14 Ways We Can Help Advance Faculty Research

Posted June 23, 2026 in Data Services, Educational Technology News, Featured News, General Collections News, JMU Libraries News, Open Education News, Special Collections News, The Makery News

JMU faculty, if you’re working on scholarship or research projects this summer, take a moment to explore the ways we can help propel your work forward!

Please note that library spaces, collections, and services will have limited availability from May through July 2026 as we move into Carrier Library. Please see Doing Research This Summer? What You Need to Know for the details.

Our research-related areas of expertise include:

1. Finding discipline-specific information: Your department’s liaison librarian is a research expert who can help you and your students navigate our vast collection of books, ebooks, journals, and databases to find the most relevant information for your research project. Check out our research guides, created by these librarians, to see our best resources for research in various disciplines.

2. Data management: We offer consultations on creating data management plans, storing and sharing data, and more. Learn more about our Data Services.
3. Media production support: Get expert assistance with video, graphics, and other media production, including creating images, graphs, and other visual representations of data, for your scholarly publications.
4. JMU Scholarly Commons: Share your work globally and increase its visibility by adding it to JMU’s open-access institutional repository. Check out our top 6 reasons to add your work to Scholarly Commons.
5. Scholarly communications, copyright, and publishing: We support scholarly communications across JMU, offering consultations on copyright, author rights, open publishing, journal selection, and more.
6. Digital scholarship support: equest a consultation to explore innovative methods for conducting and sharing your research online. We can help you experiment with websites, wikis, podcasts, interactive maps, and other technologies. Here are some example digital scholarship projects.
7. Distinctive Collections: Peruse our digital collections online or request remote research support to access our rare and unique materials focusing on the history of JMU and the Shenandoah Valley.
8. Academic software: We provide a variety of academic software to support your research and teaching, including SPSS, NVIVO, and much more.
9. Learn new research skills: Access free video courses on topics like qualitative methods or SPSS through our subscriptions to LinkedIn Learning and Sage Research Methods.
10. Library spaces: Use our 24/7 space in Rose or various quiet spaces for focused work.
11. Interlibrary loan: Request materials you can’t find in JMU’s collections, and our Interlibrary Loan team does our best to get them to you quickly and free of charge, via the global network of libraries.
12. Delivery services: Get library books or materials delivered to your departmental mailbox or request books for pickup at any library location.
13. Scanned articles and chapters: We can email you scanned articles and book chapters, whether from our collections or from other libraries.
14. Online resources: Access databases, articles, streaming videos, and more online resources, available 24/7.

More Free Tools to Help with Your Research

• Google Scholar integration: Identify JMU as your institution in Google Scholar’s settings for easier access to the full text of articles available through JMU subscriptions.
• LibKey Nomad extension: Avoid paywalls with this web browser extension that provides handy links to scholarly articles available via JMU. Here is a short video about how it works.
• Zotero: Want to try a citation manager? Zotero is a free tool to help you collect, organize, cite, and collaborate on research. It connects easily with Microsoft Word and Google Docs, so you can insert citations directly in your text and automatically generate a reference list.

We Also Support Your Teaching!

As you prepare your courses for next semester, check out our services to support your teaching. We offer expertise and resources related to instructional design, educational technology, digital accessibility, affordable course materials, generative AI, and more.

Questions?

If you have questions about our research services, Ask the Library! We’re here to help.