Van Pelt and Opie Library Blog

The Van Pelt and Opie Library, with Professor Thomas Werner (Biological Sciences) and John Jaenike (University of Rochester) announce the launch of Drosophilids of the Midwest and Northeast. This open educational resource is coauthored by Professors Werner and Jaenike and published on Digital Commons @ Michigan Tech.

Join the authors for a reception celebrating the launch of this fascinating, comprehensive and charming example of open educational resource publishing, and the upcoming release of version 2, on October 10th, 2018, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. in the library’s East Reading Room. Light refreshments will be served.

World War I & the Copper Country Opening Reception and Constitution Day Speaker

Dr. Brett Gary, Associate Professor of Media, Culture and Communication at NYU, will deliver “World War I Speech Catastrophes and the Postwar Struggle for Free Political and Sexual Speech” as a talk for Constitution Day and the opening reception of the World War I & the Copper Country commemoration.</span? Dr. Gary will explore the history of the wartime crackdown on political dissent and sexual impurity, and the development of the parallel civil liberties traditions that emerged in the war’s aftermath.

Dr. Gary will be speaking on Thursday, September 13th, at 4 p.m. in the East Reading Room of the Van Pelt and Opie Library. Light refreshments will be provided.

The following evening, Dr. Hillary Virtanen, Assistant Professor of Finnish & Nordic Studies at Finlandia University, will deliver a related talk entitled “An Unpopular History: Uncovering Copper Country Antiwar Stories in World War I”. Virtanen’s talk will introduce and discuss the process for developing the historical exhibit, “Copper Country Voices of Dissent in the Great War,” opening in the Finnish American Heritage Center the day of her talk. Refreshments will be served.

Dr. Virtanen will speak on Friday, September 14th, at 7 p.m. in the Finnish American Heritage Center at Finlandia University.

Both events are FREE to the public. For more information, visit online or email ww1cc@mtu.edu.

The USPTO is hosting an Anti-Counterfeiting Video Contest to help bring attention to the harmful effects of counterfeit products and the need to stop them at home and abroad.

Students, the general public, and federal employees are all invited to submit 30- to 60-second video submissions as a part of this public awareness campaign. Cash prizes will be awarded for each entrant category.

Library Lean Facilitators Annelise Doll and Laurie Stark presented at the Michigan Academic Library Association (MiALA) annual conference in East Lansing, Michigan on May 18th.

Their presentation, “Improving and Sustaining Libraries Using the Lean Philosophy”, focused on how the Lean philosophy of quality and continuous improvement has been successfully applied in the Van Pelt and Opie Library.  They discussed several Lean initiatives that have assisted the library staff in standardizing complex processes and have ensured sustainability. These initiatives focused on the university’s institutional repository, library communications processes and library events management.

MiALA is the professional association of academic library staff and libraries and the professional home for anyone who works in or wishes to show support for academic libraries in Michigan. This year the annual conference brought nearly 250 academic library staff together to network, share, and learn more about current library trends.

Lauren Movlai and Laurie Stark of the Van Pelt and Opie Library and Heidi Reid of Information Technology presented the “A Day of Lean” Workshop at University of Wisconsin – Green Bay in Green Bay, WI on March 12, 2018.  Attendees of the workshop included the university’s library and IT staff.

The workshop included an “Introduction to Lean” session, three breakout sessions in which attendees had an opportunity to learn about and practice various Lean tools, and a final session covering Michigan Tech’s Lean journey and future steps for their university’s library and IT departments.

The event was sponsored by University of Wisconsin – Green Bay.

A study from Emory University demonstrates what your grade-school teachers emphasized: reading is great for your brain. Published in Brain Connectivity*, researchers found a connection between reading a novel and long-lasting, significant increases in neural connectivity – a ‘shadow activity’ of the mind, as one researcher put it.

The library has a collection of books set for this purpose and geared for your downtime: our leisure reading collection.  Need a book for the beach, vacation or for those few spare minutes during lunch? We have added a fresh look to the collection with new titles as well as a new location just inside the front door on the way to the cafe.

Take a minute to browse these shelves filled with new titles and old favorites. Use MeL for access to a more extensive collection of thousands of titles and subjects available from libraries throughout Michigan brought to you here right at our library service center. Access MeL at http://elibrary.mel.org/search or browse our new leisure collection and work on enhancing your mind!

Send questions or suggestions to Library@mtu.edu

*Berns Gregory S., Blaine Kristina, Prietula Michael J., and Pye Brandon E.. Brain Connectivity. December 2013, 3(6): 590-600. https://doi.org/10.1089/brain.2013.0166

The Digital Commons @ Michigan Tech readership statistics are in for December 2017! For more information about the repository email digitalcommons@mtu.edu.

November statistics for Digital Commons @ Michigan Tech are in! For more information about the repository email digitalcommons@mtu.edu.

Correction: The statistics for October 2017 erroneously state Total Works as 4,939. The number has been corrected to 3,647.

October statistics for Digital Commons @ Michigan Tech are in! For more information about the repository email digitalcommons@mtu.edu.

Upper Peninsula literature has traditionally been suppressed or minimized in Michigan anthologies and Michigan literature as a whole. Even the Upper Peninsula itself has been omitted from maps, creating a people and a place that have become in many ways “ungeographic.” These people and this place are strongly made up of traditionally marginalized groups such as the working class, the rural poor, and Native Americans, which adds even more insult to the exclusion and forced oppressive silence. And Here: 100 Years of Upper Peninsula Writing, 1917–2017, gives voice to Upper Peninsula writers, ensuring that they are included in Michigan’s rich literary history.

The Van Pelt and Opie Library is pleased to bring four of the contributing authors to read from this compelling anthology, followed by a question and answer session and book signing.

Come join us on November 2nd from 4:00 pm-6:00 pm in the East Reading Room of the Van Pelt and Opie  Library.  Light refreshments will be provided.