News & Blog

Struggling to find the right words? This week’s Research Tip Thursday gives you quick tips on how to get the most out of subject terms when you are at a loss for words!

Find this tip and more at guides.ucf.edu/rtt

“HathiTrust is a partnership of academic & research institutions, offering a collection of millions of titles digitized from libraries around the world.” 

UCF is providing temporary online access to many HathiTrust digitized books which are owned in print by our UCF Libraries and for which the digitized copies are normally blocked because they fall within the period restricted by copyright. 

“Temporary Access” books:  

• Current UCF students, staff & faculty. 
• Login with NID after connecting 
• Can be read ONLY online  
• Check out for 1 hour (access will renew automatically at the end of that hour, unless another user requests the book) 

Looking for a quick and easy technique to help you incorporate supporting evidence in your writing? Check out this week’s Research Tip Thursday video! You will find a simple strategy that you can use to keep track of evidence as you go and quickly identify gaps that need filled.

Find this video and more at guides.ucf.edu/rtt

Hispanic Heritage Month, established in 1988, runs from September 15 through October 15. It recognizes and celebrates the contributions of Hispanic and Latino Americans have made to the United States. Florida in particular has a strong Hispanic legacy including the oldest inhabited city in the U.S., St. Augustine, which was founded in 1565 by the Spanish. UCF will also be celebrating our status as a Hispanic-serving institution (HSI) which means more than 25% of our enrolled students identify as Hispanic. Details on the HSI Week events can be found through the UCF Events Calendar.

Join the UCF Libraries as we celebrate our favorite Hispanic authors and books. Click on the link below to see the full list, descriptions, and catalog links for the featured Hispanic Heritage titles suggested by UCF Library employees. These 10 books plus many more are also on display in the new 4^th floor Reading Room in the John C. Hitt Library.

Featured Bookshelf: Hispanic Heritage

One way that faculty can help reduce the cost of a college education and positively impact student academic performance is to remove the barrier of high cost, commercially produced textbooks. There are several options for faculty to support textbook affordability efforts.

• See if the library can offer your textbook as an electronic book. The library will check for eBook candidates that allow unlimited users and offer favorable digital rights management (DRM). Contact your Subject or Campus Librarian for more information.
• Join faculty who have adopted an open textbook. Open textbooks allow anyone to read, copy, distribute, or modify the course content at no cost.
• Donate a copy of your print textbook to the library. Contact your Subject or Campus Librarian to donate currently assigned textbooks to the library.
• Work with the bookstore! Submit your assigned course textbook(s) on time to allow students to shop the cost of course materials and the bookstore to locate used and rental textbooks.

To date, UCF faculty have taught over 500 classes using open or library-sourced materials, in turn reaching almost 35,000 students and potentially saving them just over $3,200,000.* *Savings are calculated as cost of a new book by number of course enrollments as of Spring 2020.

For more information: library.ucf.edu/textbook-affordability