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305 - Library

Title:  Library 
Owner: Office of the Provost
Last Update/Revised: 05/01/2024

Policy: United States University (USU) offers USU constituents a virtual library that maintains written permission through licenses with publishers or holders of copyright and others for the lawful use of their copyrighted works in an educational setting. Users must be currently enrolled or employed at USU and use is restricted to personal use. Secure access cannot be shared nor copyrighted works distributed, used for profit, amended or changed.

Librarians are available to answer reference questions via email or through personal research consultations. 

Aggregate data on library use is collected for reasons related to assessment and continuous improvement of library services and resources, staffing levels, response time, and utilization of databases. Information is not collected for marketing or commercial purposes. 

Purpose: The purpose of this policy is to describe the services provided by the virtual library. 

Procedure: 

Email Communication

  1. When an email is received at askthelibrarian@usuniversity.edu, an auto-response acknowledging the request is sent.
  2. A response to your email question from a Virtual Librarian will be sent within one day. 
  3. Users are not to include askthelibrarian@usuniversity.edu in automatic email invitations. Doing so may result in their email being routed automatically into a spam list, which may restrict their access to the virtual librarian for legitimate research questions.

Personal Research Consultations

  1. While most reference questions can be dealt with quickly and sufficiently over email, you may request a personal research consultation via email at askthelibrarian@usuniversity.edu. Include the following in your email:
    1. Your time zone, 
    2. A minimum two different dates and times,
    3. The nature of your question to be explored in the consult, and
      1. If you are requesting a video meeting, this requires that you are able to see the librarian’s screen and hear the librarian.
      2. If requesting a phone meeting, include your phone number.
  2. A librarian will respond to your request within one day. 

Copyright Laws

  1. When utilizing the library you are accessing copyrighted works. Copyright provisions do not allow the use of copyrighted works to be infringed upon fraudulently and users must adhere to the copyright laws of the United States.  For more information on copyright go to http://copyright.gov or http://creativecommons.org 
    Scope: Authorized users of the library. The scope of library reference service does not extend to librarians doing the research for a student’s research paper, proofreading student work or providing APA tutoring. Students may be referred to other departments for assistance.

Scope: This policy applies to library use by USU constituents.

Documents and Forms: None