On behalf of Library and Technology Services, I'd like to welcome all new and returning faculty and staff to the fall 2024 semester.
Read on for information about our hours, upcoming events, access to generative AI tools for academic or administrative work, and some reminders of the many resources and services that are available to you.
What’s open when?
LTS provides the Lehigh community with study areas, access to resources, experts ready to help, and events that promote inquiry, deepen learning, and build community.
Fairchild-Martindale Library (FML) and Linderman Library hours (Lehigh ID tap entry is required after 9:00PM).
- Monday-Thursday: 7:45AM - 2AM (both libraries)
- Friday: FML: 7:45AM - 12AM; Linderman: 7:45AM - 10PM
- Saturday: FML: 9AM - 12AM; Linderman: 9AM - 10PM
- Sunday: 9AM - 2AM (both libraries)
Need a place for all-hours work and study? The LTS Computing Center is open 24/7 with tap access when the building is open but the doors are locked. Check out the space!
View Library & CC hours on the Lehigh Libraries & Computing Center Calendar.
View Digital Media Studio hours on the Digital Media Studio Calendar.
Dining at the Library
Dine, work, collaborate, and socialize in the casual atmosphere of The Grind @ FML, which offers Peet’s Coffee, breakfast sandwiches, fresh baked goods, grab and go, and more! View all Lehigh Dining hours.
Reading and Researching in the Lehigh Libraries
The ASA Library Catalog now provides a “single search” capability, which lets users search the catalog from one unified search box for books, articles, journal titles and more. Learn more.
The Lehigh Libraries offer access to an extensive collection of digital journals, print books, ebooks, databases, tools, and rare and archival materials. Deepen your reading and research by searching our collection, keep up with news such as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Foreign Policy, and explore fiction, poetry, non-fiction and beyond by BIPOC and LGBTQ+ writers in our OverDrive ebook and audiobook Library. Use our new AI-powered Keenious tool to discover relevant research. You can also use the PALCI EZBorrow interlibrary loan system to request books delivered to the library in 3-5 business days from over 73 partner institutions.
Researchers can search Pivot to discover funding opportunities, find preprints, create an ORCID profile to enhance potential research impact, and use Zotero to create and organize your reference library. Contact your liaison librarian to learn more!
Interested in exploring our Libraries' unique and special collections? Consider making a research appointment in our newly renovated Bayer Special Collections & Instruction Reading Room.
What’s new in software and technology?
LTS is excited to announce the campus-wide rollout of Zoom Phone, a cloud-based softphone system integrated with existing Zoom services. Starting in September, faculty and staff will transition from Cisco desktop phones to Zoom Phone, enabling calls using your Lehigh phone number via computer or smartphone. Most users will no longer need physical desktop phones. Learn more.
LTS now provides access to a number of Generative AI tools. By accessing them through your Lehigh account, you’ll get enhanced data protection and privacy:
- Google Gemini AI: “...get help with writing, planning, learning.”
- DataCamp’s DataLab: “...a new way of analyzing data, powered by AI.”
- Keenious AI: “...find research relevant to any text.” Note: Do not ‘Sign in with Google,’ instead sign up using your Lehigh email.
- Adobe Firefly AI:. “...expand your natural creativity.” (within Adobe Creative Cloud, in the LTS Digital Media Studio only).
- Ask LTS Chatbot to quickly assist you with library, computing, and instructional technology questions. Try it out via the button on any lts.lehigh.edu webpage.
Register for technology, AI, research computing, or library resource training in the Fall 2024 LTS Seminar Series. We offer over 35 seminars highlighting Lehigh tools, software, and services designed to help you work more efficiently and maximize your productivity in the office, the classroom, or in your research.
Take advantage of anytime, anywhere academic and professional development courses through LTS-provided access to DataCamp and LinkedIn Learning.
Need software? Before you purchase, be sure to check your options for free or reduced-price software available through Lehigh or our academic software partners.
Can’t remember a hundred passwords? Neither can we! Keeper Security -- available free to the Lehigh community -- allows you to easily access, save, and update your passwords for any website or app - and the only password you have to remember is the master password for your Keeper account. Let Keeper manage your passwords for you and enroll today!
Have questions about buying a new computer? Join an info session with LTS and CDW-G on Wednesday, Sept. 18. Meet the CDW-G team, review the university’s new purchasing process, and get answers. Details and registration.
Representatives from Dropbox will be on-campus Thursday, September 12, 11a.m - 1p.m. to demonstrate new features, file-sharing tips, and answer your questions. Register now.
What’s new in teaching and learning?
The Lehigh AI Organizing Committee invites proposals for AI-focused projects that enhance learning, teaching, research, and community engagement. Funded by a Future Makers Grant, this initiative supports AI literacy through resources like teaching modules and technical guides. Proposals are due by September 13. We seek to fund twenty projects, each with a $300 Lehigh AI Project Award. Learn more.
CITL is partnering with 21 Faculty Fellows on 17 projects on innovative and technology-enhanced pedagogies, including the use of Generative AI, VR/XR and immersive learning, inquiry-based learning, and cross-disciplinary moments in their Fall 2024 courses. Look for an invitation soon to join our Communities of Practice around each of these pedagogies, led by our Faculty Fellows, as well as a New Faculty Community of Practice and one focused on Virtual International Exchange (VIE). And if you would like to learn from CITL Community of Practice meetings but are unable to attend, please email us at incitl@lehigh.edu and we’ll add you to the appropriate member list so that you receive group communications.
Did you miss the CITL Summer Workshop? Take a look at the session recordings on Generative AI Tools, Prompt Engineering, Digital Media Creation, and Podcasting as you plan for the upcoming semester.
CITL spaces, including the Digital Media Studio, XR Learning Lab, DIY Video & Lightboard Studio, and Audio Recording Studio are great resources to support teaching and learning. Do you have students looking for hands-on tools, software, and resources to explore the fields of VR, AR, 3D modeling, 360 video production? If so, learn more about the CITL Student Developer Lab, located on the lower level of the Computing Center, just across from FML.
The Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning offers ongoing consultations on teaching and learning technologies; partners with faculty on course-based writing, research, and digital media projects; supports classroom technology across campus; and provides teaching and creation spaces in both libraries. Not sure where to start? Visit the CITL resources page, browse the Teaching, Learning, and Technology section of the LTS Knowledge Base, or submit a request for an Instructional Technology Consultation.
Calling all creatives!
If you know of students interested in submitting an entry to the LTS design contest for a new art installation in the Fairchild-Martindale Library atrium, please share the contest details. The winning design will illustrate both Lehigh’s Inspiring the Future Makers strategic plan and the aligned goals and initiatives of the LTS Strategic Plan, with a $600 prize awarded to the winning individuals.
Arts & Events
Visit Fairchild-Martindale Library (4th & 5th floors) for Change Makers!, a multi-site art exhibition, showcasing how ideas transform into cultural change, highlighting the impact of technology, industry, protest, fame, and the arts, with insights from local changemakers in the Lehigh Valley.
The LTS events theme this year is Artificial Intelligence. Watch your inbox for an invitation to a Friends of the Lehigh University Libraries event on Wednesday, November 6, for “Hope is the Thing with Feathers: How Bird Watchers and AI are Reshaping How We See and Conserve Birds,” with Dr. Miyoko Chu from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. The talk complements the Linderman exhibit Feathers and Folios, showcasing highlights from Lehigh Libraries' Special Collections’ extensive natural history collection, featuring works by Audubon, Gould, and others.
Visit LTS Talks to catch up on recordings of past talks.
How can we help?
As always, we are dedicated to providing innovative, state-of-the-art resources; library, teaching, and technical consultation; and expert assistance for all students, faculty, researchers, and staff.
Need help but aren’t sure where to start? Come by the LTS Help Desk in the Fairchild-Martindale Library lobby, visit help.lehigh.edu, or call 610-758-4357 (8-HELP).
Welcome again, and best wishes for a rewarding and successful semester.
Greg Reihman, Ph.D.
Vice Provost for Library and Technology Services