Milne Library News

Monday, March 31, 2008

TechHelp is now hiring!

The library is looking for talented and knowledgeable students who can work as TechHelp. These students are responsible for maintaining the working order of the computers, printers, and all other equipment in the library. These students also assist the library patrons in all functions of the equipment.

The ideal candidate is hard working, can learn quickly, and must have plenty of charm, charisma, and patience. This candidate must also have experience with computer hardware and operating systems. The main focus of this position is customer support.

We are currently looking to hire 3 or 4 students for the fall semester. Interviews will be begin later in the spring. If you are interested, please visit the TechHelp desk in the library and ask for an application.

For additional information about TechHelp Student duties, please email Steve Praino.

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Thursday, March 27, 2008

From our online suggestion box: heating and cooling the library

Milne Library has a easy way for you to give us feedback or make suggestions: our online suggestion box.

In addition to a direct email reply, we will be posting answers to your suggestions and questions here on the Milne Library blog.

Our latest suggestion is from an undergraduate student:

It is freezing upstairs (and downstairs too). I spend a lot of time on the quiet floor studying, and find that I have to wear my coat. And sometimes my gloves. I love to study up there, but I am deterred sometimes by the temperature. The Wadsworth library is warmer, but has limited hours so I don't really have alternative options in the village. Can you please turn the heat up?

Thank you for sharing your concerns with us regarding heating issues in the library. Unfortunately, we have no control over the heating (or cooling) system for Milne Library. Since we, the staff, spend 8 or more hours a day in the building, we would love to be able to regulate the heat.

However, "heat" for all Academic and Administrative Buildings on campus is produced by the boilers at the Heating Plant and distributed to buildings through a system of pipes carrying pressurized steam. Pasted below, is the College's Facility Services policy regarding heating and cooling of buildings on campus (see the full documents here (PDF)).

Building Heating and Cooling:
Building maintenance adheres to the established State energy conservation guidelines for the heating and cooling of campus buildings as follows:
  • During the heating season building temperature is maintained at a minimum of 68 degrees.
  • During the cooling season buildings with central air conditioning are maintained at a maximum temperature of 78 degrees.
The physical condition and unique characteristics of campus buildings and the efficiency of heating and cooling systems impacts our ability to maintain the target temperatures within all spaces.

The heating season typically begins at the end of September and the cooling season typically begins at the end of May. Special event requirements or extreme temperature conditions can alter the heating and cooling startup schedule.

Academic building heating temperatures are “set back” after working hours according to occupancy schedules provided by Campus Scheduling and Special Events Planning. Unoccupied Academic buildings and those buildings scheduled by Residential Life as unoccupied are “setback” during curtailment and observed breaks. During the summer, air conditioning is available in Erwin, South Hall, Milne and College Union. All other spaces are cooled according to occupancy schedules provided by Events Planning. Please contact the Supervisor of Zone Maintenance for further information.

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Friday, March 21, 2008

Changes to the library homepage

While students were away on Spring Break, we've been busy!
Thanks to the students, faculty and staff who completed surveys in Fall 2007, the Milne Library Web Team has implemented several design changes which grew out of these recommendations. Improvements include:

  1. Consolidation of QuickLinks on the library homepage and less clutter!
  2. Removal of much of the text from the side columns on the homepage
  3. Addition of direct links to our most "Popular Resources" -- right from the homepage!
  4. Spacing of individual news stories farther apart (making them easier to read) and adding an RSS feed for New Books to the bottom of blog's column. This also has the added benefit of keeping RSS feeds in one column.
  5. New color choices for main page.
  6. The addition of a "Bookmark" badge to all library webpages, thus increasing Web 2.0 functionality to our website and allowing users to bookmark our pages easily.
  7. Removal of underlining for hyperlinks.

Tell us what you think - we want your feedback! If you have questions about any of the changes made to the library website, please contact Kate Pitcher, Web Development Librarian, at pitcher@geneseo.edu or by phone at 245-5064.

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Monday, March 17, 2008

Resources on the 2008 Presidential campaign

With so much political news being generated and covered by the media, it is easy to get lost in the overwhelming amount of information. To help library users navigate through this information overload, Milne Library has selected a few handy resources which stand out and are recommended to our users.

To get the latest news reports on primary and caucus coverage, political candidate information, international response to the campaigns or speeches given by the candidates, the NewsBank Special Report: Presidential Campaign 2008 is your best source for coverage all in one place:

NewsBank's Special Reports focus on topics of current interest. They include content from sources throughout the world to provide a global perspective, current and background information, statistics, maps, images, websites, and suggested search terms. New information is added daily to featured and current reports. Coverage of the possible candidates for the 2008 presidential election is the current focus of the Special Report. Coverage will expand to include the full scope of the campaign including primaries, conventions and debates...


Another useful compilation of political news coverage is The Times Topics: Presidential Election 2008, from The New York Times newspaper. Coverage includes all political articles, opinion, graphs, polls, and multimedia from the NYT recent and archived stories.

Interested in finding out how much your neighbor contributed to a candidate’s campaign? Both Gatehouse News Service: Decision 2008-Search for Contributions and The Huffington Post blog have searchable databases where users can find contribution information by contributor name, zip code, address or occupation.

It is said that the youth are participating in record numbers for this campaign and its only primary season! Visit Youth Radio, where interested young adults are writing, blogging and covering Election 2008, using their own words and voices. Youth Radio trains youth from all over the world to contribute radio segments, blog posts, podcasts, video and to their website, thus training the young people to become media professionals in their own right.

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Thursday, March 13, 2008

Spring Break Hours


Milne Library will close at 4pm on Friday, March 14th.

Additional Milne Library hours for Spring Break are as follows:


Friday, March 14 7:30 AM - 4:00 PM
Saturday and Sunday, March 15-16 CLOSED
Monday, March 17 - Friday, March 21 8:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Saturday, March 22 CLOSED
Sunday, March 23 6:00 PM - 1:00 AM

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Friday, March 07, 2008

Cheating on Facebook?

Chris Avenir, a Ryerson University Freshman in Toronto, Canada, is facing 147 counts of academic misconduct for running an online chemistry study group via Facebook last term, where he and 146 of his classmates swapped tips on homework questions that counted for 10 per cent of their final grade. As administrator of the study group, he is bearing the brunt of the accusation.

Today's Toronto Star reports that College officials are currently silent on the matter pending further investigation but that students are in an uproar over the situation. How is discussing the questions via Facebook's forum any different from meeting in the "Dungeon" - a Ryerson basement study room used by engineering students to study and network in this same manner for years?

Is this truly a case of misusing networking technology to "gain academic advantage" or yet another clash of Luddite Professor vs Wired Youth? The results are going to be worth following as we sort through another layer of the consequences of being hyper-connected in an Internet World.



Tell us what you think by taking the poll, or make a longer comment here!

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