Category Archives: Events

Salmon Library Open House 2014! Activities, Door Prizes, Food, and a Chance to Meet the UAH Librarians

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On Tuesday, August 26, 2014 (about a week into the Fall 2014 semester), we are going to be holding our annual Salmon Library Open House from 9am to 1pm and would love for any and all students, faculty, or staff from UAH to attend. Whether you are an old hat at our services or new to them, we’ll have things for you to do. There will be door prizes for students who complete some of our activities, and food and snacks throughout the event.

Activities planned at this time include a photo scavenger hunt and a self-guided library tour. People who complete these activities will be eligible to win door prizes: a series of Amazon gift cards. There may be more opportunities to win, so you should stop by and see what crops up!

You can stop by and ask us questions about our services or resources, and there will be librarians that can help on the tour if you need [yes, I know, we can argue the semantics of “self-guided” if you want]. If you just want to take a look at what we’re doing, that’s fine, too. It doesn’t have to be a formal visit.

From 9am to 11am, there will be coffee and donuts. From 11am to 1pm, there will be pizza and drinks.

Want to see some pictures from Fall 2013? Here you go!

Summer 2014 B.E.S.T. Meeting Notes, Including the Full-Text of our “Where Feedback Fears to Tread” Talk

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This past Tuesday, July 29, 2014, we had the honor of hosting the Summer B.E.S.T. meeting where librarians from all types of institutions around the Huntsville area visited and talked about plans and swapped conference stories and ideas and asked questions about related services and so forth. It was a delight, and we look forward to the next one.

Michael Talks about Cost as a Factor of Risk

As part of the meeting, Michael Manasco and I (me = Doug Bolden) gave a presentation about feedback loops with the twist of looking at how it can be personal. What does good versus bad feedback mean to us as professionals? How is it that sometimes negative feedback can be a good thing while positive feedback can be bad? What are the biggest dangers to consider? What are the strengths or weaknesses of some feedback systems? That sort of thing. And then we talked about a few of the basic case studies that we have personally dealt with, along with some discussion questions that hopefully helped to broaden the topic and see a few perspectives. We had a good discussion about some of the factors of the talk…even if we went a smidgen over time.

Doug [that's me!] Describes the Jabberwock, aka Confirmation Bias

For those who attended, and for those who did not, our presentation is below. Feel free to read and comment upon it!

You can download a PDF of “Where Feedback Fears to Tread” and use as you wish. We have released it under Creative Commons 4.0 International License (i.e. cc-by). Yes, this means you can feel free to adapt portions of it and to share it. We promise we don’t mind. If you do use it, you can drop us a line to let us know how, but that’s just so we can see how people respond to it. Note, a couple of the slides have been slightly altered to help put them into context outside of the vocal portion of the presentation. The gist is still the same in all cases, though.

For those into such things, we also have a few pictures from the event (you can see a couple in this post already). Browse the slideshow below for more. If you were there, and have some pictures you would like to share, you can send them to me at doug.bolden@uah.edu. I can add them to our gallery, below, and credit you are or I can not, as your preference.

UAH Alumni are invited to attend one of our Workshops designed to show off what the Salmon Library can do for them

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I have already written about UAH Alumni having free guest access to the Salmon Library, but I would like to go ahead and do you one better. We will be having a pair of workshops this Summer designed to show our alumni what the Salmon Library can do for them. We will have a short overview of our services, a tour, a discussion of future plans, a chance to meet some of the librarians, time for a Q&A, a couple of door-prizes, and we will even help you to set up your account.*

The time for these events will be about 1 hour, or less, depending on the questions asked and so forth. Things discussed will include library departments, our physical and digital resources, using our catalog to find what you need, using OneSearch, printing/copying/scanning, checking out books, combining our resources with those of the Alabama Virtual Library, and whatever else you are curious about.

We have two workshops currently planned:

  • On June 26, a Thursday, an evening workshop from 5:30pm to 6:30pm.
  • On July 7, a Monday, a lunchtime workshop from 11:30am to 12:30pm.**

You can attend whichever works for you. If neither work for you, but you are interested, then let me know at doug.bolden@uah.edu, and we may be able to hold additional workshops in the future. You can also email me if you have any questions. We will need a rough headcount to let Campus police know about parking on those days, so letting us know ahead of time will be helpful. You can confirm attendance with

http://tiny.cc/LibraryWorkshop2014

Of course, you do not have to attend to take advantage of the free guest access, this is simply a way for us to show off a few of our services and resources to you, and will help you to get a bigger picture of what you can accomplish with the access.

Afterwards, there will be a short video made of the presentation for those who would like a copy. Keep an eye on this blog for that.

For those who need directions, you can see them at http://libguides.uah.edu/directions

* Note: Those setting up the account during the Workshop need to bring their Alumni Association Card and a Photo ID.
** The original date for the midday event has been changed, the new date is July 7. Just in case you saw an earlier version of this post.

Therapy Dogs rescheduled to April 30

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As a part of the Finals ReCharge events at the Salmon Library at UAH, the therapy dogs (from the great folks at Therapy Partners, Inc.®) are returning to UAH on Wednesday, April 30.  They will be at the UAH Library from 11 AM till 1 PM.

therapy dogs(Please note that the therapy dogs were originally scheduled to be at the library on Tuesday; however, with the weather-related changes to the UAH exam schedule this week, we felt that more people would be able to see the therapy dogs on Wednesday.  Thus, their visit was rescheduled.)

Please stop by the Salmon Library between 11 and 1 on Wednesday to see them!

And good luck on your final exams this week!

Finals ReCharge at the Salmon Library From April 25 to May 2

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As Spring 2014 finals drawn near, we at the Salmon library are once again hosting a series of events and activities collectively known as Finals ReCharge.

We will have the Graffiti Wall, a Board Game room, and Origami Stations throughout the whole week (April 28 through May 2, with the Wall going up on the 25th). We will also have Free Coffee and Donuts on Monday, April 28, from 9am – 11am and Therapy Dogs on Tuesday, April 29, from 11am-1pm.

Therapy dogs will be in the coffee shop area. The coffee and donuts will be in the lobby (that sounds like we are going for irony, said back to back like that). The board games will be in the art gallery. The graffiti wall will be along the walls lead from the south wing to the central wing on the first floor (again, irony not intended). And the origami stations will be with the board games, and possibly elsewhere, so keep an eye out.

You can see photos from last Spring’s Graffiti Wall and last Spring’s therapy dogs, both via our Imgur account.

This is on top of the other options you have to study here. We have study rooms you can check out with your Charger Card. There are study zones throughout the library floors designated from quiet to semi-Social to social. And we’ve expanded the Charger Commons with new iMacs, media:scape modules for group collaboration, and more social studying space. You can now check out iPads for up to 5 days, or check a laptop for 3 hours here in the library. And you can checkout headphones if you need to listen to a project (or soul-quieting tunes) in the Info Arcade.

Any questions? Contact us at the reference desk.

Library Hours during Spring Break 2014

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During this spring break, the library will have a modified schedule.  Please see the full details here.

Of note, the library will be:

  • Open Friday, March 21, until 8 pm (for the Coffeehouse Writers Series – click here for more information).
  • Closed all day Saturday & Sunday, March 22 & 23.
  • Open for reduced hours Monday-Thursday, March 24-27 (7:30 am – 6 pm).
  • Closed all day Friday & Saturday, March 28 & 29.
  • Open for reduced hours Sunday, March 30 (4-10 pm).
  • Resuming normal hours, starting on Monday March 31.

If you are looking for the ChargerBrew coffee shop in the library, please note that ChargerBrew will close for Spring Break at 3 pm on March 21, and will reopen after Spring Break on March 31.

Have a safe and happy Spring Break!

Coffeehouse Writers Series Presents The Coweeta Poets this Friday at the Salmon Library Art Gallery

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The Coffeehouse Writers series returns to the library this Friday, March 21, 2014. The featured poets will be The Coweeta Poets. Everyone is welcome to attend. It is 6:00pm in the Art Gallery on the first floor of the library.

If you wish to see more about The Coweeta Poets, AL.com has a write-up about them from last year’s presentation: 10 North Alabama women make up Coweeta Poets. From that article…

The images in their poems come from memory, experience, or the natural landscape of the Benedictine Retreat Center: ducks, pond, bullfrog, trees. Luther says they’ve also written about such diverse topics as aging, cheese, chickens, and the color puce.

The Coweeta Poets are talented women. All are teachers or former teachers. All have passion for the written word, and most have published in journals and anthologies. Many of the poets have won state and national awards and some have come out with poetry chapbooks of their own. Their 2010 collaborative work, Something More Solid than Earth, features the poems of seven of the poets.

For more information about the CoffeeHouse Writers Series in general, you can contact Marylyn Coffey by phone at 256-824-6114 (email her at coffeymt@uah.edu) or you can visit uah.edu/womensstudies.

Coffeehouse Writers Series, The Coweeta Poets

Coffeehouse Writers Series, Spring 2014

Sneak preview at the library!

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Would you like to potentially meet your next Reference Librarian?

The UAH Library is currently interviewing candidates for a new Reference Librarian.  We have two applicants scheduled to visit the UAH library on March 20 & 21, and they will each teach a short library presentation.

We would welcome the input from any faculty, staff, or students who are available 9-10 AM on either March 20 and/or March 21.

If you are interested, please join us in the library in the FRC room in North-2 (the Faculty Resource Center, at the far end of the 2nd floor), at 9 AM this Thursday/Friday.

All UAH Grad Student are invited to attend our Graduate Workshop. Enjoy free pizza as you learn about the library and meet our newest librarian, Ron.

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We at the Salmon Library are proud to be hosting a pair of drop-in workshops aimed at all of UAH’s wonderful graduate students, featuring:

  • free pizza and drinks,
  • demonstrations of our resources [including Interlibrary Loan, our books and databases, and more!],
  • help with looking up Dissertations/Theses,
  • demonstrations with Zotero,
  • answering whatever questions you have about us or about research in general [and how we can help you with research, naturally],
  • giving you a chance to discuss your thoughts and feelings about the library and what we can do better for you,
  • and you get to say hey to Ron Schwertfeger, our newest librarian!

    Ron Schwertfeger

    Welcome, Ron!

These are drop-in sessions, so all you have to do is pick whichever session is best for you, either March 11 (next Tuesday) or March 12 (next Wednesday), with both being from 10am to noon, and then stop by Library room 207 (inquire downstairs if you need directions). No appointment is necessary, and you do not have to stay for the whole thing. Grab a bite to eat and stay for a bit is all.

And if you can’t make this session, then feel free to drop Ron a line and he can work out a more one-on-one session with you. Or stop by the Reference Desk anytime and say you are looking for information about us or would like to have a look around the library. Or contact us in many other ways. Sure, you’ll miss the free pizza, but most of the rest still stands.

Two drop-in sessions for UAH Grad Students, March 11 and 12, from 10am to Noon.