Student Library Newsletter

In this issue:

Library Renovation Updates  

Small study rooms are now open!
The two small study rooms off the ground floor lobby are now furnished and available for use. No reservations are required at present—if a room is vacant, it’s yours. Please do not leave your things in the rooms to hold them for later. Any unattended belongs left for more than 20-30 minutes will be removed to make the rooms available for others.

Ongoing progress
Work continues in the 1st floor stacks. The workmen are now installing new lights, and new carpeting comes next.  Since this area remains under construction, continue to use the 1st floor stacks book paging form to request books from this floor; these are being brought out for requesters several times a day.

Work has also picked up in the enclosure that will be the new staircase between the main lobby and the new reference room on the ground floor. The giant steel stair pieces were dropped into place last week. 

The echo chamber
You may have noticed that the Large Reference Room is a little louder than it used to be. The ceiling panels in the room previously absorbed a lot of sound, but these have been removed during the renovation. Sound now echoes around the room and into adjoining spaces. Please try to keep conversations low to keep the general noise down. 

The little things you’ve been missing
Permanent trash cans are now in place on the ground floor. There is one in the outer hallway and one inside the library near the metal stacks stairs. The library is excited to offer recycling for paper and bottles/cans finally!

There are again two operational pencil sharpeners in the library. You will find one in the Small Reference Room on the atlas case and the other in the 2nd floor stacks (hanging on the side of the stacks by call number PA).

Here are some of the most-used resources from the library last school year!

Landmark Briefs  

Did you wonder what all those red books are down in the new quiet study area on the lower level? There are so many of them, and you’ve never seen them around before! 

These are volumes of the series Landmark briefs and arguments of the Supreme Court of the United States, which were in storage but now finally have a place in the newly redesigned library. This series contains petitions and briefs filed in major constitutional law cases. A court case that is studied because it has historical and legal significance is considered to be a “landmark” case. Our set has coverage from 1793 to 2015 and so includes such landmark cases as Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857), Brown v. Board of Education (1954,1955), Miranda v. Arizona (1966), and Roe v. Wade (1973)

Choosing a Paper Topic 

When it comes to writing research papers, sometimes the first step is the hardest! Here are some quick tips to help you find a successful topic.

• Choose a topic of interest to you. You will be more motivated and more likely to think deeply about something that catches your attention and curiosity.
•  Brainstorm to give yourself a few options to consider. You might need to circle back if one topic doesn’t work out. Review your notes from class for ideas and talk with classmates. Watch the news or see what’s trending online as additional sources of inspiration.
•  Do some casual reading once you have a topic in mind (that is, before you officially begin research). Reading popular sources such as magazines and newspapers or even Wikipedia can give you some mental framework and interesting angles that may help you define your direction. These might not be sources you will ultimately cite for your paper, but they can still be useful at the idea stage!
• Sometimes you may find that you need to narrow down a topic that is too broad. In this case, think about the who’s, what’s, when’s and where’s. That is, focus on a particular event, particular individuals/groups, or particular places within your general topic to tighten things up.
• Once you have a topic in mind, first go back to make sure that it meets the assignment requirements. Then try some preliminary research to be sure there is enough available information/evidence out there in scholarly books and articles to support your paper. If there isn’t, you will want to broaden your topic or circle back to the other topics your brainstormed.

For additional help, visit the guide below.
 

Discovery vs. Henry - Getting to know the library’s search tools

There are two great tools available to help you find the resources you need in the library collection. Which should you use when?

Discovery

Discovery allows you to search across most of the library’s resources, both what’s on the shelves and what’s in our online databases.  It’s like Google for the library.

Pros

• It’s convenient. You can search almost everything in the library at one time. You don’t need to know which database would be best for your research or decide what type of library resource you want to target.

Cons

• It can be overwhelming. Because it searches so much, you might get a lot of results. For example, a search on “Bible” retrieves over 500,000 results!
• It’s generic. Discovery pulls information from a lot of different sources and does the best it can with it. But it lacks the specialized search features you may find in individual databases or in the library catalog that are designed for a field or resource type.

Best for when you are

• open to a mix of resource types (books, articles, online content, etc.)
• especially interested in journal articles
• looking for a very narrow topic and really need to explore all options.

Access Discovery through the search box in the middle of the library home page.

Henry

Henry is our traditional library catalog, focusing on the library’s physical collection of books, DVDs, journal titles, etc. It also includes many eBooks that are part of our permanent online collection.

Pros

• It has great features. With features specifically designed for these types of materials, you can track items based on where they are housed in the library or how recently they were added to the collections, virtually browse the shelves, and more.

Cons

• It’s just one piece of the pie. Henry doesn’t include as much online content as Discovery or provide access to journal article information.

Best for when you are 

• looking for print books or DVDs
• researching a broad topic and want to find just a few good books covering it
• interested in using features that are especially suited to searching physical library collections.

Access Henry from the “Books (Library Catalog)” link under “Find” on the library home page.

Featured Database  

MEDLINE with Full Text is a valuable tool for medical research, providing full-text access to articles from over 600 active subscription-only medical journals. This database offers the very latest in research--some articles are available here even before they are published in print! If you are studying or researching topics in medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, or health care administration, this database is a good one to know.

You can search the contents of MEDLINE with Full Text through Discovery, but in some cases you may prefer to search directly in the MEDLINE database in order to use its specialized search features that are designed specifically for medical research. For example, you can focus your searches on just evidence-based medicine or review articles. You can also limit searches by age group, gender, or animal if searching for non-human topics. Please see the attached flyer for more information on using MEDLINE with Full Text. 

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