Use these forms to make your research requests:
The library is happy to work with instructors to provide materials for their students at the prison. Our goal is to make this as simple for you to manage as possible. But remember that the library has a very small, very busy staff and so all library research assignments for your students must be planned for and coordinated with the librarian in advance, either in person or by phone (x8739 -- voicemail x8735).
For classes that need current article research on topics (sociology, etc.):
For each class: In general, it won't be practical to respond to individual student requests. Instead the library would provide a selection of appropriate materials on topics for assignments chosen by the instructor.
Example 1: For a class, an instructor might want to get one particular article that all students would read. For this situation we would provide a sufficient number of copies for all students plus the instructor (a total of 31 or whatever). We would need 24 hours to provide this material.
Example 2: For students who need to work individually with current research on various topics, instructors can provide the library with a list of topics and we would provide a designated number of articles related to each topic. The number of materials on a specific topic would be agreed upon with the instructor. (So we might provide 1-4 articles on a given topic, for example.) Instructors would need to keep the number of different topics manageable. (For a class of 30, we could provide material on up to 35 topics, which would allow all students to have some choice.) We would need at least a week's advance notice to provide this material.
Spanish translations of many materials can be provided if requested. Translations will be made using computer-translation tools provided by database providers.
If you want to have students request their own material (not a preferred option), you should speak with the librarian in advance in order to discuss scheduling, time frames and arrange for requests to reach library staff. The library's concern is responding to students in a timely manner that meets both their needs and your course deadlines. We can't meet these needs without the instructor's cooperation.
For assignments where students will need to use books:
Using books for research for prison-based classes is impractical in terms of individual user requests because of the difficulty in getting materials approved by the correctional center, as well as the delays imposed by simply getting requests to and from the facility. Here are services for prison outreach entailing books that we can provide:
For general, topic-based, book research:
We recommend that you have your students use a selection of reference materials or copies of book chapters, which we can prepare as in Example 2 above. We will be happy to recommend resources for this. The library has multiple subject-specific databases which can be used to provide these resources.
Assigning students to read specific titles:
Instructors must discuss this option with the librarian in person or by phone (443-8739 -- voicemail 443-8735). This will require advance planning. Typically, the library only keeps single copies of titles. As a result, competition for specific titles chosen as required supplemental reading for courses will be intense if a single list is used for multiple sections of a course (on-campus, online and/or at the prison).
Instructors must contact the library as soon as possible with a short list of titles they hope to use. We can then potentially purchase multiple copies of the specific titles as needed (based upon availability). We would only do this if the same materials will be used for successive semesters; otherwise the process is cost prohibitive. To avoid additional processing time, instructors should select titles that the library currently owns.
Processing time: After the books arrive at the library, processing will be a minimum of 1 week. To this must be added: time to assess orders' viability, order books and have them shipped, and time to catalog books that are not titles in the library's collection. Realistically, an instructor should allow at least 3-4 weeks for the entire process. Only books that can be ordered in quantity from a single supplier and so expedite shipping will be considered. Out of print titles may not be requested unless specifically arranged for with the library (with the understanding considerable extra time will be required to acquire multiple copies). The library retains final right of refusal in relation to these orders.
We will happily assist instructors interested in undertaking this process to identify appropriate titles. Clearly this will work best for classes that arrange for resources prior to a semester's start, but we will accommodate orders after the beginning of a semester as expeditiously as possible.
Instructors must plan and arrange for any books to be checked out. (Individual printouts of materials will not be checked out, but will simply be packaged for pick up.) Contacting the library a day in advance of pickup can expedite this process (email to library@dacc.edu).