For Faculty

Borrowing Privileges

Faculty may borrow materials for the length of the semester. Students may borrow materials for a 3-week period. Both faculty and students may renew their books online. More information.

Suggest a Purchase

Suggest a Purchase Form

Can’t find something in our collection? The Library is happy to order material to support your teaching, research, and art. 

Please note: For out of print material, you may need to submit an InterLibrary Loan request and we will borrow it from another library. Faculty may also place personal copies of material on our reserve shelf.

Print Reserves

Faculty may place required or highly-recommended course-related materials on reserve with a restricted loan period of four hours. This service allows many people to share access to assigned titles over the course of the semester. Library materials and your personal copies of books, slides, DVDs, etc. can be held for your students.

You must be registered to use the Library to place items on reserve.

To place items on reserve follow these steps:

1. Visit the Corcoran Library Online Catalog.
2. Login using your Library user ID and PIN.
3. Search for the item you would like to put on reserve.
4. When you have found the full record for the item, click “Reserve Desk” at the top of the screen.
5. Click on “Or, place a new reserve.” The call number and item ID for the item you selected will appear in the two fields at the bottom. Your user ID should also appear; if not, enter it in the appropriate field.
6. Provide the course name and course number.
7. Click “Send” and repeat as needed.Please request no more than 30 reserve items per class.

Personal copies should be delivered to the Library information desk.

Please submit requests at least two weeks before the class begins. Reserve lists will be available for you and your students to view on the Corcoran Library Online Catalog. All reserves are removed at the end of each semester.

MyCorcoran Course Pages & E-Reserves

The Corcoran Library provides and supports online course pages along with E-Reserves. This service provides students with greater access to information 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. As an added benefit to our students, this service helps them minimize added educational expenses, such as costly “course readers” and photocopying. The Corcoran Library observes copyright law and will not scan entire books. We will also not post articles that are available full-text in our databases, such as JSTOR, as that breaches our license contracts. Instead, we can create links taking students directly to an article.

For a preview of our course pages, see our course page template.

Departmental Liaison Librarians

The library liaison program facilitates communication and collaboration between your department and the Library. Liaison librarians may be consulted for purchase requests, in-class instruction, and one-on-one research help for you and your students.

Consultations with Library Staff

Library staff are available to collaborate with faculty on research assignments and personal research. Assignment collaboration will clarify possible sources of information and identify potential roadblocks. Faculty may also want to combine course integrated instruction with assignments (see below). 

Course Integrated Instruction

Library staff can conduct sessions with your class tailored to a variety of courses and assignments. For more infomation, contact Instruction Coordinator Victor Benitez at 202-478-1544 or vbenitez@corcoran.org. 

Requesting a Session

Library Instruction Request Form

Please allow us at least two week's notice to prepare for your class instruction. Prior to the session we will review relevant course materials, prepare a class plan, and go over the class content and format with you. We encourage you to schedule sessions around the time you distribute an assignment to increase student motivation and learning. Plan to be present at the instruction session. Your input stresses the importance of research instruction and enhances the session.

Session Basics

With your input, library staff will design instruction sessions to support course objectives, incorporate information literacy competency standards, complement the syllabus, and prepare students for written or studio research assignments. Successful sessions are usually linked to a specific assignment at the time your students begin their research. Sessions are held in your classroom, so that we may use the overhead projector. We ask you to encourge students to bring their own mobile devices the day of the session (laptops, tablets, or smartphones). Depending on the topic covered, sessions can take from 15-90 minutes. Below are some sample sessions to provide ideas about what can be covered and the length of time needed.

Librarians are also available to consult with a faculty member on the development of research assignments in order to clarify possible information sources or potential roadblocks.

Sample Sessions 

Introduction to the Corcoran Library

Introduce your class to the Corcoran Library and its resources with this 45-60 minute session. This session can include:

• An overview of the Library's collections
• Points of service, e.g., borrowing material, information desk, course reserves, photocopying and scanning
• An overview of the Library's website contents, e.g., online catalog, research and images databases, virtual reference services
• Interpreting call numbers to find material

Introduction to Research

These sessions can be a basic introduction to library research or can be tailored to meet the needs of a specific project or class. At least 60 minutes should be alloted for these sessions which can include:

• Advanced searching strategies in the Corcoran Library Online Catalog
• Using subscription databases such as JSTOR and Art Full Text effectively
• How to evaluate websites and other free online resources
• Group exercises to gain experience using library resources (requires students to bring their own mobile devices)

Image Resource Instruction

An in-depth look at how to find images using both print and web-based resources. These 60 minute or longer sessions can include:

• Locating images in print based materials
• Using specific image databases like ARTstor and AP Images
• Evaluating images and databases on the web

Additional Modules

These 10-20 minute modules can stand alone, or be incorporated into one of the sessions above:

• Bibliography and citation management (Zotero)
• Citing sources and avoiding plagarism
• Concept mapping
• Researching an object
• Evaluating information - thinking critically about print and online sources
• Beyond the Corcoran Library - research resources in Washington, D.C.
• Resource refreshers - short sessions focused on one resource, such as ARTstor or Academic Search Complete