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Faculty/Staff Library Newsletter

Stockings for Soldiers


 

This is our third year collecting Stockings for Soldiers for the holiday season with Black Funeral Homes in Stoneboro and Sandy Lake.  The stockings are donated to homeless veterans in Erie and Pittsburgh. Last year we were able to fill 145 stockings for our veterans. We currently have collected 97 stockings. Will you help us reach our goal to fill as many stockings as last year?   
 
The funeral homes will provide the stockings -- so in order to help us know how many to request, please fill out the form below. The deadline to sign up is Friday December 6th. Please return your filled stockings by December 11th. 
We will contact you via email when your stocking(s) can be picked up. Items requested include:

-  Deodorant, toothpaste & toothbrushes and soaps (all travel size) 

 

-  Hats, gloves and socks

Crossword books, word search books, playing cards  and stamps

PLEASE DO NOT INCLUDE: food, candy, batteries, or weapons (pocket knives)

If you would like to donate individual items without placing them in a stocking, that’s great too!  Individual donations add up and can help us make more stockings. There is a collection box in the library lobby and in faculty lounges in STEM and HAL.

If you're a campus advisor let your group know - CLP Credit Offered! Groups of less than 20 can fill 1 stocking to earn credit and groups with more than 20 members can earn credit for filling 2 stockings.

Therapy Dogs 


 

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Therapy dogs will be visiting the library on Study Day from 1 - 4pm 

Christmas Display


On display in December you'll find Christmas books in the library lobby. Stop in to check out a book for the holidays. Some are wrapped up like presents so their titles will be a surprise! There are also unwrapped titles for you to browse.

Also, don't forget about our Christmas movie collection. Stop in the  library lobby to browse our collection. We have a great selection of classics and newer titles.

Mysteries of the Library Revealed


by: Kim Marks

The library is seen by many as a magical and mysterious place. Over the years, more than one patron has shown amazement as they’ve learned how the books are arranged in the library. Others have commented in wonder as a librarian helps them locate an elusive article they’ve searched high and low for to no avail on their own. And, while I genuinely appreciate being heralded as a wizard (true story; a student called me that a couple years ago!), I think that maybe it’s time to remove some of the magic and let you all in on the work that goes on behind the scenes to organize all of the information available through the library and the effort we put into helping our patrons find it.

For that reason, we’re launching a new multi-part series, Mysteries of the Library Revealed. Read on for our first installment, “Where do Library Books Come From?”

Mystery #1: Where do Library Books Come From?

Picture the last time you visited the shelves of the library. Standing in a row of books, did you ever wonder, “How did this book get here?” The answer to that question is one of the many magical mysteries that occurs at the library every day. So, this month I’d like to pull back the curtain, so to speak, and let you all in on the secret of how and who is responsible for getting each and every one of these books onto our shelves.

Step 1: The Hunt (Finding the Right Titles) – While faculty from departments all across the GCC campus submit requests for new books in their departments each year (thank you!), the vast majority of books purchased every year are hand-selected by the library’s director, Barbra Munnell, who has been in charge of collection development for more than two decades. She carefully scours catalogs and flyers from the gamut of academic publishers identifying titles and reading reviews related to the courses, disciplines, and research topics utilized by the campus community. Barbra also keeps an eye on the new courses, majors, and minors added to the Bulletin each year to ensure that the students and faculty involved in these courses will have the materials they need when these new academic endeavors begin.

Step 2: Request & Arrival (Acquisitions) – Once a book is chosen, it has to be ordered. Jill Forsythe is the unsung hero of this portion of each book’s journey; she places requests for every item purchased for our shelves from one of our vendors. Then, just like at a hotel, all new items must be checked in. Every item is ensured to have arrived in good condition and then it moves on to the next stage of processing: Cataloging.

Step 3: Assigning an Address & Making a Profile (Cataloging) – Now that the book is here, the job of making the item findable begins. This crucial task falls on our Cataloging team, Gretchen Maxeiner and Susan Browne. These ladies create a profile of each new item, listing the title(s), author(s), table of contents, publication info, and assigning subject headings so that library users can locate the book later. Along with the subject headings, these ladies also determine where the book will reside in the library, assigning it a call number (its address) and collection (e.g. reference, stacks, etc.). At this stage, the book can be found in a search, but its status remains “In Processing” because there is still more work to do. Next stop: Labeling & Covering.

Step 4: Make it Ours (Labeling & Covering) – After the call number and location have been assigned, the book must be labeled with this information and covered (if it has a paper dust jacket). This is where Conni Shaw or Janet Elder take over. They will add a spine label, date due sticker, HBL stamp, and a cover for each book, as well as an RFID tag so that Janet can inventory our collection throughout the year. Once each of these steps is completed, the book is checked in so that the final step in its journey can be completed: Shelving.

Step 5: Homeward Bound (Shelving) – New and recently returned books are shelved daily by the library’s 16 student staff members. Because items are added throughout the collection at any given time, this sometimes requires shifting to make room for the new volume. And so at last in its new home with a searchable profile, researchers can now locate and check out the library's latest addition! 

I hope that you’ve found this first Mysteries of the Library Revealed both enjoyable and illuminating. Please be sure to check out our February Newsletter where I’ll be sharing details about how journal articles are made accessible to the GCC community.

Featured Collection: College Yearbooks


History provided by the College Archives

 

Most Colleges today do not publish a yearly yearbook for the student body and faculty.  As class sizes increase and interest diminishes, schools have found publishing yearbooks a difficult to tradition to maintain.  However, Grove City College has published a yearbook since 1912 even in difficult times such as World War I, the Great Depression and World War II.  

The College yearbook was originally named the Ouija, a term dating back to 1891 which was compounded from French, ‘Oui’ and German ‘Ja,’ both meaning ‘yes.’  Although most associate the term with the board game used to supposedly communicate with spirits, it was also used in the literary community. During the early 1900s, the Ouija was a term frequently used by the literary world to refer to a work as an ‘inspired, channeled and guided piece of literature.’  Many literary journals and reviews used on this title as well as Grove City College’s yearbook. It remained the Ouija for 71 years changing to the Bridge in 1983.  

The name change came primarily due to the resurgence of the board game and the negative connotations associated with conjuring spirits.   Because of this, the College and student body decided to attach a new name to their book, a name that would resonate with students and Grovers alike.  They choose the Bridge, referring to Rainbow Bridge, one of the most iconic symbols on campus.  Since 1912 the College students have compiled and produced a yearbook that is sold to the student body.  Each yearbook serving as a printed time capsule of student life for that year.

 


 

Did you know that the library has college yearbooks that you can check out going back to 1912? Stop in at the front desk and ask for the year that you would like to see and we'll get it for you from our college history section. This section isn't browsable but you can use the items in the library for 2 hours. 

   Librarian News


 

Congratulations to Gretchen for being elected to The Library Corporation (TLC) User Group Steering Committee. TLC provides the software that runs our library systems. This committee plans the annual user group conference and contributes user experience feedback to the company about its products.

Congratulations to Megan for being elected as Secretary and Treasurer for the Northwest Chapter of the Pennsylvania Library Association. The Pennsylvania Library Association provides invaluable resources, workshops, conferences and support to Pennsylvania's libraries and librarians.

Comment Box 


 

What's New?


Click on the book titles for descriptions and links to our online catalog 

What's New?


Click on the book titles for descriptions and links to our online catalog

What's New?


 

Click on the book titles for descriptions and links to our online catalog

Featuring: Christmas Books! 


 

Click on the book titles for descriptions and links to our online catalog

Audiobooks are perfect for traveling! 


 

If you're traveling during the holiday season stop in the library and pick up an audiobook or two to take with you. (Over the Christmas break faculty, staff and students can check out two audiobooks to take home with them. Browse some of our featured titles below.

Finals Hours & Christmas Break Hours


 

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Friday (12/13) 7:30am - 1am

Saturday (12/14) 8am - 1am

Sunday (12/15) 1pm - 1am

Monday (12/16) 7:30am - 1am

Tuesday (12/17) 7:30am - 7pm

Wednesday - Friday (12/18 - 12/20) 8am - 5pm

CLOSED  Saturday (12/21) - Wednesday (1/1)

The Library will reopen on Thursday (1/2) from 8am - 5pm

Meet HENRY


by: Gretchen Maxeiner

Smart searching in the library catalog

You’ve probably already noticed that you can go a long way in Henry (library.gcc.edu:8080/) with basic keyword searching. The site has a simple search box, and you can type just about anything there and get results! But here are a few tips that can help you go further.

  • Use quotes around a phrase

If you type food banks into the search box, Henry sees two individual words and will bring you all results that have something to do with food and something to do with banks. Not helpful! But if you type “food banks” as your search (enclosing the words in quotes), Henry knows you mean it as a phrase, and your results will really have to do with food banks.

  • Work the filters

You don’t have to start with a killer search to end with spot-on results. Run a simple search, and then use filters to refine the results to what you really want. Do you want just DVDs? Do you only want things published in a particular year? Do you mean books by Charles Dickens, or do you want books about him? Look for the filters along the left of the results screen.

  • Try Henry’s advance search

If you want to go beyond simple keyword searching, skip the search box and click on the “Advanced Search” link next to it. The advanced search screen gives you options to:

  • categorize your search terms (author? subject?)
  • select how you intend terms to be handled (exact match? start of the data? an exclusion?)
  • string together multiple searches.

You can, for example, search with some words from a title and some words from the author’s name and let Henry know what’s what. You can also exclude words from your results, which is a handy way to, say, target works on Martin Luther without having MLK appear in the results.

  • Know what Henry searches on

Unlike many search tools on the web, Henry does not search full text. How could it? Instead it searches a “catalog record”, which is a set of data describing a resource. This includes information like titles; authors, editors, directors, etc.; notes and other identifying details; subject headings; and sometimes titles and authors at a chapter level. Knowing this may help you with your search strategy. If narrow terms aren’t getting you anywhere, try broader terms such that might apply to the whole book.

 

Meet your Library Staff


Each month we will feature a Q&A with a Buhl permanent staff member or student from the library.

 Meet Amy Cavanaugh, Instruction Coordinator and Reference Librarian 

Amy Cavanaugh  

How long have you worked at Buhl Library?

  • 18 years. I previously worked at a branch campus of Indiana University and the Bartholomew County (Indiana) Public Library. My first library experience was working in the Clarion University library while I was a student there.

Tell us a little about your educational background & work at GCC:

  • I have an A.A. in liberal arts from Cottey College (Missouri), a B.A in American History from Clarion University and my library science Masters from Clarion University.  
  • I have worked in all aspects of libraries, but I found my calling in reference work. I love helping library users with their questions; I enjoy meeting people and have fielded all kinds of questions.

Name 2 things that people might not know about you?

  1. I can drive a manual car (aka: stick shift) & usually alternate driving a tiny little Fiat Abarth and a Dodge Ram truck.
  2. I grew up on the other side of the state – my hometown is Doylestown and I will gladly talk food superiority with you.

Book & Movie Recommendations



 

Contact Us


 

 

Email: refdesk@gcc.edu | Phone: 724-264-4729 | Website: hbl.gcc.edu