November 24, 2009
Faculty Research Support from the Library: New Choices and Faster Service
As budget realities continue to hit home and the Library seeks ways to work smarter and more efficiently, the venerable “ASAP” program is being displaced by a new range of services that are faster, less labor intensive, and more technology-driven. The Library has the tools and the services that today’s researchers need, and most of them can be delivered to their home or office desktop:
Research databases: discover the best sources of online information for a discipline, then search them to retrieve articles, reports, images, statistics, and government documents. The Library subscribes to over 11,000 full text e-journals. Get started at http://www.csulb.edu/library/eref/
Citation manager: the Library’s subscription to RefWorks™ is integrated seamlessly with most of its databases, so each researcher can create, format, and save cited references in a personal folder
Article retrieval: When a journal reference can’t be provided directly by the library, try ArticleReach™. Complete an online form, and receive the scanned article sent directly to your desktop, often in less than a day http://arlir.iii.com/
Book retrieval: Use COAST http://coast.library.csulb.edu/ to search for a needed book; if the Library doesn’t have it click on the 
button to repeat your search in over 60 other academic and public libraries; complete an online form to have the book sent to CSULB within 3 business days for you to pick up at the Check-out Desk
Librarian consultation: Librarians are information retrieval experts, and each department/program has been assigned its own subject specialist librarian. Make an appointment to discuss your research needs and to get suggestions for the best sources of information at http://www.csulb.edu/library/guide/biblio.html
The Library regrets that it no longer has staff to provide some services formerly offered to ASAP enrollees: photocopying of articles from print journals in the library, courier delivery to faculty offices of books or photocopied articles, completion of forms required to obtain books or articles, completion of forms required to put books or articles on reserve.
For more information, please contact Tracey Mayfield, Acting Associate Dean at: tmayfiel@csulb.edu.
