Image Source: https://pixabay.com/en/wwii-memorial-stars-world-war-ii-1377519/
In honor of Memorial day, the Hirsh Health Sciences Library will be closed on Monday May 29th, 2017. We will be open regular hours Friday May 26th, Saturday May 27th and Sunday May 28th and will be ready to help you with all your information needs on Tuesday May 30th. We hope that you have a restful day off and remember to pause for a moment of silence at 3:00 pm in memory of those who fought for our freedom.
We have had a cold, wet spring season this year, but summer is just around the corner. Whether you’re looking for a novel to take to the beach, or one to accompany you when hiding from the heat, below is a small selection of the latest titles to be added to our Leisure Reading collection. These and many more can be found on the 4th floor of the Sackler building.
The Forever Summer by Jamie Brenner
Beartown by Fredrik Backman
Anything is Possible by Elizabeth Strout
Rules of Civility by Amor Towles
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
The Baker’s Secret by Stephen P. Kiernan
As always, if there’s a book we don’t have that you think we should own, please do let us know by recommending a purchase.
Herwig, Ellis. “Commencement, 1978.” Historical Materials Collection, Tufts University Digital Collections and Archives. http://hdl.handle.net/10427/1735
Congratulations Class of 2017! All of us at the Hirsh Health Sciences Library applaud your hard-earned accomplishments and we wish you the best in your future endeavors! We look forward to all the great work you will do.
Please note that the Library Service Desk will be closed this Saturday, May 20, as there will be a reception for the graduates taking place.
Tisch Library in Medford recently subscribed to The New York Times academic pass program. This means that Tufts students, faculty and staff can register for a personal account to access The New York Times from their computer or mobile device, on and off campus. For instructions on creating a personal account using the Tufts academic pass and answers to FAQ about our access, see this page: http://researchguides.library.tufts.edu/nytimes.
Note: When creating an account, be sure to choose the correct link based on your location when registering (i.e. on or off campus).
Post contributed by Laura Pavlech
https://pixabay.com/en/school-study-learn-books-read-2051712/
We know May is a busy time of year, and to top it all off the weather is finally starting to get really nice out! As you finish up your last exams, polish up your final papers and turn in your final assignments, please stop by the 4th floor library service desk to return any outstanding materials before you leave for the summer. Just a friendly reminder to those graduating this May, we need your items back before May 19th (next Friday) so that we can sign off on your accounts.
Unpaywall is a free web browser extension, presently available for Chrome and Firefox, which quickly finds free and legal versions of paywalled research papers. As you search for articles online, an “open lock” tab will instantly appear on the right side of your browser for articles where an open access version is available. Click the tab to reach the full text. More information? Check out UnPaywall’s FAQ.
Post contributed by Judy Rabinowitz
Hello there. Meet the Block.
What is this Block, you may ask? Well if you haven’t needed to know, consider yourself lucky (or, perhaps, just good with time management). The Block is an ever-vigilant consequence. Kind of like Batman, but without the martial arts skills, money, gadgets, costume, tragic backstory, or even opposable thumbs.
So…not very much like Batman at all, I guess.
The Block is what you face when you return Reserve items too late. All of the Hirsh Library Reserve items (laptops, chargers, many textbooks, all models, etc) can be checked out for 4 hours at a time. As long as there’s no immediate shortage and/or demand, you can even renew your item(s) by coming to the desk! But if you are too late, the Block will find you.
At your first offense, you will lose all borrowing privileges and they will only be reinstated after 24 hours. At your second offense, they won’t be reinstated until a week has passed. Third offense is a month, and the library will send a letter to your Dean.
So be careful, and don’t mock the Block! Set an alarm on your phone, write the due time on your hand, whatever it takes to stay one step ahead of the Block. Bring your items back on time, and you will be able to continue using the library happily! But if you don’t, and you ignore this warning…well.
The Block is waiting.
Hi everybody! It’s been a little bit since my last statistics post (just about one year, in fact), so it seemed high time for me to do another one of these. Today I’ll be focusing on October 2016 and March 2017, which were our two Affiliation Months this year. For those who are unfamiliar with the term, that’s when the library staff go and ask every person in the library what their program is, so that we can have a general sense of how our space is being used.
Still with me? Good!
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This first chart is comparing the Affiliation Stats from October 2016 and March 2017. To gather this info, we chose 7 days out of each month (one Sunday, one Monday, etc. All were chosen randomly) and on those days went around 4 times a day. This is always an interesting comparison due to the different programs and the way they operate. Dental and Medical students were gearing up for board and class exams, so it’s no surprise that we would see so many extras in March. There was a jump in PA as well (new class means new exams!), but then we saw drops with Sackler, Friedman, MBS, and PHPD. So what happened there? It’s hard to say. Different timing on exams, different demands on the classes, all sorts of things can affect attendance in the library. Ultimately, March was still the busier month: we counted 3,327 people in March, but only counted 3,115 people back in October.
The thing to keep in mind is that these numbers are only a snapshot. To truly know what the individual program attendance in this library is like for a full month we would need to gather this data every single day for that entire month, and that is unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how much quiet you like) unrealistic for us. Do you know what is quite realistic, however? Collecting a month’s worth of circulation data!
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Bam. That’s a full month of data right there! So what does this show us when compared to the Affiliation graph? Well for one, we can see that the space was occupied more than our things were being checked out to a point, which is actually pretty normal. People do like checking things out (skulls! laptops! books! phone chargers! oh my!), but the library keeps adding more and more space, making it easier to go and hide out and get your studying in.
But here are some thoughts: why are the numbers so similar? We never have had a 1-1 relationship between studying and circulation before, but parts of this are surprisingly close. What’s causing the numbers to fluctuate the way they do? Consider: we have exams in March and April, and Extended Hours at the end of March. Affiliation was overall higher (by 212 people), but Circulation was lower (by 249 checkouts). Weird, right?
There are many factors that affect all of these numbers, but I won’t be going into them in this post. There’s only so much space, and I still need to talk about the floors!
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So. Dental students love the 7th floor. Surprise! Medical and MBS are also huge fans, so it looks like all of those new study carrels we added last summer really helped! Everybody else is spread rather evenly over the floors, although I do find it interesting that the PA students go up to 7 when they’re not in class (I guess to get away from the classrooms – can’t say I blame anyone). It’s good to see people like the furniture and spaces so much! Warms the heart (which is numbered and on a stand, and you can check out from the Library Service desk for 4 hours at a time. I’m not kidding).
The 7th floor has always been the most popular (generally about twice as popular as any of the other floors), and the breakdown after that is always fascinating. Medical students overwhelmingly prefer the 7th, followed by 6 – study quiet, which makes sense. Since the 4th and 5th floors offer some small group opportunities, those are split evenly. Dental may trend toward groups even more so than I used to think – perhaps that’s why there are so many up on 7, and then in decreasing order from 4, 5, and 6?
I would like to state that it is exciting to see Sackler, Friedman, PA, PHPD, and MBS showing up in larger and larger numbers. Hirsh Health Sciences Library is for everyone on the campus, and we want you all to feel welcome! That’s why we have so many study carrels, and the Collaboration Rooms, and craft days, and all the other things that make the days go round. And based on the posts from over the last few years, it seems like we’re only getting more and more popular, which is fantastic. Feel free to keep coming in bigger numbers, we have space for you all!
And on that uplifting note I will leave you for now. Perhaps I will be able to do a look at the full year’s numbers in a few months, so keep your eyes peeled. Until then: good luck with any exams you have left, and I’ll see you all around the library!
Tom
It’s Stress Less Week and we’re here to help! Join us at the Library Service Desk on Wednesday 4/26 from 3-4:30pm for a relaxing study break. Afternoon Tea won our Library March Madness Tournament last month, so what better way to help you de-stress than with your favorite thing?
The Wellness Advisor is also holding a number of other events this week, be sure to check them out!
Tuesday 4/25 at 4pm: Intro to Meditation, Sackler 812
Thursday 4/27 from 12-1pm: How to Live With Less Stress, Sackler 316
Friday 4/28 from 3-4:30pm: Ice Cream and Furry Friends, Jaharis Courtyard
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