Welcome to East Carolina University! We’re thrilled to have you here and hope that in your time at ECU, you meet your liaison librarian and take advantage of the services that we provide at the Laupus Health Sciences Library.
Contact Us
Librarians can be contacted a number of ways through our Ask-a-Librarian services including text, chat, and email. Our Ask-a-Librarian service is staffed Monday – Saturday 8am to 5pm.
We can also be reached via email or phone. We have a convenient staff directory with our titles and contact information.
Liaison Librarians and Research Librarians
Each Health Sciences department at ECU has a dedicated liaison librarian.
Liaison Librarians help students, staff, and faculty through:
We also have a Research Librarian, Jamie Bloss, and a Research Data Librarian, Xiaolan Qiu, and they can help with:
We also have a User Assessment and Engagement Coordinator, Michelle Bone, who can help with:
Teaching Support
Our library has physical resources for check out and services that support teaching.
Model Collection
Our model collection is one of the largest circulation collections among academic health science libraries in the nation and has nearly 400 models and nearly 200 unique model collections.
OpScan Exam Grading
If you administer multiple-choice tests, surveys, or any other material that can be assessed with Pearson NCS bubble sheets, you can use our self-service OpScan Exam Grading.
Open Educational Resources
Librarians can assist with finding open educational resources (OERs) that fit your teaching needs including textbooks, articles, and ancillary teaching materials.
We are also encouraging instructors to adopt, adapt, and create OERs for their courses through our Alternative Textbook Program. Stipends at varying levels are attached to the levels of OER integration.
Graphic Medicine
Graphic medicine explores the use of comics, graphic novels, or visual storytelling in medical education and patient care. These materials in our collection can be used to foster empathy for patient stories, create community, improve communication, and reduce stigma.
Research Support
Systematic Review Team
By far, one of our most valuable services is our Systematic Review Service. If you are interested in starting any sort of review that requires a reproducible search strategy, you can submit a ticket to work with a librarian and we will help you develop a search strategy, export citation records, upload citation to a screening software, and write portions of your methods section related to searching.
Literature Searches and Literature Review
Liaison librarians can perform searches to inform literature reviews for clinical practice or publishing.
We can also set up an auto-alert search with updates on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.
Open Access Publishing Support
Our library supports two initiatives that support authors who choose to publish in open access journals.
The first is our Open Access Publishing Support Fund, which is a scholarship opportunity that opens twice a year and must be applied for. See the linked page for details or talk to your liaison librarian to see if this is opportunity is right for you.
The other initiative that our library supports includes waived or discounted article processing charges (APCs) through licensing agreements with specific publishers.
Publishing Support
Your liaison librarian can help you determine which journals are appropriate for publishing your topic in, locate their impact factors, and peer-reviewed status.
We can also narrow our suggestions for journals to only journals that have waived / reduced APCs.
Databases and Research Materials
ECU Libraries subscribes to 112 databases, which grant access to millions of article and e-books.
Databases can be accessed through our A-Z database list and filtered by subject. We also have a journal list for identifying specific journals and where they are hosted in our system.
Books and physical materials may be placed on hold and picked up from any library on campus including the Health Science Library, Joyner Library, or the Music Library.
If you have suggestions for us to add to our collection, you may place a request for purchase.
Interlibrary Loan
Our Interlibrary Loan (ILL) service allows you to request articles, books, media, and more from collections worldwide if we do not already have the material in our collection. Once you place a request for an item, ILL will begin to fulfill the request. Digital materials turnaround time is approximately 24-48 hours, while physical materials are contingent upon distance from the lending library but typically take between 1-2 weeks.
Writing Support
Our library works closely with the University Writing Center to provide essential writing support like Peer Writing Accountability Groups and writing consultations with writing professionals.
Software
Information Technology and Computing Services manages a list of diverse software available for affiliates of ECU.
Physical Spaces & On-Site Services
Poster Printing
Poster printing is available at Laupus Library. Posters are available on high-quality paper or fabric and templates are provided on our website.
3D Printing
Laupus Library now offers a 3D printing service. Requests for printing will vary in cost based on project size and filament type and will all be printed on a first-come-first-served basis.
Sensory Room
Room 3434 in Laupus Library serves as a dedicated sensory space with adjustable lighting, a sound machine, fidget toys, comfortable seating, and more.
Virtual Reality (VR) Lab
The VR Lab has five virtual reality workstations and is available to students, staff, and faculty. We offer a various software for the VR workstations and also accept requests for new software purchases.
Borrowing Equipment
We have materials available for checkout including laptops, chargers, cameras, VR headsets, hotspots, and more. We maintain a full list of our materials, their check out periods, and their availability.
Hold Service & Faculty/Staff Office Delivery
You can request items be retrieved for you from Joyner, Music, and Laupus Health Sciences libraries and pick them up at the service desk of your choice. Faculty and staff may also request delivery to their on-campus departmental offices.
Notary Services
Laupus Library has a free notary public available by appointment. Typical office hours are 8 am – 3 pm Monday through Friday.
History Collection
Our library has an extensive history collection on health care and medicine in Eastern NC. We have a wide range of resources including rare book, manuscripts, artifacts, and more
Laupus Library also administrates the Country Doctor Museum in Bailey, NC, which is the oldest museum in the United States dedicated to the history of America’s rural health care. Over the decades, the Museum’s collection has grown to over 5,000 medical artifacts and many volumes of historic texts gathered from across the nation.
Events
We host a number of events like Love Data Week and a Spring Fling Resource Fair. We also host an annual Health Science Author Recognition Awards, where we recognize the incredible contributions of ECU staff and faculty through their research and publishing.
Our Medical History Interest Group (MHIG) also hosts a regular lecture series and posts the recordings of past lectures.
Questions
At Laupus Library, we are always developing new programs and creating new services to ensure our library is at the cutting edge of medical librarianship. If you have questions, comments, or concerns, please reach out to your liaison librarian.