University Libraries

As you begin your graduate education experience, you will have at your fingertips the services and expertise of the PSU library system. Our University Libraries Links to an external site.have continually been recognized among the top 10 research university libraries in North America. You can access our library resources, services, and instruction from on-campus and from a distance. This page will provide you with an overview of the resources and services available to you. For more detailed information, see the Graduate Student / Post-Doc Research guide. Links to an external site.

Get to Know Your Librarians

The most valuable part of the University Libraries is our people. In the short video below, you will meet some of our librarians as they talk about their expertise. These librarians represent only a small sample of all the experts that work in the Penn State Libraries. The librarians' primary role is to help you. You can reach a librarian from any Libraries web page using the blue button on the right side of the screen that says “Ask A Librarian”. Links to an external site.This service includes live chat hours, email, and consultation appointment requests. Each of our librarians specializes in one or more specific topics. In addition, each academic department has a dedicated librarian who works directly with your home department. Review the list of library subject experts Links to an external site. for more details and contact information. 

 

Getting to Know University Librarians (2:58 minutes)

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Getting Materials

You can search for anything you need at the Penn State Libraries home page Links to an external site.by typing in the Find box. This is the main library search engine including both physical and online copies. You can request items you need and have them delivered to you using the “I Want It” buttons.  Many library resources are available online: E-books, research articles, databases, newspapers, podcasts, and even a vast collection of images and streaming video. We also have unique research collections created at Penn State, which are available through our Digital Collections portal. Links to an external site.

Textbooks for classes

When you are taking classes or teaching a class, the library can help prepare course materials for your students. Our Course Reserves Links to an external site.service can make a chapter from a book, or a journal article, or an e-book available to all students in a class. This service is free. Reserves can be accessed through Canvas or the library website. 

Books and articles we don't own

If the Penn State library doesn’t have what you need, you can use the free Interlibrary Loan (ILL) service to request it. Any Penn State faculty, staff, and currently enrolled students are eligible to use the service. After you make a request in our ILLIAD system, Links to an external site. the libraries look for the item at other libraries around the world. Research papers you request are scanned so that a PDF copy is quickly emailed to you. You can even ask for a PDF scan from journals in our collections. For books, the other library will ship the book to Penn State for a limited time, and you can pick it up on campus or have it shipped to you if you are a World Campus student. Remember that this service is free for you so you can complete your courses and research.

Where to go for more help

Each of our librarians has a subject guide that highlights databases, journals, books, and online information sources for each department and many topics. These informational guides are meant to jumpstart the research process and help you identify the most relevant resources for your research. See the list of subject guides Links to an external site.for more details.

They also have tutorials and guides Links to an external site. to help you improve your research skills in many areas from Citation Tools (such as Endnote, Mendeley, or Zotero) to LaTex to Research Poster Creation. 

Specific contact information is provided on each of the guides. Feel free to reach out for more information or to schedule a one-on-one meeting with a librarian. Do not hesitate. They are there to support you.

 

Research Informatics, Open Access, and Open Publishing

We are also available to support you throughout the research workflow in applying innovative technological approaches, making your research open and re-usable, Links to an external site. and making informed and ethical decisions about copyright and the use of copyrighted materials in support of education and scholarly communications Links to an external site.. The University Libraries offers consultations, conducts workshops in person and virtually, and provides access to resources and information on statistics, quantitative text analysis, data analytics, qualitative research methods, data visualization, mapping and GIS, research data management, open access publishing – to name a few – and a variety of software tools, including R, ArcGIS, SPSS, STATA, Tableau, and more.

Additionally, the University Libraries supports you in publishing open-access copies of articles and other scholarly products such as research data, posters, presentations, creative works, and instructional materials via ScholarSphere. Links to an external site. ScholarSphere is an institutional repository which supports Penn State’s commitment to open access and open science. Researchers at Penn State can use ScholarSphere to satisfy open access and data availability requirements such as F.A.I.R and the university open access policy. Links to an external site.Thus, through ScholarSphere, you can share your scholarship far beyond the scope of Penn State and be assured that your work is preserved for the long-term.

If you have questions, just “Ask A Librarian”. Links to an external site.