Information for Faculty @ W. Frank Steely LIBRARY

Information for Faculty

The Liaison Program

Through the Steely Library Liaison program, each library faculty works in a partnership with the teaching faculty of one or more academic departments. The program serves as a communications vehicle between the two groups. Both library and teaching faculty share responsibility for developing the library collection, working to ensure that the library collects to meet the needs of the department's curriculum. Liaisons serve as materials' selectors, monitor the approval plan, and assess collection strengths and weaknesses. Liaisons work to keep their department(s) up-to-date on library policies, services, collection issues, budgets, pricing trends, and new information resources. The program also strives to improve services to the colleges and departments on campus, as well as increase collaboration with departments in curriculum development.

For a current list of Liaisons by department, visit the Library Liaisons home page.

Ordering Books

The Library's collections are developed to support all academic programs of the University -- from bachelor's programs in the traditional disciplines to experimental and community related programs. Full faculty participation in the selection of library materials is deemed vital to ensure that the collection successfully fills the needs of every academic area. When ordering any new library materials, faculty members should consider the objectives stated in the Library Collection Development Policy. With the exception of text books, the library welcomes gift books which will enhance the collection. When a book is published by NKU faculty, the library appreciates receiving a gift copy.

To place an order for books, recordings or other similar materials, faculty should complete a Materials Recommendation Form. Paper forms are also available from the Acquisitions Department. Questions about budget or ordering procedures should be addressed to the Acquisitions Department. Questions about the library collection should be referred to the librarian who serves as departmental liaison (see list above). For additional information contact Donna Smith, x6140.

Ordering Serials

Please use ILLiad to request articles from journals that the library does not own. The library’s Collection Management Committee makes a recommendation regarding each new subscription. The number of recent interlibrary loan requests for a serial will be reviewed before adding a new subscription. For additional information contact Donna Smith, x6140.

University Library Advisory Committee

Originally the Library Materials Budget Advisory Committee, the University Library Advisory Committee (ULAC) provides feedback and input regarding departmental library materials allocations and to act as a communications conduit between the Library administration and the teaching faculty. The primary focus is on library acquisitions and operations.

Members serve overlapping three year terms and are selected by Deans, the Faculty Senate, and the Student Government Association and appointed by the Provost. Membership, minutes, and presentations are available on the ULAC's home page.

Faculty Borrowing Privileges

Faculty must show a valid NKU I.D. at the Circulation Desk and then may check out circulating library materials for one semester. All materials loaned to faculty are subject to recall if requested by another person. Faculty members are encouraged to have no more than 25 items checked out of the library at any given time. At the end of each semester, faculty will receive a list of all materials due; items are due by the last day of final exams. Bills will be sent, if necessary, to faculty with overdue materials. The Circulation staff may be reached by phoning x5457.

For more information contact Betty Riddell at x5679.

Consortia

Faculty may also check out materials from libraries in the Southwest Ohio and Neighboring Libraries (SWON) and all Kentucky state supported universities. A valid NKU I.D. is required; a SWON brochure listing member libraries is available. Steely Library is ultimately responsible for other libraries' materials not returned by NKU faculty and staff.

Reserve Materials

Steely Library offers both electronic and traditional reserve services.

Traditional reserve materials are kept at the main Circulation Desk. Loan periods (2-hour library use only, 24 hours, 3 days, or 1 week) are assigned at faculty discretion. You may place both materials belonging to the library and personal copies on traditional reserve.

Electronic reserve materials are placed on a password protected course page and can be accessed by your students via the E-Reserves website.

Obtaining copyright permission for reserve copies is the responsibility of the instructor. Steely Library will seek copyright permissions for reserve materials upon instructor request.

Materials to be placed on reserve are processed as quickly as possible, but a period of 5 working days should be allowed for processing materials. All reserve materials are removed from reserve status at the end of the semester.

For more information on traditional reserves, contact Craig Person at x6167

For more information on electronic reserves, contact John Schlipp at x7621

Research and Instructional Services [RIS]

The Research & Instructional Services Department is located on the third floor, or plaza level, of the library. Members of the Reference faculty provide course-related instruction as well as personal research assistance. Reference Services can be requested in person or by phoning 572-5456. You may also request services via the Library's Ask a Librarian email service.

Course-Related Instruction

Information Literacy Competencies

Guidelines by Program

Classes Working in the Library

Guidelines for Bringing In Classes for Work Sessions

Research Help

The Library's collection of online Research Help provides key assistance for locating information sources. These guides are organized lists of print and electronic reference works, handbooks, periodical indexes, bibliographies, and other materials available both within the library and through the Internet. Many of the Guides have been created with a specific course and/or assignment in mind.

Research Consultation Service

Members of the Research & Instructional Services faculty are available to provide personalized assistance to students as well as faculty and staff on project research strategies and techniques. We also collaborate with faculty on curriculum and course design.

There are a limited number of these one-on-one appointments each week.

Appointments can be requested in person at the Information Desk in Steely Library or by calling 859 572-5456.

Faculty: These appointments are not designed to replace class sessions with a librarian OR as "extra credit" for large groups. (Contact Rebecca Kelm, x6651, with questions.)

Reference Collection

Steely Library offers a strong collection of reference and research guides selected and organized to correspond to NKU's curriculum. The online collection is available through the Databases link on the library's home page, http://library.nku.edu. The print collection is available in the Reference Department on the Library's 3rd floor.

To locate reference sources for specific subject areas, please use our online Research Guides, Databases and Indexes List and/or contact the Reference Department, x5456.

Online Tour

If you think your students would benefit from a general orientation to the library building and its services, encourage them to take our online self-guided tour.

Maps of the Library are also via the Maps link on our information page: http://library.nku.edu/info/.

Government Documents

The Government Documents collection, located on the third floor, is composed of materials published by federal, state and local governments. These publications are indexed in many electronic sources, including FirstSearch and GPO Access on the Internet. Many documents circulate and may be checked out at the Reference Desk or Documents Office. Further information is available by calling Reference at x5456 or Government Documents at x5683.

For more information contact Phil Yannarella at x5455

Interlibrary Loan

Interlibrary Loan services enable NKU faculty, staff and students to supplement the library's resources by requesting materials from other libraries. Requests, for interlibrary loan materials, can be made using the ILLiad interlibrary loan system. You will be notified via email, phone, or U.S. mail, when your items have been received. Books, microforms, videos, and other non-electronic items can be picked up at the main Circulation Desk. Articles delivered electronically are available via ILLiad. The limits and conditions of use established by the lending library must be observed. All requests must also comply with the copyright law of the United States; our library reserves the right to refuse any order if, in our judgment, fulfillment of the order would involve violation of this law.

For more information contact Erin Smith at x6365

Ingenta Document Delivery Service

Ingenta offers NKU faculty access to articles from over 27,000 journals and scholarly publications. Many of these materials are delivered immediately, as online .pdf files. Non-electronic documents are sent to users via fax. Fax copies are available within 48 hours, Monday through Friday.

Ingenta also provides indexing and abstracting services for selected articles available from Science Direct. If at any time you would like to request Science Direct articles, or any other articles that are not available from ingenta, please use the ILLiad interlibrary loan system.

For more information visit Steely Library's Ingenta page, or contact John Schlipp at x7621

Special Collections and Archives

Special Collections & Archives holds books, manuscripts, artifacts, ephemera, and photographs pertaining to Kentucky history, Appalachia, the creation and development of NKU, the Ohio River Valley, genealogy and Kentucky natural history. Of particular interest are 3,000+ original steamboat photographs and a significant oral history collection. Notable manuscript holdings include Congressman Gene Snyder's papers, a small collection of Simon Kenton documents, research materials of Harry M. Caudill, and Taylor, Bruce, and Southgate family papers chronicling the early history of northern Kentucky. Recent acquisitions include the Kirtley Collection which emphasizes genealogy and Baptist church histories in Boone County, Kentucky, and the Fitzgerald Collection of early printed works (16th-18th centuries), the history of printing, and Boone County genealogy. Special Collections materials do not circulate. For more information about collections, please call x5636.

For more information contact Jennifer Gregory at x6158

Learning Resource Collection

The Learning Resource Collection, located on the fourth floor of Steely Library, contains materials vital to the teacher education program at NKU. Materials in the LRC include books for children and young adults, textbooks, supplementary materials for classroom use (games, recordings, videotapes, kits, etc.), curriculum guides, picture and poster files, publishers' catalogs, and testing materials. With a few exceptions, items may be checked out of the LRC for three weeks.

For more information contact the Information Desk at x5456

Off-Site Courses and Distance Learning

Library services are not limited to the Highland Heights campus. If you or your students need information or research support for an NKU course, please call (859) 572-6026 or visit the Distance Learning home page.

For more information contact John Schlipp at x7621

W. Frank Steely Library