Tech Tuesday - Don’t Be Fooled By Fake News

In an ever growing field of information at your fingertips, it is harder than ever to know what information is real and what isn’t. 

Join us on September 18th from 12:15-1:00pm room 111 of the Gardner-Harvey Library (Middletown Campus) for a session on how to spot fake news. 

Our instructor, ace researcher Jessie Long, will show attendees how to know what sources are worth citing, and which ones are bogus.

All are welcome to attend. Light refreshments will be available, but also feel free to bring your lunch.

Remember, if you attend two or more of our library events in Fall 2018, you will be entered in a drawing for a Kindle Fire tablet.

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

Dr. Tammie Gerke’s National Park Talks: Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park (at Middletown)

Join us as Dr. Gerke talks talks about Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park and the current situation happening in the area. Stop by to hear about the geology and other interesting information about the park.

This session will run Tuesday, September 25th from 4:45pm to 6:15pm with time for questions and discussion. The event will be held in the seating area at the entrance of the Gardner-Harvey Library.

All are welcome to attend. Light refreshments will be provided.

Remember, if you attend two or more of our library events in Fall 2018, you will be entered in a drawing for a Kindle Fire tablet.

The above image was provided through a Creative Commons CC-BY-2.0 license by lwtt93.

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

We are adding dozens and dozens of items to the collection each month!  See our new materials list of items we added to the collection in August! We added 149 books, e-books, DVDs, and other items during that time, thanks to your selections and suggestions. The list can be sorted by call number, area of our collection, or by title.

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

• Secret nation : the hidden Armenians of Turkey / Avedis Hadjian
• An American quilt : unfolding a story of family and slavery / Rachel May
• Give people money : how a universal basic income would end poverty, revolutionize work, and remake the world / Annie Lowrey
• Blockchain basics : a non-technical introduction in 25 steps / Daniel Drescher
• Embarrassment : and the emotional underlife of learning / Thomas Newkirk
• Flights / Olga Tokarczuk
• Crazy rich Asians / Kevin Kwan
• The poisoned city : Flint's water and the American urban tragedy / Anna Clark

This tag will show you all of the prior lists of new materials, in reverse chronological order. We are eager to hear from you about individual items you would like us to buy, or types of items we should be on the lookout for, or general subject areas we should build up in the collection.

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

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

September's Middletown book discussion title: Station Eleven

The MUM Book Discussion group will next meet on Tuesday, September 25 to discuss Emily St. John Mandel's Station Eleven.  We will meet at 12 pm in Room 124 in the Library.   

Careful readers will note that the Hamilton Book Discussion Group is also reading Station Eleven for its October 11 meeting (2:30pm at the Rentschler Library).  This is purely a coincidence.  All right, you got us, it's not a coincidence.  Our Hamilton friends are reading the book in connection with the City of Hamilton's One City, One Book program.  It's a great book!  We don't want Middletown to be left out of the fun, so please read the book and discuss it with us, and then see the attached document for lots of other great events that are being sponsored as part of the program.  Imitation is the greatest form of flattery, I always say.

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

"One snowy night a famous Hollywood actor slumps over and dies onstage during a production of King Lear. Hours later, the world as we know it begins to dissolve. Moving back and forth in time-from the actor's early days as a film star to fifteen years in the future, when a theater troupe known as the Traveling Symphony roams the wasteland of what remains-this suspenseful, elegiac, spellbinding novel charts the strange twists of fate that connect five people: the actor, the man who tried to save him, the actor's first wife, his oldest friend, and a young actress with the Traveling Symphony, caught in the crosshairs of a dangerous self-proclaimed prophet. Sometimes terrifying, sometimes tender, Station Eleven tells a story about the relationships that sustain us, the ephemeral nature of fame, and the beauty of the world as we know it."

Miami, OhioLINK  and SearchOhio

Read the book (or read something else interesting), then come along to our discussion to share what else you've been reading/watching/listening to/experiencing, and help us plan our future readings.  

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

TEC Lab Wednesday Workshop - Tote Bags

Stop by the TEC Lab in Gardner-Harvey Library on September 5th to design your own tote bag!

We will be using the Cricut cutter and our heat press to create one of a kind tote bags.

Drop in anytime between 11am-1pm OR between 6pm-8pm in Room 125 Gardner-Harvey Library.

All are welcome to attend.

Remember, if you attend two or more of our library events in Fall 2018, you will be entered in a drawing for a Kindle Fire tablet.

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

Info Bites: Learn about the Gardner-Harvey Library while you eat!

What could be better than learning about the Gardner-Harvey Library while you eat? 

During the first week of classes, Monday, August 27 through Friday, August 31, the library staff is offering 15 minute introductions to our building, resources, and services. We are already serving free coffee and tea all during that week, but you can also enjoy light refreshments if you take part in the Info Bites session.

Just stop by the library's InfoDesk during that week at one of these three times:

9:30am
12:15pm
4:30pm (this session is not offered on Friday)

You'll feel better equipped to study and do research for your assignments, and your taste buds will be satisfied!

Remember, if you attend two or more of our library events in Fall 2018, you will be entered in a drawing for a Kindle Fire tablet.

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

A new year of adding materials begins!  See our new materials list of items we added to the collection in July! We added 81 books, e-books, DVDs, and other items during that time, thanks to your selections and suggestions. The list can be sorted by call number, area of our collection, or by title.

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

• Makers with a cause : creative service projects for library youth / Gina Seymour
• Learning analytics goes to school : a collaborative approach to improving education / Andrew Krumm, Barbara Means, and Marie Bienkowski
• Welcome to Lagos / Chibundu Onuzo
• The marrow thieves / Cherie Dimaline
• New dark age : technology, knowledge and the end of the future / James Bridle
• Whose global village? : rethinking how technology shapes our world / Ramesh Srinivasan
• My year of rest and relaxation / Ottessa Moshfegh
• The increasingly United States : how and why American political behavior nationalized / Daniel J. Hopkins

This tag will show you all of the prior lists of new materials, in reverse chronological order. We are eager to hear from you about individual items you would like us to buy, or types of items we should be on the lookout for, or general subject areas we should build up in the collection.

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

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

August's Middletown book discussion title: In the Midst of Winter

The MUM Book Discussion group will next meet on Thursday, August 23 to discuss Isabel Allende's In the Midst of Winter.  We will meet at 12 pm in Room 124 in the Library.   

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

"In the middle of a snowstorm in Brooklyn, 60-year-old human rights scholar Richard Bowmaster hits the car of Evelyn Ortega, a young, undocumented immigrant from Guatemala. What at first seems just a small inconvenience takes a far more serious turn when Evelyn turns up at the professor's house seeking help. At a loss, the professor asks his tenant Lucia Maraz, a 62-year-old lecturer from Chile, for her advice. These three very different people are brought together in a story that moves from present-day Brooklyn to Guatemala in the recent past to 1970s Chile and Brazil, sparking the beginning of a long overdue love story between Richard and Lucia."

Miami, OhioLINK  and SearchOhio

Read the book (or read something else interesting), then come along to our discussion to share what else you've been reading/watching/listening to/experiencing, and help us plan our future readings.  

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

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

Wellness Reads, brought to you by the Gardner-Harvey Library and Miami Regionals Wellness Committee

We know well-being by other names: wellness, happiness, contentment, resilience, blessed... Well-being feels elusive.  It’s not something you can purchase on Amazon.  Often well-being emerges from hardship, loss, and pain.  Becoming whole is a process that begins with reflection.  Often transformation requires slowing down, hard work, and a change in thinking and habits.  Perhaps one of these books will move you forward in your wellness quest this summer.  Compiled by Beth Tumbleson

Brown, B. (2017). Braving the wilderness: The quest for true belonging and the courage to stand alone. New York: Random House.

Corrigan, K. (2018). Tell me more : Stories about the 12 hardest things I'm learning to say. New York: Random House.

Dasgupta, A. (2018). The science of stress management : A guide to best practices for better well-being. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

Egan, K. (2017). On living. New York: Riverhead Books.

Hagerty, B. B. (2016). Life reimagined: The science, art, and opportunity of midlife. New York: Riverhead Books.

Marston, A., & Marston, S. (2018). Type R : Transformative resilience for thriving in a turbulent world. New York: PublicAffairs.

Rubin, G. C. (2015). Better than before: Mastering the habits of our everyday lives. New York: Crown Publishers.

Wiking, M. (2017). The Little Book of Hygge: Danish Secrets to Happy Living. New York: William Morrow.

How was the Gardner-Harvey Library used in 2017/18?

Here are the full annual stats from fiscal year 2018 (the 2017/18 academic year) for several of the Gardner-Harvey Library's (GHL) services. I hope you will find them useful to see how people use the library. 

These statistics reflect what happened between July 1, 2017 to June 30, 2018. Some stats we keep locally, others we pull from university-wide or OhioLINK-wide systems, and some are provided by database vendors.

Highlights for this year include:

• A 25% increase in the use of GHL's books and DVDs.
• A 29% increase in the use of reserve materials.
• An 11% increase in the number of items added to the collection.
• A 50% increase in study room use.
• Many new events held in the library.

Read on for full details on these and other activities.

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

- checks nearly four items out from the library in a year (reserves and local/MU/OhioLINK collection items)
- visits the library 26 times per year
- accesses the library web site 14 times per year.
- participates in a library instruction session or an embedded librarian course once per year (if she is a student).

Now on to the detailed analysis!

Both a Borrower and a Lender Be
- GHL patrons checked out 2,653 books and DVDs from us (1,699 from our local collection, 559 ordered from other MU libraries, and 395 items ordered from OhioLINK - that means that 36% of the items used by campus patrons came from libraries beyond GHL). That is a 24% increase in total borrowing over 2016-2017.  

- The GHL collection registered 4,530 checkouts (that's the 1,699 items checked out by Middletown patrons above, plus 1,860 items sent to OhioLINK users, and 954 sent to other MU libraries - that means that 62% of the uses of our materials came from libraries beyond GHL). That is a 25% increase in total lending over 2016-2017. 

- GHL patrons checked out 4,695 reserve items from us (this includes faculty-placed course reserves, textbooks on reserve, study rooms, laptops, iPads, and other equipment). That is a 29% increase from 2016-2017. Textbooks on reserve checkouts totaled 597 in 2017-18, an increase of 16% from 2016-17.

- In addition to those physical reserve items, we also place MU libraries-owned DVDs and VHS tapes on a digital reserve service called Video on Demand.  We had 234 videos on there for classes to use in 2017-18, and they were viewed a total of 5,815 times.  That is an increase of 90% in views over 2016-2017.

- In terms of building up our collection, Middletown faculty, staff, and students ordered 2102 items to add to our collection this year. That is a 11% increase from 2016-2017.  

- We registered a total of 9,225 checkouts of items in our collection (reserves and circulating materials). The circulating items at GHL number 30,609, so each item in the collection circulated 0.30 times this year (all items in our library circulate). 


The Quest for Information
- 78 people visit our web site every day. That's a total of 28,366 visits for the year, by 5,871 unique individuals. That's a 78% increase in visits and a 22% decrease in unique visitors from 2015-2016.
- Gardner-Harvey Librarians also create and maintain subject guides to our databases and other information sources called LibGuides.  In 2017-18, we were responsible for 40 LibGuides, either individually or in cooperation with our colleagues at the Rentschler Library in Hamilton or University Libraries in Oxford.  Those guides received a total of 7,737 visits during the year, for an average of 193 visits per guide.


Helping You Find What You Need
- Inside and outside of the library, we gave library instruction presentations in 32 classes this year, reaching 628 students (a decrease of 11% from 2016-2017). 

- Our Embedded Librarian program reached students from 72 course sections in their Canvas course sites during the academic year (that is a 6% increase from 2016-2017). We helped over 1,576 students with their information needs through the program.


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

- We averaged 209 visitors per day, for a total of 53,407 visits this year.  This reflects a 13% decrease from 2016-2017.  Our best attended day was May 10, 2018, with 508 visitors.  We had 81 days with 300 or more visitors (32% of our open days)

- We regularly schedule the library learning lab (GRD 111) for single class sessions. We also schedule Study Room 110 for class sessions, with four classes meeting weekly in there during the fall semester and four classes meeting weekly during the spring semester during 2017-18.

- Our nine study rooms were checked out 2,859 times this year by students, faculty, and staff members. That represents a 50% increase from 2016-17.  The average uses per room also rose from 190 in 2016-17 to 318 in 2017-18, which shows a tremendous response to the rooms.

- We held several events in the library this year that we sponsored or co-sponsored.  Aside from the monthly MUM Book Discussion Group meetings (for which we do not have attendance recorded), we had 27 events (13 TEC Lab workshops, 6 National Parks geology video/lectures, and 8 offerings of the PZ7 Book Club)).   Total attendance for Fall and Spring semesters was 140, for an average of 5 people per event.  A total of 118 different individuals came to at least one program, with 12 of those people attending two or three events (and participating in two drawings for Kindle Fire tablets).

- We also hosted a Women's History Month talk in March 2018, a meeting of the American Association of University Women (AAUW) in November 2017 that featured a talk by former Ohio First Lady Hope Taft, a speed mentoring event for Middletown High School in April 2018, and the CIT 458 senior poster presentation in May 2018.  And there was a small wedding reception in GRD 110 in April 2018.  


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 estimate a lot of you are).  

- We don't have campus-specific stats for all database searches - we're missing uses of Nexis Uni, the EBSCO databases, and other databases that are tracked on a whole-university level.

- We hope you'll continue to let us know what you think about the library, what you need from us, and what materials we should order for the collection.

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

The Gardner-Harvey Library Staff

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

See our new materials list of items we added to the collection in June! We added 129 books, e-books, DVDs, and other items during that time, thanks to your selections and suggestions. The list can be sorted by call number, area of our collection, or by title.

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

• Call me American : a memoir / by Abdi Nor Iftin with Max Alexander
• Upon further review : the greatest what-ifs in sports history / [edited by] Mike Pesca
• Gigged : the end of the job and the future of work / Sarah Kessler 
• Lust on trial : censorship and the rise of American obscenity in the age of Anthony Comstock / Amy Werbel 
• Free-Range Learning in the Digital Age : The Emerging Revolution in College, Career, and Education / Peter P. Smith 
• Kudos / Rachel Cusk 
• When Einstein walked with Gödel : excursions to the edge of thought / Jim Holt
• Rock steady : brilliant advice from my bipolar life / Ellen Forney

This tag will show you all of the prior lists of new materials, in reverse chronological order. We are eager to hear from you about individual items you would like us to buy, or types of items we should be on the lookout for, or general subject areas we should build up in the collection.

We added a total of 2,102 items to the collection this year (our largest total in the last ten years). We have entered a new fiscal year, which means we're ready to add new items as you request them. We're looking forward to what you'll recommend next!

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

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

July's Middletown book discussion title: English Creek

The MUM Book Discussion group will next meet on Thursday, July 19 to discuss Ivan Doig's English Creek.  We will meet at 12 pm in Room 124 in the Library.   

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

"In this prizewinning portrait of a time and place -- Montana in the 1930s -- that at once inspires and fulfills a longing for an explicable past, Ivan Doig has created one of the most captivating families in American fiction, the McCaskills. The witty and haunting narration, a masterpiece of vernacular in the tradition of Twain, follows the events of the Two Medicine country's summer: the tide of sheep moving into the high country, the capering Fourth of July rodeo and community dance, and an end-of-August forest fire high in the Rockies that brings the book, as well as the McCaskill family's struggle within itself, to a stunning climax. It is a season of escapade as well as drama, during which fourteen-year-old Jick comes of age. Through his eyes we see those nearest and dearest to him at a turning point -- where all four of our lives made their bend -- and discover along with him his own connection to the land, to history, and to the deep-fathomed mysteries of one's kin and one's self. "

Miami, OhioLINK  and SearchOhio

Read the book (or read something else interesting), then come along to our discussion to share what else you've been reading/watching/listening to/experiencing, and help us plan our future readings.  

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

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