Berntsen Library Blog

Research Survival Guide

Fall 2019 Update:

• Board games are now available for check out at the circulation desk.
• Reference staff are available Sunday through Friday. 

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Orientation is over; you've settled into all your classes and successfully navigated Moodle. Now it's time for the real work to begin: you have homework. Your prof assigned you reading from a "book on reserve". There are things looming ahead that look vaguely like research papers. Where do you start? At the library, of course. We have the staff and resources you need to press forward with confidence through the coming academic year. Consider this a helpful round-up of the library services you'll need to survive the entire syllabus calendar. 

CLIC Network

If you haven't heard by now, UNW is part of the CLIC network of schools in the Twin Cities. CLIC stands for Cooperating Libraries in Consortium, and what it means is that you can use resources from five other universities in the area! We have a courier that runs twice a day on weekdays bringing books and other items up and down Snelling Avenue. Bethel, Hamline, Concordia, St. Thomas, and St. Catherine university libraries are all available to you! You can request their items online using CLICsearch, or go there in person and use your UNW ID to check things out. We encourage online students to inquire with our circulation staff about your options; students outside the metro area may be eligible to have physical item requests mailed to them!

Interlibrary Loan

If you need a specific item that is not available through the CLIC network, request it through Interlibrary Loan. ILL has access to books all around the world, and if you're willing to wait a little longer the options are endless. ILL requests may also be mailed to non-local students on a case-by-case basis. 

Books on Reserve

Your professors may assign readings that are "on reserve." This means that they've put a physical book, DVD, or other resource on reserve to be kept behind the circulation desk at the library. To access these resources, simply go to the circulation desk and tell them the professor and class name, and the name of the resource if you know it. They will be able to look it up and retrieve the resource for you to check out. Reserve items usually have a limited check out period - anywhere from just a few hours to seven days. Most commonly you can have them for three hours, and they have to stay in the building. Be sure to listen when the library worker tells you when they're due.

CLICsearch Tips

CLICsearch, the library's resource catalog, is the place to begin for all research assignments. You might have good luck simply searching keywords, but here's a few expert tips for getting the most accurate, helpful results!

• Always sign in to your library account to get the best results. This will give you more complete results than if you stay signed out, and it will make requesting items go more quickly. Your library account uses the same credentials as TheROCK, and it's the best place to renew books, see items you have checked out, and check if you have fees. 

• If you know the exact title of what you're looking for, search it in quotes. Searching without quotes will yield all results that have any of those words in the title. Quotation marks help narrow down results based on the order the words are in, as well as excluding titles with words not included in the quotes. Link quoted words together with a capital AND to create useful phrases.

• Use the filters! If you're still getting too many results to sift through, use the filters along the left side of the screen. Filter resources by location, publication date, resource type, and much more! This is helpful if you want something located in our building that you can look at right now, if your professor put a cap on how old your sources can be, if you want to see only peer-reviewed resources, or if you're off campus and need an online resource you can use before your midnight deadline. 

Online Journals & Articles

The Berntsen Library has a curated collection of print journals you can peruse any time, and we have thousands more titles online! To see if we have access to a specific journal (print or online), click on the Journals button from the library’s home page.  To search for articles, use CLICsearch, or choose a specific multi-disciplinary or subject-specific database from the A-Z database list.  In article databases,  you can search by subject, title, or keyword, and often the full content of the article is available.  

Library Guides

The Berntsen Librarians have worked very hard to make sure you have a place to start no matter what class you're in. Need a topic for your comp paper? There's a guide for that! Having trouble citing in SBL? There's a guide for that, too! Peruse our list of helpful Library Guides (also linked below our main search) to get the most out of our resources.

Studying at the Library

The Berntsen Library has more than just books to offer! Other items available for check-out and use in the library include space heaters, fans, headphones, white board markers, laptop chargers, and phone chargers. Be on the lookout for board games and puzzles available soon! We also know you need to study in different ways depending on your project. The library provides different study areas for individuals and for groups, including six reservable study rooms. We try to tailor noise levels by each floor of the building. The upper level is a silent floor for concentrated study, the main level is a talking floor for group meetings and printing, and the lower level is a quiet floor with a little bit for everyone. And if you think of something else we should offer, let us know and we'll do our best.

24/7 Chat

Is it 2 in the morning and you need help finding resources about the industrial revolution? Ask the library chat! Monitored by Berntsen librarians during open hours and by librarians around the country any other time of day or night, this chat is an invaluable resource! Even if it's not one of us, anyone who answers your chat can help you with your question or resource search. 

Research Help

There's no such thing as a stupid question. Our Reference Desk staff are here to help! Check here for our reference desk hours and come get some face-to-face help with finding a research topic, citing a source, printing on an envelope, finding reference books and articles, or anything else! If we can't help you (which is rare), we'll know who can. We have resources for our online students as well; don't hesitate to reach out via phone or email to talk with someone about your research.