The Great Book Move to Hewes Library

50 years ago - on January 21, 1970 - the Monmouth College community moved an entire library in one day! 

Over 120,000 volumes were carried from the Carnegie Library (Poling Hall) to the college's newest facility: Hewes Library. Classes were cancelled while over 800 volunteers marched up and down the hill carrying books against negative windchill. The new library opened for business the next day! What an extraordinary accomplishment!

Visit the west lobby of Hewes Library on Tuesday, January 21st to see this slideshow, and be sure to venture to the upper level display cases (west wall) to enjoy an archival exhibit of memorabilia celebrating the history of Hewes Library. 

Welcome back to campus!

Welcome back to campus for our returning students and welcome to our first year students!

If you ever need research assistance, please stop by and talk to a library staff member or read through some of our Research Guides to learn more about a research in a specific discipline or take a look at our guide on The Research Process for an overview.

Our library hours will be the same this fall. You can view the full list on the library's hours page.

From all of us, welcome back!

New Mobile Whiteboards

Throughout the library you will notice some new additions for the school year: mobile whiteboards!

Several whiteboards will be floating around the library for student use.  Feel free to move them around to areas where you will need them.  Markers and erasers are attached to each whiteboard. 

New, Redesigned Library Website

One of the library's summer projects was a complete redesign of the library's website. The new Hewes Library website offers more functionality and more content.  All of the same information is there (plus some brand new stuff!), so be sure to learn your way around the new site.

We'd like to highlight the Research Process tab for students - which will walk you through all the way through developing a topic, evaluating information, and documenting your sources.  A selection of resource guides by discipline will be coming later this fall.

Quiet Hours & Study Spaces

Finals will be here before you know it!  As we approach the last few weeks of classes, we call upon the students, faculty, and staff of Monmouth College to help us keep the study areas quiet for everyone's use.  If you are going to be working with a large group, please considering making a room reservation or using one of the large group study rooms on the Lower Level.

Thanks for your cooperation!  Quiet hours will go into effect the weekend before Reading day.  In the mean time, curl up with a good book.

Study Time!

With the weather warming up, and everyone getting excited about the upcoming summer break, we are asking your help to keep the library a quiet study area.  If you are going to be working on a large group project, we recommend that you use one of the study rooms on the lower level.

Thank you!  You're fellow students will appreciate the quiet in the next few weeks as finals approach!

Spring Break 2011

Hewes Library will be on break hours starting Friday, March 4, for Spring Break at Monmouth College.  The library will be closed on evenings and weekends.  Hewes Library will return to regular hours on Monday, March 14.

• Friday, March 4: 7:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
• Saturday - Sunday, March 5 - 6: Closed
• Monday - Friday, March 7 - 11: 8:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
• Saturday, March 12: Closed
• Sunday, March 13: 6:00 p.m. - Midnight

Thanksgiving Break Hours: Fall 2010

Hewes Library will have abbreviated hours over the Thanksgiving holiday.  You can view the changes in normal hours below or visit the Hours Section of the library's website for more information. 

Tuesday, November 23:  7:30am - 4:30pm
Wednesday, November 24:  8:00am - 4:30pm
Thursday - Saturday, November 25-27: Closed
Sunday, November 28:  6:00pm - Midnight

Hewes Library will return to normal hours on Monday, November 29 - opening at 7:30am.

Director's Welcome, Fall 2010

Welcome to Monmouth College and Hewes Library, your academic resource center! The library staff is looking forward to introducing you to the resources and services of the library over the course of the next year and beyond. The library will be opening earlier on weekdays at 7:30am along with our new Einstein Brother’s Bagel franchise! It’s already been a very busy place during the first week of classes.

Hewes Library has over 310,000 books, periodicals, government documents and videos to fill your information needs. We provide access to approximately 100 online databases, which includes full-text access to articles in over 18,000 periodicals, all accessible through our Hewes Library web site. Over the past year we’ve added some exciting new databases, including Music Online with hundreds of thousands of musical works, including popular, classical, jazz, folk, and international pieces. American History in Video offers nearly 5,000 video historical documentaries, some from History Channel or A&E, as well as news reels covering historic events of past times. These can be accessed on any network computers or on your personal computers any time of day or night, along with all of our databases.

Since July 2007 Hewes Library has been a member of the I-SHARE consortium catalog that allows the sharing of catalog information, as well as, the collections of 76 academic libraries in the state of Illinois. For those items that we do not own, our students and faculty have enjoyed the opportunity to directly request items from any of the I-SHARE libraries through the I-SHARE “universal catalog”. For journal articles and other items not available through our I-SHARE consortium libraries, we continue to provide our new ILLiad Interlibrary Loan services for materials from any of thousands of libraries in the United States. The library staff will be happy to answer any questions you have any time on locating the resources you need.

Our lovely surroundings include the Barnes Electronic Classroom suitable for computer instruction and presentations and a more open HL124 for classes experimenting with tablet PC technology. Throughout the building, ample study space is combined with wireless network access that allows you to use your own laptop within the library. Several special collections reside on the Upper Level: the Rare Book Collection, the James C. Shields Collection of Ancient Art and Antiquities, and the Len G. Everett Galleries. An exhibit of native American artifacts on the upper level lounge area will be going up sometime this semester. Also new this fall to the Lower Level is the Archaeology Research Lab (HL11A).

The library is also celebrating its 150th anniversary as a Federal Depository of U.S. Government Publications. Monmouth College is the fourth oldest federal depository in the United States dating back to 1860 when the program was officially created by an act of Congress.

Please take advantage of the rich resources and helpful information on our library website and feel free to seek help from the library staff. We’re looking forward to working with you.

Cheers,

J. Richard Sayre
Library Director

Welcome back to Campus!

The staff of Hewes Library would like to welcome new and returning students back to campus as everyone starts the fall 2010 semester! The library staff worked on several projects over the summer and hope to unveil a few new services to the campus over the next few weeks. We're excited to announce that we will be continuing ScotsRead, our collection of bestsellers and popular books. A few of the recent arrivals have been:

• Spider Bones by Kathy Reiches
• The Girls of Murder City by Douglas Perry
• The Red Queen by Philippa Gregory
• Midnight Angels: A Novel by Lorenzo Carcaterra
• Angelina: An Unauthorized Biography by Andrew Morton

Over the summer, the library coffee shop was renovated into an Einstein Brothers Bagels locations. To accomodate the new early morning coffee option, the library is now opening at 7:30am to allow students, faculty, and staff to grab a cup of coffee and a bagel before 8am classes start. The library's new hours are:

• Monday - Thursday: 7:30am to Midnight (Einstein Bros. 7:30am - 8pm)
• Friday: 7:30am t0 5pm (Einstein Bros. 7:30am - 2pm)
• Saturday: 9am to 5pm (Einstein Bros. 11am - 3pm)
• Sunday: Noon to Midnight (Einstein Bros. 4pm-8pm)

Pre-Finals & Finals Library Hours - Spring 2010

Hewes Library will extended its hours into the weekend before finals to allow students more time in the building to finish papers and meet with groups over end of the semester projects. The library's hours are listed below and are also available on the library's website under the Hours Section.

Pre-Finals & Finals Week, Spring 2010 (April 30 - May 12)

• Friday, April 30: Open 7:45 a.m. - Midnight
• Saturday & Sunday, May 1 - 2: Open 9:00 a.m. - Midnight
• Monday - Friday, May 3 - 7: Open 7:45 a.m. - Midnight
• Saturday & Sunday, May 8 - 9: Open 9:00 a.m. - Midnight
• Monday & Tuesday, May 10 - 11: Open 7:45 a.m. - Midnight
• Wednesday, May 12: Open 7:45 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.

Government Documents: Celebrating 150 Years at Monmouth College

2010 brings the 150th Anniversary of the Federal Depository Collection of Government Documents at Hewes Library and Monmouth College. Throughout 2010, portions of the Government Documents Collection will be featured.

In 1860, Congress authorized the Federal Depository Library Program which ensured that citizens had access to all information that was being produced by the government. Today, there are over 1,250 depository libraries throughout the country and they provide access to a wide variety of information. Citizens can go to any depository library to access information from the Census, any executive department, or get help looking for electronic goverment documents.

Spring Semester 2010

Beginning Wednesday, January 13, 2010, Hewes Library will resume regular semester hours. A full schedule of the library's hours can be found on the Hours section of the library's website.

After classes have started, the library will have shortened hours on the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend. Saturday, January 16, the library will be open from noon until 5pm and on Sunday, January 17, the library will be open from noon until 9pm.

Renewing Items over Winter Break

Don't forget that if you have library materials over break, you can renew them by logging into your Account in the library catalog. Your login information is your last name and your barcode number from your Monmouth College ID card. Once you have logged into the system, you can renew each item from each school in the I-Share system.

If you need to get a head start on projects for the second semester, place your I-Share requests a few days before you return to school and the books will be waiting for you when you arrive back on campus.

Winter Break 2009

Hewes Library will be on Winter Break hours from Thursday, December 17 through Tuesday, January 12, 2010. Therefore, the library will be open Monday through Friday, 8am - 4:30pm with the exception of the Christmas and News Years holidays. We will be closed December 23-25 and January 1. A full schedule of the library's hours is available on the Hewes Library website.

Pre-Finals & Finals Extended Library Hours - Fall 2009

Hewes Library is currently on regular operating hours. Pre-finals and finals extended hours will begin on Friday, December 4. The library will remain open late throughout the finals exam period and our last evening of extended hours will be Tuesday, December 15. On Wednesday, December 16, the last day of finals, the library will be open from 8am to 6pm. For more information, stay tuned to the library blog or visit the Hours page of the library's website for full schedule information.

Pre-Finals & Finals Extended Hours:

• Friday, December 4: 8am - 10pm
• Saturday, December 5: 9am - 10pm
• Sunday, December 6: 9am - Midnight
• Monday, December 7 - Friday, December 11: 8am - 1am
• Saturday, December 12 & Sunday, December 13: 9am - 1am
• Monday, December 14 & Tuesday, December 15: 8am - 1am
• Wednesday, December 16: 8am - 6pm

On Thursday, December 17, Hewes Library will begin its winter break hours, which are 8am - 4:30pm, Monday - Friday.

Thanksgiving Break, Fall 2009

Hewes Library is currently on Thanksgiving Break 2009. Hours will be shortened until classes resume and students are back on campus.

Wednesday, November 25, 2009: 8am - 2:30pm
Thursday, November 26, 2009: Closed
Friday, November 27, 2009: Closed
Saturday, November 28, 2009: Closed
Sunday, November 29, 2009: 6pm - midnight
Monday, November 30, 2009: 8am - midnight, Regular hours resume

For more information about the library's hours, please visit the Hewes Library Website.

Microforms, Part I: What are they?

You may have noticed that the library has a room located to the right of the photocopier with a large “MICROFORMS” sign above the entrance. And just what, you may be asking yourself, is a microform? Microforms are a convenient way of saving a large amount of information in a very small space. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, the micro-format was developed in 1928 as a way to store banking records. It consists of taking a photograph of the print page and reducing it in size and storing it on a card or a roll of film. Materials transferred to micro-format are long-lasting, easy to store and take up a lot less space than paper.

Over the years two main formats have come to be preferred, the card version known as microfiche and the film roll version known as microfilm. Both formats require special equipment to view and print the information found on microforms. The library has two reader/printers that are capable of displaying both types of micro-formats. If you are doing historical research or research that requires the use of government information you will probably find yourself using the microforms room. Be sure to ask a librarian if you have any questions about using the equipment. More information on the Hewes microform holdings will be given in later Research Tips.

Anime Club Gift

Through the generosity of the MC Anime Club, Hewes Library now has a collection of both Anime films and manga-influenced graphic novels.

Newly processed DVD’s will join last year’s donation in the DVD collection under the call number PN1992.8.A59 and the novels are on the upper level in the book stacks under PN6790.J34.

Thanks again to the Anime Club for their great gift!