Information Resources and Facilities

Copley Library

The Helen K. and James S. Copley Library contains over 500,000 books and approximately 6,000 media items. The Library subscribes to 125 online databases that provide access to over 63,000 electronic journals. The library also maintains subscriptions to over 2,500 print journals that are housed in our journal stacks.

Our online catalog offers access to all of the library’s book, journal, and media collections. USD students, faculty, and staff can access most databases and other electronic resources when off-campus by using their MySanDiego login via our authentication system.

Copley Library is open 114 hours each week and its resources are organized in accessible, open stacks. Library faculty, additional professional and support staff, and student workers make the collections available to the university community. Copley also offers access to course materials via traditional print reserves as well as electronic reserves.

Library faculty provide extensive reference service and spend time working individually with students as they complete assignments and prepare papers, speeches, and research reports of all kinds. In addition to traditional reference desk service, the library also offers online reference through our Ask a Librarian service. Library patrons can ask questions and receive assistance via email, chat, text message, and a searchable 24/7 knowledge base of frequently asked questions. Library faculty members also offer assistance by providing course-integrated library instruction sessions and preparing online guides in their subject specialties. Additionally, the library offers workshops on topics such as citation styles and database searching to assist users with developing better research skills.

The libraries at USD are members of the San Diego Library Circuit Consortium, which maintains a database linking four university libraries (UCSD, SDSU, CS San Marcos, USD) and the San Diego County and Public Library systems. Through this consortium, USD students and faculty can easily access library materials from other campuses. A delivery system enables timely movement of materials from one campus to another.

Study spaces are available for over 700 students and include group study areas, quiet carrels, and pleasant reading rooms furnished with antiques and contemporary art. Group study rooms can now be easily reserved via our online booking system.

The library has over 80 computer workstations and 30 laptops for checkout. Other available equipment includes photocopy machines, microform reader/printers, and media hardware.

For more information, go to Copley Library.

Pardee Legal Research Center

The Pardee Legal Research Center, located on the east end of campus, provides access to print and digital legal materials, including judicial, statutory, and administrative sources and an assortment of secondary materials on Anglo-American, foreign, and international law. Special concentrations include taxation, jurisprudence, human rights, intellectual property, environmental law and Mexican law. A full array of electronic resources is accessible through the website: Pardee Legal Research Center. The library is a federal and state government depository. The Legal Research Center is a partner in The San Diego Circuit library consortium, which provides access to the research collections of other San Diego libraries.

The law library is normally open 112 hours a week, and reference librarians are normally available 70 hours a week. The collection is maintained to support the study and research of students and faculty of the School of Law and is available to any member of the USD community needing to conduct legal research

Academic Technology Services

As a division of Information Technology Services (ITS), Academic Technology Services (ATS) is dedicated to cultivating teaching, learning, and research through the judicious exploration, implementation, and support of educational technologies. The broad range of services ATS offers to students, faculty, and staff strategically align the ITS mission and selected technologies with academic and institutional objectives.

The seven units within ATS are organized to provide specific academic technology services across our community’s myriad learning environments and spaces. ATS Client Support Services includes Desktop Support Services, which distributes technical support technicians across the campus; the Help Desk, the first line of response for all hardware and software inquiries; and Student Computing Services who respond to all student computing needs (ext. 7900, help@sandiego.edu).  ATS also manages the several Academic Computing Labs (ext. 2765) across campus that provide students and faculty with Windows, Macintosh and Linux computers, access to specialized programs, and laptop check-out privileges. The Instructional Support Team (iTeam) is specifically dedicated to curriculum support in the classrooms, online, and mobile devices. The iTeam implements and supports USD’s Learning Management System (Blackboard) and the integrated plagiarism detection, collaboration, assessment, and communication tools. The iTeam offers faculty instructional design services and consulting, and free training workshops to faculty/staff and students on Blackboard, Adobe, Google, Qualtrics, Microsoft, and more. The iTeam also manages the implementation, piloting and adoption of emerging technologies such as the iPad Classroom Project and hires and trains talented students for the Student Technology Assistant (STA) program (iteam@sandiego.edu).

Instructional Media Services (IMS) provides a digital graphic design and multimedia editing lab, audio/video production, repair, and installation, media duplications, graphics design support, large poster printing, and instructional media equipment checkout (ims@sandiego.edu). This team is also responsible for the Campus Learning Spaces and provide classroom SMARTboards and podiums, document cameras, Apple TVs, projectors and training (ext. 4567).

Academic Technology Services is at the intersection of technology and academics at USD and continuously explores, expands, and improves its service offerings to reflect the array emergent educational technologies relevant to students’ teaching and learning and research and an increasingly mobile campus.

Instructional Media Services

Instructional Media Services (IMS) is comprised of media/video production, digital graphic design and multimedia editing lab, instructional repair and installation, and instructional media equipment checkout. The department is located on the ground floor of Maher Hall, Room 186. Semester hours of operation are Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Fridays to 6 p.m. Call (619) 260-4567 for information.

We provide a wide range of resources including instructional equipment lending, digital graphic services, audio/video/multimedia production for instructional use, media duplication, video/multimedia workstations, technical assistance, classroom technology support and repair, consultation/installation services and limited multimedia related software training. IMS can provide support for graphics design, video production, digitizing, and other related services for your web-based activities in consultation with Academic Technology Services.