Faculty Resources & Services
The Libraries' Resources, Services, and Information for MCPHS FacultyTeaching
Each academic department and program has a faculty librarian. This librarian is available to work closely with faculty members to support your research and teaching needs. Liaison librarians often collaborate with department faculty by:
- Teaching course-integrated or embedded instruction sessions on the Libraries' research-focused resources.
- Doing extensive literature searches on the topic of your research.
- Creating Research Guides/LibGuides to support a course, activity, skill, or topic.
- Recommending books, journals, and other resources to expand the Libraries' collection for your subject area.
- And much more!
Use this page to find your program’s liaison librarian.
- credit-bearing courses
- research instruction sessions
- digital learning objects
- embedded teaching
- individual consultations
Contact your liaison to schedule instruction or discuss designing information literacy assignments for your courses.
All Boston-based students who are:
- undergraduates,
- enrolled in their preprofessional degree program,
- or are transfer students
are automatically enrolled in and must pass the three information literacy courses to graduate.
These students are required to complete:
- INF 110: Introduction to Research Essentials,
- INF 220: Intermediate Research Skills,
- and INF 330: Advanced Research Skills.
For more information on the Information Literacy Graduation Requirement, please email the Information Literacy Services team.
Course Materials
Search our databases to find relevant materials and tools.
- Go to the A-Z Databases List
- Set the dropdown filter at the top of the page to the subject of your choice. For example, select "Faculty Resources" or "Anatomy and Physiology."
Research Guides are small, curated websites that your librarians have built to support teaching, learning, and research at MCPHS. Subject guides bring together the most relevant databases, ebooks, websites, and other materials on a given topic. Other guides are skills-focused and explain how to use a research tool or how to search for a particular source type. These guides are built around a format type, i.e., Finding Dissertations and Theses. Your liaison librarian can also work with you to develop a custom Research Guide to support a course, assignment, or other project. Use the Request a LibGuide / Research Guide form to initiate that partnership.
These are some of the guides that may be helpful as you prepare your courses:
- Streaming Video: In this Streaming Video Guide guide, you’ll find training videos and films you can use and embed in or link to your Blackboard course. These include Films on Demand, Kanopy, Academic Videos Online, and the Digital Campus. If there’s a video you’d like the Libraries' staff to try to acquire, fill out our Course Reserves Request form.
- Image Collections: Some of our databases offer images, photos, and illustrations you can use in your teaching or conference presentations. This guide provides more information about the available images, where to find them, how to cite them, and copyright considerations.
Faculty members can ask that copies of materials be placed on course reserve. You can request books, movies, kits, and other required and recommended items. This way, students can easily access the materials for short periods of time. The Libraries' staff members will try to acquire copies of the textbooks you require or recommend or get short-term access to the videos you want to use. You can also put personal copies of items on reserve for your students.
Expect an email about course reserves before the beginning of each semester. Reply to it to let the MCPHS library staff know what you would like to put on reserve. The textbooks that are on reserve will be added to the Course Reserves Guide.
The Course Reserves Policy provides guidelines about the materials you can request.
Fill out our Course Reserves Request form to request materials. You can use the comments section to provide additional information and ask questions. You can also contact our Course Reserves team to ask questions without filling out the form.
Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching, learning, and research materials that are either in the public domain or licensed in such a way as to be free to users. Using OER course materials is also a great way to ensure all your students can access necessary resources, regardless of their financial situations.
Learn more about how to find, adapt, or create OER textbooks, handouts, and other materials in the Open Educational Resources Guide. Your liaison librarian can also help find OER materials.
As faculty members, you often use articles, books, and other materials that other people have created. This section introduces the rules governing the legal use of those materials.
MCPHS University complies with copyright. Read the full MCPHS Copyright Policy under “Other” at the bottom of the Compliance Office page. Part of that practice includes using only legally copied materials in Blackboard. We recommend the following strategies:
Link to Content
Link to content instead of posting PDFs or text files from the Internet. Links are not copyrighted. You are effectively pointing the way for students to discover the material on their own. In addition, materials that the MCPHS Libraries pay for should only be available to people at MCPHS. Using the password-protected link ensures that only people who have the rights to access that content can access it. It also helps the Libraries' staff members know which materials the Libraries should continue paying for.
Use Persistent Links
Persistent links, also known as permalinks, stable links, static links, and deep links, are direct links to articles or other information types that are more reliable than links to searches, which may only work once. While using a persistent link may take extra steps, you can use our Persistent Links from Library Resources guide to get persistent links to most of the MCPHS Libraries’ materials. Follow these instructions to connect your students directly to the full text of the material you want them to access.
Use the Public Domain
Use materials that are in the public domain, such as products of work for the US government. The Public Domain consists of works that are not protected by copyright law. The copyright term may have expired, it may be a type of work that cannot be copyrighted, or the creator may have formally declared it to be in the Public Domain. You may use works in the Public Domain for free. You do not need to get permission from a copyright holder. Read more about what is in the Public Domain.
Use Creative Commons Licensed Material
Creative Commons helps people legally share information on the Internet. Creators can add Creative Commons licenses to their materials. You may use those materials freely within some limits. Read more about Creative Commons Licenses.
Ask for Permission
If you want to use other materials, you can ask for permission to use the article or book chapter for your class and to post the PDF of the article or book chapter on your Blackboard course. Authors rarely retain copyright to articles that they write. It is transferred to the publisher in the agreement to publish the article. Check the journal's website to find if the publisher gives any automatic permission to non-profit educational institutions. If not, the Libraries can help you obtain permission and pay for any associated costs.
For questions about library-related copyright, contact our Copyright team.
Borrowing & Delivery
Faculty may borrow items from the MCPHS circulating collection for a semester. No overdue fines are assessed on MCPHS books for faculty. Should another faculty member need the book, however, it you may need to return it sooner.
MCPHS patrons may borrow books from any of the Fenway Library Organization (FLO) or Worcester Consortium Libraries (ARC) libraries using their MCPHS ID. Most have a 3-week circulation period and a 2-week renewal period. Most assess overdue fees. It is best to check each library's circulation policies when borrowing.
If you live or work in Massachusetts, you may obtain a Boston Public Library card. If you do not want a full-service card, you may instead obtain a BPL eCard.
If you live in Massachusetts or work in Worcester, you may obtain a Worcester Public Library card.
If you live or work in Manchester, you may obtain a Manchester City Library card.
Book chapters and articles that are not available from MCPHS's print and digital collections can often be obtained from other libraries through Interlibrary Loan. This service is usually provided free of charge for faculty and students. When an article is not immediately available through one of the databases we subscribe to, you will be directed to a link to Request through Interlibrary Loan. Alternatively, you can manually submit a request through the ILL: Journal Articles and Book Chapters form or the ILL: Books form on our website. The Interlibrary Loan team recommends using the form in the databases whenever possible; it will save you time.
Barring unusual circumstances, the majority of articles will be sent to patrons within 3 business days. Books may be picked up at the Circulation desk at your Campus Library. If requested, they can also be sent to your office.
If there is a problem with your request, you will be contacted at your MCPHS email address. If you have not received the requested article or an email after 3 business days, contact the Interlibrary Loan team.
Research
Ask a quick question or meet with your librarian to get personalized research support. Librarians can help you think through your project, search for information about it, recommend databases, assist with your literature search, and more. Ask a quick question or meet with your librarian to get personalized research support. Librarians can help you think through your project, search for information about it, recommend databases, assist with your literature search, and more. Contact your librarian directly to schedule a consultation. to schedule a consultation.
Use research tools to:
- Manage your citations using a citation manager.
- Find grant funding to support your research projects.
- Stay up-to-date and set up alerts: use BrowZine and ReadbyQxMD to set up search alerts. Use News Alert Tools to stay current. journal alert or a search alert in your MyEBSCO folder in MCPHS Smart Search. (You will need to set up a Personal User Account.)
Publishing
The MCPHS Institutional Repository is an Open Access (OA) digital repository of MCPHS scholarship – article pre-prints, OA articles and book chapters, posters, theses, dissertations, and archival materials are included.
Work with our Institutional Repository Team to include your work, making it globally accessible.
Additional Resources: Other Departments
View the list of available software and access methods, learn how to request new software, and find guides and information on software packages available from MCPHS’ Information Services.
All three campuses need to submit poster printing requests through the Copy and Printing Center portal. The Poster Production Guide provides tips for designing your poster.
MCPHS’s Institutional Review Board reviews and approves research proposals to help protect both researchers and research participants.
Everyone involved in human subjects research is required to complete training in the protection of those subjects. To access the required training, please create an account at CITI Program, or log in to an existing account on that site.
The MCPHS Office of Institutional Research and Assessment (OIRA) can help with collecting or accessing data about MCPHS. Use the Service Request Form link on their page to submit your request.
Run by the Instructional Support Office, the Center for Teaching and Learning supports MCPHS faculty and staff in their commitment to excellence and innovation in teaching and learning. Get support from their team by submitting a ticket, setting up a consultation, or attending their open office hours.
CASE assists students in maximizing their potential by introducing them to strategies that will make them more efficient, effective and independent learners. The Writing Center works individually with students to develop their writing and grammar skills. Virtual services are available to all students, including MCPHS Employees who are enrolled in classes. MCPHS Employees do not have direct access to the appointment scheduling site but can contact the Writing Center directly. Contact information is at the bottom of their homepage.