Happy Holidays!

Good luck to all of you on your final projects and exams.

Have a safe and happy holiday season!

New Student E-mail System Coming

Frustrated with the current school e-mail system? Relax, coming in late January is a new Outlook-based e-mail system for students. If you would like more information about it, including information about sneak preview sessions, check out http://matcmadison.edu/email-training

Say Cheese

Wednesday, November 17 was SayCheese Day in libraries across the state of Wisconsin. Pictures were taken of library patrons and shared. Here is a picture from our West Campus Library:

Food for Fines

Do you have an overdue fine you'd like to take care of and at the same time do something good for the community? The Madison College Libraries have begun the "Food for Fines" service which allows a patron to knock off $2 for every non-perishable food item donated from their fine. The donated food goes to local food pantries. The donations can be used for reducing fines, but not for paying for damaged or lost material. Ask at any of the Madison College Libraries if you need more information.

Halloween Trivia Contest Winner!

Thanks to everyone that participated in the Madison College West Library Halloween Trivia Contest.

We took the entries that correctly answered all the questions, threw them in a hat, and picked a winner. The winning entry drawn belonged to Mary Ann Wildcat. She wins a trick-or-treat bag full of candy and other prizes. Congratulations Mary Ann!

New Magazines

Instructor Martha Lester-Mittenzwei has kindly donated the following business and insurance magazine titles to the West Campus Library:

• Entrepreneur


• Fast Company


• Inc


• LOMA Resource


• Reinsurance


• Rough Notes


• SI Review


• Wisconsin Professional Agent

Current issues can be viewed in the library and older issues can be checked out.

Halloween Trivia Contest

Want a chance to win a trick-or-treat bag full of semi-decent prizes? Pick up a Madison College West Library Halloween Trivia Contest sheet at the West Madison Library Circulation Desk, answer the four easy questions, and drop it off at the same spot by noon on Friday, October 29. The winner will be notified by e-mail. In the likely event of a tie score, a winner will be determined by random draw. Good luck!

Quiet Study Room at night

If you're looking for a nice, quiet atmosphere to study at night, check out our Quiet Study Room. We're open until 7:00pm M-Th and until 4:30 on Friday.

Madison College Libraries on Facebook and Twitter

Use Facebook or Twitter? The Madison College Libraries have a presence on both.

http://www.facebook.com/MadisonCollegeLibraries

http://twitter.com/madcollegelib

Why would you want to check out our pages? Find out about current happenings in the library, new tools and databases to help you with your research, library contests (often with prizes), and more.

Those darn classes

If you've been in the West Library the last couple of weeks, you may have noticed that a few times the computer lab in the library was closed for classes receiving library instruction. We realize this can be frustrating if you're trying to print out a paper right before class or need to use them for any other reason. While this situation may occur from time to time, it will happen less frequently after this week. Thanks for your patience with this issue.

Student Assistants

So far we have just one student assistant (albeit a highly talented and capable one) working for us at the West Library. If you are interested in a student assistant postion, and in particular are able to work some late-morning hours, please stop by our desk to pick up an application.

Newspapers

We finally have newspapers. We've started with our daily and Sunday subscription to the Wisconsin State Journal, so look for that when you're in the library. In addition to the WSJ, we will also get the Middleton Times-Tribune and Verona Press. You can also look for the weekly Isthmus and the Madison College newspaper The Clarion in our library.

Great, you say, you've got newspapers, so where are the magazines? Well, again we are a work in progress, and we won't have physical magazines until January. In the meantime, remember you can get to full-text articles through the library's subscription databases at http://libguides.matcmadison.edu/FindArticles.

Speaking of news, yours truly will try to be better at posting more frequently so this blog has more of a news feel than a history book feel.

Getting there, a little at a time

Well, we're a couple of weeks into the semester and it's gone by like a blur. I promise to be better about posting more often. We're not a complete library yet, but we're getting there a little bit at a time. We've got a new copier, some more circulating and reserve books, some more supplies, and a new student worker. There's still a lot more to come and we'd love to hear from you about any suggestions you have for the library at http://matcmadison.edu/LibWestForm

Welcome!

Hello, my name is Mark, and I'm the librarian for the new Madison College West Library opening in the Fall 2010 Semester. I've been working at Madison College since 1992, and I'm looking forward to the challenge and opportunity of starting a library from scratch. I'm also looking forward to having windows!

The goals of West (Library) Side Story will be to keep you informed of news and happenings at the library as well as to chronicle the history of the library. The construction phase picture to the right is from August 2010.