Services

We provide access to information and equipment through lending resources, creating course reserves, including textbooks, and taking suggestions for purchase or donation. In collaboration with ITS we offer printing and scanning and spaces to study, research, and collaborate.

Get information on COVID-19-related Service Updates

Space | Books + Equipment | Course Reserves | Printing

Study, Research, Collaborate

The Academic Commons offers innovative spaces for displaying and creating digital media as well as traditional quiet study spaces that provide escape from distraction.

Entry is currently restricted to those with Oxy IDs coded as participating in College COVID testing.

Display and Create Digital Media

The Brown Learn Lab, located on the second floor, is a multimodal learning space for classes, workshops, and group study. The room allows projection from a lectern as well as from modular tables with movable chairs, movable white boards, and an interactive smart board. Room reservations are required for classes and workshops and may be made through the Master Calendar. Individual and small groups may use the room without a reservation when the room is not booked. Instructors may request set up of up to 25 PC laptops in their 25Live reservation. Students may borrow laptops from the circulation desk at the Info Center.

In addition to the Brown Learn Lab, the Library offers several group viewing rooms with digital projection on the first floor (Rooms 129, 130, 132, 133).

The oMac Lab, located on the ground floor, offers instructor projection and white board as well as 16 iMac computers. Reservations for classes and workshops may be made through the Master Calendar. Individuals and small groups may use the lab without reservation when the room is available.

Creative software, such as iMovie and Adobe Photoshop may be accessed in the Critical Making Studio, the oMac Lab on the ground floor and at the Creative Stations on the first floor next to ITS.

Additional desktop computers may be found on the first floor next to ITS and Information Resources Operations, and on the second floor outside the Brown Learn Lab.

Audio Booth - Located within the Critical Making Studio, our audio booth gives you the space to record, create, mix and produce using Logic or Ableton. We even have a turntable set up for vinyl sampling. And if you’re looking for more audio recording possibilities, check out our equipment catalog for a variety of microphones and other audio tools. The Audio Booth has the same hours as the Academic Commons but we ask that you make a reservation and then check out the key and production packet from the front desk before accessing the space.

Collaborate on Projects

Students have made the second floor reference area into a space for socializing and group project work around large tables where they use their own laptops and the library's white boards to brainstorm and document ideas.

Groups also may use collaboration spaces on the first floor. Use is first-come first-serve, but individuals should please give precedence to groups. (Rooms 101, 102, 104, 120, 121, 122, 123)

Escape from Distractions

Work at tables or in comfortable chairs surrounded by periodicals and print materials in the Jeffers Room and Ahmanson Reading Room in the old wing of the second floor.

Additional quiet study carrels and couches may be found on the first floor in the old wing and on the third floor outside of Special Collections.

Space | Books + Equipment | Course Reserves | Printing

Access Books and Equipment

Borrow Resources Beyond Oxy

When searching for a resource, you can use OneSearch to see if it is available here at Oxy. If we don't have it, you can place a request through Rapido (resource sharing) or Link+. There is no need to create a new account to use Rapido or Link+. If you are unsure of the status of your request, contact Resource Sharing at docdel@oxy.edu or x2814.

Suggest a Library Purchase

If you are a student or faculty member and need something for your research, teaching, or study that the Library does not own or subscribe to, let us know. We may help you get it from one of our many borrowing partners, or in many cases we will buy it for the the collection. To suggest the purchase of a book or audio/video recording, send us an email including as much information as you can about the resource (title, author, publisher, date and if possible, link to the item). To inquire about a digital subscription (e.g. e-journals, datasets, etc.), please contact Kevin Mulroy (kmulroy@oxy.edu).

Course Reserves

Course Reserves are made available by Library staff at the request of faculty.

Accessing Items on Reserve

Students may find course reserve listings for physical items (books, DVDs, etc.) and electronic items (articles in databases, online content, and scanned documents) in the corresponding Moodle course site. To borrow physical items on reserve, students should request the items by title at the front desk of the library.

Placing Items on Reserve

Faculty may place library materials or request new items for purchase to be put on reserve by completing this form. Items are placed on reserve in the order received. Allow 2-3 work days for normal processing. Faculty will be notified once their requests have been filled. Please note that purchase requests should be sent in advance of the semester they are needed, to allow 3-6 weeks for processing.

Faculty may place personal materials on reserve by sending an email to ereserve@oxy.edu with a list of the items and the name of the associated course, before dropping the items off at the front desk of the library for processing.

To request the purchase of film/DVDs, please use this form and note that we need at least two weeks notice to fill requests.

Copyright Guidelines for Course Reserves are in compliance with U.S. Code: Title 17, Section 107 governing Fair Use. Any reproduction of copyrighted material, print or electronic (including PDFs), will only be permitted for reserve if they fit within the following guidelines:

Only Library-owned or licensed materials and items from faculty personal collections may be placed on reserve.
Both physical and digital materials placed on reserve will be available solely for student and faculty use, and only available via access to the course.
Items placed on reserve will be made available only for the current semester, and removed at the end of the semester.
Book selections placed on Moodle do not exceed one chapter or 10% of a book.

Additional information about copyright and fair use at Occidental College for faculty can be found here.

Textbook Reserve Program

The Library and ASOC are continuing with their collaboration that places on reserve copies of textbooks for several large-enrollment courses. The program aims to ease the cost of textbooks and make them more accessible to students. The limited number of copies, purchased by ASOC Senate, are available to check out at the Info Center. As with all course reserve materials, students must present a valid Oxy ID to use them; because the books are communal copies, the new service asks that students read the books in the building and not mark in them. Each reader will be able to check out a book for two hours. Students can also book them in advance from the library website as they can other Oxy books.

The textbooks on reserve are for introductory courses in Biology, Marine Biology, Chemistry, Economics, English, Mathematics, Physics, Politics, and Psychology. They are cataloged in OneSearch and are listed on the Moodle site for each course.

Space | Books + Equipment | Course Reserves | Printing

Print, Copy, and Scan

Multifunction printers that also copy and scan may be found throughout the building. Color printing may be found on the 2nd Floor, Northwest Corner, and on the 1st floor near the elevators. Use of multifunction printers is free for members of the Oxy community (ID required). Go to the ITS website to read more about how to install print drivers and the new paper-saving Release-to-Print functionality.

If a printer malfunctions, please report the problem to the technology help desk at the Info Center or helpdesk@oxy.edu. If a printer needs paper or toner, please contact copycenter@oxy.edu.