Eckerd College Library: Resources and Services for Academic Success
The Eckerd College Library plays a central role in supporting the college’s mission and academic programs. It achieves this by offering inclusive resources and spaces, instructing users on effective resource utilization, fostering a conducive learning environment, and providing personalized assistance to promote academic achievement and personal development.
Accessing Library Resources
Library Card Information
Your college ID card serves as your library card. It is essential to carry your ID each time you visit the library, even when accessing reserve materials. You are responsible for all materials borrowed using your ID. Do not loan your card to others and regularly check your Patron Record.
Loan Periods and Checkout Limits
The standard loan period for books is 30 days with two renewals for Students, Staff, Alumni, ASPEC, Friends, St. Pete Theological Seminary, and USF students (St. Petersburg and Tampa campuses). However, all books are due at the end of each semester or term, even if less than three weeks remain. ELS students have a loan period of 10 days or until the Wednesday before the term ends, whichever is shorter.
Different loan periods apply to specific items:
- DVDs: 3 days with no renewal
- Reference books, journals, magazines, and theses: These may not leave the library.
Checkout limits are in place to ensure priority access for Eckerd College students and faculty. Non-Eckerd borrowers face the following restrictions:
Read also: Academics at Eckerd
- Alumni: 5 books
- ASPEC members (not teaching a course): 5 books
- Friends: 5 books
- Staff (including ELS and Elderhostel/Senior College Faculty): 30 books
- ELS students: 3 books
- USF St. Petersburg and Tampa students: 5 books
- St. Pete Theological Seminary: 5 books
Students may have 30 items checked out at one time, including reserve materials. Exceptions to these limits require application to the Collection Management Librarian.
Renewals
Students, Staff, Alumni, ASPEC, Friends, and USF St. Petersburg and Tampa students may renew an item twice. Renewals can be done in person (with your student ID) or online for 30 days from the original due date. After the second renewal, the item must be returned. A recall due date supersedes the previous due date.
Fines and Overdue Items
The library issues a courtesy overdue notice three days after the due date. However, it is your responsibility to track due dates. Failure to receive a notice is not justification for overdue items.
Long overdue items are assumed lost, resulting in a replacement fee (depending on the material) and a $10.00 processing fee per item, charged to your student account, in addition to any overdue fines. The replacement fee is refundable if the item is returned within 100 days of the final due date. Patrons with excessive unpaid fines or charges may lose borrowing privileges until fees are paid or at the discretion of the library staff. Questions about overdue fines should be directed to the Circulation Supervisor.
Checking Your Account
You can check the status of borrowed items and fines on your My Account page in the library catalog. Access this page by clicking the MyAccount tab and entering your student ID number and last name.
Read also: Eckerd Admission Requirements
Paying Overdue Charges
All fines are charged to your student account and appear on the fee bill from the college. Do not pay money directly to the library.
Questions About Fines or Lost Books
Direct questions to the Public Services Supervisor, located behind the Information Desk. Report lost or damaged books to library staff as soon as possible to be charged for replacement costs and a processing fee. The lost item replacement fee is refundable if the item is returned within 100 days of the final due date.
Recalling Books
Books marked as “charged” in the catalog are checked out. You can request a recall if the item has been with the current patron for over 30 days. Click the “request” button and enter your last name and barcode number. A recall changes the due date, and fines accrue at $1.00 per day with no grace period. If an item has not been out for 30 days, you may still place a recall to be notified when the book returns.
Reserve Materials
Reserve materials (books, movies, articles) are available for a 2-hour period and usually cannot leave the library. Find them at the Information Desk by searching the reserve list notebook or the electronic catalog, arranged by professor’s name and course name.
Technology and Spaces
Computer Access and Printing
The library offers Dell computers with Office 2016 for word processing. PaperCut manages printing on campus. Print requests can be sent from anywhere on campus via PaperCut and released in the library copy room or lab. Printing is also available directly from library computers.
Read also: Discover Eckerd College
Borrowing from Other Libraries
Eckerd students have borrowing privileges at USF St. Petersburg and Tampa campuses (up to five books). Show your Eckerd ID and proof of current registration. Students are responsible for meeting all borrowing conditions at USF, including paying fines and fees there.
Library Environment
The library houses library and Information Technology Services (ITS) operations. It features 17 group study rooms, a wireless network, and a 24-hour computer lab. The library is currently only open to members of the Eckerd community until further notice. The entire Library, including the lanai, is a smoke free environment. Neither food nor uncovered/uncapped drinks may be brought into the building. Cell phones should be set on vibrate and lengthy conversations taken outside so as not to disrupt others. Skateboards, roller blades, cleats or any other footwear likely to damage carpets are not permitted inside the building. Shirts are required. No unauthorized signs may be taped, tacked or glued to library windows, walls or doors.
Study Room Reservations
Students can reserve study rooms on the library homepage under STUDY ROOM RESERVATION Sunday through Thursday but must be placed at least 12 hours in advanced. During all other times rooms are first come, first served with groups taking precedence. You can make a reservation up to two weeks in advance, reserve up to 2 time slots per day, and 6 time slots per week. Individuals may use any available open room, but groups always take precedence.
Personal Belongings
Library and ITS staff are not responsible for personal belongings left unattended in the Library or Computer Lab. These may be removed and placed in lost and found behind the circulation desk at the discretion of the staff.
Acceptable Use
Library computers are designated for scholarly research. Viewing, downloading, or printing offensive online materials for non-academic reasons is prohibited and may result in being banned from the Library.
Animals
Pets or any other animals, besides “service” animals, are not allowed inside the building. “Service animals” are strictly defined by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Only registered service animals are allowed to accompany students into academic buildings or other non-residential facilities. Emotional Support Animals (ESA) are animals designated on campus as those who help alleviate one or more symptoms of an emotional or mental health disability. ESAs are not allowed to accompany students into academic buildings or other non-residential facilities.
Disruptive Behavior
Patrons engaging in disruptive or inappropriate behavior may be asked to leave the building.
Eckerd College Archives
The Eckerd College Archives collects, identifies, preserves, and organizes materials related to the history of Florida Presbyterian College/Eckerd College. It educates and informs the college community about the college’s origins, development, programs, and goals.
The digital collection includes:
- Historical Eckerd College newspapers from 1960-2009
- Eckerd College newspaper, The Current, from 2009-present
- Eckerd College course catalogs from 1959-2008
- Eckerd College yearbooks from 1964-2002
- Undergraduate theses via our EC Scholar repository from 1964 to current (not all theses are publicly available)
For faculty use only, the archive has faculty newsletters and minutes of Faculty Committee meetings. These items are accessible via the Library Archive Documents folder in Google Drive.
Peter H. Armacost Library: A 21st-Century Learning Hub
The Peter H. Armacost Library at Eckerd College presents a vision for the library of the 21st century through the integration of books and information technology as well as by providing unique and inviting spaces that encourage collaborative learning.
Facilities and Services
The Armacost Library supports research, collaborative learning, individual learning, informal gatherings, videoconferencing, multimedia instruction, and computing.
For research, library users can access 250,000 volumes on site as well as electronic catalogues, databases, subject guides, encyclopedias, dictionaries, and an e-book collection.
Seventeen group study rooms furnished either with tablet arm lounge seating or tables and chairs create a variety of learning and collaborative environments. To support individual learning, 72 custom-designed study carrels are wired with power and data connections; 8 have multimedia stations for electronic access to audio and video collections. Several open lounges, including an outdoor lanai (screened patio), provide casual settings for individuals or groups to study.
A 28-seat meeting room permits users to connect with remote sites throughout the world, while a 30-person multimedia instruction lab provides multimedia training to augment instruction, research, and writing. The campus computing center is strategically placed in the facility to let librarians, programmers, and network specialists collaborate in creating state-of-the-art information storage and retrieval systems.
Technology Integration
Users can access information in any setting, even from the lawn areas outside the building, thanks to the wireless access provided. Wired access points, available throughout the building, provide reliable high-speed network connections. Videoconferencing services support collaboration with people on campus and around the world, and reference materials are easily available digitally using online research tools. The technology center houses the campus servers and network maintenance facilities. IT staff are colocated, enabling collaboration between IT specialists and librarians.
Design Principles
The Armacost Library design focused on integration with the master plan and encouraged stakeholder input. Goals for the final design included an open plan, variety, accessibility, and sustainability. A collaborative design effort between master planners and building designers resulted in identifying a building site that best suited the project. The design team then sought feedback from the building users to design custom solutions that met the unique needs of Eckerd College. Sight lines and views were carefully considered, not only to provide natural light and interesting views from all areas of the building but also to allow a flexible approach to library staffing. Various study environments allow everything from lively collaboration to contemplative study, while the broad concept of accessibility encompasses easy access to the building by the campus community as well as access to information in all its forms. Natural lighting, solar shading, high-performance glazing, energy efficient lighting, and low-flow plumbing fixtures throughout the facility reduce the demand on energy and natural resources.
Unique Aspects
The Armacost Library is noteworthy for integrating the design with the university's master plan and for taking advantage of the Florida environment. The building was shaped through a unique collaboration between the master planning and design teams. Its orientation, form, materials, and landscape design were developed to seamlessly integrate with the existing context, including the surrounding Florida environment, and future campus projects. Abundant natural light, water views, and a temperate climate were leveraged in this unique design.
Electronic Resources
Eckerd College Library offers access to over 40,000 streaming videos for faculty and students. Video collections support the academic program and include documentaries, feature films, primary source materials, theatre productions, and more. Eckerd Library provides online access to the Chronicle of Higher Education and has issues in print in the periodicals section. The library has several electronic reference and ebook collections. CloudLibrary provides instant access to ebooks available through the Florida Library Network. E-Books can be downloaded to your PC, tablet, or smartphone using the CloudLibrary app. Gale eBooks offers broad cross-curricular collection of non-fiction titles, supporting science, geography, history, language arts, business and other subjects.
OneSearch: Your Gateway to Information
Accessing OneSearch
You do not need to login to search OneSearch, but in order to see and link to results, you will need to login to your Eckerd account. The system will automatically recognize that you are logged in and log you in automatically. Logging in allows you to view and renew your existing loans, access online databases and resources, save items to your Favorites list, request physical items from the library, and make interlibrary loan requests. We encourage you to use the same browser as the one in which you are logged into your Eckerd account for the best experience. Access is only provided to current members of the Eckerd community, including students, faculty, staff, and ASPEC.
What OneSearch Includes
OneSearch provides a single point of entry to the physical and electronic materials that the Library provides access to for your research needs. When you search OneSearch, you search our physical catalog (books, DVDs, theses, physical journals and magazines, course reserves, etc.) and our electronic holdings (e-journals and magazines, electronic reference collections, etc.). However, OneSearch is not always the best place to start if you are looking for resources in specialized databases.
Specialized Databases
OneSearch is a great starting point but it is sometimes best to use the use the native interfaces to search specialized databases and collections. The nature of these collections make them difficult to search using OneSearch. Here is a summary of collections that are best searched in their native platform. You can find links to these collections on the Databases tab of the library homepage.
- Subject-specific Collections: ARTstor, Chicago Manual of Style, DemographicsNow, DRAM Online, Europa World Yearbook, HeinOnline, Interactive Chemistry and Human Anatomy, Statista, Testing and Education Reference Center
- Streaming video collections: Kanopy, JoVE, Swank
- Newspaper collections: Chronicle of Higher Education, New York Times online, Wall Street Journal online, Washington Post online
Searching for Physical Books and Online Articles
To search for a book, enter your search terms, such as the title or author of the book, in the OneSearch bar. From here you use the limiters on the left to choose “Available in the Library” from the Availability section. This will show only physical and ebooks available. To search for articles, enter your search terms, such as a subject or author, in the OneSearch bar. From here you use the limiters on the left to choose “Peer-reviewed journals” from the Availability section. You can also use the Resource Type menu to select a more specific type of article, such as newspaper articles or reference works.
Interlibrary Loan
If you perform a search in OneSearch and don’t find what you are looking for, try clicking the “Expand my results” checkbox on the left. This adds items that the library does not have access to in your search. You can then request items using the “Check availability” link under the item record to see borrowing options through interlibrary loan. If the item is available to borrow, the link will take you to your interlibrary loan account to make the request.
Citations
Each record in the result list has a citation icon (“) to the top right of the title. Clicking this will bring up the citation in a number of styles, including APA, MLA, Chicago, ASA, and CSE. You can copy and paste this article for your records but be sure to verify citations as they may not always be perfect.
Saving Items
Yes, each record has an Add this item icon to the top right of the title that you can use to add an item to your Favorites list. Favorites can be customized by adding tags. You can then access your Favorites using the icon at the top of the page next to your name. This is only available if you are logged into your account.
Viewing and Renewing Loans
To view your account, login at the top right and then select your name to see the link to your Library Card or your list of Loans. This will show you when items are due and give you the option to renew items online. Items can only be renewed online if they are not overdue. Under your account, click Loans to view a list of items you have on loan. If the item is not expired, a Renew link will be available for you to renew the title.
tags: #Eckerd #College #library #resources #and #services
