Teo-Phoon Moi Ying ~ Head, Media Resources Dept, Central Library
Wong Kah Wei ~ Hon Sui Sen Memorial Library
At the start of the new semester in August 2003, some students in the Faculty of
Arts and Social Sciences and the School of Business obtained their course
readings directly from the
Integrated Virtual Learning Environment (IVLE). Instead of going to the
library’s RBR collection to borrow the printed copies of the articles and book
chapters, the students were able to retrieve the readings digitally over the
campus network. This quiet introduction of the Library E-Reserves met with an
overwhelming response from our students.
One of the earliest users of the E-reserves system is Assistant Professor Lim Kwanghui from the NUS Business School, who uses it for both his MBA and undergraduate courses. According to Dr Lim, "the Library staff have done a fantastic job with E-Reserves! I no longer have to make copies of articles for students, or worry that I might accidentally violate copyright laws. My students are very enthusiastic about the new system. It now takes a few simple mouse clicks from within IVLE to download the course readings, whereas in the past they had to personally drop by the RBR counter."
Anytime and Anywhere
Students can now access their course reading materials from their desktop
anytime and anywhere. Integrating the readings into IVLE offered an opportunity
to remove not only the physical barriers but the temporal limitations of access
during library opening hours.
Ease of Use
At IVLE, students look for their course, click on Library E-Reserves. The
digitized material appears as a PDF file or as a hyperlink to the full text
article in an electronic journal subscribed by the NUS Libraries. All that a
student needs to do is to click and download the PDF file or the full article
from electronic journal. A list of Frequently Asked Questions on downloading and
printing is readily available at
http://libpweb1.nus.edu.sg/help/digital/index.html.
The Library E-Reserves provide another opportunity for the NUS Libraries to work closely with the lecturers to support their teaching needs. Faculty staff just need to provide their reading list to the library. In fact, some lecturers had already indicated which articles were available in Digital Library which facilitates the E-reserves process.
More details on the Library E-reserves service are available at http://www.lib.nus.edu.sg/guides/ereserves_staff.html or send your query to Central Library Circulation Dept at loans@nus.edu.sg or to Hon Sui Sen Memorial Library at hssmlib@nus.edu.sg.
The Library E-Reserves are still at the infant stage. The NUS Libraries will be working with the Centre for Instructional Technology to enhance the service for faster and more seamless delivery.
More than Just Readings
The IVLE platform allows for a more interactive learning experience, where
faculty staff may also integrate sound and film from the library collection into
their course. This would help to make learning a more engaging exercise for
students. Currently, there are over 100 courses on IVLE using digitized media
materials. Contact the Media Resources Dept at
medialib@nus.edu.sg for more information.
Created on 3/11/2003 © National University of Singapore Libraries
