Changes to the Library Resources Web Pages and New Resources

This week, exciting news from CCCOnline's Instructional Online Librarian Mary Cash! 

Hey everyone, take some time to check out what’s new with our Library Resources.   

*First, the Library Resources and Research & Writing Toolkit pages have officially moved from the student wiki over to the ccconline.org website: http://www.ccconline.org/Library_Resources.   

*Once you’re on the main page of the Library Resources, you’ll also notice a link to the EBSCO article databases.  So, in addition to being able to access the databases once you’re logged in to D2L, you can also click on the EBSCO link, login with your S# and password and get into the databases right from the Library Resources page.  

*Inside D2L, you will also notice a change to the Helpful Links widget, with just one link to Library Resources instead of several.  Click on the Library Resources page, and you’ll see the same page that you see out on the ccconline.org website; you just won’t need to login to access the databases.

*Please take some time to check out the article databases as well; we now have some additional databases – including  CINAHL (nursing and health science database), History Reference Center, Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection, Science Reference Center, Points of View, Consumer Health Complete, and more.  We still have the always wonderful Academic Search Premier, and Business Source Premier.  Visit the Library Article Databases Tutorial to see descriptions of all of our databases.

*Note also that CCCOnline is now a member of AskAcademic, the 24/7 academic Ask-a-Librarian service offered through the Colorado State Library.  Check out the AskAcademic widget on the Library Resources main page.  Students can still email me, cccolibrarian@ccconline.org, with their questions; I will have more first-hand knowledge of specific research assignments in their courses, but do encourage your students to use the AskAcademic reference service.  The service is manned by trained reference librarians from the AskAcademic member libraries – visit the AskAcademic website to learn more: http://www.askacademic.org/ and here’s a list of the participating libraries: http://www.askacademic.org/participating.html.  CCCOnline pays a small fee to the Colorado State Library and mans the virtual reference desk for 2 hours a week in return for great reference and information service to both students and faculty.

Be sure to check back to the Library Resources web pages from time to time   - I have some ideas for new features and will be adding those as I have time. Have interesting ideas related to anything library related?  Have questions?  Email me at mary.cash@cccs.edu.

 

Thanks, Mary Cash, Instructional Online Librarian, CCCOnline

Spring Library Webinar Series Starts Next Week

Interested in learning more about CCCOnline’s library services? Come participate in our library webinars with CCCOnline Instructional Librarian Mary Cash! We’re offering one next week (2/16) and others in April and May; mark your calendars!

Next week’s webinar, “Let's get to know our article database better,” is scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 16, at 3:00 p.m. Registration closes Feb. 12; see more information here.

Future presentations in the series are

“Evaluating Sources – helping students become better consumers of information” (Thursday, Mar. 15, 3:00 p.m.)

and

“Open Source Journals available on the Web” (Thursday, Apr. 5, 3:00 p.m.)

For more information, please visit the links provided above or our “Professional Development – Upcoming Webinars” page:
http://at.ccconline.org/faculty/wiki/Professional_Development_-_Upcoming_Webinars

Valuable Library Information Coming Your Way!

This week, we’d like to remind everyone we have a wonderful resource to help us cultivate e-classroom excellence: our CCCOnline Librarian!

Check out Mary Cash’s The Librarian’s Labyrinth blog this week for news you can use:

*how your students may access article databases,
*where students may find helpful resources,
*an invitation to communicate with the librarian, and
*the latest on upcoming library webinars!

Library Webinar Thursday

Below is a quick reminder about Thursday’s Library webinar. If you aren’t able to make it, remember it will be archived on our wiki; in the meantime (now or later), please feel free to contribute any suggestions or comments about library services in the CCCOnline Community. Mary Cash (CCCOnline’s Instructional Online Librarian) will be around to answer your questions.

Thank you!

If you missed our conference presentation (“What’s Going On @ Your CCCOnline Library?”), please consider joining us Thursday (3:00-4:30 p.m.) for our updated webinar!

Registration information is here:
http://at.ccconline.org/faculty/wiki/Professional_Development_-_Upcoming_Webinars#What.27s_going_on_.40_your_CCCOnline_Library.3F

Items for discussion:
-library databases we have (and how to access them!)

-how library services can assist you and your students

-recent studies illuminating students’ need for library services and information literacy

News From Our Librarian!

Here is a message from Mary Cash:

Hi everyone, I have some wonderful news; I am now, officially, the CCCOnline Instructional Online Librarian. I accepted my new position a few weeks ago and have started making plans for what I’ll do to offer online librarian services to our students and faculty. I’m still going to be working as an instructional designer for a while; we need to hire someone to replace me and course design still needs to go on : ).

I already have an Ask the Librarian email in place (cccolibrarian@ccconline.org), and have had a few students email me with research questions. A good part of my job, once everything is in place, will be to act as an Embedded Librarian in your courses. You’ll be able to set up a time for me to come into your course and answer questions on finding resources and doing citations. I’m also planning on some updates and changes to the CCCOnline Library Resources and Research and Writing Toolkit pages on the student wiki, and I would like to develop more information literacy training for both students and faculty. And, finally, one of my pet projects will be to see if we can bring in, to our D2L Learning Object Repository, a variety of learning objects that are currently available through MERLOT and other open source repositories.

Most likely, the Embedded Librarian project won’t be in place until spring semester; I have some logistics to work out. But I did want to let everyone know that CCCOnline now has a librarian available to both students and faculty. If you have ideas on where I can help in your courses, or something related to the library or information literacy, please let me know. I’d love to talk with you about your ideas.

And, if you’re coming to the faculty conference, be sure to check out our presentation on What’s Going on @ Your CCCOnline Library. We’ll talk more about future plans for our online library/librarian and the Research and Writing Toolkit.

Hope to see you then,
mary

Mary Cash
Instructional Online Librarian
CCCOnline
cccolibrarian@ccconline.org or mary.cash@cccs.edu

CCCOnline Library Database Access

Mary Cash, CCCOnline Librarian, is our guest today with a special library announcement and question for you. As always, please feel free to join the conversation in the companion Community thread!

IMPORTANT! CCCOnline students will no longer be able to access the online article databases at the FRCC College Hill Library. CCCOnline students and faculty now have access to CCCOnline’s subscriptions to the EBSCO article databases and the FirstSearch (WorldCat) databases!!!

To access CCCOnline’s article databases, log on to your CCCOnline D2L account. Once you're logged on, locate the Helpful Links widget on your MyHome page or one of your Course Home pages. Look for the Online Library heading and then find the link to the EBSCO Article Databases or First Search and click on the link. That will take you right in to where you can begin your search. With EBSCO, you'll want to click on the top icon to get to the different databases. See the Library Article Databases Tutorial (http://at.ccconline.org/students/wiki/Academic_Resources_-_CCCOnline_Library_Resources_-_Library_Article_Databases_Tutorial) for more information.

You can also check out the CCCOnline Library Resources (http://at.ccconline.org/students/wiki/Academic_Resources_-_CCCOnline_Library_Resources) on the Student Wiki for information on evaluating sources, online reference resources, finding your local library and Ask a Librarian.

Have questions? Contact the CCCOnline Librarian: http://www.blogger.com/cccolibrarian@ccconline.org

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Now that we have our own library article databases, how can we help you work them into your classes, or how can we help your students learn to use the databases better?

-Mary Cash

Note: since next week is the Desire2Learn FUSION Conference, we will not be posting here; however, we will be back the week of 7/18!