Student Training

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.

Searching the Library Catalog

Library Databases

Research Guides

Citations

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:

• scholarly journal articles
• newspaper and magazine articles
• reference entries from encyclopedias, dictionaries, etc.
• videos
• images

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.

• A scholarly/peer-reviewed article is an article that has gone through peer review. That means that professors/experts in their field have written an article that has been reviewed and accepted by editorial boards composed of their peers. Basically, a peer-reviewed article is an article that has gained sufficient approval of the scholarly community.
• Most databases let you filter your results so that you can choose to look exclusively at scholarly articles.

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.

• As you may know, the library has grouped together a number of subjects to help students better navigate our database pages. You’ll notice that Academic Search Premier shows up again and again in these subjects. It’s a great all-around resource.
• To find this resource, go to the databases link and select it from “A” or from a containing subject.

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:

• Keep in mind that not every database is made the same, but, in general, they have some shared characteristics
• Nearly all databases have a basic and advanced search. I always prefer the advanced search.
• Nearly all databases offer some sort of Thesaurus of Subject Terms glossary. These are the words and phrases the database people themselves use to describe the articles found in them.
• Many of our databases automatically generate the citation information for an article
• Nearly all of our databases offer full-text articles in large quantities.
• Many of our databases are linked to others through the “Find it at VCSU” button

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:

• There are not as many available fields
• Facets in the new beta search use very vague subjects
• Most advanced search options filter by format rather than content

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:

1. Course Guides are guides that have been compiled for specific courses. They are often focused on a specific assignment and are created at the request of the instructor.
2. Education Topic Guides provide resources for specialized topics in education.
3. Library Help Guides deal with library topics or services. These include our Citation guide, Copyright guide, New Books guide, and guides providing help with specific resources.
4. Subject Guides provide a general overview of resources for a particular subject area.

What they are not:

• They are not the total sum of all information on a topic in our library’s collection
• They are not definitive, and may be subject to error
• They do not replace subject knowledge or insider info you may have

How should you use them?

• Refer a student to them if they are just generally looking around for info for a class
• Let them know that these are just a collection of resources, and that Al/Donna are available to help during their work hours

Important Research Guides

• Education—The education guide lists a number of great resources. The most important thing it offers is the Lesson Planning page, which contains a custom Google Search for lesson plans, as well as a list of great websites for lesson planning.
• Primary Sources—This guide helps history students find primary sources from a number of free, online sources. This guide also offers a custom Google Search for finding primary sources as well.
• Citation Guide—A lot of students use this guide. It has a lot of helpful links and examples for citing anything

Browse our 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.

View the final Viking Voyager module.

Review UNC Chapel Hill's Citing Tutorial.