Library News: Classes & Workshops 
VCU Libraries will present Advance Your Research on Tuesday, Oct. 15, a full day of walk-in workshops for graduate students and faculty designed to help make their research process better, faster and smarter. Sessions are free and open to all. First come, first seated. Details
Topics include:
- Academic publishing
- Copyright
- Google for scholars
- Grey Literature
- Online scholarly materials
- Refworks
- Zotero
- Liaisons
- Literature reviews
- Elevator pitches
- Impact factors
"We know from the conversations we have with graduate students and faculty that VCU researchers need these kinds of sessions," said Bettina Peacemaker, assistant head for academic outreach. "They want to streamline their research process, and we have resources that will make their work easier. So, we designed a day filled with the kind of information we've been providing in one-on-one consultations or in classroom settings."
Schedule of Workshops
8:15 a.m. Check-in opens.
8:30 a.m. Resources for Your Research: Enjoy a light breakfast, network and discover research resources around campus.
9:30 a.m. Make an Impact: Finding the Right Journal for Your Research: Understand what a journal impact factor is, what it is not and how to use it. You'll discover other techniques and resources to find just the right journal for your research.
10:30 a.m. Three-Second Thesis: Practice Your Elevator Pitch: Think about how to explain your ideas to others. Learn to reel off your research plans and proposals to grant administrators, potential collaborators, bigwigs and your grandma.
11:30 a.m. Better Reference Management through Technology: Save time, toil and trouble by organizing your sources and references using RefWorks, Zotero and other online resources.
12:30 p.m. Lunch with Your Librarian: Join us for lunch and informal conversations about your work with library colleagues. Please email or register if you plan to stay for lunch so we can prepare for everyone.
2 p.m.: Learn to Love Your Lit Review: Learn how to locate the important literature on your topic, track down citations and organize them effectively.
3 p.m. Let Me Google That for You: How to Make the Web Work for Your Research: Leverage common web tools to find so-called "grey literature" and online scholarly material, understand key players, stay up to date and put yourself out there.
4 p.m. Can I Publish That? Working with Images and Media: Become more familiar with the parameters of copyright for images and media and the procedures for using these materials in academic publishing.
More about Academic Outreach at VCU Libraries
Have questions? Want to schedule a one-on-one consultation? VCU librarians specialize in your fields. Please call or email us. We're here to help you succeed in your academic pursuits:
- go.vcu.edu/mylibrarian
- library.vcu.edu/askus
- 804-828-8960
Students, staff and faculty can invest a few minutes on a tour of Cabell Library and save time later in the semester. Participants will learn about the facility, collections and resources, as well as how library services and staff can assist with assignments. Cabell Library tours start promptly inside the first-floor main entrance and last approximately 30 minutes. No registration required.
New this year is a midnight tour on Thursday, August 29. Assemble at 11:59 p.m. for a special tour led by one of Cabell's overnight crew, unofficially known as "The Working Dead."
- Monday, Aug. 19, 2 p.m.
- Monday, Aug. 19, 2:30 p.m.
- Monday, Aug. 19, 3 p.m.
- Monday, Aug. 19, 3:30 p.m.
- Wednesday, Aug. 21, noon, 1 p.m., 2 p.m.
- Thursday, Aug. 22, noon
- Friday, Aug. 23, 11 a.m., 2 p.m.
- Saturday, Aug. 24, noon
- Sunday, Aug. 25, 4 p.m.
- Monday, Aug. 26, 3 p.m., 4 p.m.
- Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2 p.m., 7:30 p.m.
- Wednesday, Aug. 28, 1 p.m., 3:30 p.m., 6 p.m.
- Thursday, Aug. 29, noon, 4 p.m., 11:59 p.m.
- Friday, Aug. 30, 11 a.m., 1 p.m.
- Wednesday, Sept. 4, 4:30 p.m.
- Thursday, Sept. 5, 4 p.m.
- Friday, Sept. 6, 2 p.m., 3 p.m.
For more information about these tours and other VCU Libraries events and workshops
Tompkins-McCaw Library for the Health Sciences will host a live simulcast of TEDMED 2013, April 16-19, during regular library hours. The University community is invited to join colleagues to listen to this provocative series of short, inspiring talks, curated by the well-known TED (technology, entertainment, design) conference series, which began in the mid-1980s.
TEDMED focuses on health and medicine. The conference meets at the Kennedy Center in Washington, for a 31/2 day program.
According to organizers, "TEDMED believes that the future of health and medicine will be shaped by vital input from leading medical colleges, teaching hospitals, government agencies and non-profit institutions around the world." In this spirit of collaboration and information sharing, the TEDMED event is broadcast free to these institutions.
This is the first time VCU has participated in TEDMED Live.
- John Maeda, Rhode Island School of Design President: "How can design principles lead to more discovery and better treatment?"
- America Bracho, CEO and President, Latino Health Acesss: "What happens when patients become leaders on the health team?"
- Harvey Fineberg, President, Institute of Medicine: "What is the U.S. health disadvantage?"
- Amy Abernathy, Director, Duke Center for Learning Health Care: "Can patient data have a second life?"
- Sally Okun, VP Advocacy, Policy and Patient Safety, PatientsLikeMe: "Does anyone in healthcare want to be understood?"
- Francis S. Collins, NIH Director: "Can science take the next leap?"
- Susan Desmond-Hellmann, Chancellor, University of California, San Francisco: "Attention stressed-out docs: Can the consumer be the 'cavalry'that rescues you?"
- Elizabeth Marincola, President, Society for Science and the Public: "With open access, who translates medical research?"
- Elazer Edlman, Senior Physician, Harvard-MIT Biomedical Engineering Center: "The Big Bang in Medicine and Engineering - will the knowledge explosion actually hurt innovation across disciplines?"
- Laura Deming, Partner, The Longevity Fund: "How do we make prevention a $1 trillion business?"
- Isaac Kohane, Professor of Pediatrics and Health Sciences Technology, Harvard Medical School: "How can every clinical visit be used to advance medical science?"
- Edward L. Ayers, president, University of Richmond, pioneer in the digital humanities
- Amanda French, THATCamp (The Humanities and Technology Camp) coordinator, Center for History and New Media, George Mason University
- Emily Smith, executive director, 1708 Gallery, Richmond, curator and creator of InLight Richmond
- Moderator: Roy D. McKelvey, associate professor, Department of Graphic Design, VCU, co-founder of Loop: AIGA Journal of Interactive Design Education
- Ben Fino-Radin, digital conservator for Rhizome at the New Museum and manager of the Museum of Modern Art Digital Repository
- Francesca Fiorani, associate professor, History of Art and Architecture, UVA, director of Leonardo da Vinci and His Treatise on Painting
- Michael Poston, database applications associate, Folger Shakespeare Library
- Moderator: Joshua Eckhardt, associate professor, Department of English, VCU, and founding, general co-editor of British Virginia
- Jessica Venable, grant analyst, Office of Research, VCU
- David Holland, research and entrepreneurship specialist, School of the Arts, VCU
"Libraries have always been on the cutting edge of technology," said University Librarian John E. Ulmschneider. "Emerging cloud technologies are building blocks for the research libraries of the future--more accessible, scalable, secure and content-rich than ever to advance scholarly endeavor."
At the Jan. 9 event, industry leaders discussed how emerging cloud-based technologies are transforming research libraries.
- Tours of James Branch Cabell Library: Jan. 16, 4 p.m. and Jan. 22, 5 p.m.
- Introduction to Research: Feb. 6, 7 p.m.
- Finding Information in the Library I: Feb. 25, 5 p.m.
- Finding Information in the Library II: March 19, 6 p.m.
- New to graduate school? Short on time to search for the best online
resources to find scholarly sources, images, and dissertations? This
workshop will provide information on good places to start your research,
tools to manage your citations, tips on how electronic resources work
at VCU and suggestions for how to use free online resources like Google
Books.
- The workshop leaders are assistant professors Reference Librarian for the Humanities and Reference Collection Coordinator John Glover and Reference Librarian for the Arts Kristina Keogh.
No registration is necessary but faculty who intend to bring a class are asked to contact library faculty in advance so we may prepare for you. For more information please contact John Glover (jglover2@vcu.edu) or Kristina Keogh (keoghkm@vcu.edu).
- James Branch Cabell Library
- Room 319
- 2 to 3 p.m. Oct. 29
On Friday, March 30, from 3 to 4 p.m. VCU Libraries presents a workshop for faculty (but open to all) entitled "Open Access Scholarly Publishing for Faculty."
The workshop will be conducted by Dan Ream, VCU librarian and past president of the VCU Faculty Senate.
As journal subscription costs have increased dramatically, fewer and fewer libraries can afford every journal that is needed, including some that are considered prestigious and essential. Faculty worldwide, especially in the sciences, but also increasingly in the social sciences and humanities, have responded by creating and publishing their research in open access, peer-reviewed journals that charge no fee to their readers.
Faculty senates from Harvard to Berkeley to the University of Virginia have endorsed open access publishing for their faculty.
This one-hour session will introduce faculty to this revolution in publishing of open access, peer-reviewed journals and demonstrate how to locate them in almost any discipline, as well as discuss the potential benefits of worldwide free access to faculty research. Options for faculty retention of copyright will also be discussed.
This workshop will be held in library classroom/lab 319 on the third floor of James Branch Cabell Library. No advance registration is necessary. Address questions to Dan Ream, or call 828-6545 for more information.
Clinic Schedule Spring Semester
Multipurpose Room, room 250, James Branch Cabell Library
- Tuesday, Feb. 28, 4 p.m. - 6 p.m.
- Wednesday, Feb. 29, 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.
- Tuesday, March 6, 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.
- Wednesday, March 7, 4 p.m. - 6 p.m.
- Tuesday, March 20, 4 p.m. - 6 p.m.
- Wednesday, March 21, 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.
- Tuesday, March 27, 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.
- Wednesday, March 28, 4 p.m. - 6 p.m.
- Tuesday, April 3, 4 p.m. - 6 p.m.
- Wednesday, April 4, 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.
- Tuesday, April 10, 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.
- Wednesday, April 11, 4 p.m. - 6 p.m.
- Tuesday, April 17, 4 p.m. - 6 p.m.
- Wednesday, April 18, 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.
- Tuesday, April 24, 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.
- Wednesday, April 25, 4 p.m. - 6 p.m.
For more information
Writing Center workshops
Clinic Schedule
Multipurpose Room, room 250, James Branch Cabell Library
- Tuesday, Oct. 11, 4 p.m. - 6 p.m.
- Wednesday, Oct. 12, 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.
- Tuesday, Oct. 18, 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.
- Wednesday, Oct. 19, 4 p.m. - 6 p.m.
- Tuesday, Oct. 25, 4 p.m. - 6 p.m.
- Wednesday, Oct. 26, 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.
- Tuesday, Nov. 1, 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.
- Wednesday, Nov. 2, 4 p.m. - 6 p.m.
- Tuesday, Nov. 8, 4 p.m. - 6 p.m.
- Wednesday, Nov. 9, 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.
- Tuesday, Nov. 15, 4 p.m. - 6 p.m.
- Wednesday, Nov. 16, 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.
- Tuesday, Nov. 29, 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.
- Wednesday, Nov. 30, 4 p.m. - 6 p.m.
- Tuesday, Dec. 6, 4 p.m. - 6 p.m.
- Wednesday, Dec. 7, 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.
