by Amalya Tsoran, Library Director
The new rules of behavior that apply to us all as a result of the outbreak of the coronavirus have posed new challenges to the library staff. Social distancing obligates us to limit the number of students in the library. However, we are interested in continuing to provide information and consultative services for everyone, even if one is physically somewhere else in Israel. Hence, the library has transitioned to online services.
There are various ways to make contact with the library for the purpose of obtaining sources of information: through the Orot Israel College Library Database for locating data in the library, using the website and application, or via email. The library’s email box is brimming with requests from students, and we in turn send them electronic articles or files that we scan for them. As we wrote in the headline, the scanner is working overtime.
Requests for assistance in academic writing engenders an online dialogue (online consultative services) between the database manager and the student. The main objective is that the student should receive full service whether she is in Ofakim, Jerusalem or Shlomi.
The Orot Israel College Library Database makes accessible a wide range of electronic information to the College’s students and teachers’ staff. In parallel, through Orot Israel College's library website, one can access databases that contain articles and books in their full text, and we help every student or lecturer use these databases. On a separate page in our website there is a long list of websites in which one can find information for the purpose of academic writing and preparing lessons for practical work.
The library staff is working very diligently at preparing instructional videos, which will replace frontal bibliography instruction. The library is changing its image and turning into a virtual library that is accessible for all everywhere, and the library staff is laboring at providing accessibility to information in a clear and convenient fashion for all students of the college who are spread out around the country.