Library Open on Saturday Before Finals for Study Space and Refreshing Beverages

The Gardner-Harvey Library will offer extra study hours to students on Saturday, May 9, 2015. We will be open from Noon until 4:00pm that day. If you need a quiet place to study, please come to the library and use our open seating areas, our STAR lounges, or the Group Study Area downstairs. Staff will be on hand to provide assistance.

Coffee, tea, hot chocolate, and lemonade will be available.

Need a book, DVD, or other item? Tell GHL to buy it!

The Library is eager to know what books, DVDs, and other items you would like to add to our collection.

We have long depended on input from the campus community to guide the development of the collection. Our new goal is to expand the sources of that input beyond a small number of faculty and staff members.

Students, faculty, staff, or members of the Middletown community: we want to know what items interest you! Help us shape an ever-growing collection of resources to meet your scholarly and recreational reading and viewing needs.

Please have a look at our collection policy, and then use our Tell GHL to Buy It form to make your request.  We are trying to wrap up our buying for the 2014/15 fiscal year, so now is the time to get your requests in.  Thanks so much!

Celebrate National Poetry Month with Sarah Rose Nordgren!

Sarah Rose Nordgren will read and discuss her poetry at the Gardner-Harvey Library on Wednesday, April 1, from 4:00pm-5:00pm.

Sarah, a Visiting Assistant Professor of English on the Middletown campus, is a widely-published poet. Her poetry collection Best Bones was published in 2014 by the University of Pittsburgh Press and was the winner of the Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize.

The poems of Best Bones allude to landscapes of history, fable, and childhood myth, yet are fraught with modern day predicaments that create an atmosphere at once familiar and strange, playful and haunted, and verging on disaster. With imaginative intelligence, Nordgren maintains a snow-globe control of the whole scene.


Please join us for the reading.  Light refreshments will be served.

Create your own miniature world: Terrarium building at the library

Live plants, fake plants, rocks, miniatures, all can be used to build your own terrarium.  Join us in the library and create your own miniature world.  

The workshop will be held on Wednesday, April 8 from 3:00-4:00 in the Gardner-Harvey Library Makerspace.

The event is free and open to all.  Please RSVP at http://goo.gl/forms/scjVPlwNx6 to ensure we have enough supplies.  

If you have any glassware or small items you would like to use with your terrarium, please feel free to bring them along.  

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 December. We added 69 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.  We have purchased 714 items for the collection since July 2014.  

If you have a suggestion of something to order, please use our "Tell GHL to Buy It" form, email Jennifer Hicks or one of our other staff members, or drop by the library with your request.  

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

Share your work on the big screen using AirMedia and AppleTV!

Would you like to share content from your laptop or mobile device on a bigger display?  When working with a group of people on a document or other project, it is hard for everyone to crowd around a small screen.

Come to STAR Lounge 2 in the Gardner-Harvey Library to experience two systems that can help.  With our 47" flatscreen TV, you can easily share websites, video, presentations, and documents with a large group.

Crestron's AirMedia system lets you share content from Windows and MacOS laptops as well as iOS devices and Android phones and tablets.  You can share up to four devices at one time, which is useful if multiple people have content to share for the group to consider.  Watch a video about how the Crestron AirMedia system works.

For MacOS and iOS devices, we also have an AppleTV connected to our TV.  You can join the MU Gaming WiFi network and share your content from a laptop or iPad using AirPlay.

We are happy to assist you in using these devices.  Give them a try during your next project meeting or group study session!

What's in a Name? The Makerspace Naming Contest!

Our new Makerspace is full of 3D Printers, wood burning pens, button makers and more, but we need your help naming it. The Makerspace needs a name that makes it unique and clearly a part of the Middletown campus.

Submit your ideas using this form by April 30. The winning entry will win a special prize!

Meet Middletown Author Kat Fugate!

Kat Fugate will give a reading and discuss her writing process on Tuesday, March 10, from 4:00pm-5:00pm. Kat, an English teacher at Middletown High School, is the author of the gripping young adult novel Intuitive and its forthcoming 2015 sequel Transcendent. She earned a graduate degree from the Ohio Writing Project at Miami University.

More information on Kat and her books is available at http://www.katfugate.com

The event is free and all are welcome. Light refreshments will be served.  See our flyer for directions and more information.

Warm Up Your Images With a Green Screen!

Ever wonder how you can add an exciting background to your photo or video project?  With a green screen and some software you can create amazing effects. We’ll demonstrate our portable Makerspace green screen and give you a chance to pose for pictures from your Spring Break trip to warmer climes.  Come by to see the making equipment that we have and try it out to your heart’s content!

Join us on Wednesday, March 4, from 3pm to 4pm at the Gardner-Harvey Library Makerspace.

The event is free and all are welcome.

Library materials added in 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. We added 93 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.  We have purchased 645 items for the collection since July 2014.  

If you have a suggestion of something to order, please use our "Tell GHL to Buy It" form, email Jennifer Hicks or one of our other staff members, or drop by the library with your request.  

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

Getting Crafty for Valentine’s Day!

Need a Valentine’s Day gift for that special someone?  The Library Makerspace can help!   Join us in the library makerspace to try your hand at wood-burning your beloved’s name on a wooden heart, making a duct-tape rose, creating a special card, or making a button. Come by to see the making equipment that we have and try it out to your heart’s content!

When: Wednesday, February 4, 3pm-4pm

Where: The Gardner Harvey Library Makerspace

Questions? Let us know.

Image provided through a Creative Commons Attribution License by Leo Reynolds.

Library materials added in December

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. We added 87 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. 

We have purchased 546 items for the collection since July 2014.  If you have a suggestion of something to order, please use our "Tell GHL to Buy It" form, email Jennifer Hicks or one of our other staff members, or drop by the library with your request.  

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

Got an Embedded Librarian?

In Winter 2015 or Spring 2015, will your students be conducting research for papers, presentations, or projects? If so, they can benefit from working with an embedded librarian  in your Niihka or Canvas course.

  

First-year students find online searching difficult and are frustrated when navigating complex digital libraries.  Many admit their research competencies are limited. Could your students use some guidance, based on the bibliographies they are building?

Students are already familiar with Google.  Many are unfamiliar with Google Scholar, however, which links back to Miami University Libraries’ full-text holdings of scholarly articles.  Most have never used Miami University Libraries’ discovery service: Articles & More, until shown by a librarian. Articles & More searches 80 databases at once, producing a set of results which can be narrowed to scholarly journal articles or books, and contains  an overview Research Starter for many topics. It also provides  APA or MLA citations for sources. 

With the help of instructors and librarians, students will learn how to:

·         search library databases and Google Scholar

·         read abstracts of journal articles

·         evaluate sources

·         conduct independent research

·         refocus topics

·         dig deeper & persevere

·         cite sources

In 2014, our librarians were embedded in 90 courses, reaching 2,000 students to deliver information literacy instruction and link to academic resources for students enrolled in online, hybrid, and traditional courses.  The embedded librarian service is entering its seventh year in 2015.  We would like to collaborate with you in developing students’ understanding of the research process, related to your discipline!

Please contact any of the Gardner-Harvey Librarians for customized solutions to your course-related research assignments.  We are happy to help with assignment reviews, links to authoritative databases and electronic collections, as well as tutorials and citation tools.  See these sample pages to get a better idea of embedded librarianship.

John Burke, Director, burkejj@miamioh.edu
Jessie Long, Public Services Librarian, longjh@miamioh.edu
Beth Tumbleson, Assistant Director, tumbleb@miamioh.edu

Congratulations to 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 highest percentage of completed surveys would receive either breakfast or lunch on us. 

With almost 33% completing our survey, EDT 190 MA were the winners and received breakfast from the library during their final class this 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.

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 99 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. 

We have purchased 456 items for the collection since July 2014.  If you have a suggestion of something to order, please use our "Tell GHL to Buy It" form, email Jennifer Hicks or one of our other staff members, or drop by the library with your request.  

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

Library Open on Saturday Before Finals Week

The Gardner-Harvey Library will offer extra study hours to students on Saturday, December 6, 2014.  We will be open from Noon until 4:00pm that day.  If you need a quiet place to study, please come to the library and use our open seating areas, our STAR lounges, or the Group Study Area downstairs.  Staff will be on hand to provide assistance.

Coffee, tea, and hot chocolate will be available.

The Hidden Beauty of Wood

Enjoy a new display at the library of beautiful wood-worked pieces.

Most of the items in the library display were handcrafted by James Barton Wallace.  Mr. Wallace was an avid woodworker and produced most of the objects using a lathe and turning tools.  He enjoyed using all kinds of wood including some unusual woods from native and fruit trees.  The collection includes oak, cherry, black walnut, osage orange (hedge apple), hickory, peach and others.  Different stains and finishes are used to highlight the individual qualities of the wood.  The turned specimens are on loan from Mr. Wallace’s daughter, Maude Haeger, and granddaughter, Shannon Weaver, who is a Miami University student.  

3D Printing: Bring Your Ideas to Life

3D printing can turn a digital file into a practical or decorative item in a matter of minutes or hours.   Join us in the library makerspace to see how 3D printing works.  Learn how to create your own 3D files with software or a 3D scannner, and how to find 3D files that others have created and shared.  Have an item scanned (maybe your head!) for later printing. 

The workshop will be held on December 3, 2014, from 1:00pm-2:00pm in the Gardner-Harvey Library Makerspace on the main level of the library. 

Library materials added in October

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 October. We added 102 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. 

We have purchased 355 items for the collection since July 2014.  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.  

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

Scholarly Commons at Miami University

Miami University Libraries is celebrating Open Access Week, October 20-24, 2014.

Faculty, staff, and students may deposit their scholarly work in Miami University's digital repository called Scholarly Commons, to make datasets, working papers, pre-publication scholarship, and published papers openly accessible, facilitate preservation, and fulfill grant requirements.

If you would like to learn more about which file types, documents, and data sets can be submitted and how to upload your scholarly work, please see this FAQ for details and directions.