Free as a Free Kitten: What is the Price of Open?

Kittens!

Supporting the open access movement is vital for the future health of academic libraries, but how do we balance this support with the need to, at least in the short run, continue to provide access to the paid subscription journals that faculty, students, and researchers still value highly?…Continue Reading Free as a Free Kitten: What is the Price of Open?

DIY Bookmaking is back this J-Term!

Vinyl records are so 2010. Special Collections bookmaking gurus are back to celebrate the millennium renaissance of audio cassette tapes, those small, plastic, blasts from the past. We’ll provide vintage cassette tapes and you will go home with a hand-sewn, blank notebook with covers fashioned out of “upcycled” audio tapes. Low fidelity, high reward. All…Continue Reading DIY Bookmaking is back this J-Term!

Digital Fluency and the Library

At Middlebury, our new strategic plan calls for us to move in the direction of cultivating digital fluency and critical engagement. As we consider the outsized role of technology in our current age, the time is right for us to directly engage in helping our students (and ourselves) understand not only how modern technology functions, but also how to think critically about the kind of world we want to create….Continue Reading Digital Fluency and the Library

Library Exhibitionists

You may have noticed some different types of exhibits in the Davis Family Library lately.  Our new Literatures & Cultures Librarian Katrina Spencer has launched a set of small displays visible just as you enter Davis Family Library.  Last month we commemorated “Gaypril” featuring sex-positive books from across the cultural and sexual spectra, while this month’s display…Continue Reading Library Exhibitionists

The Importance of Being Open

The library has just finished developing our budget proposal for next year. As part of the broad budget adjustments happening across the college, we submitted a budget that is 3% less than last year’s. Because the cost of library materials increases on average by 5% per year, a 3% reduction relative to last year could…Continue Reading The Importance of Being Open

A few words from Mike

Welcome to the first issue of Keywords for the 2016-2017 academic year! As usual, it has been a busy summer here, with the libraries operating full-tilt year-round to support the Language Schools and Bread Loaf School of English. We have also begun to reimagine our physical spaces to meet evolving curricular needs and highlight new…Continue Reading A few words from Mike

On Access

As we wrap up the academic year and head into summer, most of our undergraduates and many of our faculty head off to other locations across the country and across the globe, and we welcome a new set of students and faculty who join us for our language schools and our Bread Loaf School of English. It is during these transitions that I am particularly reminded of the need and challenges of providing access to the library’s collections. …Continue Reading On Access