About Academic Libraries And You

You will use your college library differently from K-12 and public libraries. You may have built your love of reading with librarians in K-12 schools, and you may go to  public libraries to check out a book or film you want.  In your college library, you will learn how to discover, evaluate and use information. Academic librarians may discuss your research with you and help you think about research issues.  An academic librarian at the reference desk will probably show you how they found the book, or ask you to do the searching while they prompt you with tips and tricks. 

Often you'll meet academic librarians when they teach workshops in your courses, most often English, Communication Studies, Psychology and Chemistry.  In these workshops, you will explore concepts such as how to figure out whether you trust a text, or how to approach research as a series of ever-deepening questions. You may be asked to understand the differences between books (an online or print work with pages, such as a textbook or a novel), encyclopedias (a general book with background about topics that is taken from original research but is not considered original research), and databases (a collection of works, usually online and many times expensive).  

College libraries have resources to help you with research or supplement your textbook.  Students who read for fun learn better and more easily, so college libraries now have a variety of fiction, non-fiction, periodicals and graphic novels to read for fun. 

Your instructor may ask you to do some library research for a paper or a presentation or even a discussion.  They may tell you not to use Google and to use the library resources.  These requirements will help you explore the world of information and how you fit into it. 

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