California Lutheran University’s Pearson Library recently expanded its online resources with the integration of three new databases: The Chronicle of Higher Education, Underground and Independent Comics, Comix and Graphic Novels, and Kanopy.

The Chronicle of Higher Education is essentially a news stand that offers news, jobs and advice. The website contains discussion forums, CV management, advice columns and salary information. It was requested by the faculty at the Graduate School of Education according to Henri Mondschein, who holds a doctorate in education. The faculty felt it would be a useful resource for the graduate students.

The Underground and Independent Comics, Comix and Graphic Novels is a unique database for adult comic books and graphic novels. It is a primary source database offering original works, interviews with the authors, criticisms and journal articles.

Kanopy is a YouTube-like database with nearly 5,000 videos on subjects that run the gamut from education and health to business and technical training. The benefit of this database is that it is a Patron-Driven Acquisition.

“A PDA is where we do not actually purchase the film until somebody triggers the purchase by watching the film. Once a person or group of people watch a certain amount of the film, approximately 10 minutes, three times it will trigger a purchase,” said. Yvonne Wilber, Information Specialist. “It’s a way for us to offer access to films without actually buying them, so that way it saves the school some money.”

The library now offers an eBook collection called eBrary. eBrary also uses a patron-driven acquisition model.

“We have thousands of titles in different subject areas in our catalogue, but we do not actually own them until somebody actually reads the book. When one person reads the book, it triggers a loan. If somebody wants to read it again it will trigger a purchase. Again, we’re only purchasing the books that are being used instead of having books just in case,” Wilber said.

In addition to the databases, the library now offers online Research Tutorials. They are separated by year, allowing freshmen, sophomore, juniors and seniors to have specific research skills taught for their level. Manager of Information Literacy, Mondschein, along with the other librarians attends classrooms and teach skills on how to navigate the research tools.

“The goal was to help students on campus become better researchers and to make better use of information,” Mondschein said. “We’re a small group of librarians and although we try to visit as many classrooms as we can, there’s just not enough time during the school year.”

Online research resources benefit commuter students who have a difficult time accessing the Pearson Library. Senior Kiana Farsar heavily relies on the online databases to complete the work and research projects in her biology major.

“I don’t live on campus, so it’s really hard for me to stay in the library for hours and hours doing my homework. These online databases save my life during midterms and finals and big papers and I think it’s so great that the library is expanding them,” Farsar said.

America Rojas
Staff Writer
Published October 28th, 2015