Working at Home With a Little Help From Briggs Library

Starve a cold and feed a fever, and log on to Briggs Library for a wide array of resources and services.

During the cold and flu season many campus employees and students are often home sick and unable to work or attend classes. The H1N1/swine flu adds a new wrinkle; individuals are often infected for up to 5-7 days, and can be contagious until 24 hours after a fever has broken. That can be a long time away from school, and some individuals may be feeling good enough to do a few things from home as they continue to recover. Briggs Library recognizes that it's not always possible to work from home. We offer the following library resources, however, as a means in which individuals (sick or well) may continue to work from home as their health or circumstances permit.

• Course Reserves:

     Print Reserve  Students can keep reading required class materials. Faculty members can use the library Course Reserves request forms to have Briggs Library or personal materials such as books or DVDs put on print reserve.
     Electronic Reserve  Students can access class materials such as articles and book excerpts. Faculty members can place materials on electronic reserve by using the Course Reserves request forms.


• Article & Reference Databases:
Briggs Library offers over 120 licensed databases covering every major subject area. To see the complete list and begin searching please go to: My Briggs Library Databases.


• Research QuickStart:
Choose from a list of library and Web resources, the latter hand-picked by Briggs librarians in collaboration with UMM faculty, focused on a particular subject area. Start exploring now.


• Library Catalogs:
Search the Briggs Library catalog SUMMON, the University of Minnesota all-campuses library catalog MNCAT, and even WorldCat a global library catalog made up of over 17,000 libraries.


• Interlibrary Loan:
Briggs Library doesn't have what you need? No problem. Request the item wherever you are using Briggs Library ILL request forms Briggs Library. Choose the appropriate format. Delivery takes on average 7 working days. Electronic delivery is the default delivery method so you'll receive it via email if at all possible. If you're in the MNCAT or WorldCat library catalogs try using the interlibrary loan options found within each. Briggs Library's service, which sometimes can link you to the full-text of an article in another library database, also has a interlibrary loan link which can be used. For more information about requesting items through Briggs Library, MNCAT, WorldCat or even "FindIt" please go to the ILL Guide.


• Ask A Librarian:
Have a question. Briggs Librarians are ready to help with your research questions. Contact us via phone, email, IM, text, chat and good ole' face-to-face at the reference desk.


• Other Resources:

      EZ-Proxy: To access subscription library databases from off-campus you will need to authenticate through the EZ-Proxy system with your UMM username and password. For more information please go to EZ-Proxy.
      VPN client: Allows for off-campus access to many of the University of Minnesota's online tools in a secure, encrypted manner. For more information please go to VPN client.