Elizabeth South

Elizabeth South

Alternatives to ‘No Mow May’

Alternatives to ‘No Mow May’

Spring is in full swing, and many insects, animals, and plants are now active and roaming or growing in your yard. You may also have heard of the “No Mow May” movement from the news, social media, or eco focused organizations. Not mowing for a full month sounds like a nice idea, but it can also lead to a few problems (Damiano, 2023). Abstaining from mowing for only one month out of the mowing season can create confusion for insects and essential pollinators by providing food and shelter for a month, but then taking that shelter and food source away once mowing commences again in June. Insects may have short lifespans, but many have long memories and colony insects communicate … Continued
New Canvas Library Tool Available – ProQuest Resources

New Canvas Library Tool Available – ProQuest Resources

The IU East Campus Library is now offering a new tool to embed journal articles and other resources directly into Canvas from our database search engine, ProQuest Central. This is a similar tool to the Library Resources application that we launched in Fall of 2022, which allows faculty to search and embed articles from EBSCO Discovery directly into Canvas from the Module level. Faculty can now search and pull article links that are available from our ProQuest databases, for which we subscribe to over 80, into their Canvas course! This tool, labeled as ProQuest Resources, is available at the page, discussion, or assignment level and can be added with the Apps icon from the Edit box: Faculty are welcome to … Continued
Who Uses OER at IU East? — Open Education Week 2023

Who Uses OER at IU East? — Open Education Week 2023

Due to the rising costs of higher education, textbook affordability is a particular area of hardship for many students. With limited funding, students may have to choose what is essential to their well-being and education and because of this, many students forgo buying required textbooks or other course material. This often results in poor grades or failing or dropping out of the course (Yano & Myers, 2019).  To combat this issue, Open Educational Resources (OER) initiatives have been growing among many higher education institutions, including Indiana University East. ​ In support of Open Education Week (March 6-10th) 2023, the Campus Library is highlighting IU East faculty who currently use OER textbooks and resources in their classes.  Humanities and Social Sciences … Continued
The (Lib)Key to Quick Access

The (Lib)Key to Quick Access

The IU East Campus Library subscribes to a useful service that connects students and faculty directly to the articles they want, by providing quick access and eliminating paywalls. LibKey is a suite of products that help researchers locate and view research articles with fewer clicks. The LibKey API works with the library’s subscriptions and the Unpaywall Open Access database to streamline access to full text content available at the IU East Campus.  The LibKey link is already integrated into many of our databases, so you don’t need to do anything special to use it—it works behind the scenes as soon as you download or view a PDF. However, there are few other special LibKey features and products that IU East … Continued
Open To All – the Public Domain

Open To All – the Public Domain

On Public Domain Day, January 1, 2023, works published in 1927 entered the public domain. What is “Public Domain” and Why 1927?  The public domain consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, or waived. Therefore, anyone can legally use or reference those works without permission. With the Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998, copyright was extended an additional 20 years, from 75 to 95 years. So, these works that were originally to enter the public domain in 2003 are now entering the public domain in 2023. These materials are open to all and can now be used in class, performances, and projects in any way, shape, … Continued