A new librarian started at Claire T. Carney Library on May 1^st! Read through the interview below to get to know our new Arts & Humanities Librarian, Olivia Miller.

So you’re the Arts & Humanities Librarian? What does that even mean? I function as a liaison to all students, faculty, and staff in the College of Visual and Performing Arts and the departments of Philosophy and English Literature and Criticism. That means I answer questions, buy books, teach library instruction sessions, and do one-on-one research consultations all for these departments. I also spend time on the Reference Desk in the Learning Commons each week so I answer questions for lots of different departments as much as I can.

Where are you from? I grew up in the foothills of North Carolina so I say things like “y’all.” More recently I lived in Greensboro, NC where I worked as the Public Services Librarian at Greensboro College.

Hmm. Greensboro. That sounds familiar. Is it historically important? I’m so glad you asked! Greensboro played an important role in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. Four African American college students from North Carolina A&T asked to be served at the lunch counter at Woolworth’s. They were refused service because of their race so they refused to leave and jumpstarted a nationwide sit-in movement.

Where did you go to school and what did you major in? My undergraduate degree is from the University of North Carolina-Greensboro where I double majored in Art History and English and minored in Classics. I also have a master’s degree in Library Science from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. In grad school I mostly focused on art librarianship so I could continue to use the skills I learned as an undergrad in my professional career.

Do you have any hobbies that aren’t librarian-ish? It’s a stereotype that librarians read a lot and I adhere to that stereotype. I think I read around 80 books last year (a lot were comics but they’re still books!). I love to travel and have made a promise to myself to travel somewhere within the US and somewhere out of the country once a year (the photo above is from August with me squinting in the Icelandic sun in front of a geyser that’s preparing to do its geyser thing). I also practice yoga as much as I can.

What are you looking forward to this Fall semester? I’m excited about meeting and getting to know the students, faculty, and staff in my departments.

If you had to give one piece of advice to students, what would it be? Don’t be afraid to ask for help.

How can someone contact you if they need help with research? You can email, call, or stop by my office. You can find my contact info here.

The Claire T. Carney Library welcomes you and offers you an opportunity to meet your subject librarian.

We will review the best resources for your discipline and how to look up and find books and journal articles. We’ll tell you about the services our library offers and how to ask for help when you need it.

Did you know that you can reserve a study room to work on a project with your classmates?  How about borrowing a laptop to take to class for that presentation? Yes, the Library can help you with these.

To schedule a personal or small group appointment to learn about library services and resources,

Contact Liz Winiarz at ewiniarz@umassd.edu 

The Science Fiction Book Club is excited to discuss Lumberjanes Volume 1: Beware the Kitten Holy at our first meeting of the fall semester. Lumberjanes is an award winning comic series, having won Eisner awards for both Best New Series and Best Publication for Teens in 2015.  The series was also nominated for a GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Comic Book.

Lumberjanes is about the group of young teens that occupy the Roanoke cabin at Miss Qiunzella Thiskwin Penniquiqul Thistle Crumpet’s Camp for Hardcore Lady Types and the strange things they keep running into in the woods. Fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Adventure Time will enjoy this, but it’s a fun read for anyone who likes supernatural adventure with a little bit of silliness and lady-type power.

The first four issues of Lumberjanes are collected in this volume. For those unfamiliar with the world of comics, many are released as issues periodically at your local comic shop or through online services like ComiXology. Each issue is usually around 30 pages. If the series is successful the publisher will collect them in a volume such as this one. The most popular series’ get collected into even bigger volumes (Lumberjanes currently has three!) which may include anywhere between eight to eighteen issues per volume.

As with many comic series’, lots of different people work together to produce the final work you see in the comic shop, bookstore, or library. The series was created by Shannon Watters, Grace Ellis, and Noelle Stevenson. This volume is written by Noelle Stevenson and Grace Ellis, illustrated by Brooke A. Allen, colors by Maarta Laiho, and letters by Aubrey Aiese.

You can find Lumberjanes Volume 1 at your local public library, through interlibrary loan, on Hoopla via the Boston Public Library ecard, or through a free trial of ComiXology Unlimited or Kindle Unlimited.

We look forward to discussing this fun supernatural comic with you on Wednesday, September 27^th at 1pm in Library 314.

Welcome or welcome back! We hope you had a great summer and if you are new, we look forward to meeting you.

Here are a few important things to know about our library including who to ask for help.

The Claire T. Carney Library is on academic year hours (specifics below). As always, as the semester progresses, hours will increase. If you’re unsure you can always check our library calendar to see our hours for each day.

There are lots of study spaces throughout the library for individual and group study and white boards throughout the building for team work. To make the most of our space, especially on the third and fifth floors, we have orange and purple signs on the group study tables to encourage sharing space whenever possible. You will find full computer and printing facilities on the first and second floors in our Learning Commons and Scholarly Commons. If you need a quiet space to study, please go to our South Reading Room near the Learning Commons on the first floor. If you are looking for a good place for group work, we have several group study rooms that you can reserve through ReservIT. Check this library orientation guide for directions on how to do a reservation. A map of the library is available to see all our spaces and you can even use the Find Me Here tool to send a link of where you are studying in the library to a friend or group to help make meeting easier.

Remember to check the computer classrooms (128, 225, 226) to see if they are open if public computers are full. We also have laptops at the Circulation Desk that may be borrowed for the day. Stop by our Learning Commons Desk to get assistance with IT questions.

If you’re back and already thinking about your senior project, your master’s thesis or the big paper you’ll have to write this semester, you might want to look up one of our expert subject librarians to help you with your research.

If you are an online student, check our Library Services for Online Learners guide. It tells you about special services for online students, such as free home delivery of UMassD library books, and helps connect you with helpful library staff.

For more fun reading, we have a Read and Return section in the Library Living Room that is on the honor system. We also feature a Game Night every Thursday night from 7-10PM in our Living Room. These board games may also be checked out for the day using your UMass Pass from the Circulation desk all other times. All of our other collections need to be checked out using your UMass Pass at the Circulation Desk.

We’re glad you’re back and we hope that you’ll stop by at one of our service points and ask if there is some way we can be of help. ?

Welcome Back!

– Claire T. Carney Library Staff

Any questions?  Please contact us:

Circulation Desk: 508-999-8750

Learning Commons, IT Help: 508-999-8884

Learning Commons, Research Help: 508-999-8678

Dean of Library Services: 508-999-8664

LIBRARY HOURS

UMassD Library Services announces the availability of BrowZine web! This makes browsing and monitoring academic journals even easier. Create virtual bookshelves of your favorite journals and sync them between BrowZine Web and your iOS or Android device.

BrowZine includes many, but not all, of the library’s scholarly journals. Review a list of participating publishers.

Check it out and let us know what you think.

An Example of a BrowZine Table of Contents: