The Consortium Library’s Instruction and Reference Services (IR Services) provides research assistance and instruction for the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) and Alaska Pacific University (APU).  These services are vital and visible expressions of the purpose and Mission of the Consortium Library.  IR Services provides research support in person, by phone, and via email with the use of both electronic and print resources. Other library departments also provide specialized research assistance.

Research Service Points 

Reference Desk 1st floor 786-1848 ayref@uaa.alaska.edu

Government Documents 2nd floor 786-1974

Health Sciences 2nd floor 786-1870 ayhsis@uaa.alaska.edu

Archives/Special Collections 3rd floor 786-1849 archives@uaa.alaska.edu

Students, faculty, and staff may set up appointments with individual subject librarians.  Faculty at UAA,APU, and Wayland Baptist may schedule library instruction for their courses.

The faculty and staff of IR Services honor:

• Approachability
• Confidentiality
• Diversity
• Learning opportunities (see ACRL Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education)
• Professionalism (see Code of Ethics of the American Library Association) 

All library users and employees are expected to honor:

• Appropriate behavior and civility (see the Consortium Library Code of Conduct and UAA Student Code of Conduct)
• Compliance with Consortium Library policies
• Standards of appropriate and equitable treatment of library employees in accordance with EEO/AA guidelines.  (Both UAA and APU are EEO/AA employers.)
• Requests from library faculty and staff regarding policies and/or behavior
• Computer acceptable use policies of the library, university, and board of regents
  
  • ConsortiumLibrary Computer Use Policy
  • UAA Information TechnologyAcceptable Use Policy
  • UA Board of Regents InformationResources Policy

Library employees reserve the right to withhold service and to ask those who are unwilling to abide by Consortium Library policies  and standards of civility and appropriate public behavior to leave the premises.  Campus police may be called for assistance with patrons who engage in behaviors that are harassing, offensive, or unsafe for other library patrons and those working in the library.

Service Guidelines

Questions related to university assignments take priority over others, although librarians answer questions from the UAA/APU community and public alike.

Librarians in IR Services can:

• Answer questions about finding and using library resources
• Help identify scholarly and valid resources
• Assist with and/or instruct in the use of related library services (e.g., circulation, document delivery, interlibrary loan, reserves, and e-reserves)
• Give instruction in how to locate, access, and/or search bibliographic, full-text,and statistical databases, ebooks, ejournals, and other electronic and print scholarly resources
• Provide guidance in formulating research strategies and in finding and evaluating information
• Offer basic technical assistance, including how to save, email, scan, and print documents; and how to log-in to the Consortium Library’s databases from on- and off-campus locations

Librarians may need to limit the amount of time spent on a research question if it impedes on the access of others to this service.

Librarians in IR Services cannot:

• Interpret medical, legal, financial, and tax information
• Violate copyright laws
• Appraise books or artifacts
• Perform extensive genealogical research.  (Anchorage Genealogical Society volunteers are available at the Anchorage Public Library.)
• Compile or check comprehensive bibliographies. (Librarians can assist in the use of bibliographic tools and can help identify, interpret, and verify citations.)
• Answer contest, quiz, and trivia questions
• Lend non-circulating materials
• Proof read or edit student papers.  (Students are advised to consult The Writing Center.)
• Provide extensive assistance with software applications

Questions regarding this document should be directed to Page Brannon, Head of Instruction and Reference Services, 786-1873, afplb1@uaa.alaska.edu.