Welcome back!

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Welcome back students, faculty, and staff! We are excited to begin a new academic year with you and help support you in any way we can.

Here is brief overview of some of the services we offer:

The SPU Collection
Books, journals, online articles, DVDs, and more – our general collection, reference collection, and special collections are home to an extensive number of resources that are readily available to you. Items are organized according to the Library of Congress system, which means they are shelved alphabetically based on their call number (the combination of numbers and letters located on the lower spine of an item). Call numbers A-J are located on the second floor and call numbers K-Z are located on the third floor. The Work and Faith collection is located in the graduate study room on the third floor, and the Popular Fiction Collection is located in the reading room on the main level – along with recent issues of magazines and newspapers. Locate any of our items by typing keywords, titles, or known call numbers in Primo – the online library catalog found at the top of the Library home page in the blue box.

Summit
An item that cannot be located in our collection can be ordered through Summit. Summit is a shared library system run by an alliance known as the Orbis Cascade Alliance, which includes 37 libraries from across Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. An item ordered through Summit (you may also discover items by searching Primo) will be delivered to SPU within five business days.

Liaison Librarians
Each Librarian at the SPU Library is affiliated with specific departments and schools, and is able to give students, and faculty, instructional and research assistance. The reference desk, is staffed by our librarians, is open daily and its hours can be found here.

Course Reserves
Books and DVDs that professors put on reserve for a class are located at the Circulation Desk. Look up the course in Primo, bring the call number to the Circulation Desk, and a staff member will locate the item for you. Most Reserve items need to stay in the library and have a time cap on them so that items will be available to other patrons.

Tech Desk
Located on the lower level of the Library, the Tech Desk offers laptops, cameras, video recorders, chargers, and tech help services among other things. The lower level is also home to the computer lab featuring computers equipped with double monitors, extensive software, and printing capabilities.

Printers
Printers are located on every floor of the Library. Log into a computer, open your document, send to print, log in to the printer with your SeaPac Pass, and select the documents you would like to have printed. More information on campus-wide printing can be found here.

Study Rooms
Study rooms are located throughout the building and provide private spaces for more effective individual and group study. They are equipped with tables, large monitors, and cables to connect these monitors to laptops. Rooms can be reserved through Room Finder (found on the Library home page). Library study rooms are not sound proof, so please be respectful of noise levels when using them.

Please contact us with any questions or concerns you may have – we are always happy to help. Have a wonderful Fall quarter!

A Message from the Director: New at the Library

Dear Members of the SPU Community,

Welcome to a new academic year at SPU! The purpose of this memo is to highlight a few exciting changes at the SPU Library this quarter:

New hours: Beginning this week, the library has new, longer hours:

  • Mondays-Thursdays, 7:30 a.m.-Midnight
  • Fridays, 7:30 a.m.-8 p.m.
  • Saturdays, 8 a.m.-8 p.m.
  • Sundays, 10 a.m.-Midnight

More information about hours, including Reference Desk hours, is available from our hours website.

New technology: We have mounted large computer monitors in all study rooms on the 3rd Level, including the Graduate Study Room, and new print/copy/scan devices are located on every level of the library. For more information:

Tech updates in study rooms.

New speaker series: Come to the library Reading Room to hear members of the SPU community share scholarly and creative works in progress. Speaking this quarter:

  • Jeff Keuss (Theology), “The Gospel According to Stephen King”: Thursday, October 24, 3-3:40 p.m.
  • Shannon Huffman Polson (MFA ’12), “North of Hope: Memoir, Memory, and Mercy”: Thursday, October 31, 12:10-12:50 p.m.
  • Ben McFarland (Biochemistry), “The Quickening: How Chemistry Shaped Biology”: Thursday, November 7, 3-3:40 p.m.
  • David Wicks and Andrew Lumpe (Education), “bPortfolios: Using an Open Blogging Platform for Reflective Learning”: Thursday, November 14, 12:10-12:50 p.m.

For more information about this series, see the Creative Conversation site.

To find out more about the library and the many ways we support your work and the discovery, creation, and sharing of knowledge at SPU, visit us in person or online at http://spu.edu/library.

 

Michael J. Paulus, Jr.

University Librarian and Associate Professor

Seattle Pacific University

Q & A with new Librarian, Kristen Hoffman!

Kristen Hoffman joins the SPU Library staff as our new Psychology and Scholarly Communications Librarian. Learn a little bit about her below in our Q & A interview:

Tell us a little bit about your career background?

I started my library career in the SPU library as an undergraduate student worker in 2000.  I knew I wanted to be a librarian one day, so I was so thrilled to work as a student at the circulation desk.  Once I graduated, I eventually found a public library job to gain a different library perspective.  I went on to work in five public libraries over the course of several years.  Most recently I’ve been at Biola University, where I was a Reference and Instruction Librarian.

What are some of the things you’re responsible for as the Psychology and Scholarly Communications Librarian?

I work with the School of Psychology, Family and Community to purchase or subscribe to library resources, teach information literacy sessions, and assist students with research.  I am also responsible for the new library role of scholarly communications – issues related to how SPU’s scholarly information is created, disseminated, evaluated, archived, and accessed.

Any new book recommendations?

The digital scholar: how technology is transforming scholarly practice. This is a book I’m reading related to scholarly communications and is a helpful resource on digital scholarship and open education issues.

Welcome to the team, Kristen!