online one-stop for:Undergraduate Students

Introduction

As an undergraduate student, you should focus on your classes, your well-being, and how you're preparing yourself for a future career. The sections below provide resources to help you do library research, find library resources and support and learn new tools and skills to be success in your classes and future career.

NEW Marriott Library Tour!

Situation Needs

Being a student during the COVID -19 outbreak is not an easy task. We are sorry that the physical library is not there for you during these difficult times. But we can assist you from a far through email, phone, or zoom! If you find you need something ask!

When the COVID-19 crisis and distancing subsides, come in and visit us, we can provide a tour and officially welcome you yo the Marriott Library!

Are you ready for online learning? Take the quiz to find out.
Email us with questions or recommend additional features or resources you would like to see on this Canvas site
Use the 5 Top Searching Strategies canvas website to walk through the searching process

Strategies & Skills

Click on the tabs to find useful information that will help you learn about what the Marriott Library has to offer, what you will need to know to do library research and about the library space once COVID-19 subsides and you can visit us!

Navigating the Library Website
Beyond the Library Website
Search & Research Strategies

Navigating the Library Website

Discovering Resources

Add a video here - overview of the library website

First things first ... Login to authenticate to the library for off campus access from the library homepage
Tracy Medley's Usearch Research Guide for the library catalog
Use HathiTrust to find materials from our library and many more libraries.
Connecting to and using Google Scholar with the library resources
Robert Behra's guide to understanding call numbers
How to request a book be pulled for you (when browsing our general collection is not possible)
Library Research FAQ - Some basic information to help you learn more about the library
Citation formatting
- APA 7th edition resources and APA 7th edition tutorial

Ask US

The Knowledge Commons - the main library service desk for technology loans, technical support and library support
Interlibrary Loan - we can get you access to materials the library does not own for FREE!
Copy and Printing
The main Marriott Library contact page with a lot of different ways to reach out to us
Need help with library research? Find your Research Librarian by discipline, or use the form to request a library research consultation

Learning Software and Skills

In addition to contacting the Knowledge Commons desk, here are some resources to help you learn software:
- Student Orientation to Canvas
- Software list of what you can access in the library and remotely
- Microsoft Software (Word, Publisher)
- Presentation Software research guide & Canvas page with tutorials
- Adobe Illustrator research guide
- GIS software research guide
- Assistive software in the library accessibility room
Microsoft Office 365 Tutorials (on Microsoft website)
O'Reilly Safari Books (all kinds of how to books for a variety of software applications) - under the database list (O) - need to be authenticated to access full text
You can install free (Microsoft & Adobe) or discounted software through the Office of Software Licensing

Beyond the Library Website

After the COVID-19 crisis has subsided we invite you to come into the Marriott Library. Here is a preview of some of the resources and services that are available for you there!

The Awesome Physical Space

Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, the Marriott Library is only open to current U of U students, staff, and faculty. Our building hours have been reduced.

Library Maps
The Knowledge Commons (Marriott Library 2nd level)
Rooms and space - you can reserve group study spaces too!
The UOnline Testing Lab contact info - this is the main testing lab where your instructor may ask you to go to take an online exam (Marriott Library level 1 by the security desk)
Family Reading Room, a study work space where you can bring your children with you!
Practice a presentation or do your job interview in the One Button Studio or ProtoSpace's VocalBooths

Collections to Check Out

Depending on your major, you may want to use specific disciplinary collections and resources.

Special Collections for primary resources
- Some popular collections such as the Ski Archive
- Photograph Archives
The Fine Arts Collection and space
Middle East collection resources
The Book Arts program
The ARC (where you can get video games and films for free from the USearch catalog) - when the library is open
Exhibits are always changing in the library - check them out!
- Digital exhibits during COVID-19

Events to Participate in

When the library reopens after COVID-19 check this link regularly to find out about about library events, news, films and lectures

Search & Research Strategies

Some tips and strategies to get you started in your library research.

What is Information Literacy?
Why Should You care?

As you move along your pathway in college, you will be asked repeatedly to 'do library research' for papers, for presentations, as a research assistant in a lab, for a capstone project and if an honors students for an honor's thesis. Learning research skills early and building those skills across your time in college will help you in no matter what career choose to pursue. These are skills can be transferred across courses and disciplines. I am sure you have heard about the need for 21st century skills!

What is information literacy? Here is a definition that emphasizes why information is important by the CILIP (2018) - The library & information association in the UK, "“Information literacy is the ability to think critically and make balanced judgements about any information we find and use. It empowers us as citizens to reach and express informed views and to engage fully with society.”
Requires you can find, access, and evaluate library sources and use them and communicate them in your research. (here is a rubric that will help you visualize information literacy)
- Information literacy is part of a broader group of literacies called digital literacy

Source: Wikimedia Commons

RADAR Framework for evaluating source (BONUS: RADAR also helps you create annotated bibliographies, a common research assignment)
Fake news is a real thing. Learning how to evaluate online resources can help you avoid untrue, fake information and get to the bottom of issues

Brainstorm Ideas

Create a concept map to visualize ideas (concept map tool-CMAP) for free in the cloud
- Concept Map research guide
- Video on how to concept map

Google Hacks to find search terms and keywords and cut down on the ads
- example: pdf:immigration as a search in Google will only yield PDF files so you get government documents, policy reports, non-profit reports or newspaper:climate change will only show newspaper articles with that term)

Go BRoad

Start with a broad search to see what is available on your topic:
- Start with Google Scholar to scan the scholarly literature:
  - You can see who has cited articles
  - You can connect to the U of U library resources (see tutorial in the Navigating the Library tab or download the 5 top searching tips for effective researchers doc for directions)
- The Library Catalog, USearch, will provide a nice broad return of sources, such as books, some articles, videos, and research guides
- Find a review article on your topic
Refine searches with new keywords and use Boolean searching techniques to narrow or widen your search
- Boolean searching tip document
- Keep a log of search terms so you change up your searching strategies
Narrow your topic:
- Make a focused question with PICO. PICO stands for Problem/Population, Intervention, Comparison, & Outcome. This is a tool commonly used by health professionals to create an answerable research question; however, it works well for other disciplines too! Read more about PICO here.
- Make your topic FINER. FINER stands for feasible, interesting, novel, ethical, & relevant.

Dig deePER into Scholarly DatabaseS

Doing an annotated bibliography, a literature review and writing an abstract
The Anatomy of a scholarly article (NCSU)
Use keywords and search strings from strategy #1 to go deeper into the scholarly literature through broad library databases (click on Databases on the library homepage and then click on alpha letters to find these databases:
- Academic Search Ultimate (an EBSCOhost database) is an example of a useful broad database that can be used for many topics-see tutorials below
- Scopus (watch videos of an example search and our favorite Scopus features here)
  - Web of Science tutoriala broad database spanning science, social science arts and humanities topics)
- Gale Academic One File databases another broad database covering many topics (Gale tutorial)
- HathiTrust (watch this video of example searches and ways to use
  HathiTrust
- CQ researcher - great database for getting ideas and jumping off points for social topics
  - (CQ Researcher tutorial)
- ProQuest Central E-books tutorial and Social Science Database library guide
Faceted menu (the menu to the right in Usearch, and to the left in most databases contains many options for narrowing down your search such as setting a time range, search by terms, by author, by type of resource such as by books, or scholarly articles, videos
Compare scholarly and popular sources
- Anatomy of a Research Article handout
- In some databases (like EBSCOhost) you will see AP videos, academic journals, magazines/periodicals, newspapers, and book reviews - what is the difference?
- Scholarly or peer-viewed articles are the highest quality of sources, magazines may have an editor but are peer-reviewed
  Comparison of Scholarly and Popular Sources

Mine what you find

Read the abstract to evaluate the fit for your topic (tip: don't waste time downloading articles that will not be useful for your topic
Scan for new keywords to refine your search as you go through articles, it will help you refine your searching as you go along
Find other articles/books in the reference list or bibliography of the good articles you find, copy the titles and then try to find them in Google Scholar (this will help you see the seminal or important articles or books - the more people citing them the more important they may be

Get Organized: Use technology

Use U Box to organize files you download for your research - you can set up folders to organize by subtopic, add bookmark to e-books and websites, keep a journal or log and share your folder with others
Citation managers (ex Endnote, Zotero or Mendeley) can help organize your PDF and you can create bibliographies (reference lists) in a variety of formats to save time
- This research guide will help you to chose a citation management tool. They all are FREE and do the same thing, but depending on your discipline or needs you may prefer one over the other
- Here is more detailed information on each tool: Endnote Basic, Mendeley and Zotero
Write annotation for articles you find that fit your topic to help you remember why this source was good for your project - here is some direction for doing that
If you will need to write a literature review of your topic - that is just what it sounds like - you will collect a range of articles or books around your topic and synthesize them into a narrative (for example - what are main subtopics of your main topic)
- General literature review help
- A research guide on writing a literature review in the health and life sciences
The U of U also provides a university version of google drive (Gcloud) and Office 365 for storage and management of files

Ask for help

Email or use the chat to get help (first link on the page) - don't get frustrated - contact us ... we can help even during the COVID-19 shutdown
Computer Questions webpage
List of links for all of the U of U libraries (Marriott, Health Science, Law and Music)

Support & People

Even more importantly than the books, databases and resources in the Marriott Library are the librarians and staff that can help you find and access what you need

Librarian Support
Technical Staff Support
Other Support Offices
Coursework Support

Librarian Support

Librarians are available to meet one-on-one, in groups and can also come into your classes to help you with all phases of the research process.

Librarians involved with the development of this course:

Donna Ziegenfuss (College of Education) | 801-585-0542 | donna.ziegenfuss@utah.edu
Alfred Mowdood (College of Health and Representative, Patent and Trademark Resource Center (PTRC)) | 801-585-7125 | alfred.mowdood@utah.edu
Lorelei Rutledge (School of Business and department of Family Consumer
Sciences) | 801-585-3922 | lorelei.rutledge@utah.edu
Tallie Casucci (College of Engineering and College of Health) | 801-581-8985 | tallie.casucci@utah.edu

Find librarians in other disciplines

Librarians can help you get help with:

- Navigating Usearch catalog, databases and other resources and services
- Citing scholarly resources
- Guidance through the research process
- Evaluating research sources
- Selection of databases for research

Technical Staff Support

You can find a variety of technical support services in the library to help with software questions and installation, 3D printing, GIS, graphics, scanning, and creating videos.

The staff at the Knowledge Commons desk can help you with:

Devices and Technology

Laptop and device borrowing
Borrowing loaner cables for your laptop and phone
Software installation and troubleshooting

Printing and Scanning

Flatbed scanning
Book scanning
3D printing
Poster and large scale printing

Graphics & Videos

The One Button Video Studio reservations and support
Help with the Adobe suite of graphic software products
Creating infographics (Eccles Health Science library research guide)
GIS support

Other Support People & Offices

You can find a variety of technical support services in the library to help with software questions and installation, 3D printing, GIS, graphics, scanning, and creating videos.

The Undergraduate Writing Center is located in the library (2nd floor) but also offers virtual support
The Learning Center (1st floor, room 1738) offers tutoring and academic support
Advising Center Offices (2nd floor) provide support for course selection and registration

Coursework Support

Textbooks (Textbooks in the Library)
Course Reserves
Interlibrary Loan (ILL) - ILL staff will get you articles and books to use that the library does not own for FREE!

SELF Care

As an undergraduate it is important to think about the bigger picture of how college work integrates with your life and where you hope to go after college and in your career.

Career Prep
Work-Life Balance

Career Prep

Career Prep

Identify your strengths and interests
- These can help you select topics for research and the ways that you disseminate your research as part of class assignments
- Take the 16Personalities online free quiz. Results may help you glean some insights about your strengths and weaknesses, how you work and possible career aspirations grounded in Myers-Briggs theory it can provide an opportunity to reflect on your college experience
Picking opportunities to set you apart
- Thinking about 'what sets you apart' is a common question at job interviews. here are some strategies to help you think about that now
- Here is some research on this concept as related to the college context (need to be authenticated for access)
Finding internships and jobs and exploring on-campus opportunities for leadership, research, & service
- The MUSE project - a personalized extra-curricular faculty/student experience
- Hinckley Institute Internships - internships for all majors
- Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) - $1,200 stipend and educational opportunities to do research
- Career & Professional Development Center
Networking
- Advice: Journey to the Center of the Graduate Experience (Article (Links to an external site.))
- Advice from an article in the Harvard Business Review (Links to an external site.) about building your network
- Join the National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity (Links to an external site.) (free for you as a graduate students at the University of Utah)
  - Click on become a member and select University of Utah from the pull down list and fill in the form
  - Sign up for the Monday Motivator (Links to an external site.) when you complete your registration to get a brief dose of good positive reading for a Monday morning
- Talking about Crucial Conversations (Links to an external site.) (an e-book) may help you get focused as you start your career
Test prep for grad school through continuing education or with the library's test prep book collection

Work-Life Balance

Work-life balance is very important for college students, especially non-traditional students with families and/or working jobs
Health
- U of U Wellness exercise videos
- Read about the relationship of stress reduction and exercise
- Kaplan, S. (1995). The restorative benefits of nature: Toward an integrative framework (Links to an external site.). Journal of environmental psychology, 15(3), 169-182. (an article that has been cited over 4,500 times and counting)
- Identify implicit bias - take quizzes and read the book Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People
- Explore the Leisure Studies journal (Links to an external site.) to look at the variety of topics that constitute 'leisure'
- 23 healthy foods (Links to an external site.)everyone should know how to cook
- Need to improve study skills - visit The Learning Center (1st floor, room 1738) that offers tutoring and academic support
Take a break and have some fun!
- Stream FREE films and music through the library's databases
  - Here's a video using Swank, a film database: How to Access Free Films through the SWANK Digital Campus
- Browse other media at https://mediabrowse.lib.utah.edu/
- Take a hike! Explore local hikes with this book or our catalog's virtual browse.
  - Here's a video about using virtual browse: How to use Virtual Browse
- Find other books on your favorite hobbies or develop a new hobby

Problem or Question? Need a librarian? Contact Us