>> Deborah Nolan:  

Hi, I'm Debbie Nolan, university librarian here at Towson University.  Welcome to Towson and to the Cook Library.  We're delighted that you're here and look forward to providing library support to your teaching and research activities.  I'm pleased to provide you with a brief overview of the services and resources of Albert S. Cook Library.  

The library is centrally located on campus at the top of the beach between Smith Hall and Linthicum Hall.  The five-floor building was constructed in the 1960s, and a few renovations over the past four years are enhancing our services to faculty and students.  The library building also houses the Office of Technology Services that provides computer support to all operations of the University.  The Academic Achievement Center, which offers tutoring services to students, is also located in the library building.  The main floor of the library, the third floor, centers on a Learning Commons with over 170 computers and 9 group workstations for students. Circulation Services, Reserves, Interlibrary Loan, and Reference Research Services are located within the Learning Commons area.  In the lobby of the library you'll find the Faculty Copy Center, Copies Plus, and Starbucks.  

The University Special Collections house the University Archives dating back to the founding of the school in Baltimore in 1866 as the State Normal School.  The Special Collections also hold primary source materials, such as the Paul Gantt papers of the Nuremberg war crimes trials, rare books from the former Baltimore Hebrew University, and publications by Towson University faculty and staff.  We invite you and your students to explore our unique Special Collections materials.  The library's collection includes over 600,000 books, 150,000 electronic books, 885,000 microforms, and nearly 18,000 DVDs, videos, CDs, and films.  In addition to over 200 electronic databases and 4600 print and electronic journals owned by Cook Library, you have access to nearly 30,000 electronic journals through aggregated electronic collections.  You also have access to 7.5 million items in the University of Maryland System Libraries, and you may borrow books from the University System of Maryland Libraries and have them delivered here for you.  And, of course, you may borrow from libraries worldwide through interlibrary loan.  We also provide Cook Delivers, a service for faculty where we will deliver materials to your campus office upon request.  

We're open 108 hours per week, and 24/7 during finals weeks.  20 faculty librarians, 30 staff, and about 20 student assistants are here to support your academic library needs.  You'll learn a great deal about the library services and resources through the library's website.  To access the library's website, start at the University's home page.  In the gold heading area find and click on Library.  Here's the library's home page.  From this page you can start a simple search for books, articles, and journals.  You can see the library's hours for the day, and find out what's new in the library.  For your assistance, we have created a section called Faculty Services.  When you click on Faculty Services, you will access a list of the tools identified as being especially helpful to faculty.  From Faculty Services, you can move to information about our liaison librarians, course reserves, media services, distance learning, borrowing materials, and copyright.  

You'll be happy to know that all of our librarians have liaison responsibilities with academic departments, providing you with a personal librarian ready and eager to meet with you to plan and provide instruction customize for your classes.  Your liaison librarian will keep you informed of services and resources related to your field.  They will also work with you to identify resources in the library that you need to support your courses.  To find the liaison librarian for your discipline, click on Faculty Librarian Liaison Program.  You'll see a list of academic disciplines, the assigned librarians, and their contact information.  You'll also see a link to subject guides that you will take you to a list of subject gateways where you select resources by subject.  The list of subject guides will link you to databases, websites, and journals related to the subject areas and a liaison librarian's web page.  For example, when you click on Cultural Studies, you'll go to the subject gateway for Cultural Studies at the liaison librarian's page.  

Notice that the quick tools box has appeared on nearly every page we visited.  This feature allows you to easily go back to the Faculty Services page for quick access to links about getting help from a librarian, course reserves, distance learning support, circulation, interlibrary loan, and copyright resources.  Remember, you can always get help from a librarian.  Tired of all the research, thrilled with our resources?  Relax or dance with joy at the library's monthly Lunchtime Jazz Series.  Towson University is committed to excellence and the Albert S. Cook Library is at your service.  We are committed to supporting and enriching your teaching and scholarly endeavors.  Again, welcome.  I wish you a very exciting and productive year.