What would you pay for access to a 24/7 Web site designed to make the most of your research time? What if it also screened and organized reliable sources for you–and tossed in free advice from information specialists? Whatever your budget, you’ve probably already paid–through your tuition–for these services. To get your money’s worth, simply use your student ID to access your college library, online or on campus.

Getting to Know the Library

Visit the library home page for an overview of resources such as these:

To introduce you to the campus library, your instructor may arrange a class orientation. If not, visit the library Web site and campus facility yourself.

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Target Your Search. Your campus library may surprise you with its sophisticated technology and easy access to an overwhelming array of resources. Identify and hunt for what you want to find.

Use the Resources. Your campus library can help you become a more efficient and productive student. Try its wide variety of resources, advice, and tools: e-books, audio books, podcasts, videos, tutorials, workshops, citation managers, source organizers, and apps for academic tasks (e.g., note takers, time managers, project schedules, group organizers, and file hosting services).

Sample the Field. Many libraries supply Library Guides or lists of well-regarded starting points for research within a field. These valuable shortcuts help you quickly find a cluster of useful resources. The chart below supplies only a small sampling of the specialized indexes, dictionaries, encyclopedias, handbooks, yearbooks, and other resources available.

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Using the Library Catalog

A library’s catalog is an index of all materials–books, periodicals, digital collections, historical archives, and so on–that the library houses. The catalog may also provide a listing of external materials that may be retrieved through interlibrary loan. The purpose of the catalog is to allow you to find basic information, such as title, author, and date, on materials that you can access through the library.

Search Creatively. Electronic catalogs may allow many search options, as the chart below illustrates. Consult a librarian or follow the prompts to find out which searches your catalog allows.

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Sort Your Search Results. When your search produces a list of possible sources, click on the most promising items to learn more about them. See Figure 31.4 for a sample keyword search and Figure 31.5 for the online records for one source. Besides the call number or shelf location, the record will identify the author, the title, the place of publication, the date, and often the resource’s contents, length, and scope and search terms that may help focus your search. Use these clues to help you select options wisely.

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Browse the Shelves. A call number, like an address, tells where a book or other resource “resides.” College libraries generally use the Library of Congress system, with letters and numbers, rather than the numerical Dewey decimal system, but both systems group items by subject. With a call number from an online record, follow the library map and section signs to the shelf with a promising book. Once there, browse through its intriguing neighbors, which often treat the same subject.

Searching Library Databases

Databases gather information. Your library may subscribe to dozens or hundreds to give you easy access to current screened resources, including hard-to-find fee-based Web sources. Check the library site for its database descriptions and lists by topic or field. A librarian can help match your research question to the databases most likely to provide what you need.

For specific information, select a database that covers the exact field, scholarly level, type of source, or time period that you need. Databases identify sources only in publications they analyze and only for dates they cover. Take tricky research problems to a subject librarian, who may suggest using a different database or older print or CD-ROM indexes for historical research.

Keywords. Start your search with the keywords in your research question:

If your first search produces too many sources, narrow your terms:

college tuition increases

state campus budget cuts

Illinois wetlands and Great Midwestern Flood

Or add specifics, such as an author, a title, or a date.

Advanced Searches. Fill in the database’s advanced search screen to restrict by date or other options, or try common search options. For example, a database might allow wildcard or truncation symbols to find all forms of a term; often * is used for multiple and ? for individual characters (results are limited to the number of characters supplied in the original search).

A database also might allow Boolean searches that combine or rule out terms:

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Search Returns. Your search calls up a list of records or entries that include your search terms. Click on one of these for specifics about the item (title, author, publication information, date, other details) and possibly a description or summary (often called an abstract) or a link to the full text of the item. When you find a useful item, read, take notes, print, save, or e-mail the citation or article to yourself, as your system allows. If the database supplies only an abstract, read it to decide whether you need to track down the full article elsewhere.

Using Specialized Library Resources

Many other library resources are available to you beyond what’s accessible from your library’s home page. If you need help locating or using materials, consult a librarian. Be sure to request the most current information, as not all reference resources are updated yearly.

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