A Technology Update

There have been several technology updates within the Lewis Library recently!

If you have not yet seen it, we now have a portable SmartBoard that is available for reservation! Its multi-touch capabilities give teachers and students more opportunities for collaboration. It has a shadow-free surface that makes the lesson content look crisp and bright. Not only can you create your own presentation, but there are 60,000 resources available on the SMART Exchange website that you are able to download and use for any presentation. It also has the capability to become a whiteboard, providing the opportunity for both the professor and the student to solve problems together.

We also now have two Scannx machines available within Lewis Library. They are located on the second floor by the public access computer, and on the third floor by the Helpdesk. These scanners allow you to easily scan your documents and save them via a variety of avenues for your convenience. You can email the documents to yourself or another person, save them to your flash drive, send them to your Google docs or even send them to your smartphone or tablet!

For lecture recording, Screencast-O-Matic is our newest software.  It allows you to easily record your lectures and save or upload them for students to view on their own time should they miss class or want to review. With Screencast-O-Matic, you are able to record not only your audio and video, but also integrate your desktop into your presentation for a more interactive lesson.  

           

 Another program that is new to Lewis Library is Blackboard Collaborate. This software allows you to host webinars and virtual classes from anywhere. Participants are able to connect to the session and interact with not only one another but the host as well. Communication is available via audio, video, chat messages, PowerPoint slides, a whiteboard, and even the desktop. 

How Do I Make a Reservation?

To make a room reservation here in the Lewis Library, visit our home page and click: “Book a Room with Technology” located near the bottom. Complete our brief reservation form and click “submit.” You will then receive a confirmation e-mail regarding your reservation request. If you have requested to reserve any media equipment, you will be asked to attend a brief training session on how to use the requested technology.

Which Rooms Can I Reserve?

·         Corn Auditorium (Seats 49 People)

·         Seminar Room (Seats 10 People)

·         MultiMedia Classroom (Seats 24 People)

·         Media Lounge (Seats 5 People)

What Technology Can I Reserve?

·         Laptops (32 for Reservation)

·         Portable Smart Board

·         Portable Projector

·         Blu-Ray/DVD Player

·         VHS Player

·         Camcorder (HD/SD)

Did You Know?

 We now have even more technology that can be checked out from the circulation desk on the second floor!

·         5 Laptops for 24-Hour Checkout

·         7 Laptops for Hourly Checkout (for use within Lewis Library Only)

·         2 iPads for 24-Hour checkout

·         iPhone Chargers

·         SD Camera

Give us a call if you would like any information on the technology available in the library!

This post was written by Ashlee Lanham, Lewis Library Graduate Assistant

A New Mascot for Lewis Library!

A New Mascot at Lewis Library

Lewis Library has a new mascot!

We considered a worm (a bookworm, get it?).

We contemplated a cat…most libraries have a library cat.

But in the end, when it came to dreaming up the first ever mascot for Lewis Library, the library staff decided on a wise, friendly owl!

Because our wise, snowy owl doesn't have a name yet, we're having a naming contest! 

You are invited to stop by the Lewis Library Circulation Desk to drop off a name for this guy (or girl!) in the suggestion box. 

Be sure to look for any updated information about our new mascot on Facebook and our library blog page! We think he or she is going to be getting into some owl mischief!  

Our McNaughton Collection

I want to answer a frequently asked question about the books on the shelf to the right of the main doors.  They are part of our McNaughton Collection.  

What’s that?  The McNaughton Collection are current and popular books of fiction and non-fiction that we borrow for about a year so that we can get books you want to read without keeping them permanently. 

Every month new books for the collection come in, and I place them on our “New Books” display.  They are available for checkout for everyone with a library card, and the checkout time and renewal process are the same as with the rest of the library’s books.

What kind of books do we have on our McNaughton shelf?  Well, we have anything from biographies, histories, mysteries, graphic novels, bestsellers, contemporary fiction, and much more. 

Here are some of the titles we currently have available:

*This post was written by our Circulation Manager, Mrs. April McArdle

What do librarians read?

Do you ever wonder what your librarians are reading, or do you want some suggestions before leaving for the summer break?  Well wonder no more!  Listed below is the list I’ve complied of what we are reading:

Pat Barrett is reading Chiefs by Stuart Woods.  Chiefs is the first novel in the Will Lee series and you can find it in our library! PS3573 .O642 C57 1981

Stacey Davis suggests reading In Wilderness by Diane Thomas.  Here’s what Stacey has to say about it, “It is a dark and intense story by a Georgia author and it is set in Georgia’s Appalachian Mountains during the 1960’s. I really enjoyed reading the book in one weekend and decided to write a Facebook post to the author to thank her for my personal copy and to tell her how much I loved it.  The author reported back to me that she is in the process of writing a sequel to the book which I plan to read when it is published!” You can find it on our McNaughton shelf PS3620 .H627 I5 2015.

Terry Kay, a famous LaGrange College alumni, praised the book on Amazon. Here’s what he said:

“Diane Thomas’s In Wilderness is a mesmerizing literary ballet, a dazzling dance of language revealing a story of fear and fragility, madness and passion, and hauntingly performed by two of the most memorable characters to appear in recent American literature. This is a great, great read.”—Terry Kay, author of To Dance with the White Dog and The Book of Marie. 

Joe Marciniak is currently reading Managing Copyright in Higher Education: A Guidebook by Donna Ferullo (Z642 .G47 2014) and The Essential Drucker by Peter Drucker (HD31 .D7672 2008).

Dr. Arthur Robinson recently finished The Complete Book of 1940s Broadway Musicals by Dan Dietz (Lewis Library call number ML1711.8 .N3 D518 2015).

He also said, "I’m re-reading a detective story, Love Lies Bleeding, by my favorite mystery author, Edmund Crispin, whose novels are funny as well as fairly plotted.  The library has a copy of Love Lies Bleeding (PR6025 .O466 L68 1981); I also recommend Crispin’s The Long Divorce (PR6025 .O46 L6 1990)."

David Wiggins is reading Agatha Christie’s The Hollow.  Here’s one of the quotes he picked out to share from the book:

"'We are only, as she knows, moderately fond of caramel custard. There would be something very gross, just after the death of a friend, in eating one's favourite pudding. But caramel custard is so easy — slippery if you know what I mean — and then one leaves a little on one's plate.'"

If you want to read a Hercule Poirot Mystery by Agatha Christie, the Lewis Library has many to choose from. Have you heard of Murder on the Orient Express? That’s a Hercule Poirot mystery! PR6005 .H66 M975 1960

Felecia Moore, our evening and weekend assistant, is reading Instinct: The Power to Unleash Your Inborn Drive by T.D. Jakes. We have this book in our McNaughton collection, as well.   BV4598.3 .J359 2014

Charlene Baxter is reading Dear Committee Members by Julie Schumacher! She said that it is definitely "a chuckle book" and is full of funny moments.

Lindsey Lowry says, “To get out of my reading funk, I am attempting to finish Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell. So far so good, but it’s depressing, as by design, of course. You can’t argue with Orwell’s writing style though. I love a concise writer.”

Love Orwell? We have plenty of his books in our collection including Nineteen Eighty-Four, Animal Farm, Burmese Days, and others.  

What am I reading?  Currently I’m actively reading two books (I've started another), and I’m excited about each of them.  The first book I’m reading is the second book to the Kane Chronicles, The Throne of Fire by Rick Riordan.  I enjoy mythology, and this book trilogy is about Egyptian gods.  If you liked the Percy Jackson series or the Lost Heroes of Olympus, give this trilogy a try.  Never read a book by Riordan?  We own Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief JUV Riordan.

The other book I’m reading is The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss.  I’m a big fan of epic fantasy, and Rothfuss is likened to some of the great fantasy authors like Tolkien and Robert Jordan.  Though we don’t have any books by Rothfuss, we do own several of Tolkien.  Start off with The Fellowship of the Ring.  PR6039 .O32 L6 2002B PT. 1

I want to know, what are you reading?

This post was written by our circulation manager, April McArdle.