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Welcome back, faculty and instructors!

new teacher meets with librarians
A Professor Visiting with Librarians at the New Faculty Orientation Fair

Albertsons Library is excited to welcome back faculty and instructors to the campus community! We have lots of updates regarding our instruction resources. Here’s some “need-to-know” items to keep in mind as you get settled.

Persistent URLs – How to use them and why they are important

  • We provide access to a wealth of online content for your courses. Unlike the additional cost that comes with course packs and textbooks, students are already paying for access to our materials through their tuition. Use our links in your Canvas Course Shell to point students directly to online resources, including articles, eBooks, and streaming music and films.
  • It’s better to link-out to online content: stay on the safe side of copyright law.
  • Our licensed resources are often more accessible than a scanned, uploaded, or downloaded .pdf.
  • Each time a student clicks a library link shared through your course, it counts as a use for that specific online resource. This helps the library determine the relevance of our online resources. Usage stats are tied to our subscription renewals.

What’s New in the Library

  • ASK Area – central point of service; patrons receive access, support, and knowledge
  • Boise State has made a significant agreement with the American Chemical Society. The Read + Publish deal enables authors to choose open access in any ACS journal if the article is accepted. It also provides the opportunity for the article publishing charges (APCs) to be paid by the author’s funder or institution (and they are discounted to $3,000).
  • Family Study Room – beautifully-appointed study room, stocked with toys and books; parenting-students may reserve online to use with their kids
  • The library is co-hosting a virtual Brown Bag session with Learning Technology Solutions on Wednesday, September 21 at noon. The workshop will cover: getting started with Pressbooks, and how to use Pressbooks for OER, and non-OER, content and show and tell, and Q & A

Library Liaisons – How they support you and your students

  • In-person and virtual synchronous instruction
  • Asynchronous instruction delivered through instructional materials you create in Canvas modules, guides, videos, etc.
  • Individual and additional guidance for students
  • Scheduled instruction to prepare students for research projects in your course
  • Integrating literacy-skill information into your curriculum

Additional Resources and Support

  • Connect to hundreds of online resources, including eBooks (like Project Muse) and databases
  • Course reserves
  • Google Meet-a-Librarian (watch for updated hours), visit in-person at the A.S.K. area, use online chat
  • Schedule a consultation to learn how to locate, use, and incorporate open educational resources
  • Interlibrary loan
  • MakerLab – technology to incorporate “making’ into your curriculum
  • Scholarly Communication and Data Management – manages ScholarWorks, our institutional repository of scholarly output by the Boise State community, provides support for research data management, and advises on topics related to publishing and copyright
  • Special Collections and Archives – your resource for researching university and Idaho history, and collections pertaining to multiple campus-wide disciplines
  • State-of-the art technology, like the tools in our video production suite (including a lightboard), for creating instruction materials

Sarah Waddell, Marketing and Communication Specialist