And the winner is...

Congratulations to Allison Singhoffer for winning the Gardner-Harvey Library Mural Painting Competition. Allison is a graduate of Miami University and has previous experience designing and painting murals. Keep your eyes open for her finished work this summer.

Race to Nowhere screening

Gardner-Harvey Library is sponsoring a screening of the documentary "Race to Nowhere" on Tuesday, April 26th from 4:30-6:30 PM in Johnston Hall Rm 115. Admission is free and open to faculty, staff and students, as well as members of the general public. You are also invited to stay after the film has finished to have an open discussion about the state of education today.

Short Synopsis of the film:
A concerned mother turned filmmaker aims her camera at the high-stakes, high-pressure culture that has invaded our schools and our children’s lives.

This remarkable new film shines a light on the price young people pay for this “race to nowhere.” High-stakes testing has replaced meaningful teaching and learning.

Cheating is commonplace. Stress-related
illness, depression and burnout are rampant. Many young people arrive at college and the workplace unprepared and uninspired.

For more information about the film, please check out www.racetonowhere.com

New materials added in March and April

The March and April (through April 19) new materials list is now available. We added 222 books, DVDs, and other items over those months, thanks to the impressive efforts of our faculty and staff selectors and the library staff. The list is sorted by call number, with items grouped roughly by subject area.

We’ve added a total of 914 items to the collection in this academic year. We're still waiting on a number of items to arrive, and completing a large number of orders as well. We'll keep posting new item lists through the end of the fiscal year on our blog (this tag will show you all of the prior lists).

Have a suggestion of something to order? Use our online request form, email one of our staff members or drop by the library with your request. While our deadline for ordering this year is already past, we usually have some unspent funds available over the next month to buy a few more items right away (and failing that, we will start ordering again on July 1).

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

John

Research-a-palooza

Do you have a research paper or final project due soon? Are you confused as to where to find resources for your paper, how to narrow down your topic, or even what to write about? Stop by the library from noon - 2 pm on Tuesday, April 12th or Wednesday, April 13th and participate in our Research-a-palooza. You can get personalized help from one of our three knowledgeable librarians. Individuals and groups are welcome to stop by for help with quick questions or detailed consultations.

Unable to make it on Tuesday or Wednesday? Never fear! You can request a research consultation to meet with one of our librarians anytime from 8 am – 4:30 pm Monday through Friday. Simply fill out the request form.

United States Manual Goes Online

The United States Government Manual is an annual federal government directory filled with current office holders, descriptions of agencies, and more.

When you want to know who is currently holding office or in charge of programs of interest to you, you may now consult the online version instantly, rather than running to the print reference collection @ your library.

Every citizen plays a part in our democratic society; check out this long-standing government document.

Limited Access to Some Collections

The Good News: From April 8 through August 8, 2011 Miami University's Science Library as well as the Business and Psychology Collections currently housed in King Library will move into a newly renovated facility.

Bad News: Monographs and serials in these collections will not be available for circulation during these months. Specific call numbers affected include:

King Library: BF1-1156 , and HB-HJ

Science Library: G69-GE , all Q’s, all R’s, all S’s, all T’s

Workarounds: Use eBooks, Research Databases, OhioLINK, or Local Libraries.

Mural Painting Competition Reminder

The deadline for entries for the Gardner-Harvey Library Mural Painting competition is fast approaching. Don't miss out on your chance to leave your mark on the university. The competition is open to all Miami University Middletown students, faculty and staff. Participants have the option of submitting an individual or group design.

Artwork will be judged based on color scheme, design, originality, and ability to express a theme associated with libraries or Miami University Middletown.

All submissions must be returned to the Info Desk in the Gardner-Harvey Library or e-mailed to longjh@muohio.edu by April 1, 2011 at 4:00 p.m. The winner will be notified by email no later than Friday, April 8, 2011 at 5:00 p.m.

Rules and entry forms may be downloaded or found at the Gardner-Harvey Library Info Desk.


*Please note that by entering the contest, you certify that your design is original and does not infringe on copyright laws.

Resource of the Week: IMC

Did you know that the Gardner-Harvey Library has both educational DVDs and Videos as well as popular movies? Our IMC collection offers a range of ever growing titles. Go ahead and take a look and see what we have to offer.

Terrace Repair

Please excuse the noise and the dust. Our terrace is being replaced and there will be a few days filled with construction noise. We appreciate your patience as we work to have our terrace repaired as quickly as possible. In the mean time, we do have ear plugs available at the Info Desk to help block out the noise.

Resource of the Week: Ancestry.com

In honor of Genealogy Day, which fell on Saturday, March 12th, this week we highlight one of our regional databases, Ancestry Library Edition. This database includes a collection of billions of genealogy records in the form of census data, vital records, directories, photographs and more. Go ahead, check out your family heritage.

Library service outage - 5pm March 9 to 5am March 10

Due to an electrical outage at King Library in Oxford, all library servers will be unavailable from 5pm on Wednesday, March 9 through 5am on Thursday, March 10. This will impact your use of the MU library catalog, and your access to all library databases through our Miami subscriptions.

However, you may still search and order materials from the OhioLINK Central Catalog or search databases available through OhioLINK (using your Miami UniqueID and password to login).

We look forward to serving your information needs more fully following the outage. Thank you for your patience!

New materials added in January and February

The January and February new materials list is now available. We added 288 books, DVDs, and other items over those months, thanks to the impressive efforts of our faculty and staff selectors and the library staff.

Have a suggestion of something to order? Use our online request form, email one of our staff members or drop by the library with your request.

Our deadline for ordering this year is coming up on April 1, 2011 (no fooling!).

Thanks!

John

Resource of the Week: OhioLINK

Looking for a book that is not part of Miami University Libraries' collection? Don't get discouraged, try OhioLINK. OhioLINK is a consortium of the libraries of 88 Ohio colleges and universities, and the State Library of Ohio. Search the millions of books in the OhioLINK catalog, find the book you are looking for and request a copy be sent to you here at Middletown. We will e-mail you when your book is available to pick up.

RefWorks will be gone, but easy bibliographies live on!

You may have already heard that RefWorks will be discontinued at Miami on June 30. This tool for gathering and citing sources does have a variety of possible replacements that can be used as a new home for your RefWorks citations or a fresh start for you to collect citations. Three possibilities provided by University Libraries are pasted below:

EndNote Web:  The program that is most similar to Refworks in functionality. Can import citation information directly from select databases, create a bibliography and format a paper.

Zotero: A [Firefox] browser plug-in with web accessibility. Offers ability to organize items via tags and folders, take notes, and share libraries with collaborators.

Mendeley: Features similar to Zotero but with a social aspect - connect to others with shared research interests via the web version. Also offers a mobile app.

A handout to help you move your citations from RefWorks to these services is available here.

If you have other questions about citing sources, you may wish to consult the resources on our Citing Your Sources page, or contact us directly.

Resource of the Week: Biography in Context

In honor of Presidents' Day, this week's Resource of the Week is Biography in Context. This database contains full-text articles with biographical information on people from throughout history, around the world, and across all disciplines and subject areas. A perfect database when looking for information on any of our past Presidents.

Gardner-Harvey Library Mural Painting Competition

How would you like to be part of the new Library Look? Gardner-Harvey Library is having a Mural Painting competition to add some new color and art to the library. The competition is open to all Miami University Middletown students, faculty and staff. Participants have the option of submitting an individual or group design.

Artwork will be judged based on color scheme, design, originality, and ability to express a theme associated with libraries or Miami University Middletown.

Gardner-Harvey Library will begin accepting submissions for our Mural Painting competition on Monday, February 14, 2011, at 8:00 a.m. All submissions must be returned to the Info Desk in the Gardner-Harvey Library or e-mailed to longjh@muohio.edu by April 1, 2011 at 4:00 p.m. The winner will be notified by email no later than Friday, April 8, 2011 at 5:00 p.m.

Rules and entry forms may be downloaded or found at the Gardner-Harvey Library Info Desk.


*Please note that by entering the contest, you certify that your design is original and does not infringe on copyright laws.

Happy Valentine's Day from Your GHL Staff

Happy Valentine's Day, Miami University!

Students

Staff

Faculty

Community




Go Study @ Your Library

24/7 Electronic Access to Resources? Sweet!

Treat Yourself to a Research Consultation!

Libraries are lovely places that have much to offer!

• Talk with a librarian about starting your research paper.

• Checkout a laptop, voice recorder, or digital camera to record memorable moments.

• Connect to loved ones near and far via the Internet! Email, Facebook, or Skype?

• Meet with your study buddies to prepare for exams.

• Collaborate on group projects or practice group presentations in STAR Lounge 1 or 2.

• Interact with minds of today or yesteryear in the pages of books and journals.

• Sit in silence; read, research, and reflect on world issues.

Visit the Gardner-Harvey Library this Valentine's Day and enjoy a candy reminder of
our heartfelt appreciation for your support.

Resource of the Week: Gale Virtual Reference Library

Looking for background information on a person, an event, a culture, a religion, a country or a continent? Why not check out the Gale Virtual Reference Library, our resource of the week. With over 100 reference books, covering a range of topics from biography to religion to technology, which can be searched individually or as one combined source.

In the UK, Save our Libraries Day

February 5, 2011 is Save our Libraries Day in the United Kingdom, which seeks to gain support from across the globe for public library services in the UK, which are in danger of being cut. To see the actions being taken in support of public libraries, check out http://www.cilip.org.uk/savelibraries. You may also want to check out the work of Phil Bradley, who asked the question, "what if the #savelibraries campaign had taken place between 1914-18?" The answer comes in his use of old wartime posters, adapted to show support for saving the libraries.

Resource of the Week: Playaway

Looking for a good audio book? Check out our Playaway collection of digital audio books. "Playaway is the easiest way to listen to audio on the go. Simply plug in the earphones and enjoy." No cassettes, CDs or downloads required.

Come on in and take a look at our Playaway collection in its new location by the Current Periodicals shelf.

Looking ahead, February's Book Discussion

As January comes to a close, we look ahead to our next MUM Book Discussion, The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein. We will meet on February 15th from 12:30-1:30 in the library to talk about everything we liked, or didn't like, about the book.

For more information about our reading group and to see a list of past and future selections check out http://www.mid.muohio.edu/library/bookdiscussion.htm

Resource of the Week: New Books Shelf

Curious about what books the library has purchased recently? Check out the New Books Shelf and take a look. Located at the front of our Periodicals section, the New Books Shelf offers quick access to our most recent additions to the library collection. Why not stop in and take a look?

Resource of the Week: Voice Recorders

Need some extra help taking notes in class? Check out our digital voice recorders. You can use these recorders to capture audio content and easily move that content onto your network drive or other medium. The recorders are available for a three day loan.

Resource of the Week: Textbooks on Reserve

As we embark on a new semester, we focus on a resource that continues to be popular with faculty and students alike, Textbooks on Reserve. Beginning in Fall 2006, the Gardner-Harvey Library, Miami Middletown Student Government (MMSG), academic departments, and individual faculty members brought together a reserve collection of textbooks for Miami Plan and other introductory courses offered at Miami University Middletown. Our aim is to assist students who may not be able to afford the textbooks or who may be delayed in purchasing them, and to give all students in the courses an opportunity to make use of their required texts while on campus.

Check out our Textbooks on Reserve page for a list of what textbooks are available.

Elsevier Journal Backfiles

OhioLINK, a library consortium of 89 Ohio college and university libraries and the State Library of Ohio has just concluded a 3 year negotiated deal with Elsevier, a noteworthy publisher for the sciences and engineering. OhioLINK users have been accessing about 2400 Elsevier journals to date. Now OhioLINK users will have 24/7 electronic access to historic backfiles of Elsevier journals. In some cases, these backfiles run for more than 100 years. Now Ohio researchers may use their institutional logons to access Elsevier scholarly journal articles in the sciences, social sciences, and humanities.

So if you no longer see backruns of favorite Elsevier journals on library shelves, it may be that academic libraries now rely on this new electronic acquisition to minimize storage of print journals and maximize library space for study, group work, and other purposes. Yes, academic library collections are shifting from print to electronic formats where that makes sense and cents.

New materials added in November and December

The November and December new materials list is now available. We added 129 books, DVDs, and other items over those months, thanks to the impressive efforts of our faculty and staff selectors and the library staff.

Have a suggestion of something to order? Use our online request form, email one of our staff members or drop by the library with your request. Thanks!

John

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.

Resource of the Week: Academic Search Complete

We know the end of the semester can be a difficult time as you gear up for finals and finish writing your research papers, and sometimes you just don't know where to start. That is where Academic Search Complete comes in handy. This Resource of the Week is one of our broadest, most general indexes to periodicals, that provides abstracts for over 9,300 scholarly and popular periodicals, and full text for more than 5,300 of these. Academic Search Complete covers virtually all academic areas of study, including social sciences, humanities, education, computer sciences, engineering, arts and literature, medical sciences, and ethnic studies and is a a great database to begin research on a range of topics.

So don't stress out on where to begin your research, just give Academic Search Complete a try and see what is out there.

*For more help with where to find information on different subjects, check out our Research by Subject guides.

Library Hours for Thanksgiving Break

In celebration of the Thanksgiving break, the library will be open the following hours for the week of November 22nd - 27th:

Monday - Tuesday - 8a.m. - 9p.m.
Wednesday - 8a.m. - 5p.m.
Thursday - Saturday - Closed

We hope everyone has a safe and happy Thanksgiving break.

Resource of the Week: Amazon Kindle

Looking to buy an e-reader this holiday season? Why not stop by the library and take one of our Kindles out for a test run? Ranked #1 in Consumer Reports lab tests, the Amazon Kindle is known for its excellent navigation and readability, which makes it this week's Resource of the Week.

For more information about borrowing a library Kindle, check out our Kindle and iPad page.

Anniversary of the Gettysburg Address

From History.com

"On November 19, 1863, at the dedication of a military cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, during the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln delivers one of the most memorable speeches in American history. In just 272 words, Lincoln brilliantly and movingly reminded a war-weary public why the Union had to fight, and win, the Civil War."

In honor of this historic speech, Adam Gault created the following animated presentation.

Gettysburg Address from Adam Gault on Vimeo.

Resource of the Week: RefWorks

In preparation for tomorrow's Library workshop, this week’s Resource of the Week is RefWorks. RefWorks is an "online research management, writing and collaboration tool" that is "designed to help researchers easily gather, manage, store and share all types of information, as well as generate citations and bibliographies."

For more information about RefWorks and for a chance to get help setting up your own account, come to our workshop on Monday, November 15, 2010 from 4-5 pm in the Library, Room GRD 111.

Congratulations to our Gaming Day Winners!

The library staff would like to thank everyone who came out to celebrate National Gaming Day @ your library. Whether you played one of our board games, took part in our Wii challenges, or enjoyed some energy boosting coffee and candy, we hope you had a great day.

We would also like to congratulate the winners of our Wii challenges, who each received a GameStop gift card as their prize:

Super Smash Brothers

1. Stephen Acford
2. Billy Comminos
3. Josh Breese

Wii Sports Resort Archery
1. Levi Cramer
2. Michael Craft
3. Shawn Robinson

New materials added in September and October

The September and October new materials list is now available. We added 125 books, DVDs, and other items over those months, thanks to the impressive efforts of our faculty selectors and the library staff.

Have a suggestion of something to order? Use our online request form, email one of our staff members or drop by the library with your request. Thanks!

John

Resource of the Week: Wii console, games and more

Taking a break from our electronic resources, this week's Resource of the Week looks at some of the fun gaming equipment that the library has for checkout. The library has a Wii console, Wii Fit and multiple games that are available for one day and three day checkout, as well as a Wii console that is set up in STAR Lounge 1 for students, faculty and staff to use in between classes.

Want to give the Wii a try? This Wednesday, November 10, 2010, the Gardner-Harvey Library invites you to help us celebrate the American Library Association’s National Gaming Day @ your library. Beginning at 9:00am and running until 8:00pm, this all-day event offers the chance for students, faculty and staff to kick back and show off their gaming skills. Stop by throughout the day and choose a game to play from our selection of board games, or use one of our two Wiis to play such great games as Rock Band, Mario Kart, Lego Star Wars and more. You can also take part in our Wii Competition from Noon-2:00pm for a chance to win one of six GameStop gift cards. The competition includes Super Smash Brothers Brawl and Wii Fit Ski Jump Challenges and the prizes will be awarded to the top three finishers in each game. Snacks will also be on hand to help keep everyone’s gaming energy up.

Resource of the Week: PsycINFO

In honor of this week's viewing of Sherlock, our Resource of the Week is the PsycINFO database. While Sherlock Holmes uses different kinds of psychology as part of his tools to solve mysteries, PsycINFO covers on an array of subjects related to psychology including, education, business, medicine, nursing, law, social work, and animal behavior. PsycINFO includes access to citations with abstracts of journal articles, books, book chapters, reports, and dissertations.

Make sure to come by the Library on Wednesday, November 3, 2010 from noon - 1pm for a viewing of Sherlock: A Study in Pink. Don't forget to bring your lunch.