Welcome Back!

Greetings BSU distance learners and faculty! I'd like to kick off the 2007-08 academic year with an overview of the suite of services which are available to you from Ball State University Libraries.

Electronic Information Resources -
Find books, full-text articles, online reference materials, and more.

Reference services –
Contact a librarian via instant message, e-mail, or phone. Set up a reference appointment to get help with individual reference questions. Use the chat window to the right to talk directly to the Distance Education librarian (yours truly), or click the link above if I'm not available.

Library instruction -
Schedule a library instruction session for your students. Instruction sessions can be done virtually via Blackboard or other means suited to a distance education environment, by request.

Interlibrary loan -
Request items from other libraries for your use.
Tip: Many public libraries offer this service, too. Check with yours to see if it's a more convenient option for you.

Electronic course reserves -
Put digital copies of course material on the web. (Copyright restrictions do apply.) Students may access electronic reserves via this link, as well.

Copyright compliance assistance -
Faculty, do you need help understanding how to stay within “Fair Use?”
Students, are you not sure how copyright issues affect work done for classes at BSU?
Contact the Copyright Center for help.

Please visit our Distance Learning Library Services portal.

Check out our MySpace page for video tutorials, fun trivia, and more!

And remember, you don't have to be in the library to use it!

Find What You're Looking For...

The new library homepage makes it easy to find what you're looking for.

Click on the yellow Find button to see the University Libraries' options for access to a variety of information services available to you. They're summarized below:


Books: This section connects you with resources that help you find books owned by the University Libraries or other libraries in Indiana or around the country. You can also find out what new items have arrived on campus recently.

Course Reserves: If your instructor has put material on reserve (either electronically or in print), you can find it here.

Articles: You probably guessed this, but these links take you to our database listings and other tools to help you find articles in newspapers, scholarly journals, popular magazines, and other sources.

Research Tools: The links here will lead you to resources that can help get you started with research on various topics.

Digital Commons: This icon links to the University Libraries' Digital Commons.

Music, Movies, Software: Believe it or not, but we don't only have books in the library! Check out the link to the Media Finders to locate CDs, DVDs, and more.

Digital Images: These are general links to image collections accessible with your BSU log on credentials, or those cleared for royalty-free use. The University Libraries' Digital Media Respository is also linked in this section.

And there you have it, another section of the website illuminated for you.

Join me next week for another revealing look at a part of the new homepage. Until then, remember, you don't have to be in the library to use it!