Maximizing your use of the NCSU Libraries Tamika Barnes Engineering Services Librarian Stephen Meyer NCSU Libraries Fellow

What do we do at the Libraries Acquire and organize information resources (like books, journals, and electronic databases) Assist faculty, staff, and students in identifying and using the resources Strive to preserve resources for future users as a record of collective knowledge Provide open access to these resources for our user community Develop new technologies to facilitate the use of information resources

Specialized Collections Patent Depository Government Documents Geographic Information System

Services Laptop Lending Standards on Demand Interlibrary Loan Digital Media Lab Scholarly Communication SearchAssist

NCSU Libraries manage a large number of resources including Books Reference works Journals / magazines / newspapers Databases Technical Reports

Books 3.1 million books at NC State Libraries Accessible through the Libraries website (OPAC)

Reference Works Typical characteristics Consist of a series of records related to a single topic; topics may be broad or specific Not meant to be read from cover to cover Employ a writing style that is meant to be informative (rather than subjective) The internal organization of these works tends to favor quick access, e.g., alphabetical or numeric rather than chronological order

Journals Typical characteristics These resources are serials, publications issued in successive parts intended to be continued indefinitely May be published in print or electronic format or both Include many different types: scholarly, trade, popular

Databases An information set with a regular structure Used to both store information and organize it for efficient searching and retrieval

Databases (cont’d) A crucial database distinction: Surrogate records vs. Content

Databases – parting thoughts Names indexed differently: de los Reyes, FL de los Reyes, F.L. de los Reyes, Francis L. de los Reyes, Francis L., III de los Reyes III, F.L. Look for differences in advanced search features (truncation, plurals, limits) Search in multiple databases