Open Education Events This Week

Every year, in the month of March, there is a week-long global recognition of the importance of Open Education. Its goal is to raise awareness about the impact of open education on teaching and learning worldwide. Open Education Global promotes events on an international scale to increase knowledge of Open Educational Resources (OER) and other topics within Open Education. Hopefully you will have a chance to participate in some of these opportunities, and you may consider the following events offered by Massachusetts state colleges and universities, including a panel to be held here at UMass Dartmouth.

Celebrate Open Education Week 2024

During Open Education Week (March 4th – 8th) there are numerous opportunities to increase your knowledge of the exemplary Open Education work happening worldwide. Open Education is a way of sharing educational tools, resources, and practices without access barriers such as high financial costs or requisite credentials and affiliations. It is a philosophy surrounding readily available teaching materials and creating a strong community of support between educators.

A stipend program was established last year at UMass Dartmouth to fund the creation of openly licensed textbooks by members of our faculty. A virtual panel will be offered on March 6th by the Scholarly Communications Committee to showcase the textbooks that resulted from this program. The textbook projects are E-Commerce and E-Business by Shouhong Wang, A Guide to Analyzing Arguments in an Academic Setting by Jackie O’Dell, Joshua Botvin, and Yuan Zhang, and Women’s & Gender Studies by Catherine Gardner. Each author will give an overview of the book they created. All 3 books are freely available online through OER Commons, an online repository of openly licensed teaching material. This panel will also include a demo of OER Commons by Repository Coordinator Rachel Oleaga.

Register to reserve your spot!

Borrow a Free Mobile Hotspot

Use the Carney Library’s Franklin A50 5G hotspots to connect up to 15 devices using AT&T’s cellular network. The library provides unlimited data, and loan periods are for one week.

You can check availability for hotspots and other new/popular technologies on the library’s Technology Lending webpage. You can borrow a hotspot at the Carney Library’s 1st floor Circulation Desk.

If you have questions about borrowing a hotspot, please call 508-999-8750 or email libaccess@umassd.edu. Technical questions should be sent to libsys@umassd.edu.

One Click Access to Library Resources Using LibKey Nomad

LibKey Nomad makes accessing library resources a lot easier, especially when you start your research outside the library. LibKey Nomad is a browser extension that provides one-click access to full text library resources from websites such as PubMed, Wikipedia, and publisher pages. Check out the first minute of this short video for a brief overview:

The library has offered LibKey Nomad for individual download for a while. Starting Monday, February 26th, the library, in collaboration with CITS, will begin pushing the Chrome and Edge extensions to all university owned workstations. After the plugin is installed, if you run a search on a site like PubMed, or even look at citations in Wikipedia, you’ll see Third Iron generated links connecting researchers to library materials. You will also see links to LibKey links on many publisher sites, simplifying full text access.

Here are a few examples of how LibKey Nomad may appear:

Example #1: PubMed

Example #2: Wikipedia References

Screenshot showing libkey generated links in Wikipedia

Example #3: Publisher Websites

Screenshot showing libkey generated links on a publisher's page

In you want to install LibKey Nomad on your personal machine, you can do so at https://thirdiron.com/downloadnomad/#choose-browser. The extension does not require a login and it doesn’t collect any personally identifiable information.

If you have questions, please contact libsys@umassd.edu.

Now Available: Meeting OWL 3

The Meeting OWL 3 is a 360 degree camera, microphone, and speaker designed for hybrid meetings. It works with most video conferencing software, including Zoom and Microsoft Teams.

The Claire T. Carney Library has two Meeting OWL 3 devices for loan to UMass Dartmouth students, faculty, and staff.

Students: Stop by the library’s first floor circulation desk to borrow an OWL for up to 4 hours. You can use the OWL in conjunction with the display monitors in LIB-217 and LIB-311 to host hybrid meetings with classmates, companies, and more.

Faculty and Staff: You may reserve one of the OWLs up to two months in advance. The reservation period is for 3 days. The library is piloting the equipment reservation option with the hope that it will make the devices easier to use when hosting professional meetings. To reserve an OWL, call the circulation desk staff at 508-999-8750 or email them at libaccess@umassd.edu. Alternatively, you can reserve the OWL directly by going to the Primo record and clicking “Request.” (Note: You must be signed into Primo to request an item.)

Limited Computer Access during New Student Orientation – Jan 17th & 18th

New Student orientation will take place at the Claire T. Carney Library on the following days:

Transfer Session: January 17th
First-year Session: January 18th

Updated on Jan 16th: New students will have priority access to the library’s 1st floor and 2nd floor computers as part of their orientation. If you plan to visit the library during Student Orientation, you are welcome to bring your own laptop or mobile device. UMass Dartmouth students, faculty, and staff may also borrow laptops at the first floor circulation desk.

If you have any questions, please contact Library Administration.

Spring Titles for Library Book Club

Here are the titles and dates for our spring meetings. All are welcome and there is no judgement if one doesn’t finish the book…but be aware there may be spoilers! If you need any assistance with ordering a copy through the Library’s Interlibrary Loan service or the Commonwealth Catalog, please contact kmofford@umassd.edu.

  • Wednesday, February 21 at Noon:  The Once and Future Witches, by Alix E. Harrow (this title is a bit longer (516 pages), so order it early).
  • Tuesday, April 16 at 12:30: Tea with the Black Dragon, by R.A. MacAvoy.

Our meeting is hybrid, so if you would like to come in person, we will be in Library 240 and if you would like to join by Zoom, please contact kmofford@umassd.edu.

Extended Hours for Finals

The Claire T. Carney Library will be open for extended hours for finals starting on Sunday, December 3. View the library calendar for details.

The library will be open for the following hours through the end of the semester:

  • Sunday, December 3, 3pm – Friday, December 8, 6pm (open continuously)
  • Saturday, December 9, 10am – 6pm
  • Sunday, December 10, 3pm – Friday, December 15, 6pm (open continuously)
  • Saturday, December 16, 10am – 6pm
  • Sunday, December 17, 3pm – 11pm
  • Monday, December 18, 7:30am – 11pm
  • Tuesday, December 19, 7:30am – 5pm

Celebrate International Open Access Week

Cross-posted from the Scholarly Communications Blog.

This year’s theme for International Open Access Week (Oct. 23 – Oct. 29) is Community over Commercialization. Open Access (OA) places the value of accessible information to the public above monetary interest in knowledge dissemination. OA removes restriction from research outputs such as journal articles, books, datasets, and more. Have you ever hit a paywall in your research? Perhaps you have located the abstract for an article that sounds ideal for your project, but then you click to find a request for your credit card. Interlibrary loan is a solution for the UMass Dartmouth community in those circumstances, but what about researchers who do not have library resources available?

The free and immediate availability of academic publications online means that the research will be read and built upon by a wider and more diverse audience. With this greater exposure comes more opportunity in the academic and scientific community. This publishing model is not available for all academic research at this time, but acknowledging Open Access Week is a great way to expand awareness of OA, and to learn more.

Here are some ways to deepen your understanding of OA this week:

Position Opening: Library Assistant IV

We are currently looking for a Library Assistant IV to join our team! This patron-focused position is an important member of the Claire T. Carney Library’s Access Services Department.

General Summary of Position:  The Library Assistant IV is responsible for performing day-to-day activities in the area of access services. These activities include assisting patrons with circulating materials by charging, renewing, and discharging library materials; providing technical support to patrons using library computers, printers, or connecting personal devices to the university network; supervising student workers; and assuming responsibility for the operation of the library in the absence of a supervisor, especially during night and weekend hours.

The review of applications will begin 10/30/2023 and will be ongoing.

For more information and to apply for the position, see the full job posting at http://careers.umassd.edu/dartmouth/en-us/job/521020/library-assistant-ivaccess-services.