Meet your Hamersly staff: Robert Monge

Each term, we introduce you to a few of the people who work to make Hamersly your favorite place on campus to do research, study, print your papers, meet with a group, or simply kick back and read in a quiet place.

This week, meet Robert Monge, one of our Instruction Librarians. If you take courses in the College of Education, there’s a good chance your class will get a visit from Robert at some point. Here’s more about him:

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What do you do in the library? I am an Instruction Librarian. I teach students how to do research, and I create digital tutorials. I am also the library liaison to Teacher Education, Special Education, Health and Physical Education, Interpreting, and Rehabilitation Counselor Education.
How long have you worked in the library? Six years
What is your education and professional background? I have a Master of Arts in English Literature and a Master of Library and Information Science. I taught college composition courses in Colorado and Virginia for five years before going back to school to get my library degree. I worked as an instruction librarian at the University of South Dakota prior to coming to Western.
What is one thing about the library you think everyone should know? The library at its core is about information and access. It is a place that connects people with the information they need in order to understand, create, and change the world.
What is the last good book you read? The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce
What was your favorite book as a kid? And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street by Dr. Seuss
Tell us a fun fact about you! I once won 3rd place in The Dirtiest Kid in America Contest

Stream videos for class or fun with ‘Films on Demand’

Watch online streaming videos about everything from biographies of famous musicians to the history of unions in the U.S. to tips for writing fiction from famous writers (and much more!) for free. Use the videos in Films on Demand for class, to learn something new, or just to satisfy your curiosity.

Films On Demand is almost like the library’s version of YouTube, except it’s all legal and appropriate for use in class assignments!

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The vast Films on Demand archive currently includes more than 6,100 complete titles and 63,000 shorter video segments. You can browse by subject, such as Health & Medicine, World Languages, Nursing, Criminal Justice & Law, or Archival Films & Newsreels, under the ‘Collections’ menu option. Or you can simply search for videos using keywords.

Happy watching!

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New Spring Term Library Exhibits

Our Spring 2014 exhibits include:

Maple Hall: Celebrating 100 Years
Dedicated in 1914 as the ﬁrst campus gymnasium, Maple Hall celebrates 100 years of service to the Western Oregon University campus. This exhibit features the many activities and people associated with Maple Hall. Through its evolution as a gymnasium, student recreation center, ROTC training, and dance studio, Maple Hall remains a place for active learning and a place to showcase creativity.
Located: 2nd floor gallery

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Herstory & History
Abstract images of woman abound in history, representing some of the most enduring human ideals – sovereignty, justice, nature itself. These images are juxtapose with history to see some to the ways in which image and reality interweave and influence the forming of gender rules and roles by successive generations.
Located: 3rd floor galleries

These two new exhibits will run on the 2nd and 3rd floors of the library until June 13th, 2013. See our flyer for more information.

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Meet your Hamersly staff: Jonathan Hillerich

This week, meet Jonathan Hillerich, one of the friendly faces you will often see at the library Information Desk.

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What do you do in the library? I work at the Information/Reference Desk.
How long have you worked in the library? I started working here in Spring 2012.
What is your major and year in school? Pre-pharmacy (a WOU pre-professional program), and I’ll be done after this term.
What is one thing about the library you think everyone should know? That not all the computer and printing problems that happen in the library are our fault (most of them aren’t)! And that we have amazing librarians and staff that will do anything and everything they can to help you.
What is the last good book you read? Tweak by Nic Sheff
What was your favorite book as a kid? Loved me the Goosebumps series
Tell us a fun fact about you! I own over 100 hats

Meet your Hamersly staff: Samrid Aryal

This week, meet Samrid Aryal, the student employee who has been with us the longest in our current batch!

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What do you do in the library? I work at the Information Desk. I help patrons with technical troubleshooting, general questions, and help them with finding research materials/articles.
How long have you worked in the library? About three and a half years
What is your major and year in school? Information Systems major, Senior
What is one thing about the library you think everyone should know? That they can check out board games, video games, projectors, laptops, and other equipment from us.
What is the last good book you read? The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
What was your favorite book as a kid? The Arabian Nights
Tell us a fun fact about you! I am the first international student from Nepal to attend WOU.

Get Spring Break reading suggestions

Do your Spring Break plans include lying on a beach, couch, or [you fill in the blank] with a good book? Need some ideas for what to read? Fill out this short form and your WOU librarians will get back to you with a book or three you might like!

(Photo: “couple reading books” by Erin Kelly. Licensed under Creative Commons http://flic.kr/p/bHeP8R)

Meet your Hamersly staff: Myranda Sawyer

This week, meet Myranda Sawyer, one of our excellent student employees who is leaving us at the end of this term to complete an internship before she graduates in the spring. Thanks for all your hard work, Myranda!

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What do you do in the library? I’m an Information Desk student worker
How long have you worked in the library? One and a half years
What is your major and year in school? I’m a Criminal Justice major, and I’m a Senior
What is one thing about the library you think everyone should know? That you can order most of your textbooks from Summit, and the best part is, it’s free! It’s a great way to save a little extra money, sometimes a lot of money depending on the textbook. 🙂 Just ask someone at the Information Desk and we will show you how.
What is the last good book you read? At the risk of sounding like a nerd, the last good book I read was for one of my Criminal Justice classes, and it was called There are no children here by Alex Kotlowitz. It is about a young man growing up in the inner city of Chicago and all of the things he had to go through at such a young age. I highly recommend it!
What was your favorite book as a kid? I had too many favorites when I was a kid. Pretty much any Dr. Seuss book was my favorite.
Tell us a fun fact about you! I used to play three instruments: the saxophone, the tuba, and the bass.

The ‘Find it @ WOU’ button is your friend

Doing research for that final paper? Then you’ve probably come across the ‘Find it @ WOU’ button. Often, students are confused about what it does, but it’s a powerful tool that can get you to the articles you need no matter where they’re located. So, it’s worth checking out!

[wpspoiler name=”More about ‘Find it @ WOU’…” style=”ui-lightness” open=”true”]When you click the ‘Find it @ WOU’ button for an article in any WOU database, you will see one of four different scenarios for getting the full text of the article:

A link to another WOU database that has the full-text article
A message that WOU owns the article, but in print. You can either go to the physical shelf in the library where the journal is located and copy or scan your article, or you can choose the ‘Scan and Deliver’ option and we will scan it for you and email it to you as a PDF.
A page or link that says WOU has access to the article via OnDemand. You will either be able to order the article yourself by following the on-screen prompts, or the library may need to order it for you, depending on which option shows up.
A note that WOU does not own the article, but that we can get it from another library if you fill out the WOU Interlibrary Loan form linked from the page.

Find out more about each of these scenarios and see screenshots of what they look like here: http://research.wou.edu/finditatwou

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WOU’s history is at your fingertips!

Valentines from WOU scrapbooks University Archives (located in Hamersly) houses a treasure trove of WOU materials dating back to our founding in 1856. Some of these items are digitized and available online, such as past yearbooks and letters from early Monmouth settlers. Some are physical and can be accessed by contacting Archives staff, such as student scrapbooks from the 1920s.

So, whether you’re working on an assignment, looking for photos of a WOU-alum family member, or just hoping to satisfy your curiosity about WOU’s rich history, University Archives can help!

Stop hunger in Oregon…and help WOU win for the 10th year in a row!

Food drive snacks for sale at the Info Desk

The 2014 Governor’s Food Drive is underway and WOU needs your help. Last year, for the ninth year in a row, WOU won first place among all of our sister universities with a total of 84,737.26 pounds of food donated! You can help keep us on top this year in a number of ways:

Bid on fabulous auction items such as a French Press coffee maker, a Thai massage gift certificate, a movie night gift pack, and more! Bid early and often!
Buy snacks from the Info Desk.
Contribute to the Penny Drive, also at the Info Desk.
Give non-perishable food items – place in donation boxes throughout the library.

Every year, state institutions (like WOU and other state universities) participate in what amounts to the largest employer donation to local Oregon food banks all year, to help feed the hungry in our state. There is some friendly competition between universities around the state, but of course everybody wins when hunger decreases.

For more information about the 2014 Food Drive visit the website at: http://www.oregon.gov/FOODDRIVE/

Hamersly Library

Meet your Hamersly staff: Robert Monge