Faculty Resources & Services
Library Resources, Services, and Information for MCPHS FacultySmart Search is Getting a Makeover
New EBSCO Research Database Design
Teaching
Each academic department and program has a faculty librarian. This librarian is available to work closely with faculty members to support your research and teaching needs. Liaison librarians often collaborate with department faculty by:
- Teaching course-integrated, one-shot, or embedded instruction sessions on research-focused library resources.
- Doing extensive literature searches on the topic of your research.
- Creating Research Guides/LibGuides to support a course, activity, skill, or topic.
- Recommending books, journals, and other resources to expand the Library collection for your subject area.
- And much more!
Use this page to find your program’s liaison librarian.
Librarians work closely with faculty to develop the curriculum of the MCPHS Information Literacy Instruction Program. The partnership ensures that students receive subject-specific, outcomes-based information literacy training. Instruction may include but is not limited to:
- credit-bearing courses
- guest lectures
- interactive workshops
- digital learning objects
- embedded teaching
- individual consultations
Contact your liaison to schedule library instruction, and discuss designing information literacy assignments for your courses, or schedule a general session through the Request a Session form.
All Boston-based students who are:
- undergraduates,
- enrolled in their first professional degree program,
- or are transfer students
are automatically enrolled in and must pass the three information literacy courses to graduate.
All students are required to complete:
- INF 110: Introduction to Research Essentials (taken concurrently with ITM 101: Introduction to the Major),
- INF 220: Intermediate Research Skills,
- and INF 330: Advanced Research Skills.
A required information literacy workshop is also taught in LIB 111: Expository Writing.
For more information on the Information Literacy Graduation Requirement, please email the Head of Information Literacy Services, Erica Cataldi-Roberts at erica.cataldi-roberts@mcphs.edu.
Course Materials
Instructor Materials in Subscription eResources
Some of the MCPHS Libraries’ online resources have instructor features and materials, including slide sets, quizzes, lesson plans, case studies, image banks, recorded lectures, NAPLEX and PCOA review questions, and more. To find these resources:
- Go to the A-Z Databases List
- Set the dropdown filter at the top of the page to the subject of your choice.
Follow the directions in the resource description to access instructor materials.
Research Guides
Research Guides are small, curated websites that your librarians have built to support teaching, learning, and research at MCPHS. There are subject guides that bring together the most relevant databases, ebooks, websites, and other materials on a given topic. There are other guides are skills-focused and explain how to use a research tool or how to search for a particular source type. These guides are built around a format type, i.e., Finding Dissertations and Theses. Your liaison librarian can also work with you to develop a custom Research Guide to support a course, assignment, or other project. Use the Request a LibGuide / Research Guide form to initiate that partnership.
These are some of the guides that may be helpful as you prepare your courses:
- Streaming Video: In this Streaming Video Guide guide, you’ll find training videos and films you can use and embed in or link to your Blackboard course. These include Films on Demand, Kanopy, Academic Videos Online, and the Digital Campus. If there’s a video you’d like the library staff to try to acquire, contact Joanne Doucette, Associate Director of University Libraries, at joanne.doucette@mcphs.edu; 617-833-8986.
- Anatomy & Physiology Resources: Use these Anatomy & Physiology Databases to teach your students human anatomy and physiology through videos, 3-D Real-Time anatomy images, MRI images, medical illustrations, and animations.
- Image Collections: Many of our databases offer images, photos, and illustrations you can use in your teaching. This guide provides more information about the available images, where, how to cite them, and copyright considerations.
Faculty members can ask that copies of materials be placed on course reserve. You can request books, movies, kits, and other required and recommended items. This way, students can easily access the materials for short periods of time. MCPHS library staff members will try to acquire copies of the textbooks you require or recommend or get short-term access to the videos you want to use. You can also put personal copies of items on reserve for your students.
Expect an email about course reserves before the beginning of each semester. Reply to it to let the MCPHS library staff know what you would like to put on reserve. The textbooks that are on reserve will be added to the Course Reserves Guide.
Learn more in the Course Reserves Policy.
For questions about course materials, contact Joanne Doucette, Associate Director of University Libraries, at joanne.doucette@mcphs.edu; 617-833-8986.
Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching, learning, and research materials that are either in the public domain or licensed in such a way as to be free to users. Using OER course materials is also a great way to ensure all your students can access necessary resources, regardless of their financial situations.
Learn more about how to find, adapt, or create OER textbooks, handouts, and other materials in the Open Educational Resources Guide. Your liaison librarian can also help find OER materials.
As faculty members, you often use articles, books, and other materials that other people have created. This section introduces the rules governing the legal use of those materials.
MCPHS University complies with copyright. Read the full MCPHS Copyright Policy under “Other” at the bottom of the Compliance Office page. Part of that practice includes using only legally copied materials in Blackboard. We recommend the following strategies:
Link to Content
Link to content instead of posting PDFs or text files from the Internet. Links are not copyrighted. You are effectively pointing the way for students to discover the material on their own.
Use Persistent Links
Persistent links, also known as permalinks, stable links, static links, and deep links, are direct links to articles or other information types that are more reliable than links to searches, which may only work once. While using a persistent link may take extra steps, you can use our Persistent Links from Library Resources guide to get persistent links to most of the MCPHS Libraries’ materials. Follow these instructions to connect your students directly to the full text of the material you want them to access.
Use the Public Domain
Use materials that are in the public domain, such as products of work for the US government. The Public Domain consists of works that are not protected by copyright law. The copyright term may have expired, it may be a type of work that cannot be copyrighted, or the creator may have formally declared it to be in the public domain. You may use works in the public domain for free. You do not need to get permission from a copyright holder. Read more about what is in the Public Domain.
Use Creative Commons Licensed Material
Creative Commons helps people legally share information on the Internet. Creators can add Creative Commons licenses to their materials. You may use those materials freely within some limits. Read more about Creative Commons Licenses.
Ask for Permission
If you want to use other materials, you can ask for permission to use the article or book chapter for your class and to post the PDF of the article or book chapter on your Blackboard course. Authors rarely retain copyright to articles that they write. It is transferred to the publisher in the agreement to publish the article. Check the journal website to see if the publisher gives any automatic permission to non-profit educational institutions. If not, the library can help you obtain permission and pay for any associated costs.
For questions about library-related copyright, contact Joanne Doucette, Associate Director of University Libraries, at joanne.doucette@mcphs.edu; 617-833-8986.
Borrowing & Delivery
Faculty may borrow items from the MCPHS circulating collection for a semester. No overdue fines are assessed on MCPHS books. Should another faculty member need the book, however, it may be subject to recall.
All MCPHS patrons may borrow books from any of the Fenway Library Organization (FLO) or Worcester Consortium Libraries (ARC) libraries using their MCPHS ID. Most have a 3-week circulation period, and a 2-week renewal period. Most assess overdue fees. It is best to check each library's circulation policies when borrowing.
As a member of the MCPHS community, you may obtain a Boston Public Library card. If you do not want a full-service card, you may instead obtain a BPL eCard.
Book chapters and articles that are not available from MCPHS's print and digital collections can often be obtained from other libraries through Interlibrary Loan. This service is usually provided free of charge for faculty and students. When an article is not immediately available through one of the databases we subscribe to, you will be directed to a link to Request through Interlibrary Loan. Alternatively, you can manually submit a request through one of the forms on the InterLibrary Loan page.
Barring unusual circumstances, the majority of articles will be sent to patrons within 3 business days. Books may be picked up at the Circulation desk at your Campus Library. If requested, they can also be sent to your office.
If there is a problem with your request, you will be contacted at your MCPHS email address. If you have not received the requested article or an email after three business days, contact the Interlibrary Loan Librarian, Sarah Muellers at sarah.muellers@mcphs.edu; 617-732-2803.
Research
Ask a quick question or meet with your librarian to get personalized research support. Librarians can help you think through your project, search for information about it, recommend databases, assist with your literature search, and more. Contact your librarian directly to schedule a consultation.
Use research tools to:
- Manage your citations using a citation manager.
- Find grant funding to support your research projects.
- Stay up-to-date and set up alerts: use BrowZine and ReadbyQxMD to set up search alerts. Use News Alerts Tools to stay current.
Publishing
There are many factors to consider as you decide where to publish your scholarship. Here are some helpful tools we recommend.
Explore the Open Access Guide to learn more about the history of Open Access and how to publish your own content this way.
Publishing in an open access journal may cost money. While you usually keep the copyright of your article, you or your department may need to provide funds if your article is selected for publication. It is good to check on financial arrangements before you submit to an open access journal.
You can use one of these free tools to identify a potential journal for your manuscript:
Research impact is the demonstrable contribution that research makes to academia and society. Currently, there are many ways to measure and no single standard.
Find out the various metrics used to measure research (author, article, journal) impact using the Research Impact & Metrics research guide.
The MCPHS Institutional Repository is an Open Access (OA) digital repository of MCPHS scholarship – article pre-prints, OA articles and book chapters, posters, theses, dissertations, and archival materials are included.
Work with our Metadata & Digital Initiatives Librarian, Janina Mueller, at Janina.Mueller@mcphs.edu to include your work, making it globally accessible.
Additional Resources: Other Departments
View the list of available software and access methods, learn how to request new software, and find guides and information on software packages available from MCPHS’ Information Services.
All three campuses need to submit poster printing requests through the Copy and Printing Center portal.
Everyone involved in human subjects research is required to complete training in the protection of those subjects. To access the required training, please create an account at CITI Program, or log in to an existing account on that site.
Please use this link to submit your Services Request Form to the MCPHS Office of Institutional Research and Assessment (OIRA).
Run by the Instructional Support Office, the Center for Teaching and Learning supports MCPHS faculty and staff in their commitment to excellence and innovation in teaching and learning. Get support from their team by submitting a ticket, a consultation, or during their open office hours.
CASE assists students in maximizing their potential by introducing them to strategies that will make them more efficient, effective and independent learners. The Writing Center works individually with students to develop their writing and grammar skills.