Library adds more Scanners

Five additional scanners have been added to the Library. To locate them, go to the second floor, walk past the elevators toward the book stacks. Turn right down the first row of computers. Walk all the way down past the printer and you will see the scanners on the right. They face the old, brown Microtext readers. Instructions on how to use the scanning software is typed up and will be taped to the top of the scanners within the next day or two. If you have any questions please check with the EIC student worker or ask for help at the Service Desk.

Buy some library art

The paper figures created by MTSU Art students to raise awareness about printer waste in the library will be for sale until May 7. Well, technically, they are not for sale. They are free with strongly suggested donation amounts attached to them. Get it? Money raised will go into a fund to support future art installations and waste reduction campaigns. Pieces will be sold on a first come, first served basis.

You can view the items for sale, their locations, and suggested donation amounts at http://www.flickr.com/photos/mtsulibrary/sets/72157604799539729/ . Click on a photo to view details.

Some items will available for immediate acquisition, while others will not be available until May 7. Send inquiries, with a link to the photo of the item you’re interested in, to Amy York at ayork@mtsu.edu or Kristen West at kwest@mtsu.edu. Items not spoken for will be recycled after May 7.

Library Hours: Exams, Intersession

You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here all night. However, you can stay here one extra hour, until 1:00 a.m., through this Wednesday.

We will then be on shortened hours for intersession. See all library hours here.

Got Books?

An MTSU student recently posed the question, “Does the library have anything besides ’smarty’ books?” Well, this author happens to enjoy reading “smarty” books. But if you don’t, or if you need a break from the mental toil of exam week, never fear. We do have some “non smarty” books.

A look at the list of top 15 fiction and top 15 non-fiction books borrowed in U.S. libraries (as reported in Library Journal, April 15, 2008) reveals that Walker Library owns 28 of the 30. Several are already checked out, but below are some of the titles available (as of this posting). Not sure how to get your hands on one of these? Use the Voyager library catalog to search by book title to determine the book’s location and status, or ask for help at the 1st floor Reference Desk (615-898-2817 option 2).

And don’t forget, if you do want to borrow a book that is already checked out, all you need to do is place a hold on the book, and we will e-mail you when the book is available.

A Thousand Splendid Suns. Khaled Hosseini.

Beverly Hills Dead. Stuart Woods.

The Senator’s Wife. Sue Miller.

Duma Key. Stephen King.

Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life. Steve Martin.

Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Fight Terrorism…One School at a Time. Greg Mortenson & David Oliver Relin.

Tom Cruise: An Unauthorized Biography. Andrew Morton.

In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto. Michael Pollan.

Into the Wild. Jon Krakauer.

Save a Tree’s Life!

“Free” printing in the library for MTSU students is a great resource. Printing isn’t actually free, however, because it is funded by the Technology Access Fee (TAF) students pay every semester and by the Library budget.

So here are some ways to conserve paper (and toner, electricity, etc.) at the library. Readers, feel free to chime in with a comment on how you conserve paper.

1) Proofread and use spell checker before you print an original document.

2) Use the library’s default double-sided printing when possible (you can turn it off if necessary).

3) E-mail documents instead of printing everything.

4) For those of you with young eyes, print two or more pages to one sheet of paper. You can do this in both MS Word and Adobe Acrobat (for PDF files).

Any other ideas?

What’s With the Animals?

So, why an art installation made of waste paper?

1) This week we celebrate Earth Day, first celebrated in the United States in 1970 as a way to show support for the environmental movement.

2) The creative, talented students in Prof. Thomas Sturgill’s 3-D Design class proposed the installation as a class project. They did an awesome job, from planning to proposing to executing the project. Read more about the process at www.paperrewind.com

3) Have you seen how much paper is left by the library printers every day? Students print 6.5 million pages a year in the library. That’s the equivalent of more than 700 trees, or 11,284 miles if the paper is spread end-to-end. Unfortunately, a lot of printing ends up abandoned on the printers or in the recycling bins. The purpose of Paper Rewind is to raise awareness of the library’s paper consumption and to encourage people to think before they print.

Paper Rewind

No, the library has not been overrun by dogs, cats, and paper-airplane-launching hooligans.

Yes, the library and the students in Professor Thomas Sturgill’s 3-D Design classes do want you to think before you print.

Paper Rewind, recyclable art created by the 3-D Design students, is on display in the library through May 7. The people, animals, and trees placed throughout the building were each made of pressed and laminated paper collected from the library’s recycling bins. The art students collected waste paper for a month to create the project. That’s a lot of trips back and forth between Walker Library and Todd Hall!

Read more about the installation at www.paperrewind.com or see more photos on the library’s Flickr account.