Faculty Guide  

Dear Faculty:

Welcome to your guide to Blount Library! We hope that you and your students will take full advantage of our digital, print and instructional resources.

Collections and Collection Development

The library catalog cites over 100,000 print titles and 50,000 e-books with links to full text. Licensed e-book collections not represented in our catalog are Credo Reference, Oxford Reference Online, APA PsycBooks, and Ebrary Academic, for total holdings of roughly 100,000 print and 100,000 electronic book titles.

The Library has a strong tradition of faculty selection for academic collections. Please submit book requests through Choice Reviews Online, on our web request form, by email to your liaison librarian, or by sending annotated catalogs and reviews in campus mail.

As a member of the Virtual Library of Virginia (a consortium of state-assisted and independent colleges and universities) and OCLC, Averett receives deep discounts and some state funding for scholarly database licensing, enabling us to offer 126 research databases in all subject areas. To facilitate access to full text in 40,000 licensed journals, we offer a journal title search and OpenURL services. Beyond subscription resources, we have implemented NISO OpenURL services for Google Scholar and will do so this soon for PubMed. OpenURL's allow readers to link from a database citation to full text, or, where Averett does not license the full text, to a populated interlibrary loan request.

In 2011-2012, Averett readers downloaded over 85,000 articles and numerical reports from subscription sources. They borrowed over 4,400 print books and media, and downloaded 12,212 segments from electronic books. Interlibrary loan staff provided 646 items to Averett borrowers, and 640 loans to other libraries.

We deliver ILL articles to your desktop whenever vendor agreements permit loaning an electronic copy.

Access

When you click on subscription resources, such as Academic Search Complete or The Chronicle of Higher Education when not on the Danville campus network, the library proxy server will prompt you for a web services (Moodle) login. To borrow print items, you have a libary account keyed to your ID with the Registrar. Please contact aclib@averett.edu or 800-543-9440 (791-5692) with any questions regarding library access. 

Instruction

We look forward to consulting with your students on library and information research skills and projects.

• Please introduce your classes to the Library Home Guide and "Learn" tab resources.
• Assign selected worksheets and exercises from our User Guide or subject based tutorials. Business, Education, and Sociology tutorials are currently available.
• Contact a liaison librarian to schedule instruction in your classroom or at Blount Library. The library computer lab has 14 student workstations. We can accommodate 10-15 guests in reception areas on the main and second floors.
  
• Encourage students to consult the library's Subject Research Guides when seeking pertinent and credible sources for assignments and research projects. 
  
• Ask us about including durable links to licensed articles in your Moodle courses or electronic syllabi. We will be happy to add an electronic reserves tab to the library research guide for your discipline, sparing you the trouble and worry of scanning and copyright compliance.
  

In 2011-2012, 798 Averett students participated in 55 library orientation sessions. Library faculty answered 7,536 reference questions, 4,411 of which were consultations lasting 20 minutes or more.

Coffee Talks

New for 2012-13, librarians offer weekly Coffee Talks on research topics and resources, for example the ARTstor Digital Library, Literature Online, American History in Video, and Children's and Young Adult Literature. Coffee Talks are informal 20-minute overviews followed by discussion. Coffee, tea, cider and scones are provided courtesy of the Averett Library Friends. We will announce topics a few days in advance. Any member of the Averett community is welcome to host a scheduled or impromtu Coffee Talk with access to a portable LED TV and PC laptop. Students, faculty, staff and Library Friends are welcome to attend.

In fall semester we found that 3 P.M., Monday - Thursday, with the occaisional evening session works best for scheduling Coffee Talks.  See our Coffee Talk page for details and archived presentations. When requested Coffee Talks are available via Adobe Connect. Remote participants should have headsets. Turning on your computer's web cam is optional!

Following is a sampling of library resources and tools -- librarians will be happy to visit your office to demonstrate and answer questions:

1. Subject Research Guides and Library Home guide, including New Books: 
    Library faculty have developed 35 research guides to date. We welcome suggestions for enhancing them to meet your expectations for course assignments and student research. We are eager to adopt web 2.0 technologies enabled by Springshare CampusGuides, including library course guides that faculty can co-edit, boxes for podcasts and multimedia, polls, surveys, Libchat, and formulated Google Scholar and patent searches. 

2. Choice Reviews Online
    Please register for a free account and create your profile to retrieve monthly book and media reviews by discipline, level, and strength of Choice recommendation. If you prefer not to access Choice Online each month, you can request monthly emails of new reviews in your profile OR ask your liaison to print or e-mail them for you.
    To order books and media or add a digital source to a research guide, simply forward Choice citations to your liaison librarian by email or campus mail.

3.  Book/Media Request Form for citations not found in Choice Online.

    NOTE: Averett librarians welcome book and media requests in any legible format, via email, phone, campus mail, or in person. Feel free to mark a catalog or write on the back of an envelope and forward citations to your liaison librarian. You can also email citations to us from Amazon.com. Please include an ISBN if available.

4. Electronic Reserves, successfully piloted by Dr. Hayes in 2011-12. If you have print articles on Course Reserves or links to licensed content online, library staff will be happy to scan and link them from a password protected site where your students can enjoy online access to required readings.  

5. Library User Guide.

Please contact elaine.day@averett.edu or your liaison librarian with questions and suggestions:

Best wishes for a happy and productive semester!

Elaine

Elaine Day, Director
Averett University Library
http://discover.averett.edu  

Art, Literature
Patrick Wasley, Archivist. M.A., English; M.S., American Studies; M.S. Information Science; Ph.D., English. 791-5692; pwasley@averett.edu

Biological and Physical Sciences, Health Sciences
Elaine Day, Library Director and Systems Librarian. B.A., Anthropology; M.L.S. 791-5696; eday@averett.edu

Communication Studies/Journalism
Jennifer Robinson, Technical Services Librarian. B.A., English; M.L.S. 791-5693; jrobinson@averett.edu

Music, Humanities
Jim Verdini, Reference and Access Services Librarian. M.A., Music History; M.L.S. 791-5694; james.verdini@averett.edu

Social Sciences, Business, Education, Mathematics, Computer Science, Aeronautics
Kevin Harden, Reference and Distance Learning Librarian. B.A., Social Science; M.L.S. 791-5692; 800-543-9440. kharden@averett.edu

Mission: The library advances the curriculum, research, and reading interests of Averett students with scholarly and professional sources, reference consultations, and instruction.

Goal 1. Library resources support reading and student research. (And faculty research, within limits of the budget!) 

Goal 2. Library resources are accessible and convenient to use.

Goal 3. Students discover, evaluate and cite credible sources. Averett graduates are able to:

✓define and articulate a topic or problem;
✓discover and retrieve reliable information from a variety of sources;
✓critically evaluate this literature (or data) in the context of the topic;
✓modify searches to seek additional sources;
✓organize, synthesize, and apply knowledge gained to accomplish a specific purpose;
✓communicate results effectively and ethically in an academic or professional setting.

Library Committee Outcomes, March 12, 2013

What is the purpose of the Library Committee?

The committee originally met to approve book allocations for academic departments. After 2005, Averett and similar academic libraries dispensed with allocations by discipline and began supporting programs with demand-based funding. The committee now functions in an advisory/oversight role as deemed appropriate by its membership.

LIBRARY RESOURCES

Print books cataloged in 2011-2012 = 1,143 titles

How are books selected for the library?

Liaison librarians encourage faculty to create free Choice Online accounts and profile their subject interests for monthly email updates. Librarians profile disciplines and send new book, media and digital resource reviews on request. They welcome requests in any format: email, publisher’s catalog, web form (http://discover.averett.edu/faculty).

When academic departments do not request books, library faculty select titles of general interest in each discipline from Choice Outstanding Academic Titles and other review sources. 

New eBooks and Databases:

Springer Behavioral Sciences Collection: 82 eBooks licensed by Virginia independent colleges through the Virtual Library of Virginia (VIVA). Includes titles from 2005, plus Springer’s 2013 front list.

Oxford History of Western Music, by Richard Taruskin

The Cochrane Library (evidence-based health care)

CINALH Plus with Full Text (nursing journals with evidence-based care sheets)

Ovid Nursing and Allied Health

Under Consideration: JSTOR Arts and Sciences I, OR Arts and Sciences II and II:

Arts and Sciences I

http://about.jstor.org/content/arts-sciences-i#tab-title-list 

What will we gain? overlap analysis of JSTOR I content unique to Averett

   (Highlighted journals remain active.)

Arts and Sciences II

http://about.jstor.org/content/arts-sciences-ii#tab-title-list 

What will we gain? overlap analysis of JSTOR II content unique to Averett

Arts and Sciences III

http://about.jstor.org/content/arts-sciences-iii#tab-title-list 

What will we gain? overlap analysis of JSTOR III content unique to Averett

ACCESS to RESOURCES

Students click through multiple layers to find recommended databases.

The director will ask library faculty to streamline subject guides, consolidating pages and tabs for easier access to research databases.

By December 2014, the library will integrate book, article, media, and open access discovery on OCLC WorldCat.org with WorldShare Management Services (WMS). This video relates the WMS experience of a library similar to Averett’s: Mount Mercy University.

Students want better access to eBooks now.

For recent eBook collections (as for articles) they must search each database separately (Credo, Ebrary, Oxford Reference, PsycBooks, Springer Behavioral Sciences). Current students should not have to wait until late 2014 for integrated access to print and eBooks. The library will import OCLC collections sets to the local catalog in Spring/Summer 2013. (eBooks added through 2005 were acquired from an OCLC affiliate and cataloged immediately. OCLC now offers MARC records compatible with Averett’s integrated library system for collections from thousands of vendors.) 

Do the eBooks work with Kindles?

Vendors are working to make academic books compatible with e-book readers (Kindle, tablet, etc.) in addition to desktop access. The library will test these options and use portability as a criterion for future licensing.

INSTRUCTION

What is the library’s connection to SmartThinking?

Librarians participated with GPS and Student Success in selection of a vendor after a decision was made to outsource tutoring for GPS programs. AU librarians have no connection to SmartThinking systems or tutors. We share concerns that contract academic services bypass Averett library resources.

The library will strengthen ties and information sharing with GPS regional directors. GPS liaison librarian, Kevin Harden will promote library consultations with students from orientation through integration project or final course.

For traditional students, Jennifer Robinson will offer to visit each section of IDS 101 for a library overview with hands-on research exercise.

Librarians offer several tutorials that can be embedded in Moodle courses. Currently available from the library (in addition to 35 subject research guides):

•             General orientation
•             GPS orientation
•             Business
•             Education
•             Sociology/Criminal Justice

            http://discover.averett.edu/learn

The library has offered weekly Coffee Talks since Summer 2012, including several by Averett colleagues and visitors (http://discover.averett.edu/coffeetalk). Presentations or references are archived whenever possible. The library will offer remote access to GPS regions via Adobe Connect or other suitable software when bandwidth issues are resolved.

PEER/ASPIRANT GROUP COMPARISONS (NCES Academic Libraries Survey)

Averett and 7 Peer Institutions (XLS)

Averett and 7 Aspirant Institutions (XLS)

OTHER BUSINESS

Librarians are reviewing citation managers: Zotero and Easybib.com.