Comments Off on Fall Family Fun at Irwin Library

By jlmille5, November 12, 2014 5:08 pm

With the help of student volunteers and our awesome library staff, Irwin was able to have its first big trick-or-treat celebration. While we passed out candy to students and their visiting families, like several other spots on campus, we offered a few other activities and treats as well.

Because many siblings visiting for family weekend may not have packed along a costume, we provided several Halloween themed masks and offered face painting. Though our student volunteers had never face painted before, they gladly accepted the opportunity to flex their artistic muscles.

By 5:30, they were full out pros. Among the painted faces there was a pizza face, puppy, penguin, and a few other creative designs.

Though the event was advertised to students and their siblings, parents were accommodated at the Halloween festivities as well. Several families collected Halloween candy, used our coffee machine, and took refuge from the snow in our new soft spaces.

Events at Irwin are designed to show students that Irwin is an active part of the Butler community. Through events like the Halloween event and our bi-annual 24-hour study nights, students are given the opportunity to utilize their library in a totally different way. While Irwin is a place to study and do research, it is also a place in which fun, creativity, and collaboration are welcomed and celebrated.

–Akeira Jennings

Library Student Liaison

Comments Off on Butler Students, Meet Your Library Student Liaison

By jlmille5, October 3, 2014 7:16 pm

Hello Butler Students!

My name is Akeira Jennings, and I am your friendly neighborhood library student liaison!

I’m sure many of you are wondering exactly what a student liaison is, so I wanted to let you know a little bit about my position and what I do.

The role of a liaison is to facilitate communication between different groups or organizations. As a member of the Butler student population, I communicate with the library administration, staff, and faculty to express student interests and needs. I identify what student opinions are by offering surveys and through suggestion boxes. Because technology is constantly changing, as well as the ways in which we study, student opinions and perspectives are essential.

As part of my liaison responsibilities, I plan many of the fun events held in the libraries. Last year we hosted a College Mentors for Kids Halloween party and a Good Boy Blue Book signing at Irwin Library. We also hosted “stress less” events in both the fall and spring semesters. Although the year has just begun, we already have several fun and exciting events planned for this semester.

Part of my job is to help make the libraries welcoming to students. For example, I have created simple surveys to identify students’ preferences for library furniture. (Students chose the café chairs now in the atrium of Irwin Library.) Last semester, I photographed students and faculty for new READ posters for the Lilly Science Library. The posters showcase students and faculty in the sciences, health science, and business fields, each holding a favorite book.

My job is essentially all about you. It is my responsibility to make sure that Butler University Libraries effectively meet your needs and hear your concerns. The Irwin Library and Lilly Science Library are yours, so help us shape them into places you’ll be proud to call your own.

If you have any questions or concerns about Butler Libraries and our upcoming events, please feel free to e-mail me at acjennin@butler.edu or to stop by Room 206 in Irwin Library.

Akeira

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By jlmille5, April 14, 2014 1:09 pm

In celebration of National Poetry Month and National Library Week (April 13-19, 2014), Butler Libraries is pleased to announce the addition of Manuscripts, BU’s award-winning, student-run literary magazine, to the Digital Commons @ Butler University.

Edited by Kate Newman (senior editor) and Tamara Rodnar (junior editor), the current issue of Manuscripts features poetry, short fiction, photographs, and artwork by Butler’s top student literary and artistic talent. The magazine is sponsored by the Department of English. To view the most recent issue, go to http://digitalcommons.butler.edu/manuscripts/ . Four issues of Manuscripts, including Volume 4 Issue 2 from 1937, are now available.

The Digital Commons provides access to scholarly and creative works created by members of the Butler University. Works included in the Digital Commons receive higher rankings by web search engines such as Google, making them more easily discovered than works available through typical web sites.

Manuscripts is the fifth serial publication affiliated with Butler University to be included in the Digital Commons. Other publications include:  Booth, edited by Robert Stapleton, Dept. of English; Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies, Internet edition edited by Chad Bauman, Dept. of Philosophy and Religion; Word Ways, edited by Jeremiah Farrell, Dept. of Mathematics & Actuarial Science; and Butler University Botanical Studies (ceased publication in 1964).

For more information about publications in the Digital Commons, contact Franny Gaede, Scholarly Communication Librarian, at fgaede@butler.edu.

Comments Off on Check out poetry by D. Nurske

By jlmille5, March 19, 2014 10:28 am

Check out a book of poetry by D. Nurkse, who will speak at Butler University next week as part of the spring 2014 Vivian S. Delbrook Visiting Writers Series.

Nurske’s books are featured in the browsing area on the main floor of Irwin Library. While browsing, try a latte or cappuccino from our new coffee vending machine!

D. Nurske’s reading will be at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, March 26, in the Robertson Hall Johnson Board Room. Admission is free and open to the public without tickets.

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By jlmille5, February 14, 2014 7:20 pm

The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) is featuring Butler’s Freisner Herbarium Digital Collection on its web site.  Staff of the Freisner Herbarium have partnered with Butler Libraries and IUPUI’s Center for Digital Scholarship to photograph, digitize, and add searchable descriptors to nearly half of the herbarium’s 46,000 specimens of plants native to Indiana.

The Freisner Herbarium Digital Collection makes this unique collection available to researchers the world over. According to the IMLS profile of the collection, “[c]ompared to the herbarium’s fewer than a dozen in-person visits per year, traffic to the digital collection has exceeded 7,000 visits a month.”

The digitization project has received grants from the Indiana State Library with funding from the IMLS Grants to States program. The Freisner Herbarium Digital Collection is also included in Indiana Memory, the Indiana digital library.

For more information about the Freisner Herbarium digital collection, visit the web site at www.butler.edu/herbarium.