Help Promote Open Access Week

Posted: October 23, 2018 | Author: | Filed under: Budget, Collections, Digital Scholarship | Leave a comment

Faculty members! Are you curious about open access and what you can do to promote it? One of the ways faculty can promote and support open access is to deposit their scholarship in an open access institutional repository. The University Libraries hosts and sponsors UofL’s institutional repository, ThinkIR, and has a staff coordinator dedicated to working with faculty to make their research and scholarship more accessible to a wider audience. See the attached document for other ways faculty can promote open access!

What Faculty Can Do To Promote Open Access

Support Open Access

University Libraries offers new digital historic Courier-Journal

Posted: January 8, 2018 | Author: | Filed under: Archives & Special Collections, Art Library, Books, Budget, Collections, Databases, Ekstrom Library, Kornhauser Health Sciences Library, Law Library, Music Library, New Items, University Archives & Records Center, University of Louisville Libraries | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

Despite recent budget challenges, the University Libraries have been able to maintain, or in some cases expand, the digital and print resources we offer our patrons. We have retained existing databases such as Elsevier’s Science Direct platform, and through cost efficiencies we are excited to offer new products, including the digital version of the historic Courier-Journal (1830-2000). Access to this new resource, which provides complete electronic access to the full Courier-Journal back file, is available from our web site at: https://library.louisville.edu/ekstrom/cj

The Libraries have realigned resources to assess efficiencies and create a more sustainable operating environment that ensures students, faculty and researchers can continue their important scholarship. Over the past year, the University Libraries system has:

  • Reassigned staff to focus on building sustainable collections.
  • Implemented a comprehensive e-resource management system.
  • Assessed costs and analyzed usage data for all databases and subscriptions.
  • Evaluated program needs and incorporated input from faculty.
  • Studied peer institutions for comparison.

As budget reductions brought about a significant funding shortfall for FY 18, we made the difficult decision to not renew the Elsevier platform whose costs had dramatically increased. In fall 2017, at the urging of Health Sciences Center faculty, the University restored funding for this critical resource.

We understand the Libraries’s centrality to scholarly work and are therefore excited to continue providing these rich resources for the University community. However, where we cannot provide access to resources, we offer our Inter-Library Loan system (ILL), as well as a broad spectrum of resources for faculty: http://library.louisville.edu/faculty.  You are invited to share your concerns with us via this online comment form.