Spring 2026
Faculty Resources in the Beyond Books Collection
The JFL’s Beyond Books Collection was developed as a way to support the campus community in a holistic manner by providing practical items available for checkout from the library. Since its implementation several years ago, this popular collection has expanded and now includes a sub-collection of Faculty Resources. You are welcome to check out any items from the overall Beyond Book Collection, but the items in the Faculty Resources sub-collection have been identified as items that may be beneficial for your instruction, presentations, curriculum development, and campus activities. Examples of items in the faculty sub-collection include:
- game buzzers
- a poster carrier
- laptop stand
- presentation remote
- microphones
- molecular model kit
In addition to the faculty sub-collection, there are sub-collections for electronics, games, home and kitchen, musical instruments, outdoor recreation, tools and auto care, student resources, and sports. Beyond Books items circulate for three days, but faculty can request longer checkouts or additional items to be added to the collection by contacting borrowingservices@liberty.edu.
Research Week 2026 Updates
Research Week 2026 is scheduled for April 20-23, and although much of Research Week will remain the same, there is one notable change this year. Poster presentations have outgrown the JFL’s space and will now be held in the Montview Ballroom. However, oral presentations and the 3MT® competition will still be in the Jerry Falwell Library. We hope that you will sponsor students and encourage them to submit Research Week proposals by the March 6 deadline. Also, please plan to support LU’s student researchers by attending presentations throughout Research Week!
- March 6: Submission Portal Closes
- March 27: Final Projects Due
- April 20: Research Week Begins
- April 23: Research Week Ends
- May 6: Research Week Awards Ceremony
If you have questions about Research Week, contact researchweek@liberty.edu.
Spring Research Webinars
The JFL is hosting a number of webinars this spring that should be beneficial to you and/or your students. As always, all webinars are live-streamed and recorded.
Welcome to the JFL: How to Locate and Access Resources Through the Library Website! | Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026, 1 p.m. EST
Join us for a live webinar and Q&A session demonstrating how to navigate the Jerry Falwell Library website and search the vast array of resources available to support you in your assignments.
Counseling and Psychology Research | Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026, 7:30 p.m. EST
Not sure where to find resources related to counseling and psychology topics? Confused about how to determine if the sources are scholarly or peer-reviewed? Attend this session to learn the best sources for these subject areas, including APA databases and the online DSM-V.
From Research Topic to Formal Thesis Statement | Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026, 7:30 p.m. EST
Forming a good thesis statement is crucial to any research project. Learn some strategies for moving from a general topic to a propositional thesis claim.
Creating a Conceptual Framework: Tools and Research | Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026, 7:30 p.m.
This webinar is designed to help students working on or needing to refine their conceptual framework. Come and join this lively discussion to learn about the research behind effective conceptual frameworks and tools you can utilize to develop your ideas.
Navigating Bias in Research: How to Recognize and Avoid Bias in Your Research | Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026, 7:30 p.m. EST
Need help determining if your sources are biased? Curious if you are unintentionally including bias within your own work? Attend this session to learn about common biases in scholarly literature and how to assess the objective quality of your research.
Using AI-Integrated Tools to Support Your Research | Tuesday, March 03, 2026, 7:30 p.m. EST
Learn how effective prompt generation can help you focus or broaden your academic research. You will also learn about new AI tools that have been integrated into several academic databases to help make your research time more efficient and effective.
If you have any questions about the webinars, contact research@liberty.edu.
Resource Updates
We are excited to offer trial subscriptions to two artificial intelligence (AI) search engines: Scite and Consensus. Both resources summarize peer-reviewed articles and provide citations. They can also help you to see how your own research is being cited and if others have conducted research that either supports or refutes your findings. These tools are available through Feb. 12, and we would love for you to give these resources a try and provide your feedback to research@liberty.edu.
Other library resources that can help support your and your students’ research include:
- APA Style Manual–Official source for APA citation and formatting guidelines, including in-text citations, references, and paper structure for the social and behavioral sciences
- Chicago Manual of Style Online–Online guide to writing and citing sources in Chicago/Turabian format according to the Chicago Manual of Style
- MLA Handbook Plus–Full-text ninth edition of the MLA Handbook, as well as other Modern Language Association guides and instructor resources
- RefWorks–Organize your research and easily generate reference lists
- Sage Data (formerly Data Planet)–Authoritative social science data sets covering a wide variety of subjects such as business, criminal justice, education, the environment, government information, housing, labor, the military, transportation, and more
- Sage Research Methods–Full-text e-books and articles on research methods for a wide range of subjects
- Scopus–Peer-reviewed article abstracts for a variety of scientific fields such as engineering, technology, health, medicine, and more (Updated daily)
Intelibrary Loan Services
Interlibrary Loan (ILL) is a free service that enables you to request the following items:
- Delivery of materials from JFL’s collections, which can be delivered electronically or to campus offices for residential faculty or home addresses for distance faculty, depending on the format.
- Books, book chapters, journal articles, audiovisual materials, and other materials not owned by our library.
- Items from the Center for Research Libraries, which includes millions of unique and hard-to-find resources such as international and historical materials, global and regional newspapers, international doctoral dissertations and theses, government documents and archives, and historical college catalogs and courses of study.
For more information on ILL services by patron type, visit www.liberty.edu/library/interlibrary-loan. You can submit requests using Single Sign-On through the Interlibrary Loan platform, ILLiad. Contact illoan@liberty.edu if you have any questions.
Copyright News
The JFL maintains a Copyright Research Guide to help you and your students navigate issues around the ethical use of information and creative works. The faculty tab on that guide provides information on using copyrighted works in course management, face-to-face teaching exceptions, TEACH Act for distance education courses, and fair use exceptions. The guide also provides resources for seeking permission to use copyrighted materials and finding materials that are in the public domain.
Public domain refers to materials without copyright protection. Each year, new materials enter the public domain as their copyright expires. A sample of materials that entered the public domain on Jan. 1, 2026, includes:
- Literary works such as The Murder at the Vicarage, Agatha Christie’s first Miss Marple mystery
- Musical compositions like “Dream A Little Dream of Me”
- Comics, including the first Blondie comic strip
- Films like the Marx Brothers’ Animal Crackers
- Sound recordings like Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen recorded by Marian Anderson
- Artwork such as José Clemente Orozco’s Prometheus
If you have questions that are not covered in the guide, email scholarlycommunications@liberty.edu for assistance.
