A good library is a place, a palace where the lofty spirits of all nations and generations meet.
— Samuel Niger (1883-1956)

Another school year is upon us. Back to the lectures, books, papers, and inevitably, late nights. It wouldn’t be the start of a new school year if we didn’t dedicate at least one (slightly bias we admit) blog post to the topic of why you should take full advantage of the library this year. Below we have listed our top 5 reasons on how to learn to stop worrying about your studies and love the library…

Reason #1: We have what you need

We have 47,000 periodical electronic journals, 64,000 electronic books, and of course, thousands of books housed in our stacks. At Warner Library we aim to build a strong, scholarly collection of resources that inform, support, and enhance your studies here at Eastern.

Reason #2: If we don’t have what you need, we’ll get it for you

Even though our collection is rated “A” for size according to the Association of College and Research Libraries, there are those few times we may not have the book you need (gasp!) or a full-text version of the article you want to cite. The good news is that we will get that book or article for you.

Where can you go for that book we don’t have? EZ-BORROW! EZ-Borrow provides the Eastern community with access to 36 million books and the ability to simultaneously search 60 academic library catalogs, including major research libraries (think Rutgers, Univ. of Pennsylvania, Temple, Penn State… to name a few). The books are received in 3 to 4 business days. What’s even better? You’ll be notified via email when your book has arrived and is ready for pick.

What about articles? If during your research you’ve found an article citation that we do not have full-text access to, then request it through RAPID ILL. Our article retrieve service will request and secure a full-text article for you (as long as we don’t already have access to the article) usually within 48 hours. Yes you read that correctly, just 48 hours! The article is emailed to you as a PDF file.

Reason #3: We make it easy to find what you need

We are very excited about this particular school year because it will be the first time in the past 10 years that we have a brand new catalog! Last week we wrote about some of the wonderful new features this catalog has to offer including the ability to create lists of books, save your searches, and simultaneously search all of Eastern’s libraries’ catalogs. What to learn more? Read our New Catalog post!

Another great tool we offer is our library’s libguides. These are tailored subject guides that point you toward the right direction for where to begin your research. We realize that with all of our resources as well as all of the resources out there on the web, it can quickly become daunting to try and locate the best databases or journals to use on a given topic. Take some time to explore our libguides. We have over 90 guides available!

Reason #4: We are accessible anywhere you go

The days of needing to be in the library to research are slowly fading away. Replacing them are mobile technologies that are demanding research to become mobile as well. Whether you are on your iPhone, Blackberry, netbook, or laptop and happen to be in Starbucks, in your apartment, out-of-state, or at home, you can still access our library’s databases and journals! We use a service called MyAthens. To use MyAthens, you need to have an account created for you by one of our librarians. Once your account is created, you can connect to our databases & journals anytime you’re away from campus and on any device that is connected to the Internet. Some of our databases & other services even offer a mobile interface (EBSCOhost, RefWorks, PubMed, etc.).

Reason #5: You have not one, not two, but SEVEN research experts on-call to help you discover those tough-to-find resources

Here’s a secret, we librarians LOVE to research and help you find whatever information you need for your papers & projects. Please! Take advantage of our passion for research & our finely honed researching skills. Any time the library is open, stop by and you’ll see a least one librarian (sometimes more) sitting at the Reference Desk waiting with anticipation to be asked a research question. Additionally, we are happy to help students with their research one-on-one. You can make a research appointment with any one of us. Visit our contact page to find our email addresses.

Do you love the library? Well, we’d love to hear why! Send us a comment below.