Using the library

Resist the temptation to do all of your work on the Internet. Most college assignments will require using at least some formally published sources, and libraries offer a wider range of quality materials than the Web does. Although you can locate some newspaper, magazine, and journal articles online, you may have to pay a fee to access them.

Most libraries subscribe to databases that will give you unlimited access to these materials as well as scholarly resources that won’t turn up in a Web search. Keep in mind that databases don’t always include full-text articles of everything they cite. Often you’ll need to track down print copies in your library’s stacks or request them through interlibrary loan.

Because of copyrights, a library cannot open all its resources to all people, only to their students and faculty. To gain access to all the indexes and electronic texts that your library offers, either you need to be on campus, or you need to register your own computer with the library server. Your library homepage or your school computing help site will have information about how to register your computer (sometimes known as establishing a proxy server or establishing a point-to-point protocol, or PTP).