New at LITS for Spring 2021
We’ve made some changes to the library for Spring 2021. Here’s what’s new.
Welcome back, Beloiters!
The Spring 2021 semester has officially begun and we are excited to welcome you back! Here are some of the big things happening at LITS.
Library Resources
Collections
We may be an academic library, but we have popular fiction and nonfiction books, too. Our new Featured Books Collection contains a selection of the hottest new releases and Bestsellers and will rotate throughout the year to ensure that Beloit College always has the freshest collection of popular reading materials. Come check out the newest books from Grisham, Roberts, Sparks, and more! You can find our Featured Books in the front area of the library.
Whether you are interested in fashion, celebrity gossip, DIY, Fitness, or Food, we have magazines that are sure to inform and entertain you during your next study break at the library. Our magazines are located on the shelves with the rest of our current serials on the first floor of the library, but will soon be moving to their permanent home on new, easier to browse shelving near the front stairs.
Databases
Our subscription to ProQuest Business One went live right before the start of the semester. It’s user friendly, and covers 2700 journals, 20,000 ebooks, 29,000 videos, 110 newspapers, 29,000 magazines, and 50,000 dissertations. It also contains Market, Industry, and Country Reports and Detailed Case Studies about business, economics, marketing, and entrepreneurship.
IT Services
Security
As part of an increased emphasis on the security of campus systems and information, LITS is announcing a significant change to the process that faculty, staff, and students use to login to Beloit College computer systems - specifically, Gmail, Apporto, School Dude, Google Apps, Office 365, Moodle, Swank, and the Portal.
One of the easiest ways for hackers to gain access to a computer system is by obtaining your login credential and password. That is the primary purpose of the phishing emails that continue to land in our inboxes - getting your username and password. While we may never be able to eliminate those emails, we can provide a better method of protecting your account from hackers getting into college systems — that method is multi-factor authentication (MFA).
Beginning at 9 am on Tuesday, February 9, 2021, all Beloit College employees and students will be required to use MFA to access the Portal, Google Apps for Education, Moodle, and other campus resources.
Ongoing Projects
Diversifying the Collection
It is critical for libraries to represent diverse people, places, things, and ideas. We are currently working on two projects focused on identifying and adding diverse materials to our collection.
We are comparing popular DEI book lists to our current collection to help identify which items we should purchase. We have begun to add books that were not already in the collection, as part of our ongoing initiative to diversify our collection.
We are also in the process of analyzing our print collection to determine what percentage of our collection was written by diverse authors and/or about diverse characters, cultures, and places. We will use this data to create a sustainable, long-term plan for adding diverse voices into our collection.
Space
While we are currently still following campus guidelines regarding the pandemic, we are working to make improvements to our space in order to create more collaborative spaces with defined areas for studying, tutoring, teaching, relaxing, and more.
Coming Soon:
- White boards in the group study rooms and Learning Studio
- New large square ottomans with built-in power source
- New octagon tables for New Academic Books and Featured Book Collection
- New Periodical Shelving
- and more!
Workshops and Trainings
Upcoming Workshops
Sharpening your BS Detector: Evaluating News in a Post-Truth Era
Clickbait. Pseudoscience. Conspiracy Theories. Propaganda. Misinformation. These are just some of the types of bad news we encounter on a daily basis. In this workshop, we look at ‘Fake News’ (a dirty word that Librarians hate) and then go beyond that to show you how to find good sources, evaluate news, overcome bias, and become an informed citizen of the world.
This workshop will be presented by Librarians Kelly Leahy and Haley Lott at the AMP Connection Sections on April 23rd and 30th.
Past Workshops
Librarians Kelly Leahy and Haley Lott recently presented at the Career Accelerator program. You can view their workshop recordings here:
Ease Your Employment Anxiety: Find Job Information on the Web
Privacy On-Lock: Tracing Your Online Profile
Please note that you must use your Beloit College credentials to view these recordings.
For the most up-to-date information, follow us on Facebook (@BeloitLITS), Instagram (@BeloitLITS), and YouTube.
If you have any questions about the new library services or materials, please contact us via email at libref@beloit.edu or through our Ask A Librarian Chat Service.
If you have any questions or concerns about the new IT services, please reach out to LITS Support.
We’ll see you soon!
February 23, 2021
Contact:
If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for LITS, please contact Student Success and Engagement Librarian Haley Lott at lotth@beloit.edu.
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