Saturday, September 1, 2012
Week 1
In my first week in Library Studies, I surprisingly learned a lot more than I thought I already knew about a library! With Amanda and Bonnie's demonstration, I discovered that there are tons of databases and useful tools online as well as books in the library to use when I'm doing research for a class or project. Amanda showed us how to utilize the Penn State libraries website to get to every resource we need. For instance, she showed us how to use the CAT, which is a catalog search engine that searches for books in tons of different Penn State libraries. I like the CAT because you can choose a location that is beneficial to you to get books from. You can even click an "I want it" button and books will be shipped to a library near you! EBSCOhost was another great database to use because you could search for a specific or broad topic, and it will bring up articles from journals or periodicals online related to it. In class, we searched "freshman weight gain" and found that there were not many results for it. Though, by broadening our search topic to something like "college weight gain", we found more articles closer or directly related to our topic. My favorite thing I learned in class this week was that I found that it was possible to find textbooks used for classes right in the Penn State library! It will be so useful to me because I don't have all the books I need for my classes and books are very expensive. The books on reserve can be accessed by asking someone at a front desk in the Pattee Library. Overall, I know now that there are many more ways to use a library to do research. I think I will have better knowledge for future classes from taking this class. Though I still wonder, what more can we learn to improve our research?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
i know exactly how you feel. i prob knew just as much as you did. i was really surprised to find out how much information i didnt know about libraries. I really liked the fact that we could borrow textbook from the library too. Wherever we can save money is always a plus :)
ReplyDeleteI agree. I was surprised at all of the resources that the library provides. I think the "I want it" button will probably be one of the most helpful. It's nice to have the option to have someone else find the book for you!
ReplyDeleteI feel the same way toward the class. Amanda and Bonnie really seem helpful toward making the online sources easy. I also like how you can get books for your classes. I already have my all of my books for this semester but I definitely will take a look at that in my next semester.
ReplyDeleteYou seem like you got a lot out of our first week of classes. I agree with you that this class will be very helpful considering all the research papers we will likely have to do. Also, I think your blog looks really cute! I can't figure out how to spice mine up. Haha
ReplyDeleteI agree, putting books on reserve is a great resource and a great way to save money, so that was a key thing that stuck out in my head from Thursday's class.
ReplyDelete