December 2020 LibLights: Impactful Library Services
Who’d a thunk it? Three Impactful Services that Benefit Students, Faculty, and Staff
Did you know the Library offers more than just books? It’s true! We also have e-books!
…in addition to a whole suite of services for students, faculty, and staff. Check out the full story below and scroll to the bottom for some fast stats about these services.
Open Educational Resources
Open educational resources (OERs) 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.
Whether you’re looking for an OER for your course or if you’re looking to create and publish an OER of your own, the Library is here to support you. Our dedicated OER Librarian Jessica Norman has supported projects that have saved over 9110 students nearly $1 million as of 2019.
Looking for an OER to use in your course? Connect with your liaison.
Looking to create an OER? Connect with our OER Librarian, Jessica Norman.
For more details, visit the Library’s OER guide.
Teaching Support
Librarians are experts in information – we have an acute understanding of how information is produced, where it is stored, and how to access it efficiently and effectively.
That’s why librarians should rule the world be your first point of contact when you’re reviewing your course each semester. Although we aim for agile processes in curriculum review at SAIT, sometimes your students would benefit from a more up to date resource that reflects current events and you need that resource NOW. That’s where we step in. The requests we have received in the past range from finding a suitable OER, locating up to date research studies on current topics and events, replacing older videos in courses, sourcing copyright compliant readings in and outside of the Library, and more.
Connect with your liaison to request support in Winter 2021. The turnaround time for requests varies depending on the extent of the request and other ongoing projects and priorities - two weeks is appreciated when possible, but we can work to deadline if necessary.
Data Requests
Data is everywhere, and students working on capstones and other applied research projects increasingly need more and more of it to complete their work. The Library facilitates process by facilitating and providing access to spatial and numerical data from national, provincial, and community partners such as the City of Calgary.
Our expert in the Library is Corrinna Meidinger, a two time SAIT Alumna (LIT and BGIS). In recent years, Alison Hart joined Corrinna to support the process; together, they provided students with a total of 1273 data files between July 2019 and June 2020.
Learn more about data requests at the Library by visiting our Spatial & Numeric Data guide.
