Tag Archives: university library

Technologies that Enhance the First Year Experience

Barnstar of One Year Diligence

From RUSA Update, By Lily Todonirova

Systems for Services and Discovery (RUSA Emerging Technologies Section) is organizing a panel session during the upcoming ALA Conference in Chicago. We are very excited for the sponsorship of Library H3lp and will be giving away 10 $30 Amazon giftcards to audience members. We hope you can join us!

The first years of college present many opportunities for libraries to make an impact on students’ development. Creative librarians in small and large academic institutions are employing technologies, such as library tours via mobile apps, digital collaboration tools, research suite services and tutorials, and innovative discovery tool technologies, among others. In this panel presentation, we will highlight three examples of ways libraries are using emerging technologies to enhance the first year experience of students. The speakers will be Michelle Bishop (SUNY Oswego), David Sharp (Carleton), and Sarah LeMire (Texas A&M University).

Technologies that Enhance the First Year Experience
When: Saturday, June 24, 1:00pm
Where: McCormick Place, W193

Hope to see you there!”

Librarian discovers rare page from medieval priests’ handbook

Books can hold all sorts of unexpected treasures, and this discovery is one of them!

At the University of Reading in England, special collections librarian Erica Delbecque discovered a page leaf that came “from a medieval priests’ handbook that had been printed by William Caxton, who introduced the printing press to England.” The paper had been “pasted into another book for the undignified purpose of reinforcing its spine.”

The page leaf is approximately 540 years old and was part of a handbook for priests written in Latin called  “Sarum Ordinal” or “Sarum Pye” which was used by priests for “instructions on what biblical readings to use and how to dress at Mass on different religious feast days for English saints.”

Read more about this discovery here!

We hit the road! CMLE visits St. John’s University Library

As part of our commitment to ensuring CMLE members have a lot of opportunities to meet each other in person, to chat about libraries, and to admire the libraries of other members, we are visiting CMLE libraries as a group. And this month we visited the newly renovated St John’s University Alcuin Library!

We’ve shared news of this renovation before, and many members have asked us about their progress. So this was a particularly fun visit, as none of us had seen the final product! (There is still more renovation underway; and should be finished before students start the Fall 2017 semester.)

Thank you to Kathy Parker and her wonderful staff for setting this up for us, and for being such gracious hosts!

We immediately felt welcomed to this lovely library with our own room, and a nice sign! Orville, the CMLE Office Bear, immediately relaxed in this environment, and enjoyed some of the snacks provided. Continue reading We hit the road! CMLE visits St. John’s University Library

Publishers Still Fighting to Bury Universities, Libraries in Fees for Making Fair Use of Academic Excerpts

Fair use logo
From the Electronic Frontier Foundation:

“On behalf of three national library associations, EFF today urged a federal appeals court for the second time to protect librarians’ and students’ rights to make fair use of excerpts from academic books and research.

Nearly a decade ago, three of the largest academic publishers in the world— backed by the Association of American Publishers (AAP) trade group— sued Georgia State University (GSU) for copyright infringement, insisting that GSU owed licensing fees for the use of excerpts of academic works in its electronic reserve system. Such systems are commonly used to help students save money; rather than forcing students to buy a whole book when they only need a short excerpt from it, professors will place the excerpts “on reserve” for students to access. GSU argued that posting excerpts in the e-reserve systems was a “fair use” of the material, thus not subject to licensing fees. GSU also changed its e-reserve policy to ensure its practices were consistent with a set of fair use best practices that were developed pursuant to a broad consensus among libraries and other stakeholders. The practices are widely used, and were even praised by the AAP itself.

(Read the rest of this article!)

Western Sydney University and ProQuest team up for free digital textbooks

Digital textbooks can encourage learning

Textbooks have long been a source of financial strain on college students, and can sometimes interfere with the accessibility of higher education as a whole.

To try and help with this issue, Western Sydney University and ProQuest teamed up to provide free digital textbooks to incoming university students through the University’s library. This article from No Shelf Required includes statements from both the University and ProQuest regarding the collaboration. Some of the goals for collaboration include making the cost of college more affordable, and textbooks more accessible, particularly to students with disabilities. The digital textbooks come from 60 academic publishers and can be accessed by students via Ebook Central which is ProQuest’s ebook platform. Continue reading Western Sydney University and ProQuest team up for free digital textbooks