Library & Archives

Meet a Man of the Stacks!

March 5, 2014 by Amanda VerMeulen

Trevor A. Dawes is truly a man of the stacks. He served as project coordinator for a library themed calendar, The Men of the Stacks (2012). You should visit this calendar now. It was for a good cause (It Gets Better Project) and it looks like the guys had a lot of fun. (Yes, I own this calendar and yes, it was January for a really long time that year.)

Trevor is the current president of the Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) and an Associate University Librarian at Washington University. He will be on campus next week, March 10th and March 11th. On Monday he will be meeting with students to discuss leadership and on Tuesday with faculty and staff on sustaining excellence in the workplace.

Trevor chose financial literacy as the theme of his presidency and has for many years been interested in leadership and diversity. I first met Trevor at a leadership program in 2002, the Minnesota Institute for Early Career Librarians and he has been leading ever since. Not only does he have a long record with ACRL, he has been a board member of the NJ Library Association and in 2007 was one of Library Journal’s Movers & Shakers.

So stop by the Aldom Lounge and meet Trevor.

Interview: On Leadership with Trevor A. Dawes
Are you a student leader, activist or volunteer? Wondering if you have what it takes to lead after graduation? Ask Trevor.
Monday March 10 at 4:15 PM in the Aldom Lounge

Sustaining Excellence in Libraries
Collaboration, diversity and professional development, they’re not just for libraries. Learn about best practices in libraries and how they can work for your department.
Tuesday March 11 at 10:00 AM in the Aldom Lounge

SMCM Library on YouTube

March 5, 2014 by Amanda VerMeulen

I suspect that not many people know this, but the SMCM Library has its own YouTube channel. Why would a library need a YouTube channel? Good question.

The library is a swiftly changing place. From week to week or month to month there is always something new: a new journal we just picked up, a new database we now license, or a new service we are piloting. We’re anything but stagnant, and we thought that creating fun videos to publicize library services and collections would be a great way to let you know what’s happening within the library’s walls.

As I’ve mentioned before, the library hired a fantastic student this fall, Eden Anbinder, to create publicity videos for the library. You can view them all at our library’s YouTube channel. They’re short, fun, goofy, and entertaining. You might even learn something in 1 minute or less!

Timeless W.W.II-era St. Mary’s Scrapbook as True Today as it Was Then.

February 21, 2014 by Amanda VerMeulen

Guest Blog Post written by
Jennifer Housley, SMCM ‘2014, Archive Student PFP Fellow

As a soon-to-be graduate nearing the halfway mark of my last semester, I am struck by several things.

The impending doom of graduate school responses. The frantic job search. The panic of last minute OneSearches for that final, perfect SMP secondary lit source. And, of course, the already pervasive feeling of nostalgia as we walk down our always comforting campus path, considering the speed with which our time here is coming to an end. A comfort to those of us leaving St. Mary’s, however, is the timelessness of this place, as is reflected in a new collection of online images in the college’s archives – the scrapbooks of Doris Ann “D.A.” Hughen, née Miller, class of 1945.

D.A.’s time here was, in some ways, very different than ours. Her college experience coincided with World War II, as is depicted in her photograph taken with a military cadet from Charlotte Hall Military Academy and her snapshot of a military sea plane on St. Mary’s River.

Of course, her time was different in more laughable ways, too.

Smoking Permission Form

But then we see photographs like these, where you can see yourself as clearly as you see Doris laying by the docks with friends, or ice skating in the winter, or peering out over the Garden of Remembrance in one of those rare, quiet moments we have grown to appreciate.

D.A. Miller Hughen graduation photo, 1945

As we go to seek the next adventure, let’s keep in mind that we are not alone in our love for St. Mary’s. Far from it. Even as we leave her for a while, she doesn’t leave us.

“Tho’ sum-mer turns to win-ter and the pre-sent dis-ap-pears,
The laugh-ter we were glad to share still ech-oes thru the years.
While oth-er nights and oth-er days have found us gone our sep’-rate ways
We have these mem’-ries of St. Mary’s.”

“Memories of St. Mary’s,”
lyrics found in MSS 007 D.A. Miller Hughen papers

To view all of the images from the D.A. Miller Hughen Scrapbook that have been added to the SMCM Historic Photograph Collection, follow this tinyurl: http://tinyurl.com/p8m8euy

Students Make the News

February 17, 2014 by Amanda VerMeulen

The library hires lots of students. They do all sorts of things both behind the scenes and at the circulation desk. Over the years they have checked out books, refilled paper trays, given directions, put barcodes in books, reshelved thousands of books and even relocated the DVD section from behind the circulation desk to the public shelves. But what do they do when they aren’t working in the library? Really cool stuff. Read long time library employee Ted Pugh’s article, “Playing His Cards: The Legacy of Paul Reed Smith and the Guitars that Built Him,” in The Mulberry Tree. And Ted doesn’t just write about PRS guitars, he plays one.

Ted Pugh and Scott Taylor

A reminder of our (no) fines policy

February 11, 2014 by Amanda VerMeulen

Hello from the front desk! Despite the snow days, the semester is now in full swing and the books, DVD’s, Kindles, extension cords, laptop chargers, and more are quickly moving back and forth across the front desk – from us to you and back again. So I wanted to take a moment to remind everyone of our fine policy.

Our fine policy is simple: with a few exceptions, there are no overdue fines. And these aren’t wide-ranging exceptions that basically include everything – nothing like “no fines except on days that end in ‘y'”. When we say “no fines”, we mean it!

Having said that, the exceptions are as follows:

items from the media center: if it comes from the third floor of the library where Ken, Linda, Raven, and Andy work, it’s subject to overdue fines.
course reserves: if it’s on course reserve at the front desk (three hour, overnight, or three day loan) – it’s subject to overdue fines. This doesn’t apply to e-reserves, only to physical items you check out at the front desk.
recalled items: it doesn’t happen too often, but every once in a while you’ll get a “recall notice” email. That’s letting you know that someone else wants to use the item. Read that email closely because it gives you a new due date. If you turn it in late, you’ll get fined.
USMAI/ILLiad items: if you borrow something from another library, either through USMAI or ILLiad, you’ll get fined if it’s late. The amount varies depending on the library that owns the item.

So if none of the above applies, then you won’t be fined for returning it late. Now, if you NEVER return it, you will eventually get billed for it. But if it’s a day or a week late – nothing.

The reason for this policy is simple. We want you to borrow all the items you need, for research, fun, etc., without worrying about anything except whether you want or need it. And not to sound “braggy” but we’ve got a lot of stuff! Almost 200,000 books, mostly academic but many popular titles as well, (and several thousand more ebooks), nearly 3,000 DVD’s, six Kindles pre-loaded with about 40 bestsellers, scores of equipment such as Mac chargers, extension cords, headphones, flash drives, etc. So if it’ll make your life easier, or better, go for it! We’re open until 1:00 AM Sunday – Wednesday, midnight on Thursday, and 9:00 PM on Friday and Saturday, so there’s plenty of opportunity for you to stop by.

Happy librarying!

Discovery, but not so discoverable

February 4, 2014 by Amanda VerMeulen

OneSearch. We like it a lot. It’s the main search on the library website and will give you everything from journal and newspaper articles to books, images and DVDs. It’ll retrieve anything it can find somehow related to your search terms. It’s a great tool and time saver.

Despite all the positive things we have to say about OneSearch, we’re feeling a bit frustrated at the moment. We always knew, and do our best to explain, the results in OneSearch would not include everything which the library owns or has access to. OneSearch provides a service. It pulls results from the library catalog and databases in one search, on your behalf, so you do not have to search the catalog and databases individually. In exchange for this service (and in order for this service to function properly and legally) the company which owns OneSearch, EBSCO, has signed licensing agreements with other database vendors and publishers. The providers who do not agree to such terms do not participate in the service. We knew about these agreements, always and from the beginning.

OneSearch is accessible from off-campus. Students, faculty and staff members can search and must only authenticate into the system to access the full text of articles. Members of the community can search our holdings and view citations, but not access licensed materials. To borrow a book or read an article, a community member would have to physically come to the library. This “guest access” is helpful to our community members who rely on our resources for their research needs, and to students from other academic institutions who also use our resources.

Something has changed in the licensing agreements. Now, some of the citations themselves are inaccessible and un-viewable to anyone off-campus unless that person authenticates using a network ID and password. What does that mean? Faculty, staff members, and students, have to login before being able to view all the results displayed. It’s an extra step, but not any different from searching a database from off-campus. Members of our community, however, can no longer search across our collection and view article citations from the databases while off-campus. Essentially, OneSearch, which is designed to promote discovery and access, is now limiting that freedom and access and our patrons are suffering because of it. What to do about it? We’re not really sure yet.

The Convenience Conundrum

January 27, 2014 by Amanda VerMeulen

It’s a new semester! It’s REALLY cold! The Library is warm and we’re glad everyone is back. Over the break I read an article that has been distracting me. “If It’s Too Inconvenient I’m Not Going After It” is a fascinating research article about the role of time, gratification theory, and rational choice theory in the research habits of university faculty and students. The researchers looked at how information seeking habits like using databases and at choices for getting help.

Spoiler Alert!! The researchers found that ” . . . on some situations information seekers will readily sacrifice content for convenience.” (p.27). Now I know that this does not describe any student or faculty member here at St. Mary’s. Convenience was defined as choice (print or online), satisfaction with the source, and time needed to access and use. For me, this is one of those “doh” moments. We all behave this way at some point or another.

The researchers conclude that we should purchase services and resources that “replicate” the Web and which are perceived as “convenient and easy to use.” The “library experience” should be more like Google, Amazon, or iTunes.

Over the same break I also read a blog post from Barbara Fister which reminds us that “The order libraries create must invite disorder. This is something that is particularly important when it comes to helping students learn how to use libraries. Our systems, which were made that way, are broken by definition. . . . If we truly thought knowledge could be nailed down in a system, there would be little use for libraries.”

So which is it? Convenience or disorder? Perhaps it’s both. Over this past weekend I spent about an hour and a lot of email trying to untangle a problem a student was having accessing the full-text of an article and she was on campus while I was at home. I finally got her the link, but discovered another glitch in the process. The ability of our systems to talk to one another has improved but not enough. The convenience researchers are right. Our systems need work together better so that we don’t spend so much time trying to get “stuff” and not enough on whether it’s the right stuff.

How will that happen? Slowly. But what [should] happen BEFORE and AFTER we go information seeking is the same slow, intense, thought process it has always been. Is it fun? It can be (OK – that might just be the librarian nerd in me). Is it challenging, sometimes frustrating, energizing? It can be. And the information seeking itself is sometimes messy.

So I’m all for convenience as long as we don’t confuse our desire for efficient and effective tools with an intellectual and creative journey that should always leave room for uncertainty, some messiness, and the possibility of discovery,

End of Semester Countdown

December 11, 2013 by Amanda VerMeulen

It’s that time of year again: The extension cords are all checked out, the coffee is flowing, and suddenly anyone speaking above a whisper in the library is TOO LOUD!!!!! With only a few days of classes left and final exams looming on the horizon, the library is here for you.

You can find our Final Exam week (and Winter Break) hours online, but essentially we’re open until 2 a.m. Sunday, Dec. 15 – Wednesday, Dec. 18. As always, librarians are around to help with any last-minute research assignments, and all of our e-books and online databases are available 24/7. If you come by for some last minute studying, you might even find a certain library director whose name rhymes with Shmelia handing our power snacks and goodies when you least expect it. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.

Information Science Careers at St. Mary’s and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum

December 6, 2013 by Amanda VerMeulen

Many St. Mary’s graduates have gone on to careers in Information Studies, a field that includes library science and archives. Eight history majors in the last two years alone have chosen to attend the “iSchool” (Information Science School) at the University of Maryland. To address the growing interest in the field among St. Mary’s students, in the Spring of 2015 the Museum Studies Department will be offering Introduction to Archives and Information Science, a 2 credit course.

Jennie Thomas ’95

Included among St. Mary’s alumni in the Information Science field is Jennie Thomas ‘95, head archivist of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. She graduated from St. Mary’s of College of Maryland with a music degree, and after studying music education at the graduate level for a time, as well as working music retail, she finally entered the field of librarianship as way to combine her interests in a variety of subjects. Looking back on the education courses she took at St. Mary’s, she says that it provided her with a foundation for working as head archivist at the “Rock Hall” by learning about ways to teach, put together exhibits, and capture the imagination. This education background, coupled with her St. Mary’s vocal degree, helps her contextualize rock and roll in a historical framework.

Jennie Thomas spoke at St. Mary’s as part of Museum Studies Week earlier this semester, and gave this advice: “Be patient. Don’t think that you’ll get your dream job right away. Getting a lot of experience in different things – which a liberal arts education provides – can only help determine whether something is what you want to do. Volunteering and internships are great ways to do that and when you do these sorts of things, be willing to go the extra mile. A lot of jobs can be what you make of them.”

Our Video Project Returns (and it’s good y’all)

December 4, 2013 by Amanda VerMeulen

This fall the library was granted another year of funding through the Career Development Center’s Professional Fellowship Program to hire an instructional media fellow. Our hire this year is Eden Anbinder, a Computer Science major, video hobbyist and all-around creative human being.

Thanks to some fantastic TFMS coursework, a great sense of humor and innate talent, Eden has developed two a new short film about eBooks (EBooks: You Decide!), which is a spoof on 1950s instructional videos, and a short video about our new Films on Demand streaming video database.

Take a minute or two, relax, and enjoy the show: