Personalized Research Help

Does the information universe seem vast and mysterious? Do you find research assignments frustrating? Have you ever wished for a guide to help you search for and find information? Well, now you can request a consultation with a Gardner-Harvey librarian! Consultations are an opportunity for you to work one-on-one with a librarian who can suggest research strategies, search terms, and print and electronic resources. Librarians can also show you tools for citing sources. Learn more about this service and make an appointment by filling out the online form on the Library’s website at:

http://www.mid.muohio.edu/library/consultation.cfm

Or, stop by the Library and fill out a purple request form at the InfoDesk. A librarian will contact you within 24 hours to set up a time and you’ll be on your way to receiving unhurried, personalized help with your research questions.

Textbooks Collection Gains Donation and Grows

Thanks to a tremendous donation of funds from Robert and Nita Driscoll, the library's Textbooks on Reserve collection has expanded. Robert was an active member of the Middletown community and a patron of the Gardner-Harvey Library for many years. Mrs. Driscoll made this gift to the campus in memory and continuation of his efforts to support education. Textbooks have certainly not become cheaper, and this gift extends our reach to serve students.

We've added 38 new books to the collection, updating a number of changed editions and adding books for ten new courses: (ACC 221, ACC 222, ART 111, ART 121, ART 186, CJS 125, EDP 209, MBI 111, MKT 291, MTH 125). We now offer textbooks for more than 85 Miami courses.

Be sure to check the list at http://www.mid.muohio.edu/library/textbooks.cfm to see if textbooks are available for your course. And keep your donations of used copies or extra desk copies coming! We are always eager to extend this program to help students have access to the learning materials they need.

What's New @Your Gardner-Harvey Library

While you were away this summer, library space was renovated to heighten your learning and recreation!
For the outdoor-type, sit at the new cafe tables on the back terrace. Read, study, and chat while gazing on the green hillside. For the indoor-type, explore the STAR Lounge (Space for Technology, Academics, and Recreation). Here you may practice PowerPoint presentations, watch DVDs with a group, connect to cable TV, or game with Nintendo Wii. New signage should help direct you to these library areas.
While here, grab a copy of Navigating the Information Universe, our Fall Semester 2008 newsletter to update the Miami University Middletown community on library developments, services, and resources available to Faculty/Staff and Students. The information world is ever expanding.

New Materials for July

The July new materials list is now available. We added 215 books, DVDs, and other items last month, thanks to the impressive efforts of our faculty selectors and the library staff.

You can find our current and previous new materials lists on the left hand side of our web site under "New Materials Lists."

Have a suggestion of something to order? Email one of our staff members or drop by the library. Thanks!

John

New Materials for June

The June new materials list is now available. We added 250 books, DVDs, and other items last month, thanks to the impressive efforts of our faculty selectors and the library staff.

You can find our current and previous new materials lists on the left hand side of our web site under "New Materials Lists."

Have a suggestion of something to order? Email one of our staff members or drop by the library. Thanks!

John

Three New OhioLINK Libraries

Please join us in welcoming OhioLINK's newest member institutions: Ohio Christian University (located in Circleville), Saint Mary Seminary & Graduate School of Theology (located in Wickliffe) and the University of Northwestern Ohio (located in Lima). Records from St. Mary Seminary and the University of Northwestern Ohio were recently loaded into the OhioLINK Library Catalog. Ohio Christian University's records will be loaded soon. The three new libraries will have PCIRC training in July and should be live and able to place and receive requests in August.

These newest additions bring the total number of OhioLINK member institutions to 90, including 16 public/research universities, 23 community/technical colleges, 50 private colleges and the State Library of Ohio.

(from Candi Clevenger at OhioLINK)

Sarah Frye joins GHL staff!

We are happy to welcome Sarah Frye to our staff today. Sarah is our new Public Services Librarian, and will provide reference and instructional services for the library and the campus. She will also handle interlibrary loan requests. Sarah joins us from the staff of the Vogel Library of Wartburg College in Waverly, IA. Be sure to welcome her when you see her around campus.

Database Changes for July 1

Beginning July 1, several OhioLINK databases will be replaced with new resources. The affected databases are funded by a Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) grant, which is administered through the State Library of Ohio, and are available to all Ohioans through Libraries Connect Ohio (LCO). LCO is a collaborative effort of OhioLINK, OPLIN, INFOhio, and the State Library of Ohio. Libraries Connect Ohio is constantly striving to provide the strongest portfolio of research resources possible to serve the diverse lifelong learning needs of all Ohioans, within budgetary limitations.

What’s Changing?

(The following links are somewhat unstable at the moment -- they will be linked from the University Libraries' Indexes & Databases page when they are fully up and running)

* Biography Reference Bank will replace American National Biography. Biography Reference Bank provides biographical information on approximately half a million people, from antiquity to the present, along with thousands of images.

* Consumer Health Complete (an EBSCOhost database) provides convenient access to easily understandable health and medical information including medical encyclopedias, popular reference books and magazine articles.

* Science Online will replace AccessScience. Science Online presents a broad range of scientific disciplines through extensive definitions, essays, diagrams, biographies, and experiments.

* World Book Web (includes World Book Dictionary, World Book Atlas, World Book Advanced, World Book Kids, and Enciclopedia Estudiantil Hallazgos) will replace Encyclopaedia Britannica Online, Encyclopaedia Britannica School Edition and Enciclopedia Universal en Español. World Book Web is a suite of online research tools that delivers encyclopedia articles, primary source collections, educator tools, student activities, pictures, audio, and video, complemented by current periodicals and related Web sites.

In addition, OhioLINK will not be renewing its subscription to Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals and Bibliography of the History of Art. Some OhioLINK member libraries may continue to subscribe some of the canceled resources individually (Miami is continuing with American National Biography at least; more news as it develops). Please let us know if you have any questions.

Journal Articles Now in WorldCat.org

Library online catalogs used to contain the catalog or bibliographic records for books, movies, sound recordings, and journal titles to which the library subscribed. But never articles published in magazines and journals! So researchers looking for periodical articles typically start in a full-text, subscription database made available through libraries.

Change has come! Two long established publishers and database vendors H.W. Wilson, 1898- and Modern Language Association, 1883- have negotiated an agreement with OCLC, a worldwide library consortium, to make available “article-level records” in WorldCat.org

This means researchers may search a single, vast catalog for books and more than fifty million articles from such databases as MEDLINE, ERIC, British Library, GPO Monthly Catalog, and OCLC ArticleFirst. Once the article is located in WorldCat.org, the article will be cross-linked to the full-text database in one’s local library when you click on "Find a Copy." Print holdings of periodicals held by your local library or Miami University Libraries will also be listed. Integrated searching of authoritative journal articles has just gotten a little easier.

Readers To Gather & Discuss

The Last Lecture. Randy Pausch. Hyperion. 2008. 206 pages.

Life is short. So is The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch, Professor of Computer Science, Husband, Father, and Cancer Patient.

What dreams do you hold dear? Are you walking “The Road Less Traveled”? Come discuss what matters most when the clock is running down, as it is for each of us.

When: Thursday, June 26, 2008. 12:00-1:00 P.M.
Where: Gardner-Harvey Library, Blue Chairs Circle
Who: Everyone is welcome, even those who plan to read the book!

Read it. Be Here!
The GHL Story Squad

100 Best Technology Products of 2008

Given that a person only has so much time and money, why not use the best available products to enhance productivity and quality of life? PC World has once again created a winning one hundred list of amazing Web sites (music & video, e-mail & social networking, finance, news, and travel) browsers, laptops, smart phones, cameras, MP3 Players, GPS, games, software, and more. Products were ranked by overall quality based on design, functionality, performance, and impact. Check it out; there's something here for you!

Textbooks on Reserve Wrap-Up

The Textbooks on Reserve (TOR) program has been in place at the Gardner-Harvey Library since Fall Semester 2006. I thought it would be a good idea to let you know how the program has been used during the past academic year (2007-2008) and what changes and additions lie ahead.

TOR started as a collection of textbooks that covered about 40 courses at Miami Middletown. We now offer textbooks that serve as the main text for over 70 courses, along with supplementary materials that accompany several texts.

Use of the program has grown steadily over the last two years. This fall (2007) we tallied 232 items being checked out for use, and that was exceeded in the spring (2008) for a total of 369 checkouts. As of May 12, 2008, the textbooks included in the program have been checked out 793 times since the inception of TOR. Just last week we passed the 800 checkout mark, meaning that items held in the program have circulated an average of nearly 8 times each.

The ten most popular textbooks used by students at MUM are the following (listed with their total lifetime checkouts):

• Elementary and Intermediate Algebra (MTH 101/102) - 98
• Panorama (SPN 101/102) - 77
• Prealgebra (MTH 002) - 74
• Materials and Processes in Manufacturing (ENT 152) - 55
• Engineering Materials (ENT 151) - 48
• Hole's Human Anatomy & Physiology (ZOO 171) - 35
• General Chemistry (CHM 137/141) - 34
• New Perspectives on Microsoft Office 2007 (CIT 154) - 29
• Psychology (PSY 111) - 28
• Microbiology, a Systems Approach (MBI 111/161) - 23

Panorama had been our most popular book for four straight semesters, but Spring 2008 uses pushed the MTH 101/102 book ahead.

The numbers only tell part of the story. Each checkout represents a student who needed to use a given book; perhaps for just two hours, perhaps overnight. Students have taken books to class, studied them in the library, and worked on problem sets at home. The stories that we hear as we interact with these students has continued to motivate us to build and maintain TOR.

In building this collection of textbooks we have benefited tremendously from the donation of textbooks by faculty members and students, funds provided by Miami Middletown Student Government, the use of department library acquisitions funds to purchase textbooks, and the library funding we are provided by the campus. In the year ahead, we will receive further funding for TOR from a donor (more on this later) which will help us keep up our current coverage of courses and expand that reach.

So, we head into summer with the goal of buying new texts, replacing changed editions, and looking for more needs we can meet. One thing we would like to work on this year is a Textbook Donation Program at the end of each semester. Students might decide to donate their used texts to the library for TOR rather than keeping them or selling them back. Again, more on this later.

Thank you to everyone who has supported TOR and helped us spread the word among students! We greatly appreciate your help.

John

New Materials for May

The May new materials list is now available. We added over 380 books, DVDs, and other items last month, thanks to the impressive efforts of our faculty selectors and the library staff. There is truly something here for everyone, from Nietzsche to hiking, six-word memoirs to running 5ks, Euler to toothpicks. Well, it seemed like there was something for everyone. Like motherhood, and sex, and water detectives, and germs, and immigration, and blogging, and . . . well, you get the idea. Check out the list!

You can find our current and previous new materials lists on the left hand side of our web site under "New Materials Lists."

Have a suggestion of something to order? Email one of our staff members or drop by the library. Thanks!

John

Playaways update

If you've enjoyed using our Playaway digital books, you're in for a treat. All right, if you haven't used them before, you should be excited, too.

We have just added 22 more titles to the collection (with many thanks to Cathy Bishop Clark for her recommendations - hey, you could suggest titles, too!). You can quickly browse the whole list of 130 titles here (most of the new ones are at the top of the list).

You can also browse them in person right in front of our circulation desk in our new rotating Playaway display stand. We're populating the stand now, but it will be ready for your browsing pleasure shortly.

John

New Materials for April

We have just posted our new materials list for April, and it's a doozy. Over 240 books, DVDs, and other items have been added to the collection this month. A new feature of this month's list: a (hopefully) clearer division of the items into subject areas.

You can find our current and previous new materials lists on the left hand side of our web site under "New Materials Lists."

Have a suggestion of something to order? Email one of our staff members or drop by the library. Thanks!

John

What does the lawsuit against Georgia State mean?

Here's a well-written explanation of the recent lawsuit filed by the American Association of Publishers against Georgia State University over its use of an electronic reserves service (and perhaps also involving faculty members posting class readings in the university course management system).

NUL Copyright: What does the lawsuit against Georgia State mean?

Libraries have long provided access to materials on reserve in support of faculty members and their students. Section 108 of Title 17 of the United States Code, AKA the "Copyright Law of the United States of America" specifically guarantees the right for libraries to hold copies of works for the use of students in a given class for the duration of that class.

This case questions the ability of Section 108 to apply in a digital environment. Along with many other academic libraries, Miami University Libraries offers electronic reserves services -- see our guidelines here. We will be carefully watching this case and will post updates as they occur.

KnowItNow Academic: Virtual Reference Service

Got information woes? Need a little help with a research question? Far from a library? Turn to a new, free statewide virtual reference service known as KnowItNow Academic. The program, piloted from January to March 2008 through the Federal Institute of Museum and Library Services grant has now become a permanent service available from 11:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Monday through Thursday and Fridays until 5:00 p.m. Academic librarians from 12 OhioLINK libraries provide reference assistance in subject queues in which they possess expertise: business, government documents, foreign languages & literature, genealogy, general, history, literature & film, music & art, science & technology, and social sciences. Outside these hours, questions are answered by the regular KnowItNow channels staffed by public librarians and After-Dark librarians, independent librarians organized by the Northeast Ohio Regional Library System so that Ohio residents have 24/7 access to reference service. Give KnowItNow Academic a try the next time you are far from your favorite physical library.

National Library Week

In celebration of National Library Week, April 13-19, 2008, Gale is offering FREE ACCESS to 21 Databases most of which are unavailable through Miami University Libraries. This is the week to work on research papers, projects, and presentations. Explore such extensive, authoritative electronic resources as Health & Wellness Resource Center, History Resource Center U.S., History Resource Center World, Nursing Resource Center, Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center: Critical Thinking, Science Resource Center, Small Business Resource Center, etc.



In addition, FREE ACCESS to Books & Authors, a new online readers' advisory resource is available throughout all of April. Build your summer reading list now of favorite authors, genres, expert picks, or award winners. Take a book along wherever you travel.

Chinese-Language Arts and Humanities Journals

OhioLINK member institutions now have access to 257 Chinese-language arts and humanities journals in the China Online Journals collection from Wanfang.

You can access the COJ journals via several links:

Browse the database: http://www.wanfangdata.com/COJ/browse.asp
or http://www1.wanfangdata.com/COJ/browse.asp

Quick Search: http://www.wanfangdata.com/COJ/quick_search.asp
or http://www1.wanfangdata.com/COJ/quick_search.asp

Advanced search: http://www.wanfangdata.com/COJ/advanced_search.asp or
http://www1.wanfangdata.com/COJ/advanced_search.asp

This resource has been added to the OhioLINK list of databases under China Online Journals and as "also recommended" under all subject areas. It will be added to the Miami University Libraries Indexes and Databases list shortly.

New Materials for March

We have just posted our new materials list for March. These are the items (books, DVDs, etc.) that were added to the collection during this month. We are awaiting a large number of items from earlier orders that should come in during April.

You can find our current and previous new materials lists on the left hand side of our web site under "New Materials Lists."
Have a suggestion of something to order? Email one of our staff members or drop by the library. Thanks!

John