Summer Reads from the MUM Book Discussion Group

A summer of reading is ahead from the MUM Book Discussion Group! We have picked our next two monthly reading choices for June and July.

Our June book discussion will be on Wednesday, June 23, from 12:00-1:00 in the library (aim for the blue chairs). Our book is Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake. We join family of Indian immigrants as they transform themselves into Americans. A fuller description is available at http://www.readinggroupguides.com/guides3/namesake1.asp The book is widely available through OhioLINK and can be requested from this page: http://tinyurl.com/29q2ka3

Our July discussion will be held on Thursday, July 22, from 12:00-1:00 in the library. The book is the Scandinavian thriller The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson. Financial intrigue and a mysterious disappearance challenge Swedish journalist Mikael Blomkvist and his putative ally, the enigmatic Lisbeth Salander. More information on the book is available at http://www.bookbrowse.com/reviews/index.cfm/book_number/2179/The-Girl-with-the-Dragon-Tattoo The book may be requested from OhioLINK at this page: http://tinyurl.com/2agrpny

August is currently open for suggestions, but in September we will read Alexander McCall Smith’s The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency as part of Middfest’s Books of Botswana Reading Challenge (see http://ghlibrarynews.blogspot.com/2010/04/books-of-botswana-reading-challenge.html).

Be sure to check our website for upcoming events and to suggest additional titles: http://www.mid.muohio.edu/library/bookdiscussion.htm

We look forward to having you join us!

Summer Reading 2010

Whether you are beach bound, heading to the mountains, or sitting in your backyard, pick up a book and read this summer. Here are a few titles to consider.

Double Comfort Safari Club. Alexander McCall Smith. 2010.
Prepare for 2010 MidFest which will highlight Botswana, Africa by reading the latest novel in the No.1 Ladies Detective Agency series. MidFest Book Discussion Groups will be discussing this internationally best-selling author’s series in coming months, which focuses on the mysteries of life, using humor, culture, generational differences, ethics, and the call of community.

Beatrice and Virgil: A Novel. Yann Martel. 2010.
A celebrated now struggling author Henry meets with an older taxidermist to discuss his play featuring a howler monkey and donkey. Through the framework of fable, a holocaust tale unfolds. Thought-provoking themes on the human condition are raised, such as creativity and cruelty.

Wolf Hall. Hilary Mantel. 2010.
Follow the fascinating power play and intrigue in Henry VIII's court as he quest for a male heir with the help of Oliver Cromwell, and the hindrance of Sir Thomas More.

Life Among the Lutherans. Garrison Keillor. 2009.
Explore Keillor's spiritual roots spiced with humor and insight on living the good life.

Made for Goodness: And Why This Makes All the Difference. Desmond Tutu. 2010.
Reflect with one of the transparent movers and shakers of our time on the outworking of sin, goodness, and forgiveness.

And what are you reading this summer? Tell GHL.

Accessing Textbooks Through the Library

Students have a variety of options to access required course materials through the Gardner-Harvey Library:

1. The library may have purchased the course textbook as part of our Textbooks on Reserve program. The current list of available textbooks (arranged by course) is available at http://www.mid.muohio.edu/library/textbookreserves.htm The library will also purchase additional textbooks as requested for Summer Semester. Each textbook may be borrowed from the library for two hours, or if checked out after 5:00pm, it can be kept until 9:00am the next morning.

2. Faculty members may have placed textbooks or other materials on library reserve. Many of the textbooks provided by faculty members are on the list linked above. If a faculty member would like to place an item on reserve, please consult the information at http://www.mid.muohio.edu/library/reserves.htm and use the online form at the bottom of that page.

3. Students may be able to borrow a copy of the textbook from another Miami University Library or from one of our OhioLINK library partners around the state. Materials may be borrowed for up to 15 weeks through OhioLINK. The starting point is to use our library catalog at http://www.lib.muohio.edu/multifacet (this searches all Miami libraries) and then to click on “Request Item.” Library staff would be happy to run searches and assist anyone in checking the availability of a title in OhioLINK.

4. Some textbooks are available as electronic books purchased through OhioLINK. A quick way to search these e-book collections (along with the print collections of OhioLINK libraries) is to use the University System of Ohio’s Textbook Portal at http://textbooks.uso.edu/ Enter either the ISBN or a combination of the title and author of the book to see if it is available.

The library stands ready to assist any student or faculty member who needs help with these matters. Please contact us at 513-727-3222, midref@lib.muohio.edu, IM us @ askghl, or contact any of our staff members directly using the information at http://www.mid.muohio.edu/library/contactus.htm

New Materials Added in March and April

The March and April new materials list is now available. We added 549 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

Books of Botswana Reading Challenge

As part of its celebration of the nation of Botswana this year, Middfest International is sponsoring a Books of Botswana Reading Challenge. It features the works of Alexander McCall Smith, specifically his "No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency" series which is set in Botswana. The books are a great introduction to the country as well as intriguing detective fiction. I have read several of them and really enjoyed them.

There is a flyer which outlines the reading challenge. The overall goal is to inspire individuals to read one or more of the books, email Middfest to enter a prize drawing, and then attend a Botswana Tea 'N Talk on September 26, 2010 (just prior to Middfest itself, which runs from October 1-3). That event will feature a talk by a historian of Botswana and prize drawings for readers. Just to note, the April 21 book signing by Alexander McCall Smith had to be cancelled due to the Icelandic volcano interrupting his travel plans (there is hope it will be rescheduled).

The Gardner-Harvey Library would like to support this effort by offering our resources over the summer or in the early part of fall semester. I have recently ordered copies of all 11 No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency books for our collection (in addition to two by the historian) for individuals to use. Our library would be happy to serve as a meeting spot for any interested book discussion groups. I would be interested in leading a book discussion group as well. If I or my staff can help get groups started or offer guides to discussion questions, we would be glad to do so.

We also have DVDs of the first season of the HBO series based on the books. I would love to offer viewings of the episodes on campus or we'd be happy to lend those out for individual use.

If you would be interested in reading one or more of the books, watching the DVDs, participating in or leading a discussion group, please contact the library. It's great to read on your own, but discussing books with a group can be a lot of fun and bring out aspects of a work you never noticed.

The End of Overeating: Casper Lecture, & Book Discussion

This year Miami University Middletown invited Dr. David Kessler, former U. S. Food and Drug Commissioner and current Dean of the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine to campus as the 2010 Casper Lecture Series speaker. Dr. Kessler is a physician, lawyer, and author of The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite, 2009. On the evening of April 13, 2010 and again on the morning of April 14, Dr. Kessler spoke earnestly and knowledgeably of the brain circuitry and conditioned hypereating the American food industry has fostered by combining sugar, fat, and salt in its food products and which it uses to its advantage. He shared his scientific findings and suggested ways of addressing these health concerns as individuals and as a nation. To learn more, watch this video.

Prior to Dr. Kessler’s visit, the MUM Book Discussion group had a merry time discussing a number of questions, ideas, and insights gleaned from the book’s pages. The Gardner-Harvey Library provided free copies of the title to ten participating readers. Eating for health is not as easy as one might think, given the American culture of 24/7 eating and ubiquitous access to processed food. Food rehab is needed to combat the Cue-Urge-Reward-Habit cycle. Specific strategies to aid individuals are supplied in the closing chapters. If you would like to read and discuss this title with others, please see the list of book discussion questions that follow, compiled by the Assistant Library Director and discussion facilitator Beth Tumbleson.

1. Why do we eat: nutrition, survival, stimulation, entertainment? Why do Americans tend to overeat?
2. Before reading The End of Overeating, were you aware of the deliberate attempt by the food industry to capture your appetite and your dollars?
3. After reading The End of Eating, what insights and impressions have lingered and shaken your core beliefs?
4. What new vocabulary did you learn in these pages? (Bliss Point, Conditioned Hypereating, Hyper-palatable, Multisensory Experience)
5. What startling scientific discoveries did you make in reading these pages? (Rewiring Brain Circuitry, Elevated Dopamine Levels, etc.)
6. How are the efforts of the food and advertising industries personally affecting you the consumer at the grocery store, restaurants, vending machines, etc.?
7. Why does the American culture foster 24/7 eating? How has the average American’s weight changed since the 1960s?
8. What role do fast food restaurants and junk food play in your family’s life? Why?
9. When eating/consuming becomes big business where profit matters more than nutrition, what ethical dilemmas are raised in the American culture?
10. Do business and government have a responsibility to safeguard the individual’s and nation’s health? What reforms would you like to see put in place nationally? (Insurance Rates Tied to Lifestyle Choices, Financial Incentives for Healthy Lifestyle Choices, Food Tax on Unhealthy Items, Calories Listed on Menus, Healthier School Cafeteria Menus, etc.)
11. How has your life and those you love been threatened by overeating? How has the obesity epidemic touched your life? What diseases concern you most? (Cancer, Cardiovascular, Type 2 Diabetes, Stroke)
12. In what ways are the health care and insurance industries also profiting from the Western diet which results in chronic medical conditions?
13. Now that you understand the Cue-Urge-Reward-Habit cycle, what changes will you make which were outlined in the Food Rehab chapters?
14. Because eating cues are personal and are related to our emotions and memories, how might you establish healthier habits in future? How might you assume greater accountability in one or two areas of your life?

You asked, and asked, and asked . . . and we answered

In a recent post, we shared some statistics on how the library has been used in the first seven months of this academic year. One item we mentioned was a year long tallying of questions you asked us at our InfoDesk. During 2009, we did our best to keep track of the questions asked at the desk. Here's what we learned from that tallying:

- You asked us 5245 questions during the year.

- That averages out to 19.5 questions per day. This is in addition to more routine, but essential, activities that we didn't count, like checking books out and back in.

- 19% of those questions came by phone, and 2% through instant-messaging, with the rest in-person (we also get a lot of questions in email, but we did not track those).

- The topics of those questions were fairly evenly divided, with nearly 20% in each of the categories of research (where to look for articles on X, etc.), technology (how to double space in Word, etc.), circulation (when will the book I requested arrive, etc.), and the ever-popular "other" category.

- 90% of the questions came between 8:00am and 5:00pm.

So, we know a bit more about what you need to know from us and when you need to know it. We're still analyzing the data and seeking to find applications to staffing our InfoDesk and training ourselves. We are also planning a new way to gather stats on questions and also get down some details on the content of each question that might guide us further.

All we can say to you is thanks for seeking assistance and keep those questions coming. As it says at our doorways, "how can the library help you today?"

Spring time and the linking is easy . . .

Making links to any library resource available to you or other MU students, faculty, and staff from off-campus is easy . . . if you know the proxy secret. What is the proxy secret? (shhhhh! not so loud! read quieter in your head!) Here's the scoop:

If you find an article in a database and then email the URL of that article to a friend, the friend may not be able to get to the article unless he or she is on campus. This is what the proxy server is all about - giving access to library databases and resources to any MU person off-campus.

Here's how it works: if you want to post a link to an article, or e-book, or anything that you find through the library's web site, you add something to the front of the URL to make sure someone else can read it off-campus. That something is this:

https://proxy.lib.miamioh.edu/login?url=

That part of the URL makes the link take a detour through the proxy server, asking the link clicker to enter his or her UniqueID and password to get access to the end part of the link.

The databases themselves (like Academic Search Complete or Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe) already have this detour built in to their URLs for off-campus users - those on-campus never notice this. But if you are linking to a journal title like Business Week, don't just put a link in like this:

https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bft&jid=B7OA&site=eds-live

Add the proxy, and it will work fine off-campus.

https://proxy.lib.miamioh.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bft&jid=B7OA&site=eds-live

It's a great way to share articles or other items you find without making people do the searching for it themselves. Just look for links marked as "persistent links" or "link to this publication (article, etc.)." Try it out, or be sure to ask us if you have questions.

New Materials Added in February

The February new materials list is now available. We added 152 books, DVDs, and other items over that month, 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

Your Life. Six Words. Can You?

The Gardner-Harvey Library is sponsoring an exercise in self-authorship based on the idea of the six-word memoir. Can you describe your life in six words? It's a lot of fun to try. Come by the library and see what people are writing about themselves on our white board (by the blue chairs). You can also peruse two books of collected six-word memoirs for ideas (with many well-known authors and others participating). The concept has been popularized by Rachel Fershleiser and Larry Smith of Smith Magazine.

How is the library being used?

We have a lot of statistics available to us on how our patrons (you!) are using the library, and we tend to share them only at the end of the year with a few people (if at all). We thought it would be interesting to you to see some of these stats in the midst of the academic year. How is the library building used? How many database searches happen in a year? How many books and DVDs and whatnot are checked out? Who else is using the library's collections? What is the reach of the library's services? We can't fill in the entire picture with the stats we have, but we can give you some idea on how we are utilized.

These stats reflect what's happened so far this year, running from July 1, 2009 to January 31, 2010. 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 2,756 books, DVDs, videos from us (1,300 from our local collection, 915 ordered from other MU libraries, and 541 items ordered from OhioLINK - that means that over half of the items used by campus patrons came from libraries beyond GHL).

- The GHL collection registered 3504 checkouts (that's the 1300 items checked out by Middletown patrons above, plus 1,259 items sent to OhioLINK users, 851 sent to other MU libraries, and 94 items sent to libraries around the world - that means that more than 60% of the uses of our materials came from libraries beyond GHL).

- GHL patrons checked out 2,122 course reserve items from us (this includes faculty-placed course reserves, textbooks on reserve, laptops, Wii games, and other equipment).

- In addition to the printed or physical materials above, Middletown patrons have downloaded 3,610 e-books from the OhioLINK E-Book Center.

- In terms of building up our collection, Middletown faculty and staff have ordered 619 items to add to our collection so far this year.

The Quest for Information
- Middletown patrons have performed 29,635 searches in databases provided to us by Ebsco and those hosted by OhioLINK. Statewide, 52% of database searches are done in Academic Search Complete, and our results are right on that average.

- Middletown patrons downloaded 11,757 full-text articles from the Electronic Journal Center. This is in addition to full-text articles found right within Ebsco or other databases.

- As part of getting to these databases, 74 people visit our web site every day. That's a total of 11,445 visits for the year, by 3,397 unique individuals.

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

- We average 288 visitors per day, for a total of 43,333 vistors this year.

- We regularly schedule the library learning lab (GRD 111) for occasional class sessions. We also had 12 classes meeting in there weekly during fall semester and have 9 meeting in there during this spring.

- Our two STAR Lounges have been checked out 200 times this year, or roughly 1.25 times per day. STAR Lounge 2 is used weekly by a class for its class meetings in this semester.

Helping You Find What You Need
- Inside and outside of the library, we've given library instruction presentations in 51 classes this year, reaching 987 students.

- Our Blackboard Embedded Librarian program reached students in 19 course sections in fall semester and we're working with 21 sections this semester. We expect to reach a total of 700+ students and help them with their information needs.

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 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 don't know (yet) how many questions we field in a day at our InfoDesk (whether in person or by phone or email or text). We completed a year-long tally of questions in December 2009, but haven't finished analyzing the results yet.

- We haven't surveyed the campus population at large about their use of our resources and their perception of the quality of our service for some time. We are hoping to offer such a survey in the next academic year, but we hope in the meantime you'll 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 guessing at a total Middletown community of 2500 students, faculty and staff members, and community patrons, here's what can be said about the average library patron. She:

- visits the library every nine days.
- checks four items out from the library in a year (reserves and local/MU/OhioLINK collection items)
- performs 22 database searches per year.
- accesses the library web site eight times per year.
- views 2.5 e-books each year.
- participates in a library instruction session every other year (if she is a student).

With a little over half a year in, we're interested to see how the rest of the year comes together. Thanks to everyone for making the library and its resources a vital part of your academic lives!

Free textbooks? A new source for course texts

While we've been trying to help cut students' textbook costs by keeping Textbooks on Reserve and encouraging students to search OhioLINK for copies of their textbooks owned by other libraries in the state that they can borrow or use as online e-books, another tack to take is for faculty to adopt textbooks that are freely available online.

A new site devised for California's community colleges identifies and offers peer review of over 400 open textbooks and links to the textbooks themselves. Check out the Open Educational Resource Center for California to see the collection they've amassed.

We've been using a free Web version of a textbook for the EDT 251: Effective Use of Libraries course, and it has worked well so far.

New Materials Added in December and January

The December and January new materials list is now available. We added 169 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

New Playaways for your audio enjoyment!

Now is the time to see our new list of Playaway digital audio devices! We have added 81 more titles to our collection in January, taking us toward 293 titles in the collection.

Read more on what these devices are and how they work, or take a look at the new list (just click on the titles for a summary of the digital audio book and to request us to hold one for you).

Need Government Data? Try this Brand New Site.

For the first time starting Friday January 22, 2010, more government data from all cabinet levels will be released online as part of the Obama initiative for greater transparency in government.

All new data collections will be added to Data.gov @ http://www.data.gov/

"Required to release the three new data sets are the departments of State, Treasury, Defense, Justice, Interior, Agriculture, Commerce, Labor, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Transportation, Energy, Education, Veterans Affairs, Homeland Security and the Environmental Protection Agency, the offices of the U.S. Trade Representative and the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and the Council of Economic Advisers." Read more at:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/22/government-data-released_n_432632.html

Need Tax Forms?

2009 tax forms for federal, Ohio, and states in the midwest are just a click away, online.

Share video with classes using Video on Demand!

Video on Demand, a new service from Miami University Libraries, is entering its second semester of use at the Gardner-Harvey Library. Faculty members may request that Miami-owned videos and DVDs be encoded for viewing over the web. A link to the encoded video is then provided to the faculty member to place in his or her Blackboard classroom. Students may view the videos on campus or from off-campus.

Off-campus viewing requires students to install the Cisco Virtual Private Networking client on the computer on which they wish to watch the video. From that computer, students should go to https://muvpn.muohio.edu/ and login using their Unique IDs and passwords. Then follow the on-screen instructions to install the Cisco VPN Client.

They should then run the Cisco VPN Client (from the "Start-->All Programs" menu), which will prompt them to enter their UniqueID and password to connect securely from off-campus. Once this connection is made, they may enter their Blackboard classroom and click on the URL for the video to start playing. Repeated viewings of videos only requires students to run the Cisco VPN Client and login -- there is no need to install the VPN client multiple times.

Please contact the library with your questions on Video on Demand or use our online reserve form (selecting the "Video on Demand" option from the drop-down menus) to have visual materials added to Video on Demand.

What do you wish the library had?

Have a suggestion of a book, DVD, or other item you think the library should have?

Use our new online request form to make a suggestion.

We will respond to your request and order any item we do not already own or that is not already available through Miami University Libraries or OhioLINK. Thanks!

New Materials Added in October and November

The October and November new materials list is now available. We added 106 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

Blackboard Embedded Librarians in Your Course

Dear Faculty:

Would you like to collaborate with a Blackboard Embedded Librarian next semester, Spring 2010? Have you been toying with the idea, just to see what difference it might make to your students’ research efforts? Have you heard colleagues talking about this online approach to delivering library services and resources that are customized for the courses you teach?

The Gardner-Harvey Librarians have been building research tools and planning for Spring Semester 2010 with you and your students in mind. Before you close your office door for the semester on Friday December 18, 2009, please let John Burke and Beth Tumbleson know of your interest.

To recap the Pilot Program from a year ago, Gardner-Harvey librarians worked with instructors teaching upper and lower division courses across the disciplines. The purpose of the program is to develop information literacy skills in students, whether enrolled in traditional, off-campus, hybrid, or online courses. Once you express interest, we will send you a two page overview of options to determine your needs and schedule an appointment to discuss assignments and your curricular goals in terms of student research. Once you enroll the librarian as a course builder or instructor, content will be added next to the assignment, on the Embedded Librarian page, or wherever appropriate. Then students have direct access to research assistance from a librarian familiar with the course and Miami University Libraries’ collections.

Common research strategies and concepts addressed in prior semesters have included:
• a short list of the most relevant databases and online collections
a list of appropriate subject terms
help narrowing a topic
guidance finding statistics
assistance citing sources using RefWorks and other tools
methods of evaluating Websites
identifying scholarly sources.

If you think your students would benefit from such a faculty-librarian collaboration within Blackboard, please reply to this e-mail and provide the information requested below:

To Complete and Return by December 18, 2010
Name:
email:
Telephone:
Courses: Section, Time/Day, & Location

Best regards,

Beth Tumbleson, Assistant Director
John Burke, Director