Milne Hours During Finals

Milne Library’s regular semester hours end on Thursday, May 6. Hours during the final examination period and through Commencement weekend are:

Friday, May 7
7:30 AM - 12:00 AM

Saturday, May 8
10:00 AM - 12:00 AM

Sunday, May 9
10:00 AM - 1:00 AM

Monday, May 10 to Tuesday, May 11
7:30 AM - 1:00 AM

Wednesday, May 12
7:30 AM - 10:00 PM

Thursday, May 13 to Friday, May 14
8:00 AM - 4:00 PM

Saturday, May 15 to Sunday, May 16
CLOSED

There’s lots of room to study in Milne, lots of leisure reading materials available to borrow, and lots of reference librarians around to help with last-minute research or citations.

The entire staff at Milne Library wishes everyone a pleasant and relaxing summer!

Welcome back Kate Pitcher!

It seems like only yesterday that the staff at Milne Library was celebrating the birth of little Silas Goodrich, Collection Development Librarian Kate Pitcher's second son. The entire family, including big brother Griffin, are thoroughly enjoying their growing clan and life is busy and wonderful.

We welcome Kate back from maternity leave and surround her with lots of support as she jumps right back into the swing of things by leading the library's first Faculty Luncheon. As the librarian in charge of book budgets and the lofty task of diversifying and balancing Milne Library's collections, Kate and her fellow library colleagues will host an informal lunch for faculty, comprised mostly of Department Chairs and Library Representatives, on Wednesday April 7 between 12-1:30. Topics to be discussed include scholarly publishing initiatives, material budgets and departmental allocations and a working document of collection development guidelines.

We are so happy to have Kate back in the library!

Spring Break hours for Milne Library

Milne Library will close at 4pm on Friday, March 12th.

During Spring Break reference librarians are on duty from 10:00 AM until close. Additional Milne Library hours for Spring Break are:

Friday, March 12	7:30 AM - 4:00 PM
Saturday, March 13 to Sunday, March 14	CLOSED
Monday, March 15 to Friday, March 19	8:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Saturday, March 20	CLOSED
Sunday, March 21	6:00 PM to 1:00 AM

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.

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

Congratulations to Bonnie Swoger on her MLS

Milne Library is proud to announce that Bonnie Swoger, Instructional Support Associate, recently completed her coursework towards a Master's in Library Science (MLS). Her degree comes from the University at Buffalo and will be conferred in February 2008. Bonnie has worked in Milne Library since September of 2005, with increasing responsibilities and active involvement in several important library projects, including the redesign of the library website and the SAILS information literacy assessment. Bonnie has a BS from St. Lawrence University in Geology, an MS in Geology from Kent State University and taught Introductory Geology Labs at Buffalo State College for several years before coming to Geneseo. Bonnie's professional interests include web design, scholarly communication in the sciences, open access, Web 2.0 tools, and information literacy instruction and assessment. Congratulations to Bonnie and all her achievements!

Some libraries reject Google's offer to digitize book collections

On October 22, The New York Times ran a front page article about several large research libraries' rejection of Google's offer to scan and digitize large portions of their collections. The Boston Public Library, University of Connecticut and the University of Massachusetts are among several of New England's largest libraries to refuse the offer.

Instead, many of these libraries are working with an organization called Open Content Alliance to make "...the material available to any search service...", and not just limited to Google, who forbids libraries to make their collections available to other commercial search services when Google scans the materials.

Is this a mistake? Does it matter who is providing the service as long as patrons (aka students, faculty, staff) get the material they need? Or, as the refusing libraries counter, does this provide an alternative to Google and ensure that material is openly available and access is unhindered by corporate restrictions set by one search service?

Give us your thoughts and post a comment.

The 2007 IDS Conference

Over 80 participants are in Milne Library today for the first day of the annual IDS Conference. The IDS Conference is a gathering of ILL librarians, staff and administrators of over 20 different libraries in New York State, who meet yearly to discuss the IDS Project, an information delivery services project designed to create more effective ways to share library resources. Each of the libraries in the project agrees to a set of performance standards, such as borrowing or loaning journal articles with certain turnaround times, in order work together cooperatively towards a common goal. For more details about the conference or The IDS Project, please contact the Project Director, Ed Rivenburgh, at edr@geneseo.edu.

FACULTY: Start thinking about library instruction requests for fall

The Fall 2007 semester is just around the corner and faculty and staff are busy preparing for the first day of classes. Before it slips your mind, request library instruction for fall classes and beat the September rush. Schedule instruction through the Library Instruction page on the library's website. Or, contact Bonnie Swoger, Instructional Support Associate, for more details regarding rooms and technology support in the classrooms.