Ohio University Libraries News and Events

Construction on the Learning Commons will begin March 29.

Starting on Monday, March 22, the Park Place doors will be closed. Entry to Alden Library will be possible only on the 4th floor, on the north side of the building.

The Computer Lab will be open through Spring Quarter, but will close for the summer on Friday, June 12.

Instructional & Media Technology Services (IMTS) will remain open throughout the project, with only very brief periods of restricted access.

Reserve and Interlibrary Loan materials may be requested and checked out at the main Circulation Desk on the 4th floor.

The Current Periodicals Collection will be moved to the 4th floor during the week of March 22 – 26. A few high-interest magazines and journals will be housed at the Circulation Desk, and available for in-house use upon request.

The Snack / Vending area will be closed as of Monday, March 22. Some vending machines will remain in operation on the 2nd floor during the renovation, with very limited seating nearby.

A. J. Stockmeister, Inc. of Jackson, Ohio, is the General Contractor for the project.

Alden Library will be closed on both Saturday, March 20 and Sunday, March 21. The unusual Saturday closing is necessitated by a campus-wide power outage from 2 to 6 p.m. on Saturday.

During the week of March 22 – 26 Alden Library will be open from 8 a.m. till 5 p.m. We will also be open from noon till 4 p.m. on Saturday, March 27, but closed on Sunday the 28th.

Regular hours will resume on Monday, March 29.

The reading room in the Robert E. and Jean R. Mahn Center for Archives & Special Collections in Alden Library will close at 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 10 for a special ceremony. The reading room will resume regular service at 8:00 a.m. on Thursday morning.

The lists of new library acquisitions for February have been posted to the Libraries’ website. The listings include more than 3400 newly-cataloged books, 856 government documents, 78 sound recordings, 110 videos (mostly in DVD format), and 25 masters theses and doctoral dissertations.

Listings for the past few previous months are available at the Lists of New Materials in the Libraries menu page.

InfoTree users who register for “My InfoTree” can now “subscribe” to any of the Subject Terms in the system. That is, they can put a check next to any number of terms in list of subjects that InfoTree uses and receive an e-mail notification whenever a new record is added to InfoTree that uses one of those subject terms. This is a handy and convenient way to always be aware of new resources added to the system.

Anyone looking for a list of recent additions can always view InfoTree’s “Newest Additions” section. Here, for example, is a link to those records added in the past 30 days.

Welcome to the new version of the library news page, or library blog. A blog, or weblog, is typically a news page that is updated frequently. News items appear in reverse chronological order, so the most up-to-date news is always at the top.

The software that runs this site enables us to add frequent content with ease. The software also automatically archives the material by date, and categories can be assigned to new posts. All new posts go to the main news page, while a copy is archived in the appropriate category. Users can search the news with the search box to the right, and can browse by category. Users may also look at archives by date, or view the most recent posts on the right side of the page.

Why the new look and design? There are quite a few reasons. First, the software and the web interface will allow more library staff to add content to the news page. Currently, all news updates are passed on to the library webmasters, so there is often a time lag. With this interface, library staff (with the appropriate login account) will be able to post library news and have it appear on the page immediately. In this way, library users will have immediate access to necessary information. Also, the news will be organized automatically by date and category, making it easier to find information.

Many blogs allow readers to comment on stories, thereby creating a type of online community. The library news blog also has this feature, so feel free to leave an appropriate comment. Comments are moderated, so it may take a little time for a comment to appear on the page. Because this is a public site, the library reserves the right to edit comments for public consumption.

A final feature of the blog is that users can subscribe to information as it is posted. This is done through a format called RSS, or Rich Site Syndication, which allows users to subscribe to news feeds using an RSS aggregator. This is explained in detail here.

The Libraries’ Web Team hopes the news blog proves to be an effective way of delivering current news and announcements. Should you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact Chad Boeninger or Tim Smith.

A panel of Ohio University emerita professors will speak on “Ohio University Women’s Recollections” on Tuesday, March 2 at 4 p.m. The panel, a program for Women’s History Month, will be held in the Friends of the Library Room (Alden 319).

The panelists on the program are Gladys Bailin-Stern, Catherine Brown, Margaret “Peg” Cohn, and Lynn Simon. Bailin-Stern is a Distinguished Professor Emerita of Dance. Cohn retired from the position of Dean of the Honors Tutorial College. Simon and Brown were on the faculty of the School of Recreation and Sports Sciences and coached women’s athletic teams. The panelists will discuss the climate for and contributions by women to Ohio University by reflecting on their own experiences in leadership positions.

“All of the panelists were contributors to the book, Ohio University Recollections for the Bicentennial Anniversary, 1804-2004, published by the Ohio University Emeriti Association for the university’s bicentennial,” states Brown, program committee chair for the Friends. “The panelists will talk during the program about other things they remember.”

The sponsor for the panel program is the Friends of the Libraries of Ohio University. The program is free and open to the public. Copies of the Emeriti Association’s book, Ohio University Recollections, will be available for sale at the program.

The Friends of the Libraries of Ohio University were established in 1979 to support the Libraries. The organization is observing its silver anniversary year in 2004.