Library Collection Updates

Thanks to additional funding investments, the Chester Fritz Library is embarking on several new initiatives to support research, education, and lifelong learning at UND. We’re excited to share the following initiatives.

New Faculty Research Grants

If this fall is your first semester as a UND faculty member and you are not under the law or medical school, watch for an email from your department’s librarian about this grant opportunity.

Student Affordability Enhancements

• Funding to support creation of digital course packs
  • Your librarian can help you create a list of readings to use for your class instead of a textbook or set up a list of readings you are already using to meet the upcoming digital accessibility requirements.
• Fund to support creation of ancillary open educational resource materials
  • Three – $3,000 awards to support creation of slides, quiz banks, and other open educational materials.
• Funding for purchasing ebooks and books to support student affordability
  • Primary focus is on DRM-free ebooks (where available) and purchasing materials for use in digital course packs.

Open Access Publishing Support

• Article Processing Charge (APC) Fund for non-grant supported fully open access publishing with publishers not covered by our read and publish agreements. The details are being finalized.
• HathiTrust membership, which allows for full downloading of their digital archive of out of copyright content, provides text mining support, and offers alternative accessibility options for textbooks based on student needs.
• Membership in organizations that support open access, including Open Library of the Humanities, ArXiv, and SPARC
• Looking into support for open access ebook publishing and additional read and publish agreements.

Responsive Collection Services

• Intercampus mail delivery of print materials for faculty. Similar to placing a hold request on a book, you can request delivery to your work address. Contact the library for details.
• Digitization of book chapters and print journal articles emailed to you upon request through the interlibrary loan form.
• Access to additional eBooks available through the library search beyond what we have purchased.
• Access to additional journal articles available upon faculty request beyond our subscriptions (supplements interlibrary loan service). Contact your librarian for details.

New Collections and Tools

• Additional options for streaming videos, fully licensed and accessible for course use
  • Digital Theatre+ includes recorded Broadway productions, adding streaming options for course use beyond AVON and Kanopy.
  • Swank offers more popular films for course use. 100 titles available for the initial selection; we can add additional titles upon faculty request.
• Added online access for local news coverage through America’s News
  • Includes the Grand Forks Herald, the digital edition of the Bismarck Tribune, 26 additional ND newspapers, and numerous papers from other states, including the Pioneer Press and Star Tribune.
• AI research tool Scite
  • Scite is an AI tool that will help users to search for academic literature, analyze the citations from academic articles, and track literature relating to their interests.