For Faculty

Books in the WPI Gordon Library

WPI's Gordon Library is committed to meeting the research and instructional needs of its faculty as well as its students. To assist in this goal, we have brought together the services and information that we feel are of particular interest to faculty members. 

 





 

Teaching Support

The Gordon Library works with faculty to support their teaching and student learning activities through its Instruction Services, Course Reserves and Open Educational Resources. To request instruction please visit the Library Instruction Request Form, and the instruction librarians will respond promptly. If you have any questions, please email us.

Instruction Services

The Gordon Library instruction program is committed to collaborating with faculty to teach the research skills and information literacy concepts necessary to provide a foundation for lifelong learning and ensure the success of learners in the 21st century.

These instruction services include in-class instruction, research consultations, and outreach program services, all in support of the university’s campus-wide learning outcomes.

Requesting Instruction Services

If you would like to request some form of library instruction for a course (in-person, online, or both), please use the Library Instruction Request Form, and the instruction librarians will respond promptly. If you have any questions, please email us.

Instruction services include:

  • In-class library instruction customized for your course requirements. 
  • Research consultations with individual students and project teams
  • A research guide created for your course, with customized resources and information. 
  • Collaboration on class assignments to help integrate information literacy and library research skills into the class curriculum. 
  • Library assistance and feedback on student work on the Canvas course page.

 

Instruction Program Learning Outcomes

The goal of the Gordon Library’s instruction program is to foster critical thinking and effective research skills in students in support of the university’s campus-wide learning outcomes. As such, the instruction librarians have developed learning outcomes for students that will inform our instruction. We have also mapped our learning outcomes to university-level learning outcomes. Follow this link to view our learning outcomes and see how they connect to specific university-level learning outcomes.

Promoting Instruction Services to Students

Consider adding a note about Gordon Library to your syllabi. This is some suggested language you might wish to adopt:

The research and instruction librarians at Gordon Library can assist you with a variety of research questions, including how to develop and refine a research topic, how to find and evaluate sources, developing search strategies, and how to write citations. Their walk-in office hours are Monday – Friday, 8am – 5pm. They work in rooms 202A-C (main floor), 208 (main floor) and 310 (3rd floor) of the library. You may also schedule a research consultation with a librarian by visiting http://wpi.libcal.com/appointments/. Research librarians are also available by email (reslib@wpi.edu) and chat (click the Contact Us button on the library homepage:https://www.wpi.edu/library).

Course Reserves

Faculty can use library resources in their classes by placing books and media on reserve in the Gordon Library for limited check out times, or by linking to electronic resources through their Canvas site. Find out more about how to place items on reserve for your class or create Canvas eReadings.

Open Educational Resources

The Gordon Library can help you find open or affordable educational resources for your courses, or assist you in making your self-authored course content open and accessible to a global audience. For more information, visit the Open Educational Resources guide.

Research Support

Gordon Library offers faculty research support in a variety of forms, including online guides and tutorials and research consultations at the library or at your office.  Please contact usfor services to faculty in the following areas, or to schedule a consultation.

Citation Management

Interested in learning a new tool to manage your pdfs and citations?  Gordon Library provides access to institutional editions of Endnote, and Mendeley.  We can also provide assistance with using Zotero, BibTex and other tools. For more information visit Citation Tools.

Collections

Investigating a new area of research or teaching?  Let us guide you through Gordon Library’s resources and Open Access collections available through the web.  We can also direct you to research facilities and collections around the world that are related to your areas of inquiry. Interested in suggesting a purchase?  For more information visit Suggest a Purchase.

Faculty Research

Interested in what your colleagues are publishing? Explore easy ways to keep up with WPI faculty research and publications, including monthly newsletters and emails or alerts, and more. For further information visit our WPI Faculty Publications guide.

Grants and Funding

The library works with the Office of Sponsored Programs, Research Solutions Institute, and Foundation and Corporate Philanthropy, to provide assistance in using Pivot and other research tools to find funding opportunities from government, corporations, foundations & private entities. Search in Pivot for research funding, fellowships, travel, equipment, prizes and more. For information on finding funding visit the Identifying Funding Opportunities research guide, and for more information on WPI support for grants and funding visit the WPI Funding Toolkit.

Measuring Research Impact & Performance

Interested in citation analysis, impact factors, or altmetrics? We can work with you to tell the story of the impact of your work. At the institutional or departmental level, let us assist you with SciVal, a tool that enables you to benchmark research performance and provides data on 8,500 research institutions and 220 nations worldwide. For more information visit Assessing Research Impact.

Online Presence

If you want to distinguish yourself academically or professionally online, we can guide you in identifying profiles and platforms that will help you reach your goals, such as ORCID, Scopus, and Google Scholar. For more information visit Curating your Online Presence.

Scholarly Communication and Author Rights

Considering open access publishing? Wishing you had more rights to your own work?  We keep current on these issues and can meet to discuss your options. Also find more data about what versions of your published works you have a right to share by checking Sherpa/Romeo. For further information visit our Open Access guide.

Resource Access Support

Gordon Library provides both on-campus and off-campus access to digital and print collections. Find information on accessing electronic resources off campus, requesting print materials, loan periods and borrowing policies for library resources, and granting proxy borrowing privileges to others.

Off-Campus Library Access

Library resources are available to all faculty while they are off-campus. Find information about how to access electronic resources anywhere and at any time, request print materials, or contact librarians.

Borrowing Library Resources

Find information on loan periods for library resources, granting proxy borrowing privileges to others, and other borrowing policies.

Faculty and the Gordon Library


1 million+

number of ebooks in the WPI Library Search 

88%

percentage of faculty who feel the library can support their research needs

92%

of faculty who feel the library can support their teaching needs

Preview

Discover Student Research in Digital WPI

Digital WPI showcases the scholarship of WPI students, with collections of theses, dissertations, interactive qualifying projects, major qualifying projects, and Great Problems Seminar posters.  Student work is full-text searchable and can searches can be refined by subject, major, advisor, year, and more.  Undergraduate projects can also be found by Project Center