News & Blog

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

Planning a search strategy is the first step to fast and efficient research. Check out this week’s Research Tip Thursday and learn a tried and true technique to make you a master strategist in less than 2 minutes!

Each semester the UCF Libraries offer workshops for graduate and postdoctoral researchers as part of the College of Graduate Studies Pathways to Success program.

Please let your students know about these online workshops. For fall 2020 all workshops will take place virtually through Zoom. Students can register by logging in at myUCF – Student Center – Graduate Students – Pathways to Success

Details and a full listing of library workshop sessions: https://guides.ucf.edu/graduateworkshops. For questions or to request a customized workshop, please contact Corinne Bishop, UCF Graduate Engagement Librarian.

When you are writing papers and paraphrasing secondary sources do you find yourself wondering if you are changing it enough? For tips on how to avoid plagiarizing by under paraphrasing, check out the first video in a new series called Research Tips Thursday!

Each Thursday we will be posting quick videos to help you build your research skills. Be sure to visit https://guides.ucf.edu/rtt to see the latest video, look for what’s ahead and sign up to be notified when new content posts.

The John C. Hitt Library has re-opened with limited in-person and virtual services for the fall semester. We wanted to update you on some new spaces and re-location on some services. We have a beautiful, new main entrance on the Student Union Plaza side. Once you enter you will find the new and bigger Circulation Desk. Our “legacy” entrance (near the reflecting pond) is still available too.

The LibTech Desk (originally on the third floor), is now located on the main floor at what used to be the Circulation Desk (right inside the legacy entrance). New this semester is an amazing new Reading Room on the 4th Floor with 270-degree views of the campus!

John C. Hitt hours for fall semester: Monday-Thursday, 8AM – 6PM; Friday, 8AM – 5PM; Saturday, 10AM – 6PM; Sunday, Noon – 6PM.
• 21st Century Library Expansion: https://library.ucf.edu/21st
• Updates on Services: https://library.ucf.edu/coronavirus
• Remote Resources: https://guides.ucf.edu/covid