Health Sciences Library: Orientation

This page will help you understand the variety of resources and services available to you as a faculty member at VCU.

Each school on the MCV Campus has a librarian assigned to work with faculty, students, and staff to achieve success in their research and educational goals: Dentistry, Health Professions, Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, and Public Health.

Librarians provide services to support your work and facilitate access to library resources.

Learn about our services and resources below.

Library services

Here are just a few examples of librarian support:

• Conduct literature searches for research proposals or manuscripts.
• Perform comprehensive literature searches to support evidence synthesis projects like systematic and scoping reviews.
• Provide tips and tricks for using library databases.
• Advise on disseminating research findings.
• Guide individuals and research groups on setting up reference management software.
• Consult on managing data during the research lifecycle.

Library resources 

Library research guides link you to top databases, journals, books, and websites for each discipline. 

• The conducting a literature review guide provides step-by-step guidance for finding and synthesizing research.
• The research Metrics guide describes metrics and methods available to determine the impact of your research and scholarly work.
• The research Data Management guide provides information about library support for research data needs, from planning the project to sharing your research data in compliance with public access funder mandates and journal data sharing requirements.
• VCU has several Open Access agreements with publishers to provide financial support for publishing your work Open Access.

More information can be found on our researcher support web page.

Library services

Librarians support teaching by:

• Conducting guest lectures on library resources, searching databases for research and evidence-based practice, and setting up citation management tools. Request a librarian-led class or contact your librarian. 
• Consulting on selecting and accessing course materials.
• Helping your students find and use library resources. Consider adding a librarian to your Canvas course website. 

Library resources

Are you interested in linking to library resources in your Canvas course website?

• Check out these instructions for linking to library resources in online courses and linking to e-books in online courses. 

Instructors may also put items from our circulating collections (e.g. print books, DVDs, etc.) on reserve for your students. 

• Instructions and guidance for reserving material can be found here. 

The library provides information about open and affordable course content.

• Read more about open educational resources and financial support for open and affordable course content. 

More information can be found on our instruction support page.

VCU Libraries has a comprehensive collection of resources to support your research and teaching.

If you would like an item that is not available in our collection, consider using inter-library loan or suggest a purchase to gain access. 

What to do if something isn't working?

• Chat, email us, contact your librarian