Hi everyone, my name is Elizabeth Psyck and I’m one of the librarians over at Zumberge, just across the pond. I’m going to be giving you all a quick introduction to how the library can help you while you’re here at Grand Valley.Photo: “GVSU Welcome Arch” by steeen_ps on Flickr <http://www.flickr.com/photos/steeen/589937372/> July 21, 2010 [CC license]
As most of you probably know, GVSU has a several different campuses – well, we also have more than one library. In Allendale we have Zumberge, the main library and Seidman House, which is where the archives are (it’s also a great place to go if you need a quiet place to study). Then in downtown Grand Rapids we have the Steelcase Library on the main DeVos campus and the Frey Library in CHS, the medical campus. What’s great is that if you find something in one library, let’s say Frey has a book you want to read for your biology class, you can request that it be delivered to the Allendale campus.Photo: “Ann Arbor Library – Pittsfield Branch” on Flickr by jhoweaa <http://www.flickr.com/photos/jhoweaa/327651705/> July 22, 2010 [cc license]
I’m sure the first thing you all think about when you hear “library” is books. And we do have books. But we also have DVDs, CDs, maps, puppets, classroom experiment kits, and a huge collection of digital/online resources. You can even borrow a laptop to use for three hours in the library. As undergraduates you can check out 20 things at a time, but there’s no limit on the digital resources we offer.One of the coolest things that we have both out here in Allendale and in the Steelcase Library, are the Curriculum Materials Libraries, or CMLs. In the CML you can borrow the puppets and classroom kits that I mentioned earlier, get materials to make bulletin boards/displays/presentations, print posters, and laminate things. They also have a collection of k-12 textbooks and materials to help you study for teaching exams.Photo: “Reading is Fundamental” by Troy_Holden on Flickr <http://www.flickr.com/photos/troyholden/4114564467/> July 21, 2010 [CC license]
Although the physical library isn’t open 24 hours a day, our website is. You can use almost all of our databases and ebooks from home or anywhere else you have an internet connection whenever you want. If you’re off campus you’ll be asked to sign in with your username and password, which are just the same things you use to sign in to your gvsu email.Photo: “Desktop Computer Workstation” by chrisjagers on flickr <http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisjagers/4694134078/> July 21 2010
Since I’ve talked a bit about our digital/online resources, I wanted to address the idea that “everything is online”. I love the internet, really I do, but it doesn’t have everything, and more importantly, a lot of the information out on the internet isn’t reliable. So the library spends a ton of money every year purchasing access to databases and ejournals and ebooks. There’s nothing wrong with using Wikipedia to look something up, but you shouldn’t be citing it in your research papers.So if you aren’t supposed to use Wikipedia, what should you use? Well, it depends on what you’re writing about and what department you’re in. But the good news is there help on our website. [link out]This is our website and there are a couple things in particular I want to point out. The first thing is the box in the upper left corner. This is Summon which allows you to search for articles as well as for books and other things in the library. This is a great place to start your research, and since it’s right on the front page you don’t even have to remember how to get here.If you’re looking for something a little more specific, rather than Summon which is really general, under the “database” and “journal” tabs the librarians have organized the databases and journals by topic and picked which ones tend to be most useful for the classes GVSU offers.We also have a link to the list of guides that librarians have made for general topics, majors or departments, or specific classes. This is a great place to go when you are starting your research since the librarian who created that guide has picked the most important resources including things from the library and from other sources.Photo: “Settimana Internet @ Roma – 25 giugno, Internet e Anziani” by codiceinternet on Flickr <http://www.flickr.com/photos/codiceinternet/3665516866/in/photostream/> July 21, 2010 [cc license]
So let’s say you find the perfect book or article for the paper you have to write, or the project you’re working on, except that GVSU doesn’t have it. Don’t panic! We can almost always borrow or purchase the book or article you need. You should never have to pay for something that isn’t a text book while you’re here at GVSU. It might take us a little while to find it, but we can get it to you. This is a great example of why you shouldn’t wait until the night before your paper is due to start the research. If you give us a couple days, we can probably get you anything, but if it’s due in 3 hours, there’s not much the library can do to help. So even if you wait until the night before to actually WRITE the paper, start doing the research at least a week or two in advance.Photo: “Shelves” by fling93 from Flickr <http://www.flickr.com/photos/fling93/115162765/> July 22, 2010 [cc license]
I know you all probably won’t remember a lot of what I’ve talked about today, since you’re getting a ton of information thrown at you from all different directions, but if you only remember one thing from this presentation, remember that you can always come into the library and ask for help. Our job is to make sure that all of you are as successful as possible during your time at Grand Valley. Photo: “097/365: Sunken Treasures” by dotbenjamin on Flickr <http://www.flickr.com/photos/dotbenjamin/2862947932/> July 22, 2010 [CC license]
Photo: “DSP 147: Thank You! 2007-10-11” by vernhart on Flickr <http://www.flickr.com/photos/vernhart/1574355240/> 22 July 2010 [CC license]
