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Faculty & Instructors Guide

Library Card

Your employee card is also your Library card. Employee ID cards are managed and issued by the Human Resources Department, but you don't have to go there in person to get one; the whole process of requesting a new or replacement card can be completed online. Fill in a form, upload your own photo, and within a few business days you'll have an employee card. If you are a current employee we already have your pertinent information in our database, so you can still borrow material until your card arrives.

Borrowing, Requests & Returns

Searching the Collections

The Douglas College Library collection supports the teaching, learning, and research needs of our students, faculty, and staff, who have access to 140,000 physical items and over 600,000 online, which include:

Liaison Librarian Program

Questions about the liaison program or any library-related issue can be directed to your Liaison Librarian. We have created this group to: 

  • Enhance communication between the Library and instructional faculty
  • Provide information about Library resources and services
  • Deliver workshops on research tools or on topics of special interest to faculty
  • Increase Library awareness of faculty and student needs
  • Improve Library services

Suggest a Purchase

We encourage faculty and instructors to provide feedback on our collections and suggestions on materials you think would benefit your curriculum. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions about our PDF iconCollection Development Policy

Suggest a purchase

Off Campus Access

Current employees and students will be prompted to authenticate using their CNA credentials when accessing their personal library account and all online library collections from off campus. See more information about logging in, caveats about cookies, and troubleshooting tips.

Classroom Lab Materials

Departmental non-library materials are non-consumable items for use by more than one student or employee and intended to be housed in a classroom or an office. These items can be books, print subscriptions, or other media. Requests for preview of textbooks or ‘on approval’ materials need to be handled by individual departments. See more information on requesting materials for your class. 

Academic Integrity

Academic Integrity is a complex and nuanced topic and is confusing to many students. In our regular instruction and reference interactions at the library, librarians speak to students about properly citing resources to avoid plagiarism but don’t delve into what academic integrity is or why it is important. If you would like to have an instructional session on Academic Integrity, please submit a request to our team. 


Book a Session

Research Data Management

The College’s PDF iconResearch Data Management strategy supports good RDM practices and prepares Douglas researchers to meet increasing funder, journal, and disciplinary expectations for data management plans at the outset of projects and data deposit at their conclusion. See our in-depth guide to learn more about creating data management plans, the FAIR principles, Indigenous data governance, data deposit, and more.

Metadata for Researchers

Metadata refers to information that describes / makes research data comprehensible to others, such as variable labels in a table or spreadsheet, along the axes of a graph and/or labels for data fields such as date, location, author/creator etc. See our in-depth guide to learn more about metadata, metadata standards and the role of other accompanying documentation in enhancing the usability and long-term value of your research data.

Safeguarding Research Data

Research data are a valuable and frequently sensitive commodity – that may be impossible to recover if lost due to technical failure, human error or mischief. See our in-depth guide to learn more about data storage and back up best practices, managing data with colleagues, handling private/sensitive data, data anonymization and more.

Guides that faculty might find useful

INTRODUCTION TO RESEARCH DATA MANAGEMENT

Welcome to our Introduction to Research Data Management tutorial! This course covers essential practices for organizing, storing, and sharing research data effectively. Enhance your skills and ensure your data is secure, accessible, and reusable.

Library Research Skills Instruction

Library sessions teach research skills and, depending on the needs of your class, they may cover books and eBooks, article databases, subject specific resources, and the Web. We stress critical evaluation of all information sources. Instruction is most beneficial for students if the class occurs after they've been introduced to their research assignment.

Book a Class
 

Scheduling

The Library asks for a minimum of two weeks’ notice for instruction booking requests. This ensures we have the time to customize an assignment guide specific to the needs of your students and also allows us to coordinate coverage of other teaching and research services. While we'll do our best to accommodate your request, please know that we may have to suggest alternative dates or times.

Contact

Alicia Arding, Information Literacy & Educational Technology Librarian. Discuss the content of your library research skills session and/or to arrange for the creation of specialized assignments or presentations.

Nicole Sevigny, Instructional Services Technician. Contact Nicole if you have questions about how to book or modify bookings for library research skills sessions.

Library Assignments

Library assignments are based on the research and citation skills your students need to complete your class assignment(s) and are tailored to class research topics.

  • For in person learning, library assignments will be completed on paper and handed in to the library directly.
  • For online learning, library assignments will be completed digitally and students will be asked to email their assignments directly to the library for marking.

The class assignment or topic must be provided to the library at least two weeks prior to the date of the class if you wish to have a library assignment prepared. Marks will be sent out via email approximately two weeks following the class. Please contact Nicole Sevigny if you have any questions about this timeline.

Custom Assignments

Depending on the needs of your class, we will tailor a library assignment guide for your students to use asynchronously. These guides will have the appropriate online learning materials (videos, quizzes, databases, etc.) gathered in one place. We have created videos and tutorials to demonstrate various skills, including navigating the Library's website, searching for books and articles in the catalogue and various databases, building search strings for library research, and evaluating and citing resources.

Academic Integrity Classes

Would you like to start a conversation about what academic integrity is and why it matters with your students?

Teaching Online & In-Person

In-person library sessions are taught in our library classroom or a librarian can be scheduled to join you in yours. 

For online classes the instructor will need to send a link in advance to the librarian as well as adding them as a Presenter or a Moderator. If you requested a marked library assignment you will receive:

  • a link to your class assignment or subject guide
  • a PDF copy of your class’ library assignment
  • a Word copy of your class’ library assignment answer sheet that students will return to the front counter of the library
  • an email asking for permission to embed a librarian within your Blackboard course to answer any assignment questions (if indicated yes on the form).

DOuglas Open Repository - DOOR

DOOR is a scholarly publishing platform which showcases and preserves the scholarly, research and creative works of the Douglas College community. Our open access repository contains a number of growing collections indexed by the major search engines and is also searchable directly here. DOOR is a member of Arca which is British Columbia's province-wide network of institutional repositories.

Citation guidance for publishing presentations in DOOR

Use this quick citation guide to ensure the images in your presentation are cited correctly and your presentation is ready for uploading into DOOR.

Faculty Publishing Guide

Research and publishing are exciting and rewarding professional activities for many scholars. We have created a guide to provide helpful information and links about scholarly publishing in general, as well as information specific to the Douglas College context. Create a scholarly profile, establish a publishing plan, and learn about your rights as an author. 

Predatory Journals

Predatory journals and publishers do not follow best practices for publishing scholarly work - e.g., appear to be motivated primarily by profit and/or may disregard accepted standards for scholarly quality control, ethics, copyright law etc. While there is no single definitive list of criteria guaranteeing that a journal is "predatory" there are some characteristics of concern to look out for.

Predatory Conferences

A non-reputable or deceptive conference operates a scam by setting up fake conference websites designed to trick authors into believing that they are submitting their work to a legitimate and established conference in the field. Check out a list of indictors that could suggest conference quality concerns. 

DC Authors' Celebration

On Wednesday, March 6, the Library hosted the third Douglas College Authors' Celebration in the New Westminster Library Foyer. This event is a newly established tradition that started in 2020, and takes place every 2 years. It is an opportunity to recognize research and authorship of all types taking place in the Douglas community, and we were lucky this year to recognize works by administrators, students, alumni, and faculty! 

We were pleased to have Research & Innovation Coordinator, Richa Dwor, share the stage to highlight some of the collaborative efforts taking place between the RIO Office and the Library to help support faculty and students with their research and sharing their findings.


Fun Facts & Stats!

  • 33 authors made submissions – 24 faculty, three administrators, two students, and four alumni. 

  • Faculty authors represented every Faculty – Applied Community Studies, Commerce and Business Administration, Health Sciences, Humanities and Social Sciences, Language, Literature & Performing Arts, and Science & Technology 

  • Those faculty came from a wide range of departments – English, Criminology, Computing Studies, Therapeutic Recreation, Nursing, Sport Science and more!

  • 15 of the 24 faculty who submitted works had previously created faculty scholar profiles and added works into the Library's Douglas Open Repository (DOOR). 

  • 48 works were submitted – 21 academic research journals, 10 books, six book chapters, and various journal supplements, video recordings, audio recordings including an episode of CBC's Ideas with Nahlah Ayed, plus one work of poetry!

  • A number of the articles were published in open journals, making them accessible beyond commercial paywalls. 

  • See the full list of submissions

Add Your Publication to our Collection

Douglas College Library celebrates employee scholarship. If you have a book that is published or are currently undergoing the process, please let us know and we will be happy to add your published work to our growing physical and electronic collection.

Contact Collections Librarian Trevor Smith at 604-527-5259 or use the suggest a purchase form. Make sure to let us know it's your own work.
 

Suggest a Purchase

Course Reserves

Faculty can place physical items such as books, CDs, and DVDs/Blu rays on short term loan in the library. Any other format will require setting up a resource list through Talis which could then be incorporated directly into your blackboard class. Sometimes we are unable to secure a new textbook for course reserve and accept instructor copies to either add to our collection, or use temporarily for the semester.

Requests are generally processed within five working days, but instructors are encouraged to submit their requests in advance.

Submit a Course Reserve
 

Contacts

Cora Fanucchi - Coquitlam
Phone: 604-777-6134
Email: [email protected]

Theresa Kenkel - New Westminster
Phone: 604-527-5186 
Email: [email protected]

Talis Resource Lists LogoTalis Resources Lists

Looking for one place to store all your readings and resources for student or personal use? Douglas College Library is piloting Talis Resource Lists, an online course resource list management software.

Talis integrates with Blackboard for easy access to library resources, readings, videos, websites and other coursework related materials. These lists can be organized by topic, weeks or any other category. It allows students to track their own reading progress and instructors can provide specific guidance about particular resources if so desired. Visit our Talis Resource List guide for more information on how to use this new resource.

Talis Help

Email: [email protected]

Copyright at Douglas College

In Canada, copyright is automatic. As soon as a work is fixed in print or digital form, it is protected by copyright. Copyright protects all original literary, dramatic, musical, artistic works, sound recordings, performances, and communications, but there are also areas which are not covered. Learn about your rights with the Copyright act, what kind of educational exceptions there are, and how all this applies to your work here at Douglas College.

Contacts

  • General copyright questions
  • Michael Byun, Interim Manager, Facilities Services, responsible for the Bookstores, Print Shop, and Print Materials.
  • Tim Paul, Manager, Academic Technology Services, responsible for media recordings and online content used for instructional purposes.
  • Katharine Shipley, Associate Director of Learning Resources, responsible for copyright in relation to use of Library print and digital collections.
  • Debra Flewelling, Open Education Librarian.

Open Educational Resources

Open educational resources are teaching, learning, and research resources that are created with the intention of being freely available to users anywhere. They may include, but are not limited to, textbooks, readings, multi-media files, software, assessment tools, and even entire courses. Most are covered by licenses that allow for using, re-mixing, and sharing. Explore the many tools available to educators and students.

Open Access

Open access is the free, immediate, online availability of research articles combined with the rights to use these articles fully in the digital environment. It is the needed modern update for the communication of research that fully utilizes the Internet for what it was originally built to do—accelerate research.

The Open Movement

The Open Movement is an umbrella term for the concept that knowledge should be made freely available for all, and that it should be shared, developed and enriched in an "open," collaborative manner, free from restrictive copyright laws. This movement includes Open Education, Open Access, and much more. Dive into the many facets of the Open Movement for more information about the different Open concepts.