 |
News,
Announcements,
and Hours,
Central |
New furniture! This past spring and summer has
seen the arrival of comfortable, new chairs, sofas, loveseats, and
tables for various areas in the Library. We love the new look, and
we think that you will also. Please feel free to come, relax, and
read in some of our new furniture on the main and second floor levels!
Thanks go out to Professor Walt Manning for his
kind donation of 14 boxes (approximately 11 shelves) of books! The
Library received the gift in June and has been processing them this
past summer. Included are “The World’s Greatest Literature”
series (12 volumes), “The Second World War” (6 volumes)
by Winston Churchill, and a great many novels and literary criticism
books. Thanks, indeed, Walt, and, for others in the College community
who might be thinking of donating materials, the Library is always
happy to receive gifts from faculty, staff, and students!
Banned Books Week runs from September 20 – 27
this year. Every year since 1982, the annual event has taken place
during the last week of September to remind Americans that they
have the very precious democratic freedom to read whatever they
desire. We all need to appreciate this right. Just last year, according
to Library Journal (Feb. 15, 2003), a pastor and his wife in New
Mexico held a public book burning. Their “kindling”
included not only the popular target of the Harry Potter series
(which “teach children how they can get into witchcraft”)
but also “The Complete Works of Shakespeare.”
During Banned Books Week, the Library will be offering a display
of books which have been banned in the past. We invite
you to come see the display and exercise your freedom to read by
checking out a banned book!
Joyce Carol Oates will be on campus in November
in conjunction with the Writers’ Club and as part of the Cultural
Affairs Series. Look out for an exhibit in the Library of
novels, short stories, essays, and poetry by the distinguished author.
Also coming in the future is a display celebrating the Wright
Brothers and the 100 year anniversary of their first manned flight.
"Deserted No More?"
“Deserted No More” is the title of an article in Library
Journal (April 15, 2003). The article is in answer to a
much talked-about piece you might have seen in the Chronicle
of Higher Education (November 2001) by Scott Carlson. In
“The Deserted Library,” Carlson’s premise was
that the need for a campus library had diminished due to the advent
of the Internet. Appearing a year and a half later, the Library
Journal article describes how academic libraries are currently
booming – “experiencing a renaissance” as vital
centers of college campuses. We see most of the trends
mentioned in the article happening here at Montgomery County Community
College.
For example, gate counts and usage statistics are up universally.
Among libraries with increased statistics mentioned are a range
of academic institutions -- Loyola, Rhode Island College, Northwestern,
Elmhurst College, and Illinois Wesleyan. Here at the College, we
are also experiencing increases. In the AV Library, alone,
circulation of materials has risen from 19,408 in the academic year
2000/2001 to 25,875 in the year 2002/2003. Gate count for
the Central Library in the month of July, typically a slower month
in the summer, was a whopping 13,800, even after correction for
staff coming to the Library. This reveals that an average
of 552 patrons visited our Central Campus Library daily
during the month of July. And, as mentioned in an earlier piece
in this issue of N&Q, information literacy instruction
experienced a 150 % increase over the previous year in the number
of classes taught.
In the article, “Deserted No More,” Tjalda Nauta, director
of the library at Rhode Island College, says that “what younger
students really seem to like is to sit with a laptop plugged into
our wireless network, with their feet up…Others like to sit
in large groups and work together.” At our Library, we see
both of these trends happening. Usage of our laptop computers
is steady and growing, and we see students working solo
(often with their feet up!) and working in groups all around the
library. Sometimes, during our Fall and Spring semesters, it is
difficult for students to find space in the Library to work on projects
because there is so much group study activity occurring.
We, at the Central Campus Library, have seen, also, that more and
more students and faculty have realized that not all information
is found on the Internet or in online databases. Often
assignments require students to consult books and printed material.
For example, a student needs to start with a subject encyclopedia
to get an overview of a topic and learn the basic vocabulary to
search that topic online. Books and printed material are still very
much an integral part of today’s library.
As Brian Coutts, Dean of Libraries at Western Kentucky University,
says in the Library Journal article, “Today’s campus
library is more than just a place to get resources. It’s a
destination that supports new, technology-driven teaching, learning,
and research patterns, offering everything from books to digital
databases to a social space for students to gather.”
This is what we at the Central Campus Library are aiming to be,
and we believe we are succeeding, as are the majority of academic
libraries in 2003. The Montgomery County Community College Library
is anything but deserted!
CENTRAL CAMPUS
LIBRARY HOURS
FOR FALL SEMESTER
Monday – Thursday |
7:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. |
(AV Library) |
8:00 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. |
Friday |
7:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. |
(AV Library) |
8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. |
Saturday |
10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. |
Sunday |
1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. |
During Thanksgiving break, the Library will close at 5:00 p.m. on
Wednesday, November 26 (AV Library at 4:00 p.m.). The Library will
not be open Thursday through Sunday, November 27 - 30.
