Holiday Burnout @YourLibrary - adjusted hours for semester break

Signs that the holiday season may have already taken its toll…

Instead of writing letters to Santa, you find yourself plotting reindeer abductions and cutting words of out of magazines for ransom notes. Spelling Comet or Cupid with a K seems more menacing, doesn’t it?

Eggnog is not enough to take the edge off – not even the lethal stuff your Uncle Brian cooks up. Yeah, that Uncle Brian, the one who works at a distillery.

The Carol of the Bells sounds like nothing more than ringing in the ears. Incessant, cacophonous ringing. Please…make it stop…

You begin to understand “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer” from the reindeer’s perspective.

Instead of making your usual snowflake-shaped cookies, you find yourself crafting little headless elves. Or rabid reindeer. Or maybe zombie elves. Be aware that there is a limit to what is considered “art therapy”.

“Do You Hear What I Hear?” takes on a whole new meaning when you’re talking about the little voices in your head.


Latkes seem lackluster. It’s a dark day when a plate of warm, crispy carbohydrates can’t cheer a person up.

Carolers on your doorstep incite nothing but ire. You can try to rationalize throwing snowballs at the carolers any way you like, but assault is assault and they have the sheriff on speed dial this year.

You realize (far too late in the game) that there is such a thing as too much green bean casserole.

It’s been a long semester, hasn’t it? Before you head over the river, through the woods and into the mall one last time, consider stopping by the library to pick up some leisure reading for the flight, or maybe a DVD or two for the road trip. If the door is locked, well…we have our reasons. Just leave the ransom and no one has to lose any antlers.

Happy Holidays
from the staff of the Hackelmeier Memorial Library!

Library hours during the semester break:

December

13-14, 20-21, 27-28 closed – weekends
15-19, 22-23, 26, 29-30 8:30 am – 4:30 pm
24-25, 31 closed – college holiday


January
1 closed – college holiday
3-4, 10-11 closed – weekends
2, 5-9 8:30 am – 4:30 pm
12 regular schedule resumes

Finals Week Hours

Adjusted hours for finals week, Fall 2009

Friday, 5 December 7:30 am - 9:00 pm
Saturday, 6 December 10:00 am - 6:00 pm
Sunday, 7 December 2:00 pm - 1:00 am
Mon - Wed. 8-10 Dec. 7:30 am - 1:00 am
Thursday, 11 December 7:30 am - 10:30 pm
Friday, 12 December 7:30 am - 4:30 pm

Talk Turkey: Thanksgiving Schedule

You might be a pilgrim if…

You know what a blunderbuss is, and how to load one.

You can’t resist big, square black shoes with buckles. Yes, they go with everything, but they are not necessarily flattering in every shoe size.

Spelling Squanto’s name is easier for you than spelling Lindsey Lohan. In fact, Squanto is the name you use when ordering pizzas and dodging the paparazzi at fancy hotels.

When you head out on the town dressed in black, people on the street mistake you for John Winthrop, not Johnny Cash.

Being describes as a “Puritan” doesn’t make you feel particularly uptight, just historically accurate.

You are overcome by the urge to hunt turkeys with that blunderbuss.

Marshmallows in the candied yams are a needless luxury. Come to think of it, so are the candied yams. You’ll have turkey jerky and like it!

Give yourself a break this Thanksgiving -- enjoy the festivities, do some holiday shopping, maybe take a nap. If you find yourself thinking about school work, remember that resources are available on the library website 24/7/365. However, the library building will be closed during the break, to allow staff some time off to enjoy the holiday.

Please note the adjusted operating schedule for the Thanksgiving holiday:

Tuesday, November 25 7:30 am – 8:00 pm

Wednesday, November 26 8:30 am – 4:30 pm

Thursday – Saturday, Nov. 27-29 closed

Sunday, November 30 6:00 pm – 10:30 pm

Homecoming @Your Library

Top Ten Reasons to Celebrate Homecoming at Marian College
October 15-18

There is no better way to show school spirit than losing all your chips at a Casino Night. Too bad you can’t write that off as a donation to the scholarship fund.

Resurrecting a cherished fall tradition – burning effigies at the bonfire Friday night. Watch out for flaming marshmallows!

Have you heard? Sr. Norma plans to QB one of the powder puff teams. Rumor has it she taught Brady Quinn everything he knows.

Homecoming. Not just a song by Green Day anymore.

It’s really too bad there won’t be a parade. We’ve been stockpiling tissue paper and chicken wire for months. Indestructible piñatas, anyone?

Plans to build a Trojan Knight have been cancelled. Turns out that idea mixes mascot metaphors, and we just can’t have that kind of thing.

Well, you need something to entertain your family with during Family Weekend. They aren’t coming all that way just to hang out in your dorm room, now are they?

Does anyone drive a vehicle that actually has a tailgate? And what about the back of a truck says “let’s eat”, anyway? Funny how some traditions evolve…

Admit it – you secretly enjoy it when ancient alums show up VERY early in the morning (i.e. before noon), wanting to see their old dorm room.

I love the smell of bratwurst grilling in the morning. Smells like victory! (Go Knights!)

Fall Break is just days away. Whether you are headed to the apple orchard, corn maze or haunted house, or staying on campus to catch up on some zzzz’s, the library is happy to offer you a few distractions:

New on DVD:
Iron Man, 1588V
Forgetting Sarah Marshall, 1587V
Persepolis, 1549V
One Tree Hill (seasons 1-5), 1581-1585V

New in the Leisure Reading Collection:
Hot, Flat and Crowded, by Thomas Friedman. Call number: GE197 .F76
The Other Half: The Life of Jacob Riis and the World of Immigrant America,
by Tom Buk-Swienty. Call number: CT275 .R6 B85
Foreign Body, by Robin Cook. Call number: PS3553 .O5545 F67
Paul of Dune, by Brian Herbert. Call number PS3558 .E617 P38
American Wife, by Curtis Sittenfeld. Call number: PS3619 .I94 A5


So, stop by the library and pick up a few things to take your mind off school during
Fall Break. Don’t worry, we won’t tell – we’re taking a breather, too!

Adjusted library hours during Fall Break:
Saturday and Sunday, October 11-12 closed
Monday and Tuesday, October 13-14 8:30 am – 10:30 pm
Regular hours resume on Wednesday, October 15.

LibGuides

Mother Theresa Hackelmeier Memorial Library is pleased to announce the addition of Libguides, a new service designed to help students, faculty and staff locate research resources specific to their discipline or course. Previously we have relied on our print guides available for download, but this new online platform is much more dynamic.

Basically, LibGuides is a library-specific content management systems that allows us to list our most important resources in tabular format, to help ease the burden of research related assignments and to provide a general starting point when students simply don't know where to start looking for research items. Books, journals, databases, online resources, we are able to list them all according to subject for quick access.

Though we're in our beginning phase of creating our guides, we have about fourteen created and are continually adding more. So if you are either a student or faculty member who doesn't see a subject listing, let us know and we'll create one for you.

DVDs @Your Library

Hello again, movie buffs!
For those of you who don’t already participate in the
Friday afternoon mad rush for DVDs, maybe this will draw you in…




In the collection now:

Jumper, call number 1525V
Superbad, call number 516V
There Will Be Blood, call number 654V
P.S. I Love You, call number 1515V
House – Season 3, call number 1517V
27 Dresses, call number 1514V


And coming soon, watch for these new titles:

21
Baby Mama
Bank Job
Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Mad Men – Season 1
Semi-Pro
Persepolis
Pushing Daisies
The Spiderwick Chronicles

We will be adding new titles throughout the year, so be sure to check back to find out what’s new and noteworthy.

Just in time for those leisurely fall afternoons when you’re dying to relax with a good read (i.e. not required for class)! Here are a just a few highlights of new books in the Leisure Reading Collection:


Supreme Courtship, by Christopher Buckley
What would happen if the president of the United States nominated a tv judge to the Supreme Court? A comic novel that delves into the psyche of the Supreme Court, from the mind that brought you Thank You for Smoking and Little Green Men.

Resistance, by Agnes Humbert (translated by Barbara Mellor)
Subtitled “A Woman’s Journal of Struggle and Defiance in Occupied France”, this moving first-person account of the German occupation of France during the Second World War is a gripping read. Agnes Humbert was a respected art historian and a founder of the Musee de l’Homme resistance group. Her original journal was published in France in 1946, but never before translated into English.

Guyland: The Perilous World Where Boys Become Men, by Michael Kimmel
Based on interviews with young men aged 16 to 26, high school to college, frat house to military academy, sports bar and beyond, Kimmel provides insight into what constitutes “Guyland”, a phase of social development that is seemingly immune to the influences of parents, girlfriends, kids and other hallmarks of adulthood.

Indignation, by Philip Roth
The newest novel from PEN and National Book Award winning author Roth, Indignation has been described as Roth’s most autobiographical novel yet. The book tells the tale of a young man from Newark, NJ experiencing college in the Midwest in the early 1950’s, struggling to understand the cultural and social constrictions of a very different world.

Being Elizabeth, by Barbara Taylor Bradford
Okay, I’ll admit it – I ordered this one based on the title alone. But it’s not about me, or even a librarian.
Being Elizabeth is the story of a young woman catapulted to a senior position in a global corporation after the death of the matriarch. In classic Bradford fashion, this novel tells the tale of a woman who is successful because she is determined, clever and committed, but not without sacrifice and heartbreak along the way. Doesn’t sound a bit like my life, but an entertaining read nonetheless.

This is just a sampling of titles found in the Leisure Collection, located on the 2nd floor

New Web Site!

In case you haven't already seen, Hackelmeier Memorial Library has a new Web site for all your library needs. Specifically, we would like to promote some newly accessible features on the site including:

• Subject Guides for when you just don't know where or how to begin your research.
• Digital collections highlighting the various historical, artistic and just plain interesting aspescts of Marian College.
• A Leisure Reading Collection for when you need a break from browsing through our various subject guides and databases for your research.

Take a gander, and get to know how the library can better serve you!

A new list for a new school year

Top ten reasons to be excited about the start of a new academic year at Marian:

10. What, you actually enjoyed sleeping in, picnics in the park and mowing the lawn? Yeah, right…

9. Anyone up for a rousing game of musical parking spots?

8. With Ray Haberski off to Copenhagen courtesy of the nice people at Fulbright, someone else might get to check out some of the history movies from the library for a change.

7. “Dracula” is on the fall theatre schedule, along with Civic Theatre’s production of “Little Shop of Horrors”. Anyone else think that might be a good week for a blood drive?

6. Spending the summer on the road as a Dave Matthews Band groupie just isn’t as enlightening and um…collegial as it used to be…or maybe we’re just getting old.

5. Enrollment is up this fall! So many new freshmen, so few new practical jokes…

4. Big news -- Over the summer, the college installed whirlpool jets in the fountain! Woo-hoo! Back-to-school hot tub party!

3. Change of plans for the Day of Service – we’re all headed over to President Elsener’s house to make salsa with that bumper crop of organic tomatoes!

2. Microsoft Vista is rolling out across campus in waves. It’s kind of like hurricane season if you think about it, although hurricane season will end in November.

1. Mid-terms are right around the corner and you know what that means – free popcorn at the library!

Brought to you by the lively and creative staff of the Mother Theresa Hackelmeier Memorial Library, reminding you that the library offers so much more than just books and a place to study. Stop in and see what the library can do for you!

Upgrades to library computer lab L008

Due to computer upgrades, the library computer lab in room L008 will be CLOSED from July 21st through August 1st. The lab will reopen with new PCs on Monday August 4th.

During this time, please use the computing areas on the library's 1st and 2nd floor or the Marian Hall 304 lab.

Thank you for your understanding and patience.

New look, better research!

One of our more popular databases providers, Ebsco, has undergone an "interface lift". Don't be alarmed, the services haven't changed. Actually, there are even more options with the new searching interface, including a new "visual search" option. Here's a new reason to start your research early. Ask a librarian if you have any questions about it. Happy searching!

Summer Reading @Your Library

Alas, the dog days of summer are upon us.
The mercury is rising, along with tempers, hemlines and gas prices. Need a break?

Consider the Leisure Reading Collection in the Hackelmeier Memorial Library. A good book can transport you from an overheated conference room to the seaside in just a few paragraphs. Best of all, books are low-tech – no gadgets, fossil fuels or Gatorade required.

Located on the north wall of the second floor (conveniently near the DVD collection!), the Leisure Reading Collection has much to offer – novels, romance, biography, fantasy, true crime and more!

Need an excuse to get out of the office? Come on over and browse the shelves!

Insomniac? Browse the Leisure Reading Collection online -- just click on the Recent books from my library link, just to the right of this posting. This will connect you to a mini-catalog of all the books in the Leisure Reading Collection.

Here are a few suggestions from the Leisure Reading Collection, inspired by some favorite (and not so favorite) summer activities:

Camping
Man vs. Wild: Survival Techniques from the Most Dangerous Places on Earth / Bear Grylls
T is for Trespass / Sue Grafton

Summer job blues
Turning Tables / Heather MacDowell
Even Cat Sitters Get the Blues / Blaize Clement

Family reunions
Fear and Yoga in New Jersey / Debra Galant
The Heir / Barbara Taylor Bradford

Beach Vacations
Atomic Lobster / Tim Dorsey
The Sand Castle /Rita Mae Brown

Rough morning at the farmer’s market
Beet / Roger Rosenblatt
The Garden of Last Days / Andre Dubus III
Farm Sanctuary: Changing Hearts and Minds About Animals and Food / Gene Bauer

Road trips
Farewell, My Subaru: An Epic Adventure in Local Living / Doug Fine
The Open Road: The Global Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama / Pico Iyer
Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen / Susan Gregg Gilmore

Napping in the hammock
The Somnambulist / Jonathan Barnes
The Geography of Bliss / Eric Weiner

Neighborhood cookouts
When You Are Engulfed in Flames / David Sedaris
The Idiot Girl and the Flaming Tantrum of Death / Lori Notaro

Oh, and one more thing to tempt you – the library building is nice and cool on hot summer days. It's an excellent excuse to wander over and browse for leisure reading!

Vista/Office 2007

Change is good. Over the summer, Computer Services will be updating the student computing areas in the Library and Marian Hall 304. Microsoft's Vista and Office 2007 will be installed on these machines.

This upgrade will be ongoing over the summer and should be complete by the time the fall semester begins. We think you'll enjoy the new features available as a part of this software!

If you need assistance in the public computing areas, please don't hesitate to ask. If you're in the library, stop by the circulation desk on the first floor. You can also call extension 6090 or IM marianitc (Yahoo, MSN/Windows Live, AIM) if you get stuck.

Edible Book Display 2008

Edible Book Display 2008
Originally uploaded by marian_library_indy

Did you miss the 2nd annual Edible Book Display presented during National Library Week 2008?

You can now view the display online - just click on the image above and visit the exhibit virtually through Flickr. Start planning now for the contest next April - we'd love to see what you can create. The only limit is your own imagination.

New and Leisurely Reading @Your Library -- and a book review, too!

Great news -- more than two dozen new titles have been added to the Leisure Reading Collection since last we posted.


Here are but a few of the newest titles:

Farewell, My Subaru: An Epic Adventure in Local Living, by Doug Fine
The House at Riverton, by Kate Morton
Armageddon in Retrospect, by Kurt Vonnegut
Certain Girls, by Jennifer Weiner
Unlocked: A Journey from Prison to Proust, by Louis Ferrante
Quicksand, by Iris Johansen

And, if that is not enough, our own Edward Mandity (Information and Instructional Technology Librarian) has written a review of another Leisure Reading Collection offering, The Somnambulist, by Jonathan Barnes.

Give it up for Eddie's review...

The Somnambulist: A bizarre, not so modern mystery

Edward Moon is a "conjurer", an entertainer struggling to preserve what little reputation and income he has left. Among polite society he is now more likely considered a laughingstock than the once promising investigator propelled by his sharpened abilities of examination. Considered past his prime, his Las Vegas-styled evening show, set in Victorian era London, is now only attracting the fanatically faithful. So Moon, along with the Somnambulist, his giant, deathly pale, almost human-like partner in crime-solving and fright inducing sidekick, is bored. Yet that is about to change.

As far as crime solving duos go could this very well be the Victorian era predecessor to our modern day Starsky and Hutch? As far as mysteries go, probably not so much, as Sherlock and Watson might have proven a more apt comparison. At least Watson talked. The Somnambulist, on the other hand, doesn't; he would rather accompany Moon silently grasping his pints of milk.

If such a bizarre introduction to The Somnambulist intrigues you, then by all means delve deeper than the surface just scratched, as this book by Jonathan Barnes turns more curious by the page. But it is as entertaining as it is strange; Moon is as stubbornly cynical, full of snark as he is determined to solve what is the most important threat facing London. And the Somnambulist is, well, the Somnambulist. But will that threat be The Directorate, an assassin known only as The Mongoose, the fun-loving Prefects, or the very literary Chairman itself? Full of intrigue, murder, and curiosity, this story is all wrapped up into a very sharply-written novel. It's dark, creepy, and humorously suspenseful. And it's only the first novel written by Barnes.


Give yourself a break during the hectic, end-of-semester crush and stop by to check out the Leisure Reading Collection. You'll find it on the second floor of the library, on the north wall. We can't let Eddie have all the fun -- or all the books!

Read on...

Adjusted hours for Finals Week 2008

Hackelmeier Memorial Library
Adjusted Hours
May 3 - 9

Friday, May 2 7:30 a.m. - 9:30 p.m.
Saturday, May 3 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Sunday, May 4 2:00 p.m. – 2:00 a.m.
Monday, May 5 7:30 a.m. – Midnight
Tuesday, May 6 7:30 a.m. – Midnight
Wednesday, May 7 7:30 a.m. – Midnight

Thursday, May 8 7:30 - 3:00 p.m. (Research assistance on 2nd floor)

Friday, May 9 7:30 – 4:30 p.m.

Relaxation Zone - 1^st floor Hackelmeier Library

May 4 - 9

April 2 Student Focus Group Session

Focus group student session – 04/02/2008
2 students present

How do you use the library?
- working (library work study)
- hold study sessions for class (Soc. TA)
- general studying
- use the computers (programs not on own computer, faster, printing, etc.)

How do you see your information needs changing?
- database use increases over course of college career
- more interest in learning to use SmartBoards, other technology earlier in college career



What will you need from the library/instructional technology in the next 5 years?
- integrate some sort of library component into Freshman Experience course, so that students have a better idea of what is available to them in the library
- instruction on how to use technology (digital cameras), transfer files, create projects/presentations integrating technology

(discussion about finding ways to better integrate library and instructional services into the curriculum; students would welcome more information about what is available to them)

What new technology would you like to see incorporated into the library/instructional technology?
- touch screen computers are cool
- IM/chat services sound cool, but don’t know that much about it

(students not sure what technology is out there, but are very open to trying new things that might be fun or useful)

What do you like most/least?
- noise is a real problem, can be too noisy to study effectively
- would like to see the cell phone ban back in place
- noisy student assistants make it hard to approach them to quiet other patrons
- football study table is a problem – noisy, not studying, cell phones going off, very disruptive
- too many competing activities in one building – socializing interferes with quiet study, but quiet study doesn’t interfere with socializing, so socializing wins
- comment made was “is it a library or student center? It can’t be both”

- “I like the librarians”!
- The staff is really helpful and accessible
- Leisure reading collection is great
- The emails are fun

Do you have any advice for us?
- comment was made that other students have said the librarians are rude/mean.

Update: New and Leisurely @HML

If you haven’t stopped by to check out (and I mean literally)
the new Leisure Reading Collection yet, perhaps some
of these new titles will tempt you:

Cheer! : Three Teams on a Quest For College Cheerleading’s Ultimate Prize
by Kate Torgovnick
Nonfiction

The author spent one year following three different squads in their quest from tryouts to the National Championship. Now considered an extreme sport by some, competitive cheerleading is not your grandmother’s pom squad.

A Life With Karol: My 40-Year Friendship with the Man Who Became Pope
by Cardinal Stanlislaw Dziwisz
Nonfiction

Written by Pope John Paul II’s personal secretary, this memoir reveals new details of the papacy of Karol Wojtyla, including clandestine ski trips and walks through Rome incognito.

Adam
by Ted Dekker
Fiction

A profiler who has devoted most of his career to tracking a serial killer known only as Eve is targeted to be her first male killing, her first “Adam”. A failed attempt on his life leaves "Adam" with the knowledge he has seen the killer’s face, but the trauma of the event suppresses his memory and hinders the search for Eve.

New books arrive almost weekly. Check back soon for an in-depth review of James Patterson’s latest thriller, 7^th Heaven, also from the Leisure Reading Collection.

Focus Group Sessions

Hackelmeier Memorial Library wants your input. As part of the strategic planning process we are asking faculty, staff, and students to assist us in gathering information to assist in creating the library of the future at Marian College. We are asking ourselves, what kind of impact will the various opportunities and challenges inherent in an "Idea" economy have on future library services? Are there traditional services that require less support while new emerging services require increased support? Input from focus group participants will assist us in identifying the most important issues facing the Hackelmeier Library and Instructional Technology Services and hopefully suggest a means of best addressing those issues.

Faculty Session 1- March 25th Notes

How do you use the library?

• primarily for books, recreation use
• public library use has changed – using web services very often to order items, not browsing
• not using library for work-related research
• feels like the physical space is good for services, students
• have heard some students complain about increased noise
  

How are your information needs changing/will change

• still most comfortable reading from hard copy
• professional work is much more electronic – changing skills to accommodate this.
  Seems to be a need for electronic archiving on campus, but no one seems to be doing it
• Validation of information – concerned that students cannot distinguish good info, especially w/web sources
• would like to see more done to educate all on source evaluation(Freshman Experience discussion, jump-start/stand alone session a possibility)
• CAMs and the library - need to do more/increased presence

What new technology would you like to see in the library/instructional technology?

• students want chat support/after hours support
• scanning opportunities
• hosting capabilities for webinars, more support for that kind of technology
  (Discussion of scanning issues on campus, in library; want to develop more in this area)
• Is there a need for basic technology training for professional staff?
  not really, except maybe for new staff; most learn what is necessary for the job
  (Discussion: standardization of skills sets – Outlook, etc. – should go through HR mandate)
  
• What do you like most/least about library and instructional technology?
  doesn’t like idea that only faculty are involved with instructional technology; staff may not teach class, but still use the same technology and need support, or are in position of instructing students on using technology (registration, financial aid, etc)
  (Inst. Tech. can work with offices to help them develop training materials, etc)
• extend IT emails to staff
• would like written instructions for using tech classrooms
• tech classrooms should be standardized
• rooms are poorly set up/hard to use
• students are frustrated that faculty do not use CAMS, online grade
• faculty need to do more online – grades, book orders, communications, etc.

Please feel free to post your own comments to this blog.