Hyde Highlights

Not Your Dad's Library!

2011-10-19T18:48:11Z

In conjunction with Teen Read Week this year, we are also celebrating the 40^th anniversary of the Hyde Library at MUS. As we celebrate reading with contests, prizes, & sweet treats, we also have displays reflecting our 40 year history and an "old school" photo identification contest. We're having a great week and lots of fun in the Hyde Library!

Upper School Battle of the Books

The cookie rush! Thanks to our mom volunteers for their delicious cookies.

Cookies, books, & friends make a great combination:

Celebrating 40 years of library excellence:

We are proud of our library's heritage and history as we stay current with the latest library technology and resources. We still have our original, extensive book collection because we are fortunate in having a free-standing library building which provides adequate room for a strong collection. We routinely remove outdated and worn materials, but retain the relevant, useful and valuable items in our collection regardless of their age. At the same time, our collection is constantly growing with the addition of the best new resources, ranging from outstanding databases for research to e-books and e-readers to the newest releases of popular young adult fiction titles. The Hyde Library continues to be a vital hub of the campus and to provide the best materials for academic growth and success.

MUS student in Hyde Library ca. 1971:

Come see our updated new look!

2011-08-18T19:17:38Z

Welcome back to a new school year! Our summer renovation is now complete and the results are great! We hope you will like the changes and that the library will be a more inviting place for you to read, research and study.

E-Readers Now Available!

2011-03-24T18:05:52Z

The Hyde Library has jumped into the world of e-readers!

We now have two Nooks and two Sony Readers available for students and staff to check out. The e-readers can be used on campus during the school day or checked out for a week. Students need a parent's signed permission to check an e-reader out for a week, but it's not necessary for checkout during the school day. The form is available in the library and online here.

Why did we get e-readers?

Ebooks are becoming more common and are more readily available than they were a couple of years ago. The Hyde Library has provided access to academic ebooks for our students and staff to read from any computer for several years. As a matter of fact, we have access to nearly 39,000 ebooks through NetLibrary. However, we haven't provided access to popular fiction in ebook format until now and it's more convenient to read a fiction title on a portable e-reader than on a computer. MUS students are reading more and more current, popular fiction -- either for book clubs or on their own -- and we want to meet the demand for those books in both ebook and physical formats.

What books will be loaded on the e-readers?

Right now, we are loading book club selections on the e-readers because we need multiple copies of those books immediately. However, not all books are available in ebook format and there is one current book club selection that we can't get in ebook format for an e-reader. Students and staff are welcome to suggest other titles for the e-readers and there is a request form available at the Welcome Desk. Please don't hesitate to talk to us about books you would like to have available on an e-reader.

Why no Kindles?

We have nothing against Kindles, but right now, it's difficult for libraries to manage ebook circulation on Kindles. Technology business models are changing rapidly, so we might be able to work with Kindles in the future.

Will physical books in our library go away?

We don't anticipate that happening anytime soon, if ever. There are definite advantages to both physical and electronic book formats and many good reasons for having both. Some people love using technology and love the advantages of ebooks and e-readers. Other people love the tactile sensations of holding a physical book and turning real pages instead of virtual ones. They love the weight of a physical book and the smell of paper and binding. Some people just love books, physical or electronic. At the Hyde Library, we will continue to have both.

Teen Read Week 2010

2010-10-22T16:05:37Z

We've been enjoying Teen Read Week all week in the library! Our volunteer moms have provided us with delicious baked goods and we've been giving out small prizes all week. On Monday, we'll announce the winners of our "Books with Beat" music trivia quiz as well as our prize drawings for upper and lower school. The lucky winners will receive gift cards from iTunes or Starbucks! Listen to announcements to find out if you're a winner!

Books for Dudes

2010-09-13T14:03:01Z

"This completely awesome book's awesomeness is so awesomely awesome that it's difficult to get across just how awesome it is."

Your English teacher would never let you get away with a sentence like this, but doesn't it make you want to pick up the book and see if it really is so awesome?

The book is Packing for Mars by Mary Roach.

Here is the entire review:

Library Journal Review

This completely awesome book's awesomeness is so awesomely awesome that it's difficult to get across just how awesome it is. It's a fun, intelligent, and engrossing read, something that a dude can get excited about. As a bonus, it considers sex in space, something I think only Kim Stanley Robinson and Barbarella have done. Space work-as in orbiting Earth, going to the moon, or getting to Mars-is quite romantic in the abstract. Think of relaxed, competent Bruce Dern in Silent Running or George Clooney in Solaris. In reality, space stuff is smelly, hot, and gross. Roach insightfully researches and chronicles all sorts of topics, like what happens when you sneeze in a space suit or how NASA uses cadavers to test how crashes affect the body. Roach's greatest plus is how quickly she gets to the proverbial donkey punch on the varying experiments. For example, when NASA tested astronauts' ability to withstand a 20-day mission, they put men close together in a room with no bathing. They found that after about day eight, astronauts' noses sort of stopped working-it went beyond "smelly." Roach tells readers why: B.O. combines with "bodily emanations that have built up on the skin: grease, sweat, and scurf, to be specific." Scurf? It's shed skin. Nice! (See also LJ's review in the July issue, posting 7/15/10.)-Douglas Lord, "Books for Dudes," BookSmack! 7/1/10 Copyright 2010 Reed Business Information. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Welcome back to school and to the Hyde Library!

2010-08-18T13:53:30Z

All of us on the library staff are happy to see everyone back on campus! Please come by and see what's new in the library. We are putting new books out every day and we have made more improvements to our welcome desk. Also, student art work is being hung in the foyer this week. Can you identify all the portraits? See who you recognize!

April is National Poetry Month

2010-04-05T17:33:38Z

Stop by our interactive poetry display during the month of April and add your poetic creations to our magnetic board!

Also, here's a link to 30 poets/30 days, a cool blog featuring a previously unpublished poem each day of the month.

Yes, April can be the cruelest month when term papers are due!

How much time do you spend reading?

2010-03-16T16:01:53Z

We know you spend a lot of time reading -- reading for class assignments, picking up the sports section of the newspaper, keeping up with characters in your favorite book series, reading magazines, reading online, etc. We know many of you are avid readers and read several books simultaneously. When we found out that Parents Magazine and the International Reading Association were sponsoring a reading contest, we couldn't resist signing MUS up to participate. All you have to do is keep track of the time you spend reading until May 31, for school and for your personal enjoyment, and tell your parents so they can log in your minutes. Every time you are logged in for 60 minutes of reading, your name goes into a drawing for Barnes & Noble gift cards. If MUS wins the entire contest, we will receive $5,000 for our library. Ask your parents to sign up you up and log in your hours at this link. Let's find out how much time you really do spend reading. We're guessing it will be an impressive number!

Warm holiday wishes from the Hyde Library staff

2009-12-17T16:39:48Z

The Library staff is celebrating the holiday season and sharing warm wishes for a successful exam week with our students. Every morning during exam week, students get a boost of energy from pastries, hot chocolate, and Dunkin' Donuts coffee served up before the exam by the library staff. Happy holidays to all!

Teen Read Week 2009

2009-10-20T17:01:56Z

Join us for food, prizes, and fun October 19-23!

Read Beyond Reality

Teen Read Week is off to a rousing start! Thanks to Mr. Reese for a very challenging Harry Potter trivia contest for upper school students and to all the MUS moms who donated cookies on Tuesday!

On Wednesday, Mr. Reese will hold another Harry Potter trivia contest for lower school students and there will be cupcakes for everyone.

There will be more prizes, contests, and candy all week, so be sure to stop by the library soon.

It's not just for students -- faculty and staff are welcome to join in the fun!

Celebrate Your Right to Choose... Banned Books Week is Sept. 27 - Oct. 3

2009-09-29T14:33:16Z

Stop by our Banned Books Week display at the front of our new welcome desk to see if some of your favorite books are in "jail" because they have been banned at some time in the U.S. It is often the most memorable and lasting books that are banned by people who want to control your access to ideas. Can you imagine not having the right to read a masterpiece such as To Kill A Mockingbird?

During the month of October, we have free access to the ebook edition of Burn This Book: PEN Writers Speak Out on the Power of the Word, edited by Toni Morrison.

"Published in conjunction with the PEN American Center, Burn This Book explores the meaning of censorship, and the power of literature to inform the way we see the world, and ourselves. Contributors including Toni Morrison, Salman Rushdie, Orhan Pamuk, David Grossman, Nadine Gordimer and other literary heavyweights, discuss the importance of writing from various views, both political and social. They illustrate the need for freedom of speech and human rights, and they emphasize the target writers become in a tyranny." (from publisher's description)

You can access this ebook beginning Oct. 1 through your NetLibrary account that you have created at school. Use the link below to log in and then click on the "ebook of the month" box. You can also create your NetLibrary account at this link, but you must create it on campus.

http://www.netlibrary.com/Login.aspx

Here's more interesting information on banned and challenged books:

This link takes you to a map of book bans and challenges in the U.S. from 2007-2009. Click on the blue balloons to read about a book banned or challenged in each location:

http://bannedbooksweek.org/Mapofbookcensorship.html

Here's a list of frequently banned or challenged classics:

http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/frequentlychallenged/challengedclassics/reasonsbanned/index.cfm

The 100 most frequently challenged books from 1990-2000 are listed here:

http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/frequentlychallenged/challengedbydecade/1990_2000.cfm

New Welcome Desk Is Ready!

2009-09-21T20:12:28Z

While you were patiently waiting...

Our installers were working hard!

Wow, what a change:

The first phase of our library renovation is now complete and functioning. We're all happy with the results!

The new school year brings big changes in the library

2009-08-17T13:33:34Z

The first phase of renovations for the venerable Joseph Hyde Library has now begun! A few weeks ago, our original circulation desk and work area was demolished to make room for a larger, more functional and friendly circulation desk. Our impressive new circulation desk will be installed in the next few weeks, so please excuse our temporary construction area.

The demolition:

All cleaned up and waiting for the new circulation desk to arrive any day!

The time has come to say good-bye to a relic of the past -- the obsolete card catalog:

Reading Recommendations from the Class of 2009

2009-06-30T17:25:24Z

Are you looking for something fun and entertaining to read this summer in your spare time?

The Class of 2009 came up with a list of their all-time favorite books. There are 99 books on the list in order of popularity, so you're sure to find something to match your interests here:

Seniors 99 Favorite Books 2009.doc