Information for Instructors

​Dear Instructors,

It is important to us to give you the best possible service.

In order to advance your research and assist in instruction, we have compiled important information for your perusal.

Librarians responsible for specific subject areas

Every subject area is assigned to a subject specialist librarian.  For your convenience, here is a list of librarians and their subject specialties.

Feel free to contact the subject specialist on all library-related issues.

Circulation

The Circulation and Inter-Library Loan departments are located on the ground floor.

• Circulation services are available during all library opening hours.  Up to 50 books may be borrowed at one time.
•  Inter-library Loan processes loans of books and articles from other Israeli universities and colleges and from foreign academic institutions.  There is a fee for this service.
• Faculty members interested in opening a library card in another university library in order to borrow books directly from them are requested to contact the librarian in charge of Circulation, Herta Yankovich ( delpek@exchange.bgu.ac.il ) to obtain a letter of commitment, Sunday-Thursday, until 15:00.

Ordering books for the library using your departmental budget

The library's book budget is divided among the faculties in a meeting of the Library Committee, held annually early in the school year.  The faculty deans are responsible for distribution among the departments.

In each department, a faculty member serves as contact between the department and the appropriate subject specialist librarian.  Faculty members give their book purchase requests to the departmental contact person, who will pass them on to the subject specialist librarian.  The librarian checks the request lists to prevent duplication and passes them on to the Acquisitions department.

The library will order the latest edition unless otherwise noted on the request.

Once the book has been ordered by the Acquisitions department, you can follow the status of the request in the Aleph catalog.

When the book is received in the appropriate reading room, the requestor (or the departmental contact person) is notified of its arrival.  The notification includes book details and call number (designating the book's location on the shelf).

New books are placed on the reading room's “New Book Display" shelf for 30 days.  During this time, only the faculty member who ordered the book may borrow it.  After 30 days, if the book has not been borrowed by the requestor, it is transferred to the regular shelf.

For additional information, please contact the subject specialist librarian.

Ordering textbooks using the library's budget

The library has a separate budget for the acquisition of textbooks (required reading) for undergraduate courses for all the faculties. 

Order requests should be sent in advance to the subject specialist librarian. 

The request should include the following information:  Course name, instructor's name, number of students, the semester in which the course will be given, and full bibliographic details of the book.  The library will try to purchase the book in electronic format (if available), with one print copy for the Reserved Book collection.  Should electronic format not be available, additional print copies will be purchased in accordance with the number of students in the course (one copy for each 20 students).

For additional information, please contact the subject specialist librarian.

Ordering new journals and databases

Requests for new journals and databases should be sent to the subject specialist librarian.  The library saves the requests until such time as our budget permits the addition of new subscriptions.

 Purchase of books from a research budget
Academic staff members who wish to order items for their use, can do so through their research budget.
From 18.10.20 Purchase of books priced up to $ 300 (including VAT) will be done independently, without the need for registration and loan in the library. Refund will be made in accordance with university procedures as is customary for the purchase of consumable equipment.
Purchases of books over $ 300 will be made through the library purchasing unit. The books must be ordered by emailing acq.books@bgu.ac.il, including the details: Title, Author, Publisher, Edition, and the budget for billing. After purchase, the book will be registered at the library and borrowed on a "permanent loan". A notice will be sent when the book is ready for collection.
For any questions, please contact the Purchasing Unit, Tel. 08-6461408. Sunday-Thursday 8: 30-15:00.

Required reading – Reserved Book collection

The Reserved Book collection is located in the Circulation department.  The collection includes books that are required for courses and that have been moved from their regular locations at the request of the instructor. Reserved books do not circulate; they are for use in the library for a limited time only.

To enable us to order, process and place the books in the Reserved Book collection in time, and thereby serve the students efficiently, please send the subject librarian your reading list (at least a month before the start of each semester).

Electronic resources

The library has a large collection of electronic databases, journals and books.

To access the journals and books, use the library catalog.

Access to the databases is via the library homepage  >  Databases.

The list of databases to which the library has subscriptions is organized alphabetically and can be searched by keyword.

BGU students and faculty can also access these resources from outside the university.

For an explanation on off-campus access, click here.

The Audio-Visual Room
The Audio-Visual Room houses audio and video materials in different formats, for instance, microfilm and microfiche journals and newspapers (e.g. Yediot Aharonot, Maariv and Ha-Arets) from different time periods.  Microform materials can be enlarged for reading and copying on the appropriate equipment. The material can be scanned on request, for a fee.

For further information, please contact the Humanities Reading Room, 08-6461834 or email ruach@bgu.ac.il  

The RefWorks bibliography management tool

​​The library has a subscription to RefWorks, which enables the user to organize bibliographic references, cite them correctly and insert them into a document as in-text citations and bibliography.

All BGU students and faculty can access and use RefWorks, provided they have opened an account.

Group instruction (in Hebrew) in the use of this tool is given every month by the library's RefWorks staff – in the library's Lecture Room.

Details on instruction sessions can be found on the library homepage as Events.

We will be pleased to assist you with all library-related questions and requests.

Sincerely,

The Library Staff