Course Reserves
You can put textbooks or other course readings, movies, or music on reserve for your students, both physically in the library and electronically through Penn State University Libraries’ electronic reserve system. Contact Yesenia Figueroa at yuf3@psu.edu with your reserve requests.
Research Instruction for Your Students
We offer research instruction sessions by faculty request to help your students do the research required for their assignments in your course. All classes are tailored according to the learning objectives and goals of your assignment, but examples of topics covered are as follows:
- How to find appropriate resources for your topic (books, articles, websites, etc.)
- How to evaluate information for credibility and usefulness
- How to find scholarly research in a particular field
- How to distinguish original research articles from other types of scholarly writing
- How to find local demographic and business information
- How to cite your sources
Instruction sessions are generally held in one of the computer labs on campus.
Please read the Best Practices for Research Instruction guidelines before scheduling a session with Jennifer Gilley at jrg15@psu.edu.
There are many ways we can support your students’ research beyond just a one-time instruction session. See our Additional Support for Student Research page for details.
Help With Your Research
We can help with your professional research as well as provide you with individualized instruction on using any of our databases, services and resources. Just contact Amy Rustic at aer123@psu.edu and let us know what you need.
Interlibrary Loan
You have many options for getting materials that are not owned by Penn State. You can use ILLIAD to get articles that are not available through the Penn State Library system. You can use Interlibary Loan to request articles and books that are not available from Penn State. Visit the Penn State Libraries Interlibrary Loan web page for details.
Suggest Books/Movies/Music for the Collection
We need your help! No one knows better than you do what materials your students might need to support their coursework. Please let us know of any books or other materials you think the library should buy to support instruction in your field. We're also happy to buy materials that are of personal interest as well, within reason.
Join the Wall of Fame
Published something recently? Won an award? Got tenure or a promotion? Please let us know. We have an exhibit case in the main hallway where we display copies of recent articles or other materials published by our faculty, and celebrate other faculty achievements. We also throw a Faculty Publications Party every December in the library to celebrate, so don't be left out!
Free Chronicle of Higher Education Access
All members of the Penn State University community have free access to the Chronicle of Higher Education. Just go to the Chronicle home page, click on Log In, and sign up for an account. You must use your Penn State email address in order for the account to be free. Once you have an account you will be able to access premium content from any computer, even off campus, by logging in.