Congratulations to ENG 109 our Embedded Librarian Survey Winners!

Did you take a class that had an embedded librarian? If so, you probably received an email a few weeks ago asking you to fill out our online survey. The class who had the most completed surveys would receive either breakfast or lunch on us. With almost 60% completing our survey, ENG 109 were the winners and received lunch from the library during their final class last week.

Congratulations once again to our survey winning class and thank you to all of you who completed our survey. Your responses help us to keep growing and improving our embedded librarian program.

Metaliteracy

You know the Miami 2020 Plan is in place and guiding curriculum development and institutional priorities.  It highlights learning and discovery, inquiry-based experiential learning, immersion of faculty and students in research and creative scholarship, global engagement, and e-learning.

What may be news is that the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) has a task force in place to revise its 2000 standards.  Discussion of the draft:  Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education  will continue at the American Library Association annual meeting, June 2014.  The revision shifts emphasis to metaliteracy and threshold concepts (knowledge practices or abilities).  Today’s students are creators and curators of information, expected by employers to collaborate in teams to produce digital projects.  Your Gardner-Harvey Librarians have the privilege of facilitating a Discussion Forum for the national membership of ACRL’s instruction section this June.  The new framework will be implemented in 2015. 

What does this mean for me and how will it impact the courses I teach? 

You may wish to redesign one or more of your course research assignments in the next year.  One of the Gardner-Harvey librarians would be pleased to assist you in this effort or provide metaliteracy instruction in a format that meets your students’ needs, whether first-generation, non-traditional, international…

Librarians are glad to offer in-class instruction or Learning Management System Embedded Librarianship or Research Consultations.  Simply start the conversation by contacting us this summer or next fall.  We are happy to collaborate with you to strengthen students’ understanding of issues and skills related to the complex information ecosystem.

Library materials added in April

To bring you up to date on what has recently been added to the collection, a new materials list is now available that reflects additions during April. We added 122 books, DVDs, and other items during that time, thanks to your selections and suggestions. The list is sorted by call number, with items grouped roughly by subject area.  

This tag will show you all of the prior lists of new materials, in reverse chronological order.

It is a pretty eclectic and interesting list, as always, but there's something missing from it.  What's missing?  The book or DVD or whatnot that you or our students need!  Is something missing from our collection that you or others might use?

If you have a suggestion of something to order, please use our online request form, email Jennifer Hicks or one of our other staff members, or drop by the library with your request.  We are closing out our requests for this fiscal year, but could order it once our new budget year begins in July.  We have added 856 items so far this year.

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

Coffee is coming (and tea, hot cocoa, and lemonade)!

The Library will offer free coffee, tea, hot cocoa, and lemonade all during finals week, starting on Monday, May 12th.  It will be set up in our entrance area from roughly 8:00am to 9:00pm, Monday through Thursday, and from 8:00am to 5:00pm on Friday.  Please drop on by and enjoy a cup!  

It's our way of making your last minute studying and paper/project preparation a bit more relaxing.  Thanks for being a part of our library community!

Celebrate Earth Day at the Library!

Tuesday, April 22nd is Earth Day and a celebration of trees and geological samples will be held on the Middletown campus from 11:30-1:00 in the Gardner-Harvey Library.

An exhibit featuring minerals, rocks, and local fossils collected by Middletown Geology students will be on display. It will be staffed by Geology students during that time, and then will be in place for the remainder of the week. The exhibit was curated by Dr. Tammie Gerke and is sponsored by the Department of Geology and Environmental Earth Science.

Free tree seedlings will also be available, provided by the Miami Middletown Botany Club under the guidance of Dr. Carolyn Keiffer. There are 100 trees available, with some almost 5 feet tall! There are four varieties:

• Kousa Dogwood 
• Bur Oak 
• White Pine 
• Thornless Honey Locust 

Please come by to learn about the minerals, rocks, and fossils, to get a beautiful tree for your yard, and to peruse a display of library materials related to geology and earth science.

Here's what we said: library goals for 2014

After posting the survey results, my staff reminded me that I should post the library goals that we came up with in December 2013 for our 2014 calendar year.  It is perhaps no surprise that some of the needs we identified overlap so closely with the most common areas for improvement from the survey.  Here is what we're working on this year:

2014 Goals

• Study rooms/offices/closed storage
• Digital media lab/makerspace
• Door repairs
• Artist/mural
• Regular library programming/new workshops

Thanks again for your interest in the library and our shared commitment to meet the needs of the campus!

That's What They Said: One-Minute Survey Results

Here is a short summary of results from the the Library's One-Minute Survey.  The survey was available on the web and in print from February 4 through March 10, 2014.  It simply asked respondents to self-identify by their connection to the University, and to offer one way that they would improve the library.  83 individuals responded to the survey.  38 (46%) were students, 27 (33%) were faculty members, 11 (13%) were staff members, 4 (5%) were community borrowers, and the final 3 (4%) identified themselves as "Miami Alumni" in the "other" blank.

Respondents offered many thoughtful comments and suggestions on library services and the library building itself .  The most popular categories for comments were the following, including samples from each:

• Thanking the library staff (16, or 19% of respondents)

• "I would not change a thing; this library is very efficient and full of resources." (Student)
•  "Fill it with people: students, faculty, community. You are already doing a great job at getting this to happen." (Faculty)

• More study rooms (15, or 18% of respondents)

• "Private and silent reading rooms where power outlets are provided for students to connect their computers." (Student)
• "More quiet study rooms or table space to look at the books you select before checking them out." (Staff)
• "Add more classrooms and study rooms." (Faculty)

• Technology additions (13, or 16% of respondents)

• "Capability to quickly create student online access to media content in various formats (e.g., VHS, DVD, CD, Audio Cassette, 35MM, etc) that would be easily accessible from off campus computers with either Windows or Mac operating systems." (Faculty)
• "A Go-Pro video camera." (Student) 
• "One suggestion is to have hot spots for check out for faculty and staff traveling etc." (Staff/Faculty) 

• Library building issues (9, or 11% of respondents)

• "If I could make one improvement, it would honestly be the front doors. They are old, hard to push, and loud." (Student)
•  "More modern architecture and furniture.  Update as much as possible." (Student)
• "Bigger elevator." (Community borrower) 

• Changes to to improve the library's environment (9, or 11% of respondents)

• "The building would be as calm as possible with little clutter and noise. There would be a sense of privacy and comfort within the walls." (Student)
•  "Fishtanks, terrariums, etc. . . . They could provide interesting "distractions" or "attractions" to students, faculty, etc.  They could also be opportunities for academic engagement." (Faculty)
•  "Sometimes other students are not quiet and it's distracting." (Student)

• Changes to library furniture (9, or 11% of respondents)

• "More secluded areas to study that have comfortable couches and comfortable chairs (the blue ones)." (Student)
•  "Modernize the bookshelves so it does not look so dated." (Student)
•  "Large and solid desks have been replaced by cheaper units with wheels." (Student)

As you can see, respondents had many interesting suggestions for improving the library, and we haven't even mentioned the "covered walkway between buildings" or the "free coffee and pizza."  While those are unlikely additions, we are considering other suggestions, such as checking out magazines, creating "a doodle wall to simulate creativity," and adding locally made art work, in addition to the requests in the most common categories above.

We were heartened to see that we've already met some of the requests, but realize that we need to market these services better: "a small section of children's books" is already available in our Juvenile section, and we just added a number of award-winning 2013 books to that collection, and the above suggestion to give students online access to media content is already in place in our Video on Demand service (though it can be improved).  We also encourage those who wished us to add more books or DVDs to the collection to just let us know the titles you would like, and we'll add them.

One other item bears mentioning here:  five respondents (6%) asked that the library add weekend hours.  Based on our experience in offering those hours for many years with declining visits, and the handful of requests we've received about it during this academic year, we are unlikely to add weekend hours without a clearer mandate.  Instead, our energies will go toward making other improvements and additions to our service.

Thank you for taking the time to participate in the survey!

Library materials added in March

To bring you up to date on what has recently been added to the collection, a new materials list is now available that reflects additions during March. We added 91 books, DVDs, and other items during that time, thanks to your selections and suggestions. The list is sorted by call number, with items grouped roughly by subject area.  

This tag will show you all of the prior lists of new materials, in reverse chronological order.

It is a pretty eclectic and interesting list, as always, but there's something missing from it.  What's missing?  The book or DVD or whatnot that you or our students need!  Is something missing from our collection that you or others might use?

If you have a suggestion of something to order for the 2013/14 fiscal year, please use our online request form, email Jennifer Hicks or one of our other staff members, or drop by the library with your request.  We would like to close out our request period on Friday, April 11.

We are working to spend our acquisitions budget for the year, and we need your requests to make that happen.  We have added 729 items so far this year, and we have the budget to add a few more. What do you need?  Let us know.

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

Library materials added in February

To bring you up to date on what has recently been added to the collection, a new materials list is now available that reflects additions during February. We added 101 books, DVDs, and other items during that time, thanks to your selections and suggestions. The list is sorted by call number, with items grouped roughly by subject area.  

This tag will show you all of the prior lists of new materials.  

Is something missing from this list?  Or missing from our collection?

If you have a suggestion of something to order for the 2013/14 fiscal year, please use our online request form, email Jennifer Hicks or one of our other staff members, or drop by the library with your request at any time.  We are working to spend our acquisitions budget for the year, and we need your requests to make that happen.  What do you need?  Let us know.

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

How do I find out if the Library has the textbook I need?

Good question!  Finding a textbook can be simple or involved.  This is the process.  

Best case scenario:  the Gardner-Harvey Library has a copy of the textbook you want on Reserve for your course.  The Gardner-Harvey Library buys textbooks for about 30 Miami Plan courses.  In other words, we have many, but not all textbooks.  (Still the library is not the bookstore.  Just because the bookstore is selling or renting the 2014 print or electronic edition, it does not mean the library will have it too.)

At the Gardner-Harvey Library, all Textbooks on Reserve are listed by Course Number and Title so you can easily check.  In these cases, you may usually borrow the item for 2 hours.  You can keep it longer if you check the item out 2 hours before closing.  Then you may have it overnight and return it by 9 a.m. the next day the library is open.

If the textbook is not on reserve, search Books & More (the Miami University Libraries online catalog) to see whether any Miami library owns the title.  Search by Title or Author/Editor.  Sometimes the exact title and edition you want is in the collection!  Then you only need to find it in the stacks or click the Request Item button and enter your Miami ID and Password and Pickup location so that it can be shipped free by van to the nearest library.  You will receive a Miami email notification when it is ready for pickup.  Sometimes the library owns an older edition of the title and it is available.  If you are satisfied with this version, just request it as above.

If the textbook is unavailable at Miami University Libraries, then click the OhioLINK link displayed in your search results or go directly to the OhioLINK Library Catalog.  This allows you to check whether any of the 90 academic libraries in OhioLINK have a copy they are able to lend for several weeks with options to renew.  However, it is unlikely you will be able to keep the textbook for the entire semester.

 

To request an OhioLINK textbook, click the green Request button, Miami, and enter your Miami ID, Password, and Pickup location so the available item can be shipped in 3-5 days.  Sometimes you will find the exact edition you want; at other times you will only see older editions.  It is your decision.  If you see Due Date, Local Use Only, or Missing, the item is not available.  You may choose to pursue another option. 

Other options include:
Finding an eBook of the title, in one of Miami's databases or electronic collections
Checking to see whether a local public library might have the title you want
Going to the bookstore to buy or rent a copy
Buying the textbook online

Library materials added in December and January

To bring you up to date on what has recently been added to the collection, a new materials list is now available that reflects additions during December and January. We added 172 books, DVDs, and other items during that time, thanks to your selections and suggestions. The list is sorted by call number, with items grouped roughly by subject area.  

This tag will show you all of the prior lists of new materials.  

Is something missing from this list?  Or missing from our collection?

If you have a suggestion of something to order for the 2013/14 fiscal year, please use our online request form, email Jennifer Hicks or one of our other staff members, or drop by the library with your request at any time.  We are working to spend our acquisitions budget for the year, and we need your requests to make that happen.  What do you need?  Let us know.

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

The Loving Story: Freedom and Equality in America

A couple marries.  It seems an ordinary event, one to celebrate. But in this instance it was fraught with fear.  It led to their arrest.  It unfolded in legal battles, all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.  Virginia in 1958 was a very different place than it is today.  State law banned the marriage between persons of different races.   Mildred and Richard Loving's story is powerful and personal.  Preview this clip from The Loving Story.

Please join us for a screening and discussion of this 2011 documentary, facilitated by Dr. Brian Domino., on Thursday February 13, 2014 in CCC 142 from 6:00 to 7:30 PM.  It promises to be a memorable evening with you there.  Free and open to the public.

Created Equal: American's Civil Rights Struggle is part of the Bridging Cultures initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities, produced in partnership with the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.  This is the first of four 2014 Created Equal programs to be held in Middletown, hosted by the Gardner-Harvey Library.

Documentaries & Discussions

The Gardner-Harvey Library has been awarded a grant in the last year by the National Endowment of the Humanities and The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.  The Created Equal: America’s Civil Rights Struggle grant (http://createdequal.neh.gov/ ) will make possible four public screenings and discussions of documentaries, facilitated by a Miami scholar. 

Dr. Brian Domino will launch the series with The Loving Story which explores the legislative ban of interracial marriage until one couple’s story reached the U.S. Supreme Court, on Thursday 2/13/14 from 6-7:30 PM, CCC 142. 

Then Dr. Caryn Neumann will facilitate Freedom Riders, the second documentary which explores the story of volunteers who challenged interracial segregation practices on interstate travel in 1961 by sitting where they pleased on buses traveling to the Deep South, on Thursday 4/3/14, from 7-9 PM, CCC 142. 

Please join us for these and additional programs in 2014, sponsored by the Gardner-Harvey Library.  If you would like to screen all 4 documentaries in abbreviated form, please watch these clips, with total running time of 43 minutes:  http://createdequal.neh.gov/community/excerpt-reel

Free Journal Articles?

The ways of publishing affect your searching.  All you want is to find a complete (full-text) article.  Your go-to search strategy is Google, the search engine...

Problem:  But wait one minute; that approach won't work.  Why??  Publishers are in business to make money; they are providing a service but not for FREE.  The academic journals with full-text articles that you need for your research project are only available for a price and are sold to academic libraries who are willing to pay big money for access.  Miami University Libraries negotiates electronic journal and eBook deals with publishers like Elsevier, Oxford, Sage, Wiley .  OhioLINK at the state level negotiates deals with publishers.  These prices go up yearly while library budgets flatten or decrease so maintaining access is a big deal.  Actual journal titles you may access change with changing rights and deals.

But wait, what about open access where everyone has free access to everything.  Not a reality, yet.  Yes, the publishing world is in transition and more content is available online free at various sites and using Google Scholar.   But NOT everything.  And often Google Scholar links back to Miami University Libraries' holdings for full-text access!

Solution:  To get the complete journal article, go to The Gardner-Harvey Library website.  Search one ore more library databases in Databases A-Z or use Articles & More (EBSCO Discovery Service), funded by Miami Libraries, to make access available to you.

Once you locate the journal articles you need, click the HTML or PDF full-text link which takes you magically to the complete article in that database or in another one via a "link resolver."  All you do is enter your Miami ID and Password, when prompted, in order to search the library database and get the full-text article. Yes, these electronic resources are password-protected when you are off-campus, because these electronic resources are not free, as you now know.  Google is no help at all here, sad but true.

Add an embedded librarian to Niihka for Winter Term or Spring Semester

Would you like, in one of more of your classes, to participate in the Embedded Librarian service in Niihka in Winter Term or Spring Semester 2014?  Whether you are teaching face to face, hybrid, or online courses, you may collaborate with a learning management system (LMS) embedded librarian:

•          To strengthen your students’ online research skills
•          To enlarge their understanding of the resources and services available through Miami University Libraries
•          To provide learning objects like screencasts or planning and citation tools to aid students at various stages of the research process

As you know, students feel overwhelmed with research which entails so many starting points and long lists of results.  They struggle getting started as well as knowing how to navigate a complex university library system.  As one economics student working on a group project admitted:

"This assignment was very difficult for us as a group. I had a hard time finding state specific research so for the first time I utilized the online librarian through Niihka. What a great service. The librarian helped to find me more specific and updated information, as I had found some data but felt it wasn’t recent enough to use. "

Students appreciate working with an accessible librarian who “gets” the assignment and research landscape, offers help in framing a research question as well as suggesting databases and search terms. After an email exchange, one relieved family studies and social work student shared:

“This is beyond excellent! I thank you so much for your help.”

The Gardner-Harvey embedded librarians were embedded in 42 course sections in Fall Semester 2013, collaborating with 22 instructors, reaching 1,000 students.  To see what embedded librarianship looks like, visit http://tinyurl.com/embeddedsandwich to watch brief video introductions by the librarians and view sample pages of resources placed in Niihka courses.

These partnerships also lead to:

•          information literacy sessions in the classroom
•          individual research consultations
•         creating customized learning objects for the class
•          keeping current with the libraries’ latest databases, acquisitions, and discovery service

To get started with an embedded librarian in 2014, please reply to this email with the following information:

•          Name
•          Course Section(s)
•          Research Assignment Described/Attached
•         Concepts/Skills to Teach:  (See suggestions from the Information Literacy Menu)
•         Time:  Startup Only, Research Period, Full Semester

Your embedded librarian will be in touch to talk with you about creating requested content and interacting with your students.

John Burke burkejj@miamioh.edu

Jessie Long longjh@miamioh.edu

Beth Tumbleson tumbleb@miamioh.edu

Coffee is coming! (and tea and cocoa)

The Library will offer free coffee, tea, and hot cocoa all during finals week, starting on Monday, December 9th.  It will be set up in our entrance area from roughly 8:00am to 9:00pm, Monday through Thursday, and from 8:00am to 5:00pm on Friday.  Please drop on by and enjoy a cup!  

It's our way of making your last minute studying and paper/project preparation a bit more relaxing.  Thanks for being a part of our library community!

Library materials added in November

To bring you up to date on what has recently been added to the collection, a new materials list is now available that reflects additions during November. We added 46 books, DVDs, and other items during that time, thanks to your selections and suggestions. The list is sorted by call number, with items grouped roughly by subject area.  

This tag will show you all of the prior lists of new materials.  

Is something missing from this list?  Or missing from our collection?

If you have a suggestion of something to order for the 2013/14 fiscal year, please use our online request form, email Jennifer Hicks or one of our other staff members, or drop by the library with your request at any time.  We are working to spend our acquisitions budget for the year, and we need your requests to make that happen.  What do you need?  Let us know.

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

What, exactly, does Articles & More search?

We've been answering this question for people, even before they ask it, in a pretty vague way for a while.  We'll say that Articles & More searches "most of our databases" or"65-70 databases."  This has been particularly true in library instruction sessions, but it also comes up in some form at the InfoDesk or out among the computers.  Now it's time to get more specific.

Articles & More (which is also known as OneSearch once you run a search in it, and is actually a product called Ebsco Discovery Service, or EDS) searches 92 different databases or catalogs - all of our Ebsco databases (here's a sampling of them) and the OhioLINK Central Catalog, which includes books, ebooks, DVDs, and more owned by the 91 member institutions of OhioLINK.

We have around 200 databases available to use, and it's valuable to remember that while Articles & More picks up much of the literature on a given topic, there are other databases to check.  We would tend to recommend the Electronic Journal Center (EJC) and Web of Science for exclusively scholarly materials, and Lexis-Nexis for more full-text news sources and legal sources.

Be sure to watch our tutorial on searching Articles & More, or contact our staff for more assistance.

Library closes at 5pm on Wednesday

. . . and we will not reopen until 8am on Monday morning, December 2.  Have a wonderful Thanksgiving break!

iPads, Muslim Journeys, and Civil Rights programs!

Be sure to read this wonderful overview of our technology and cultural programming grants in the Miami Regionals Alumni E-News.