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Nervous about starting at Michigan State? Worried about your class schedule, living away from home, or where to even start? The Spartan Orientation Station (SOS) is a podcast hosted by New Student Orientation staff and was created by students for students. This podcast will launch twice a week throughout the summer, and each episode will feature a unique interview with campus departments discussing their services, common misconceptions, and fun Spartan engagement opportunities. When you need help at Michigan State, it is okay to signal SOS! Don’t worry – MSU is there for you.
You're listening to the Spartan orientation station on Impact eighty nine FM, the podcast by students for students. Now this week's episode.
Speaker 2:Welcome back to the Spartan orientation station. On this week's episode, we will be discussing the MSU libraries. The library aims to provide expertise, collections, and infrastructure for discovery and creation through their work with MSU students, faculty, and staff.
Speaker 3:My name is Cordelia Rutter. I am a fourth year psychology student and a student coordinator at New Student Orientation.
Speaker 2:And I'm Eva. I'm a rising fourth year in the English Secondary Ed program. And I am an orientation intern in the NSO office.
Speaker 3:Could our guests from the MSU library please introduce themselves and what they do with the library?
Speaker 4:Hi, my name is Amelia Marcik, and I'm the head of Reference and Discovery Services in the library. And I also coordinate the library's Peer Research Advisor Program.
Speaker 5:Hi, I'm Holly Flynn. I'm the head of outreach and engagement at the libraries. So that's, library events, exhibits, tours, lots of orientations.
Speaker 6:And hi. I'm Ben Obredic. I'm the head of the information literacy team at the library. I, my team mostly works with the first year students who take their, writing class from the WRA, and, we work on sort of how to do research, how to find materials to help you with your research projects.
Speaker 2:Awesome. Thank you so much for joining us today. So let's get started. Where is the MSU library and what are its hours of operation?
Speaker 5:So there are actually several libraries. There's the MSU main library, which is on West Circle Drive. That's the largest library. That one is open twenty four hours, five days a week. And there's also a business library, which is over in the Business Complex in the law school.
Speaker 5:So we say that one is on Shaw under Law. And that's also open really late. And there's also a law library on campus.
Speaker 3:What different spaces are within the main library? Some examples could be like the art library or maker space. Any elaboration on that?
Speaker 6:So there's lots of different spaces within the library. There's an art library, like you mentioned, if you're into art. There's also a music library, that has a large collection of CDs and other scores and other kinds of music materials. There's a digital scholarship lab where we have some of our newer high technology kinds of, resources. So if you're into digital projects, you wanna see our three sixty room where you can have a visualization space that is 306 degrees, almost like a mini IMAX kind of theater.
Speaker 6:There's the Hollander Make Central area where you can do things like scan, copy, you know, fax things. They run a passport office as well if you're gonna be studying abroad and wanna get your do the full application for your passport. And they have a makerspace attached to that area too. So if you wanna do any three d printing or, things like that, you can do that as well. Library as well.
Speaker 6:So if you're into map or GIS projects, you can check that out.
Speaker 2:Oh, I love the Makerspace. That's one of my favorite spots in the library. So on that note, what resources does the library offer to students? And can we access some of those resources of the library online as well?
Speaker 4:So I'll answer the second one first, yes. I would say the majority of students access most of the resources they use through the library online. So whether that's online journal articles or ebooks, course materials, things like that, I would say most people would prefer to have an online copy. And they don't even need to come into the building to access those resources. But we do also have, obviously, lots of physical resources as well.
Speaker 4:I know a lot of folks like to study in the library. It's a popular study space on campus. But I always like to say it's more than just a building. We have lots of ways to get help in the library. So we have what we call our reference desk, where we have librarians that are available during the day.
Speaker 4:And you can just walk up to one of them and ask a question, whether it's, where's this book for my class? Or can you help me find this complicated question that I'm trying to answer? We also have quite a few textbooks and other materials for classes. So I always recommend students check the library first before they buy their textbooks, because that can save you a whole lot of money if you're not having to buy your textbooks. I think a lot of professors are realizing these days how much money textbooks cost.
Speaker 4:And the library is doing our part to help defray some of those costs for students. And also, the library has things for just for fun too. So DVDs, streaming movies, books to read for fun. So I encourage people to check that out as well if they're, interested in in doing some extracurricular reading or watching as well.
Speaker 3:I'm always down for extracurricular reading. Can I reserve spaces within the library?
Speaker 6:Yes. We do have lots of reservable spaces within the library. If you ever go to the library's website, which is just lib.msu.edu or Google it, of course, you can find a big button in the middle that says reserve a room. So we have these rooms that are reservable, the Shore Lake study rooms with usually some technology in them as well. There's a lot spread throughout the main library, and there's also a bunch in the business library.
Speaker 6:So if you're living in East Campus or River Trail neighborhood or you just know are out in the business library area, there's a lot of rooms that are reservable in there as well. We have video game labs in the DMC, the digital multimedia center that you can reserve as well if you wanna join a video game club that they have running at the library or just, you know, take a break and and use some video game materials as well. There's reservable rooms as, there as well. Lots of different spaces throughout the library. We also have another the sort of a first come, first serve room that are not reservable for, like, study rooms.
Speaker 6:So if you're in the library, you wanna find a group study space, you can walk around and try and see if any of them are open as well. So one that you don't have to book ahead of time. But if you know you have a project that you wanna do or study with some friends, you have a project or a paper due at some point later in the semester or at some point in the semester, you can book that ahead of time so that you know you have a space ahead of time that you can reserve and use.
Speaker 2:Awesome. I love that there are so many different spaces to collaborate and work in the library. I am a little curious if the library puts on any events for students.
Speaker 5:Yeah, we actually put on quite a few events for students, both academic and fun. So we offer lots and lots of workshops. You can learn how to use GIS, you can learn how to use the technologies in the digital scholarship lab and in the three sixty and other places. We also do lots of author events. We have authors come in and talk.
Speaker 5:Last semester we had Bonnie Jo Campbell come in, who's a New York Times bestselling author. We also put on lots of film events that are all free. And we do lots of fun events too. During finals week, we have our sort of famous Night of a Thousand Donuts where we serve a thousand donuts and about 60 gallons of coffee. I think our record is thirty five minutes.
Speaker 5:We gave that all the way one year. And we also have a really long standing therapy dog program. We've had therapy dogs library during finals for the last ten or eleven years, so we have that going on as well. And we also have, like, book clubs. We have, our Muslim Journeys book club, which has been meeting for several years now.
Speaker 3:I went to an event a couple years ago where we got to make bookmarks, and I still use them to this day. So definitely recommend the events. What would you say is the most underutilized resource or service that the library offers that you want to encourage new students to take advantage of?
Speaker 4:So I can start with this one. So one of the things I think is underutilized is just like the people resources in the library. So that's different ways to ask for help. I think particularly for first year or new students at MSU, we have this program called the Peer Research Advisor Program. So there are fellow undergraduate students who have been trained on using the library and doing research.
Speaker 4:And they're a really great resource if you're unfamiliar with the library or if you just want to talk to one of your peers about a research paper or project that you're working on. So they actually, they work in the libraries in the evening, so five 8PM. And then also, they have a location over in Hubbard. So if you're over on that side of campus, you can actually make an appointment or walk in to talk to one of them in Hubbard as well. One of the things that we find is that a lot of professors who assign research assignments don't necessarily think about all the pieces of knowledge that you might need to do a research paper.
Speaker 4:And they might throw terminology at you that's, find me a peer review article about my topic. And then they just expect you to know how to do it. And I think one of the things that students often express is that they feel like they have to do the stuff by themselves and not ask for help. But there's lots of ways that you can get help with those kinds of questions in the library. So I definitely encourage, particularly students who are new to the university to either come talk to one of the peer research advisers, or one of the reference librarians that works during the day in the library.
Speaker 5:Yeah. I would agree. The, reference desk is a good resource. It's an enormous library, probably the largest library you've been in, and you don't have to know exactly how to use it when you first come to MSU. If you are more comfortable coming to the desk, or we have 20 fourseven chat, you can just go to our website and type your question in, and we will answer it.
Speaker 5:We're happy to do that.
Speaker 6:Well, in addition to what's already said, which I totally agree with, and I can't count the number of times I heard from a senior. I wish, you know, that I wish I knew about these resources and this help available before I was at this stage of my MSU career. So it's always nice to get in there early and, you know, get help, talk to people, find out what's available and that kind of thing before you, you know, hoard it off to the end. In addition to that, I think something that isn't as utilized that maybe it could be, especially by undergraduate and first year students, is interlibrary loan, getting materials from other libraries. So I know I didn't know about this when I was an undergrad many, many, many years ago, is that, you know, library has 8,000,000 plus books and hundreds of millions of other resources, but we don't have everything that exists.
Speaker 6:So if you need something for a class that you're taking, if you wanna try and find a textbook, you wanna find a book that you're using that you wanna use for your research, project that you're doing or articles, you know, other types of resources as well, let us know. You can you can go through the library's website and you can request it yourself. We don't need to help you with it. You can do it yourself. But if you have questions about it, you can, of course, stop at the reference desk or use a 247 chat to get help doing it.
Speaker 6:But don't pay that $35 for the article on Google Scholar or, you know, like, go to necessarily to a bookstore and buy something that you might not need, that you might be able to get for free from the library. You're already paying for it by coming to MSU. So, you know, utilize it, take advantage of it. The stuff that we get for you from other libraries is basically it's gonna always be free as far as I've ever heard. And, it's gonna you know, if it's a book, it's gonna come through the mail.
Speaker 6:So, you know, you don't wanna do it the night before your paper's due or something or your test. But if you do ahead of time, plan ahead of time, you can get a lot of stuff. You're already paying for it. Take advantage of it. The big 10 schools all work really closely together, and then we work with libraries around the world as well.
Speaker 6:So, you know, we will find it as long as it's not something that's so rare and so valuable that no one's gonna give us to you know, give it to us for you. But we will help you try and find it from wherever we can get it.
Speaker 2:That is one of my favorite parts about the library. I've always been able to find the articles that I've needed from those databases. If I can't, someone helps me. So I've definitely always appreciated that. On that note, what is your favorite thing about working for the library?
Speaker 4:So I'm in a very public facing role, so I love working with people. And I think that's been one of my favorite things, is just getting a chance to work with students, sometimes multiple times during their time at MSU. And I also really enjoy supervising the peer research advisors, because those are undergraduate students, and I get to know them a little bit better. Because I'm interacting with them more regularly, and often they'll stick with the program for two or three years. And I get to write them letters of recommendation.
Speaker 4:And some of them have even gone on to become librarians. And that's like, I think one of the most professionally rewarding things that I do. So I think that's definitely one of my favorite things is just working with all the different kinds of people that I get to work with on a regular basis.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I would agree that it's the people. I've worked at the library since 02/2002, so a long time. And we're all really collegial and helpful and work well together. So I think that is probably my favorite thing.
Speaker 6:Yeah. I'd have to agree with that as well. I'm a teacher by training. I was an elementary school teacher before I went to grad school and became a librarian. And so I get to teach as part of my job here and work with students and help them with their research projects and, you know, finding information, finding sources for their their research, for their projects, for the papers that they're writing.
Speaker 6:And I really enjoy that part of getting to work with students pretty closely on those kinds of classes and projects. And then also do a whole bunch of other things. So I'm not also, you know, grading all the time like I I was in previous careers and whatnot. So, and also the people that we work with. Like, we have really supportive, great colleagues in the library.
Speaker 6:A lot of people who want to help. Though the library is there to help, we want to help. So never hesitate to come ask questions. Don't be shy. You know, questions are welcome, and and we're there.
Speaker 6:We're there to help.
Speaker 3:Thank you for joining us from the MSU library, and thank you for listening to this week's episode of the Spartan station. Join us next week to discuss all things Broad Artemisium. Go green.
Speaker 6:Go white.
Speaker 4:Go white. Go white.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to this episode of the Spartan orientation station on Impact eighty nine FM. Let us know what you think by connecting with us on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram at MSU underscore NSO.