The Albin O. Kuhn Library & Gallery is pleased to announce that we will fully reopen to all UMBC and community users effective August 16, 2021. Between August 16 and 29, we will operate on our summer schedule:

Monday-Friday 9:00 am to 5:00 pm

Saturday Closed

Sunday 12:00pm to 5:00 pm

(Note:  We will be closed for our annual Staff Development Day on Tuesday, August 24.)

All seven floors of the Library will be open and appointments are not required. Card swipe will no longer be required to enter the library building. The Retriever Learning Center (RLC) will be open the same hours as the library. 24-hour study in the RLC will resume for the fall semester on August 30. Entrance to the RLC requires a valid UMBC ID card.

Per UMBC policy, all users and staff are required to wear a face covering over the nose and mouth while in the library building. We have removed furniture throughout the building and reduced capacity in our former group study spaces to encourage social distancing. Please help us maintain a safe space for all users and staff.

Contactless pickup of books, media, laptops, and audiovisual equipment will continue by appointment until August 29. Visit https://library.umbc.edu/curbside-pickup.php for more information. You may also browse the stacks for books, periodicals, or media items, but we encourage you to take advantage of our pickup and document delivery services.

The Special Collections Reading Room will open by appointment. Visit https://library.umbc.edu/speccoll/index.php for more information or to schedule an appointment.

Users are asked to consume all food and drink outside of the library during this time. Food services at Einstein’s Bagels are currently not available, and café tables and chairs have been removed from the Atrium.

The Academic Success Center (tutoring center) and Technology Service Center (Division of Information Technology help desk) are not returning to in-person services in the Library at this time. Announcements of their fall semester services and hours will be available soon.

University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) has partnered with 3rd Millennium, whose mission is to help students address critical life skills such as alcohol abuse prevention, drug abuse prevention, relationship violence prevention and sexual assault prevention, in high schools and higher education institutions across the country.

As part of our comprehensive prevention program for new incoming first year and/or transfer undergraduate and graduate students, UMBC requires that new, undergraduate students complete Alcohol-Wise and Other Drugs and new, graduate students complete Other Drugs. These online courses will empower you to make healthy, well-informed decisions about issues that affect your college years and beyond.

Important: For each of the courses: 

• Part 1 is due August 13, 2021 and
• Part 2 is due October 22, 2021 [Alcohol-Wise ONLY]

All courses open July 2, 2021.

Alcohol-Wise For College 

1. Always sign in at: https://my.umbc.edu/go/alcoholwise
2. You will be directed to the myUMBC login page. Sign in with your UMBC username and password, and you will then be taken directly to the registration page for the Alcohol-Wise course.

Passing Exam Score: 75%

Other Drugs

1. Always sign in at: https://my.umbc.edu/go/otherdrugsprevention
2. You will be directed to the myUMBC login page. Sign in with your UMBC username and password, and you will then be taken directly to the registration page for the Other Drugs course.

Other Important Information:

• You will need Internet access and audio capabilities.
• To avoid technical issues, please use any major web browser released within the previous two years.
• You may take the course(s) in multiple sittings.
• The courses may include surveys to help personalize your experience and measure students’ attitudes and behaviors.
• Should you experience any technical issues, including issues with course login, 3rd Millennium has technical support and can be accessed by emailing help@3rdmil.com or clicking on the “Help” link within the courses.
• Should you experience login problems related to myUMBC, contact the DoIT Help Desk by visiting https://my.umbc.edu/go/request-help or call 410-455-3838.
• If you have any additional questions or concerns about these courses, please email uhs@umbc.edu.
• Upon completion of this course, you DO NOT need to send a copy of your completion certificate to University Health Services.

Thank you, and welcome to UMBC!

The deadline for requesting software to be included in our physical labs, virtual labs, and classrooms has been extended to August 13th. Software requests must be entered by this deadline to ensure the application is available in the labs for the Fall 2021 semester. Note: All software requests must be renewed each semester. Please see our Wiki page for information about this process. 

Requests for licensed software must include: (1)  Proof of purchase and license information, and (2)  software media and installation instructions. Please contact us if you have questions about the appropriate license volume or type to purchase. Requests to install unlicensed software, software with license modes incompatible with our labs, or software with system requirements incompatible with our labs, may be rejected. DoIT will make accommodations for such requests to the extent they are practicable. 

Dr. Robert Deluty, associate dean emeritus of the Graduate School, has published a new book, "Paying Heed." In his review, Dr. Ronald Pies writes, “In his latest sparkling collection of short poems, Robert Deluty heeds all his senses, especially his sense of humor. His trademark love of wordplay and irony are everywhere to be found, but the reader also finds many poems capturing what writer Diane Ackerman calls ‘complexly appealing moments.’ Thus, we find ‘counting the times/ the young prof responds in class/ Great question!’ and ‘counting the times/ the old prof utters in class/ Where were we?’ Few poets are better than Robert Deluty at crystallizing life's complex mix of the comic, the tragic, and the uproarious. Reader, pay heed!” 

And in his appraisal of the book, Dr. George Northrup notes, “Anyone acquainted with Robert Deluty’s ongoing renovation of traditional haiku forms will welcome Paying Heed as an invitation to lively entertainment in his vast yet familiar stomping ground, where favorite subjects—children, college professors and students, relatives, and diverse ethnic groups—display their humor as they grapple with insight into life’s large and small concerns. From one smile to the next, the reader has opportunities on every page to be grateful that Deluty’s creative sparks are still flying—wryly illuminating love, atonement, psychotherapy, sports, and those aching questions about whether cats feel guilty, doctors have a profession in heaven, and the true cause of Socrates’ death.  Here and there a rare appearance of life in its tragic form startles our awareness, all the more compelling for being embedded in an expectation of joviality and driving home the wise epigraph by Michael Scott wistfully reminding us to heed our senses.  If you are not familiar with his work, you have much delightful catching up to do.”

The DoIT Technology Support Center is looking to hire additional consultants to work during the fall semester and beyond. Please see our job description below and visit our job posting on UMBCWorks to apply. (Search for TSC Student Consultant.) The application will be open until August 6th.

We're specifically looking for students available to work during the following hours:

• Tuesdays 2pm-8pm
• Wednesdays 8am-2:30pm
• Thursdays 8am-12pm
• Fridays 8am-12pm
• Saturdays 12pm-6pm

TSC Student Consultant Job Description

Technology Support Center (TSC) student consultants are the first points of technical contact for the UMBC community and those who do well often go on to work in other areas of the Division of Information Technology (DoIT). Minimally, consultants are expected to provide initial triage and support for a wide range of information technologies including accounts, hardware, instructional technologies, networking, software, telecommunications, and basic web development.

Responsibilities include, but are not limited to the following:

• Provide technical assistance to users by phone, online and in person;
• Answer TSC phones in a professional and courteous manner;
• Create, update and resolve tickets in the Request Tracker (RT) ticketing system;
• Create, update, suggest and recommend relevant FAQ articles to users (www.umbc.edu/faq);
• Provide direct assistance to users on technical issues they cannot easily resolve on their own;
• Respond to all work-related communications in a timely manner;
• Escalate urgent problems to the Full-Time staff, as appropriate.

Required Skills and Experience

• Demonstrated ability to effectively communicate by phone or in person.
• Demonstrated writing ability.
• Demonstrated ability to achieve successful outcomes in handling difficult situations and customers.
• Demonstrated analytical and troubleshooting skills.
• Ability & willingness to learn coupled with a clear understanding of one’s technical abilities, so as to triage and escalate an issue that leads to an effective solution for the user.