Castleton Calvin Coolidge Library

	Castleton State College Home Page > Library Homepage 178 Alumni Drive, Castleton, VT 05735 \| Library phone: 802-468-1256

Faculty Guide to

Library Resources and Services

Welcome to the Calvin Coolidge Library. This guide has been prepared in order to answer some of the frequently asked questions that new faculty have and to remind all faculty about the library’s services and collections. Please stop by the library to browse, to pursue your own research, and to talk with us about your courses and the support we can provide.

Faculty Research

Library staff are happy to assist faculty in their research projects, including reference services and interlibrary loan (ILL). You can submit your own interlibrary loan requests electronically for most materials, through the online catalog for books and with a request form on the library’s webpage for articles.

Circulation

Books

Although the student loan period is three weeks, faculty may borrow books for up to a full semester. The library will notify faculty if books they are holding for a full semester have been requested by another patron.

Periodicals

Periodicals do not circulate. Faculty may charge in-library photocopying costs to their departments.

Videos/DVDs

The library's videotape collection is housed at the circulation desk. DVDs are available to browse in the lobby area of the library. Videos and DVDs are all included in the online catalog, and lists are available from the library homepage. Most videos and DVDs circulate to all campus borrowers. The faculty limit is three videos, for a loan period of three days. If you’d like a specific video or DVD to be available for you for a specific date, you may put it on reserve. One DVD carrel and three combination video/DVD carrels are available for in-library viewing.

Reserve System

Library circulation staff oversees the maintenance and circulation of reserve materials. Faculty should bring items to be placed on reserve (library books, personal books, personal videos/DVDs, photocopies of articles, etc.) to the circulation desk, specifying:

• professor's name;
• course number and title;
• loan period (3 hour reserves are most common);
• whether material must be used in the library, or may be removed from the building;
• whether personal books should have a security tape installed.

Please bring material to the library at least one day in advance of expected student use. Materials are generally placed on reserve for one semester. Items are removed from the reserve list and returned to faculty or re-shelved at the end of each semester.

Please note that library reserves must comply with the Vermont State Colleges Copyright Policy.

Acquisitions and Collection Development

The CSC Library continually works to improve the size and quality of its collections and services. Faculty assistance is crucial to the maintenance and development of a collection that 1) supports curriculum and research needs, and 2) promotes the mission of the college. A collection development policy statement details the guidelines used in the acquisition of materials. Librarians also solicit faculty help in evaluating present collections and in assessing the merits of new products.

Books

Faculty suggestions for acquisition of specific book titles are welcomed. Most reasonable requests for purchase of in-print titles can be fulfilled. Contact library reference staff to submit suggestions or use the Make a Suggestion form on the library’s website.

Periodicals

The library welcomes faculty suggestions but regrets that not all requests can be honored immediately. Due to increasing subscription rates and a limited library budget, the acquisition of a new periodical title may mean that a current subscription must be dropped. This does not mean that the library will not consider new titles, only that selection of a serial title, a prospective longstanding commitment, requires substantially more consideration than acquisition of a single monograph. Further, there is a trend towards accessing periodical literature through aggregated databases offering at least some full text (e.g., Academic Search Premier, JSTOR Arts and Sciences I) rather than selecting new individual periodical titles.

Library Instruction

Instruction in the use of library resources and other information literacy skills is available for your students. Contact the Reference & Instruction Librarians to discuss the needs of your class, and arrange instructional sessions and materials, such as bibliographies and guides to research.

Examples of types of instruction offered include:

• general orientation to services and resources;
• instruction in subject area research methods;
• workshops and demonstrations of use of specific electronic resources; and
• workshops on evaluation of Internet sites.

Instruction sessions can be held in the library, in the Library Media Center Viewing Room, in classrooms, or in computer labs. Length of sessions can range from 10 or 15 minutes to 2 or more class periods.

You can come in and talk to us, fill out the online form to arrange an instruction session, email us, or contact your department’s liaison librarian to discuss how we can best work together to ensure that students acquire the research and critical thinking skills they need.

Reference & Instruction Librarian Department/Program Liaison Assignments:

These departments/programs are assigned to Charlotte Gerstein, phone: 468-6409

Art Communications

Economics Education

English Environmental Studies

Film Studies Geography

History Multidisciplinary Studies

Music Philosophy

Political Science Spanish

Theatre Arts Women's Studies

These departments/programs are assigned to Lauren Olewnik, phone: 468-6419

Biology Business Administration

Criminal Justice Environmental Science

Exercise Science Geology

Health Science Mathematics

Natural Science Nursing

Physical Education Psychology

Social Work Sociology

A graduation competency requirement in information literacy applies to all students entering the Vermont State Colleges in the Fall of 2005 or later. For more information on this standard and the programs and processes currently in place for its implementation, please see the Information Literacy Graduation Standard section on the library’s website.

Media Services

Media Services is located on the first floor of the Stafford Academic Center - SAC 150. Media Services and its staff provide audiovisual equipment and support for the campus. Services include scheduling, delivering and setting up equipment, lamination, video/audio duplication (within the guidelines of copyright law), instruction, digital editing and scanning.

The Library Media Center Viewing Room is in the southwest corner of the library, near the connection to Stafford. The LMCVR is used by classes for media-related activities, for library instruction and by individuals and groups for meetings and presentations. The room seats approximately 40 people. It is equipped with a data projector, PC computer, Document Camera, and DVD, Laser Disk and VHS players. It is connected to our C-band Satellite and with the college’s cable system.

Equipment

A variety of equipment is available, old and new, so please call if you need something that is not listed.

• Digital still and video cameras, 35 mm cameras
• Digital editing with iMovie
• Documents cameras (aka Elmo)
• Laser Disk, DVD, VHS players
• Slide, 16mm, opaque and overhead projectors
• Cassette, CD, record players
• PC and Mac laptops and data projectors for presentations

Reservations and Requests

In order to ensure availability, requests for equipment, services and/or use of the Library Media Center Viewing Room should be made well in advance. Call ext. 1361 (468-1361 from off campus) or e-mail mediactr@castleton.edu. A minimum of 48 hours notice is required for classroom deliveries.

Suggestions for Faculty Giving Assignments Requiring Library Use

We’d like to suggest some ways you can prepare assignments that promote a successful research experience.

Library considerations

• When creating an assignment, call the library to discuss the specifics. Librarians can suggest resources needed to complete it.
• Let the library reference desk know about an assignment, so that we are prepared for student questions, and so we know what students are looking for.
• Schedule an instruction session for your class. Don’t assume your students are experienced researchers. Many college students have had little experience with resources beyond web search engines. They may not be comfortable with using print sources or research databases.
• Try to avoid the frustration caused by giving an entire class an assignment which requires the use of only one or two specific resources. If this is unavoidable, place these items on reserve.
• If you need to place materials on reserve, please give the library sufficient time to process them.
• Encourage students to ask for assistance. We want students to have successful library experiences as they seek information.

Assignment details

• Give the details of the assignment in writing whenever possible. Oral instructions can become muddled and confused. Whenever possible, send a copy of the assignment to the reference desk, on paper or by email.
• Remind students that not everything is available online. You can require that they use sources in different formats: academic journals, newspapers, primary and secondary sources, print and online, videos, etc.
• Make sure your students know your policy on the use of online resources. Reading a full-text article from an online database such as Academic Search Premier is not the same as using web search engines such as Google. At the same time, some Internet websites may be the best and most current source of information. Be clear where you stand on this.
• If you allow the use of websites, give your students the tools to evaluate them and require that they do so. You can also schedule library instruction or ask the reference librarians for help teaching about website evaluation.