Top News: February 2009 Archives

You may have noticed changes happening on the ground level of Paley Library. Over the past few months the Library has been busy converting what used to be the periodicals room into a new Media Services department. On Monday, February 16 the Media Services department officially became operational. We have now moved the entire media collection from its current location at the Tuttleman Circulation/Reserve desk to the new Media Services location on the ground floor of Paley Library

In addition to making available all types of media for regular (one week) and reserve (4 hours) loans, it offers multiple viewing stations and even several viewing rooms for groups. That means students can now easily borrow and view the media assigned for their courses in one location. Students may borrow headphones as well. A DVD browsing area is being developed so students and faculty can see the latest videos added to the collection. Faculty can continue to place videos and DVDs on reserve for their courses using the same procedure. Students should be directed to the new Media Services department to obtain media placed on reserve.

For more information about the new Media Services department, please contact Sebastian Derry, Head of Media Services.

Temple University librarians offer some convenient yet powerful technology for integrating library resources into a Blackboard course site or even a web page. Think about it. Put the library's databases and research tools right where students can easily find them - in their course site. To learn about these integration technologies please attend the next Instructional Technologies Users Group (ITUG) program on Wednesday, February 11 from noon to 1 p.m. in room 111 at the TECH Center. Fred Rowland, reference librarian at Paley Library, will present on how to integrate the Library's resources into Blackboard. Rowland will explain the different options available to faculty, such as Library Express, Blackboard Content Packages and Blackboard Course Guides. All of these options make it easy for faculty to put the library into their course. If you are unable to attend Rowland's session and would like to integrate the Library into your course, please contact him by e-mail for more information.

Library Express! arrives just in time! The new Obama administration is hailing Library Express! as one of the most essential tools in helping to kickstart our economy. The president is lobbying all Temple faculty members to contact their librarian immediately to take advantage of this offer.

As Obama recently commented, "Here's how it works. Faculty contact librarians. Librarians create customized online course guides for classes. Faculty insert guides into Blackboard. With quick access to excellent sources, students do superior research. Everybody wins...And let me add one more thing: though the current generation of students didn't get us into this mess, we'll need everyone to get us out of it. Information is power. Talk to your librarian."

We are entering terra nova. Students need every possible advantage. Providing quick access to articles, databases, tools and services in Blackboard will lead students to high quality information and improve research quality. Temple's subject specialists are eager to create customized course guides that fit curricular needs. Integrating them into Blackboard is quick and easy.

Subject Specialists // Blackboard Library Sampler // Integrating the Library into Blackboard

If you're a faculty member, contact your librarian. If you're a student, contact your faculty member. If you are neither faculty, student, nor librarian, just sit back and watch the economy grow.

---Fred Rowland