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.

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!

New Book Out

Your Gardner-Harvey librarians John Burke and Beth Tumbleson have just published a new book on the information literacy work we do in the learning management system with faculty and students, available through the American Library Association store.  Embedding Librarianship in Learning Management Systems: A How-To-Do-It Manual available at   http://www.ala.org/news/press-releases/2013/06/how-manual-embedding-librarianship-learning-management-systems



The Gardner-Harvey librarians are privileged to work with faculty who understand the importance of developing information literacy fluency in undergraduates.  This 21st century skill strengthens academic achievement and prepares Miami University students to succeed in the workplace.  Now librarians worldwide are adopting this innovative method of delivering library resources and services to students within the LMS, whether they are registered for online, hybrid, or traditional courses.

Library materials added in May

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 May. We added 154 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.  

This tag will show you all of the prior lists of new materials.  

Have a suggestion of something to order? 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 wrapping up our ordering for this fiscal year, but if funds do not remain to purchase an item we can hold your request until after July 1 when we receive our new budget. 

We've added 1171 items to the collection so far this year, and I expect we'll end up at around 1200 items once all ordered items are received.

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

Library Tech Gadgets on Pinterest

Here's a board we created on to display some of the technology we have and some we hope to add.
It's a way to scan the items you can check out from the library. For a more detailed list, please see our Technology & Equipment page.  We hope it gets you thinking of all that you can create and complete using the resources at GHL.

Relieve your Finals Stress with some Cool Lemonade and some Furry Companionship

Whether you need a quiet place to study, a room to meet up with friends to work
on a group project, a caffeine boost, or some relaxing downtime, the library has you covered. All this week the library will have coffee, hot tea and lemonade available to help you stay alert during your exams.  And if you need a break, stop by STAR Lounge 1 and play a few games on the Wii.

As a special bonus to help everyone relax, Tuesday, May 7th from 12 - 2, we will be having some of the dogs in from PAWS to spread some cheer.  Why not stop by and say hello to our furry friends?

Good luck on finals!

Library materials added in April

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 April. We added 263 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.  

Of note in this month's new materials list are the 8 e-books we've added in April, for a total of 81 e-books added during 2012-13.

This tag will show you all of the prior lists of new materials.  

Have a suggestion of something to order? 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 wrapping up our ordering for this fiscal year, but if funds do not remain to purchase an item we can hold your request until after July 1 when we receive our new budget. 

We've added 1017 items to the collection so far this year, and I expect we'll end up at around 1200 items once all ordered items are received.

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

27 new databases added!

Miami University Libraries has added 27 new databases from Ebsco as part of our implementation of the OneSearch service (AKA Ebsco Discovery Service).  The databases are listed below with a direct link to each one.  The databases have also been added to the Databases A to Z list and will be added to relevant Subject and Course Guides.

Applied Science & Technology with Full Text FT
Art & Architecture Complete
Associates Programs Source FT
Biological & Agricultural Index Plus
Business Abstracts with Full Text FT
Caribbean Search FT
Central & Eastern European Academic Source FT
Energy & Power Source FT
Entrepreneurial Studies Source FT
Essay & General Literature Index
Food Science Source FT
Human Resources Abstracts
Humanities with Full Text FT
Humanities Abstracts
International Security & Counter-Terrorism Reference Center FT
Jewish Studies Source FT
Middle Eastern & Central Asian Studies
National Criminal Justice Reference Service Abstracts
Peace Research Abstracts
Play Index
Political Science Complete FT
Public Affairs Index
Race Relations Abstracts
Risk Management Reference Center FT
Shock & Vibration Digest
Short Story Index
Vocational Studies Premier FT

Digital Public Library of America

Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) launched today April 18, 2013 after two years of planning and work.  Digitized cultural content from libraries, archives, and museums are being made freely available worldwide.

A few contributing institutions include: “the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), the Smithsonian Institution, the New York Public Library, and Harvard University.” A few notable digital objects include: “images of women marching for the vote in Kentucky, news film clips of the Freedom Riders during the Civil Rights movement, The Book of Hours, an illuminated manuscript from 1514…and paintings by Winslow Homer.”

Find manuscripts, records, images, data, and works of science, culture, and art.  Search 2.4 million items by format, map, timeline, and topic.  Developers anticipate apps will be built to encourage creation using the maximally open data.

 

As lifelong learners, explore these exhibitions and collections @ http://dp.la/

Beyond Textbooks: Finding Alternatives Among Library Databases, E-Books, and Open Educational Resources

Have you considered the other options you have beyond textbooks when choosing assigned readings for your classes? John Burke will identify resources available through the library and collected in open educational resources (OER) repositories, from open (free) textbooks to individually-linked articles, library-purchased e-books, streaming video sources, and learning objects of all kinds.

John will share case studies and methodologies for creating a flexible mash-up of materials to convey course content and achieve your learning objectives. Not only can this approach lead to the selection of resources that are more closely attuned to the course, but it also reduces students' costs.

Come with your course needs in mind and consider whether you'd like to seek textbook alternatives for fall and beyond. If you cannot attend in person, this event will be available on Webex. Please go to the CTL Website,www.mid.muohio.edu/ctl for more information. You may also access the handout for the session and the presentation online.

Presentation on "In An Antique Land"

Join us for a presentation about Amitav Ghosh’s In An Antique Land. The event will be held on Monday, April 29 from 12:00-1:00 in the Gardner-Harvey Library.

Our guide to the book is John Schaefer, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Affiliate Faculty in Black World Studies. His research interests focus on the black communities of Arab North Africa, in particular their music. Before arriving at Middletown this fall, he spent three years teaching at the American University in Cairo.

Moving between past and present, anthropologist Amitav Ghosh presents a lyrical portrait of life in Egypt, as well as broad histories of that country, Tunisia, and India’s Malabar Coast. Ghosh weaves strands of his own life in rural Egypt into the story he is researching of a twelfth-century Jewish merchant and his slave. Exploiting an extraordinary cache of medieval documents in Cairo, Ghosh is able to piece together a fascinating story illuminating the reach of medieval Egyptian trade and cross-cultural interaction; he also tells of a form of slavery very different from the one familiar to most Americans.

The presentation is free and open to all. Light refreshments will be provided.

This presentation is made possible through the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) award of a Muslim Journeys Bookshelf to the campus’ Gardner-Harvey Library in cooperation with the Regional Campus Diversity Council.

New materials added to Library in March

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 March. We added 174 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.  

Of note in this month's new materials list are the 33 e-books we've added in March, for a total of 73 e-books added during 2012-13.

This tag will show you all of the prior lists of new materials.  

Have a suggestion of something to order? 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.  Our official ordering deadline is Friday, April 5, but if you have additional items to order, we can still get those orders in (or hold them until after July 1 for next fiscal year).  

We've added 852 items to the collection so far this year, and I expect we'll end up at around 1200 items (so long as you keep suggesting items for us to order!).

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

Muslim Journeys Materials and Programming at the Library

Miami University Middletown’s Gardner-Harvey Library has been selected to receive the Muslim Journeys Bookshelf, a project of the National Endowment for the Humanities Bridging Cultures initiative. The award includes 25 books and three films and is intended to promote community discussion in the library and build bridges among diverse cultures and faiths. The Miami University Middletown Diversity Council is a partner on the project and will co-sponsor programming.

Browse the Bookshelf titles at http://bridgingcultures.neh.gov/muslimjourneys/bookshelf or come by the library to see a beautiful display of the works created by Jessie Long, Public Services Librarian, and Amy Platt, Student Master.

The award also includes a one-year subscription to Oxford Islamic Studies Online, which features reference content and commentary by renowned scholars in areas such as global Islamic history, concepts, people, practices, politics, and culture.  Access to the database is available both on- and off-campus by clicking on Oxford Islamic Studies Online.

In addition to featuring the Bookshelf materials in the library all through April, the Gardner-Harvey Library and the Diversity Council are co-sponsoring two presentations of Bookshelf works:

• A film screening and discussion of the documentary "Koran by Heart" moderated by Gina Petonito (Sociology and Gerontology) on Monday, April 15 from 6:00-8:00pm in 142 JHN. More details.

• A presentation on Amitav Ghosh's book In An Ancient Land by John Schaefer (Anthropology) on Monday, April 29 from 12:00-1:00pm in the Gardner-Harvey Library.  A more detailed announcement will follow shortly.

Please join us for both programs and enjoy light refreshments.

We hope you will find the resources and programming useful and interesting.  

Film screening and discussion of "Koran by Heart"

Join us for a viewing and discussion of the film “Koran by Heart” on Monday, April 15th, from 6:00-8:00pm.  The event will be held in 142 Johnston.

Every year, about one hundred of Islam’s best young students from around the world come to Cairo for the International Holy Koran Competition. Many are in their late teens, some as young as seven. “Koran by Heart” follows the progress of three scholars, a girl and two boys, all ten years old, as they compete against students who, in some instances, are nearly twice their age.

Prior to the film, three local students between 11 and 12 will talk about their experiences participating in local and regional Koran competitions. They, along with a local Hafez and Koran teacher, will explain what it takes to become a Koran competition winner. This event will be hosted by John Burke, Library Director, and moderated by Gina Petonito, Department of Sociology and Gerontology, Miami University.

The film is free and open to all. Light refreshments will be provided.

This presentation is made possible through the National Endowment for the Humanities(NEH) award of a Muslim Journeys Bookshelf to the campus’ Gardner-Harvey Library in cooperation with the Regional Campus Diversity Council. Public performance rights have been provided by HBO.

New Library Tutorials – help us, help you

Is there a library instruction feature, database, or other online tool that you would like to have covered in a quick online tutorial that you can share with your students? Gardner-Harvey library staff are working on creating new screencasts and short video tutorials and we want your input on what topics to cover. Please send any questions or suggestions for tutorials to Jessie Long, longjh@miamioh.edu.

New materials list for December through February

My apologies for the delay in posting a new materials list.  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 from December 1 through February 19. We added 254 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.

This tag will show you all of the prior lists of new materials.  

Have a suggestion of something to order? 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.  Our ordering deadline is April 5, 2013.  

We've added 479 items to the collection so far this year, and I expect we'll end up at around 1200 items (so long as you keep suggesting items for us to order!).

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

Oxford Islamic Studies Online

As a recipient of the Muslim Journeys Bookshelf award, the Gardner-Harvey Library has a subscription to Oxford Islamic Studies Online through February of 2014. We'll be sharing more about the other resources that we gained through the award, but we wanted to make sure that the word on the database went out immediately.

Oxford Islamic Studies Online features reference content and commentary by renowned scholars in areas such as global Islamic history, concepts, people, practices, politics, and culture, and is regularly updated as new content is commissioned and approved under the guidance of the Editor in Chief, John L. Esposito. Encompassing over 5,000 A–Z reference entries, chapters from scholarly and introductory works, Qur'anic materials, primary sources, images, maps, and timelines, Oxford Islamic Studies Online offers a multi-layered reference experience designed to provide a first stop for anyone needing information and context on Islam.

Access to the database is available both on- and off-campus using the link below:

Oxford Islamic Studies Online

Let us know if you have questions about the database.

New Playaways - Digital Audio Books to Go!

GHL has added 19 more titles to our Playaway collection.  That brings us to a total of 352 audio books, conveniently placed on deck of cards-sized audio players that you can use with earbuds or in your car or wherever you want to listen to a great book.

The new titles include several New York Times bestselling titles, such as:

• Wonder, R. J. Palacio
• The Casual Vacancy, J. K. Rowling
• Hallucinations, Olive Sacks
• Bring Up the Bodies, Hilary Mantel

For a list of the whole 19 (and the other 333), see this search in the MU catalog, which lists the titles in the order we've added them (the newest are listed first).

Oh, and if you have questions about Playaways in general, let us know, or take a look at this page on the Playaway site.

Tweet Your Dream

In the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the short messages of Twitter, the library invites you to Tweet your Dream.  Travel, school, family, work, there is no end to what your dream may cover. We invite everyone, students, faculty and staff, to write out their dreams in 140 characters and email them to us at midref@lib.muohio.edu.

All participants who submit a dream will be entered in a drawing to win a gift, so don’t forget to include your name and email address with your dream. In February we plan to display submitted dreams in the library. Entries should be submitted by January 31st to be entered in the drawing.

Happy dreaming!  

The Spring Newsletter is Here!

See what's happening this spring at the Gardner-Harvey Library by viewing our newsletter here.  You can learn what students and faculty think of our Embedded Librarian program and read about how to take part in our Tweet Your Dream project.  You are also invited to stop by and say hello to our new Acquisitions and Technical Service Supervisor, Jennifer Hicks.  And, don't forget to turn to the library website for new databases and all your old favorite information sources.

Spring has sprung!  Let us know how we can be of help.

Studying or Relaxing, the Library Offers Both

Whether you need a quiet place to study, a room to meet up with friends to work on a group project, a caffeine boost, or some relaxing downtime, the library has you covered. All this week the library will have coffee, hot tea and hot chocolate available to help you stay alert during your exams.  And if you need a break, stop by STAR Lounge 1 and play a few games on the Wii.

As a special bonus to help everyone relax, Tuesday, December 11th from 1 - 4, we will be having some of the dogs in from PAWS to spread some cheer.  Why not stop by and say hello to our furry friends?

Good luck on finals!

New items added in November

The November new materials list is now available. We added 41 books, DVDs, and other items during the last month, 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? Use our online request form, email one of our staff members, or drop by the library with your request at any time.

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

Finals Week Refreshments at the Library

The Library will offer free coffee, tea, and hot cocoa all during finals week, starting on Monday, December 10th.  Please drop on by!  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 our library community!

Play Games, Win Prizes

Come down to the Gardner-Harvey Library on Monday, November 5, 2012 to celebrate International Games Day.  A variety of board games and Wii games will be available to play starting at 9am and ending at 8pm.  Don’t miss your chance to compete for prizes in our Wii Frisbee Golf Challenge from 10am – 4pm.  Snacks will be provided to help keep your gaming energy up.

New materials added in October

The October new materials list is now available. We added 75 books, DVDs, and other items during the last month, 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? Use our online request form, email one of our staff members, or drop by the library with your request at any time.

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

Open Access Week Oct 22-26

What is Open Access?

Open Access to information is the free, immediate, online access to the results of scholarly research, and the right to use and re-use those results as you need.

How does this affect authors?

Check out our updated and revised Author's Rights brochure, which can be downloaded in PDF format.

How does this affect students? 

Information on open access specific to undergraduates can be found at the Right to Research site.

How does this affect the library?

Without Open Access we wouldn't be able to obtain articles from any of these great databases:

Open Access resources which appear in our Databases A to Z list

ArXiv

• Hosted by Cornell University.

• Includes open access to 707,446 e-prints in Physics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Quantitative Biology, Quantitative Finance, and Statistics.

Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB)

• The Directory of Open Access Books is a service of OAPEN Foundation. The OAPEN Foundation is an international initiative dedicated to Open Access monograph publishing, based at the National Library in The Hague.

• DOAB contains more than 1,000 academic peer-reviewed books from more than two dozen publishers.

Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)

• Currently includes 7,148 journal titles.

• Covers all open access scientific and scholarly journals.

• Journals must be peer reviewed or have editorial quality control.

• All content is free and full text, and none have embargo periods.

• Specific information listed under each title includes publication fees (if any), subject headings, keywords, publisher, ISSN(s), start date, language, license information (if any), and archiving information (if any).

Dissertations and Theses Open (ProQuest)

• PQDT Open provides full text (PDF) of open access dissertations and theses free of charge.  The authors of these theses and dissertations have opted to publish under the open access model.

FDSys 

• FDsys provides free online access to official Federal Government publications. You can search for documents and publications, browse for documents and publications (by collection, Congressional, committee and date), access metadata about documents and publications (in standard XML formats), and download documents and publications in multiple renditions or file formats.

National Academies Press E-Books

• In 2011, the National Academies Press made the vast majority of it's books available for free in PDF format on their website.  These e-books include reports published by the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the Institute of Medicine, and the National Research Council.  Subject areas include science, engineering, and health.  You will be asked to create a free account on the site at the time of your first download.

NDLTD (Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations) Union Catalog Project

• A growing catalog of full-text electronic dissertations from a variety of participating institutions, including MIT, Virginia Tech, University of Virginia, OhioLINK, and numerous European institutions.

PubMed

• The freely accessible interface to the MEDLINE bibliographic database.  Many citations connect to full-text.

Governor proclaims Information Literacy Month in Ohio!

October has been designated Information Literacy Month in Ohio by Governor John Kasich (here is the full proclamation).  The proclamation “seeks to remind all citizens of the importance of the role of all libraries and librarians—academic, public, school, and special—in teaching information literacy, which fosters educational opportunities, economic prosperity, social cohesion, democracy, and quality of life.”

The Gardner-Harvey Library provides educational resources to assist in building your information literacy.  Check out our tutorials and research guides, or talk to an information literacy expert on your library staff!

Here is a quick list of information literacy skills and how you can use some of our resources to build them up.

New materials added in July, August, and September

The July through September new materials list is now available. We added 98 books, DVDs, and other items during the first quarter of the fiscal year, 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? Use our online request form, email one of our staff members, or drop by the library with your request at any time.

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

Wireless Printing

It is possible to print from your laptop to the Pay4Print (uPrint) machines using the Miami wireless network by following these IT Services Instructions, for PC and Mac users.  Print jobs will be stored for 2 hours.

NBC Learn: Video clips for all subjects

We've just added a new resource:  NBC Learn.  NBC Learn contains more than 12,000 stories from the NBC News archives—one of the largest news archives in the world, dating back to the 1920s. In addition, collections are updated with current events every day, Monday through Friday, with stories from such celebrated programs as NBC Nightly News, the TODAY show, Meet the Press, Dateline NBC, as well as the networks of MSNBC, CNBC, and Telemundo.

You can find information on many topics, link videos in Niihka for students to review, or share part of a video in a class presentation.

It only works on campus for the moment, but we will update this shortly.  Enjoy!

New 2012 Elections Guide

Feeling a bit confused about the upcoming elections?  So much information, so many viewpoints...

Take a few minutes to explore this new online interactive guide: 2012 Elections  created by Miami Librarian J. Presnell.  Yes, your vote counts!

Find your Butler County, OH Board of Elections voting location here!

Faculty: need to place items on reserve?

The Library is pleased to help instructors give their students access to class reading or viewing materials. We can keep books or DVDs at the InfoDesk in the Library for students to check out and use, we can encode library-owned DVDs and videos to stream online through our Video on Demand (VOD) service, or we can help you get a link to an article or e-book to place in your Niihka course site.  More explanation of these options is available on our Reserves page.

Three key points to remember:

(1) Sufficient lead time is extremely helpful to us in ensuring that items are added in a timely fashion. A minimum of two business days is needed for physical reserves, and, particularly at this point in the semester, three days for VODs.

(2) Faculty need to fill out a reserve request form to ensure that the reserve is processed correctly. The form is available online.

(3) Regarding placing course textbooks on reserve, if you have a spare copy of a textbook for one or more of your courses, we would be happy to add it to our list of textbooks on reserve.  We can also purchase copies of textbooks for courses using library funds that are budgeted to your department or academic area.  More information on that program is available here.

Please contact Chris Mull, our Circulation and Reserves Supervisor, at mullcr@muohio.edu or 513-727-3291 if you have any questions.

Embedded Librarians @ Miami Middletown

Dear Miami University Middletown Faculty:

Why should you have an LMS embedded librarian in your Niihka courses next semester?  Would your students really benefit?

Collaborating faculty have this to say:

“They (students) did appreciate having the resources laid out for them in an organized manner.  You did a lot of the ‘leg work’ for them!”

“…but the students who reached out were met with a quick response, direct answers and a supportive ‘go team’ tone.  invaluable!!”

“The embedded librarian offered many needed skills that the students did not avail themselves of.  I will rework my assignments to encourage them to use the resources available next semester.”

Students interacting with a LMS embedded librarian in Niihka said:

“I would love to see this service in a lot more other classes than what there is! I really found this service very useful!”

“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.”

Embedded librarianship is a Gardner-Harvey Library service that has been offered 7 semesters, connecting us with 176 course sections and over 3900 students!  In Spring 2012 three librarians, collaborated with 19 instructors and embedded in 33 courses, reaching about 850 students.  Library resources, services, and information literacy instruction are customized to specific course research assignments and made readily available to students in the LMS. 

When the instructor and subject expert collaborates with an information specialist, good things happen for students in terms of online, scholarly research.  When a professor directs students to contact their named embedded librarian, already familiar with the course research assignment, rather than direct them to visit the library, it makes a world of difference.

Embedded librarians can teach your students to:

·         Search research databases

·         Format bibliographies and in-text citations

·         Conduct literature reviews and create annotated bibliographies

·         Use the online catalog and the new discovery layer

·         Evaluate online sources

·         Distinguish scholarly journals from popular periodicals

·         Find custom library content relevant to their research assignments

·         Use brainstorming charts, presentation software, project calculators, RSS alerts, etc.

If you would like to join the LMS Embedded Librarian program in Summer or Fall 2012, please provide the information below and an embedded librarian will contact you this summer.  The program is flexible enough to provide research support in ways that align with your learning outcomes.

Name:

Email:

Phone:

Courses:

Please provide a copy of the research assignments.

Emphasize information literacy instruction in these areas (see list above):

I wish my students’ research skills were stronger in these areas:

I would like the services of an embedded librarian for (Mark one.)

Beginning of the semester          A research period            Entire semester

Reply by August 15, 2012 to
John Burke burkejj@muohio.edu
Jessie Long longjh@muohio.edu
Beth Tumbleson tumbleb@muohio.edu

OneSearch: a new way to discover information.

This fall brings the launch of a new service for Miami University Libraries:  OneSearch.  OneSearch comes from the same people that bring us Academic Search Complete and a host of other databases.  It provides a single search box to find Miami-owned books, DVDs, and e-books along with articles, books, and digital media located in many other databases (e.g., Academic Search Complete, Web of Science, and JSTOR).  

If you are looking for an overview of resources on a given topic, OneSearch is the place to start.  The service also provides several ways to focus your search for better results and, we hope, improve your library research experience.  Just click on the OneSearch tab on the library website to give it a try.  If you have questions, please contact us at the InfoDesk (call 513-727-3222, text us at 513-393-9141, IM us at askghl on many different providers, or email us at midref@lib.muohio.edu).

This Week's PAWS Highlight is McFly

McFly is a big sweet cuddlebug. He is very laid back and doesn't ask for much, just someone to love him! You can find out more about McFly and other PAWS cats on their website.

Also, Don't miss out on your chance to sign up for PAWS’ GOLF OUTING!

Here’s a great opportunity to help PAWS and have a great time doing it! PAWS annual Golf Outing will take place Monday, Aug. 20 at Wildwood Golf Club, 601 Aberdeen Dr., Middletown, Ohio.

This 18-hole, shotgun, scramble event will include box lunches, a buffet dinner at the golf course, beer and beverages all day and a kennel full of prizes.  We are seeking 72 golfers as well as tee and hole sponsors. Cost to play is $125 per player. Sign up as a team or individual to play.  Tee Sponsorship is $100 and Hole Sponsorship is $50.

The PAWS Golf Committee is also seeking prizes and volunteers, so if you are interested in playing or can help in some other way, please email Ginger Shawver at director@pawsadoptioncenter.org.

This week's PAWS highlight is Brox

Brox is a Boxer mix that loves agility and running around in the big yard, but he is content to lay at your feet as well. He gets along with most of the other dogs at PAWS. He has had time in a home. Brox will need a owner that will give him lots of exercise. Go spend some time with Brox and see what a great dog he can be!

This Week's PAWS Highlight is Trumen

You like big dogs? Trumen is your guy. You want a dog that loves to fetch? Trumen is your guy. You want a dog that just loves to be with you? Trumen is your guy. He is a beautiful golden mix. Full of energy. He would be great for an active person. He loves to run and play.

Check out PAWS for more information on Trumen.

How was the library used in 2011-2012?

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, 2011 to June 30, 2012. 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 4,417 books, DVDs, and videos from us (2,119 from our local collection, 1,602 ordered from other MU libraries, and 696 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 19% decrease from 2010-2011. We also received 57 articles, books, and audiovisual items from libraries worldwide.

- The GHL collection registered 5,362 checkouts (that's the 2,119 items checked out by Middletown patrons above, plus 1787 items sent to OhioLINK users, and 1,456 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 10% decrease from 2010-2011. We also sent 264 articles, books, and audiovisual items to libraries worldwide.


- GHL patrons checked out 3,423 reserve items from us (this includes faculty-placed course reserves, textbooks on reserve, laptops, iPads, Wii games, and other equipment). That is an 18% decrease from 2010-2011.

- In addition to the printed or physical materials above, Middletown patrons have downloaded 9,047 e-books from the OhioLINK E-Book Center. That is a 10% decrease from 2010-2011.

- In terms of building up our collection, Middletown faculty and staff ordered 1,060 items to add to our collection this year. That is a 19% decrease from 2010-2011.


- We registered a total of 8,785 checkouts of items in our collection (reserves and circulating materials). The circulating items at GHL number 28,980, so each item in the collection circulated 0.33 times this year.


The Quest for Information
- Middletown patrons have performed 57,320 searches in databases provided to us by Ebsco. That is an 11.4% increase from 2010-2011.


- Middletown patrons downloaded 6,993 full-text articles from the Electronic Journal Center. That is a 77.3% decrease over 2010-2011. That is an odd turn, and not one that we've been able to diagnose with OhioLINK staff as yet. This is in addition to full-text articles found right within Ebsco or other databases.


- As part of getting to these databases, 50 people visit our web site every day. That's a total of 18,411 visits for the year, by 5,832 unique individuals. Visits and visitors are down about 1% from 2010-2011.

A Place for Work, Study, and Remove from the World
- GHL is open 65 hours per week.

- We regularly schedule the library learning lab (GRD 111) for occasional class sessions. We also had 14 classes meet there weekly during fall semester and 10 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.

- Our two STAR Lounges have been checked out 290 times this year. STAR Lounge 2 was also used for several weeks in the last half of the semester by two courses for their class meetings in both the fall and spring semesters.

Helping You Find What You Need
- Inside and outside of the library, we gave library instruction presentations in 92 classes this year, reaching 1825 students (an increase of 12% over 2010-2011). The courses represented were from 18 different departments.

- Our Embedded Librarian program reached students in 62 course sections during the academic year (that is a 3% increase over 2010-2011). We reached over 1660 students through the program and helped them with their information needs. A big development this year was making the switch from Blackboard to our new LMS, Niihka.


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 don't have stats for all database searches - we're missing uses of Lexis-Nexis and other databases.

- We lost the use of our gate counter in early Spring, and lost the stats we had gathered for the year. That left us without a sense of how many visitors we had this year.


- 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 three items out from the library in a year (reserves and local/MU/OhioLINK collection items)
- performs 23 database searches per year.
- accesses the library web site seven times per year.
- views three e-books each year.
- participates in a library instruction session just less 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!

PAWS Highlight for Thursday is Darby

Darby is a 4 month old Border Collie mix.  He loves playing with other dogs and would make a great family pet.  You can find out more about Darby by visiting the PAWS website or checking out his profile.

New library materials for June

The June new materials list is now available. We added 114 books, DVDs, and other items during the month,thanks to your selections and suggestions.  The list is sorted by call number, with items grouped roughly by subject area.

We’ve added a total of 1060 items to the collection in the 2011/2012 fiscal year (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 at any time.

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

PAWS highlight for Thursday is Bub

Today we highlight one of PAWS young dogs, Bub. Bub is one of the sweetest German Shepherd dogs. He loves the water, and playing ball. He is going to be a big boy and will need room to run. He needs someone that is going to put the time in to train and exercise him.


You can go here for more information about Bub.

Thanks for the PAWS support

We would like to thank everyone for their support of our Pause for PAWS program.  This week marks the end of our program and we went out with a bang on Tuesday at the Hot Diggity Dog Day.  Thanks to C.I.V.I.C for letting the library work with them to bring a whole crew of PAWS animals to greet everyone.  We will continue to highlight PAWS animals throughout the rest of the summer on both our blog and Facebook page, so keep an eye out for pictures and information about the great dogs and cats that are available for adoption.  Also, remember to check out pawsadoptioncenter.org for more information about any of the animals or to make a donation to this great organization.  Once again, thank you to everyone who stopped by to meet the dogs, play with them and make our program a success.

Tuesday's Pause for PAWS guest is Isabella

This week we will only be having one Pause for PAWS visitor so we brought one of our sweetest girls, Isabella. Isabella is a 1 ½ year old Terrier mix. She loves to spend her time playing with the other dogs or sitting in your lap and giving you kisses.

Creating Persistent Links to Articles and More

If you want your students to link directly to an article, image, or other item in one of the library’s databases, you must create for them what is called a persistent link. A persistent link is a specific URL that will link straight to the item that you want them to access. The method to create a persistent link varies somewhat among the different databases the library provides, but here are two commonly used collections of full-text articles as examples. If you need help creating a persistent link to an article in a database not listed here, or if you have any questions about this process, please contact your Gardner-Harvey Library staff.

EBSCOhost Databases

1. Locate the article by searching an EBSCO database such as Academic Search Complete.

2. When you have located an article, click on the title to access the article display page, where you can view the full citation record of the article. On the right side of the screen there will be a button labeled "Permalink." Click on this button to display the permalink. Copy the exact link that is provided.

Example: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=70245062&site=ehost-live

3. The link you just copied will work for any student who is on-campus. If you want students to have off-campus access to the article, you need to add the proxy server login to the front of that URL. Just add the following text to the link you created in Step Two: https://proxy.lib.miamioh.edu/login?url=

Using the example link in Step Two above, your link now looks like this: https://proxy.lib.miamioh.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=70245062&site=ehost-live

This link will work fine both on or off-campus (students clicking the link on-campus will not be prompted to enter their Unique IDs and passwords).

4. You can then paste this link into your Niihka course site for students to access the article.

Electronic Journal Center

1. First, find the article you want in the Electronic Journal Center: https://journals.ohiolink.edu.

2. Open the article description by clicking on the title of the article to which you wish to link.

3. Copy the link of the article description page from the address window of your internet browser.

Here’s a sample URL:  https://journals.ohiolink.edu/ejc/article.cgi?issn=02664909&issue=v28i0002&article=114_olmsapmfhe

(Do not copy the URL of the PDF or HTML full text itself, because this URL changes.)

4. The link you just copied will work for any student who is on-campus. If you want students to have off-campus access to the article, you need to add the proxy server login to the front of that URL. Just add the following text to the link you created in Step Three: http://proxy.lib.miamioh.edu/login?url=

Using the example link in Step Three above, your link now looks like this: https://proxy.lib.miamioh.edu/login?url=http://journals.ohiolink.edu/ejc/article.cgi?issn=02664909&issue=v28i0002&article=114_olmsapmfhe

This link will work fine both on or off-campus (students clicking the link on-campus will not be prompted to enter their Unique IDs and passwords).

5. You can then paste this link into your Niihka course site for students to access the article.