The following suggestions are provided as possible alternatives for reducing the amount of printing at UST...

We all know that printing is a necessary activity, especially at a university. With the implementation of Print Management, a directive of university administration in partnership with Student Leadership, we are looking for ways to minimize the large amount of wasteful printing that takes place on campus. We offer the following suggestions for your consideration to help reduce the overall amount of student printing.

Blackboard

Blackboard offers a number of opportunities to deliver and accept course materials absent printing.  For example, faculty can post their syllabus to Blackboard and students can then refer to this electronic syllabus throughout the semester.  This delivery method also provides easy access to faculty who maintain a dynamic syllabus requiring frequent changes to schedule or materials.

• Faculty can post class materials and handouts to Blackboard.  Again, students can review these materials electronically throughout the semester without printing.
• Blackboard offers the ability for faculty to accept student projects and papers electronically.  Since the vast majority of student papers and projects are created by computer, allowing electronic project submission provides faculty with yet another option to reduce printing.
• Additionally, faculty can make use of electronic library resources to provide materials to students.  The Library offers a course entitled Integrating Library Resources into Blackboard that provides excellent information for making use of the 150 online databases of full text journal articles to which the university subscribes.  This material can be made available to students directly from Blackboard, alleviating the need for faculty to print out, or ask students to print out, these materials.

Sharing Printed Materials

When materials are printed, whenever possible consider reusing them from semester to semester.

Electronic Reserves

Utilizing the Electronic Reserves is also a great way to make materials available to students.  The materials are saved and provided as PDF files, allowing students to view them from any location with a computer and the Internet.  For more information on Electronic Reserves please visit: http://www.stthomas.edu/libraries/reserves

The Library also has an A - Z list of online journals, the number of journals available in electronic form is in the vicinity of 18,000 titles! In addition the library also has approximately 150 online databases that are accessible at UST.

The Library copyright page also includes links to JSTOR, Project Muse, Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe and Elsevier Science Direct : http://www.stthomas.edu/copyright/alternatives.htm

For more information about printing at UST or how to make use of any of the Blackboard tools, please contact your Academic Technology Consultant or contact the IRT Tech Desk.