The library’s annual book sale (also known as the everything’s a dollar or less media sale extravaganza) is taking placing today and tomorrow, Oct. 2-3, from 9am to 4pm. It may be raining, but we’re still outside under the archway.
Interested in adding a little music to your media collection: Inside the library building you’ll find a table full of LPs. They’re 25 cents each or snag an entire box for only $2! Here’s the list of LPs available: LPs.
This semester I’m teaching the first course I’ve ever taught at St. Mary’s for credit. Given that I arrived here in 1981, it’s obvious I’m a slow starter. I’m teaching a First-Year Seminar Course called “Are You What You Eat?” As I prepared for the course I did a lot of reading in books I own or books that are in the library collection. (Yes, some of them were added to the collection because they lent themselves [groan] to the topic.) I found a lot of really interesting columns in two publications I read regularly – The New York Times online, and the Chronicle of Higher Education online. And, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention receiving some great suggestions for other items from Asif Dowla that he passed along to me after we started discussing the course.
The result of this is that I’ve got a lot of online material bookmarked for possible readings for the course. I can easily export the bookmarks to a file to share with the students, so they can see the cornucopia of offerings available at the click of a link. (Some of these have actually been looked over by some students. Two groups of students to date have selected from the possible readings items they wanted to have the entire class read as a basis for discussions they were responsible for leading.) Because of the rich possibilities of various books I thought they might find of interest, I have posted excerpts from several on e-reserve, with the thought that perhaps some students might be motivated to look beyond the chosen selections to explore further. In addition, many of the online items themselves have embedded links that, if pursued, connect the reader to more information – the modern incarnation of the (oft-ignored) footnotes of a hard-copy text.
There have been articles and blogs and books about how our students lead busy lives and how much of their time isn’t focused on academics. I remind myself that particularly for first-year students they have an entire social world they have entered that is, if their experience reflects my own when I went off to college, transforming their lives. I understand that when they seek information, when they read, it is often to find a specific answer, or to meet the demands of a particular assignment or task. Three sources for a paper including one book and one article from an academic journal. Check. One discussion thread entry on Blackboard posting a question you have that was raised by the required reading. Check. Pick one of three readings and provide an abstract and citation according to “X” style. Check.
I’ve really enjoyed pulling all of the course material together. I continue to add to links to readings, and more items to the list of DVDs and books related to the course that I’ve provided them. I reshape the class schedule to accommodate new directions that seem worth further time and exploration. Our libraries, our online databases, and web resources, have made it possible for me to pursue my varied interests and questions that evolved into my first course offering. And I hope that as my students join me in our ongoing journey of discovery that perhaps something outside the required course materials will catch the interest of a student and pull that student into an exploration that helps answer a question, think about a topic in greater depth, or scratches an “intellectual curiosity” itch. And, thinking about it, given the students I have in this class and what they’ve said, this process has begun. I’m optimistic.
The last time I posted, I told you about all this great new stuff that we did over the summer. Now, I’ll share with you some of the stuff we did throughout the whole year.
Last year (for statistics, we compile them on a fiscal year calendar (July 1 – June 30) we loaned a great many books (and DVD/VHS, laptops, extension cords, and headphones, and CD’s, microphones, cameras, camcorders, projectors, and I think you get the point by now :)) We also borrowed a lot from other libraries, not to mention fielded reference questions and taught information literacy to SMCM classes, among a great many other things.
If you were wondering just how often we do some of these things, today is your lucky day!
Now, let’s see Mastercard make a commercial out of that!!
With props to Pink Floyd , we want to know . . . is anyone out there? Is anyone out there? We tried a blog a few years ago and quickly discovered that no one was reading it. So we abandoned it. The work on our new website got us thinking more about how to connect with our students, our faculty, and even with librarians at other colleges and universities. And that brought us to “Beyond the Bookshelves.”
Most of us are reading blogs these days. Lots of blogs. Thanks to Google Reader following blogs is easy. So we decided to go for it and try again. This fall there has been a lot to write about. The new library website, digital access to The Point News, Kindles, chat reference, and so much more. But is a library blog just for announcements?
I have questions, and ideas, and opinions (lots of opinions) about what is happening to libraries and all of us who love them and use them. Why does the full-text of journal articles seem to appear and disappear from those databases we all love? What is the future of printed anything? The online version of a journal often costs as much (or sometimes more) than the printed version – what’s up with that? And why isn’t this stuff all free anyway?
These are the questions that keep me up at night – that and whether the NY Mets will ever get their act together.
Is anybody out there? Give us a sign. Leave a comment, start a conversation, ask questions. If you have an idea for a blog post, let us know. If you have been reading but not commenting, let us know.
I’m not above offering a shameless promotion. The first student to email me, call me (x4267), or come by my office
(LI 236) to tell me you have read this blog post gets the beverage of their choice at the Grind. This offer expires on Monday, September 24, 2012.
Don’t turn us into another brick in the wall.
Recent changes on the library’s website may have left more than a few people puzzled about how to access our online research databases and journals when off-campus. This is my best attempt at clearing up any confusion and hopefully getting people back on track with their research.
On our OLD site, you always went through Research Port to access databases while off-campus.
On our NEW site, you can use the Database and Journal Search right on the homepage to access online databases and journals whether you are on campus or off campus. This new search puts the search functionality of ResearchPort front-and-center, saving you time and clicks.
It’s National Library Card Sign-Up Month. Stop by the circulation desk at the SMCM Library from September 10-23 to sign up for a St. Mary’s County Public Library card.
Get access to:
Popular books, ebooks & audiobooks
New releases on DVD & Blu-ray
Mango Languages Online
Online Test Prep for GRE, MCAT, LSAT
When was the Point News not the Point News?
For most of the 1940s and ’50s the St. Mary’s student newspaper was called “The Signal News.”
Tom Barrett plans orientation
It first became “The Point News” in 1959.
A recurring theme
Then for most of the 1970s and into the ’80s it was “The Empath.”
Another recurring theme
Uncharted territory
Not to be confused with the mac lab
Much to the dismay of some 1970s and early ’80s alumni, the name “The Point News” returned in 1985.
Witnesses to history
First report on the storied Riot of ’98
Going green in 2000
Whatever the name, St. Mary’s student newspapers from 1952 through 2002 have been digitized and are now available online, fully word-searchable, via the Archives web site!
And because we take our duty to preserve our historical record seriously, physical copies of all these papers (as well as those from the 1940s and from 2002 to date) are safely tucked away in the College Archives. Hard copies of issues from 2002 to date are also available in the Library.
Happy reading!
If you’ve been to the library’s website recently, you may (or may not) have noticed a smallish box off to the left-hand side of the screen with the words “Ask Us.” It’s a small but commanding phrase, and here at the library, it’s one we take seriously. Librarians and library staff love questions and you need answers, so we’ve added yet another way for you to ask and us to answer:
Online Chat!
That’s right, librarians are online and available to help you. At the moment, our chat hours are a bit inconsistent, but eventually we’ll work out a regular routine. This is a new service for us and we’re still working out the kinks and playing around with the features. So, when you click on the “Ask Us” button you’ll end up with one of two screens:
If you’re really lucky, you’ll see this:
Chat Success!!!
which means a librarian is online and available to help you.
If you’re a little less lucky, but still amazingly lucky in the grand scheme of library help options, you’ll see this:
Ask Us is our new FAQ system
Which is an entryway into our new LibAnswers system. It’s a Frequently-Asked-Questions system/knowledgebase and an email-a-librarian system all rolled into one. It’s a way to help yourself or get the help you need. Just type in a question to search for an answer.
So again, when we ask you to Ask Us, we mean it. We really, really do.
Photo from Flickr user Matt McGee
Welcome everyone to the 2012-2013 academic year at SMCM! In the library we were hard at work all summer so that now, you can work smarter! Below is a brief rundown of just a few of the new toys and services we’re offering in the SMCM Library. If anyone has any questions, please don’t hesitate to let us know.
New photocopier: We have a brand new photocopier! It does full color and has an automatic feeder for those long documents. Prices are 10 cents per black & white copy, 25 cents per color copy. Please note that the photocopier on the 2nd floor (in the periodicals) is no longer there – there is only the first floor photocopier, which is in the same location.
New scanner: Returning students, staff, and faculty may remember the touchscreen-operated scanner that we had on a trial basis toward the end of the Spring 2012 semester. It is now a permanent addition to the SMCM Library. It scans in color or black & white and your scanned images can be printed (print in black & white only), saved to a thumb drive, or emailed immediately to you as a PDF, JPG, PNG, or RTF (MS Word) file. It also has a leading edge – this makes it very easy to photocopy books & journals without pressing down on the item to get that hard-to-read text in the center!
Kindles: We now circulate Kindles! We have three Kindle Fires, two Kindle Touches, and a Kindle Keyboard that can be checked out for two weeks (one renewal allowed). They come preloaded with several e-books for your reading pleasure, including the Hunger Games trilogy, Prisoner of Heaven, and more! We are actively soliciting requests for new titles for our Kindles, so let us know if you have a request.
Overdue fines: The rumors are true: the SMCM Library has eliminated almost all of our daily overdue fines. Daily overdue fines remain in effect for:
Nothing else, I repeat: nothing else is subject to daily overdue fines, i.e. books, DVD’s, VHS, CD’s, laptops (yes, laptops!), headphones, extension cords, ethernet cords, thumb drives, Kindles, etc etc). The complete new SMCM Library fine policy is available on our website here (or, from the Library home page, click on “about the library” then “policies”).
Group Study Room Booking: Now, you can reserve one of our group study rooms for up to three hours per day. Use this link (or, from the Library home page, click on “library services” then “group study rooms”). In addition, Group Study Room 221 has been outfitted with a 55” HDTV with a DVD player. Group Study Rooms 215, 216, & 221 are available for booking. Group Study Rooms 206 & 217 are open and available on a first-come, first-served basis.
Happy Librarying!!!!!
But the big winners are Heather Pribut who won the August prize drawing and *Mandy Reinig who posted 10 reviews and wins a bag of library swag.*
Don’t forget to pick up your prizes. You may pick them in the Library, office 126.
The winners of the 2012 monthly prize drawings are:
June: Lauren Grey
July: Lisa Williams
August: Heather Pribut
