Middlebury Libraries is happy to unveil our newest video tutorial for 2019: Citation For People Who Hate Citation. This is a big-picture look at citation: why we do it, what it’s for, and how to make it an easier, stress-free process. Big thanks to Middlebury students Emma Román ’22 and Kayla Moore ’22 for their participation! You can watch the video here, or find it at go/CitationForPeople/.
Category Archives: middpoints
Open Access Week: What is It?
Open Access Week is an international event that raises awareness of the many benefits of making research free and open for others to use. This year’s theme is “Open for Whom? Equity in Open Knowledge,” which asks libraries and researchers around the world to consider how they will create and support platforms for sharing knowledge that are “inclusive, equitable, and truly serve the needs of a diverse global community. Asking ourselves and our partners ‘open for whom?’ will help ensure that considerations of equity become and remain central… .”
At Middlebury, we are considering “open for whom?” through two goals for the upcoming year: expanding our efforts to support campus-wide diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives; as well as identifying our role in building and sustaining the infrastructure required for digital scholarship.
Other open access efforts at Middlebury include:
- Digital Collections at Middlebury, our open-source repository that houses digitized works from our archives, along with student theses, scientific datasets, and faculty open access articles.
- The Open Access policy, adopted by faculty in 2016, grants the college a license to republish scholarly essays by faculty in our online repository.
- Lever Press, a consortial open access publisher focusing on “digital-first” online scholarly monographs.
- An examination of digital scholarship infrastructure, supported by a Mellon grant and led by Dean of the Library Mike Roy (along with a multi-school team of library professionals), with the goal of envisioning a more modern and sustainable system that would enhance scholarly communication at colleges, universities, and research libraries.
Finally, are you wondering where to find open access research? Here are a few places to look:
- Open Access on Project MUSE
- Open Content on JSTOR
- Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
- LibrarySearch, Middlebury’s new discovery service (the replacement for Summon). Find Open Access materials by going to “Search Options” then “Collection” and finally “Open Access Scholarship.” LibrarySearch is still a new service and a work-in-progress, so please get in touch with a librarian with any questions!
Bye-bye Summon, Hello LibrarySearch
The Library has hundreds of databases, indexes and catalogs, providing access to millions of articles, books, films, musical recordings and primary sources. That sounds promising… until it sounds overwhelming. Where should you start your research? We used to recommend Summon, but over the summer, we replaced Summon with LibrarySearch.
Like its predecessor Summon, LibrarySearch is a great place to begin your research. That’s because LibrarySearch links you to nearly everything in our collections. And, we think LibrarySearch is even better than Summon at matching results to your search terms.
We’re still straightening out some of the kinks with our new discovery service. For example, LibrarySearch is linking to materials at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, and it is not linking to many of our online newspapers. So as always, please get in touch with a librarian if you’re not finding what you need.
Next time you’re starting a research project, try LibrarySearch! Look for it at the center of the Library home page, or at go.middlebury.edu/librarysearch.
Macbook recalls
ITS wants to make all employees and students aware of two current serious Macbook recalls:
Recall #1:
Apple has issued a battery recall notice for “Mid-2015” model 15″ Macbook Pro laptops. The situation is a safety issue as according to Apple “the battery may overheat and pose a fire safety risk.”
Apple’s customer info page about the issue can be found at:
https://support.apple.com/15-inch-macbook-pro-battery-recall
Employees here at the college with college-issued Macbooks affected by this issue have been contacted via a WebHelpdesk ticket to arrange to have Apple repair their computer. Employees with personal computers and students are advised to use the above link to check their serial number and then follow the instructions on their website to arrange repair. Due to the nature of this repair, Apple is not allowing us to perform the repair in-house so your Macbook will need to be shipped to Apple for repair. Turn around will be 1 to 2 weeks and Apple advises users to shut down and stop using the computer until after it is repaired. If you store any files to the local hard drive, you will want to transition your data onto one of our cloud storage solutions, like OneDrive/Middfiles beforehand. With an off-site repair, data is not guaranteed to be intact, and our cloud storage options are backed up and accessible from just about anywhere.
Recall #2:
Another recall is for the SSD (hard drive) in some 13” non-touchbar Macbook Pro laptops. This problem can lead to data loss. To check your serial number, use this link:
https://support.apple.com/13-inch-macbook-pro-solid-state-drive-service
Affected employees here at the college have already had tickets created and been emailed via WebHelpdesk. Users are advised to ensure they are properly storing all their data on OneDrive/Middfiles in order to protect their data in the event their SSD fails prior to repair.
Interlibrary Loan Service changes
Dear Library Patrons:
You may have noticed that turnaround times to complete ILL requests
have of late at times been slightly longer than in the past. As a
result of workforce planning, we have reduced the number of staff
working in this department by .5 FTE. We will of course continue to
fill requests as quickly as we can, but do bear this in mind when
submitting requests with hard deadlines. Please note the following as
well:
* ILL requests submitted with incomplete or erroneous bibliographic
information may be returned to you as unfulfilled and/or in need of
additional information
* ILL staff may not be able to devote quite as much time as in the
past to filling requests for particularly rare or hard-to-acquire
items
You should continue to use our online form
(http://go.middlebury.edu/illiad) to submit ILL requests and as noted
above, provide as much and as accurate bibliographic information as
possible. If you need to speak to a member of our dedicated ILL
staff, you can stop by the Davis Family Library circulation desk
during the following hours:
Monday – Thursday: 9am-5pm
Friday: 9am-3pm
We apologize for any inconvenience these changes may cause. If you have questions or comments about these changes, please feel free to contact:
Michael Roy, Dean of Libraries (mdroy@middlebury.edu)
Terry Simpkins, Director, Access and Discovery Services (tsimpkin@middlebury.edu)
Announcing the New Library Website
You’re right, things look a little different this week! We’re excited to announce the launch of our new library website. We’ve streamlined and reorganized our content, and we’re now mobile-friendly! We hope it’ll be even easier for you to find what you need, and to discover useful and inspiring resources that you didn’t even know to ask for.
Please note that the site, though live, is not quite in its final form. We’ll be making minor upgrades and revisions in the coming weeks.
Many thanks to the Library Website User Experience Team, Library Website authors, and, last but not least, our colleagues at the Office of Communications!
Now, go ahead and update your bookmarks to point to: http://go.middlebury.edu/lib . We’ll see you there!
Summer Reading!
Summer’s almost here! The library has added 30 new titles to our print browsing collection, and another 30 (including many non-English titles) to our collection of e- and audiobooks (go/overdrive/). These books are available for borrowing by the entire College community, so enjoy the copious Vermont sun with some lemonade and a new book!
New Old Images of Middlebury
Recently, thanks to a tip from the friend of a friend we purchased some antique stereoscope views of Middlebury College and the Town of Middlebury in an online auction. (Shout out to the friend of Prof. Kevin Moss!)
Notice the high meadows on Chipman Hill behind the church steeple.
Stereoscope cards hold two identical photographs, mounted side by side and slightly offset. When they’re viewed through a stereoscope viewer, a three dimensional image emerges.
A state of the art and thrilling parlor entertainment throughout the late nineteenth century, these rare images don’t need to be viewed in stereo to be appreciated online today.
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