Jerome library is offering two new online features; electronic reserves and chat with a librarian.
Electronic reserves are reserved class readings available to students online. Faculty members have put their classes reserved readings online, so students can now access them from any computer that can access the web. In the spring the program should be campus-wide.
“This is a great thing to have the reserved reading’s online, because it is never convenient to go to the library,” said Maria Wallace, a senior.
Not all faculty have to participate; it is up to their discretion. About 16 faculty members are participating in the program.
Each faculty member will have a password for each of their classes to access reading’s, so only that class may get to them. Students can search either by class or by teacher name to find the material desired.
“The program is on Adobe (Acrobat) because all of the labs have it and it can be downloaded on the Net for free,” said Colleen Coughlin, instructor in the Women Studies Program.
If they choose, professors may also place PowerPoint presentations used in class on the website.
The course books cannot be put on the web, however, because of copyright issues and legal matters.
“In the past at other libraries, this type of program has been student driven. A student will have one teacher who uses this then they will tell their other teachers to do the same,” Coughlin said. “This will be much more convenient for those of us who live off campus. We won’t have to make the hike to the library anymore,” said Bob Marzola, a senior.
Chat with a Librarian, which is set up similar to an instant messenger, is another service being offered through Jerome Library.
With this program if students have trouble finding something on the library website, they can chat with a librarian who will be available throughout the day.
“This is similar to instant messenger, and students should have an easy time learning to use it,” said Kelly Broughton, assistant professor and coordinator of reference services at the library.
While librarians are chatting they can send web pages directly to whomever they are chatting with. Also, when the conversation is over, the librarian can e-mail the entire conversation as well as any web pages that were sent to the individual.
This program as of now only allows one librarian to be available at a time.
“We are pushing to make this program state-wide,” Broughton said. “That way about 20 or so librarians could go online. This would mean that a librarian at the University could be helping someone from another college.”
Another helpful thing about this program is that if you are in Periodical Abstracts, for example, there is a button to access the chat automatically.
Although the electronic reserves can be accessed at any time, the chat with a librarian program can only be used during certain library hours. Those hours are 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Fridays, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays, and 1 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Sundays.
