Library Resources
One image that's often associated with time in college is studying in the library, but how does this connect to your World Campus experience? In much the same way that your local library has likely begun digitizing its own collections and cataloguing techniques, University Libraries has many digital resources available to you as a World Campus student. This means that even though you're learning at a distance, the resources of the eighth largest research library collection in North America Links to an external site. are at your fingertips. Let’s take a look at some of those resources now.
Get to Know Your Librarians
As a World Campus student, you may be concerned with how you're going to connect to Penn State. Because University Libraries is committed to reaching all Penn State students, they've developed a video so you can learn more about some of the librarians. As you watch Video 3.3, think about how you might consult librarians during your coursework or how they may be able to help you.
Video 3.3. Getting to Know University Librarians
Digital Content
The resource that may seem the most obvious to you as a World Campus student is Penn State’s ever-expanding collection of digital content. E-books, digital copies of research journals, and even a vast collection of images from Penn State’s past are indeed available to you with your Access ID. This ID (which you already have) allows you to download and view digital content on your computer and a number of tablets and e-readers. You can learn about and search for e-books Links to an external site., but that isn't the extent of what's available to you. Research journals can be searched by going to University Libraries Links to an external site. and selecting E-Journals from the navigation menu in the Find box.
Physical Books
In addition to the vast array of digital resources available to you as a World Campus student, you might be surprised to learn that you can also access much of the Libraries' physical content as well. This isn't limited to students who live near a campus. The Libraries will ship books anywhere in the United States or Canada. To ensure adequate delivery, you need to make sure your address is correct. To update your address, select My Library Account and then select Update Address in the navigation menu.
If you live outside of the United States or Canada, you can still get material from a book. To do this, request a book from LionSearch using the Request tab. After you request the book, you'll be taken to the Interlibrary Loan page. Because this is a physical book, you'll need to switch from "book" to "book chapter/article" loan so the material can be delivered electronically. You need to fill out a separate request for each chapter of the book. You can request a maximum of three chapters from the same resource every two weeks. Video 3.4 provides more information on how to obtain library materials.
Video 3.4. Library Orientation: How to Get Library Materials
LionSearch
Access to all of these materials is great, but how do you go about searching for them? The best way to begin searching is through a tool called LionSearch. Think of LionSearch as the library’s search engine. LionSearch is really helpful for presearching. This is when you're seeking information, but you might not have a specific research question formed yet. You can also use LionSearch for more strategic searching as you progress through your academic career and learn how to tailor searches. You can use different fields to help narrow or broaden your search. For example, you can search by topic, by title, by author, by ISBN, or by keyword. You can combine these in different ways and then refine the results by type of resource, subject field, date published, and many other features. Take a moment to familiarize yourself with LionSearch by viewing Video 3.5.
Video 3.5. LionSearch: Getting Started
Help With Research
If you ever find that you need more guidance with selecting resources, then you will appreciate the various guides that are available on the Libraries website. To help you get started with using the library and helpful tutorials, a guide has been created specifically for World Campus students. Please take a look at the Online Student Guide Links to an external site.. This guide introduces you to the important resources in the library for World Campus students.
What is a library guide? A library guide is either a tutorial, a subject guide, or a course guide. Subject and course guides give a list of commonly used databases, books, journals, articles, and so on, as well as helpful tutorials. These have been compiled and listed by subject-expert librarians at Penn State. These librarians all have additional expertise in specific disciplines. The major difference between a subject guide and course guide is that the course guide often follows along with the syllabus for your course, while the subject guide provides general resources for the subject.
The library guides are available at the Libraries website and are very simple to use. Instead of searching in the CAT (Penn State’s online catalogue) or LionSearch (which searches the CAT, among other resources), you begin your search by selecting the academic major subject guide that covers your research area. Your course may also have a guide that follows along with that specific course. To search for your course guide, select World Campus and see if a course guide is listed. How-to guides are just as they sound: They are tutorials or videos to help you learn how to do specific things within the Libraries website.
You can learn for yourself how using a research guide can kick-start your research by opening this link for the Penn State Subject, Course, and Research Guides Links to an external site..
Ask a Librarian
The Libraries also offer direct, one-on-one help with any of their librarians through their Ask a Librarian Online Service. To use this service, all you need to do is select the Ask a Librarian widget that is featured on the Libraries website.
You can learn more about this service by watching Video 3.6, produced by the Libraries.
Video 3.6. Ask a Librarian Online Service
Since you have an outstanding resource like the Libraries to use, we recommend taking a moment to get to know a few of the librarians who are here to assist you.
For help with more specific topics related to your academic major, please note this list of subject-specific librarians Links to an external site.. The hours for your Ask a Librarian service are Monday–Friday, 8:00 a.m.–8:00 p.m. (ET). However, even in the off-hours, librarians monitor the chat queue and respond promptly. You can even request a one-on-one consultation by filling out this consultation form Links to an external site..
If you have any other questions, please contact the World Campus Librarian, Victoria Raish, at victoria@psu.edu.
LionSearch, Google, Google Advanced Search, and Google Scholar: Different Ways to Find Information.
We all go to Google Links to an external site. or another search engine when we need to find information. This may be a quick search to diagnose a simple medical condition, find the best hotel fare, or locate an article that would support a paper you're working on for class. Fewer of us have probably used Google Advanced Search Links to an external site. or Google Scholar Links to an external site. to find information. And since you are new to Penn State, you've probably never used LionSearch to find academic resources. What are the differences between all of these ways to search for information? Which one should you use? Which one is better to use? Table 3.1 compares the similarities and differences between these four ways to search.
|
|
|
Google Scholar |
Google Advanced Search |
LionSearch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Definition |
Freely available search engine that provides all information indexed on the Web. |
An academic version of Google that searches repositories of publishers, universities, or websites. |
An advanced version of Google that allows for refinement of the search results. |
The Libraries' search engine that searches all that the Libraries have to offer you. If you check “include results beyond your library” in the top checkbox, you will also see results beyond Penn State. |
|
Scope |
Everything that is indexed on the Web, excludes sites behind paywalls. Provides resources from a variety of URLs, including .com, .gov, .org, .edu, and .net. |
Smaller subset of what is searched on Google. |
Depending on how you refine the search, the results could be significantly different from what is in Google. For example, you can search “vaccination” and choose only sites with a .gov ending. |
Resources and sources of information that the library collects; this includes magazines, scholarly articles, books, book reviews, maps, images, movies, and many more. |
|
Access |
It's free to search. The results you get may be free or may require a subscription or purchasing price. This happens frequently with news sites that allow you to read the first sentence of an article, but then you have to pay for more. |
It's free to search. Google Scholar is automatically linked to the World Catalogue. Materials listed in there are free, but the vast majority of resources in Google Scholar are behind a paywall. To gain additional access, go to Settings in Google Scholar, select Library links, and add Pennsylvania State University. That gives you access to anything Penn State licenses and also lets you know if Penn State does not own the resource so that you can request it through Interlibrary Loan. |
It's free to search. This is very similar to Google but allows for refinement of search results. Search results may require purchasing to access. |
Most of the material on the Libraries website requires purchasing or licensing. However, the Libraries purchase these materials. This means that they are free to you. Access to information frequently costs money, and this is a consideration to keep in mind when you are searching. |
|
Content |
Everything that is published on the Web. This includes web pages, social media, news sites, newspapers, blogs, videos, maps, and videos. |
Articles, books, book chapters, book reviews, conference papers, court opinions. |
Everything that is published on the Web. However, now you can narrow the search to include only certain URLs, file types, or dates of publication. |
Everything that the Libraries own or license; this includes magazines, journals, articles, newspapers, databases, books, book chapters, essays, maps, photos, streaming video, streaming music, statistics, financial information, special collections/rare materials, and other resources. |
|
Authorship |
Anyone with access can publish anything they want on the Web. There is no vetting of quality or credibility of author. |
Could be journalists, scholars, or practical professionals. It's possible that the material found has been vetted, but not always. |
Anyone, although there are some search fields that allow for only certain types of authors to appear in the results. |
Scholars, journalists, other professionals. The materials found have frequently been vetted by other scholars through a system called peer review before publishing. |
|
Peer-Reviewed Articles |
No peer-reviewed articles. |
Yes, some articles are peer-reviewed, but other content is not. |
No, no peer-reviewed articles. |
Yes, material found has been vetted by other experts or by editors. Makes material found much more likely to be credible. |
|
Information Is Catalogued by Professionals |
No. The search algorithm limits the information index. |
No. Created and done by Google; there could be errors in the results. |
Yes! Allows for a lot more limits than Google alone but not guaranteed. |
Yes. You can limit by many different parameters or facets, including content type, subject field, date of publication, journal, author, etc. |
|
Reliability of Information |
It's up to you to evaluate the information you find on the Web. |
Many of these sources are credible and reliable, but you still must use your critical thinking skills to determine if a source is credible. |
It's up to you to evaluate the information on the Web. |
The content has been reviewed by others in the field, from other experts to library personnel responsible for acquiring these materials. |
This chart builds on an initial chart created by Rider University.
There's no one way to search or find information. You should always try to use multiple search strategies. Google or Wikipedia are good for finding out general information about your topic. Once you know a little more or have some keywords to search, you can move to Google Advanced, Google Scholar, or LionSearch. If you need help finding your keywords, try this keyword suggestion tool Links to an external site..
If you know you need quality sources, then LionSearch is your best bet. LionSearch and Google Scholar can work very well together when it comes to finding additional resources related to an article you find. You can find resources within the Libraries and then look them up in Google Scholar to see who else has cited that article. This is similar to going to the bibliography of an ideal article and finding out whom they cited when writing that article.
Virtual Library Orientation
We have a virtual library orientation offered as a series of digital badges. This will give you active learning opportunities with different resources and services the Libraries provide. To learn more, visit our orientation on digital badges Links to an external site.. You need to go to the digital badging site Links to an external site. and create an account with the badging system. You can then access these Orientation library activities under the Virtual Library group.