Talking in the Library

Short Cuts: Hey Expos 2! How's that persuasive paper going?

Expos 2 students, you may not have your own Library Days like Expos I, but librarians and specialists from the Undergraduate & Community Services department still met with several class sections and we want to make sure that you know we're here to help all Engl 200 students!

So your assignment --- a persuasive paper in which you need to provide both the pro and con sides of an issue while offering a persuasive argument supporting one side and using at least three credible sources like journal articles or statistics. Sound familiar? I hope so!

So if you weren't in one of the classes we saw for library instruction, don't sweat it --- here's some of the library information we presented in a nutshell. And if you were there, here's a timely recap just in case you spaced out during class (though I know no one would ever do that!).

• In order to persuade an audience, you'll need evidence to support your main ideas. Evidence can be statistics, expert opinions, scholarly journal articles, and more. Be sure that you use credible resources --- that means written by experts in the field with authoritative credentials, heavily-cited research, and featured in a scholarly or peer-reviewed journal. Where can you find these resources, you might ask? --- the Library Databases!

• Check out our resources by going to the Library home page and clicking on Databases. Always start your research at the Library home page... why? Because then you get access to all of the journals, databases, and resources that we subscribe to exclusively for K-Staters! Here are the top two databases we suggest for your persuasive paper!

• CQ Researcher Plus Archive --- CQ stands for Congressional Quarterly. This database contains full-text reports written to inform elected officials of major U.S. issues. The reports strive to be unbiased, presenting sections like Overview, Background, Current Situation, Pro/Con, Maps/Graphs, and Bibliography. It's a great resource to get introduced to each side of your issue and to find citations for further research

• ProQuest Research Library --- This is probably a familiar database for most of you. Librarians love it because it's fairly easy to use and great for finding at least a little information on most any topic. We recommend using one search box per concept in your research topic. After clicking search, you'll find a few features that will make your research a bit easier. First there's the Suggested Topics box at the top of the screen. This looks at the keywords you used in your search as well as the results, and then provides suggestions for similar searches that might get better results. Simply click on one of the suggestions to perform a new search and then to narrow your search. The results are also broken down into tabs so you can easily choose which type of results you'd like to focus on, including scholarly journals, magazines, trade publications, and newspapers.

• Google. You can't deny it. We're a generation of Googlers. And believe it or not, it is possible to find good information using Google without getting too overwhelmed. It's just not that easy. In order to wade through all the junk out there, you have to use some shortcuts to gain more control over Google. Combine any or all of the following tricks to tame the Google beast!
  • Education (.edu) and government (.gov) websites generally present more credible and unbiased information than commercial websites. To limit your search to .gov or .edu websites use the following shortcut --- site:.gov or site:.edu
  • To ensure that a word is in the title of the link or the web address (URL), use the following --- intitle: or inurl:
  • To search for a specific type of file like a PowerPoint or PDF, use the following shortcut --- filetype:pdf or filetype:doc or filetype:ppt

• The Engl 200 class guide --- personalized just for your class! The class guide contains an in-depth review of research tools and tips mentioned in this article and more. Tabs includes Getting Started, Evaluating Sources, Articles, Books, Statistics, Cite Sources, and K-State Libraries Resources. We highly recommend you take a look!

Well, that about wraps up our recap for Expos 2. But that doesn't mean help ends here. You're always welcome to contact us for further assistance --- you can call us, email us, IM us, and more. Check out our Ask-A-Librarian page and good luck on your assignment Engl 200 students!

Short Cuts: Making Your Life Easier

Well, you’ve made it through four weeks of the fall semester! How are you feeling? Doing okay? If you’re like a lot of students I’ve talked to recently, you may be feeling a little overwhelmed. And, I’m here to tell you two things: one, what you’re feeling is perfectly normal and two, I have a few things to help you combat that feeling.

If you’re still wondering how to use K-State Libraries, how to find a book, or even how to navigate the perilous stacks of Hale Library, then let me tell you about some classes and tours we have in Hale. Some of our classes and tours are specifically for a few classes, such as University Experience and Orientation to Education. We also have classes on other subjects, like the coolest thing ever, RefWorks (seriously, it will change your life). If you would like to take one of these classes, all you need to do is click on Classes and Tours from our homepage and select which class you would like to take.

Now, what about your textbooks and other class reading materials? Do you have them all purchased yet? If not, you can check in Hale at Library Help on the 2nd floor to see if your professor has put your books on Reserve. That just means that you can come and check out the Course Reserve for a shortened period of time (predetermined by your professor) and either do the reading that week or scan the pages you need with one of our free scanners. If you’d rather check to see if we have the book yourself rather than going to Library Help, you can see instructions on how to do that here. For more info, you can also check out the Course Reserve webpage.

Starting your research for your assignments and not really sure where to start? Let me tell you a secret --- we have librarians who work all day helping students just like you learn how to do research and get on the right track. Okay, that’s not really a secret but it is so very true. Want to get in touch with one of those librarians? You can go to Ask A Librarian and on the right-hand side are all the different ways to talk to us and get help. You can come in and talk with someone face-to-face, e-mail, set up a one-on-one appointment, or even IM chat with a librarian.

Do you feel a little better now that you know of all these ways the Libraries can help you? I hope you do. Just remember to breathe and you’ll do great. And don’t be afraid to ask for help --- whether from us, or your advisor, teachers, or family. It’s cool to need help through college. It’s why we’re all here.

m.e. fritch

Census Data Workshop for Faculty & Grad Students

Are you a faculty member or graduate student who uses census data? We're hosting a workshop that may help you. If you are interested in participating, please contact Regina Beard rmbeard@k-state.edu. Seating is limited, so sign up soon!

What: Census Data Workshop
When: May 25 at 9:30 am & 1:30 pm 

You are a t.v. detective, investigating a crime

Some days I have ideas. Some days my ideas are absolute genius.

Here's my latest one: in a few weeks, all of the Public Speaking classes are coming to Hale Library for Library Days. We explore basic research concepts like moving from a topic ("Word of mouth marketing is like the flu") to keywords that can be searched in a database--and how to discover new keywords when the first ones you try don't work. I have a great snowball fight analogy that I'll share if you ask me.We also play with some of the relevant databases (Credo, CQ Researcher, ProQuest Research Library, maybe LexisNexis) and demonstrate the awesomeness that is the Get It button and the Cite This link available for many articles in many of our databases.

OK, here's the genius idea: you need to approach a research topic like you are a detective on a t.v. show (I've never seen a detective work in real life, so won't presume to say this is how they work.) That is, you are solving one case, but you will be interviewing a lot of different people to learn as much information as you can because the prosecutor and/or judge won't just take your word on it...you need evidence. If you have ever caught an episode of Law & Order, or The Closer, or The Wire, or Veronica Mars,  or ...you get the point... then you know that t.v. detectives never ask everyone the same question, because everyone they talk to has a different perspective or relationship to the crime/victim/suspect.

Your case is something like, "Why having a GTA with an accent can benefit your education." (That's right, let's take that age-old gripe about teachers with accents and turn it on its head.) You'll definitely want information about the benefits of diversity or multiculturalism in the new world economy. So you're going to search in databases like ProQuest Research Library or Diversity Database Suite for information about (diversity or multiculturalism) AND higher education AND learning. You'll also want information about why people don't like having teachers they can't understand, so you might do searches in the same databases, or some of our education databases about international AND graduate teaching assistants.

As you read through the articles, you're going to find new terms to search (we call this "mining an article") you are also going to find new perspectives: perhaps a research study that you wanted to read more about, or a program at another university that sounds intriguing. This is just like on Law & Order when Detectives Green* and Lupo interview one witness and that witness says, "I saw the back of the guy's head before he pocketed the radishes, but my buddy Chwen saw him look at the bananas first." And then the Detectives go talk to Chwen and ask him about the radishes and the bananas.

You're not going to ask all of your sources (databases) the same question because they may all have different perspectives on case, and as you learn more information, you're going to have different ways to ask the question. This can be really fun (honestly, I do it for a living, it is fun!) But it can also be confusing as you find yourself looking up from an article about the grade school system in Saudi Arabia, wondering how you got there. My solution is to write down my primary question and have it in front of me the entire time. While I may refocus it a bit, or decide to attack it from another angle, looking at it periodically reminds me of my purpose.

Now, here's where I ask for your help. What I would love to do is have a montage of detectives interviewing people about the same case. Not long, 3 minutes maybe? Just enough to get the idea about reformulating questions, building on previous interviews and so forth. I've done a few preliminary searches in YouTube, but haven't hit gold. Anybody out there have and idea of where I can search or already know of the perfect montage?

*Yes, I know Detective Green isn't on Law & Order any more, but he's still my favorite.

Yes, there is an easier way to make bibliographies

Trying to figure out how to create a bibliography or reference list? Perhaps you would also like to keep track of the references you've found for your paper (or research project, or marketing plan, or grant proposal)? We've got you covered.

You might try RefWorks, a database you create for yourself online. You can send references to your RefWorks account
from almost all of the databases that K-State subscribes to.  K-State subscribes to RefWorks for you, so you'll want to access it through our library home page. If you have any questions at all about using RefWorks, you can attend a class or contact me (I'm the campus RefWorks guru. Yes, I made up the title, but it seems to be sticking, so I'll keep it.) Many RefWorks questions can be asked via Ask a Librarian, too.

I also really like Zotero. In fact, I often use Zotero and RefWorks together because I like how Zotero works with some databases and website better than RefWorks, and sometimes I like RefWorks better.  Zotero is free! It's a plug-in that works with the Firefox browser. You can create an account that will store your citations online for you, or just store them on your computer. Zotero is loaded on the computers in the university computing labs (logging the computer out will erase your references from a computer in the labs, so no one else can access them.)  Zotero is still fairly new to us, but we are offering some classes this semester if you want to learn more. They also have some pretty handy screencasts that you can watch to get oriented. As we're still getting up to speed on Zotero, you'll probably want to shoot your questions to libinst @ k-state.edu. My colleague Steven and I will try to answer your questions as best we can!

For other information about citations and bibliographies, check out our Citation Tools page.

Tours of Hale Library today

Ready to get into the swing of the semester? Before classes begin tomorrow morning, take 30 minutes or so today (Thursday) and tour Hale Library.  I will personally be leading two tours today, one at 1:30 and one at 2:30. Both tours meet at the big window by the entrance gates on our 2nd floor. For the uninitiated, the entrance to the library proper is on the 2nd floor. If you enter by the Bookend Cafe (the first floor entrance by Eisenhower and Holton Halls), you'll want to take the stairs or elevator up to the 2nd floor. 

The tour is guaranteed to awe you with information like:

• How to print
• How find a book
• Where to get help
• Where the Harry Potter room is located
• How to survive the moving shelves
• How to get out of Hale

Hope to see you there!

Faculty/Grad Library Day is Monday! Seats still available.

Monday is a student holiday (yeah, whoo-hooo.)  Hale Library has decided to celebrate the occasion with our final Faculty/Grad Library Day of the semester.  (Don't worry, we'll have more in the spring.)  You can see the full schedule of classes, or simply register as a grad student or faculty/staff member for a session. Heck, you could sign up for a class during each time slot if you want.  (And you know you want to.)

Hope to see you there!

Serenading optional

I don't get serenaded often.  Then again, I also haven't given a tour of Hale Library and resources to a fraternity pledge class before.  That made last night a pretty cool evening for two reasons. 

Reason number 1: My colleague, Jenny Dale, and I introduced a fraternity pledge class to all sorts of cool stuff about the Libraries (due to its clandestine status, we did not show them the helipad). Most of our tour requests come from instructors and professors.  But we're happy to introduce other groups to the Libraries, too: floors from residence halls, fraternities, sororities, student groups, random group of friends, whomever.  The tours and classes can range from the full-blown tour of the building to focusing on how to research when you are studying abroad. We're amenable to customizing the class or tour for what you want to know. To make requests, you can use the Instruction Menu (choose "Other" as your department) or email us at libinst @ k-state.edu.

Reason number 2: The half of the pledge class that toured Hale with me ended the evening by serenading me with a primo performance of, "Goodnight, Sweetheart." (The loggia acoustics aren't half bad, by the way.) Serenading your librarian is not required, but it will always earn you bonus points.

Grad Student Library Day--Guaranteed Research Methods

Grad students--ride that energy wave of first week good intentions this Friday, August 28th, by attending Grad Student Library Day.  Library Day is your opportunity to learn all about finding full text dissertations, storing and citing sources with RefWorks, or finding and using images, sound, and film for your research--or for your classes if you are teaching. But wait, there's more: business, legal, or congressional research, Google, Interlibrary Loan and Get It, plus a Hale tour and overview of very handy tools.

Library Day is designed like a conference with 50-minute concurrent sessions.  To relieve any scheduling conflicts for you, we're repeating the morning sessions in the afternoon.  Come for one session, two sessions, or stay for the whole day.Since your research pulls from many fields, we've developed sessions that feature multi-disciplinary resources and methods.

We held a Faculty Library Day before the semester started and I made a promise to them that I will also make to grad students.  I will guarantee that any session you attend will provide you with one tool, trick, or resource that will save you hours (at least) in the future.  If it doesn't, contact me and I will treat you to your non-alcoholic beverage of choice (skearns @ ksu.edu).

If you can't make this Friday, we have a joint Faculty/Grad Library Day scheduled for Monday, October 5th--the student holiday.  See the schedule and sign up for this Friday or October 5th.  Hope to see you there!

Faculty Library Day: It's all about you

We miss you.  Now that we've made it so easy for you to research online, we don't get to see faculty, staff, and researchers the way we used to. To resolve that, we decided to hold a Faculty Library Day: a day all about you and your research.  Library Day is designed like a conference with 50-minute concurrent sessions.  To relieve any scheduling conflicts for you, we're repeating the morning sessions in the afternoon.  Come for one session, two sessions, or stay for the whole day.

Since your research pulls from many fields, we've developed sessions that feature multi-disciplinary resources and methods.  I may be biased, but I will guarantee that any session you attend will provide you with one tool, trick, or resource that will save you hours (at least) in the future.  If it doesn't, contact me and I will treat you to your non-alcoholic beverage of choice (skearns @ ksu.edu).

Our first ever Faculty Library Day is Monday, August 17.  Check out the schedule and sign up for any sessions that strike your fancy.  It is all free, of course.  If you have new colleagues, this is a great orientation to the Libraries--particularly the Library Tour and Tools session.  Remember, it's always cool to be a library pusher.

If Monday doesn't work for you, we're holding a joint Faculty/Grad Library Day on Monday, October 5  (that's the student holiday)--bring your research team!  The schedule is the same, and you can sign up now.

Looking out for your grad students?  We're holding a Grad Student Library Day on Friday, August 28th.  They can sign up now, too!