After a long summer of primping and preening, room G3 in the Murray Library is ready to reveal its shiny new makeover! Starting Monday of next week the room will once again be available for booking through the intranet’s room booking page. Come on over and check it out!
As cold as it was on Tuesday, there seemed to be a great turn out for the first student orientation of 2017.
Eva Wong, Gina Koehn, and I (Kelly Juliusson) were happy to run the booth for the University Library and Student Learning Services during the final portion of the orientation. We were stationed on the second floor of the new and absolutely gorgeous Gordon Oakes Red Bear Student Centre along with many other important groups on campus.
The students were tasked with learning something new from 8 different booths to enter a draw for some winter gear, but we had also had a little game at our table. Students were asked 1 of 3 questions and told to use the library’s website to find the answer. One question even had students interacting with our Ask Us IM service (a special thanks to Chalyse LaLonde for this). For participating in this game, students were given a water bottle for their efforts. There was also candy and toothbrushes (you read that right) for everyone!
*This was posted by Amy St-Jacques on behalf of Kelly Juliusson
The Murray Library Interlibrary Loan/Document Delivery unit at the University Library recently completed the American Library Association/Reference & User Services Association STARS Rethinking Resource Sharing Initiative’s Star Checklist. With a total score of 167 points, the University Library achieved 3-Star Status, which recognizes that we are engaged with 80% or more of the initiatives on the association’s internationally-recognized best-practices checklist for interlibrary loan and resource sharing and affirms that our library is keeping up with best practices in interlibrary loan and resource sharing. Congratulations to the staff in the Murray Library ILL/Document Delivery unit!
Monday Music and Education, Tuesday Murray, today Engineering, and next week Health Science. The therapy dogs are sure making their way around the library.
Yesterday here at Murray we gladly hosted the four legged critters. Over 250 students came to de-stress with belly rubs and cuddles… for the dogs of course. It was amazing to see how much the students enjoyed the experience and their happy faces. We look forward to seeing the dogs again.
You’re next Engineering! You’ll have to let us know about your experience.
Also check us out! The library is super duper famous: The StarPhoenix News Article, Global Video, and CBC News Article and Video (starting from 7:30)
It’s that time of the year again, when we celebrate all the amazing books that Big Brother doesn’t want us to read. “And how do you celebrate the man trying to censor us?”, you may ask. “Why by creating a display that showcases many of the books that have been questioned, banned, or protested”, we reply. For those of you who didn’t get to stick it to the man and check out the Murray Library display here are some pictures.
Pssst… don’t tell but we even saw a few students check-out some of these books. Freedom to Read Week lives on!
Hello dear friends. I would like to start off the Christmas season with the heartwarming tale of:
How Lara Saved Christmas (or How Lara crushed the hopes and dreams of all the Starbucks employees)
From the desk of Lara
November 24th 3:30pm
I have made contact with circulation supervisor Gail, regarding Christmas. The great hunt for the Christmas decorations is on.
November 24th 3:45
Have asked around about location of Christmas decorations. Have been informed by Amy that they are held in the mystical place called “The Shared Storage Room”. Upon further investigation I have found that this space is cohabitated with the great Starbucks Stock.
November 25th 1:30pm
Have decided to begin my journey to retrieve the Christmas decorations from their holding location. I have also procured a travel companion, an odd duck by the name of Amy. She seems flighty but is fully confident that she knows where the Christmas things lay.
November 25th 2:00pm
There is no sign of the Christmas decorations. My companion and I have moved numerous things around in the strange yet bountiful land of “The Shared Storage Room”, and yet to no avail.
November 25th 2:15
Still have had no luck finding our treasure. We have traveled far and wide since I’ve last logged my adventures. We visited the waste land “Book Drop”, but it was bare. We have come up with numerous other places to search but have yet to take action. Will keep posted on news.
November 25th 2:30
Alas there has been a breakthrough in our struggles! My grand companion was on her own interrogating a local by the name of If-Hat, when from a distance she spotted what appeared to be the tree that we have been looking for all along. It was far off in the distance in a place called Starbucks.
November 25th 2:45
My companion and I have come up with several game plans to extract our stolen goods, ranging from going under cover as a local, to a covert operation involving smoke and mirrors. In the end we have decided to keep it simple. We will slowly approach the locals and try kindness. If this does not work, however, we are prepared to use snark and/or force.
From the desk of Amy
November 25th 2:47pm
What have I gotten myself into? Lara will not stop until she has the decorations back or blood is drawn. I fear for the worst. I have encouraged the group called “ILL” to review the security footage for Starbucks on their cellular devices so that should we die fighting, it will not have been in vain.
If I should not come back from this adventure with Lara, I would like the following to be known. I did not take all of the forks from the silverware drawer, and no, I don’t know who stole and/or lost the exacto knife from the mailing station.
From the desk of Lara
November 25th 3:15pm
We have returned victorious from our quest! As decided upon, we approached the people of Starbucks with kindness and perceived their primitive gestures to be a return of said kindness. It seems that the people believed the tree to be theirs, and so proceeded to decorate it with trinkets and other waste that they have scourged from their land.
My companion Amy insists that this is their barbaric way of trying to emulate our traditions and customs, and that we should show respect for their efforts. I must baulk at this notion, and cannot fathom how such a distasteful thing can be allowed to continue.
We rescued the tree and its remaining ornaments and deposited it back in its proper resting place upon The Desk of the Check Out. I immediately tore off the primitive decorations and disposed of them.
Though not a drop of blood was shed, I believe that I did manage to crush the soul of at least two people of Starbucks. And so, upon our return, I have insisted that my companion and I wear the proof of our victory around our necks. Our trophies are the cut-off ears of our foes, peppered with the bitter taste of their sorrow and defeat.
From the desk of Amy
November 25th 3:16pm
I don’t care what she says; they’re just the dried up limes that we took off of the tree and I’m not wearing them around my neck.
It is with heavy hearts that we at the Murray Library announce the end of our popular Take a Break with US activities. The room, which was packed to the brim with activities and snacks for the students, was dismantled on the afternoon of April 30th. Left behind are memories and many many pictures of the wonderful things the students created, drew, and played with. Among the highlights of the creations were a minion made out of Play-Dough, and a collage of a man fighting a dinosaur.
Please come check out our Facebook page for all of the great pictures. No Facebook account? No worries, everyone can see them.
After days and days of laborious, strenuous, and exhaustive planning the time is nigh! The Murray Library is proud to announce that the much anticipated sequel to the “Take a Break with US” has opened with a BANG today. And what a bang! So far as we type our count is at over 80 students that have come in to peruse our activities and partake in our complementary libations. Not to toot our own horns but… TOOT TOOT! 
The Engineering Library isn’t the only one with AMAZING artists on staff. It took a few weeks to create our masterpiece but it has finally attained perfection. A drum roll please for our artistic tour de force!
Introducing the Murray Library Sticks Staff!
The bios of each person present will be included when this magnum opus is added to the University Archives & Special Collections. Future generations will then be able to appreciate the magnitude of this piece of artistic splendour.