Faculty Support Services
The University Library provides resources and services to support and collaborate with faculty in instruction, research, creative activities, publication, grant application, and resource development.
Information Literacy Instruction / Library Faculty Liaisons
Liaison librarians function as the primary connection between academic departments and the University Library. They promote informational, digital, and media literacy across campus, and play a key role in supporting and assessing student learning and success through instruction to a variety of classes.
Our liaison team works with the teaching faculty to develop course-integrated instruction sessions based on the Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education defined by the Association of College and Research Libraries. Use this online form to request a Library Information Literacy Session for your class
Liaisons also provide individual research consultations for students in person, via phone, email, and online chat. They advise students on defining research topics, locating resources, creating bibliographies, managing citations, and more. Each Library Faculty Liaison also creates a subject and/or course-specific online research guides for student use.
Open Educational Resources (OER)
The Library supports the utilization of Open Educational Resources (OER), and helps faculty choose and provide quality educational content that is more affordable for students. Our Affordable Learning Solution(AL$) of the CSU system-wide Affordable Learning Solutions (ALS) initiative supports and honors faculty who are committed to affordable learning, and the Library has also established an Open Access Author Fund for tenured and tenure-track faculty and lecturers who make their articles available via open access.
Borrowing
The Library Service Desk is located on the 1st floor of Library North. Service Desk staff can help you:
- Check-out or return books, CDs, DVDs, DVD players, Course Reserve items
- Pick-up or return items borrowed from other libraries (Interlibrary Loan)
- Place, check-out or return items on Hold
- Pay fines
- Make change
- Find lost items at our lost & found station
Visit Borrowing for more information.
Course Reserves
Course reserves are created upon instructor request to support a particular course. Print or physical media materials are made available at the Library Service Desk and some items can be placed on Electronic Reserve. For more information, visit the Course Reserves page.
Items from Other Libraries (Interlibrary Loan and CSU+)
If a book, media item, or journal article that you need is not owned or not available at the Cal State LA University Library we can attempt to get it from another library at no cost to you. Learn more about how to request items from other libraries.
Purchase Requests
Requests for purchase of new monographs and periodical titles should be processed through your college/department Library Faculty Liaison.
Institute for Research & Information Studies (IRIS)
The University Library, in collaboration with ORSCA, has created the Institute for Research and Information Studies (IRIS). The goal of IRIS is to provide professional development opportunities for faculty that support their research and scholarship. IRIS also provides courses and workshops on issues related to the access, use, and production of information. The work of IRIS centers around online programming (expanded to F2F when campus re-opens) directed at faculty that helps them achieve excellence in teaching and scholarship by offering online self-paced workshops and webinars in the areas of research compliance and funding as well as information ethics, pedagogy, and technology. For more information, visit the IRIS page.
Faculty Professional Development Support
The Library supports faculty professional development and RTP review with databases such as Scopus, and Cabells Journalytics and Predatory Reports.
We also support faculty community engagement and service-learning via databases like SimplyAnalytics, DataPlanet, Statista, and a variety of other online, print, and primary resources. The Library can also assist with locating hard-to-find resources, identifying potential publication venues, and disseminating faculty scholarly and creative work via our institutional repository.
Off-Campus Database Access
Some electronic resources are restricted to the Cal State LA community (currently enrolled students, faculty & staff) due to licensing/copyright agreements with vendors and publishers. Learn how to access Library electronic resources from off-campus.