STAFF DIRECTORY

TALK TO A LIBRARIAN

For in-depth research assistance for a class or project, please use any of the following to reach out to a librarian:

• For research assistance, talk to a reference librarian via Zoom (Meeting ID: 657 201 1323) Monday through Friday from 10AM to 12PM and 2PM to 4PM.
• Email to librarysupport@essex.edu to request a virtual meeting with a subject librarian.
• Moodle – Find us at the ECC Library tab when you are reviewing your syllabus and preparing your assignments.

COVID-19 RESOURCES

State of New Jersey Covid-19 Information Hub

• English
• Spanish

US Department of Health and Human Services           

• English
• Spanish

BORROWING INFORMATION

Who may borrow books?

• ECC students, faculty, staff, and alumni with valid ECC College identification.
• Reciprocal Borrowing Library (ReBL) card holders
• Rutgers (Newark), NJIT, UMDNJ (Newark) faculty, staff, and students with valid college identification.

How long is the borrowing period?

The standard borrowing period for most materials is 28 days. Materials can be renewed one time for an additional 28 days.

ECC faculty and staff may borrow materials for one semester/term at a time. Periodicals and reference materials can be used in the library, but general circulation of those materials is not available.

Reserve items

Reserve items are set aside for a specific purpose – usually by a professor for students of a particular class.  Use the “Reserve List” function in the library catalog to identify items by either the professor’s name or the course number. 3 Reserve items may be charged out at 1 time. Reserve items circulate for two hours and cannot be removed from the library unless otherwise specified. Valid identification or driver’s license must be left at the Circulation Desk until the items are returned.

Audio-Visual Materials

Audiovisual materials circulate under the same terms as Reserve items, and cannot be taken outside of the library, unless by ECC faculty and staff. Valid identification is required for borrowing materials.

Fees

If checked-out materials are not returned or renewed by the end of the borrowing period, there is a fee of $0.10 per book for each day the library is open. The fee for overdue Reserve items is $.50 per hour, per item. ECC faculty and staff may borrow audiovisual material for up to 7 days with no renewals. Fees are $.50 per day per item.

Procedures: 2 overdue notices will be sent via US Mail. If the books are not returned after 30 days, library privileges will be temporarily suspended, and the patron will be sent an invoice for the replacement cost of the book. Unfortunately, students are subject to a library hold on their academic records for unpaid late fees.

Recall

Occasionally, a checked-out book can be recalled by the library before the full borrowing period has ended. All books are subject to recall after 14 days.

Interlibrary Loan (ILL)

Interlibrary Loan (ILL) is a free way that books, eBooks, articles the library does not own can be requested from other libraries, and provided to our users. This process can take up to a week, depending on the material. You can submit an ILL request at librarysupport@essex.edu.

EBOOKS

Use the links below to access e-books the library owns:

• ProQuest eBooks
• EBSCO eBooks

How to Search for E-Books the Library Owns:

1. Search for your topic in the Search Bar.
2. On the left side of the list of results, under "Limit to," select "Available online," and under "Resource Type," select "Books." If these options do not appear, try reloading the page. You may also have to click the "Show More" link under "Limit To" to see the option for Books.
3. This will limit your results only to e-books on your topic available to the Essex County College community.

Follow These Steps to Get Access to the Ebooks You Found:

1. Click on either the title of the book or the Available Online link below it.
2. In the next screen, there should be at least one link in the section marked View Online. Clicking on any link that appears here should take you to the contents of the book.
3. From off campus, you will be prompted to log in with your Essex County College username and password.
4. The contents of the book may look different depending on the service that provides it. Most, however, will offer the option to read the book online, download PDFs of individual chapters, or download the entire book. Reading online or downloading one chapter at a time are generally preferred, as downloading the entire book can be a cumbersome process and may require third-party software on your computer.

Ebook Software:

To read and download ebooks, you may need the following software:

• Adobe Acrobat Reader - For reading PDF files.
• Adobe Digital Editions - For downloading e-books from ProQuest Ebook Central and EBSCOhost.
• Bluefire Reader - For downloading and reading e-books on a mobile device.
• JAWS Screen Reader - A screen reader for visually impaired users (must purchase a license).
• NVDA Screen Reader - A free screen reader for visually impaired users.
• Accessibility Information for ProQuest eBook Central - Learn more about how to use accessibility features in our most. common e-book platform.

PEER-REVIEWED JOURNAL ARTICLES

• - Journal, magazine and news articles in literary criticism; biographies; and primary sources.
• - Journal, magazine and news articles in all academic fields, in 27 subject databases.

• VALE – Click here to search the VALE databases by subject.

Technical Issues - For help with any technical issues with our online resources, please contact  librarysupport@essex.edu

FIND VIDEOS

The library has access to services that provide educational streaming video, which can be assigned for classes or used by students independently. Browse the following link for available films. You may be prompted to log in with your Essex County College username and password when accessing these services.

ProQuest Streaming Services - Documentaries, interviews, feature films, performances, news programs, newsreels, demonstrations, and raw footage with curricular relevance on a wide range of subject areas. To view videos, click ‘Video & Audio’ tab located above the search bar.

TUTORIALS DEVELOPED BY OTHER LIBRARIES

These links provide tutorials created by other college and university libraries on commonly requested topics.

• Arizona State University Library Tutorials - A large set of tutorials on a variety of topics including getting started with research, academic integrity and citation, copyright, types of sources, and more.
• Reading Scholarly Articles - 20-minute e-course from Oakland University.
• UMKC: Library Research Tutorials - A set of interactive tutorials from the University of Missouri, Kansas City Libraries, covering topics including topic development, peer review, plagiarism, analysis, and more.
• Word Search Strategies:
  • How Library Stuff Works: Boolean Operators (AND OR NOT) - A video by McMaster Libraries on YouTube with an explanation on how Boolean operators and/or/not can be used to refine a database search.
  • How Library Stuff Works Boolean Modifiers ‘’’, *, () - A video by McMaster Libraries on YouTube with an explanation on how Boolean operators can be used to refine a database search.

CURRENT TOPICS

In this section, you will find valuable information on relevant topics for faculty, staff, and students of the library to consider.

• Critical Race Theory Definition and Considerations, Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL) - This source gives an overview of the origins of critical race theory, key scholars, and frequently examined questions in the field.
  
  
• King Papers and Archive, Stanford University| Martin Luther King Jr. Education and Research Institute - The MLK Jr. Education and Research Institute is home to many important speeches, sermons, and correspondence letters produced by Dr. King. Staff and students can use this resource to educate themselves and others on Dr. King’s legacy and the modern African American Freedom Struggle.

• What is wellness? Global Wellness Institute - This resource provides a comprehensive overview of wellness and its six dimensions.
  
  
• Why do pronouns matter? National Institutes of Health - This resource explains the use of preferred pronouns and the role they play in creating more inclusive environments. While primarily discussing the use of pronouns in the workplace, this source can be utilized by both staff and students.

FACULTY RESOURCES

Even when your courses are entirely or mostly online, there are still several options for how to arrange research instruction for your students:

• Request an Information Literacy session for your class through this Please note, faculty should submit their requests at least two weeks prior to the scheduled session. All forms can be emailed to librarysupport@essex.edu and are also available in paper format at the library.
• Contact a librarian to arrange customized instruction via Zoom. This could take multiple forms, from something as simple as a synchronous virtual meeting with your class, to something as complex as developing a new asynchronous module. Please be aware, however, that creating custom instruction takes time, especially if it means developing new resources. Please reach out to your librarian as early as possible and we can work together on deciding what type of instruction will meet your needs.
• Schedule a consultation for an in-depth conversation with a librarian at librarysupport@essex.edu. We will respond within one business day.
• For West Law login issues please contact: ltaylor@essex.edu
  
  

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

• AACC American Association of Community Colleges Fast Facts - Offers up-to-date statistics on college enrollment, attendance, tuition, financial aid, and more
• AAC&U American Association of Colleges & Universities Power of Experiential Education - An article on the benefits experiential education opportunities. The article identifies lifelong learning skills and formal reasoning as two key outcomes
• Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL) ESL Teaching Resources - A webpage for faculty looking for ESL education resources.
• Inside Higher Education - An online publication with current articles and insight on the higher education community.
• National Association of Colleges and Employers Research Reports - Provides statistics on topics relevant to career services, university relations, and more.
• Teaching in Higher Ed Podcast - A podcast exploring how teachers can facilitate leaning more effectively.

Essex County College
GUIDE TO OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES (OERs)

This guide introduces and explains open educational resources and provides help for faculty on finding, evaluating and creating OERs. Open educational resources are any material used in the classroom to help students learn that have been made freely available online and licensed for others to reuse them. Educational institutions embraced the movement for OERs in response to rising costs of traditional college textbooks.

Information on OERs

1. An Open Education Reader - Edited by David Wiley for a graduate class at Brigham Young University, this book is a collection of readings covering the basics of OERs.
   
   
2. OER Handbook for Educators - This book is aimed at educators actively looking to use or create an OER.
   
   

Online Classes on How to Use OERs

1. Introduction to Open Education Resources - Created by OpenStax, this short lesson on OERs includes tips on finding and creating them, as well as using public domain resources and how to store OERs.
   
   
2. How to Use Open Educational Resources - Another short, introductory workshop on OERs, created by OpenWashington.
   
   

Sources – Where to Find OERs

1. American Institute of Mathematics Open Resources - The American Institute of Mathematics (AIM) has developed evaluation criteria to identify the books that are suitable for use in traditional university courses. The Editorial Board maintains a list of Approved Textbooks which have been judged to meet these criteria.
   
   
2. BC Campus - BCCampus, supported by the government of British Columbia, curates the OERs created by British Columbia academic institutions. The collection comprises of 159 textbooks by topics. About half include peer reviews.
   
   
3. Digital Public Library of America - The Digital Public Library of America aggregates more than 14 million items from libraries, archives and museums. Items include text, videos, images and audio.
   
   
4. Directory of Open Access Books - Although not focused on textbooks, this database curates scholarly books that are free and open to reuse.
   
   
5. OER Commons - This database of OERs lets you search by education level, learning material type and accessibility. Supported by the not-for-profit group Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education.
   
   
6. Flat World - A collection of customizable textbooks, equipped with a full-range of instructor supplements and a homework system.
   
   
7. Hathi Trust Digital Library - Use this database to search a variety of material formats that are in the public domain or were made open from universities across the country. Make sure to use the Full Text search to ensure access to the material.
   
   
8. JStor Open Access Textbooks - More than 6,000 Open Access ebooks from 75+ publishers, including Brill, Cornell University Press, De Gruyter, and University of California Press, are now available at no cost to libraries or users.
   
   
9. LibreText - The LibreText Project, a leading, non-commercial open textbook organization initiated at the University of California, Davis, runs their Open Textbooks Program, intended to decrease the burden of textbook costs on college students while increasing the availability, usage and educational value of open textbooks that are freely available to download, edit, and share to better serve all students.

10. Merlot - Run by the California State University System, MERLOT curates OERs that have been licensed for reuse and materials that are online for free. Search includes audience, language, material type, Creative Commons licenses and accessibility.
    
    
11. MIT Open Course - Search through OERs created by MIT. Materials include textbooks, audio/visual lectures, lecture notes, assessments and courseware.
    
    
12. NOBA - Teach and learn psychology for free - Noba is a free online platform that provides high-quality, flexibly structured textbooks and educational materials. These textbooks and materials are licensed under the Creative Commons CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 International License. Users may reuse, redistribute, and remix the content to suit their needs.
    
    
13. NYPL Digital Collection - The New York Public Library has made almost 700,000 items - mostly images, although text, maps, audio and movie files are included - in their digital collections free to the public. Check individual items for any other copyright restrictions.
    
    
14. Oasis - A new database to search hundreds of sources of OERs hosted by SUNY Geneseo.
    
    
15. Open Education Consortium- The Open Education Consortium (OEC) is a non-profit, global, members-based network of open education institutions and organizations. OEC works with its members to build capacity to find, reuse, create and share Open Educational Resources (OER), develop open policy, create sustainable open education models, and enable international collaboration and innovation.
    
    
16. Open Textbook Library - This database, overseen by the Open Textbook Network, includes books authored by faculty from universities across the country, and many include peer reviews. You can browse by subject or do a simple search.
    
    
17. Open Textbook Network - The Open Textbook Library maintains a database of peer-reviewed academic textbooks. The textbooks are free, openly licensed, and complete; their adoption creates a measurable, positive impact on student success.
    
    
18. OpenStax - Although small, this collection of 34 textbooks covers some of the basic introductory classes in math, sciences and social sciences. The books have all been peer-reviewed.
    
    
19. Project Gutenberg - A digital library of over 60,000 free eBooks, including but not limited to the world's great literature, with focus on older works for which U.S. copyright has expired.
    
    
20. Teaching Commons - Browse for OERs in this aggregated database by the creator's institution, material type and subject.
    
    
21. World Digital Library - The World Digital Library (WDL) is a project of the U.S. Library of Congress, carried out with the support of the United Nations Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (UNESCO), and in cooperation with libraries, archives, museums, educational institutions, and international organizations from around the world. The WDL makes available on the Internet, free of charge and in multilingual format, significant primary materials from all countries and cultures.

AVAILABLE LIBRARY INSTRUCTIONS

1. Choosing a Database

​​​​​Goals - by the end of this module, you will be able to:

• Select a broad or a narrow database based on your need
• Select a database based on your subject of study
• Select a database based on the type of resource you need
• Use research guides to evaluate different databases

Outline

• What is a Database?
• Finding Databases
• Broad Versus Focused Databases
• Narrowing by Subject
• Narrowing by Source Types
• Practicing Selections
  2. Citing Sources: Plagiarism

Unintentional plagiarism is a serious problem for undergraduate students. Many students don't know how to prevent it, even when they want to. Worse, even unintentional plagiarism can have serious consequences. Repeatedly plagiarizing unintentionally will be considered a more severe violation each time, with consequences that may include failing the course, probation, suspension, or even expulsion. But there is good news. Citing sources correctly and avoiding plagiarism are skills that can be improved with practice. This video from the University of Rhode Island Libraries explains in more detail why it is important to cite your sources: https://youtu.be/zK-IWcMztos

3. Evaluating Online Sources through Lateral Reading: An Introduction

Audience – Essex County College students, faculty, and staff interested in strengthening their fact-checking and online source evaluation skills

Purpose - developing new strategies for evaluating online sources and improving one’s ability to investigate source credibility in order to recognize credible sources

Learning outcomes:

• Be familiar approaches to evaluating online sources.
• Recognize the importance of pausing when you have a strong emotional reaction to an information source in order to analyze sources more critically.
• Apply approaches to completing an initial evaluation of a web source’s credibility.
  4. Finding Newspaper Articles

There is a lot of newspaper content available freely online, much of which is of high quality. However, many of the most credible newspapers provide only limited access to their online content, and a lot of historical content remains unavailable online. The Library can provide access to a great deal of the news content that isn’t offered freely.

Learning outcomes:

• Search for newspaper articles from various newspaper publications.
• Develop and refine search strategies in the Newspaper Search in order to find newspaper articles that are relevant to a given topic.
• Locate a specific newspaper publication by using the Journal Finder in Library Search.
• Locate newspaper databases and online resources that are starting points for your search.
  5. Search Terms and Strategies

You will need - a research topic or question

 Goals - by the end of this module, you will be able to:

• Develop keywords for searching from your research topic or question
• Analyze results of an initial search to determine how you might adjust your terms to make it more effective

Outline

• Key Concepts
• Variations
• Creating Your Search
• Practice Searching
• Analyzing Your Results
• Next Steps

Please see the Rowan University tutorial https://rowan.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_b7Ppr2MJgHot3G5