VOL. 1 Issue 4 - April 2025

The Academic Connection

Official Faculty Newsletter of the CWC Library

What's New in the CWC Library This Month

Spring has sprung at CWC. This is my 3rd Spring semester at CWC and they have all been extremely different weather-wise, I think I like this one best. Sam and I have been busy as ever updating and revamping how we can better serve your needs in this newsletter you will find:

Database Highlights - Why is it important to use database links & information about APA Psych Articles and Statista.
VR - Faculty can check out devices to see if it's right for instruction in your classes.
The Suggested Purchase Form - We want your advice.
New Academic Resources - Explore the Latest additions to our collection.

-Rebecca Chavez, CWC Library Director

Database Highlight

Offers full-text articles for journals published by the American Psychological Association, the APA Educational Publishing Foundation, the Canadian Psychological Association and Hogrefe & Huber. Includes content from as far back as 1894 to current publications.

Use APA Psych Articles

Statista empowers people with DATA. The database is a global data and business intelligence platform offering statistics, reports, and insights on 80,000+ topics across 170 industries. Committed to transparency and innovation, Statista empowers fact-based decision-making for a more reliable and informed world.

Use Statista

A reminder: It is important for our calculations and ROI reports that our usage is calculated correctly. We need your help to provide the correct information. To do this please provide the database link, or permalink, to your students and not a PDF of the item you want them to read. By doing this all usage will be calculated so that we have the essential data needed to keep all of our databases that you love.

VR at CWC

Last month CWC had the Wyoming Innovation Partnership team visit for the Virtual Reality project on campus to have a learning opportunity. Thank you to everyone who was able to attend our fun hands on VR session.

Our VR equipment is now available to to be checked out by YOU! We have four VR systems that can be checked out individually. These would be great for faculty members to check out to see if VR could be integrated into your teaching sessions.

We have two programs downloaded onto the devices:

BodySwaps - Soft skills trainings - including interview, entrepreneurship, and conflict resolution skills.

VictoryXR - 3D learning Environments - known as the netflix of VR programs

Learn more about the state wide WIP program HERE

If you would like to use our VR devices in your classes, we have 2 carts of headsets that can be checked out and used in your classrooms or in a Library classroom on the 2nd floor. If you have any questions please reach out to Sam Keeney at skeeney@cwc.edu

Learn more about VR at CWC

Tell us what YOU want in the Library

Every year the Library Budget includes a specific allocation for both physical and digital resources. Sam and I work hard to ensure that our academic collection has the most up to date resources available so our students can succeed in their courses. Librarians are data driven, we can use multiple avenues to determine what types of books our CWC Library needs:

Circulation Data - We are able to review the types and topics of books that are being checked out, this helps us know what our patrons interests are.
Interlibrary Loans - If our patrons are requesting a high number of resources in specific areas, this is a prompt for us to review that area of our collection to potentially purchase more on those subjects being requested from our other WYLD Libraries.
Shelf Reading & Weeding - Periodically we can be found on the second floor browsing the stacks, a practice called Shelf Reading. This helps us find any gaps in our permanent collection. Shelf Reading can also lead to weeding less than desirable items from the collection. We use circulation data to correlate an items usefulness.

You can help! Let us know what you want to see in the CWC Library. Use the form below to suggest specific books or provide topics / genres that would be beneficial to your areas of study.

Book Suggestion Form

Central Wyoming College Library

Newsletters - Spring 2025

April 2025-Academic Connection