Faculty Services
JMU Libraries offers expertise in librarianship, educational technology, archives, instructional design, and so much more. We also manage physical and online collections to support your research and teaching.
If you’re not a faculty member or instructor, switch to our resources for students, staff, graduate students, or visitors.
We’re here to help you:
Teach
Get Expert Advice to Support Your Teaching:
- Artificial intelligence (AI): To help faculty learn about AI and critically examine its implications and effects, we offer information and resources on generative AI. You can also request a consultation.
- Help with Canvas: We provide Canvas (JMU’s course management system) and can help you use Canvas effectively.
- Course evaluations: We manage JMU’s course evaluation tool, Blue, which is integrated into Canvas and MyMadison as “Course Evaluation Task.” We can help you customize course evaluations. Check out the course evaluation schedule and Blue Instructor Guide for more information.
- Personalized support for using educational technologies: Our Learning Innovations & Design Desk team can give you expert advice on using classroom technology, academic software, and more. Learn about all of our educational technology services for faculty.
- Instructional design: Request a consultation to design and develop engaging and accessible assignments, courses, and more. Our instructional design services can also help you meaningfully integrate educational technologies into the learning and academic experience.
- Media production: We can help you create videos, audio, graphics, and more to support your teaching. Learn more about our video & audio production studio, other media production support for faculty, and related services from The Makery.
- Workshops and training: Take a faculty workshop to enhance your teaching in traditional, online, or blended environments.
Provide Course Materials to Your Students:
- Digital accessibility of course materials: Visit our Digital Accessibility (Title II) Support page to learn how we can help you apply digital accessibility principles to your digital class environments so that everyone can access and benefit from them.
- Affordable course materials: Consider these ways you can make course materials more affordable for your students.
- Course reserves: Use course reserves to place high-demand materials on reserve for students by limiting checkout times.
- Open educational resources: Open textbooks and other open educational resources are affordable and accessible for students and customizable for instructors. Learn how to find open course materials or request a consultation on open educational resources.
- Video content for courses: Learn how to find video content for your courses. Find other videos available through JMU Libraries.
Try Our Self-Paced Learning Opportunities:
- Asynchronous online learning options: Try one of our self-paced learning opportunities for busy faculty members. Dive into topics such as accessibility, strategies for teaching digital learning environments, or how to find and create open textbooks.
- LinkedIn Learning: You can also access on-demand learning on a variety of topics with LinkedIn Learning.
- Artificial intelligence (AI) resources: Explore the self-paced AI-related learning opportunities we offer in support of your teaching and research.
- Digital accessibility resources: Learn how we can help you improve the digital accessibility of your courses.
- Guides to online & hybrid teaching: Check out our guide for online or hybrid teaching, including how to teach with Zoom at JMU. Or request a consultation on online and hybrid learning to explore technologies and pedagogical approaches for success.
- Best practices in teaching & learning: Our Readings about Teaching site offers a curated list of books on inclusive teaching practices, the science of learning, and more.
Invite Us to Your Class:
- Workshops for your courses: Invite us into your in-person or online classroom. In addition to our instruction sessions on research, technology, information literacy, and Special Collections, we also offer sessions on copyright and intellectual property and data and AI literacy.
- Digital class projects: Digital assignments such as podcasts, oral histories, timelines, maps, data visualizations, and more can promote engaged learning and a sense of belonging. Request a consultation to get our help leveraging critical digital pedagogy and inclusion-oriented strategies as you design a digital assignment.
Get Classroom Support:
- Classroom technologies: Contact the Learning Innovations & Design Desk for help with projectors, microphones, and other classroom technology or classroom equipment.
- 3D printing classroom: Our 3SPACE classroom is the first general-education college 3D printing classroom in the U.S.
Find & Borrow
- Articles, books and more: Use Library Search to find books, e-books, articles, and more. If you can’t find what you need, Ask the Library is here to help you.
- How to borrow items: Your JACard is your library card. Learn more about our borrowing services.
- Databases, journals, video, and more: Visit our online resources page for details on accessing journals, databases, video, and more. Get instructions for connecting from off-campus to use some of the Libraries’ online resources
- Delivery services: Get library books or materials delivered to your departmental mailbox or try our other delivery services.
- Scanned articles and chapters: We can scan articles and book chapters for you, whether they are in our collections or only available from other libraries.
- Interlibrary Loan (ILL): When you need a resource that’s not in JMU’s collections, request it from Interlibrary Loan. We use our global network of libraries to do our best to get your item to you quickly and free of charge.
- Newspapers & magazines: Access the Washington Post, New York Times, and other newspapers using our subscriptions. You can also read popular and industry magazines through Flipster. Visit our Newspapers and Magazines guide or see our full list of news-related databases.
- Music: Find music in all its forms in our Music Library. Check out CDs, sheet music, vinyl, and more—or stream a wide range of music online. The Music Library is not just for the School of Music. Learn more in this list of Things You Didn’t Know You Could Do in the Music Library.
- Special Collections: Special Collections is our repository for rare and unique materials, with a focus on the history of JMU and the Shenandoah Valley.
Research & Create
- AI in research: We offer an Artificial Intelligence and Research guide as one of our AI Resources for Faculty. You can also review our Ethical Considerations When Using Content with AI page or request a consultation.
- Academic software: JMU Libraries provides a variety of academic software to catalyze your research and teaching.
- Data management: Request a consultation on data management, including creating a data management plan and more.
- Equipment loans: You and your students can borrow multimedia equipment such as laptops, cameras, microphones, and camcorders. Our Music Library also offers equipment to check out. Our makerspace offers additional media production and makerspace equipment. And HDMI cables and disc drives are available to check out from the Ask The Library Desk in Rose Library.
- Liaison librarians: When you have research questions, contact your department’s liaison librarian, a subject expert who can help you and your students with discipline-specific research.
- Publishing at JMU: We provide holistic support for scholarly communications, offering consultations on open publishing, copyright and author rights, finding a journal for publication, and more.
- Printing & scanning: JMU Libraries offers pay-per-page printing and free scanning.
- Research guides: Our research guides, created by JMU librarians, provide our best resources in a variety of disciplines. Your department’s liaison librarian may also be able to create a research guide for a course.
- Scholarly Commons: Share your scholarship worldwide by adding it to JMU’s open-access institutional repository. Check out our top 6 reasons to add your work to the JMU Scholarly Commons.
- The Makery: Our makerspace, The Makery, encourages creativity, brainstorming, exploring, rethinking, problem-solving and curiosity by offering technologies, software, equipment, and workshops. The Makery is especially eager to collaborate on course assignments and research projects.
- Video, photography, and graphic design services: Get expert assistance with media production — including creating images, graphs, and other visual representations of data — for your scholarly publications or teaching.
- Accessing data on obsolete devices: We offer services and resources to help you access data saved on obsolete devices or older media.
Learn More
- Library locations: Watch this short video to learn about our four library locations.
- Fun things to do in JMU Libraries: Learn about our Community Seed Library, book displays, and more in Fun Things to Do in JMU Libraries.
- We’re here to help! Visit our Help page to access our live chat, consultation request form, and more. We look forward to working with you!