Gretchen Gould's blog

Thanks to all of you who participated in Rod Library's You Talk. We Listen. We All Win! survey! We had over 800 respondents, which is fabulous!  We want to congratulate Chance on winning the grand prize of an iPad mini!  The other prize winners have been notified via their UNI email address.  So, be sure to check your UNI e-mail and see if you are a winner!

Rod Library will take all of your valuable feedback from the survey so that we can serve you even better in the future!

 Rod Library now has a water bottle filling station next to the women's restroom and near the Browsing Room on the main floor of the library! You can save money and reduce waste while enjoying cold chilled water!

Guess what?!?! As part of the learning commons project, we now have 4 new mobile carts floating around the library for you to use!!.  Each cart has a 47-inch flat screen monitor and cables that will allow you to connect your laptop and/or electronic devices to the flat screen monitor However, we only have cables for VGA and HDMI compatible devices.  Carts have cords so they can be plugged into an electrical outlet. Instructions are on each of the carts.  

 It's that dreaded time of year again - tax time!  Rod Library no longer receives tax forms in print.  

For federal tax forms and information, please visit http://www.irs.gov/

For Iowa tax forms and information, please visit http://www.iowa.gov/tax/

Welcome back to Rod Library! It's going to be an exciting and busy semester.  There are many changes, large and small, happening right inside your own library!  Rod Library currently has five sample chairs for you to try out and vote on.  These are the chairs that will be purchased specifically for the Learning Commons area on the 2nd (main) floor of the library.  The sample chairs are located in the Learning Commons area behind the Reference Desk on the 2nd (main) floor of the library. Sit in them, try them out, see which one is most comfortable!  Vote for your favorites on the whiteboard by the chairs - you can't miss it.  Voting will end on January 25th, 2013 at 12:00 noon.

You might have seen that strange chair shaped like a person that was delivered to the Learning Commons area of the library today. We are trying out some new furniture @ the Rod!  We want you to come try it out and vote!!!   What do YOU think???  It is located in the library by the glass windows facing the ITTC Building.

Thanks to everyone for participating and giving input on the Learning Commons over the past few months! We are very excited about the changes to come and we know you are, too! We are currently compiling and analyzing all of the input we have received.  As soon as that is done, we will be sure to share our findings with you!  We do have information, articles, and other items of interest that can be found at our Learning Commons LibGuide: guides.lib.uni.edu/learning-commons   In addition, you can always send an e-mail to us at liblearningcommons@uni.edu or stop by the library and see the ongoing progress we have made!

If you haven't noticed, we are mixing things up in the library!  If you look behind the Reference desk on the main floor, you will see what we have done.

• Added a collaborative workstation
• Six individual computers grouped around the pillars
• Tables to study at
• Casual seating (including neon pink chairs!)

This is a work in progress! We would like to hear your thoughts on what we have done so far! Please e-mail liblearningcommons@uni.edu with your comments

Rumor has it that students would like whiteboards in the library! :-) Guess what?  We have two whiteboards floating around on the main (2nd) floor of the library. Please feel free to use them and move them around! 

Did you know that today is Geologic Map Day? Geologic Map Day 2012, a special event designed to promote awareness of geologic mapping and its vital importance to society. As an extension of the National Cooperative Geologic Mapping Program, Geologic Map Day focuses the attention of students, teachers, and the general public on the study, uses, and significance of geologic maps for education, science, business, and a variety of public policy concerns. See http://www.earthsciweek.org/geologicmap/index.html for more information