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Tutorial transcripts: STAR Video Transcript

STAR Video transcript

Campus Library 101: What are the basics I need to know about the Campus Library?

Let us consider the case of Young Haley. She hasn’t been to the library since 6th grade, and has never checked out a book. Poor Young Haley. She can’t be blamed for her inexperience when it comes to the glorious wonders open to her through the Campus Library. Let’s take a moment to inform her.

Here is the front desk, where Young Haley can check out books (even books she has ordered to be delivered from other academic libraries).

This is also where she can check out movies, laptops, video games, and more.

But the highlight of the library’s front desk is really its human element. Here at the Campus Library, she won’t find mean, slightly scary old ladies (we won’t ask poor Young Haley where she developed this strange idea).

Rather, Young Haley will find helpful and friendly librarians, ready and waiting to help her navigate the unsteady terrain of academic research.

Librarians llllllove to have students ask them questions.

They can help Young Haley actually FIND the articles, books, films and other information that she is looking for.

Has her instructor placed a book on reserve for her class? It will either be in the reserves section (on the main floor to the left of the stairs) or behind the desk.

If Young Haley’s book is in the stacks, that means it‘s upstairs, on the third floor.

The third floor is also the quiet study space in the library.

Young Haley may have noticed that it can get a little noisy down there on the first floor, what with all the group collaboration and printing that goes on down there.

Since she won’t see our librarians shushing in the library, Young Haley may need to come up to the reading room on the third floor, for some peace and quiet sometimes.

This is also the floor where most of the group study rooms are, including the media study rooms.

These are not the only spaces open to Young Haley for those more intensive academic experiences. Young Haley might sometimes feel the need to use the 24 hour availability of the Odegaard Undergraduate Library on the Seattle Campus.  She mustn’t forget her husky card or she won’t [be able to] get in after 8pm.

When it comes to studying, a great deal of student work is done online. The library’s home page links to many of the resources Young Haley will need to complete her college assignments.

The library’s home page is the starting place for any library information Young Haley might need: library hours, academic sources for her homework, or getting help.

For some of Young Haley’s classes, librarians will create class guides to help students with the research required by the specific assignments for that class.

Or she can try this “research guides by subject” link. These guides are designed to help students like Young Haley figure out the best starting places for research in various disciplines. It also includes guides to information that ALL students need, like how to evaluate sources, how to cite using different citation styles, and more.

Back on the home page, “UW Libraries Search” searches not just our library, with about 100,000 physical items…

not just the 18 UW Libraries, with about 7 million items…

but it also searches the academic libraries of Washington and Oregon, for a total of 30 million items.

And that’s just the physical things, like books and movies! We won’t go into the millions of articles Young Haley can get to through the UW Libraries, lest we overwhelm her.

But we will note that Young Haley will be prompted to login with her UW NetID, when it’s needed to gain access to full text articles and other important online resources from home.

Of course, the most important part of our informing Young Haley with this helpful instructional video is to reinforce the idea that whenever she encounters difficulties, questions, confusion, or any of the anxieties attendant to academic life in today’s complex information environment, she can ASK A LIBRARIAN for help, in many different ways, at any hour of the day or night.

Having thus empowered Young Haley, we can rest assured that she will march forward into her own first year of college, equipped with understanding of the library’s role in her academic success.

Research & Instruction Librarian

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Dani Rowland
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