Oakland University Library Resources: A Comprehensive Guide
Oakland University, as a thriving academic institution, recognized the critical importance of a functional and comprehensive library collection from its inception. This need was met in 1961 through the generous support of the Kresge Foundation, a Metro Detroit-based organization dedicated to fostering artistic, cultural, educational, and community development initiatives. The library, a cornerstone of the university's academic infrastructure, has evolved significantly since its establishment.
The Stanley S. Kresge Library: A Legacy of Support
The library is named after Stanley S. Kresge, President of the Kresge Foundation, and Sebastian S. Kresge, the founder of the popular department store Kresge's and co-founder of the Kresge Foundation. Their contributions have been instrumental in the library's development and its ability to serve the university community.
Construction and Design
The original library building, completed in 1961, encompassed 72,000 square feet and featured three floors above ground. J.A. oversaw the construction. A notable feature, as highlighted in a 1961 document, was "the absence of interior supporting walls, other than those of the central core, and a reduction of the number of supporting columns." This design choice allowed for flexible space utilization and adaptation to evolving needs. Currently, the library spans four floors, encompassing approximately 80,000 square feet.
Collections and Resources
The Oakland University library boasts millions of items in both print and electronic formats within its collections, catering to a wide range of academic disciplines and research interests. The library continually expands its digital resources to meet the evolving needs of students and faculty.
Services and Facilities
The library offers a variety of services and facilities designed to support student learning and research:
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- Student Computer Work Stations: Providing access to technology for research, writing, and other academic tasks.
- Quiet Study Rooms: Multiple "quiet study" rooms are available on each of the four floors, offering dedicated spaces for focused individual study.
- Student Technical and Writing Services: Offering assistance with technical skills and writing assignments.
- Research Instruction Classrooms: Classrooms devoted to research instruction, ensuring students develop essential information literacy skills.
Navigating Online Applications: e-LIS Resources
e-LIS (Electronic Library and Information Source) has compiled a library of useful and thorough documents to assist faculty and staff in navigating the online applications available at OU. These documents are categorized by application and provide descriptions of the applications, as well as usage information.
Supported Software Tools:
- Moodle: The university's Learning Management System (LMS).
- eSpace & ePortfolio: Supplemental online spaces for academic and administrative resources, as well as online portfolio building.
- Video Conferencing: Tools such as Zoom and Google Meet for online communication and collaboration.
- Lecture Capture & Video Editing: Platforms like Panopto, YuJa, and Camtasia for recording and editing lectures and other video content.
- Akindi: A scantron replacement for paper-based and online assessments.
- Digital Accessibility: Resources like Brickfield and other tools to ensure digital content is accessible to all users.
- Proctoring Guides: Information on online proctoring options.
- On-Demand Resources: Resources for online teaching.
- Plagiarism Detection: Tools like Copyleaks to detect plagiarism.
- Miscellaneous: HyFlex Guides and Content Storage information.
Resource Sharing
The Resource Sharing Team's mission is to expand access to resources in support of teaching, learning, and research at Oakland University beyond the collection of its Libraries by acquiring materials from other institutions and to foster these partnerships with other libraries by reciprocating with materials in its own collection.
Using ILLiad, which is a mediated system, and MeLCat, which is unmediated, the University’s students, faculty and staff submit requests to borrow books, reports, journal articles and other items which are not owned by the University Libraries. Resource Sharing staff members lend items from the University Libraries’ collections to other institutions. The requests come through both the ILLiad and MeLCat systems.
Three types of document delivery services are offered to the University’s students, faculty and staff, and all of these are provided through the ILLiad system. They are 1) Faculty/Staff Copy Service, 2) providing books and articles to distance-learning students, and 3) providing proxied links to electronic articles and other content held in the University Libraries’ collections.
Featured Databases
While the library continuously updates its database offerings, examples of databases include:
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- Education Research Index: Combines two powerful education research indexes, ERIC and the Supplemental Education Index.
- First Aid Forward - Step 2: A digital study companion for preclinical education and USMLE Step 2 prep.
- LGBTQ+ Source: Provides comprehensive media coverage of the LGBTQ+ experience, from the early 18th century to today.
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