation of a hologram projector.  We'll give you the plans and materials to create your own, and guide you on where you can find holograms to display and amaze your friends and yourself!

All are welcome to attend.  Come to the TEC Lab in Room 125 in the Gardner-Harvey Library.

Remember,  if you attend two or more of our TEC Lab workshops and speaker events in Fall 2016, you will be entered in a drawing for a Kindle Fire tablet.

Middletown Book Discussion Title for November (again)

The MUM Book Discussion group will next meet on Tuesday, November 29 to discuss Katarina Bivald's book The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend.  We will meet at 12 pm in Room 124 in the Gardner-Harvey Library. Yes, we did already meet in November, but we skipped October; so, it all basically works out.

Here is a brief summary of the title, along with links to request the book from  OhioLINK, and SearchOhio libraries (Just click "Request" and choose "Miami University" from the dropdown list.  Then enter your UniqueID and password, and the library from which you would like to retrieve the item):  

"Broken Wheel, Iowa, has never seen anyone like Sara, who traveled all the way from Sweden just to meet her pen pal, Amy. When she arrives, however, she finds that Amy's funeral has just ended. Luckily, the townspeople are happy to look after their bewildered tourist--even if they don't understand her peculiar need for books."

OhioLINK and  SearchOhio 

Give it a read, or read something else interesting and come along to our discussion.  Share what else you've been reading/watching/listening to/experiencing, and help us plan our future readings.

Have an idea for a book to discuss?  Let us know and check out our page of past and future reads at http://www.mid.muohio.edu/library/bookdiscussion.htm

Learn to create a 3D object in 30 minutes at the TEC Lab!

Join us on Tuesday, November 15 OR Wednesday, November 16 and learn to create a 3D object with Tinkercad!  

From 3:00-4:00 on Tuesday or 12:00-1:00 on Wednesday, you'll have the chance to learn how to use a free, web-based tool to create anything you can imagine as a 3D object.  That object can then be printed or used in other software applications.

We'll spend 30 minutes getting you up and running in Tinkercad, and then you can stay for the remainder of the hour to work on your object.  You can even decide to have us print a copy in the color of your choice.  Make the investment of a little time to learn a skill you can use to create objects and content for modeling, prototyping, and just plain fun.

All are welcome to attend.  Please RSVP to burkejj@miamioh.edu with the day you plan to attend to reserve your spot (walk-ins are welcome if seats remain).  Come to Room 111 in the Gardner-Harvey Library for your opportunity to create a 3D object.

Remember,  if you attend two or more of our TEC Lab workshops and speaker events in Fall 2016, you will be entered in a drawing for a Kindle Fire tablet.

Who won a Colin at the Library in 2015/2016?

Yes, we're here on the red carpet at the Gardner-Harvey Library once again to award this year's Colins, the award given to the items most checked out from the library during the previous academic year.  The award is named after Colin Gardner, one of the two namesakes of the library (George Harvey is the other, but really, the Georges? That wouldn't work).

We added 1194 items to our collection last year, plus some reserve items that just circulate briefly.  Which of them were used the most?

Entrants in the awards had to be added to the collection from July 1, 2015 through June 30, 2016.  Here are some top ten lists in the following categories, along with the number of circulations per item:

Top ten textbooks

1. Leadership (BTE 401) - 42 (and the winner of the Colin!)
2. Public Speaking: An Audience-Centered Approach - 26
3. Theatre: the Lively Art (THE 191) - 24
4. Human Biology (BIO 161) - 23 (so close!)
5. A Different Mirror: a History of Multicultural America (IDS 159) - 21
6. Personal Finance (BTE 117) - 18
7. Applied Fluid Mechanics (ENT 310) - 15
8. Marketing: the Core (BTE 105) - 15
9. What is Your Race?: The Census and Our Flawed Efforts to Classify Americans (IDS 159) - 12
10. Ethics in a Computing Culture (CIT/CSE 262) - 12

Top ten fiction titles

1. Go Set a Watchman, Harper Lee - 6  (and the winner of the Colin!)
2. Uprooted, Naomi Novik - 5
3. Seveneves, Neal Stephenson - 5
4. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho - 5
5. Go Set a Watchman, Harper Lee (copy 2) - 4
6. Winter, Marissa Meyer - 4
7. Career of Evil, Robert Galbraith - 4
8. The Nest, Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney - 4
9. Before the Fall, Noah Hawley - 4
10. Circling the Sun, Paula McLain - 3

Top ten non-fiction titles

1. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, Marie Kondo - 8  (and the winner of the Colin!)
2. The Official Guide for GMAT Review 2016 - 8
3. The Official Guide for GMAT Quantitative Review, 2016 - 7
4. CPT 2016 Professional Edition - 6
5. Modern Romance, Aziz Ansari - 5
6. Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates - 5
7. Rising Strong, Brenae Brown  - 5
8. Furiously Happy, Jenny Lawson - 5
9. Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future, Ashlee Vance - 4
10. Arms and the Dudes: How Three Stoners from Miami Beach Became the Most Unlikely Gunrunners in History, Guy Lawson - 4

Top five juvenile books (many tied with one check out)

1. What Pet Should I Get?, Dr. Seuss - 4  (and the winner of the Colin!)
2. Your Voice Is All I Hear, Leah Scheier - 2
3. The Story of Diva and Flea, Mo Willems - 2
4. Be a Friend, Salina Yoon
5. Freedom in Congo Square, Carole Boston Weatherford

Top ten DVDs

1. Game of Thrones, Season 1 - 5  (and the winner of the Colin!)
2. Penny Dreadful, Season 1 - 4
3. Salam Neighbor - 3
4. Citizen USA - 2
5. 300 - 2
6. Spider-Man (Tobey Macguire/Kristen Dunst) - 2
7. The Room (Tommy Wiseau) - 2
8. Do the Right Thing - 2
9. School Daze - 2
10. It Follows - 2

Top five pieces of equipment

1. A close match among five iPad charging blocks and cables (26 checkouts was the highest)

And that ends the Colin Awards for 2016!  A big congratulations to our winners and to all the nominees!

How was the library used in 2015/16?

Here are the full annual stats from fiscal year 2016 (the 2015-16 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. 

These statistics reflect what happened between July 1, 2015 to June 30, 2016. Some stats we keep locally, others we pull from university-wide or OhioLINK-wide systems, and some are provided by database vendors.

On Average
Taking the statistics below and guesstimating a total Middletown community of 2000 students, faculty and staff members (and including community patrons), here's what can be said about the average person on campus. She:

- checks two items out from the library in a year (reserves and local/MU/OhioLINK collection items)
- visits the library 26 times per year
- downloads five full-text articles each year.
- accesses the library web site nine times per year.

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

Now on to the detailed analysis!

Both a Borrower and a Lender Be
- GHL patrons checked out 2,537 books and DVDs from us (1,089 from our local collection, 862 ordered from other MU libraries, and 586 items ordered from OhioLINK - that means that more than 55% of the items used by campus patrons came from libraries beyond GHL). That is a 14% decrease in borrowing from 2014-2015.  

- The GHL collection registered 3,115 checkouts (that's the 1,089 items checked out by Middletown patrons above, plus 1206 items sent to OhioLINK users, and 820 sent to other MU libraries - that means that 65% of the uses of our materials came from libraries beyond GHL). That is a 14% decrease in checkouts from 2014-2015. 

- GHL patrons checked out 2,324 reserve items from us (this includes faculty-placed course reserves, textbooks on reserve, study rooms, laptops, iPads, and other equipment). That is a 2% decrease from 2014-2015. Textbooks on reserve checkouts more than doubled in 2015-16, with 685 checkouts vs. 325 in 2014-15.

- In terms of building up our collection, Middletown faculty, staff, and students ordered 1194 items to add to our collection this year. That is a 20% increase from 2014-2015.  

- We registered a total of 5,439 checkouts of items in our collection (reserves and circulating materials). The circulating items at GHL number 30,529, so each item in the collection circulated 0.18 times this year (all items in our library circulate). 

The Quest for Information
- Middletown patrons spent 14,371 search sessions downloading 11,228  full-text articles from Ebsco databases provided to us through Miami University and OhioLINK.  This only represents use of the databases on campus.  Those numbers reflect a 46% increase in search sessions and a 10% decrease in downloads from 2014-2015).

- On their way to these databases, 51 people visit our web site every day. That's a total of 18,772 visits for the year, by 8,352 unique individuals. That's a 19% increase in visits and a 24% increase in unique visitors from 2014-2015.

A Place for Work, Study, and Remove from the World
- GHL is open 57 hours per week.

- We averaged 225 visitors per day, for a total of 52,631 visits this year.  This reflects a 14% decrease from 2014-2015.  This may be due in part to our renovation, which closed off much of the library following finals week in May 2016, and moving around our seating areas as we cleared out the book stacks area ahead of the renovation in Winter Term 2016.

- We regularly schedule the library learning lab (GRD 111) for single class sessions. We also had 3 classes meet there weekly during fall semester and 3 met there during the spring.  We also made use of our study rooms with 5 classes meeting weekly during the fall in STAR Lounge 2.

- Our two STAR Lounges have been checked out 113 times this year by students.  That represents an 18% decrease from 2014-15.  They were also used weekly by librarians and other faculty and staff members for meetings. 

Helping You Find What You Need
- Inside and outside of the library, we gave library instruction presentations in 45 classes this year, reaching 773 students (a decrease of 28% from 2014-2015). The courses represented were from 14 different departments.

- Our Embedded Librarian program reached students from 72 course sections in their Canvas course sites during the academic year (that is a 10% decrease from 2014-2015). We helped over 1,503 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.

Thanks to everyone for making the library and its resources a vital part of your academic lives!

New books and DVDs added to the Gardner-Harvey Library in October!

See our new materials list of items we added to the collection in October! We added 183 books, e-books, DVDs, and other items during that time, thanks to your selections and suggestions. The list is sorted by call number, with items grouped roughly by subject area.

Here are seven titles from the list, to give you an idea of what we've been buying:

• Our black sons matter : mothers talk about fears, sorrows, and hopes
• Uprooting sexual violence in higher education : a guide for practitioners and faculty
• Winter's bone (Motion picture)
• The trespasser / Tana French
• Time travel : a history / James Gleick
• The big book of makerspace projects : inspiring makers to experiment, create, and learn
• Do not say we have nothing : a novel / Madeleine Thien

This tag will show you all of the prior lists of new materials, in reverse chronological order. We are eager to hear from you about individual items you would like us to buy, or types of items we should be on the lookout for, or general subject areas we should build up in the collection. Your input will help us keep the collection working well as add items in 2016/17!  We're looking forward to what you'll recommend next.

If you have a suggestion of something to order, please use our "Tell GHL to Buy It" form, email Amy Carmichael (carmicae@miamioh.edu), or drop by the library with your request. And pass your general suggestions or comments about the collection to us in those same ways.

Thanks again for keeping our collection vibrant and your information needs met!

Green screen effects made easy at the TEC Lab!

Join us on Wednesday, November 2 from 11:00am-1:00pm or 6:00-8:00pm to see our green screen in action!  

All right, the green screen doesn't actually move, but you can use our iPads and an app to quickly replace the green with other video or still images to create amazing effects.  You'll learn how the process works, and have the chance to create a button, magnet, image, or short video showing off your special effects prowess.  

All are welcome to attend.  Come to the TEC Lab in Room 125 in the Gardner-Harvey Library.

Remember,  if you attend two or more of our TEC Lab workshops and speaker events in Fall 2016, you will be entered in a drawing for a Kindle Fire tablet.

New books and DVDs added to the Gardner-Harvey Library in September!

See our new materials list of items we added to the collection in September! We added 176 books, e-books, DVDs, and other items during that time, thanks to your selections and suggestions. The list is sorted by call number, with items grouped roughly by subject area.

Here are seven titles from the list, to give you an idea of what we've been buying:

• Atlas obscura : an explorer's guide to the world's hidden wonders / Joshua Foer
• Street marketing : the future of guerrilla marketing and buzz / Marcel Saucet
• Nobody : casualties of America's war on the vulnerable, from Ferguson to Flint and beyond / Marc Lamont Hill
• Buying a bride : an engaging history of mail‐order matches / Marcia A. Zug
• Insecure majorities : Congress and the perpetual campaign / Frances E. Lee
• The wonder : a novel / Emma Donoghue
• Assistive technology / Emily C. Bouck

This tag will show you all of the prior lists of new materials, in reverse chronological order. We are eager to hear from you about individual items you would like us to buy, or types of items we should be on the lookout for, or general subject areas we should build up in the collection. Your input will help us keep the collection working well as add items in 2016/17!  We're looking forward to what you'll recommend next.

If you have a suggestion of something to order, please use our "Tell GHL to Buy It" form, email Amy Carmichael (carmicae@miamioh.edu), or drop by the library with your request. And pass your general suggestions or comments about the collection to us in those same ways.

Thanks again for keeping our collection vibrant and your information needs met!

Tiny Terror in the TEC Lab!

Join us Wednesday, October 5th from 11-1pm or 6-8pm to decorate mini pumpkins with paint and LED lights. Make and take your pumpkin in this fall themed TEC Lab workshop. 

The event will be held in the Gardner-Harvey Library TEC Lab in Room 125.  The event is free and all are welcome to attend.

Supplies are limited and walk-ins are welcome, but you can reserve a pumpkin with an RSVP to hicksjl2@miamioh.edu.

Gardner-Harvey Library Open House

Come join us for an open house in our newly renovated library!

As Miami University Middletown celebrates its 50^th anniversary, staff at the Gardner-Harvey Library invite you to come and see our newly renovated space that facilitates collaborative learning.  Today academic libraries enable learners to both use information and to create new knowledge and products.  

We are offering tours & light refreshments on Thursday, September 22, 2016, from 1-4 pm

• Learn how to reserve our 10 technology-equipped study rooms.  
• Visit the TEC Lab Makerspace and see our laser cutter and 3D printers.  
• Try our "study while you exercise" equipment.
• Hear our plans to complete the library's renovation.
• Let us know what else you'd like to see in the library!

New books and DVDs added to the Gardner-Harvey Library in August!

See our new materials list of items we added to the collection in August! We added 119 books, e-books, DVDs, and other items during that time, thanks to your selections and suggestions. The list is sorted by call number, with items grouped roughly by subject area.

Here are seven titles from the list, to give you an idea of what we've been buying:

• The underground railroad : a novel / Colson Whitehead
• I contain multitudes : the microbes within us and a grander view of life / Ed Yong
• Patient H.M. : a story of memory, madness, and family secrets / Luke Dittrich
• Parable of the sower / Octavia E. Butler
• Survival guide for college students with ADHD or LD / by Kathleen G. Nadeau
• Data love : the seduction and betrayal of digital technologies / Roberto Simanowski
• Europe isn't working / Larry Elliott and Dan Atkinson

This tag will show you all of the prior lists of new materials, in reverse chronological order. We are eager to hear from you about individual items you would like us to buy, or types of items we should be on the lookout for, or general subject areas we should build up in the collection. Your input will help us keep the collection working well as we enter into 2016/17!  We're looking forward to what you'll recommend next.

If you have a suggestion of something to order, please use our "Tell GHL to Buy It" form, email Amy Carmichael (carmicae@miamioh.edu), or drop by the library with your request. And pass your general suggestions or comments about the collection to us in those same ways.

Thanks again for keeping our collection vibrant and your information needs met!

Pokemon in the library!

Join us in the Gardner-Harvey Library TEC Lab for our first workshop of the semester.

• Make your own team badge buttons or magnets.
• Use 3Doodlers to create your own Pokemon.
• Lures will be set up during sessions at the library.
• Cookies!

The workshop will be held on Wednesday, September 7th from 11:00am to 1:00pm OR from 6:00pm to 8:00pm.

Gotta catch 'em all!

This image was provided through a Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 2.0) by no lurving here.

New study rooms and room reservation system at Gardner-Harvey Library!

Our library renovation has added 8 new study rooms, which may be reserved by you in advance. There are now 10 study rooms on the main floor of the library. 

The following list shows the room numbers and their capacities. Each room is equipped with a TV to display content from patrons' laptops and a whiteboard.

Study Room 110 - 12 person
Study Room 112 - 6 person
Study Room 120 - 2 person
Study Room 121 - 4 person
Study Room 122 - 4 person
Study Room 123 - 10 person
Study Room 124 - 10 person
Study Room 126 - 6 person
Study Room 128 - 6 person
Study Room 133 - 6 person

Using the online reservation system, you may login with your Miami Unique ID and password, and then reserve a study room for up to two hours, up to two weeks in advance. Rooms may also be requested in person at our InfoDesk, or by contacting the library staff by email, chat, or phone.

Textbooks on Reserve in Miami University Regionals Libraries

With the fall semester quickly approaching, it is time to make sure the libraries have everything we need to help students succeed academically.  The Miami University Regionals Libraries offer the Textbooks on Reserve service so that students can check out select textbooks for 2 hour periods. 

We do our best to keep up to date on our listings, but want to make sure we aren't missing something you feel would benefit students.  With these links, Middletown Textbooks on Reserve and Hamilton Textbooks on Reserve, you can browse the current lists of textbooks on reserve at each campus library. These lists are being updated for fall, and several books will be added after new editions arrive.

 

If you have any questions or would like to donate a textbook for your class, please contact:

At Middletown

Jenifer Hicks

hicksjl2@miamioh.edu

727-3221 

And at Hamilton

Dana Carlsen

mille854@miamioh.edu

785-3179

#MoveInMiami - Help students succeed by supporting the Library

#MoveInMiami -- a one-day fundraiser for Miami University -- is today, Thursday, August 25! It supports activities throughout the University, and the library has been added to the list of possible funds to receive donations. 

As an added bonus to regional campus donors and friends, our retired Regional Dean Mike Pratt and his wife Patty will personally contribute $10 to the fund of your choice for each new gift raised on 8/25 (a gift must be $5 or more and must be given to a regional campus fund).  And if this day of giving reaches our 400 donor goal, our interim Regional Dean Cathy Bishop-Clark and her husband Greg will give $1,000 to the regional campus fund that has the most donors.

This is an exciting opportunity for the library to raise gift funds to support our programming, add new books and technology, and provide services to students, faculty and staff members, and members of the Middletown community.  We hope to increase the number of textbooks we let students borrow and the number of laptops and iPads we are able to check out to students.  Another big push for us this year is buying supplies for 3D printing and other creative activities as we teach students to innovate in our TEC Lab makerspace.

If you are interested in making even a small gift to the Gardner-Harvey Library (or our sister library in Hamilton), please use the form at http://www.forloveandhonor.org/regionallibraries. All gifts are tax deductible, and you will be emailed a receipt upon making a gift online. Gifts must be made on August 25 to qualify for this initiative.

Thank you very much for your time!

John

John J. Burke, MSLS
Library Director & Principal Librarian
Gardner-Harvey Library
Miami University Middletown

burkejj@miamioh.edu
513-727-3293
http://miamioh.edu/burkejj

We welcome you to the library this fall with free beverages all week!

We welcome you back to the Gardner-Harvey Library this fall!

Come enjoy our newly renovated space and enjoy a cup of coffee, tea, hot cocoa, or lemonade during the first week of classes.  We'll have beverages available from Monday, August 29 to Friday, September 2.

Stop by and see what a busy summer has meant for the library.

New books and DVDs added to the Gardner-Harvey Library in July!

See our new materials list of items we added to the collection in July! We added 169 books, e-books, DVDs, and other items during that time, thanks to your selections and suggestions. The list is sorted by call number, with items grouped roughly by subject area.

Here are seven titles from the list, to give you an idea of what we've been buying:

• White Trash : the 400‐year untold history of class in America / Nancy Isenberg
• Polymers on the crime scene : forensic analysis of polymeric trace evidence / Valerio Causin
• Helping children succeed : what works and why / Paul Tough
• The bellwether : why Ohio picks the president / Kyle Kondik
• Hacked : the inside story of America's struggle to secure cyberspace / Charlie Mitchell
• What have plants ever done for us? : western civilization in fifty plants / Stephen Harris
• Siracusa / Delia Ephron

This tag will show you all of the prior lists of new materials, in reverse chronological order. We are eager to hear from you about individual items you would like us to buy, or types of items we should be on the lookout for, or general subject areas we should build up in the collection. Your input will help us keep the collection working well as we enter into 2016/17!  We're looking forward to what you'll recommend next.

If you have a suggestion of something to order, please use our "Tell GHL to Buy It" form, email Amy Carmichael (carmicae@miamioh.edu), or drop by the library with your request. And pass your general suggestions or comments about the collection to us in those same ways.

Thanks again for keeping our collection vibrant and your information needs met!

New books and DVDs added to the Gardner-Harvey Library in June!

See our new materials list of items we added to the collection in June! We added 188 books, e-books, DVDs, and other items during that time, thanks to your selections and suggestions. The list is sorted by call number, with items grouped roughly by subject area.

Here are seven titles from the list, to give you an idea of what we've been buying:

• Psychology as a major : is it right for me and what can I do with my degree? / Donna E. Palladino Schultheiss 
• Whipping girl : a transsexual woman on sexism and the scapegoating of femininity / Julia Serano
•  I love learning  I hate school  : an anthropology of college / Susan D. Blum
• Television, social media, and fan culture / edited by Alison F. Slade, Amber J. Narro, and Dedria Givens-Carroll
• A year of movies : 365 films to watch on the date they happened / Ivan Walters
• A tyranny of petticoats : 15 stories of belles, bank robbers & other badass girls / edited by Jessica Spotswood
• Lab girl / Hope Jahren

This tag will show you all of the prior lists of new materials, in reverse chronological order. We are eager to hear from you about individual items you would like us to buy, or types of items we should be on the lookout for, or general subject areas we should build up in the collection. Your input will help us keep the collection working well as we enter into 2016/17!  We purchased 1194 items during 2015/16, and we're looking forward to what you'll recommend next.

If you have a suggestion of something to order, please use our "Tell GHL to Buy It" form, email Amy Carmichael (carmicae@miamioh.edu), or drop by the library with your request. And pass your general suggestions or comments about the collection to us in those same ways.

Thanks again for keeping our collection vibrant and your information needs met!

How was the library used in 2014/15?

Playing a little catch-up, as I failed to get these statistics together in the summer of 2015.  I will post the stats from fiscal year 2016 in July.

Here are the full annual stats from fiscal year 2015 (the 2014-15 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. Check at the bottom of the document to see how you compare to the average GHL user.  

These stats reflect what's happened this year, between July 1, 2014 to June 30, 2015. 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 2,912 books, DVDs, and videos from us (1,102 from our local collection, 1,193 ordered from other MU libraries, and 617 items ordered from OhioLINK - that means that more than 60% of the items used by campus patrons came from libraries beyond GHL). That is a 10% decrease in borrowing from 2013-2014. We also received 55 articles, books, and audiovisual items from libraries worldwide through interlibrary loan. 

- The GHL collection registered 3,589 checkouts (that's the 1,102 items checked out by Middletown patrons above, plus 1503 items sent to OhioLINK users, and 984 sent to other MU libraries - that means that 70% of the uses of our materials came from libraries beyond GHL). That is an 11% decrease in checkouts from 2013-2014. We also sent 98 articles, books, and audiovisual items to libraries worldwide through interlibrary loan. 

- GHL patrons checked out 2,391 reserve items from us (this includes faculty-placed course reserves, textbooks on reserve, laptops, iPads, and other equipment). That is an 11% increase from 2013-2014. 

- In terms of building up our collection, Middletown faculty, staff, and students ordered 994 items to add to our collection this year. That is a 5% decrease from 2013-2014.  That total includes 4 e-books.

- We registered a total of 5,980 checkouts of items in our collection (reserves and circulating materials). The circulating items at GHL number 29,348, so each item in the collection circulated 0.20 times this year (all items in our library circulate). 

- One additional item of interest on item checkouts that happen at our library is the number of items checked out to patrons of other OhioLINK libraries.  We had 195 items sent from OhioLINK libraries and checked out at GHL by patrons from other OhioLINK institutions (using our Pickup Anywhere service - a 46% decrease from 2013-14).  We also had 18 of our items borrowed by OhioLINK patrons at a different OhioLINK library - a 77% decrease from 2013-14).

The Quest for Information
- Middletown patrons spent 9,795 search sessions downloading 12,544 full-text articles from Ebsco databases provided to us through Miami University and OhioLINK.  This only represents use of the databases on campus.  Those numbers reflect a 30% increase in search sessions and a 44% increase in downloads from 2013-2014).

- On their way to these databases, 43 people visit our web site every day. That's a total of 15,729 visits for the year, by 6,710 unique individuals. That's a 7% drop in visits and a 7% increase in unique visitors from 2013-2014.

A Place for Work, Study, and Remove from the World
- GHL is open 57 hours per week.

- We average 260 visitors per day, for a total of 62,334 visits this year.  This reflects a 7% decrease from 2013-2014 (we also decreased our hours by 6%).  

- We regularly schedule the library learning lab (GRD 111) for single class sessions. We also had 3 classes meet there weekly during fall semester and 4 met there during the spring.  We also made use of our study rooms with 7 classes meeting weekly during the fall and 5 classes meeting weekly during the spring in STAR Lounge 2.

- Our two STAR Lounges have been checked out 137 times this year by students.  That represents a 27% increase from 2013-14.  They were also used weekly by librarians and other faculty and staff members for meetings. 

Helping You Find What You Need
- We logged a total of 414 questions that we answered from our InfoDesk during the year, which averages out to nearly 2 per day.  We do not log every question we answer, nor every time we check books out, but we try to capture all lengthy interactions with you.  

- 35% of those questions involved technology questions, 29% focused on circulation procedures or policies, 21% were directing people to locations or resources in the library or on campus, and 15% were research-related.  60% of all questions were asked in-person at the desk, while 27% were by phone, 3% by text or instant messaging, and 10% came through email. 

- Inside and outside of the library, we gave library instruction presentations in 63 classes this year, reaching 1109 students (a decrease of 14% from 2013-2014). The courses represented were from 21 different departments.

- Our Embedded Librarian program reached students from 80 course sections in their Niihka and Canvas course sites during the academic year (that is the same number we had in 2013-2014). We helped over 1,777 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 two items out from the library in a year (reserves and local/MU/OhioLINK collection items)
- visits the library 25 times per year
- downloads five full-text articles each year.
- accesses the library web site six times per year.
- participates in a library instruction session or an embedded librarian course more than 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!

New Books and DVDs added to the Gardner-Harvey Library in May!

See our new materials list of items we added to the collection in April! We added 43 books, e-books, DVDs, and other items during that time, thanks to your selections and suggestions. The list is sorted by call number, with items grouped roughly by subject area.

Here are six titles from the list, to give you an idea of what we've been buying:

• Blood year:  the unraveling of Western counterterrorism / David Kilcullen 
• Girls and sex: navigating the complicated new landscape / Peggy Orenstein
• Allegiant / Veronica Roth (Playway)
• The madwoman upstairs: a novel / Catherine Lowell
• The China challenge: shaping the choices of a rising power / Thomas J. Christensen
• Principles of brewing science: a study of serious brewing issues / George Fix

This tag will show you all of the prior lists of new materials, in reverse chronological order. We are eager to hear from you about individual items you would like us to buy, or types of items we should be on the lookout for, or general subject areas we should build up in the collection. Your input will help us keep the collection working well for 2015/16 and beyond!  We've purchased 1006 items this year so far, and we'll get several more cataloged in June.

If you have a suggestion of something to order, please use our "Tell GHL to Buy It" form, email Amy Carmichael (carmicae@miamioh.edu), or drop by the library with your request. And pass your general suggestions or comments about the collection to us in those same ways.

Thanks again for keeping our collection vibrant and your information needs met!

Library Open On Saturday Before Finals - Find Study Space and Refreshing Beverages and Mints!

The Gardner-Harvey Library will offer extra study hours to students on Saturday, May 7, 2016. We will be open from Noon until 4:00pm that day.

If you need a quiet place to study, please come to the library and use our open seating areas, our study nooks, or the Group Study Area downstairs. Staff will be on hand to provide assistance.

Coffee, tea, hot chocolate, lemonade, and mints will be available to help you stay aware and awake.

New books and DVDs added in April at the Gardner-Harvey Library!

See our new materials list of items we added to the collection in April! We added 101 books, e-books, DVDs, and other items during that time, thanks to your selections and suggestions. The list is sorted by call number, with items grouped roughly by subject area.

Here are six titles from the list, to give you an idea of what we've been buying:

• Alexander Hamilton / Ron Chernow 
• Ctrl + Z: the right to be forgotten / Meg Leta Jones
• Black Flags: the rise of ISIS / Joby Warrick
• Praxis core academic skills for educators exam secrets  : study guide
• NCLEX-RN practice questions : NCLEX practice tests & exam review for the National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses
• Eligible: a novel / Curtis Sittenfeld

This tag will show you all of the prior lists of new materials, in reverse chronological order. We are eager to hear from you about individual items you would like us to buy, or types of items we should be on the lookout for, or general subject areas we should build up in the collection. Your input will help us keep the collection working well for 2015/16 and beyond!

If you have a suggestion of something to order, please use our "Tell GHL to Buy It" form, email Amy Carmichael (carmicae@miamioh.edu), or drop by the library with your request. And pass your general suggestions or comments about the collection to us in those same ways.

Thanks again for keeping our collection vibrant and your information needs met!

Library Renovation Plans

UPDATE - 8/17/16
Well, last Thursday the wall came down, and we could see the new space.  The rooms are just about complete (just some touch up will remain).  The new room scheduling system is ready to go.  You can schedule any of the 10 study rooms for two hours at a time (one two hour block per day), and up to two weeks in advance.  Our thanks to Library Systems in Oxford for making that possible for us.  Here is a list of the rooms and their capacities.  We're receiving new furniture today, and once the contractors finish up the last items on the punch list, we'll be ready to move in (hopefully on Monday the 22nd).  We'll have seating in the open space between the study rooms and offices for now, and we'll get the book collection moved back over during Winter break and Winter Term.  We're looking forward to starting off the semester with a whole new look!

John

UPDATE - 8/3/16
With the start of Fall Semester coming on the 29th, we are eager to have the new library space ready for use.  The contractors are on track to get us there, and several more items have been completed or are nearing completion.  The rooms are nearly finished, with painting completed and the carpet in place.  Some furniture has been added to the TEC Lab.  Glass is being delivered for the windows in each room, and should be installed shortly.  We have also laid the groundwork for a new online scheduling system for students, faculty, and staff to reserve the soon to be 10 study rooms.  Much more to come in the next couple of weeks.  Let me know if you have questions.

John


UPDATE - 7/11/16
We have come a long way with the renovation to date!  The old elevator has been removed, the rooms in the new space have been drywalled, and work in the lobby area on the restrooms and new elevator shaft are progressing.  Two time updates are that the rooms on the main floor of the library should be completed by the middle of August, and the new elevator will be ready by the end of December.  Things are looking good.  If you have questions, do not hesitate to let me know.

John


ORIGINAL POST - 4/28/16
The Gardner-Harvey Library has been undergoing a slow metamorphosis during this academic year, and the pace of our change is about to speed up.  Here is how your library experience may be affected as we complete Spring Semester and enter the summer.

Beginning on May 16th, a temporary wall will be constructed to separate the book stacks, the InfoDesk, and our public computer area from the renovation zone.  By the start of Fall Semester, eight study rooms, a new TEC Lab makerspace, and four staff offices will be added in the zone.  By November, a new elevator will be in place.  

For the summer, however, the library will be much smaller in size, and we will not have an elevator in service.  You will have full access to our collection, our computers, deliveries of library materials from Miami University and OhioLINK libraries, and assistance from the library staff.  We will be able to schedule the GRD 111 computer lab for your use, but STAR Lounges 1 and 2 will not be available as they are being used for temporary staff offices and storage. 

Most of the library will be fully open and furnished between now and the Thursday of Finals Week.  Starting on May 6th, the STAR Lounges will begin to be occupied by library staff.  On May 12th, we will begin the final move of furniture out of the renovation zone.

During Finals Week, the library staff will provide free coffee, tea, hot chocolate, lemonade, and mints for your enjoyment as you study.  Check our library hours page and note our special Saturday study hours on May 7th and our upcoming summer hours.

If you have any questions or concerns, please let me know.  Thank you for putting up with our growing pains!

John

John J. Burke, MSLS
Library Director & Principal Librarian 
Gardner-Harvey Library
Miami University Middletown

burkejj@miamioh.edu
513-727-3293

Stressed out? Contact the Library!

Everyone has a lot to do at the end of the semester. The library staff can help you with your final tasks before Finals Week.

• Need one more source for your paper or project?
• Want to have someone check your citations?
• Looking for a quiet spot to write, create, or study?

These last-minute adjustments can improve a paper or project, and increase your grade.  Contact us today and we can help! Chat, text, e-mail, call, set up a meeting, or just drop by. Trust us, you'll feel better.

Image provided through a Creative Commons Attribution License by Thomas Haynie.

May the 4th Be With You: Join us for an Open House and Star Wars Day at the TEC Lab!

Do you like making things?  Do you like Star Wars?  Would you like to see everything the TEC Lab has to offer?

Join us Wednesday, May 4th for an open house and a celebration of Star Wars Day (between 12pm and 2pm OR between 6pm and 8pm)!.  That's right . . . it's our first workshop with evening hours.

For Star Wars Day, we'll make Star Wars origami figures, and show off some other themed creations.

We'll also demonstrate all of the things you can make in the TEC Lab and all of the technology and gear we have to make them, including:

• 3Doodler handheld creations
• Google Cardboard smartphone virtual reality headsets
• 3D printing
• Book page crafts
• LED light and battery projects
• 3D scanning
• Cameo Silhouette paper/fabric design cutter
• Wood burning pens
• Green screen
• And our brand new laser engraver and cutter!

This is our last event for the semester, and it will count toward the 2 event minimum to qualify to win a Kindle Fire from the library this semester.  We will draw for a winner on May 5th.

Jedi Master Yoda image provided through a Creative Commons Attribution License by Pablo Garcia.