Dear UGA faculty members,
As you transition to online for the remainder of this fall and begin your preparations for the spring semester, I’d like to make you aware of ways that our librarians and staff members can partner with you to help with your classes and your research, as we continue to navigate our campus and world during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Library Resources
Libraries will remain open during the post-Thanksgiving period, continuing access to our extensive print holdings, special collections and archives, interlibrary loan services, and GIL-Express. Safety measures in place for this fall and spring include social distancing in seating and at service points, quarantining of print materials between uses, frequent disinfecting of high-touch surfaces, and stations for hand sanitizer and disinfecting wipes. The USG face coverings policy applies in all Libraries facilities.
Please also remember that through our online catalog you can request books be retrieved and held for you at the checkout location of your choice to further help with social distancing, and we also offer scanning services.
See more information about our post-Thanksgiving hours and services.
The Libraries’ digital holdings are the most heavily-used component of our collection at all times, and we certainly encourage faculty to take full advantage of them during the pandemic. Visit the Libraries website to find e-journal articles, e-books, streaming media, archival materials, and a wide array of digital content. You may find it helpful to start your research using the Multi-Search tool, which searches across 150 academic databases simultaneously. A request a purchase form is available to faculty if you find that the Libraries lack materials that are needed in your research and teaching.
Course Materials and Open Educational Resources
The Libraries can help in many ways as you plan your course materials. We continue to fulfill course reserve requests, with an emphasis on electronic resources. We will provide scanned book chapters, electronic articles, and other digital content through eLC, helping both to support online learning and provide no-cost course materials for students. For the spring semester, the deadline to request course reserves for fulfillment by the first day of classes is Dec. 11, although requests will continue to be filled after that date.
In addition to our copyright services, librarians will work with faculty members to help find alternative materials, including open educational resources (OER), that meet your instructional goals.
The Libraries and Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) are partners in administering the Provost’s Affordable Course Materials Grant. This spring, the Provost will award grants of up to $5,000 each to support the creation and/or adoption of open and/or affordable (less than $40) course material.
Please check out more information about the grant prior to the Jan. 15, 2021 deadline.
Subject Specialists/Liaisons
Another invaluable resource to faculty members who are preparing their courses can be found in our research and instruction librarians. These subject specialists can help instructors find book chapters and journal articles to add to their syllabus or create an online course guide of additional materials available at the Libraries that can help students as they complete their assignments.
In addition, our research and instruction librarians are prepared to teach your class about how to find research materials and manage their citations. Librarians will teach a class in person or via Zoom, or they can share tutorials that can be specialized to your class needs.
You can find more about how librarians have helped faculty during COVID-19 through these case studies, and the video below explains some of what a librarian can do for your students.
Special Collections
For those interested in incorporating primary source materials into their projects, archivists can help to identify exciting content relevant to a wide range of disciplines. The Special Collections Libraries currently remain open for socially-distanced class visits, so that students can have a firsthand experience with original archival material. Please reach out to our archivists to learn more about how they can work with you either in your teaching or research.
Since 2015, the Special Collections Faculty Fellows Program has welcomed five faculty cohorts that have developed more than 55 new archives-centered courses in about 25 areas of study. Interested applicants should apply by Jan. 4, 2021. The fellowship includes a $2,000 grant to help defray the cost of the faculty member’s project, and the 2021 session will occur during Maymester.
In addition, as this unique time continues, we would love for you to contribute to future research on the COVID-19 pandemic by submitting to our COVID Collection. Your work, including recorded lectures, class projects, and personal and work-related reflections, can document this time for future generations. Learn more about how you can help.
Student Support
The Libraries are here to help students, whether it is with information resources, a question about research, a technology need, or a place to study. Students can visit our locations for help or engage with us via our online chat tool at libs.uga.edu.
In addition, for students who remain on campus after Thanksgiving who are looking for a safe place to study or log in to an online class, please pass along UGA’s study space locator tool. More information is available at https://www.libs.uga.edu/news/
Thanks for all that you do, and let me know how the Libraries can best meet your needs during these challenging times.
All the best,
P. Toby Graham, Ph.D.
University Librarian and Associate Provost