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Hale Library Blog

Month: March 2020

New challenges, same objective

When students arrive at June Orientation and Enrollment before they begin their first semester at K-State, there’s one thing we want to make sure they know: We are here to help. We tell them that they don’t need to fumble through the hundreds of databases available, or stress out about what keywords to use to find the research they need. That’s why we are here.

This message has perhaps never been as relevant as it is today. As students return to their classes this week, now in an online format, we know that there will be added stress. Now, more than ever, we want you to know that you should not hesitate to reach out to us. We are here to help.

Our librarians and staff are working remotely and are available to answer your research questions or to provide help with using online resources. Chat services will be available Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. For general questions, use our Ask A Librarian service; you can also contact your subject librarian by email.

Stephanie working from home, with her toddler playing nearby.
Stephanie Kiersey, a user services specialist, works alongside her little one. Stephanie helps answer questions from users on our chat service and through email. Our staff sure have some cute new coworkers!
Sara seated at her computer, working from home.
Sara Kearns, an academic services librarian, suggests that students try our Ask a Librarian service if they have issues finding a book or article. “Physical materials, like books, are going to be harder to get, but we may know of workarounds or alternative sources,” Kearns said.

K-State librarians have also created handy research guides. These guides are divided by subject and can help you navigate the best ways to find articles and research related to your class. They’ve also created a guide specifically for instructors with information about incorporating Libraries resources into Canvas.

A photo of Daniel with his cat.
Dan Ireton, an academic services librarian, shows off a very serious Spartacus. Dan, along with our other subject specialists, continue to work with both students and faculty remotely from their home.

Our staff are also working to make sure that you continue to have access to our online materials. Several resources are available online for research and can be accessed remotely. Some resources will require users to log in with their K-State E-ID and passwords.

Christina Geuther, electronic resources librarian, is working from home with her sweet coworkers, Frida and Heidi. Christina helps make sure our online resources and databases are working properly and negotiates licenses with publishers.

Our Interlibrary Loan staff will continue to process requests for articles and books chapters for electronic delivery. Our ability to fill requests is heavily dependent on the operations of other libraries, many of which are also reducing their operations, but we are working very hard to fulfill as many requests as we can.

We can also scan chapters from our textbook collection. To place a request for a chapter of a textbook, use the Interlibrary Loan request form. We will work to get you a scanned copy either from our collection or another library. If you don’t have your textbook, you might also check RedShelf. The K-State Campus Store is partnering with RedShelf to provide access to up to 7 e-textbooks.

A picture of McKenna holding her dog, Molly.
McKenna Lueger is a senior in graphic design and also works for the Libraries. She is working at home with her new “coworker,” Molly. McKenna said she encourages her fellow students to try Interlibrary Loan to access materials because it is really easy.

Additionally, if you have questions about copyright or fair use during this time of transition our librarians in the Center for the Advancement of Digital Scholarship are also working from home to help answer any questions you might have.

A picture of Ryan smiling at his home workstation.
Ryan Otto is a digital scholarship librarian in the Center for the Advancement of Digital Scholarship. In addition to other services, Ryan also continues to support the K-State Research Exchange or K-REx, which makes K-State’s scholarly works more widely available.

Our continuation of Libraries services webpage has more information about our resources during the university’s limited operations status. As we move through the uncertainty ahead, we will continue to keep you updated through this blog as much as we can. While construction continues on Hale Library, our ability to obtain photos of the progress will be limited. We will continue to post updates, but they may not come out quite as often. In the meantime, remember that we are still here, and we are ready to help in any way we can.