BU Libraries Support for Learn from Anywhere

The Boston University Libraries make every effort to support learning, teaching and course support at the university under Learn from Anywhere. This includes providing access to materials, as well as research support for faculty and students.

NOTE: Some library services for the Schools of Law, Medicine, Dental Medicine, Public Health, and Theology are provided separately by the libraries supporting those schools.

Books, Articles, Media, and Other Materials

Online Books The BU Libraries provide access to books where we have avenues to do so. The Libraries prioritize eBooks and other digital formats to allow for the greatest possible online, simultaneous access. However, not all titles are available online for libraries to license even when options exist for individual, non-library use.

That said, our libraries can often provide additional options for this material, including book chapters made available on electronic course reserve. Please use this form to request material for course wide support: https://www.bu.edu/library/services/reserves/place-items-on-reserve/

Textbooks The BU Libraries do not acquire textbooks or other material typically provided through the bookstore. Additionally, most textbook publishers do not offer textbook licenses to libraries, meaning we often cannot obtain this material

Course Reserves Articles and book chapters needed for course wide use can be made available online via the Libraries course reserve system for students registered in a class. This includes articles and chapters available in our collection that are already online or can be scanned. It can also include articles and book chapters not available at BU that we can obtain for course reserve via our Interlibrary Loan service. • https://www.bu.edu/library/services/reserves/place-items-on-reserve/

HathiTrust Emergency Temporary Access Service The HathiTrust Emergency Temporary Access Service (ETAS) allows current BU students, faculty, and staff to have online reading access to selected materials that are physically in the BU Libraries. Access to those materials can be accessed by using the “Full Text Available at HathiTrust” link in BU Libraries Search. These items are available online to one user at a time, the same as the physical book would be, unless we have more than one physical copy. (As a condition of our participation in this service the physical books cannot be checked out.)

For those individuals wishing to use HathiTrust material for course wide use, we attempt to acquire an electronic copy to better serve the needs of the course. Portions of HathiTrust books within fair use can also be placed on digital reserves. HathiTrust material for course support is only recommended after other avenues have been exhausted.

Additional Requests for Materials to Be Added to the Collection The BU Libraries will also consider general requests for materials to support research or to add to our collection. Book requests are considered on a weekly basis, again with eBooks being prioritized. Journal and database requests are considered on an annual basis. This form can be used to suggest a resource for the library: https://www.bu.edu/library/research/collections/suggest-a-resource/

Interlibrary Loan Material needed for individual, rather than course-wide research, that is not in our collection can be requested through Interlibrary Loan. We may be able to get these resources from another library through our Interlibrary Loan service. • Interlibrary loan services

Instruction and Research Support

Research & Information Literacy Instruction

Librarians can help classes with presentations, workshops, and research and information literacy activities delivered synchronously or asynchronously. We can also prepare online course research guides focused on resources and strategies specific to the topics, assignments, and learning outcomes of a course.

Some things librarians can present on include:

 Developing research questions by exploring scholarly sources  Finding, evaluating, and using information resources  Navigating the Libraries website for research tools and databases  Making use of bibliographic management tools such as RefWorks, Zotero, and Mendeley

Students can get online help or make individual or group appointments with librarians via Zoom throughout the semester via our Ask a Librarian page

For more information, faculty can contact Ken Liss, Head of Liaison & Instruction Services or one of our subject specialists.

When contacting us about instruction, please include the following:

 Your name and an email address or phone number.  Course name and number.  Number of students in the class.  Any specific research goals you would like the librarian to cover.