Academic Research Made Easier

The “Google Generation” tends to be impatient in research, according to a study by the British Library and Joint Information System Committee. “Knowledge Now,” might be their motto. Today’s researchers desire integrated or federated or one-stop-searching. So how do faculty and librarians lead students into the maze of reference works and noteworthy books in the library collection?
With this end in mind, Miami University Libraries invites you to use Reference Universe by Paratext. Search reference materials at the index level rather than the usual title or subject heading level. Go to http://www.lib.muohio.edu/indexes/redirect/624 Input search terms in one search box to locate numerous articles and essays in Miami University Libraries’ reference collection, both print and electronic in addition to its electronic book collection. Results will lead you to either a book with library and call number or link you to the electronic resource itself. Try it and let your partners in research @ your library know what you think. Have your students do the same!

New Materials List for January

We are trying something new here (or something old done in a new way). We have created a list of items that we purchased and received between the start of December and the first week of January. They include books and DVDs. Take a look and see what's new on our shelves. Be sure to click the title of any items to see more information about them or to request that they be held for you at our front desk.

Here's the link to the list: http://www.mid.muohio.edu/library/newbooklistjan08.cfm

Let us know if you find this useful. Thanks!

Book Discussion for January

We have switched our book choice for January's discussion. We are now reading Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None. We'll meet on January 28 from 12:00-1:00 in the reference/current periodicals area of the library.

Indeed, the recent controversy regarding this book and its appearance in play form at Lakota East High School piqued our group’s interest. The book’s original title (and its initial replacement) are quite clearly racist, as is the “nursery rhyme” which is central to the movement of its plot. We have heard it’s a good mystery story, though, and we’d like to approach it as such. More information on the book is available at http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/andthenthere/summary.html and further information on the title is available at http://www.bookscans.com/Oddities/worst_title.htm Copies of various editions of the work are available through OhioLINK at the following link: http://tinyurl.com/2afqqe

So, please feel free to join us for discussion and refreshments. And remember, in February we’ll be reading and discussing Eric Melbye’s Tru (more details forthcoming). Thanks!

Pssst! Need a textbook?

If you need to take a look at a textbook for one of your classes, the library just might have it. We have assembled a collection of Textbooks on Reserve for over 60 Miami Plan courses offered at the Middletown campus.

Textbooks can be checked out for two hours at a time. If you check one out within two hours of our closing time, you can keep it overnight (it's due back at 9:00am the next morning).

See a full list of the courses for which we have textbooks at http://www.mid.muohio.edu/library/textbooks.cfm We have updated the collection for spring semester and added texts for the following courses:

EDP 201
EDT 181
PHL 105
PHY 172
PHS 242
ZOO 114

So the textbooks are here for you. Let us know if we can be of any assistance.

"Books for the Break!"

As the march toward finals and break continues, let me make you aware of our next MUM Book Discussion. For those of you still around during the week following finals, we will take on Charles Dickens’ much beloved A Christmas Carol on Thursday, December 20, from 12-1 in the library. Many editions and copies are available through the libraries, as well as some film versions (see http://tinyurl.com/299mfs for a title search in the MU catalog). Please come and join us for a great discussion and a tasty treat.

Looking ahead, the group will read Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude (Miami: http://tinyurl.com/35cr7v and OhioLINK: http://tinyurl.com/37r259 ) in late January (date TBA). We will then turn to our own Eric Melbye’s novel Tru in late February (date TBA) (coming soon to a library near you!).

And, last but not least, let me direct your attention to our new book display area in the library, where my esteemed staff (full-time and student assistants) have compiled a display of “Books for Break!” The items were carefully hand chosen, represent an eclectic mix of styles and topics, and are accompanied by printed reviews (and a few cartoon reviews) to help you decide whether they might be of interest. We thought you might like to pick up a read for over the break, and this makes it easy.

Read. Relax. Enjoy. A book, and three words; you can’t go wrong.

John

See http://www.mid.muohio.edu/library/bookdiscussion.cfm for a list of the books and (soon) dates.

Web 2.0 Comes to Town!

The Virtual Gardner-Harvey Library is Open, 24/7 @ http://www.mid.muohio.edu/library

The times & technologies are changing. And so is the Gardner-Harvey Library Web Page. Web 2.0 social software tools have crept onto the page. When? Recently. How? Thanks to Director John Burke, Undercover Techie. What? Therein lays the tale:

IM Reference Made Easier
Ever wish you could just ask a simple question without the bother of setting up an IM account? Meebo chat, your dream widget has arrived. Click on the “IMaLibrarian” box, front and center, start typing in the text box, and hit enter. Yes, you are now an IM pro.

Interactive Maps
Ever needed travel directions from one Miami campus to another? Go to “Contact Us” on the left. Click “this map” and up pops an interactive street and satellite map with turn by turn directions for the directionally-challenged. Click “View Larger Map” for Mapquest directions for all 9 MU Libraries. Not quite TomTom, but affordable!

Custom Search Engines
Ever wonder what the other 23 Ohio Regional Campuses are up to? Click on “Custom Search Engines”, built using Google Co-op, on the left, then “Ohio Regional Campus Search” and toss in a few words, e.g. “recruitment non-traditional students” to find 9 hits. Or explore 113 academic library sites for information and ideas using “Ohio Academic Libraries Search”.

Embedded Tutorials
Ever wish you could afford a personal trainer in academic research? For the motivated and curious, click on “Library Instruction” on the left to find tutorials on Information Fluency for ENG 111/113, Miami eScholar on Academic Integrity, Academic Search Complete, a comprehensive database, CINAHL, Nursing & Allied Health database, Searching OhioLINK, the statewide Ohio Library and Information Network. Bonus finds: interactive research tutorials, research guides, and search tools chart.

Group Computer Use Area

We are thrilled to announce the arrival of a new area in the library: the group computer use area. Located along the stairwell in the heart of the library, the area is designed for work on collaborative projects that may involve or require the use of a computer.

There are four computers arranged on spacious tables in the area and ten chairs. The plan is that each computer can have 2-4 people working around them. There is enough space on the tables to easily spread out other materials.

We hope you and your group will try this area out and find it useful. Let us know how we can make it work better for your learning needs. Beyond the furniture, the area boasts indirect natural light, a view of our stairway descent, and easy access to research and technology assistance.

Go Global; Be Multicultural

Multicultural comparisons just got easier with the new Britannica Country Comparison feature. Select any two countries and click Go to find articles, maps, flags, statistics, events, and multimedia.

And if you want more, go to Britannica's World Data. There you may compare and contrast statistical portraits for 217 nations. Find current country comparisons for up to ten countries at a time, chronological comparisons of historical data for up to ninety years, or ranked statistics of the highest or lowest rates, totals, or percentages for categories you select. Display results in tables or charts.

A good book and the great outdoors: the Library Terrace!

Care to sit in the fresh air while using library resources? Now you can!

We just opened the Library Terrace: a small porch area nestled on the hillside at the rear of the library, with a nice view of Levey Hall. The Terrace, once intended as an additional library entrance, can now serve as a vehicle for enjoying the warmth of a morning or the cool shade of an afternoon while studying, reading, or enjoying the campus wireless network.

Though fall is getting back on track, there is still some temperate weather remaining this year. The Terrace is open during the same hours that the library is open, except that we close it at 7:00PM on Monday through Thursday evenings (while the library stays open until 9:00PM).

We're still working on getting permanent outdoor furniture in place, but we do have chairs and tables available for you to use out there (just ask if you need help). We hope you'll find this a nice addition to our library environment.

Our thanks to the good folks in Physical Facilities for making the Terrace possible.

New Playaways; easy listening in your car

We are happy to announce the addition of 23 new titles to our Playaway digital audio device collection. The newbies range from Beowulf, read by Seamus Heaney, to Sara Gruen's Water for Elephants.

We now have a total of 103 Playaways (for more information on them, see this earlier post. Here is a link to an MU Library Catalog search showing all of them.

A new addition to help you enjoy Playaways on the road are 4 new Belkin FM transmitters. These transmitters (plugged into your cigarette lighter -- they also take batteries -- and your Playaway) broadcast your audio enjoyment onto a vacant FM radio station. Enjoy your Playaway near at hand (a half-a-deck-of-cards-sized device and your earbuds) or on the road!

Reading on Campus

Brains grow better when fed on fresh fodder. Check out the Chronicle of Higher Education, "What They're Reading on College Campuses," September 28, 2007. And if you are really famished, see the New York Times Best Sellers list too. Who knows, you may even get a jump-start on holiday gift-giving.

Harness the Power of OhioLINK

OhioLINK will be celebrating 15 years of service to the college and university students, staff, and faculty of Ohio's academic institutions this November. Explore the wonder of statewide resource sharing among Ohio's libraries: print materials, electronic resources, and multimedia so unusual in our nation. Aren't you glad you work in Ohio? Students: 15 ways to put OhioLINK to work! Faculty/Staff: 15 ideas to utilize OhioLINK!

YouTube Move Over

Looking for terrrific digital videos? Like to learn? Then check out OhioLINK's Top 15 Digital Videos in celebrations of 15 years of service to the academic community of Ohio this November 2007. Students, Staff, and Faculty, did I mention these digital videos are free and can be accessed 24/7 from campus or home?

How believable, how helpful is the Internet?

In response to a question by American Libraries' interviewer: "You don't believe that everything is on the internet?" Garrison Keillor, noted storyteller, musician, author, and creator of public radio broadcast A Prairie Home Companion replied:

"The internet is just an enormous, interesting swamp. It's full of self-promotion, it's full of bad information, it's full of everything. And you can sort of maneuver your way around it, from island to island, and you can find things of interest, but I think there still is room for paper between covers. People have a limited amount of time, and if you take a hard look at the amount of time you spend drifting, trying to get your bearings on the internet, you are grateful for people who can save you time and that's what librarians do--they save you enormous amounts of time."

Weighty Web Sites

PC Magazine's Top 100 Classic Web Sites in 2007 may be the very sites you need to speed you on your way in research, keeping current, making plans, or taking time out for music, movies, and other leisure pursuits. Check out the best of the Internet in list, in slideshow, or by downloading directly as bookmarks. For the curious, see the criteria applied to select Web sites recognized as superior in their categories.

New libraries join OhioLINK

OhioLINK has grown! Nine new libraries are joining the current band of OhioLINK libraries, for a grand total of 93 institutions.

Three seminaries have just joined, and already have their collections available for borrowing:

Methodist Theological School in Ohio

Pontifical College Josephinum

Trinity Lutheran Seminary

Six public libraries will join and become operational in September:

Cuyahoga Falls Public Library

Greene County Public Library

Portage County District Library

Toledo-Lucas County Public Library

Warren-Trumbull County Public Library

Public Library of Youngstown & Mahoning County

That will be a lot more materials to browse through, order to have on hand in 3-4 business days, and hang on to for up to 15 weeks!

OhioLINK Electronic Book Center debuts

OhioLINK has made the following announcement regarding the new Electronic Book Center. This is an exciting addition to our resources:

"The new Electronic Book Center is now available at http://ebooks.ohiolink.edu

We have loaded 5000 e-books from Oxford University Press and Springer.
Additional books are coming from these publishers, but we want to make the E-Book Center available now, even without 100% of the books loaded.

We currently access the Oxford books through Oxford Scholarship Online. We will continue to have access to Oxford's OSO interface, but our own interface makes the same books available within a multi-publisher environment.

We have had access to Springer books at springerlink.com, but this was an interim solution until our own E-Book Center is available.

For the time being, ABC-CLIO reference books remain on a separate interface
at: http://rave.ohiolink.edu/ebooks/reference/home

We will move ABC-CLIO books over to the new system in September, and then the old "Electronic Reference Books" system will superseded.

These e-books will be accessible from the catalog. From the catalog record for each book, a "rave" URL links to the e-book itself. Catalog records for Springer and Oxford books are in process. Existing "rave" URL's for ABC-CLIO books will point over to the new system, once that migration is complete."

Region-free DVD Players Available

The Library has added two region-free DVD players for use in playing DVDs produced in any region in the world. One is set up with a monitor in our IMC room. The other is available at our Circulation Desk for checkout (on a 7-day loan).

We added the region-free DVD players to increase our community's ability to use DVD materials produced worldwide. We also hope to free ourselves from United States release delays of international films. For a brief overview of the whole region issue, please see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD_region_code.

If you would be interested in ordering DVDs that are not available in our region, please be sure to contact the library.

7 Things You Should Know About Wikipedia

Take a look at "7 Things You Should Know About Wikipedia", a recent publication of Educause. This two page document answers essential questions about the popular online encyclopedia that anyone can edit. Students use it, faculty use it, even librarians use it (it's linked from our web site). What should we know to get the most out of it and guide others to avoid fallacy pitfalls? Well, read the document!

Some call it leisure . . . we call it literacy!

Just when I was planning to promote our revitalized arrangement of new and popular books in the library (and our nifty Playaways), a possible crisis in literacy came to my attention. Zounds! Coincidence? . . . . I think not!

First, the library has long been committed to providing recreational or leisure reading opportunities along with our more scholarly fare. We have formed a new location for you to browse these items right by the blue chairs in our reference area. Since the 1971-72 school year, the library has leased the "McNaughton Collection" of popular fiction and non-fiction books. Ably chosen by Belinda Martindell since 1990 (or thereabouts), the McNaughtons offer over two hundred titles for your reading pleasure. They are inter-shelved with our New Book collection, a selection of titles ordered by faculty and staff members and managed by Diane Miller.

In addition to these books, we have a growing collection of Playaway digital audio devices. We are just about to nearly double the size of this collection by adding 40 new titles. You can browse the Playaways right next to the McNaughton and New Book area. You can also run a keyword search for "playaway" in the catalog. It's mainly popular adult fiction, with some children's fiction and a few non-fiction titles.

All right, now the potential literacy crisis: are college graduates growing less literate? Are they reading less for personal enjoyment? The following articles were suggested as background reading for an upcoming discussion at the American Library Association annual conference next week, entitled "Aren't There Any Good Books Here? (Un)Required Reading and the Academic Library":

• “A First Look at the Literacy of America’s Adults in the 21st Century” (NCES) at http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2006470

• Dillon, Sam. “Literacy Falls for Graduates from College, Testing Finds,” The New York Times, December 16, 2005 at http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/16/education/16literacy.html

• Elliott, Julie. “Academic Libraries and Extracurricular Reading Promotion,” Reference and User Services Quarterly 46:3 (Spring 2007): 34-43.

• Feller, Ben. “Johnny Still Can’t Read – In College,” The Globe and Mail, January 20, 2006 at http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060120.wliter0120/BNStory/International/

• MacAdam, Barbara. “Sustaining the Culture of the Book: The Role of Enrichment Reading and Critical Thinking in the Undergraduate Curriculum,” Library Trends 44:2 (Fall 1995): 237-63.

Is there anything we can do about this? Well, fear not . . . the above resources can help. We all need a little relaxation, stimulation, and satisfaction that can be gained from reading or listening to a good book.