Library information for new staff

Welcome to your Library

Discover your Library – explore the Library Home Page and take a look around the Library spaces.

See your Library Liaison Contact for a personal orientation to JCU Library Services and learn how the Library can support your teaching and research.

Finding journals, books and other publications held at JCU

• Start with One Search – the main search bar on the Library Home Page. This searches across databases, ejournals and the Library’s print collections (with a small number of exceptions). See our Using One Search Guide to get the most out of it.
• Browse Library Guides
  • Subject Area Guide have the best resources and tools for your field of study
  • Guides for specific Subject Codes can give advice targeted for assessment items.
  • Instructional "How to" Guides give advice on many aspects of the research process including Referencing
• The Library offers face-to-face and online assistance to students and staff searching and accessing resources for research, in addition to referencing (including EndNote support), and first tier IT support.

Ordering Library resources and requesting reserve items/course readings

• Our Reading List management system is branded  'Readings' and hosted on the Talis platform
  • Use the Readings guide to construct your reading lists and embed them in LearnJCU
  • Add any prescribed textbooks to your reading list and Library Services will arrange access (within licensing limits)
  • We urge you to consider your options when identifying a textbook as highlighted by our Textbook Affordability Project your Library Liaison Contact can help
  • Remember, if you need material digitised, you will need to give the library sufficient notice before students require access
• Use the Suggest a Purchase Request Form to recommend non-textbook materials for the Library's collection
• To read or borrow material the Library doesn't have in it's collection, we have a number of options to Borrow From Another Library

General Library information

• Library Opening hours change throughout the year, and may be different for each library location. Check our Library opening hours and Library locations/spaces.
• Borrow items from your Library. Your staff card is your library borrowing card.
  • Staff can borrow up to 100 standard loan items.
  • Apart from High Use items, loans are for a minimum of 3 Weeks and will auto-renew until requested by another user (so put a request on any items you wish to borrow that are currently checked out).
• Intercampus Service – access items on different campuses.
• Off Campus Service – find out what services we offer to off campus students and staff, including free postage for lending books.
• Copyright – check for up to date copyright information for teaching and learning.
• Keep current – the library has several social media accounts and a news blog, which are linked on our contact page. Follow us to stay up to date.
• Give us your feedback and suggestions.

Digital and information literacy skills

• Lifelong learning is a quality encouraged in the Graduate Attributes instilled in our students
• The Workshops and Training page includes information on face-to-face and online sessions. In addition to face-to-face training, have an extensive selection of "How To" guides and guides developed for specific subject areas (offering search tips and recommended databases), which can be searched from the search box on the home page.
• See your Library Liaison to organise subject-specific tutorials for your students.
• In LearnJCU, you can find a link to the Subject Guide for your area in Books and Tools, under "Your Library". If you would like to change the Guide linked in your LearnJCU site, contact us.

Publishing assistance

• Use ResearchOnline@JCU to load and provide free access to your research outputs.
• For more information about publishing academic research, measuring impact, open access publishing, HERDC and ERA refer to the Research Support Guides.

About your Library Liaison contacts

The Library Liaison service assists you with all library and information related matters including (but not limited to):

• Providing subject specific digital and information literacy classes. This can be a lecture or tutorial, an online collaborate session and/or online resources. Classes are usually focused on providing students with the skills to successfully complete the subject assessment tasks.
• Assistance with finding Open Education textbooks and textbooks within our holdings to help you chose required readings with minimum costs to the students.
• Subject specific collection development
• Planning library support for newly developed courses.
• Locating books, journals and other resources held at JCU.
• Purchasing new resources.
• Assisting with requests and advice regarding Readings lists for course readings. All electronically available readings for a subject or course should be in Readings to comply with copyright law.
• Providing assistance with publishing, citation metrics and Research Online@JCU.