Librarian-Inspired New Year's Resolutions

This time of year many of us are thinking about eating healthy, exercising more, or maybe working on trimming down your debt. If you're like me, you're thinking, "How could I be more organized?" Because, let's face it, being organized can only help us meet our other goals.

If organizing is part of your plans for 2010, don't forget to spend time thinking about managing all of your social networking information. This is the perfect time to review your social tools like Myspace, Facebook, and Twitter. Close accounts that you no longer use and don't have time to update. Look at your friends / follow lists and hide or delete the ones that no longer interest you. (But be aware of the social implications of unfriending... Sometimes it's just better to hide them from your feeds).

If you use RSS Feeds, look through the blogs you follow. Review them and organize them into categories or delete the ones that are no longer relevant. I have found that I'll be more likely to review my feeds if I have whittled them down to the most essential feeds. If you have used RSS feeds to track information for your academic research, go through and delete the feeds that are no longer relevant to make room for Spring semester topics.

If you use social bookmarking tools like Delicious, review your bookmarks, deleting and tagging as you go.

Keeping your online information organized will only save time and make your online searching more efficient, so perhaps you can throw in that extra work out this week!

If you don't use any of these social tools, maybe you can add this to your list of resolutions: Attend the library's free workshop: "Internet Tools for Academic Research." We will teach you how to save time while searching online and we also teach how to make the most of social networking tools like blogs, wikis, social bookmarking, and RSS feeds.

Whatever you resolve to do this year, the library staff would like to wish you all the best that 2010 has to offer. As always, let us know what we can do to help you be successful with your research papers, speeches, and personal research.

Happy New Year!

Maureen :-)

Winter Break Hours

Wayne College Library will be open the following hours over the winter break:

• Monday, December 21st through Wednesday, December 23rd: 8:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
• Thursday, December 24th through Sunday, January 3rd: Closed
• Monday, January 4th through Friday, January 8th: 8:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
• Saturday, January 9th: Limited library hours during the morning of Adjunct Faculty Orientation

It's back to business as usual on Monday, January 9th.

Enjoy the holidays, everyone! The library staff wish you all a very Merry Christmas and all the very best the new year has to offer!

Quiet Week for Exams

In order to help our students do their best on their final exams, the library will be offering a quiet place for study during exam week, Monday, December 7th through Saturday, December 12th.

Students, faculty, and staff are asked to remain quiet in the library during this week and turn off their cell phones before they enter the library. Headphones are available at the information desk for anyone wishing to listen to audio on their computers.

Silence will be enforced in the table area, community room, and library lab. Students wishing to use the group study rooms are also asked to refrain from loud discussions and to close the door when studying with groups.

Fine Forgiveness for our Furry Friends Fundraiser!

The library’s Fall fine-forgiveness campaign begins November 2nd. We will be collecting items such as dog food, cat food, dry kitten food, cat litter, paper towels, hand sanitizer and blankets (lightly used is okay) for the Wayne County Humane Society. Please consider donating items even if you do not have any fines. We will continue to collect items and cash donations until December 4th. Our furry friends thank you!

To see more items that are needed please visit the Wayne County Humane Society at http://www.wchs.org/

Library Workshop Deadline is Fast Approaching

All library workshop content needs to be completed and all quizzes and retakes submitted by Monday, October 26th.

Keep in mind that the library staff need 3 days to grade all quizzes, so this impacts how much time you have if you need to complete a retake.

Tutorials for each workshop take at least one hour each, so please leave plenty of time to complete the workshops.

Let us know if you have any questions or concerns completing your required workshops.

Book Club Tie-Ins

Last evening the Fireside Readers kicked off the Fall 2009 season by discussing two books, Loving Frank by Nancy Horan and Death in a Prairie House by William Drennan.

If you missed the discussion or just can't get enough of Frank Lloyd Wright, here are some links for more information.

Check out two very good DVDs:

Frank Lloyd Wright a film by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick. PBS Home Video, c2004.

Frank Lloyd Wright : the Mike Wallace interviews. Archetype Associates, c1994.

Check out these interviews with author Nancy Horan:

NPR's Diane Rehm Show Interview 9/17/07

YouTube - The House, and the Affair that Frank Built (Loving Frank)

YouTube - Touring Frank for LOVING FRANK (Loving Frank)

Don't forget to get a jump start on our selection for September: Sweet and Low: A Family Story by Rich Cohen. For more information on the book club, go to: http://www.wayne.uakron.edu/library/fireside.php

New Databases Added

The University of Akron recently added two new databases from Congressional Quarterly:

• CQ Weekly: CQ Weekly provides in-depth reports on issues looming on the congressional horizon, plus a complete wrap up the previous week's news, including the status of bills in play, behind-the-scenes maneuvering, committee and floor activity, debates and all roll-call votes.
• CQ Researcher: CQ Researcher is noted for its in-depth, unbiased coverage of health, social trends, criminal justice, international affairs, education, the environment, technology, and the economy. Reports are published weekly in print and online 44 times a year.

These databases may be accessed on campus or remotely via the UA VPN (virtual private network).

Database Cancellations

Beginning July 1, several OhioLINK databases will no longer be available. The affected databases are funded through the combination of an Institute of Museum and Library Services LSTA grant awarded by the State Library of Ohio and the state appropriations of the Libraries Connect Ohio (LCO) partners, and are available to all Ohioans. LCO is a collaborative effort of OhioLINK, OPLIN, INFOhio, and the State Library of Ohio. Libraries Connect Ohio is constantly striving to provide the strongest portfolio of research resources possible within budgetary limitations to serve the diverse lifelong learning needs of all Ohioans.

The following databases will be modified or no longer be available as of July 1:

• Consumer Health Complete (EBSCO) – Try Health Source Consumer Edition instead.
• America's News Magazines (NewsBank) – Search for magazines in the E-Journal Finder instead.
• America's Newspapers (NewsBank) – State and national papers will no longer be available, except for four major statewide newspapers -- the Columbus Dispatch, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the Toledo Blade, and the Dayton Daily News (as well as archives of the Cincinnati Post). This package is being funded by the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN). If state budget developments reduce the OPLIN budget to the point where OPLIN cannot afford this newspaper package, then it will be discontinued before the fall term. For other newspaper coverage, try LexisNexis Academic and Newspaper Source instead.
  

OhioLINK Announcement

Several OhioLINK resources and services, including the ETD Center, OLinks, E-Journal Finder, and OhioLINK EZProxy, will be unavailable while planned maintenance is performed on Friday, June 5, from 12-1 a.m.

The following services and resources will be affected:

• the E-Journal Finder
• MyEJC
• Electronic Theses and Dissertations database (search/retrieval and submissions)
• EZProxy, which provides remote access to databases and resource not hosted at OhioLINK (e.g. you will be able to access the EJC during this time, but not EBSCOhost databases)
• the List of OhioLINK Databases, including By Subject, By Type and By Name or Title. The OSearch databases themselves will still be available if you link to them directly.
• member library contact information
• OLinks, OhioLINK’s linking service
  

OhioLINK announcement

The OhioLINK Library Catalog will be unavailable while planned maintenance is performed beginning at 11 p.m. on Thursday, May 28, until approximately 1:00 a.m. on May 29. During this time you will not be able to search the catalog or request items. The Electronic Journal Center will also be unavailable for maintenance from 12:00 a.m. until approximately 1:00 a.m. on Friday, May 29. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Summer 2009 Library Hours

May 11th - May 15th
Monday - Friday: 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

May 18th - August 14th
Monday - Thursday: 8:00 a.m. - 9:00 p.m.
Friday: 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

August 17th - August 21st
Monday - Friday: 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Hot Topics This Semester

Many of our students completed library information literacy workshops this semester. We asked students to choose a sample topic to demonstrate their search strategy skills. Here is a graphic representation, or tag cloud, that shows the 50 most popular words compiled from the all of their responses:

abortion abuse advertising affect age care cars cell cheating child childhood children college control dangers death dogs drinking driving drug drunk eating education effects exercise games gas global gun influence music obesity penalty pregnancy punishment research schools smoking stem teen teenage television topic underage video violence violent warming women world

created at TagCrowd.com

(Note that the words that appear largest in the cloud are the words that appeared in students' responses the most often.)

Fireside Readers Meet on Monday

Next week the Fireside Readers will meet to discuss A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail by Bill Bryson.

"...Back in America after twenty years in Britain, Bill Bryson decided to reacquaint himself with his native country by walking the 2,100-mile Appalachian Trail, which stretches from Georgia to Maine. The AT offers an astonishing landscape of silent forests and sparkling lakes--and to a writer with the comic genius of Bill Bryson, it also provides endless opportunities to witness the majestic silliness of his fellow human beings.

For a start there's the gloriously out-of-shape Stephen Katz, a buddy from Iowa along for the walk. Despite Katz's overwhelming desire to find cozy restaurants, he and Bryson eventually settle into their stride, and while on the trail they meet a bizarre assortment of hilarious characters. But A Walk in the Woods is more than just a laugh-out-loud hike. Bryson's acute eye is a wise witness to this beautiful but fragile trail, and as he tells its fascinating history, he makes a moving plea for the conservation of America's last great wilderness. An adventure, a comedy, and a celebration, A Walk in the Woods is destined to become a modern classic of travel literature." (Publisher's Description)

The group will meet on Monday, May 4th at 7 p.m. in the Community Room. As always, new members and guests are always welcome. Light refreshments will be served.

Stay up to date with the new web page for the Fireside Readers:
http://www.wayne.uakron.edu/library/fireside.php

Enjoy the Silence...

In order to help our students do their best on their final exams, the library will be offering a quiet place for study during exam week, Monday, May 4th through Saturday, May 9th.

Students, faculty, and staff are asked to remain quiet in the library during this week and turn off their cell phones before they enter the library. Headphones are available at the information desk for anyone wishing to listen to audio on their computers.

Silence will be enforced in the table area, community room, and library lab. Students wishing to use the group study rooms are also asked to refrain from loud discussions and to close the door when studying with groups.

Food for Fines wrap-up

Many thanks to all who participated in this year's Food for Fines campaign. This year we collected 215 items and $119.90 in cash. Lots of fines were forgiven and many folks will benefit from your assistance through People to People Ministries. Thanks everyone!

Library quiz / retake deadline fast approaching...

Please be sure to complete all library information literacy workshop / tutorial content, including all post-tests and retakes by Wednesday, March 18th.

No extensions will be granted this semester, so please be sure to leave plenty of time to complete your post-tests.

The library staff requires three days to grade your tests, so this also impacts how much time you might need to complete any retakes.

Food for Fines Month

FOOD for FINES

For the MONTH OF MARCH, Wayne College Library will be accepting nonperishable food items in lieu of money owed on fines!!!!

Canned and non-perishable items will be accepted at one item for every dollar owed.

Donations will also be accepted.

Items most needed are:
• canned tuna
• canned fruit
• paper products
• macaroni and cheese

All items collected will be given to People to People Ministries.

Questions? Contact Stephanie Burns at sab24@uakron.edu

OhioLINK is experiencing hardware problems

OhioLINK is experiencing hardware problems
At this time, if you are trying to take the Post - Test for Workshop #3, your searches to answers some of the questions, will not display correctly.
OhioLink is experiencing hardware problems and will effect the following:

The digital objects in Digita Media Center will not load
No full text or abstracts will display in EJC
E: book is UNAVAILABLE
OSearch databases are up, but the full text is unavailable.

Library Workshop Rescheduled

Workshop 1: The Basics of Online Research, which was originally scheduled on Wednesday, January 29th and canceled due to the weather, will be held on:

Monday, February 2, 2009 from 5:00 to 6:00 p.m.

There is still room in this workshop if anyone is interested in attending. All of the original registrants will be enrolled in this workshop.

Textbooks on Reserve

The library will be continuing the “Textbooks on Reserve” pilot program for Spring 2009. Select textbooks will be available in the library on reserve. The books may be checked out for 2 hours at a time. Students must present a valid ZipCard in order to check out library materials.

The program includes required textbooks for courses that have the highest enrollment, like Effective Oral Communication, English Composition 111 and 112, Introduction to Psychology, and more. Stop by the library for a complete list of textbooks available this semester or for more information about the program.