Staff Picks

Looking for a good book to read during winter break? Need a suggestion for a good movie to watch? The library has a nice collection of staff picks on display that are sure to entice. With everything from mystery and suspense to comedy and drama, we have something to please everyone.

Coffee, Tea and Hot Cocoa @ the Library

Need a break from the cold weather? Or a recharge in between finals? The library has free coffee, tea and hot cocoa available all week to provide some warm relief and a caffeine boost. Stop on by when you have time.

Resource of the Week: STAR Lounges and Group Study Area

Need a quiet place to study or somewhere to work on a final presentation or group project? The library has a number of chairs and desks spread throughout the building for private studying as well as our two STAR Lounges and our group study area, which are this week’s Resource of the Week.

STAR Lounges 1 and 2
These two rooms are dedicated Space for Technology And Recreation. They may be used for small groups or individuals to study, jointly prepare projects, practice presentations, or view DVDs or videos. STAR Lounge 1 has seating for six people and a whiteboard. STAR Lounge 2 has seating for 13 people and a whiteboard.

Group Study Area
This area on our lower level offers tables and chairs along with comfortable seating for large and small groups or individuals. Wireless access is available, along with a whiteboard and convenient access to our vending area.

Winter Break Hours

With the conclusion of finals week next week, the library will conclude our regular semester hours and enter into Winter Break territory. Here are the changes you will need to be aware of past Friday of next week:

Saturday & Sunday, Dec. 18-19 - Closed
Monday-Thursday, Dec. 20-23 - 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM
Friday, Dec. 24th to Sunday, January 2nd - Closed
Monday-Friday, Jan. 3-7 - 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM
Regular Hours start again on Monday, January 10, 2011

We wish you a restful and productive Winter Break!

Library survey results are in!

From October 18 - November 12, 2010, the library had a web-based and paper one-minute survey in place to gather suggestions for improvements to the library. We had 40 responses from the MUM community: 15 students, 11 faculty members, 11 staff members, and 3 Middletown community members.

After identifying their status, respondents made one or more suggestions of ways we could improve the library.
We are still analyzing the responses, and have thus far grouped them into ones involving: (1) the library environment, (2) the collection, (3) our services, (4)needs for marketing/information, (5) staff.

Will we add a Starbucks, buy more music CDs, offer a drop-off spot in Johnston to return library items, or hire more staff? All of these suggestions are possible, provided that they fit our mission and our future budgets. We realized from the results that there are some services we need to market more and facets of the library (books and computers) that people really like.

We are grateful to members of the MUM community for taking the time to give us input. Our mission is to help you meet your informational needs, and we welcome your feedback at any time to help us fine-tune our services.

To give you an idea of the subjects We created a Wordle below to display the most common words that came up in the survey (the capitalized terms Faculty, Students, Staff, and Community reflect the status choices of the respondents and the other terms were drawn from the open comments of the respondents).

Get the library's number! Text us when you have a question

We have set up a new number for our text-a-librarian service at the Gardner-Harvey Library:

513-393-9141

Whenever you have a question, send us a text for a quick response to your information need (standard text messaging rates apply).

We'll answer your question right away when we're open, and if we're closed when you text, we'll receive your stored text as soon as we login.

And be sure to make use of our other contact methods.

It's easy to reach an information expert.

Resource of the Week: Laptops

Looking for a computer with Microsoft Office to finish your paper or presentation? The Library has them. In addition to our public access computers, the Library also has 15 laptops and netbooks with wireless network cards available for students to check out. These items check out through closing time on the following day (one-day loan). A set of laptops and tablet PCs are also available for checkout to faculty and staff.

World AIDS Day

"Every year on December 1, we commemorate World AIDS Day to bring attention to the tremendous impact of the HIV epidemic in the United States and around the world. In observance of World AIDS Day, today CDC launched a special report, CDC Vital Signs on HIV Testing in the United States, in recognition of the pivotal role that HIV testing plays in our national HIV prevention strategy."

To learn more about HIV and AIDS, go to AIDS.gov.

Resource of the Week: Academic Search Complete

We know the end of the semester can be a difficult time as you gear up for finals and finish writing your research papers, and sometimes you just don't know where to start. That is where Academic Search Complete comes in handy. This Resource of the Week is one of our broadest, most general indexes to periodicals, that provides abstracts for over 9,300 scholarly and popular periodicals, and full text for more than 5,300 of these. Academic Search Complete covers virtually all academic areas of study, including social sciences, humanities, education, computer sciences, engineering, arts and literature, medical sciences, and ethnic studies and is a a great database to begin research on a range of topics.

So don't stress out on where to begin your research, just give Academic Search Complete a try and see what is out there.

*For more help with where to find information on different subjects, check out our Research by Subject guides.

Library Hours for Thanksgiving Break

In celebration of the Thanksgiving break, the library will be open the following hours for the week of November 22nd - 27th:

Monday - Tuesday - 8a.m. - 9p.m.
Wednesday - 8a.m. - 5p.m.
Thursday - Saturday - Closed

We hope everyone has a safe and happy Thanksgiving break.

Resource of the Week: Amazon Kindle

Looking to buy an e-reader this holiday season? Why not stop by the library and take one of our Kindles out for a test run? Ranked #1 in Consumer Reports lab tests, the Amazon Kindle is known for its excellent navigation and readability, which makes it this week's Resource of the Week.

For more information about borrowing a library Kindle, check out our Kindle and iPad page.

Anniversary of the Gettysburg Address

From History.com

"On November 19, 1863, at the dedication of a military cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, during the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln delivers one of the most memorable speeches in American history. In just 272 words, Lincoln brilliantly and movingly reminded a war-weary public why the Union had to fight, and win, the Civil War."

In honor of this historic speech, Adam Gault created the following animated presentation.

Gettysburg Address from Adam Gault on Vimeo.

Resource of the Week: RefWorks

In preparation for tomorrow's Library workshop, this week’s Resource of the Week is RefWorks. RefWorks is an "online research management, writing and collaboration tool" that is "designed to help researchers easily gather, manage, store and share all types of information, as well as generate citations and bibliographies."

For more information about RefWorks and for a chance to get help setting up your own account, come to our workshop on Monday, November 15, 2010 from 4-5 pm in the Library, Room GRD 111.

Congratulations to our Gaming Day Winners!

The library staff would like to thank everyone who came out to celebrate National Gaming Day @ your library. Whether you played one of our board games, took part in our Wii challenges, or enjoyed some energy boosting coffee and candy, we hope you had a great day.

We would also like to congratulate the winners of our Wii challenges, who each received a GameStop gift card as their prize:

Super Smash Brothers

1. Stephen Acford
2. Billy Comminos
3. Josh Breese

Wii Sports Resort Archery
1. Levi Cramer
2. Michael Craft
3. Shawn Robinson

New materials added in September and October

The September and October new materials list is now available. We added 125 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

Resource of the Week: Wii console, games and more

Taking a break from our electronic resources, this week's Resource of the Week looks at some of the fun gaming equipment that the library has for checkout. The library has a Wii console, Wii Fit and multiple games that are available for one day and three day checkout, as well as a Wii console that is set up in STAR Lounge 1 for students, faculty and staff to use in between classes.

Want to give the Wii a try? This Wednesday, November 10, 2010, the Gardner-Harvey Library invites you to help us celebrate the American Library Association’s National Gaming Day @ your library. Beginning at 9:00am and running until 8:00pm, this all-day event offers the chance for students, faculty and staff to kick back and show off their gaming skills. Stop by throughout the day and choose a game to play from our selection of board games, or use one of our two Wiis to play such great games as Rock Band, Mario Kart, Lego Star Wars and more. You can also take part in our Wii Competition from Noon-2:00pm for a chance to win one of six GameStop gift cards. The competition includes Super Smash Brothers Brawl and Wii Fit Ski Jump Challenges and the prizes will be awarded to the top three finishers in each game. Snacks will also be on hand to help keep everyone’s gaming energy up.

Resource of the Week: PsycINFO

In honor of this week's viewing of Sherlock, our Resource of the Week is the PsycINFO database. While Sherlock Holmes uses different kinds of psychology as part of his tools to solve mysteries, PsycINFO covers on an array of subjects related to psychology including, education, business, medicine, nursing, law, social work, and animal behavior. PsycINFO includes access to citations with abstracts of journal articles, books, book chapters, reports, and dissertations.

Make sure to come by the Library on Wednesday, November 3, 2010 from noon - 1pm for a viewing of Sherlock: A Study in Pink. Don't forget to bring your lunch.

Announcing Mini Saga Fiction Contest Winners

MUM writers, thank you for participating in the Gardner-Harvey Library Mini Saga Fiction Contest! We appreciate your creativity and effort crafting a story in exactly 50 words. Contest judges Dr. Schorman and Dr. Casey reviewed nearly 25 entries and selected these two winning entries. Congratulations to David Miller and Julia Brodt-Eppley.

We had a yard sale after the wake and got rid of the magazines, teacups, saucers, pots, china, and the hairy armchair. And yes. We even sold the telescope she would use to inspect meteors and planets. As we finished, a straggler came our way. I swear it was mom. D. E. Miller

Class began. Lecture hall crowded. He entered from the back, late. Usually sat up front, Braille machine positioned to clack. Unsure, he froze. End student aware, sent message down back row. Seamlessly, each nodded, shifted down a seat. He claimed the end, positioned Braille machine. Then smiled. Instructor cried. Silently. Julia Brodt-Eppley

Resource of the Week: Learning Express Library

In preparation for our upcoming Library workshop, this week’s Resource of the Week is the Learning Express Library. This online test-prep, skills improvement and job search database offers interactive courses in math, reading, and writing, as well as hundreds of practice exams in everything from grade school achievement tests to civil service exams. The Learning Express Library also has a new Job & Career Accelerator section which includes an Occupation Matcher and enables a user to create a resume, practice interview skills, and apply for open jobs.

For more information about the Learning Express Library and for a chance to see it in action, come to our workshop on Tuesday October 26, 2010 from 4-5 pm in the Library, Room GRD 111.

Take the library's one-minute survey!

We're hoping to get some input from you as we continue to improve the library. Click here to take our survey. All you need to do is tell us whether you're a student, faculty or staff member, or community user, and then tell us one thing you would do to improve the library. All responses are completely anonymous.

This will help us tremendously as we make plans for this year and beyond. Thanks for your minute!