The Drexel University Libraries provide many services to facilitate the teaching and research needs unique to faculty members. The libraries have reference/subject librarians who serve as liaisons to the university’s colleges and schools and aim to cultivate a collaborative environment between the libraries and the faculty.
Library Instruction
Contact a reference/subject librarian to schedule a workshop tailored to specific assignments or research needs. Library workshops can be scheduled in your classroom, or in the Libraries' classrooms where computers are available for interactive instruction. If you are teaching a research-intensive course, consider asking the librarian for your subject area to be available to your students via the Vista Blackboard course site.
See Library Instruction web page for further information.
Course Readings
There are several ways that the Libraries can help you make readings and other course materials available to your students:
Reserves (Print and Electronic)
Various types of material can be placed on reserve, such as library-owned material (books, videos, etc.), personal copies of books, journal articles, and handouts. Begin the process early. For instructions on how to put materials on reserve for the individual libraries go to the Reserves web page.
Linking from Blackboard Vista or other Course Webpages
It is possible to add links to electronic reserves, electronic books, journal articles, databases and other resources into Blackboard Vista or other online course sites. Because it is important to incorporate authentication mechanisms so that students can access resources from off-campus, a web page of instructions for creating links has been provided.
RefShare
RefWorks, our web-based citation management application, allows sharing of a designated list of references from your RefWorks account. A set of citations can be included on the Drexel Shared Folders list, or a URL generated to distribute by email or link from a course page.
Requesting Course-Related Materials for the Libraries
Recommendations for purchase of materials for instruction or research can be submitted online. Please note that Hagerty Library does not purchase all required textbooks for the collection, although extra instructors' copies of assigned textbooks are welcomed for the Reserve collection. Recommendations will be forwarded to a librarian with collection development responsibilities in that subject area for consideration.
Services for Distance Learners & Students with Disabilities
The libraries offer many services to Distance Learners and students with disabilities. If any of your students need these services, please direct them to:
Services for Distance Learners
Services for Patrons with Disabilities
Research Databases
The Libraries offer access to more than 500 research databases, indexing journal literature, technical reports and other sources. While some are of general academic interest, many are highly-specialized. Browse the database choices alphabetically, or by subject area. If you wish to bookmark your favorite databases, please set your bookmark to the entry in our database list, so that you'll be linking through our proxy server which facilitates off-campus use.
Most of our databases provide some direct access to full electronic text of journals and other sources; some such as JSTOR, Project MUSE and ScienceDirect offer extensive collections of electronic journals. Nearly all databases provide linking via SFX to full text in other sources from the library collections.
Many databases offer update or current awareness services; a stored search strategy generates lists of matching citations whenever the database is updated, sent to you via email or RSS feed.
E-journals and E-books
Extension collections of electronic journals (more than 21,000 titles, many dating back to start of publication) and e-books (80,000+ titles) put many of the resources you need for research at your fingertips. All e-journals and e-books are included in the library catalog; you can also browse for e-journals only by title or subject area.
Research Guides
Research Guides are compiled by our subject-specialist librarians to identify particularly valuable research resources in specific subject areas. While they are primarily aimed at beginning researchers, they can also be valuable pointers to unfamiliar resources, particularly in interdisciplinary projects.
E-Z Borrow and ILLiad Document Delivery
Use E-Z Borrow or ILLiad Interlibrary Loan services to get books, articles, and other materials not owned by Drexel University Libraries, or not currently available. E-Z Borrow allows you to obtain books from PALCI-member libraries, usually within 4-5 days. ILLiad delivers electronic copies of journal articles and other documents directly to your desktop; it can also be used to request books not available via E-Z Borrow, dissertations, and other research materials. Copy service via ILLiad can used to request copies of articles from journals in the Drexel library collections.
Reciprocal Borrowing Privileges
Reciprocal agreements with other area institutions allow faculty to borrow directly from those libraries, usually with presentation of a letter from the Drexel libraries and university ID card; these include University of the Sciences in Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania and the Restaurant School at Walnut Hill College. Many members of the Pennsylvania Academic Library Consortium (PALCI) also allow direct borrowing by faculty.
Funding
Community of Science maintains a comprehensive source of funding information, representing over 400,000 funding opportunities, worth over $33 billion. Join Community of Science add your profile to the COS Expertise Database and get funding alerts based on your research interests. For assistance, contact the Science Librarian at Hagerty Library, or a reference librarian at the Health Sciences Libraries.
Citation Searching
Web of Science offers searching by cited-reference, a valuable measure of research-impact for visa and tenure documentation.
Librarian Services
To learn more about available resources in your subject area, contact a reference/subject librarian.
