Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, UMGC employees began working from home in March 2020, and this is expected to continue through at least mid-May, 2021. Because the UMGC Library is focused mainly on providing online academic research collections and services for students, faculty, and staff, the transition to full telework was mostly seamless.
Book borrowing and delivery had to be put on hold until the UMGC offices reopen, or other arrangements can be made. While phone service has not been available, the Library is looking into options for fulfilling this service in the spring semester. The librarians and staff and various Library teams continue to meet frequently via Zoom to work on projects, resolve issues, and coordinate electronic resources and services.
The usage of the library reference services and electronic collections was at an all-time high over the summer when many students were home and focusing on schoolwork. During the fall semester requests remain steady. It's clear that students and faculty are benefiting from the library and our resources more than ever and we are glad that we have been able to continue to provide the same quality resources and services that UMGC students and faculty have come to expect.
Changes, unless otherwise noted, were effective July 1, 2020.
TurnItIn Now Integrated Into Classrooms and Managed by the Office of Academic Integrity and Accountability (OAIA)
The TurnItIn service has recently been integrated directly into classrooms and is now managed by UMGC's Office of Academic Integrity and Accountability (OAIA). The Library continues to provide access to public and student-facing information about TurnItIn, but no longer manages the service directly.
UMGC’s Technical Support is prepared to help faculty and students with integrated Turnitin. Contact them first in any situation where you are having a problem.
Faculty and Chairs can visit the OAIA TurnItIn page in Engage for more information.
The UMGC Library provides library liaison services to UMGC faculty. We welcome the opportunity to work closely with faculty to provide tailored library services for individual classes, whether it be visiting your online or face-to-face class, assisting in adding information literacy components to specific course assignments or projects, or providing handouts or online resources customized to your discipline or current course topic. Please keep the liaison librarians in mind when you have library related questions, need extra help with research, or need instruction on how to use our resources.
Research assignments may prove difficult for students who have limited experience with conducting college-level research. Based on UMGC librarians’ extensive work helping students with research assignments, we offer Research Assignment Guidelines for faculty for effective assignment design.
Please complete the Faculty Request for Library Instruction form to schedule one or more sessions for your classes.
Need instruction but don't have time to schedule a facilitated session? Consider adding a stand-alone instruction module to your online classroom or add a link to the Library Research Tutorial. Please contact your library liaison for more information.
Questions? Comments? Need more information? Please contact Julie Harding, Assistant Director, Public Services, or the UMGC Library.
We look forward to working with you!