Off Campus Access to Research Databases
Off-Campus Access is available to all Fitchburg State College faculty and staff, and students as follows:
- Faculty teaching a course or preparing a course for the upcoming semester.
- Undergraduate students taking at least 6 credits.
- Graduate students taking at least 3 credits.
- Students enrolled in one or more FSC Distance Learning courses.
- Students enrolled at an FSC Extended Campus site.
For more information about connecting from home, please read about Off Campus Access.
To go directly to a list of available Library Research Databases; use these to search for articles and journals online.
Library Orientation & Instruction
The Access Services Librarian is available Sunday through Saturday to conduct a Library Orientation or Instruction Session for your Distributed Learning course upon request.
Please contact Linda LeBlanc, Access Services Librarian, for more information or to schedule a library instruction session:
Phone: (978) 665-3062
Email: dllibrary@fsc.edu or lileblanc@fsc.edu
Library Instruction sessions may be arranged at each cohort at any time through the year. We recommend that each program have at least one session each year for their extended campus faculty. These sessions will provide an overview of library services for the distance learning community, a tour of the library website, and a demonstration of how to access the library's electronic resources to keep up to date with the changes going on in the Gallucci-Cirio Library. Library Instruction can also be arranged for your students. We encourage everyone, especially if you are teaching a research or research intensive course to use this service to keep up to date with the changes going on in the of searching, research and information. Special services are availble for you and your students.
The following instruction session formats are suggested:
- A cohort student session
- Several faculty may combine their classes for a joint session
- Several individual or joint classes at a cohort could arrange for seperate sessions at different times on the same day.
- Tailor the session for your online course.
Library Instruction Program
We provide library instruction sessions, upon request of the faculty member, for Fitchburg State College courses offered through the Fitchburg State Extended Campus and Distance Learning progams. The librarian will work with you to develop the session to make sure it covers the needs of your students. If you are teaching a course at an Extended Campus site, the librarian will conduct the session at your extended campus location. The session counts as actual class time the same way our on campus library instruction sessions do. If you are teaching an online course through Distance Learning, we can modify the library instruction session to meet your needs and make it available for your students online.
We provide faculty sessions, upon request of the Extended Campus site coordinator, as well.
You may request a library instruction session that entails the following:
- A basic orientation which consists of a general introduction to the library, its services, and its informational sources.
- The second is a specialized instruction consisting of a more in-depth review of a specific subject's resources and how to search in a specific database(s).
- A combination of the basic orientation and the specialized instruction.
- If you have computer and Internet access available at your site location for the students, hand-on searching is incorporated into the specialized instruction session. If you do not have computer access and/or Internet access, the librarian has a laptop and projector through which to provide the session.
Borrowing Materials
Request your Student One Card ID
Fitchburg State College has a One Card system. Your One Card serves as your Student ID and as your Library Card.
If you are a matriculating student, you need your One Card to:
- request and borrow circulating materials from our collection,
- to request copies of articles from our print periodicals collection,
- request books and articles through our Interlibrary Loan service,
- and to borrow materials directly from other MA state colleges through the WILL program and Worcester area colleges through the ARC program.
If you are a non-matriculating student, you may use this card to borrow Fitchburg State College library materials only.
Note: If you have the older Fitchburg State College I.D. card or one of our paper Library Guest Cards, you must replace it with a new One Card I.D.
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Activate your Library Account
To activate your Library Account, please complete the Library Account Activation Form.
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Find Fitchburg State-owned articles, audio, books
Use the Library Catalog to locate books, CDs, and etc. that are available at Fitchburg State College.
Use the online Research Databases or our Research Guides to access full-text articles and indexes and abstracts to print materials.
Use Journal Locator when you have an article citation to find the full text in our electronic and print collections. Note: You must be logged in as an Off-Campus user to access the journals and newspapers within in our Research Databases.
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Get Library Materials
Once you know what you want, there are 2 ways you can get it: request our Document Delivery service or pickup materials in person.
Document Delivery
Through our document delivery service we will send the item to you through postal mail upon receipt of your completed request form.We will incur the cost of shipping the item(s) to you. Photocopies are yours to keep.
Fitchburg State-owned items can be returned in person or mailed to the library using the enclosed return mailing label. Any library items mailed back must be shipped in appropriate packing such as a jiffy bag to prevent the item from being damaged (ask at your local post office if you are not sure). You will be responsible for the cost of shipping library items back to us and for any damaged/lost items.
This service is only available to faculty and matriculating students enrolled through a Fitchburg State extended campus program and those taking distance learning courses. Students and faculty in the Bermuda and India programs should contact their local co-operative library.
The length of the delivery time will vary depending on the material requested and the mode of delivery available. Our goal is to ensure that you receive materials as quickly as possible.
Pickup Materials
Any time you are on campus you can come to the library and have direct access to photocopy articles, check out circulating items, and etc.
Length of Loan
The student borrowing period is 28 days for Fitchburg State-owned, circulating materials plus a 7-day grace period to allow for shipping time. Items returned after the 7-day grace period will be subject to the normal late fine of 25 cents per day/per item. Lost/damaged fees are the cost of the item plus a $5 processing fee.
Refer to Circulation Policies for additional information.
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Interlibrary Loan - For items not owned by Fitchburg State
Books and journals not available at Fitchburg State can be requested from other libraries. This service is available free to Fitchburg State matriculating students, staff and faculty including those enrolled at an extended campus site.
Interlibrary Loan is not available for faculty or students in Bermuda and India, nor those taking distance learning courses. Students and faculty in the Bermuda and India programs should contact their local co-operative library.
Please keep in mind that the average ILL request takes an average of 2-3 weeks from the time you submit the request until you receive the item, and may take longer. There are 2 ways in which you can request an item through ILL:
- Complete the appropriate online ILL Request Form.
- Any time you are on campus you can come to the library and fill out an ILL form at the Circulation Desk.
We will incur the cost of shipping ILL item(s) to you. Photocopies are yours to keep.
ILL items can be returned in person or mailed to the library using the enclosed return mailing label. Any ILL items mailed back must be shipped in appropriate packing such as a jiffy bag to prevent the item from being damaged (ask at your local post office if you are not sure). You will be responsible for the cost of shipping ILL items back to us and for any damaged/lost items.
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WILL: MA State Colleges reciprocal borrowing program
WILL stands for Walk-In-Library-Loan. This program allows current Fitchburg State faculty, staff, and matriculating students to walk into any Massachusetts state college and register to borrow material directly from that library.
You must present a valid One Card ID with our library barcode on it as proof that you are affiliated with Fitchburg State College.
Each state college library has its own individual registration requirements and circulation policies which you must adhere to in order to take part in this program. This reciprocal program is only for borrowing circulating materials and does not include using their ILL, Bibliographic Instruction, or other special services.
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ARC: ACADEMIC AND RESEARCH COLLABORATIVE
This is a group of libraries in the Worcester area to which the Gallucci-Cirio Library belongs. Within this group we participate in a Student cross-borrowing program with the following schools: Anna Maria, Assumption, Atlantic Union, Becker, Holy Cross, Nichols, and WPI.
In order to borrow circulating materials directly from any of these schools, you must present a Student ARC Card issued by our Circulation Department and an FSC Student I.D. at that library's circulation desk.
To get a Student ARC Card, please contact Linda LeBlanc (dllibrary@fsc.edu). The Gallucci-Cirio Library at Fitchburg State, as your home institution, agrees to place a hold on your FSC library account if you fail to return an item or do not pay any accrued late fines/lost fees.
Note: In order to receive an Fitchburg State College Student ARC Card, you must have an active library account in good standing with us. We reserve the right to deny/revoke this auxillary privilege to any student member whose library account is or becomes delinquent with us or any of the ARC member libraries.
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Reference and Research Assistance
If you need assistance in using the catalog and/or online resources, finding materials related to your topic, or any other information please ask a Reference Librarian.
Email: fsclibrary@fsc.edu
Phone local: 978-665-3223
Phone toll free within New England: 1-888-339-8949
Reference service is available in person at the Reference Desk, by phone and by email on a first come/first served basis during regular hours of operation. A reference librarian will respond as quickly as possible to all email and voicemail messages.
The following schedule is in effect from the first full week of classes until the end of examinations each semester.
Reference Desk Hours of Operation
Monday - Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday* |
8:00 a.m. - 8:30 p.m.
8:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
1:00 p.m. - 5 p.m.
1:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. |
*Closed on Sundays during the summer sessions. During Summer Intersessions when there are no classes, reference hours are available Monday - Friday, 8am -5pm only.
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Research Guides & Tutorials
Research guides have been created for each of the undergraduate and graduate majors and in several areas of concentrations and general interest.
Our Librarians are continually updating the research guides to provide appropriate reference information, both print and electronic, for each subject.
Tutorials and guides are also created to address common research needs.
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The Library extends Course Reserve services to the distributed learning community using the product ERes, an electronic reserves system.
We load documents or articles that professors place on reserve. Students have access to this materials 24 hours/day via the Internet.
How to Access ERes, electonic reserves:
- Go to our ERes site at http://eres.fsc.edu
- Click on Electronic Reserves and Course Materials
- There are several ways to find your course reserves:
- By Department - Click on the arrow to see a complete list of departments, select the one you want and click on go.
- By Instructor - Click on the arrow to see a complete list of professors, select the one you want and click on go.
- ERes QuickSearch - (Lets you search by Course name or number, document title and document author.) Type in the information you know and select the field to be searched, then click on search.
- The screen will display a list of 1 or more courses that match what you searched. One example of this is if you searched by instructor and your professor has more than 1 class with reserve items. You would then click on your course.
- If the course is password protected, you will be prompted to enter your ERes password (the course password will be given to you by your professor). Next you will see a copy right notice; you must click on the "Accept" button in order to continue.
- Once in the course, you will see a list of all the documents on reserve for your course. To access the full text electronic reserve documents, click on the link. (Please note that many documents are in PDF file formats, which means that you must have PDF reader software on your computer in order to open them. In the right hand column of your ERes screen under FSC Links there is a link to a free version of Adobe Acrobat PDF Reader which you can download from the Internet.)
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