EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY CYPRUS LIBRARY
The academic library was, is, and always will be an integral part of learning. Even in this digital age, the library has a lot to offer by managing online data, weaving and sorting electronic sources, and providing support to users who are constantly bombarded by electronic information. While it is true that students live, breath, socialize and interact in the digital environment they still need the library’s support to help them organize, structure and prioritize electronic information. For this to be achieved, the library needs to be up-to-date with technology in order to support users at any time they request the information and from any place.
A library must be “working” 24/7. While the library can still function under its traditional setting it is evident that there has to be a shift of the library’s priorities from investing in physical and analogue items to electronics ones.
The Library of European University Cyprus for over 30 years has strived to maintain not only a level of academic excellence but also of flexibility in order to be among the first to adopt to the changes that take place in regards to traditional teaching and teaching methodology. It is due to this flexibility why the library of European University Cyprus (as Cyprus College) first offered online access to a Library webpage in Cyprus and through the webpage to thousands of other sites. Additionally, the library added its first electronic journals database in 1996 (Gale’s SearchBank/Infotrac) and was one of the first to offer in Cyprus access to Proquest’s ABI/Inform and Emerald’s Management Insight through its internet facilities.
The Library is located on the 2nd floor of the South Block Building. It occupies the whole floor and has a total area of 1300 square meters. The Library is designed to provide a seating capacity of approximately 160 persons. The Library is fully computerized in order to assist librarians and students in a variety of ways. There are 17 public workstations supporting the needs of users, 3 stations for searching the Library’s cataloguing system and 1 station used by the librarians in assisting users and providing training courses. In addition, the library has a computer lab with 20 stations, 2 study/presentation rooms with a sitting capacity of 10 users for each room, and a photocopy room with two machines. Wireless network access is also available to all students.
The Library is open 6 days a week for a total of seventy-four hours. The Library schedule is Monday through Friday 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. and Saturdays from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00p.m. In addition, the Library is open 6 days during the Christmas break and 6 days during the Easter break, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Located next to the library, as a separate entity, is a reading room with a capacity for over 50 students. The reading room has an extended time schedule since it stays open from 8:00a.m. to midnight, seven days a week.
Located next to the library, as a separate entity, is a reading room with a capacity for 50 students. The reading room has an extended time schedule since it stays open from 8:00a.m. to midnight, seven days a week.
In order to encourage students to use the Library, new students are invited to visit the Library during the orientation period. The librarians offer a tour of the library and speak about services and operation. Faculty members are encouraged to bring their students to the Library for additional training sessions on using specific sources and on effective search strategy methods. Library users are offered assistance in locating books, periodicals and searching the databases.
Library collections are organized by internationally approved conventions and are arranged for efficient retrieval at the time of need based on the Library of Congress Classification System (LCCS). The University’s Library uses the LCCS since 1986.
Currently the Library has over 48,000 unique titles in print form and over to 300,000 in electronic. These books cover all areas of study associated with programs offered by the university.
The library’s OPAC (Online Access Public Catalogue) is located at https://onlinelibrary.euc.ac.cy/ and can be accessed by all. Current students, faculty and personnel can make reservations of books and other material.
To assist research, the Library also subscribes to a great number of databases. These databases provide users with access to full-text magazines, journals, newspapers, conference proceedings, company reports and many more. For accessing these resources off-campus students and faculty, use OpenAthens http://openathens.euc.ac.cy/. OpenAthens is an identity and access management system used to authenticate eligible students’ faculty and staff. More importantly, it provides the user with single sign-on access to both internal and external web-based resources. Currently European University Cyprus library subscribes to over 120 databases such as ACM, IEEE, Elsevier Freedom Collection, Taylor Francis, Springer, Sage, Emerald, Medline Complete, CINAHL Plus, LexisNexis, Westlaw, Proquest and EBSCO databases to name a few and provides access to 100,000+ journals titles.
The library promotes the research work of the faculty through its repository. Plemochoe is an open access institutional repository established for the sole purpose of gathering preserving and distributing original research material produced by the EUC faculty and researchers. Plemochoe aims to validate the intellectual life of the University by promoting scientific research to the local and international communities. https://repo.euc.ac.cy/
As one of the seven founding members of CALC (Cyprus Academic Libraries Consortium), the EUC Library cooperates with other local libraries, such as the University of Nicosia Library, the Library of the University of Cyprus, TEPAK Library in Limassol, Open University Cyprus Library, Neapolis Library the Library of Frederick University. Since 2013, CALC acts on behalf of all universities in order to achieve deals on a national level shared by all.