Читать книгу How to Succeed At University--Canadian Edition - Danton O'Day - Страница 27

The library is the most valuable aid for your education. Nevertheless, most students drastically underuse it. Don’t be one of them. If you intend to succeed at university, it is imperative that you use the library to the fullest. But to use it to the fullest you must know what facilities are available and you must learn how to use the place to your advantage.

All university librarians want you to use the facility that they have striven to perfect. As a result they continually work towards educating the library user. There is a lot more to using the library than simply looking up a book or author in the catalogue and then going to the shelves (or stacks, as they are called) and picking out the book.

University libraries purchase journals as well as books. Journals will be invaluable to you in the preparation of essays, book reports and laboratory write-ups. The more familiar you become with journals the easier your research for a paper will become. Another source of data will be clipping files. Relevant articles from certain newspapers are clipped out and filed under their respective topics. For some disciplines there will also be indexes that divide books and journals into subject areas. These will greatly aid you in finding relevant material rapidly. Some libraries even supply lists of basic library resources for certain disciplines, so the major sources of information for the student are clearly laid out.

Depending on your university’s financial resources, most of the major journals (which you will use increasingly in your later years) and some books will be available online. This is great because you can search for articles and then download them for use in reports, essays and talks, among other things. Online catalogues can also save time in searching for materials. Some university libraries also oversee training in the use of specific computer programs for writing, analyzing data or presenting talks.

There are so many other sources of information that the library provides (e.g., video and audio media) that it is impossible to describe them all. I can guarantee that your library will have regular, detailed tours of its facilities. You must attend one if you intend to get good grades. If you miss the tours, then have one of the librarians show you the facilities. I haven’t met a librarian yet who wasn’t interested in showing off his or her domain.