Talking in the Library

Short Cuts: The Hale Library Finals Week Study Guide

If you're worried about finals, be comforted by this --- you've made it this far! Compared to how far you've come this semester, one week left is next to nothing! And K-State Libraries is here to help you make it the rest of the way!

To that end, we're once again expanding our hours to better accommodate those of you who favor studying here at 2am (or any time of night for that matter). Beginning this Friday, the Hale Library will remain open 24 hours a day until the following Friday at 6pm, marking the end of finals and the semester.

The 3rd floor Quiet Zone will spread to the 1st and 4th floors, placing all but 2nd floor in the cone of silence. 2nd floor will remain group study --- though we ask your enthusiasm for prokaryotes and/or Proust to not extend too far from your table thus interrupting your neighbors debating about the Tokugawa Shogunate. Whether your group needs to finish a project or you require absolute silence for some intense studying, be sure to claim your spots early --- finals week has gotta be Hale's most popular time of the year!

Speaking of groups, with all the increased activity (and boy does it increase --- it's like WalMart on Black Friday around here!) here's another good reason to bring along a wingman (is there a gender-neutral term for that? Wingperson?) --- they can watch your stuff during potty breaks.

If Hale's a bit too far, don't forget our other libraries --- Fiedler, Math/Physics, VetMed, and Weigel are all there to serve you, no matter what you're studying at present. But be sure to check out the finals week hours for each library before you make the trek.

Need a little boost at the outset? Caffeine Fix is back! We'll be treating all you night owls to coffee, tea, and snacks Sunday May 6, Monday May 7, and Tuesday May 8 from 10pm to midnight. Of course, outside these hours you can always visit the vending machines by the 1st floor entrance or, even better, stop by Einstein Bros. for a recharge.

Finally, should you need a break (and you will need a break) and are having difficulty selecting from the surfeit of choice amusements the internet offers, this author would like to recommend the following.

Dan Ireton

 

Short Cuts: For the soon-to-be K-State graduate

For the soon-to-be K-State graduates out there, revel in the reality that little more than two weeks stand between you and sweet, sweet freedom from the world of academia (unless, of course, your future includes graduate school!).

Excited? Nervous? Prepared? Anxious? A little sad?

Whatever you may be feeling, remember, as you continue on to become doctors and artists and lawyers and teachers, K-State Libraries will still be here with resources and services for alumni. We even have an alumni services page on our website. Begin at the K-State Libraries home page, choose "more" from the "Information for" box, and then select the Alumni link on the right.

The alumni page features free and State of Kansas databases for your use, as well as information on how to check out books after you graduate with a current Alumni Association membership card.

Stay connected with us and K-State after you graduate. Join the K-State Alumni Association or become a Friend of the K-State Libraries. You can also follow us on Facebook or Twitter to keep in touch.

retrieved from the K-State Libraries flickr

I’m sure you’re not going to run back to the Libraries for more research two days or even two months after you graduate. But keep us in mind for those tricky questions or obscure topics when you can’t help but think, I wish I had a librarian by my side! K-State Libraries will always welcome you!

Congratulations to those of you graduating and good luck with your future endeavors!

Short Cuts: Tips to search Google like a scholar

It's not often that you see Google and scholar in the same sentence. You're probably all too familiar with warnings from professors and librarians alike, "Don't use Google. Use the Library databases!"

It's not that we hate Google. Believe me, sometimes we all eat, sleep, and breathe Google. It's not even that scholarly research can't be found on Google. The reason we tend to warn you away is that there's so much other stuff out there --- from eHow and Wikipedia to personal and corporate sites --- that it gets a little crowded. As a result, it can be exceedingly difficult to track down those scholarly sources amid the pages and pages of junk. But it can be done!

While K-State Libraries has the perfect tools for conducting research and locating scholarly sources, we recognize that everyone uses Google. There's no denying it. But let's be smart about it and use Google like a scholar. Try these tips and tricks the next time you take Google for a spin.

Google logo (retrieved from Flickr Creative Commons by Marcin Wichary)

You can tell a lot about a website from its domain name. For example, .edu is education, .gov is government, .org is a non-commercial site, .com is commercial, and so on. Generally .edu and .gov websites will contain the most credible information, though sometimes .org may be useful. Here's a simple way to limit your search to one type of domain name using the "site:" search.

TRY IT

• Find statistics about childhood obesity from a U.S. government agency
• Search for site:.gov U.S. childhood obesity statistics
• Results should include websites from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, like this one titled Childhood Obesity Facts

TRY IT

• Find the biography of Ernest Hemingway (NOT from Wikipedia)
• Search for site:.edu "Ernest Hemingway" biography
• Results should include the websites of university libraries and colleges with biographies written by faculty and staff. Check out the Ernest Hemingway collection from the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at The University of Texas at Austin

Sometimes it's also helpful to limit your results to documents (doc), reports (pdf), or presentations (ppt) from a university or government site. You can add the "filetype:" search to the "site:" search above for more specific results.

TRY IT

• Find a PDF report on climate change by a government agency
• Search for site:.gov "climate change" filetype:pdf
• Results should include PDF documents/reports/papers from government agencies like the National Weather Service or the Environmental Protection Agency

TRY IT

• Find a PowerPoint presentation on the Revolutionary War so you can brush up on your history before an exam
• Search for site:.edu "revolutionary war" filetype:ppt
• Results should include PowerPoint presentations from university and college websites, mostly likely created by professors or students, such as this PowerPoint on Revolutionary War medicine by a professor at the University of Pittsburgh

These are only a few of the tricks that can help you tame the Google beast. For more tips and tricks, click on the image below to view this Google infographic.

Retrieved from Hackcollege.com

Overwhelmed with all the possibilities for finding information? Contact Ask-A-Librarian for more strategies to search Google like a scholar. Or, give Google a rest and visit our databases or new search tool for immediate access to scholarly research.

Short Cuts: K-State Libraries resources to help you and K-State go GREEN

I think K-State would look lovely in a shade of green, don't you? Yep, I think a sustainable, eco-friendly, Earth Day kind of green would suit K-State perfectly!

You've probably heard a lot about K-State's sustainability efforts recently. There's a lot of green to be proud of! This week, K-State Today announced Kansas State University's recognition as one of the country's greenest colleges for the third year in a row in the The Princeton Review's Guide to 322 Green Colleges: 2120 Edition. Recyclemania made front-page news in The Kansas State Collegian, reporting that K-State made the top 30% of the 605 schools competing with a 23.8% recycling rate. And Earth Day is just around the corner with the Campus Earth Day Festival on Friday, April 20 from 10am - 2pm at Bosco Plaza. Hosted by Students for Environmental Action, this festival will feature a t-shirt swap, plant sale, food, music, and more!

K-State Libraries is looking a little green, too (I think we've caught the sustainability bug!). Last week, K-State Today featured some of our sustainability resources. From sustainable development and green building design to ecoliteracy and renewable energy, we've got your green needs covered with resources online and in print.

Use our new Sustainability Subject Guide to help you locate the best sustainability resources for research in your topic area. Access the guide by clicking on the Earth Day 2012 image on the K-State Libraries home page (this week only) or by choosing the Use a class & research guide link and then typing "sustainability" into the search box.

Whether you're aiming to save the world with renewable energy research or just curious about recycling and biking efforts on college campuses, check out the Sustainability Subject Guide to find articles, books, videos, upcoming events, and the top sustainability organizations at K-State and in Kansas.

Instead of just K-State purple, give K-State purple AND green a try!

Check out this video for more information on Earth Day 2012.

Short Cuts: K-State's history is coming to a browser near you.

K-State Libraries have long been home to a vast collection of photographs, letters, yearbooks, newspaper articles, diaries, course catalogs, books, and other documents that chronicle the history of Kansas State University.

This rich collection has been and still is available to researchers and visitors between the hours of 8am and 5pm Monday - Friday in the Richard L.D. and Marjorie J. Morse Department of Special Collections on Hale Library's 5th floor. Those who make the trek are rewarded by being able to consult in-person with knowledgeable staff and view the materials in the comfort of an elegant reading room. For anyone who wishes to do extensive research on Kansas State University history, this will remain the single best option for you.

Those who simply wish to step back into the past and are not embarking on extensive research will be happy to know that significant portions of the collection are being digitized and published online. At present there are two major repositories of this content: Kansas State University Libraries' Digital Collections and The Internet Archive.

To access Kansas State University Libraries' Digital Collections, simple visit the Libraries home page at http://www.lib.ksu.edu, hover over the Research menu, and click Digital Collections & Galleries. From this page you can reach specific collections. A small set of K-State Historical Photographs is available at the link in the top middle of the page. Digital Collections is a link to the other digital collections, including Notable Women of K-State, Kansas State University Yearbooks from 1891-1925, and the Kansas State University Collection which features the book, History of the Kansas State College of Agriculture and Applied Science.

To access K-State Libraries' content on the Internet Archive, navigate to http://archive.org, search for Kansas State University, and click the Kansas State University folder. Within that folder you will find Kansas State University Catalogs (1925-2006), and Kansas State University Yearbooks (1926-2009). The latter will have a new yearbook added each year, but the most recent three years will not be included.

These digital collections are just the first of many more to come. In the near future, we hope to add access to old Kansas State University newspapers. We will also continue to highlight the ongoing work of K-State's faculty, staff, and students through Kansas State University's Research Exchange (K-REX), K-State's Biodiversity Information System (BiodIS), and other platforms. Stay tuned --- more of the past will be coming to your future soon!

Jason Coleman

Short Cuts: SearchIt! Try it and tell us what you think!

Hey students! We've got a new tool for you to try. It's called SearchIt!

This tool will search across nearly all of our print and digital collections with one easy push of the button! Need to find everything there is to know about college sports or diabetes or animal rights or the French Revolution? SearchIt would be the tool for you!

To try it out, start at K-State Libraries. Then in the middle box, go to the text "Want to search everything? Help test our new search tool and tell us what you think," and click on the link. Or simply click here!

Want to learn more? Watch this video for details.

We are testing SearchIt to work out any kinks or bugs. It's important for us to get your feedback. Tell us what you think by completing this comment form.

Short Cuts: Before you write and cite, start with research!

We've covered citation tools and writing help. But what comes before all that? Research!

In the process of writing a paper or preparing a group project, research should always be the starting point. But unfortunately, research can sometimes be the most difficult step, too. But don't worry, I should also mention that research is also our speciality as librarians --- we even think it's fun!

That's why we've created research tools and guides to help you along the research process. Here's a few of them!

• Class guides: These guides are created for specific classes. So if you are looking for research help specific to a class assignment, this would be the place to go. Guides will vary, but should include contact information for librarians, links to K-State Libraries resources and databases, information about scholarly research and popular/scholarly sources, and more! Guides may not be available for every class, but it's definitely worth checking out to see if we have a personalized guide for your class!
• Subject guides: If you are conducting research that isn't tied to a specific class or you can't find a class guide for it, you may want to check out our subject guides. These guides are similar to class guides, but focus on an area of study instead of a class. For example, check out Anthropology, Biology, English, or History. Research tips and tricks may differ from subject to subject, so get familiar with the most effective strategies for your area of study.
• Ask-a-Librarian: Online guides are super helpful, but sometimes, nothing beats one-on-one assistance. If you've hit a research wall, use Ask-a-Librarian to contact a librarian directly. You can chat with us online, meet with us in person (at Library Help and by appointment), or simply call, text, or email us. Like I said, research is one of those things we love to do as librarians. But one thing we love even more than our own research is assisting you and other students with research and teaching you the best tips along the way.

And as you encounter research, writing, and citing over the next few weeks, remember that the end is in sight. Research takes time. Even for research-lovers it's a continual process of trial-and-error and discovery, and for those moments when error seems to be more common than discovery, K-State Libraries is here to help!

Short Cuts: Writing about writing help

Citation help? Check.

Now, let's back up a step. What if you need help actually writing your paper. I mean, like, is everything grammatically correct? Does the organization of your argument make sense? Did you use the correct spelling of there (or is it their)? And did you fully support your thesis?

Getting some writing assistance can help you answer all of these questions as well as teach you tools and strategies to help you answer these questions on your own in the future. Check out our Ask-a-Librarian FAQ's for information about writing help on campus.

If you're an undergraduate student, here are some of your options for writing help on campus:

• Writing Center: All undergraduates are welcome to sign up for an appointment located at 122E English/Counseling Services Building
• Wildcat Writing & Research Consultations: Hale Library & the Writing Center team up on Sunday evenings from 7-9pm during the semester for walk-in writing consultations on the 2nd floor of Hale Library (or sometimes in Hale 301 if the 2nd floor is busy)
• Writing Lab (ENGL 030): For continual personalized assistance, take this weekly, two-hour writing lab for credit during the semester
• Disability Support Services: 202 Holton Hall
• Academic Assistance Center: Walk-in tutoring at 201 Leasure Hall
• Education Support Services: Provides tutoring for 1st generation, low-income, and disable K-State students at 201 Holton Hall

Writing help is everywhere. Have a friend or family member read your paper, too! Really want to make sure your paper is rockin'? Try reading it outloud or even start at the last sentence and read it backwards sentence-by-sentence! Those strategies might help you catch additional mistakes.

And, as you master the art of writing research papers, don't forget your trusty pencil!

 

Short Cuts: Citation tools to help you cite as you write

It's the beginning of April already and there are a mere 6 weeks left in the spring semester. And no, that's not an April Fools joke!

This not only means that the glory of all that is summer is steadily approaching, but it also means that you are most likely smack dab in the middle of papers, projects, and tests. Hale Library has been a buzz of activity from morning to night to prove it!

And, of course, we want to help! We know that not everyone needs the personalized help that you get using our Ask-a-Librarian IM chat or by meeting with us at Library Help on 2nd floor. But I bet everyone could benefit from some citing, writing, and researching tips, tricks, and shortcuts (hey, that's the name of this article series!). So the next couple weeks will focus on these valuable resources for your research.

There's no better place to start than . . . the end? Sure, why not. And that means citations. Citations are something that most people (me included) leave until the very end of the research and paper-writing process. If you've raced to crank out that reference list and those in-text citations 15 minutes before class or tried to remember from what article and database you got that one awesome quotation, then you're not alone. I know the feeling. But we can beat this habit together with some tools to help you quickly and efficiently cite as you write (I rhymed!).

First, there are many citation styles --- APA, MLA, Chicago, Turabian --- the possibilities are endless. Luckily, citation styles are generally associated with particular subjects so you won't have to learn them all. Literature majors use MLA, sociology majors use APA, and so on. Check with your professor to make sure you know what citation style is required.

CiteNow! in CQ Researcher

Once you begin your research (before the week the paper is due, right?!), be aware that many of our databases have automatic citation generators. The databases may call them different names --- Cite this in ProQuest Research Library, CiteNow! in CQ Researcher, and Cite in Education Full-Text --- but they'll all do the same thing. Click on this when you've found a resource you want to use in your paper and it will create a citation for you. Choose your citation style, copy and paste the citation into your paper, and you're done! . . . Well, not exactly. You'll have to double check the citation for errors because everyone makes mistakes, even especially software programs!

Cite this in Proquest Research Library

Found a book in the catalog or using a database that doesn’t create citations? No problem. There are lots of handy citation tools that universities and libraries have made to help. The following is a list with a few of the many available tools for the most popular citation styles.

• EasyBib (MLA): You’re a lucky duck if you are using MLA style. www.easybib.com generates citations for books, newspapers, journal articles, and more in MLA style for FREE. Use the Citation Guide for a visual guide to locating citation information for various resources.
• OWL Purdue Online Writing Lab (MLA & APA): This may not generate citations for you, but these guides for MLA and APA are second to none! With detailed information and examples, use this to write your own citations or double check those generated from the databases.
• NCSU Libraries (MLA & APA)
• KnightCite (MLA, APA, & Chicago)
• UNC Libraries (MLA & CBE/CSE)

There are also citation guides available in print as a reference so don’t hesitate to use the Library Catalog to search for one.

Search results in the Library Catalog for AP style

Don’t see the citation tool that’s right for you? Ask us! We’ll do our best to answer any questions you have --- from citation tools to the number of school days left until summer (I counted. It’s 29!).

Short Cuts: Video Calling with Skype or Google Plus

Long ago in the distant technological past, only the most intrepid, patient, and nerdy among us could bear the frustration involved in trying to place a video call to one person, let alone a group of them. Now, Skype and Google, among others, have removed the pain from the process, and even made it, dare I say - fun! So, check your teeth, brush your hair, clear your throat, and get ready to regale distant friends, family, or colleagues with wit and wisdom. Here’s how:

Step 1: Get accounts. You will need to make sure you and all the people who participate in the video call are signed up with the same service. Two of the most popular options in the U.S. are Skype (sign up and download) and Google Plus (this is one of many applications that Google provides when you sign up for a free Gmail account). Skype allows free one-to-one video calling, but provides group video calling with up to 10 participants only if at least one of the people on the call has Skype Premium or Skype Manager, both of which cost money. Google Plus allows free group video calling and can accommodate up to 10 participants as well.

Step 2: Get equipment. You and everyone participating on the call will need a computer or a smartphone. If you use a computer, you will need a video camera (built in or external), microphone (built in or external), and speakers or headphones. If you are a K-State student, staff, or faculty member you can borrow all the equipment you need from the IT Help Desk on the 2nd floor of Hale Library. They have six laptops with Skype pre-installed and also have six headsets with microphones. You can have the equipment for 4 hours and can take it anywhere you like.

One of six sets available from the IT Help Desk (214 Hale Library)

Step 3. Get connected. If you are using a computer, you will need to have a broadband connection to the Internet. In theory, 3G or 4G on a smartphone would work, but wifi is much better.

Step 4. Launch a video call and invite people to join you.

With Google Plus:

1. Go to https://plus.google.com/
2. Click the "Start a Hangout" button. You will be prompted to download a plugin the first time you do this.
3. Check your video camera and microphone and headset. You can change settings by clicking the gear icon. When you are ready, click the "Hangout" button
4. Click the "Invite" button to find people to invite to your hang out.With Skype:

With Skype:

1. Check your audio and video settings. You can do that by clicking "Call" from the menu bar.
2. Use the add contacts panel to find the people you want to call and add them as contacts.
3. If you want to call just one person, double click their name in the contacts list and then click "video call."
4. If you want to call several people, first create a contact group and then click "video call."

Step 5. Talk, smile, chat. Repeat.

***Both Google Plus and Skype allow much more than simply talking and listening and seeing video cam feeds. In each you can also type messages and share your screen. Skype also allows you to send files while Google Plus has several apps to enhance your hangout, including one that allows you to collaborate on Google Docs.

Know of a better way to make group video calls? Please share in the comments!

Jason Coleman