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Created by the Middlesex Community College Librarians
Middlesex Community College Libraries
Off-Campus Access and Password Reset
Hello. I am Mark Matook, Student Success Librarian of Systems and Electronic Resources for the Middlesex Community College Libraries.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we at the MCC Libraries are working to ensure that student success is supported as academic research and studies from off-campus have become necessary.
In this video and its associated guide, we will address services and resources that are of particular use during this time, best practices for their implementation, and the relationship between personal librarians and faculty in support of student success.
During a period of limited or restricted access to campus buildings, electronic resources become the answer. We encourage faculty to incorporate some of the hundreds of thousands digital titles that the MCC Libraries continue to make available to the MCC Community.
Searching for eBooks and articles is simple using MCC Search. On the library homepage, locate MCC Search in the center of the page. Type in your initial search terms and run the search by clicking the button to the right or tapping “return” or “enter” on your keyboard. At the top of the results page, you can adjust your search terms or add to them. In the refining tools on the left side of the page, in the “Refine Results” column, you can choose to “Limit By Source Type”. Click “Show More”. In the resulting window, you may click “Academic Journals” for scholarly articles, or “Magazines” or “News” for popular articles, but today, we will select “eBooks”. Once you click “Update”, the results page will reload. You may click each title to navigate to a record page which you may evaluate to see if the title is a fit for your course and students. Full text can be accessed via the options in the far left column. This record page is similar to that of an article. If you found an article that you wish to share with students, you could click the permalink button on the right and copy the link that displays. However, with eBooks, we ask that you contact your personal librarian for such links to use in your course. We want to ensure that you have the proper link and that we secure the sufficient licenses for the demand of your course. We recommend this practice year-round and it is exceptionally important in response to heightened online learning.
The MCC Libraries also provides access to powerful video streaming services such as Kanopy and Films on Demand. We recommend that you browse within each platform by going to the library home page, and clicking the blue “Video” button in the middle of the page. You can then browse within Kanopy and Films on Demand. We also list PBS Video because many of the videos on the platform are available to the public. As with articles and eBooks, you will want to link students to videos via a permalink or persistent link. In Kanopy, you can do so by locating the video you would like to link to, clicking “Share” below the player box, and copying the provided link. This link includes an authentication piece that will allow students access from off campus. They just need to simply click login and follow the site’s guidance. For Films on Demand, the process is similar. Simply locate the video that you wish to link to, click “Share” beneath the player box, click the “Embed/Link” option, and copy the first link labeled “Record URL”.
I would finally like to talk about personal librarians. As faculty, your Personal Librarians are your first point of contact when it comes to library resources and services. MCC Librarians should be contacted if you have questions about permalinks, interlibrary loan (which is currently strictly digital), if you wish to include an eBook in your assignments so that we may secure sufficient licensing to cover the enrollment of your course and provide links, to request class instruction via Blackboard Collaborate, or to request creation or adjustment of course and subject guides. Such guides are created to introduce students to resources specific to their course or subject.
If you have any questions in regard to what has been discussed in this video today or about any of the libraries’ resources or services, please be in touch with your Personal Librarian.
We will be releasing additional information in this guide for faculty and students. We will also be producing videos to address certain topics for students. Faculty are also advised to review this guidance.
At the MCC Libraries, we are working to ensure that academic success is possible regardless of where we work or study. Please stay safe and stay healthy.
Your MCC Librarians
