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As a student employee of the library, you aren't expected to provide in-depth assistance with research, reference, or citations. However, since you will be frequently staffing the desk during evening hours or other times at which librarians are unavailable, you should be able to provide library users with some basic assistance. Areas to become familiar with include: searching the library catalog, library databases, and research guides. Below, we'll explore each of these topics in greater depth.
What is the Library Catalog?
The library catalog is the tool you use to search for what is available in the library. If someone comes to the desk looking for a book, DVD, or other item, the catalog is where you will go to find it.
In addition to finding items in the physical library, our library catalog, known under the brand name Primo, offers the ability to search through a number of the library's databases for articles simultaneously, thus reducing the amount of time necessary to find relevant information.
Primo Search
Primo's default search is the "Everything" search. This search combines items available in the library - print, electronic, and audiobooks, videos, etc. - with the journal and article results from our databases. To view only the article/journal results, click "Articles+." To view physical items within our library, click "Books+." To find out whether other libraries in North Dakota have the item you're looking for, click "All ODIN Libraries."
My Account
Use the My Account option to view the books you have checked out, note any fines you may have, see your previous searches during the current session, and view your saved e-shelf items.
Experiment with Primo
Use the search box below to experiment with the Primo Search:
Alternative Catalogs
If you're struggling to find what you need using Primo, an alternative catalog to try is WorldCat. WorldCat searches libraries worldwide, and can be helpful for getting a sense of who else may have an item if it's not available through VCSU or other North Dakota (ODIN) libraries. WorldCat can also be helpful for locating ebooks within VCSU's collection.
ebrary
ebrary is our largest collection of ebooks, with nearly 100,000. If you or the person you're helping can't find what they need in the library, be sure to check ebrary - you'll usually be able to find something there.
There are three important things to know about databases: 1) What databases are, 2) How databases work, 3) How to find databases on the library website.
What are databases?
Databases are collections of data that are arranged in a searchable way. Any time you shop on a website like Amazon, you're searching a database.
Library databases provide access to several types of information, including:
Finding scholarly journal articles is the most common use for library databases. They can sometimes be hard to find, and not every subject has hundreds of articles written about it. In order to better help your patrons, you will need to know how databases generally work. You will also need to know what you’re looking for, especially if the student needs to find a scholarly article.
How do databases work?
The library subscribes to several databases, some of which have more specific content than others. Two general databases to become familiar with are Academic Search Premier (an EBSCOhost product), and JSTOR.
Academic Search Premier contains a lot of content from many different disciplines. It is a perfect place to start someone off if they’re really unsure of what to begin their search:
We’ll do some basic searches in Academic Search Premier to play around with some of the facets, the Thesaurus, full text and scholarly article designations.
Next, we’ll take a look at JSTOR and observe some of the differences:
How do you find databases available through the VCSU Library?
Links to our complete A to Z list of databases are available on just about every page of the library website. The easiest way to get to the list is using the link in the More Research Tools section on the library homepage.
On the databases page, you can browse databases by letter, or click the Advanced Search button to browse by Subject, Provider, or Resource type. The subject option is helpful for identifying the databases we have available for a particular subject area.
Take a look at the resources available on the Databases page, and browse the different subject areas in the Advanced Search. Having a good understanding of the need your patron has will help you navigate these databases to find the most appropriate tool to use.
Now that you have learned more about Databases, you should learn more about Library Research. Click here to begin the Viking Voyager modules 2-5.
What are Research Guides?
Research guides are collections of resources for a specific topic. Our research guides are organized into four categories:
What they are not:
How should you use them?
Important Research Guides
Browse research guides when you have a few minutes on the desk with nothing else to do. Become aware of what resources the library has available!
Students will often come to the desk for citation assistance. Citations are often tricky, and you may encounter conflicting information about how to cite a source. Consequently, you should always ask if the student has an example, and always let the student know that they should consult their instructor as the final say for citation styles.
We’ll look at the Library’s Citation Guide and the two guides faculty recommend their students use—Hacker Research & Documentation Guide and Purdue OWL.