Dear Deans, Chairs, Faculty Librarian Liaisons, and other library friends,

Happy Brazilian Independence Day! Welcome to the Back in School edition of Chambers Chat -- we’ve got a lot to cover this month, so I’ll jump right in:
 

Library Lunch

I am delighted to announce that the Chambers Library will once again host the annual library lunch on October 19 for deans, chairs, library faculty liaisons, and other faculty who work with the Chambers Library. We hold this lunch to show our appreciation to all our faculty partners for your work with the library (thank you, thank you!), and we also take the opportunity to share some updates and information. I will send an Outlook meeting invitation in a week or two, along with a reminder a week before the event, and we would love for all of you to come and eat lots of fajitas (yes, we're ordering from Ted’s again!).
 

Interested in Ordering Library Materials?

Instructions for ordering library materials can be found via the Faculty Services page on the library’s website, or you are also welcome to reach out to the librarian responsible for your area. (If you don’t know who that is, the librarians for each area are listed on the library’s website or you can ask at libraryresearch@uco.edu.) Your librarian will work with you to make sure that your department’s funds for this semester are spent by the November 7 deadline.
 

Library Workshops

As you may remember, I mentioned the library workshops on basic information management tools and plagiarism in August’s newsletter, so I wanted to be sure to let you know that we’ve got another in September: “Get Organized! Introduction to Reference Management” will be offered on Thursday, September 28, at 10am & 5pm in room 226 in the Chambers Library. Stay tuned to this channel to hear about workshops on misinformation, APA, MLA, and more in October and November!
 

Innovation Studio Open House

The library’s Innovation Studio, a space to dream and create, will have an Open House on September 20 at 5-6 pm. Come tour the human body in virtual reality, use the Cricut to make stickers and magnets, watch the 3D printer at work, and explore the myriad of tools available to turn your idea into a real, live object. (NB: The use of the word “live” was hyperbole on my part; surprisingly few of the Innovation Studio projects have the same results as Dr. Frankenstein’s.)
 

Double Feature: Database + Restaurant

And now for the moment you’ve all been waiting for: this month’s featured database is Underground & Independent Comics (linked below), which includes thousands of comics, many extremely rare and hard to find. The collection contains over 200,000 pages of original material accompanied by interviews, commentary, scholarly criticism, and other supporting materials, including the complete transcripts of the senate subcommittee hearings that created the Comics Code Authority. You can find answers to questions like “What were the political, cultural, and economic conditions that led to the rise of the superhero in US comics?” or you can just have fun browsing.

I thought hard and long before recommending a BBQ restaurant this month, but I decided to go ahead and hope that our relationship can survive any differences of opinion. So today’s restaurant is: Steve’s Rib (941 W I- 35 Frontage Rd, Edmond). The smoked turkey and BBQ sauce are lovely, but the real reason my family keeps going back are the cobblers (I’m looking at you, apple), which are simply the best.

NB#2: I did my best to update the Chambers Chat mailing list for the new academic year, but I’m confident that there are changes of which I am unaware. If you feel you received this email by mistake please feel free to contact me and I will edit as needed. Have a great weekend!

Best,
Lee Anne

Lee Anne H. Paris, PhD
Director of Research & User Engagement
Max Chambers Library
E: lparis@uco.edu | O: 405-974-2880

Dear Deans, Chairs, and Faculty Library Liaisons,

Welcome to the End of (what felt like a very short) Summer edition of Chambers Chat! I hope you had a wonderful summer break full of rest, renewal, and lots of ice cream. In case you’ve been desperately concerned that you didn't receive any library information/restaurant suggestions over the summer, please let me assuage your fears: the Chambers Chat only goes out monthly during the fall and spring semesters (August to May), so you haven’t missed anything, I promise. And now for a few tips that will hopefully be helpful as you’re preparing for the fall semester: 
 

Plagiarism Instruction 

To help students learn to locate, evaluate, and use information effectively and ethically, our fantastic research librarians have created an online plagiarism guide that presents a plethora of practices to prevent plagiarism (yes, I’m apparently feeling alliterative today). Additionally, if you’d like to request library instruction on plagiarism or any other research topic for your courses, our librarians would be happy to visit your class virtually or in person to share those resources. The library is also offering two workshops in August: one on basic information management tools on Aug. 29 and another on avoiding plagiarism on Aug. 30. Both workshops will be offered in room 226 in the Chambers Library at 10am and 3pm. 
 

Helping Students with No/Low Cost Course Materials 

As I mentioned last spring, open educational resources (also known as OER or open source materials) are materials for teaching or learning that are FREE to students (they are either in the public domain or have been released under a license that allows them to be freely used, changed, or shared with others). The Chambers Library has created an online guide to help you get started if you’re interested in using OER to reduce textbook costs for your students. And please don’t forget that you can also link to the Chambers Library’s digital books and articles (which are free to you and your students) in your D2L courses!  As a quick reminder, multiple students can read an article at the same time, but most of the library’s ebooks only allow one reader at a time because we only own one “copy” (I know that doesn’t make sense, but publishers are frequently more interested in revenue than sense). If you need help using any of these resources, just call 405.974.3361 or email libraryresearch@uco.edu.

Featured Database: Dissertations & Theses Global 

This month I thought I’d do a double feature recommendation of a database + a restaurant, so here goes: Dissertations & Theses Global (see link below) provides a comprehensive collection of dissertations and theses that includes citations to dissertations and theses written in over 80 countries from 1637 (let me repeat, 1637) to the present day. The database includes more than 5 million citations and 3 million full text works from thousands of universities, with most of the works created after 1996 being full text. You can follow my example and search for your own dissertation or thesis, but it’s also a great resource for comprehensive literature reviews and citation mining. 

Restaurant Recommendation

You probably don’t want to get out in the heat (or ask a delivery person to get out, either), but this month’s restaurant for when you leave the house again is La Baguette (7408 N May Ave, OKC). The pecan-crusted baked Brie and the chicken mushroom crêpes are délicieux, but the fabulous desserts are the real attraction – the chocolate mice were always a huge hit with my kids. 

NB: While I did my best to update the Chambers Chat mailing list for the new academic year, I’m absolutely positive that there are changes of which I am unaware, so please feel free to send me a sternly worded email if you feel you received this email in error so that I can edit as needed.

Stay safe and cool!

Best,
Lee Anne

Lee Anne H. Paris, PhD
Director of Research & User Engagement
Max Chambers Library
E: lparis@uco.edu | O: 405-974-2880

Dear Deans, Chairs, and Faculty Library Liaisons,

Welcome to the Star Wars Day edition of Chambers Chat! Today we're diving into library resources for D2L, interlibrary loan logins, book donations, and library research help:
 

APA Style Tutorial for D2L

One of our outstanding research librarians, Jean Longo, has worked with CeCE to develop an APA Style Tutorial for D2L including videos and more that can be easily uploaded into your D2L courses. Thanks to the very helpful Nick Poss from CeCE, that tutorial is now available as a zipped D2L Brightspace Package file (please click here for video instructions on uploading the file into D2L). Stay tuned to this channel for future D2L tutorials that could be helpful in your courses, and please don’t forget that you can also embed a librarian in your D2L courses (instructions are attached below) to provide your students with direct access to research help. (Our thanks to all the faculty who are already using embedded librarians!).
 

Interlibrary Loan Login

In order to make it easier for you to use our interlibrary loan (ILL) services (and also to comply with new federal rules), we are moving to a system where you can use your UCO username and password to login to the ILL system instead of having to use a different username and password. Before we make that change on May 15, though, we wanted to let you know that if your current ILL login does not use your UCO username, you might be asked to create a new account using your uco.edu information. Please rest assured that if that happens, we will merge your new account with your old one so that you will have ALL the information about what you've ordered through ILL in the past. On top of that, we’ll even deliver your library materials to your office for free if you can say “interlibrary loan login” three times really fast (yes, we already deliver materials for free to faculty and staff, but feel free to try anyway).
 

Cleaning Out Your Office?

If you’re retiring, changing offices, or have been inspired to spring clean your office, please remember that the Chambers Library would be very happy to come pick up any books you’d like to donate (we’ll even bring boxes and pack them for you). Book donations are tax deductible, and we can provide a list of titles donated for your tax records.
 

Helping Students Use Information Effectively & Ethically

To help students develop the skills they need to locate, evaluate, and use information effectively and ethically, our research librarians visit classes at the instructor’s invitation to show students how to search for and evaluate articles, books and more. The librarians also create online research guides for selected classes as well as for more general topics (for examples, see the guides for Psychology; Educational Sciences, Foundations, & Research 5013; English 1213; and Plagiarism). If you’d like to request library instruction or an online research guide (or both) for your summer or fall classes, our librarians would be happy to tailor the information presented to your course or a specific assignment.
 

Restaurant Recommendation

Having grown up in Brazil, I was going to recommend Café do Brasil this week, but I very much regret to inform you that it closed its doors last Friday (please excuse me while I mourn briefly). Instead, I’m going to go with Hunnybunny Biscuit Co. in OKC and Edmond. Their biscuit sandwiches and chicken pot pie are pretty great, and their French toast biscuit and/or definitely-non-store-bought jams (with or without a biscuit) are lovely for dessert (or really any time at all).
 

May the Fourth be with you!
 

Best,
Lee Anne

Lee Anne H. Paris, PhD
Director of Research & User Engagement
Max Chambers Library
E: lparis@uco.edu | O: 405-974-2880

Dear Deans, Chairs, and Faculty Library Liaisons,

Happy Thursday! Welcome to the April (but not April Fools’) edition of Chambers Chat, where we'll be talking about finding preprints and avoiding predatory journals. Without further ado, here we go:
 

New Preprint Database

Web of Science™ recently launched the Preprint Citation Index™, a multidisciplinary collection of preprints from leading repositories that helps faculty stay current on research in their field (there’s more info on Preprint here if you’re interested). To access this database, you can use the link above or you can also:

1. Go to the search box on the library’s website
2. Select the “Databases” tab
3. Type “Web of Science” in the search box and then click on the link
4. Change “All Databases” on the drop-down menu to “Preprint Citation Index”

If you have difficulties finding or using the Preprint database (or have any other library-type questions, really), please feel free to

• call us at 405.974.3361
• email us at libraryresearch@uco.edu
• text us at 405.266.5895
• schedule an appointment with a librarian
   

Predatory Journal Information

Cabells (a reliable source for identifying predatory journals) is offering tutorial sessions on distinguishing between legitimate and predatory journals via Zoom during the week of April 24th.

• Register here for one of the sessions about legitimate and predatory journals in all academic disciplines
• Register here for one of the sessions about legitimate and predatory journals in medicine

Again, if you have any difficulties registering, please contact the library using the information listed above. If you can't attend the sessions, our amazing research librarians would also be happy to help identify predatory journals.
 

Restaurant Recommendation

Some of you enjoyed the restaurant recommendation from the last email, so here’s one more for those who might be interested: Tamashii Ramen, both the Edmond and OKC versions. The Miso Butter Corn Ramen with added egg is my absolute fave, but the Garlic Fried Rice is also very tasty.
 

As always, if you feel that you received this email in error or if there’s someone you’d like me to add to my mailing list, please let me know. I hope your weekend is full of rest and chocolate (or whatever your favorite treat happens to be).
 

Best,
Lee Anne

Lee Anne H. Paris, PhD
Director of Research & User Engagement
Max Chambers Library
E: lparis@uco.edu | O: 405-974-2880

Dear Deans, Chairs, and Faculty Library Liaisons,

Greetings from the Chambers Library! I’ve been trying to give you a bit of a break since all the emails I sent you last fall about fajitas (and a few library things), but I did want to share a couple of grant opportunities for you and your faculty.
 

$50 Training Grants for Open Educational Resources (OER)

The Oklahoma State Regents' Online Consortium is offering a $50 grant to anyone who completes their free OER 101 training. Open educational resources (also known as OER or open-source materials) are materials for teaching or learning that are FREE to students (they are either in the public domain or have been released under a license that allows them to be freely used, changed, or shared with others). Please see the attached flyer for more information.
 

Grants Available for Faculty Using No-Cost Textbooks

Faculty teaching at UCO are eligible to apply for $500-2500 in grant funding to support the adoption and/or development of no-cost textbook projects (please see the attached flyer for more information). In addition to the training mentioned above, the Chambers Library has created an online OER guide to help you get started if you’re interested in reducing textbook costs for your students.
 

No-Cost Library Resources for Courses

And don’t forget that you can link to the Chambers Library’s digital books and articles, which are also FREE to you and your students! Please remember that books and articles work a little differently: multiple students can read an article at the same time, but some of the library’s eBooks only allow one reader at a time because we only own one “copy” (yes, I know that doesn’t make much sense with eBooks, but so far the publishers don’t care). If you need help using OER or the library’s digital resources, please feel free to email libraryresearch@uco.edu and our fabulous research librarians would be happy to work with you to find options.
 

Restaurant Recommendation

As I close, I feel like I need to mention food somehow since it was such a constant theme in my emails last fall, so here's a restaurant recommendation for the weekend: Cous Cous Café (6165 N May Ave, OKC). The vegetable tagine is amazing, and the lamb tagine is life-changing.
 

As always, if you feel that you received this email in error, please let me know and I will do my best to reroute it to the right person. I hope you have a great weekend!
 

Best,
Lee Anne

Lee Anne H. Paris, PhD
Director of Research & User Engagement
Max Chambers Library
E: lparis@uco.edu | O: 405-974-2880