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Time Saving
Library Techniques for College Students Many college students dread using the library and feel defeated by its complexities. It can be difficult to find time to get to the library. The library may have limited hours that don't fit well in your schedule. These and other barriers push students to delay library research as long as possible and leave them with inadequate research material. Help is available! Procrastinate no more! Instead, try these techniques to make your library research fast and fruitful. Get Help How often have I had students preface a library question with "I've been here for hours and couldn't find anything"? Too often! DON'T spend hours hunting before asking for help. Librarians have a masters degree in library science, get paid to help you, and they will not think your question is stupid. We are happy to answer quick questions, suggest a book, get you started on your research, teach you how to use library tools, and more. Look for a Reference or Information desk - that's the place to ask for help with your library needs. If neither of those desks exist, ask at the Circulation desk (where you check out books). You can probably get help from home.To find out just how nice and helpful librarians are, go to the Reference desk and ask for the phone number and email address you can use to ask questions from home. Most libraries will answer quick questions (taking 15-30 minutes to find an answer) via phone or email. Learn the Ropes First and foremost, learn how to use the library catalog then learn how to use call numbers. Knowing the catalog is important so you can identify the books you want. Knowing how to read call numbers is important so you can find the books on the shelves. Many a students wander the stacks not finding what they want because they lack one of these two skills. Tell the librarian at the Reference desk that you want to learn and she will set you up with handouts, classes, or instructions. Next, learn which indexes relate to your topic and how to use them. Indexes, in library jargon, are tools for finding magazine and journal articles. You can search an index to identify articles related to your topic, just as you search a catalog to find books. I recommend asking a librarian to point you to a few appropriate indexes and get you started with them. You will likely find that two or three indexes are important in you major. Once you learn them you'll use them for the rest of your college career. Also find out how long you can borrow books for, how to request material via interlibrary loan, the library hours, etc. Your library probably has a brochure with all this and more. Work From Home Did you know that most academic library catalogs can be reached via the internet? You may be able to search the catalog from home on your schedule. Search the catalog to identify books, videos, magazines, and other relevant material and write down their call numbers. You'll be ready to hit the stacks and grab the material you need fast. Many libraries also have indexes available on the internet. Once you find an article you'd like to read, write down the citation - author, article title, journal title, date, volume, and page numbers. I know that seems like a lot, but it'll save you time in the end. When you have your list of citations ready, search the library catalog to find out if your library owns the journals you need. Be sure to check for the right volume - the library might not have every volume of a journal. After searching The biggest time savers are full text indexes. Full text is what it sounds like - the text of articles on your computer that you can save, print, or read on screen. Some indexes have selected full text - that's to say not all the citations come with articles. You may need a plug in such as Adobe Acrobat to read the full text. If your library provides FirstSearch you probably have access to two or three databases with selected full text. With at home access to the library catalog and article indexes you're well on your way to finding those three books and five article required for your research paper even if it is 2 am and the paper's due tomorrow. Ask a librarian at the Reference of Information desk in your library how to connect to the catalog and indexes from home. Use Bibliographies Did you know that your professors seldom use the library catalog or indexes? That doesn't mean they don't read books and articles in their fields, they do. But they do research differently. Most professors subscribe to important journals in their field and scan the tables of contents for interesting articles. After they read an article, they look through the bibliography to see what the author read and referred to. Then the professors read from the books and journals in the bibliography. You can use that trick too and impress your prof. When you find one good article on your topic, try and get copies of the articles in the bibliography. They are likely to be articles your professor has seen before. Start Early The earlier you start your library research the easier it will be. Really. If you procrastinate you will be forced to take whatever you can get quickly - the material your library owns that isn't already taken. That material may not work well for your topic. If you start early, your classmates wont have grabbed up as much of the good material and you can take advantage of interlibrary loan. When you search an index you will likely find good books and articles on your topic that your library does not own. Most college libraries will borrow books and articles for you from other libraries - interlibrary loan - but it takes time. Usually two weeks or more where I work. Allow time. Find Out What's Available Your library may have many services and resources that can save you time and make your life easier. Ask them what services and resources you can use from home, what research assistance they provide, and what classes and instruction they offer. Get Help I know, I already said "get help", but it bears repeating. If you do nothing else from this list, do ask for help at the reference desk. Ask for help and ask until you get what you need. Helping you is what we librarians are paid to do. So help keep librarians employed - ask questions. Athena Hoeppner Copyright © 1999 Athena Hoeppner. All rights reserved. Graphics, Design
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