Back to school: 4 tips for faculty from ASU's librarians

"Polycronicon. English," printed on May 16, 1527, is among ASU Library's distinctive collections. Photo by Deanna Dent/ASU Now

By Britt Lewis |
August 14, 2018

Faculty are receiving a flurry of emails and fliers this week. To keep it simple, ASU Library offers just four tips to help make the new semester a successful one for them and their students.

1. Give your students access to your readings and course materials via ASU Library Reading Lists.

Access equals excellence, right?

Ensure your students’ success by making all your readings and course materials available online.

Now embedded in Blackboard and Canvas, the new ASU Library Reading Lists tool makes it easy to add electronic and print reserve items to your students’ reading lists. To begin building your course reserves, just add the tool.

2. Get to know Noble Library.

Noble Library is now home to many of the books that left Hayden Library last year in preparation for the renovation, which is now underway. (Not all, but many of the books will return to Hayden Library in 2020 when the renovation is complete.)

While many of the books now live at Noble, you can still have books delivered to Hayden Library if that is your preferred pick-up location.

3. We are open 24 hours a day, five days a week.

“The only thing you absolutely must know is the location of the library,” said Albert Einstein, but knowing the library hours can be helpful too.

Although Hayden Library is undergoing renovation, it remains open 24 hours a day, five days a week, during the semester. Noble Library is also open 24/5, and other libraries are open for late-night study. Additional study space for students on the Tempe campus has been added to Armstrong Hall, which will be open after-hours from 5 to 10 p.m.

4. Check out the data science lab.

Officially launching this semester, the Unit for Data Science and Analytics is a way to connect with a growing, interdisciplinary community of researchers leveraging machine learning, data analytics, visual storytelling, network analysis and text and data mining. A grand opening will take place Sept. 17–21 — coined Data Science Week — to introduce the ASU community to this new library resource.