LIBRARYGordon B. Olson

Monday – Thursday .........7:30 a.m. – 10 p.m.

Friday............................... 7:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.

Saturday ....................................... 9 a.m. – 1 p.m.

Sunday ...........................................1 p.m. – 9 p.m.

701-858-3201 • MinotStateU.edu/library

November 2017Volume. 1 No. 1

Butterflies of North Dakota by Ron Royer, Theodore Roosevelt in the Badlands by Roger Di Sivestro, Erik Ramstad and the Empire Builder by Steven Keillor. What do all these books have in com-mon? They are all housed in the Gordon B. Olson Library’s Special Collections. Located on the main level of

the library, this collection is intended to bring together materials about the history, culture, science, and people of the state, enabling library patrons to utilize these mate-rials all in one location.

While it is not certain when this standalone collection was formalized, some titles can attest to their longevity on the library’s shelves. Examples include: the five volume History of the Dakota Territory (1915) by George Kings-bury; a collection of the Minot Rotary Club’s newsletter, “Prairie Flower”, begins with the November 10, 1922 issue; Polk’s Minot and Ward County City Directory dates back to 1922 – 1923; and various North Dakota state documents date back to 1896.

If you are looking for information about Minot State University, the collection includes yearbooks starting with The Magician, which was first published in 1915 and became The Beaver in 1926 (it ceased publication in 2002). For fun viewing there is a DVD copy of a 16 mm film made in 1928 of the May Fete, which includes interpretive and Maypole dancing.

If you are interested in North Dakota, City of Minot, or MSU history, brows-ing Special Collections can be a treat. Please keep in mind that some of the materials that are rare or in frag-ile condition can only be used in the library.

— Susan Podrygula

Butterflies of North Dakota

Dr. Ronald Royer

Did you know …Did you know that you can restrict your google search-

es so that your results contain only government informa-tion? Just type site:gov after your search words. For exam-ple, if you are looking for information on carbon dioxide levels, just type the words carbon dioxide levels site:gov (don’t put spaces between site or the colon or the abbrevi-ation gov) Or, if you are interested in crime statistics, just type the words crime statistics site:gov. Or, you can find out about Soviet spies in the U.S. by typing in the words soviet spies site:gov. Whatever topic you are interested in, see if you can find good government information written on it by adding the site:gov to your google search.

— Patty Hunt

Services for Distance Education Studentsday, with their questions via email. If you need consultation about research, availability of library materials, issues with database connectivity, or the status of your library account, just submit an email query through the Ask a Librar-ian request form and we will respond, usually within a 24 hour period.

• For more immediate assistance, try our real-time chat and talk to a librarian on duty!

Recent studies have shown that students tend to be more engaged with learning on the whole if they use library resources, interact with librarians, and spend more time using libraries. Library use helps online students become more interconnected with their classes and the academic world. While this can be challenging for online students taking classes from remote sites, the GBO Library is doing its best to improve student success through improved online resources. If you can’t come to the library, then we will bring the library to you.

If you have questions about any of the services that we provide to online students, we encourage you to contact Reference/In-struction librarian Ben Bruton (ben.bruton@minotstateu.edu) for further information. He will be glad to help you with connectiv-ity issues, consult with you on your research projects, and generally provide you with the kind of in-depth assistance that we offer to all MSU students.

— Ben Bruton

Director’s Notes

want to welcome back everyone to school and to

the Gordon B. Olson Library. We are here to help with

your research and study needs. We have a full time

staff of professional librarians who are here to help you

focus on the needs of the university student and faculty.

In this initial newsletter, I would like to introduce

everyone to the staff and the services of the Gordon

B. Olson Library. A library is made up of a variety of

individuals who work in there specialized area of the

library. The library has professional librarians, library

staff and student workers. All these individuals work

to support the mission of the library and provide the

needed expertise and resources to help students and

faculty find what they need. The library has a variety

of departments including Access Services, Inter-Library

Loan, Cataloging, Technical Services, Reference and

Instruction, Purchasing and Administration.

All these various departments and the people who

work in those areas are responsible for making the

Gordon B. Olson Library a vibrant and important part

of the mission of Minot State University. We are here

year round to find the resources that are needed by

students and faculty alike. I hope you enjoy this first

newsletter. And feel free to stop by the library at any

time. We look forward to serving you for the academic

year of 2017-2018.

Stephen Banister, Library Director

IGovernment Documents

Knowing where to look to find informa-tion can be especially difficult for online students, who are seldom able to visit the physical library. Here at the Gordon B. Olson Library at Minot State, we understand the frustrations experienced by students taking online classes, and we seek to make the library more accessible to MSU students everywhere. Our librarians are dedicated to helping students find the research they need, no matter where they are located.

Librarians at GBO Library are dedicated to teaching students the fundamentals of in-formation literacy, the skills needed to find, evaluate, and use information for research purposes. Today’s students inhabit an online environment where information is freely available in so many forms, from search engines like Google, “free content” sites like Wikipedia, social networking sites like Face-book and Twitter, and so on. However, access to convenient information on the Internet does not necessarily give rise to informa-tion-literate individuals. On the contrary, it has become more challenging than ever for students to navigate this overwhelming sea of information and find what is reliable and appropriate for their needs. Not all informa-tion out there is accurate or reliable. Much of it can seem like pure “noise”.

In order to help our students turn down the noise and find the most credible informa-tion, the GBO library offers its own online resources in the form of databases, which we make available on the library’s website at: http://www.minotstateu.edu/library/. These databases can be accessed 24 hours a day, seven days a week. An MSU online student can use these resources at any time by logging in with their student ID and their last name as password.

Library databases are devoted to fields such as nursing, business, science, and other online course-related fields. These databases offer a wealth of useful research information, usually in the form of articles drawn from scholarly publications. MSU students can search these databases by subject or keyword, find relevant articles, and download or print out the full text of these articles. Best of all, they can do all of this from home without ever setting foot in our library. MSU data-bases offer a convenient and vital “one stop shop” for all online students seeking credible research for their assignments.

In addition to the databases, online students can also search for books in our collection through our online catalog, ODIN, and more importantly, they can request that items be delivered to them via our free Interlibrary Loan service. We can mail you books from our library as well as other libraries, and send you articles not

found in our databases. In other words, we strive to make the information gathering process user-friendly by placing the best sources immediately at your fingertips.

If you need help searching a database or haven’t used a college library in a while, we offer support services for students requiring assistance:

• The Embedded Librarian is a service for online classes taught on Blackboard in which a librarian is assigned to an online class as a TA (Teaching Assistant) by agreement with the instructor. This allows the librarian to monitor the course, answer research questions posted on the discussion board, recommend library resources, provide useful hand-outs or tutorials tailored specifically to the course, and assist those students having difficulty accessing online library materials. Students are informed of the librarian’s presence and how to contact them for assistance.

• The Ask a Librarian feature, available on the library’s website, allows students to contact a librarian any time, night or

Did you know that the Gordon B. Olson (GBO) library at MSU is a “Selective-Government Depository Library” for U.S. Government Documents (GovDocs) and has had that designation since 1925? There are two other libraries in North Dakota that house these documents but they are “Regional-GovDoc” libraries and are over two hundred miles away. One is located in Fargo and the other is in Grand Forks.

A “Selective-Government Depository Library,” like GBO, is one that can select the documents that will be stored there according to what is needed for their area, whereas the Regional GovDoc Libraries are required to retain a copy of all the Gov-Docs that are offered.

MSU’s GBO library is also a depository for “North Dakota Documents.” Eight copies of most state documents are distribut-ed throughout the state. GBO receives one copy of each of these documents to house in their document collection.

The state publications are specifically defined as public documents appearing as:• Reports Directories Statistical Compendiums Bibliographies• Laws or Bills Rules Regulations Newsletters• Bulletins State Plans Brochures Periodicals• Committee Minutes Transcripts of Public Hearings Other

Printed MatterMany of our North Dakota documents are stored in with our

special collections but are there for your use.We would love to have you visit our government documents

collection. It is here for all patrons to use, not just MSU students. There are many treasures of knowledge filed away in our library stacks, just waiting to be discovered.

— Teresa Slack

New portable learning toolDo you need something to write on in your small group or by yourself, but don’t want to be shut up in a study room? The library has just the thing for you — a new, portable whiteboard. You can roll it anywhere in the library and work where you please. It will be handy for taking notes (which you can photograph with your phone), writing equations, diagramming sentences (does anybody do that anymore?),

drawing pictures and diagrams, writing poetry, and whatever else you can think of. If you like the new whiteboard, thank Sarah Henderson — this was her idea.

— Jane laPlante