Online Sign-up: Student Conferences with a Librarian

Have you assigned a research paper in a course this semester? Encourage your students to sign up
for a short consultation with a Research & Instruction Librarian in order to ensure they are finding the best sources for their research.

We will piloting the online sign up for the week of Nov 16-20th.


Students can sign up for a short appointment here:

https://mcintyrelibrary.youcanbook.me


All appointments will be with a librarian in the Library's new first floor Research Center.

Google Smarter

We in the library tend to focus on strategies for searching library databases, but Google is such a

widely used resource we would be remiss to ignore its potential.

And there can be a lot more to Google searching than slapping in a few keywords and hitting enter. There are search tools and search words that can help narrow and refine your search.  Most of them also work to make Google Scholar a more manageable search experience.  For more guidance we have a two page cheat sheet on Advanced Googling (pdf).

Spotlight on student research: POLS 328

Students in POLS 328: Islam and Politics with Assistant Professor Eunsook Jung, recently visited the library to work with Research & Instruction Librarian Robin Miller. For a group research project and presentation about a contemporary political issue in the Islamic world, students were gathering peer reviewed articles, news sources, and books to integrate into their research.  Student topics included the Arab Spring in Egypt and Tunisia, the Arab-Israeli conflict, and Iran

Dr. Jung says she schedules a library instruction session with a librarian because, “The library instruction class helps students to locate reliable, relevant, and high quality sources for their projects. It definitely improves the quality of student projects.” Students spent their time in the library learning how to navigate library resources, to distinguish between scholarly sources and newspaper articles, and to find books from both UW-Eau Claire and other libraries in the UW System.

Would you like to schedule a library research session for your class? Follow this link [http://www.uwec.edu/Library/reference/index.htm] to make a request and a library faculty member will follow up with you.

Proxy Patrons & Deliver to My Department

The library offers two services for instructors to access print materials more conveniently.  

The first, Proxy Patrons, allows faculty to select up to two students who are authorized to check out library materials under their staff account.  Once a request is submitted and processed, the students can pick up Interlibrary Loans, Universal Borrowing, or library items using their student IDs, while the items are charged to the staff account to which they are proxies.  The form can be found on the McIntyre Library page on Services for Faculty and Staff (http://www.uwec.edu/Library/services/infofaculty.htm) under “Proxy Authorization Request”.

The second is Deliver to My Department.  When requesting Universal Borrowing items or items in McIntyre Library, staff can select “Deliver to My Department” as a pickup location.  When those items are processed, library staff will prepare them and deliver them to the requester’s department office.  Delivered items can also be requested to be picked up from your department mail room.  Those requests can be found under “Deliver It!” on our Circulation Services website (http://www.uwec.edu/Library/circ/circServices.htm)

For further information on Proxy Patron requests or book delivery, please contact the circulation staff.

Quick -Scanning Station

The library has a versatile, quick-scanning station on the first floor directly opposite the Reference Desk. The KIC Station offers two ways to scan books, articles, photos and more: a 17” x 12” flatbed scanner that can scan two pages of a book or journal at once, and an automatic document feed (ADF) scanner, which will scan one and two sided documents quickly and easily.

Scans can be saved as PDF or these file formats:

• searchable PDF
• rich text format (RTF) for editing
• text-to-speech audio file (MP3)

Images can be scanned and saved in both JPG and PNG formats, at resolutions ranging from 100 dpi (web quality) to 600 dpi. Scans can be saved as to a flash drive or sent via email.

The touch screen interface is easy to use. And you can modify the images – margins, rotation, file format, etc. – as you go, quickly and easily. If you have questions or need assistance, just ask. 

Ch-ch-changes: Guides & Catalog System

Two of the systems we rely on at McIntyre are going through major changes over break and at the beginning of the semester: LibGuides, our library guide platform that also includes our lists of databases, and our catalog system which pairs with Library Search for access to both our collection and those of other UW libraries through Universal Borrowing.  LibGuides has undergone a major upgrade, making it more versatile - it will look a little different and have a few new features.  The catalog switchover, from Voyager to Alma, is a much bigger change: all the libraries in the UW System are working to make it as seamless as possible. Check the library home page for updates!

Students chat with the library

We've noticed a trend: students are choosing the chat option more often when they have research questions. Some faculty make a practice of telling students who are struggling with research to start with our chat, with a pretty high rate of follow-through.

This is a great opportunity to get students comfortable with using the library and our services. If the question is too big or complex, we often can schedule a research consultation right there. So please don't hesitate to recommend our chat to your students. It's right on the home page, in the upper right corner.

Sign up for Films on Demand Alerts

You can now receive alerts on new videos in specific subject areas that have been added to Films on Demand.   Sign up instructions.

Budget reduction and the library

As part of the University's structural budget reduction plan, McIntyre Library has been asked to cut 3.25% of our base budget. In order to protect the resources on which faculty and students depend, we will not be filling an open faculty position. This will account for 60% of the needed cuts and will impact some of the support services we provide. Even this, though, does not completely address the expanse of our charge. Over the next six months we will be looking at usage and overlap data for our electronic databases. Rest assured, we will do everything possible to minimize the impact on our students.

Survey: Literature Review workshops for students?

We are considering developing workshops on conducting literature reviews for students.  We think that students working on faculty/student research, future graduate students, and Capstone students might all benefit from such a workshop.  

Before we get started planning these workshops, we'd like to find out what you think would work best for your students.  Please take our short survey!