Whenever you have research to do—whether for a class, your job, or your personal life—visit a library. We can’t stress this advice enough. Although the Internet is loaded with billions of pages of information, don’t be fooled into thinking that it will serve all your needs. For one thing, you’ll have to sort through a lot of junk to find your way to good-quality sources online. More important is that if you limit yourself to the Web, you’ll miss out on some of the best materials. Although we often think that everything is electronic and can be found through a computer, a great deal of valuable information is still stored in traditional formats and is most easily accessed through a library.

Every library has books and journals as well as a great number of items in electronic databases that aren’t available on public Web sites. Librarians work with your professors to determine which sources and materials are required to support teaching and research at your institution. Librarians carefully select well-respected and credible resources with you and your research in mind. Most libraries also have several other types of collections, such as government documents, microfilm, rare books, manuscripts, dissertations, fine art, photographs, historical documents, maps, music, and films, including archival and documentary productions.