Making a World of Difference: Stories about Global Health: COD Library

Hosting the NLM exhibit gives the College of DuPage Library a chance to showcase the many extraordinary ways our Library, the Institution, faculty, students, staff, and our community assist one another, learn and grow together, and support public health locally, nationally, and globally. 

"When I learned that our Library would be hosting the NLM exhibit, my mind immediately was flooded with all the ways that COD and the Library connect and make a significant, ongoing contribution to public health. The individual and group efforts of students, faculty, staff, and our community echo the historical contributions represented in the exhibit's banners. It has been an honor to facilitate the exhibit, design programming, gather examples, create this guide, and showcase the many EXCELLENT ways we are Making a World of Difference and sharing our very own stories of local and global health!

~Professor Debra Smith, Nursing & Allied Health Librarian

In addition to the connections represented in our mission statement, we pride ourselves on connecting our users (students, staff, faculty, and community) to not only academic resources, but also popular works (books in electronic, print and audio formats, music, newspapers, journals, magazines, graphic novels, manga and more!). Within our virtual and physical "walls," Library faculty and staff provide safe and creative spaces for our users to explore, research, study, create, relax, socialize, and further their personal and intellectual pursuits with as much or as little support from our talented employees as they need.

The Library offers:

• Robust Virtual and In Person Services
• Reference and Research Support
• Computer Support and Printing Services
• Media Lab
• Individual and Group Study Spaces
• Information Literacy and Critical Thinking Instruction for all COD Disciplines and Programs
• Engaging Public Events and Workshops
• A Wide-Variety of Electronic and Print Collections including:
  • Academic Course Reserves
  • General, Reference and Popular
  • Philanthropy Resources 
  • College and Career
  • English Language Learning (ELL)
  • Juvenile
  • College Archive
  • Anatomy Models
  • Music
• Learn more about the Library
• Get a Library Card

The Library's Research Guides connect you to a wide variety of topics. Each guide lists books, videos, databases, and websites that are useful for researching a particular topic. The guides also show you how to find and cite your own resources. Our guides not only cover COD programs, they also support events at COD (e.g. Hokusai), health and wellness (e.g. Consumer Health, Global Health), and travel (e.g. Travel, and Study Abroad)--just to name a few.

Explore our Research Guides

The research guides listed above are just one of the ways that Library faculty connect our users to information. A full time faculty librarian is assigned to support every division and program offered at COD. These individuals build and maintain the Library's collections, connect users (via research guides, instruction sessions, research appointments, faculty and student outreach, and campus-wide collaborations), teach, design information literacy and critical thinking projects, and serve as "bridges" connecting diverse individuals and groups based on shared interests.

Full time Library faculty that don't serve as discipline liaisons are just as dedicated to making connections. For example, Mary Konkel (Professor, Head of Technical Services) makes sure that all of the Library's resources are discoverable in our Library Catalog, and Lauren Kosrow (Assistant Professor, Digital Content and Open Access Librarian) manages the Library's electronic databases and is co-chair of COD's OER Steering Committee. Librarians often wear "many hats" making often overlooked but essential connections. Associate Professor Ken Orenic, for example, serves not only as a discipline librarian, but also oversees DigitalCommons@COD. Professor Colin Koteles is a discipline liaison but also connects the Library to our users via his role as Web Services Manager. 

Talented Adjunct Faculty Librarians provide in person and online reference support, conduct research appointments, teach Library instruction sessions, partner with full time librarians, work on special projects, and play an integral role in our Library.

A Team of Library Employees-- Collaboration at Its BEST

Just like when you assume someone working in a hospital is a medical professional (when in reality they may be an accountant, cleaning staff, or security), our users often think that everyone working in the Library is a Librarian.

NOT TRUE! 

Our Library runs smoothly and offers extensive resources and services thanks to the effort, dedication, and passion of our expert staff working in the areas of administration, archives, reference, circulation, distribution, technical services, electronic resources, computer support and print services, and the media lab. 

College of DuPage offers students access to laptops, webcams & hotspots based on need. The Library's phenomenal circulation and distribution staff assist the College by managing the distribution, maintenance and return processes for the College in collaboration with other departments. The student form for submitting a technology request is located on our Library's main page. We're honored to assist the College get this essential technology into the hands of our students in need, and we appreciate that the College tapped our circulation and distribution expertise for this important function.

Media Lab

Beyond coordinating College technology for students, the Library's biggest contribution to the area of technology lies in our Library Media Lab. It houses Mac computer workstations, audio and video recording spaces, and equipment for student checkout, such as audio kits, lighting kits, photo and video cameras, and other media to support creativity and assignments across disciplines. We help build digital literacy skills for class assignments and personal growth through access to high-tech equipment and software.

Many Nursing & Health Science programs take advantage of the College's Immersive Visualization Lab and Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality (AR/VR) Room, utilizing the technology to enhance students' learning experience. The Library Media Lab has two types of VR headsets that can both be checked out for in-Library use for 3-hours.

The annual COD Library Student Research Symposium, held each spring, provides COD students with the opportunity to present research projects completed during the current academic year. To ensure exemplary student work is submitted, all submissions are sponsored by a COD faculty member. 

Students from across campus have the opportunity to present their academic research work to an engaged and welcoming audience of faculty, staff, administration, other students, and interested community members. Library faculty members Professor Laura Burt-Nicholas, and Associate Professor Ken Orenic, co-created and annually coordinate the Student Research Symposium.

A wide variety of projects are represented in the Symposium, including research papers, presentations, posters, objects, and theatrical and musical performances. Because we believe that students learn through both the process of research and the process of reflecting on what they have experienced/created, the Library is proud to offer Research Awards to some of our presenters.

Student presentations and award winners from past symposia are available on DigitalCommons@COD. In some cases, you can see slides/bibliographies and even videos of student presentations.