From the shelves of Freel Library

MCLA's Freel Library has joined a 24/7 research help co-operative staffed by hundreds of librarians from participating colleges and universities as well as a team of dedicated co-op librarians.

MCLA's own librarians continue to be available for in-person, virtual, phone, email, chat, and SMS research assistance Sunday evenings, Monday-Thursday daytimes and evenings and Fridays during the day. MCLA librarians remain your best bet for getting help with research for your MCLA academic work.

But when an MCLA librarian is not available, MCLA students, faculty, and staff can now chat with a partner librarian from the co-op 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The partner librarian can answer many questions about using our library, help you get started with your research, and connect you with an MCLA librarian for follow-up as needed.

Please note that our 24/7 co-op partner librarians are only available via chat. You can still get help from MCLA librarians in person or via chat, email, phone, text, or Teams during our regularly staffed Research Desk hours (which you can always find listed on the library's Hours page).

To chat with a librarian 24/7, just visit the Freel Library homepage and look for the "Chat 24/7" button in the Get Help box.

Every year when the library's NYT subscription renews, you will need to update your account information in order to continue accessing the NYT. Follow the steps below to renew your account. If you don't already have an account, see our blog post on creating a new account.

1.    Navigate to accessnyt.com
2.    Search for and select Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. You will be redirected to the NYT registration page.
3.    Use your existing NYT account to login. You must use your @mcla.edu email address.
4.    Verify your account.
5.    If you are using the NYT app on your phone or other device, you may need to log out and log back in.

Throughout the month of November, the library invites the community to join a Wikipedia Edit-a-thon. The goal is to improve the quality of articles on preventive health care and wellness-related topics by adding citations to reliable health information sources. Our local event is part of a larger campaign led by the Network of the National Library of Medicine (#citeNLM). We've put together some resources to enable interested would-be editors to jump in and start adding citations to articles:

• Wikipedia Edit-a-thon LibGuide: overview of edit-a-thon with instructions for participating and suggestions for finding and evaluating health information
• MCLA Fall 2021 Wikipedia Edit-a-thon Dashboard: log in to join the campaign; add/select articles to edit; track your contributions
• Handout/quick start guide with instructions for adding citations to Wikipedia articles

This activity can be as individual and self-paced as participants would like, but stay tuned for more information about a virtual workshop and group editing opportunities in November. If you're interested in incorporating this activity into any of your classes, please let us know -- we'd be happy to assist!

The Worcester State University Library is the newest member of the Higher Education Libraries of Massachusetts (HELM) consortium, joining MCLA and eleven Massachusetts community colleges who share an online catalog and lend directly to one another's borrowers.

MCLA patrons can now request print items from Worcester State's collection (along with items from the collections of the other HELM libraries) directly via the library catalog, 

While MCLA values all of our HELM partner institutions, we are especially excited to have another four-year institution on board. Welcome to HELM, Worcester State!

Starting on January 6^th, when you do a search on the library databases and are asked to login, you may see a message about “Additional Information About Personal Data Collection and Usage.” The library has implemented a new authentication system to work with our existing MCLA authentication. This new system automatically creates an account for you, allowing you to save searches, articles, and download ebooks without using a separate login. The privacy screen will come up the first time you login to the new system. You may opt out of account creation but not all features will be available to you if you do, like ebook downloading. For more information on the privacy policy and how the information is being used, please see this site. If you have any questions about the new system, please contact us at library@mcla.edu.

For the latest updates about MCLA campus operations, please visit the college's Coronavirus (COVID-19) Information page. 

Thanksgiving and beyond: With the move back to remote teaching, learning, and work this Thanksgiving, the library will once again move to virtual operations on Wednesday, November 25, with curbside pickup of library materials still available.

• Laptops available for long-term loan: pick one up before you leave campus!
• Regular building and service hours through Tuesday, 11/24
• Building unavailable for in-person visits 11/25/20 - 1/3/21.
• View all library hours
• Materials may be requested via the library catalog and picked up outside the building M-F, 9-5
• Books and DVDs may be returned to the book drop outside the library 24/7.
• Due dates for new and existing loans will be extended to February 1.

Visit Library to Go to get started using the library's virtual collections and services.

Questions? Please call 413-662-5321 or email library@mcla.edu.