The Mini-Condo That Almost Was...

The library is a common place for students to spend their time. In Oxford the library has a couple different meanings; a place to have a drink, a place to study, or a place to get your beauty sleep…?

As librarian Andrea Driver said “we regularly catch students trying to live in the mezzanines.” When the JD Williams library was first built, it had six floors, unlike the three floors it has currently. Some of the floors were made into half floors with the new renovations; mezzanine A, B, and C.

Mezzanine C was home to this penny-pinching student. Mezzanine C has individual study carrels reserved for grad students. For about a month the student claimed one of these tiny rooms as his mini-condo. He even moved in a mini fridge and toaster oven said librarian assistant Alex G.

To simply get as much study time in as possible, or to save some bucks, this goes to show how one reacts and keeps an open mind to unlikely opportunities. 

Not Your Average Oxford Citizen

     There is a room in the J.D. Williams Library dedicated to the author of the well-written short stories As I Lay Dying and The Sound and The Fury, William Faulkner.

      On the third floor near the main staircase, there are pictures of him and his classmates, letters he wrote to directors, and rough drafts. “There’s the bust of William Faulkner and on the wall there is the portrait, but it’s broader than just William Faulkner,” shares the Blues Curator and Associate Professor of Special Collections, Greg Johnson.

 

    This room is often overlooked by writers who forget that one of the greatest Mississippi writers lived here, in Oxford, Mississippi. Faulkner’s hard work and dedication is located in this room which should inspire the students every day to achieve in excellence.

 

(Information from The Mississippi Writer’s Page)

Find Our Oldest Documents on the Hidden Floor

 

Many students at Ole Miss have never been in Mezzanine B in the library. Mezzanine B is a dark storage area located at the very top of the J.D. Williams Library that is used to preserve old special collection documents.

 “The oldest documents we have are medieval but we only have about ten of them. The majority of the collection is post 1848 and pre 1988,” said Reference Librarian and Assistant Professor, Alex Watson.

The weather in Mississippi makes it more difficult to preserve the important documents, so there is a de-humidifier there to help decrease the level of humidity.

 

 “It is not an ideal cold storage, especially when the power fails because it is not climate controlled and not concealed,” said Watson.

Photograph; Archives & Special Collections

      J.D. Williams Library’s archives & special collections

When entering the main doors of the J.D Williams library, have you ever noticed the large concrete stairs case that leads to the hidden chambers of Archives and Special collections?  “Since 1975 the primary purpose has been to acquire, conserve and make accessible rare books, manuscripts, maps and many other visual and audio materials” (Alex Watson.) This specific area of the library is made up of important collections of Mississippian from the past generations. In this area there are cases that display different areas of blues, important folks from Mississippi, creative artwork displayed on the walls and many more great opportunities to explore. You can visit this area of the library from eight to five Monday through Friday before the doors are locked. The University Of Mississippi takes great pride in the archives and special collection area of the library they are always looking for new photography materials to display in the counters. 

The All Nighter Life Saver

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Everyone has stayed up all night writing a paper, and with everything going on, forgotten their works cited page. The fact is that citing sources is difficult, and using an Internet citation machine can only lead to more obstacles.

“It’s a garbage in, garbage out type of application. If you get your information wrong, it’s going to give you the wrong citation.” Dr. Ruth Mirtz, Education Reference Librarian and Assistant Professor said. However, the JD Williams Library provides students the ultimate remedy for their citation woes. 

RefWorks is an online research management and writing tool integrated with your myolemiss account allowing you to keep your references organized all on one page. Here you can view and share your documents, search for new documents, and create a full bibliography. 

 

So next time you need to stay up all night to write a paper, get organized and cite your sources with RefWorks.

Crank Out the Books

 

The University of Mississippi J D. Williams library originally started out as six floors when it was built. Well, as the University became larger and technology became more advanced, the library renovated. In order to add air conditioning, running water, bathrooms, etc. They had to down size the library to three floors. This eliminated the valuable space for books and references. The Solution? Shelf cranks.

What would the library be without them? Todd Bowen a graduate student assistant with the reference department responded to this question.

 

“Well, the library would either have to be much larger, or we would just have to get rid of a lot of books. The bookshelf cranks help keep the size down because usually not every aisle of books is needed for immediate access.”

So next time you use the crank to find a book, don’t forget without that crank, you may not have had that book.

New and Improved

The J.D. Williams Library is getting a much needed facelift.  Stan Whitehorn, the Operations Manager, refers to these improvements as "Phase two". The room around the corner of the print station currently provides minimal study space and only 12 computers. The new renovations expected to be complete by September, will provide three glassed in group work areas accommodating at least five students each,  at least double the amount of computers that are currently provided, and 12 chairs for reading.  These chairs will be located along the wall beneath the large windows providing ample natural light.  In addition another printing station will be provided in this area. 

When discussing "Phase two" with Whithorn he said, "We've done several surveys of patrons and the three things of high demand are more computers, group work areas, and study space. With the renovations we are doing we will provide students with all three." 

If you are a current student or a upcoming freshman, take advantage of the renovations provided at the J.D. Williams library.

The Secrets Behind Baxter

          When standing at line in Starbucks, many students look left toward an empty glass room called “The Baxter Room” as they wait. But what is this room? The Baxter Room was named after Herman Baxter, and Ole Miss Alumni who died in action as an aviator during World War II. During his time at school from 1939 to 1943, Baxter was an honor roll student, a member of the Hermean Literary Society, Omicron Delta Kappa Fraternity, and ROTC. He also served as a Cadet Captain and President of ASB.

After his untimely death, his parents donated his awards, and the Baxter Room was created. In this room is a case consisting of pictures and memorabilia, leaving his legacy at Ole Miss forever.

Now, “its primary purpose is it’s the place of current periodic and has turned into a rather large student study area,” says Stan Whitehorn, head of access services/operations manager.

How About Some Movie-cation?

How About Some Movie-cation?

Did you know the library has a media collection where students can check out movies. In a corner of the first floor computer room is what we drama craving, thrill loving, movie connoisseurs would call paradise.

The collection of donated movies include both educational and entertainment films ranging from Hollywood blockbusters, to independent works, to Bollywood productions from India. Reference librarian Alex Watson said the movies could also be used for research and to learn more about our school.

“Students would be most likely to use the collection as a historical reference by watching recordings of old university events, which forms a small portion of the overall collection, or by watching the more common documentaries,” said Watson.

So, grab a movie and add some excitement to your next assignment.

Nothing Sad About the Blues Archive

Mississippi has many and great things to offer about its history, but one thing that we take pride in is our Blues music. At the University of Mississippi, has one of the few Blues archives offered in an academic institution in the country. Any one who is interested in researching more about the Blues culture should visit the Blues Archive Room.

Did you know the J.D. Williams Library features a wide range of Blues singers and has over 70,000 audio recordings?  Some of these audio recordings are the original version and where donated personally by the artist.

The Blues archive has display cabinets that the archive staff change through out the semester.

The archive also offer many wall displays. 

When asked what makes this room special, the Blues Archive Curator, Greg Johnson, states, "The Blues archive has a unique collection and very rare items. Some of which only the University of Mississippi's archive has."   If people have any interest in Blues music, this is the place go!

The Blues Archive is a great place to start learning about Blues music history!

Read To Me

These days’ students have options when doing research or studying. A good resource that some may not take advantage of is the library. Often, research requires reading through an abundance of materials, a daunting, time-consuming task, could there be an easier way? Well, the Ole Miss Library’s database has a talking feature on several articles. There are adjustable settings for this- such as, language, accent, and download. Unfortunately, a lot of students don’t know about it, 

“We haven't heard from many student who use that feature. It's fairly new, so many of our users might not know about it” (anonymous Librarian). 

The advantages to using this may include 

“[help] for sight-impaired students and students who prefer to listen rather than read (or [like to] listen as they follow along with the text).” 

The Ole Miss Library is full of things to help students, get to know your library and take advantage of the assistance it offers.

Special appreciation for all the past chancellors of Ole Miss

As entering the main doors of the JT Williams library, have you ever noticed 12 big paintings of all the Ole Miss chancellors? Librarian Stan Whitehorn was nice enough to share his time and tell me all about them. The paintings used to be on display in the Lycium, but they were recently moved to the library. Under each painting is a short biography about each man. Most of the paintings are done based off a photograph of the chancellor because they were made several years after most of them were already retired. The artwork adds interesting facts about Ole Miss's history to our flawless state of the art JT Williams Library.