Tag Archives: Library Spotlight

Welcome to the Libraries, Febs!

Welcome Febs!

Come to the Research Desk to claim your free unicorn!*

(*Ahem. No actual unicorns are available at this time.)

But please do come and say hello to a friendly librarian! We provide expert research help, bookmarks, collectible library pins and (sometimes) candy! Find us at the Research Desk on the main level of the Davis Family Library.

Spring Research Desk Hours
(February 11 – May 21)

  • Sunday 1pm-5pm
  • Monday 11am-5pm and 7pm-9:30pm
  • Tuesday 11am-5pm and 7pm-9:30pm
  • Wednesday 11am-5pm and 7pm-9:30pm
  • Thursday 11am-5pm
  • Friday 11am-4pm

And online anytime!
go.middlebury.edu/askalibrarian

No one’s at the Research Desk?
Visit us in our offices! Librarians are conveniently located right behind the Research Desk.

What about the Armstrong Library?
A librarian is available most days at the Armstrong Library in McCardell Bicentennial Hall, too. Just ask!

Update on New York Times access

New York TimesYou may be aware that we’ve had an access problem with the New York Times web site over the past few months. The short version of the issue is that SGA was providing online access until NYT discontinued that program…which no one on campus realized until our access ceased (there’s more detail in this Campus article). The Times’ new program is extremely expensive, and the library’s funding for this fiscal year was set last year. Partial access is still available; would that full access were, and we wish an immediate solution were at hand. We haven’t given up, though, and are still working on the problem. Please feel free to contact Douglas Black, Head of Collections Management, for more information.

Links to our remaining options for online access access to the NYT are in the Journals list New York Times. (You can get to this list on your own by clicking on the “Journals” tab on the library home page and searching for “new york times.”) For today’s paper, select “Global Newsstream,” a database that provides NYT articles with full text but without images. Need help? Ask a librarian.

More Consistent Linking from Library Databases

In order to provide a consistently satisfactory user experience, in which users of the Library’s research databases (and the Summon discovery service) don’t face dead-end blank screens when trying to reach articles and books, the Library will deactivate Index-enhanced Direct Linking (IEDL) in our link resolver (360Link).

What does this mean exactly?
Index-enhanced Direct Linking (IEDL) is available for certain article databases that cooperate with the company which provides 360Link.  IEDL takes the user from a results list to an article or book without any kind of intermediate screen. From certain databases (and from Summon), IEDL was supposed to streamline the user experience by eliminating clicks between the search results and the items themselves. This has not turned out to be the case.

What will I see?
When you click on a link for full-text, you will now see the familiar intermediate screen for all articles and books.  This “Get it @ Midd” screen is 360Link, our link resolver.  You will then click a button to access the item, as you always have in cases where you saw this screen. The intermediate screen will be similar to the following example:

Get It @ Midd page

Why did we make the change?
For several reasons having to do with commercial relationships among various database vendors, IEDL used to function better than it currently does. Now, the inconvenience of the dead-end screens occurs much more often. The dead ends (blank screens) provide little or no useful information as to how the user can access materials the Library actually has. Always displaying the intermediate “Get it @ Midd” screen will allow users to see our accurate holdings and to obtain access consistently.

Questions and/or Feedback
Please feel free to comment below or send questions to the Midd librarians at http://go.middlebury.edu/askus .

Faculty: Are you grading research papers…

…and hoping they’ll be a little better next time? Talk with a librarian! We’d love to help you build more research and information literacy support into your spring semester classes. Our new InfoLit site describes what we do, and how it makes a difference. You’ll find assignment ideas, sample workshops, and of course, lots more prompts to talk with a librarian.

InfoLit site

“Every student who met with you commented on how that meeting focused their work and led them to search the appropriate literature quickly and effectively.”
-Faculty feedback on library research consultations for students, Fall 2018

 

Is the outlet out? Report it!

Report it!Is the outlet out? Is the carrel light dark? Please, report it!

It’s finals week, and students are making use of every desk, table, carrel and recliner in the libraries. Surely, someone will find something amiss.

Please feel welcome to alert library staff to outages and other problems in the building. Visit the Circulation Desk, or report the issue via our Library Feedback Form at go.middlebury.edu/libfeedback. We want to keep our facilities in top-top shape for you!

Thank you!

Write-In 2018

a flyer

Come Visit the 4th Annual Middlebury Write-In, Wednesday, December 5th, from 8:00 p.m. – 11:00 p.m. in Davis Family Library 201 or the Anderson Freeman Center.

On Wednesday, December 5th, from 8:00 p.m. – 11:00 p.m., supported by the Center for Teaching, Learning and Research (CTLR), the 4th Annual Middlebury Write-In will be held. Students can receive writing assistance from tutors and research help from librarians in Davis Family Library 201 or in the Anderson Freeman Center. Snacks will be served. For more information, visit go.middlebury.edu/writein.

New digital scholarship guides in the library!

We’ve been developing new library guides around topics related to digital scholarship (or digital humanities, or digital liberal arts, or whatever usage you prefer). These guides are aimed at faculty, staff, and students who are new to digital scholarship or who are looking to learn new skills in a particular area. They will mainly be styled after our other “How to” guides, offering steps to get started with a particular tool or concept, selected tips on more advanced features, and places to look for more advanced help.

Our first new guide in this series is “Getting started with Omeka,” which gives an outline of options for using Omeka here at Middlebury, the basic steps of getting started building your Omeka exhibit, and links to see how others have used Omeka for research, public scholarship, and in the classroom. More information will roll out to this guide soon on plug-ins and other advanced topics.

You can find the Omeka guide, along with all of our other upcoming digital scholarship guides (including some legacy guides that we’ve included) at go/digitalscholarshipguides/.

If you have topics you would like to see covered in a digital scholarship library, contact one of the expert librarians (listed at go/digitalscholarshipguides/), and we’ll discuss!

Not Just Any Tips. These Are Our TOP Tips!

Top Tips for Research

Do you feel stuck? Not sure what to do next? No need to feel stressed. Middlebury Librarians want to help you get back on track.

Here are our Top Tips for Starting Your Research.

Reminder: Librarians are ready to guide you through any stage of library research, from refining a topic, to revising search terms, to identifying, selecting and citing sources. Hours, contact info and FAQs.