Talking in the Library

The ABC's of Summer in Hale Library

There are a lot of changes going on this summer - here's a quick A-Z rundown of things you need to know.

A is for alphabetical
All our journals and magazines are now in alphabetical order on 1st floor.  No more trying to remember call numbers - just find your journal by title. 

B is for basement
The only area in Hale Library not affected by summer projects is the basement.

C is for carpet
Carpet is being installed this week and into next on 2nd floor and in a few of the meeting rooms.  This may create a little more noise than you're used to; 1st floor should stay fairly calm if you need a quiet spot.

D is for diamond
You might need to take a new route to get to familiar places - just follow the color-coded diamond-shaped wayfinder signs.

E is for elevator
Don't forget to use the elevator to exit the building from 3rd, 4th, and 5th floors - the stairs won't do you any good right now.

F is for familiar
Our media collection - video tapes, CDs, and DVDs - is now located on 3rd floor, in the familiar big white cabinets you remember from 2nd floor.

G is for Great Room
The Great Room is closed until June 10th, so we can continue the mural restoration project that started last summer. 

H is for Help Desk
Our temporary Help Desk on 1st floor can give you a hand with checking out and returning materials, reference questions, getting around the building, using equipment - whatever you need!

OK, that was actually an A-H rundown, but you get the idea. As always, if you have any questions about the projects, give us a shout via your favorite communication channel on the Ask A Librarian page.

Need government info or microfilm today? No problem!

Life in Hale Library may look different today, but we are persistent little creatures!  Those of us that work here are still happily helping our patrons, only we are now helping from one easy location instead of several different locations.  As you walk into the first floor, you will walk by our wonderful Temporary Help Desk.  This help desk used to be known as the Science Help Desk, but for the next few weeks it is our Help Desk.  Anything you need to ask can be asked at this one desk!  Now, how is that for ease of travels through Hale's many "mini floors" (AKA stacks A-H) and regular numbered floors?   This Help Desk will eventually move to second floor once the construction is completed, but in the meantime - catch our Help Desk on first floor!.

Need help with Government Docs?  Stop at the Help Desk.   Want to know where the printers are located?  Stop at the Help Desk.  Want to view an old issue of the New York Times or Harper's Bazaar that is found on microfilm?  Stop at the Help Desk!  Want assistance in locating music scores, public laws, biographies of people long passed, chemistry research, microfilm, microfiche, DVDs?  Anything?  Just stop at the Help Desk on first floor! 

Try the other door!

Today we shift the entrance of Hale Library to the 1st floor so we can begin work on the 2nd floor for the new Hale Commons.  We know a few of you are still on campus - if you're coming by Hale, you'll want to use the Sunflower Entrance on 1st floor by the cafe and follow the signs.  Click on the image at the right to see a larger map of how you'll get in.

We've located a temporary Help Desk on 1st floor, so if you have any questions about where things are or how to get around, ask there! 

I'm graduating ... and I'm leery of the interwebs, can I take the Libraries with me?

We're librarians, do we strike you as being the cold-hearted, throw-you-out-into-the-information-wilderness-without-even-a- Swiss-Army-knife types? Of course we're not. 

Graduates retain their online access and checkout privileges until the beginning of the next semester. If you are one of the lucky ones graduating this Friday or Saturday, you'll still be able to search and whatnot until the fall semester begins. If you are graduating in December, the timing isn't as fantabulous. You'll still retain your searching and checkout privileges until the next semester starts, unfortunately the next semester starts just a few weeks later in January.

So then do we chuck you, alone and defenseless, into the series of tubes?  Of course not. We've pulled together the resources that you can use post-graduation on our Alumni Services and Real World Research pages. If you stretch the analogy, these pages are your information Swiss Army knife because they are chock full of useful research tools.

We offer:

• free and open access journals
• databases from the State Library of Kansas (including some old favorites like Expanded Academic and Business & Company Resource Center)
• alumni or non-university user library cards (so you can still check us out)
• links to free research tools (Yahoo! Finance and Internet Archive are just two)

As we continue to discover free and/or open access resources, we'll add them to these pages. Why?  Because we like you.

Image credit: My old Swiss Army knife #01 by Luca Passoni on Flickr.

Short Cuts: It's the end of the year as we know it

And you feel fine, right?

With the end of dead week and the coming of finals, there also comes a break in the delight that you have come to know and love as Short Cuts. Please don't cry during our brief hiatus. You know how we love to provide tips and tricks for doing research, so if we come up with one that just can't wait, we'll post it for you. In the meantime, please feel free to read through the archives periodically throughout the summer, just to keep yourself sharp.

We'll be back to our regularly scheduled programming in Fall 2009, but keep an eye out for flashes of brilliance between now and then.

This doesn't, of course, mean that the Libraries aren't here for you all summer. Just check our hours, which are a bit different during intersession and summer sessions.

Good luck on those exams, watch your stuff, please observe the quiet zones, come have some coffee, and come back to a brand spanking new Hale Library Commons.

Expanded Quiet Zones in Hale Library May 10-15

Once again we have turned Hale Library into a Quiet Zone Sandwich for Finals week (May 10-15): our 1st, 3rd, and 4th floors will serve as wholesome, sweet, quiet (but not silent) surrounds to the spicy and slightly cacophonous 2nd floor and to the sandwich-metaphor-defying 24 hour study area.

During this 6 day period we ask that those of you on the 1st, 3rd, and 4th floors help us keep our sandwich intact by:

• setting your cellphones to vibrate
• refraining from loud conversations or group work
• keeping your headphones turned down

Those of you on the 2nd floor and in the 24-hour study area are free to study or work in groups, engage in non-whispered (but also non-shouted) conversations, have cell phones sound, and listen to headphones at normal (but not deafening) levels.

Happy studying!

New Leisure Reading books - GET THEM NOW!!

Here are the newest additions to our Leisure Reading collection.  GET THEM NOW, as our Leisure Reading collection will be unavailable starting next week while we remodel the 2nd floor.  In case you missed last month's selections, they are here.  Enjoy your summer reading!

What defines our libraries?

Next Friday I'm teaching a session of a colleague's class on international librarianship. My general topic (and I have an enormous time block at my disposal, so can range all over the place) is American academic libraries. I need some help with this.

If you were telling the story of American academic libraries to a non-American audience, what points, topics, or highlights would you be sure to include? I've already put in bits about the types and numbers of academic libraries, our professional degrees, and a segment on the services available to a user of a typical academic library, e.g.- service hours, online databases, free interlibrary loans, course reserves, etc. I plan to close with a discussion of the future prospects for academic libraries, using David Lewis's article, the Taiga Forum Provocative Statements, and the Darien Statements for discussion starters.

Whether you work in or use an academic library, what would be the first things that pop to mind if you were asked to characterize libraries in the US?

Free Caffeine & Games in Hale

It's time for the Caffeine Fix. For those of you new this semester, this is the time were we provides free caffeine (tea/coffee), snacks, and games (Guitar Hero/Wii) as a break for those studying late in Hale Library. So if you plan to be in the library Sunday-Tuesday night, bring a mug!

What: Finals Week Caffeine Fix
When: May 10, 11, 12, 10pm-12am
Where: Hemisphere Room, 5th floor Hale

Change ahead!

If you're walked into Hale Library since mid-afternoon on Thursday, you may have noticed bright blue "change ahead" signs on the doors.  Wondering what that's all about?

This summer, K-State Libraries will be undertaking a variety of construction and renovation projects deferred after the tornado last summer.  

Second floor, including the entrance gates, will be closed from mid-May to mid-June.  During this time, all of second floor will get new carpet, a new entrance will be constructed, and materials currently housed in the open area of the floor will be moved to new locations.

While second floor is closed, entrance to Hale Library will be through the Sunflower Entrance (near the café) and the 24 hour study area to the first floor.  You’ll find a temporary Help Desk offering full library services at the current Science Library desk.  Libraries staff will be available to help you navigate the building and get to all the materials, services, and places you need.

When the second floor reopens in July, you will find it a new innovative, flexible and welcoming learning space that will include additional PCs and Macs, more convenient power for laptops taking advantage of Hale’s wireless network, more comfortable seating, and more group work technologies and spaces.

As the project continues, we’ll provide a variety of ways for you to keep up to date with what’s going on.  We’ll soon be launching a Twitter feed on the Libraries’ home page with frequent updates and links to more information plus video and images of the project.  If you’d like to know more now, start here to get information. Soon, we’ll have links for you to:

● Find out how the remodel is being green
● Find out why we are doing the project now, and how it's being paid for
● Find out how to access the things/places/people you need during construction
● Find out how this is connected to our strategic plan

Drop by the Help Desk, send us an email, or chat us if you have any questions about the project. We appreciate your patience and understanding as we work to make our facilities everything K-State faculty and students deserve!