Services for Faculty
The Library offers a variety of services to help teaching faculty. This page consolidates many of the Library services faculty should be aware of in one convenient place.
Library Instruction
If you are teaching a class with a research assignment requiring the use of the library, please consider the variety of ways the library offer instruction by consulting the following:
- Schedule a library instruction session using our online request form
- Library Instruction Describes ways that faculty can incorporate library instruction into their courses
- Plagiarism Workshop A 50 minute session that informs FYE students about policies and procedures at KSU as well as an interactive discussion of what constitutes plagiarism and how to avoid it
- Plagiarism School Unique program designed to reeducate students caught plagiarizing
- Teaching Area In addition, the library recently renovated its Teaching Area on the first floor. While mostly used when librarians give instructional sessions, faculty are encouraged to use the area. As an example of how the area can be used, faculty can teach their regular lesson in this area and reserve some time at the end of the class period to allow students to work on their research assignment in the library. The Teaching Area is fully equipped with a workstation, SmartBoard and overhead projector. The library has a few dozen mobile devices (netbooks and laptops) that may also be used in the Teaching Area. Finally, as an incentive for bringing a class to the library for a session in the Teaching Area, a laser printer is available that allows students to print for free during the time the class meets in the Teaching Area (all other times student must pay 5 cents per page to print). If you are interested in bringing your class to the library for instruction by a librarian, or if you just want to use the Teaching Area, please contact a librarian or use our online request form to schedule the session.
Collection Development
In order to create as balanced a collection of resources as possible, the library relies on faculty to make suggestions for titles to be added to our collections. Our Collections web page describes some of the resources available in the library. The following is a list of services that faculty might also be interested in:
- Firm Orders Faculty are encouraged to submit suggestions for additions to the library's collection. As long as titles meet the needs of students and the research areas related to programs taught on campus, the library will make every effort to add those titles to its collection. Because we operate in a statewide, cooperative environment, the library will also see if the suggested titles are generally available for borrowing from other Kent State libraries or other Ohio universities and colleges before purchasing for our local collection.
- Approval Plan The library maintains an approval plan with YBP Library Services. The profile for this plan generates 50-100 notifications of recent publications of interest to various selectors (mostly Stark Campus Faculty Program Coordinators) across a wide range of disciplines. The approval plan profile is available to review as well as instructions for selectors.
- GOBI Alerts If you have a particular research interest and would like to see new publications related to your subject area, the library can custom design an alert service using GOBI, our book vendor's (YBP Library Services) online ordering system, to send you regular emails when new publications appear that you might like to request as an addition to the library's collection.
- New Acquisitions New titles are added to the library's collection year-round. The library offers a Monthly Report as well as a Yearly Report to allow faculty to see what has been purchased by the library more recently and cumulatively in their department throughout the year.
- Faculty Publications Whenever a Stark Campus faculty member (or staff member) authors a work, the library obtains a signed copy for its archives and a second copy for general circulation.
- Tenured Faculty Selections Each year, newly tenured faculty are asked to select the title of a book that influenced them. The library acquires copies of the book and each faculty member provides a short description of how the book impacted their life.
Other Services
The following miscellaneous services are available for faculty:
- Reserves If faculty wish to place items for their students to review (but not required for purchase for the course) in the library, they can simply fill out a Reserve Request Form and submit that along with the items to the library. Reproductions may require copyright permission. When possible, the library links to existing online reserves resources on its Course Reserves web page.
- Videos The library has a collection of DVDs and older VHS tapes for use in classroom instruction. If you would like to reserve the use of a video (either for viewing during your class or by placing on reserve for students in your classes), please contact the library. If the library does not own a copy of a video you would like to show in class, please let the library know so that we can try to purchase a copy. Also, consult the OhioLINK Digital Resource Commons for online videos available for your use.
- Equipment Loans The library has several laptop computers and a few portable overhead projectors that faculty and staff may borrow for two week periods. Longer loan periods require permission from the dean's office. The library also has digital camcorders, digital and analog voice recorders, PC microphones, Bamboo tablets, etc. available for Stark Campus faculty to borrow. If you have a course project involving multimedia production, please consult with the library at the beginning of the semester to make sure the proper equipment is available when students need access. For a complete list of equipment available through the library, please consult our online guide to Technology Equipment.
- netbook Cart The library has a cart filled with netbook computers. It is available for delivery to any classroom on campus. With wireless availability and teacher workstations in all classrooms, any classroom can be used as an electronic classroom (computer lab). The cart needs to be reserved in advance. The Library encourages faculty to seek other alternatives before requesting the cart. Please review the guidelines before reserving the cart. Contact us for reservations.
- iPad Cart The library has a cart of 30 iPads that can be delivered to classrooms, much like the netbook cart. Please review the guidelines for using the iPad cart and Contact us for reservations
- iPads The library has 4 iPads. They can be checked out to faculty for up to two weeks to experiment with or otherwise use individually. The iPads need to be reserved in advance. Please review the guidelines before reserving individual iPads. Contact us for reservations.
- Proxy Services Faculty who wish to designate another individual to checkout materials on their behalf (a spouse or student research assistant, for example) can simply fill out the library's Proxy Borrowing form and submit it to the library.
- Open Access Kent State (OAKS) (Formerly, the Digital Commons @ Kent State University) is a research repository designed to assist faculty, researchers, and even students in both developing and promoting scholarship. We offer resources to help communicate your research interests to the world by uploading and linking to your published scholarly materials.