Engineering – Library News

Aug 05 2020

Changes in Libraries’ services and hours

Posted on August 5, 2020August 17, 2020 by The University of Iowa Libraries

When campus libraries reopen on Aug. 17, services will resume in phases. To begin the semester, the Hardin Library for the Health Sciences, the Main Library, and the Sciences Library will allow building access only to University of Iowa members with a valid Iowa One Card or UI Health Care Badge. Also, all campus libraries will have shorter hours, closed book stacks, and some study areas will be unavailable.

These measures allow for appropriate quarantine of returned materials, reduce concerns about cleaning, and support social distancing due to COVID-19. Access will vary by location. For example, the Music Library and Art Library will limit occupancy by restricting access to service desks only. At the Main Library, access to the fourth and fifth floors will be limited to staff only, thus reducing impact on custodians.

“The Libraries staff understand users will be disappointed that they will be unable to browse the book stacks and fully utilize library study areas,” says John Culshaw, university librarian. “We hope conditions will shift soon, enabling us to restore access and hours. In the meantime, our plan reflects those at other libraries, including our Big Ten peers.”

In addition to limiting the risk of exposure to COVID-19 in the facility, closed stacks keep the Libraries in compliance with copyright agreements with HathiTrust Emergency Access Service (ETAS), which supplies emergency online access to a large portion of our collection. The ETAS service gives the Libraries access to nearly 50% of its print volumes. Find step-by-step access instructions for HathiTrust here. The ETAS service can remain available only while our stacks are closed.

Users can still borrow books by requesting book retrieval from the stacks at any campus library. Users are encouraged to request books in advance through Infohawk+. After requesting a book, users can choose from several ways to get the book. Faculty and staff can opt for delivery to campus offices. All borrowers, including community members, can request delivery by mail. Books borrowed from the Main Library’s collections can be picked up through a contactless service at the south entrance of the Main Library. Procedures vary by location; please check with your campus library for instructions.

As the semester unfolds, the Libraries will continue to monitor the situation. When deemed safe, the Libraries will consider extending hours and opening stacks for browsing.

Thank you for your patience as we navigate changing circumstances. Please contact us at any of our campus locations with questions regarding book access. Visit our fall 2020 FAQ for complete information about changes in library services.

May 05 2020

How to return materials to the UI Libraries

Posted on May 5, 2020September 25, 2020 by The University of Iowa Libraries

Book return map — University of Iowa Libraries’ regional book return map. Find a location near you to return your UI Libraries books and DVDs. The UI Libraries plans to continue this service while it’s needed.

University of Iowa students can return items to the UI Libraries from afar by dropping off items at one of 47 participating libraries across the state and region. See a map of these locations or the list of locations at the end of this article.

The UI Libraries has spearheaded this special service to help students living far from campus due to the pandemic. With the aid of partnering public and academic libraries, the UI Libraries will continue to offer this service while it’s needed.

This network of libraries is participating in an unprecedented cooperative project to assist library users who are sheltering far from the library from which they borrowed items. Each library in this network will accept items from the other participating libraries and return those items at no cost to the borrower.

Students who have University of Iowa library books to return can check the UI Libraries’ book return map for drop-off locations in the state and region. Students without access to a drop-off library and those living further than 30 miles from Iowa City can request a UPS shipping label.

Students living near campus are encouraged to return books at the Main Library drop box (125 W. Washington Street, return slots available at both the south and north entrances) or the Hardin Library drop box (600 Newton Road, next to the entrance that faces University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics). Students with tools or electronic equipment should schedule a drop off to ensure the security and safety of the items.

- Art Library: Please use the library drop box.
- Business Library: Please use the drop box for books and DVDs. Please return non-book items to the service desk or schedule a time by emailing lib-bus@uiowa.edu
- Engineering Library: Please use the drop box for books and DVDs. Please return non-book items to the service desk.
- Hardin Library: Please use the drop box for books and DVDs. Please return non-book items to the service desk.
- Main Library: Please use the drop box for books and DVDs. Please return non-book items to the service desk.
- Music Library: Please use the hallway book drop on the first floor of the Voxman Music Building.
- Sciences Library: UI users (students, faculty, and staff) can enter the facility to return materials. Non-UI users should use the book drop or schedule a time by emailing lib-sciences@uiowa.edu.

Before returning library items, please observe the following safe-handling practices:

Do not clean, disinfect, or microwave library materials before returning them. For example, do not use water, Lysol, or any other cleaner on materials.
If you or your family members are sick or have been sick, seal materials in a zip-lock style bag if possible before returning.
Wash your hands or use hand sanitizer before handling library materials for return and again after you have completed the return.

List of locations for materials return

Iowa State University Parks Library, 701 Morrill Road, Ames, IA
DMACC Ankeny campus Library Bldg 6, 2006 S. Ankeny Blvd, Ankeny, IA
Scott Community College Library, 500 Belmont Rd, Bettendorf, IA
DMACC Boone campus Library, 1125 Hancock Drive, Boone, IA
Northeast Iowa Community College Library Student Center, 1625 Hwy 150 S., Calmar, IA
DMACC Carroll campus Library, 906 North Grant Rd., Carroll, IA
University of Northern Iowa Rod Library, 1227 W 27th Street, Cedar Falls, IA
Mount Mercy University Busse Library, 1330 Elmhurst Drive NE, Cedar Rapids, IA
Kirkwood Community College Library Benton Hall, 6301 Kirkwood Blvd. SW, Cedar Rapids, IA
Clinton Community College Library, 1000 Lincoln Blvd, Clinton, IA
Coralville Public Library, 1401 5th Street, Coralville, IA
Southwestern Community College Library, 1501 W. Townline Street, Creston, IA
Saint Ambrose University Library, 518 W. Locust Street, Davenport, IA
DMACC Urban/Des Moines campus Library Bldg 1, 1100 7th Street, Des Moines, IA
Drake University Cowles Library, 2725 University Avenue, Des Moines, IA
Grand View University Library, 1350 Morton Avenue, Des Moines, IA
Mercy College of Health Sciences Library Sullivan Center, 928 6th Avenue, Des Moines, IA
Loras College Library, 1450 Alta Vista, Dubuque, IA
University of Dubuque Charles C. Myers Library, 2195 Grace Street, Dubuque, IA
Grinnell College Library, 1111 6th Ave, Grinnell, IA
Simpson College Dunn Library, 508 N C Street, Indianola, IA
Kirkwood Community College Library, 1816 Lower Muscatine Rd, Iowa City, IA
Iowa City Public Library, Iowa City, IA
University of Iowa Hardin Library, 600 Newtown Road, Iowa City, IA
University of Iowa Main Library, 125 W. Washington Street, Iowa City, IA
Southeastern Community College Fred Karre Memorial Library, 335 Messenger Rd, Keokuk, IA
Cornell College Cole Library, 320 3rd Street SW, Mount Vernon, IA
Muscatine Community College Library, 152 Colorado Street, Muscatine, IA
North Liberty Public Library, 520 W. Cherry Street, North Liberty, IA
Northwestern College DeWitt Library, 101 7th Street SW, Orange City, IA
William Penn University Wilcox Library, 201 Trueblood Avenue, Oskaloosa, IA
Indian Hills Community College Library, 525 Grandview Avenue, Ottumwa, IA
Northeast Iowa Community College Library, 8342 NICC Drive, Peosta, IA
Dordt University Hulst Library, 700 7th Street NE, Sioux Center, IA
Briar Cliff University Bishop Mueller Library, 3303 Rebecca Street, Sioux City, IA
Morningside College Library, 1501 Morningside Avenue, Sioux City, IA
Hawkeye Community College Library Main Campus, 1501 East Orange Road, Waterloo, IA
Wartburg College Vogel Library, 100 Wartburg Blvd, Waverly, IA
University of Illinois Main Library, 1408 W Gregory Drive, Urbana, IL
Indiana University Wells Library, 1320 E. Tenth Street, Bloomington, IN
Purdue University Library, West State Street, West Lafayette, IN
University of Michigan Hatcher Graduate Library, 913 S. University Avenue, Ann Arbor, MI
Michigan State University Main Library, 366 W. Circle Drive, East Lansing, MI
University of Minnesota Wilson Library, 309 19th Avenue S, Minneapolis, MN
University of Nebraska Love Library, 13th & R Street, Lincoln, NE
University of Wisconsin Memorial Library, 728 State Street, Madison, WI

Apr 03 2020

Emergency access to copyrighted books

Posted on April 3, 2020April 3, 2020 by The University of Iowa Libraries

Effective immediately and until normal access to physical collections resumes, students, faculty, and staff at the University of Iowa have online access to a large portion of the University Libraries’ print collection—volumes that would have been difficult to access from library facilities that are closed due to COVID-19.

Reading access to digitized copies of print volumes has been granted to the UI by HathiTrust, a not-for-profit, collaborative digital library that holds over 17 million volumes digitized from academic and research libraries. The UI Libraries, in collaboration with the Big Ten Academic Alliance, is a founding member of HathiTrust.

This means that any books available through HathiTrust that are also in the UI Libraries’ collections will be available online without the additional step of requesting a digital scan. HathiTrust’s online collection contains nearly half of the UI Libraries’ book collection for an additional 1.6 million volumes now available online for our campus community.

To take advantage of this resource:

Visit HathiTrust and click the yellow “LOG IN” button.
Select “University of Iowa” and log with your HawkID.
Use the site to locate the item you wish to view.
Click on the Temporary Access link at the bottom of the record to check out the item through the Emergency Temporary Access Service.
You will have 60 minutes of access to the book during any session. If you remain active in the book during any session, access time will be extended.
Please note that it is not possible to download books from HathiTrust. This is to protect authors’ rights.

HathiTrust has provided detailed instructions, including how to use the service on a phone or tablet.

For help with access to these and other digital resources at the UI Libraries, please contact us.

Mar 23 2020

Virtual Hours for UI Libraries

Posted on March 23, 2020March 31, 2020 by The University of Iowa Libraries

Click here to see our VIRTUAL HOURS during the time of COVID-19.

Dec 20 2019

Data Management Course for Researchers

Posted on December 20, 2019February 4, 2020 by Brian Westra

Got research data? Have you shared it?

Other researchers, funders, publishers, and the public want to know:

The public – A Pew research survey found that open access to data and independent review inspire more trust in research findings by the public.

Research participants – Many clinical trial participants understand and support data sharing (within confidentiality and privacy protections) in order to advance medical research and improve patient outcomes.

Funders – Research funders strongly encourage or require data sharing, and require that research proposals include data management plans describing data sharing.

Other researchers – Many research disciplines and related professional societies and associations require data to be shared in support of reproducibility, transparency, and accelerating research. For example: American Geophysical Union, earth and space sciences, social sciences, and American Psychological Association.

Journals/Publishers – Many journals also have requirements that data be shared and preserved via repositories. For example: International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, PLOS, Wiley, Nature, and Sage.

Preparing for data sharing

Good data management and curation practices will make it easier for you to preserve and share your data.

Graduate students are often responsible for many of the data management tasks associated with their research, and these practices may be new to them. These changing expectations and requirements may also be unfamiliar to faculty and staff. In order to assist with these tasks, the libraries provides instruction, consultations, and infrastructure to help researchers across the university with data management and curation.

In Spring 2020, we will be offering a 1-credit course on research data management.

This course is intended to build knowledge and expertise in essential best practices that students can immediately apply in their own research settings. We’ll focus on active-learning, with readings and discussion-based explorations of how to apply good data management to planning, active research, and preserving and sharing data.

The course is appropriate for any researcher who deals with quantitative data. We hope to see you there!

Course Title: Managing Data to Facilitate Your Research

Time and Location: 9:30 am – 10:20 am, Mondays, in 1100 UCC

Instructors: Brian Westra, Marina Zhang

More details: https://myui.uiowa.edu/my-ui/courses/details.page?id=924164&ci=172636

If you have any questions, please contact Brian Westra, brian-westra@uiowa.edu

Dec 10 2018

UI Libraries and student government collaborate to reduce textbook costs

Posted on December 10, 2018December 31, 2018 by The University of Iowa Libraries

How will I afford my textbooks this semester? Can I pass this course even though I don’t have the book? Is it illegal to download this PDF of the book that I found online?

These are the kinds of questions students ask at the beginning of the semester. The solutions they find are creative. Sometimes a whole group of roommates will share a book. In other cases, they will find a dubious copy for free online. Other times, they skip textbooks entirely. For some students, it’s a matter of buying food or buying books.

UI Libraries and UI Student Government are easing some of this burden with a collaborative project called the Textbook Affordability Pilot (TAP). Under TAP, a committee of library staff and student government representatives collect donated textbooks and purchase new ones for “high impact courses.” These are classes for which the cost of books is high and more than 100 students are enrolled in the course. These books are placed on course reserves in Main Library and the branch libraries for students to use free of charge.

Plans for TAP began in the summer of 2017, when student government approached the Libraries with questions about making textbooks more affordable. The UI Libraries encourages faculty to bypass traditional textbooks where possible by using books from the Libraries’ collection and using open educational resources. The Libraries also keeps copies of some textbooks on course reserve. Despite these efforts, librarians and students realized more could be done.

UISG Director of Academic Affairs, Tristan Schmidt, and Scholarly Communications Librarian, Mahrya Burnett, along with interested colleagues, began to explore the idea of purchasing textbooks and collecting donated copies. There was broad interest on both ends. Eventually, UISG and UI Libraries both allocated funds, totaling $17,000 for the one-year pilot. The committee drafted a set of criteria for books to be included in TAP and identified objectives for success. Then they started buying and collecting books.

As TAP began accepting donations last spring, the response from students was overwhelming. They donated hundreds of books, filling the UISG offices at the IMU. The committee is now working with faculty, students, and librarians to finalize its purchase list in order to get new books processed and on the shelves. TAP aims to have 100 books available for student use through course reserves at the Main Library and several other campus libraries by spring semester 2019. Their hope is to see the program grow over time so that more and more books are available for the students who need them.

For complete information about TAP, visit http://guides.lib.uiowa.edu/TAP

TAP information for students
Can I access my textbooks for free? One easy way to find out whether your textbook is on Course Reserves is to use this simple search tool. Search by course name, instructor, or book title.

TAP information for faculty, instructors, and TAs
Do the textbooks for my course qualify for TAP? Faculty can email LIB-TAP@uiowa.edu to see if their textbooks are TAP eligible.

Oct 07 2015

SEEKING NOMINATIONS: Arthur Benton University Librarian’s Award for Excellence

Posted on October 7, 2015December 2, 2016 by The University of Iowa Libraries

The University Libraries is seeking nominations for the Arthur Benton University Librarian’s Award for Excellence. Funded by a generous endowment, this prestigious award acknowledges a library staff member’s professional contributions in the practice of librarianship, service to the profession, scholarship, or leadership which has had a significant impact or innovation to the operations of the Libraries or the University of Iowa. The library staff member will receive $1,500 to be used for professional development activities.

Criteria for the award and the nomination form are available at: http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/admin/bentonaward/

Nominations are due by Friday, October 16.

Many graduate students and faculty work closely with our librarians to locate and procure curriculum and research resources. The Benton Award is a great opportunity to recognize that collaborative relationship.

*The University Libraries includes the Main Library, Hardin Library for the Health Sciences, and the Art, Sciences, Business, Engineering, and Music libraries. (Professional staff in the Law Library and other campus departmental library staff are not eligible.)

Sep 18 2014

Collect all seven prize buttons during our Library Crawl!

Posted on September 18, 2014December 2, 2016 by The University of Iowa Libraries

The University Libraries’ will be holding a Library Crawl from September 22nd through October 6th.

Visit any library locations on campus during the crawl to receive a collectable prize button and participate in a library challenge. Buttons are available at these locations: Art Library, Pomerantz Business Library, Lichtenberger Engineering Library, Music Library, Hardin Library for the Health Sciences, Main Library & Learning Commons, and the Sciences Library. Collect all seven and prove yourself a bibliomaniac!

Map to campus library locations.

Mar 07 2013

Celebrating Pi Day with…

Posted on March 7, 2013December 2, 2016 by The University of Iowa Libraries

Pie, of course. Before you head out for Spring Break, stop by the UI Libraries on Thursday, March 14 for the celebration. Grab an apple tartlet at:

Art Library	9:15am & 1:45pm
Hardin Library for the Health Sciences	1:59pm until gone
Lichtenberger Engineering Library	1:59pm – 4:00pm
Main Library	1:59pm – 2:59pm
Pomerantz Business Library	10:00am until gone
Sciences Library	10:00am until gone

Think back to your high school geometry class; Pi is the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. Pi is approximately 3.14159, but has been calculated to over two trillion digits, it goes on infinitely without repeating or becoming a pattern. Science would not exist without Pi. Mathematics, statistics, engineering, geography, geology, computer science, etc. all rely on Pi.

More information about Pi can be found at Wolfram MathWorld: http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Pi.html

Mar 14 2012

Celebrate Pi Day (belatedly) at the Libraries on March 19

Posted on March 14, 2012March 16, 2012 by The University of Iowa Libraries

Pi, Greek letter, is the symbol for the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. Pi Day is celebrated by math enthusiasts around the world on March 14th. Pi = 3.1415926535…. Pi is used in many different fields and can be seen in our everyday lives. It may be seen in art, structural design, body mobility, navigation, and probability. To celebrate the versatility of this number, the various campus libraries will celebrate at the same time, showing how pi is used in their subject areas.

Due to March 14th being during spring break, the celebration will take place next Monday, March 19th at 3:14 p.m.

Events will be held at the following libraries: Art, Pomerantz Business, Lichtenberger Engineering, Hardin, Main (near the Information Desk), Music, and Sciences. Join us at any of these locations to learn more about pi and have some apple pie bites.