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The University Libraries have a wide variety of collections and services to support graduate students in your coursework and research at the University. Let's face it--there is a mountain of information out there and we can give advice and support every step of the way.
Resources for new graduate students
Getting set up for success
- View an introduction to the University Libraries.
- Access all of our online materials from anywhere with Internet access
- use the Virtual Private Network (VPN) or the proxy bookmarklet for off-campus access.
- If you use Google Scholar, be sure you connect to the full text of articles from U Libraries.
- Meet with your subject librarian to learn more about our databases, collections and services for your research interests. Or contact us via e-mail, phone, or 24/7 chat.
- Identify top databases, journals and authors in your field (or related interdisciplinary fields) and create a system for staying updated on new publications. This could include subscribing to journals’ table-of-contents, or creating a Google alert for an author’s name.
- Access our library tutorials on databases and resources to brush up on your research skills
- Learn about Citation & Information Management tools like Zotero, Mendeley, or EndNote to organize your PDFs, create in-text citations and easily create a bibliography.
- Set up feeds and alerts to track scholarly articles, books and other sources for your work. You should develop a system for file naming and strategies for archiving and backing up your work.
- Enhance your Online Academic Identity: learn the components of/tools to enhance/and a strategy for maintaining your online academic identity.
- Start to curate your online presence.
- Google your name to see what is linked to you.
- Begin to build your academic identity through networking sites like Google Scholar, LinkedIn, ResearchGate, and Academia.edu.
- Create an ORCID (a free registry of researchers) to ensure your work is associated with you throughout the research lifecycle, including grant applications, paper submissions, and final publication.
- Learn how the Libraries supports your work as an instructor.
Carrying out your research
- Sign up for a carrel at the Wilson or Magrath libraries.
- Find grants to support your travel and research.
- Learn about resources, tools and best practices to manage your data.
- Use our Interlibrary Loan service for items the University Libraries does not own.
- Use the Dissertation Calculator to help plan out your research timeline.
- Learn about tools for each stage of an interdisciplinary research or with an interdisciplinary research groups?
Preparing your thesis or dissertation
- Learn more about copyright so that you can be your own advocate while making copyright decisions during publishing, teaching and research. Contact the copyright librarian for specialized help.
- Learn shortcuts to help you format your dissertation according to the Graduate School’s guidelines.
- Evaluate your academic impact using a variety of measures, including impact factor, h-index, and altmetrics.
- Learn more about the University's open access institutional repository for dissertations & theses, the University Digital Conservancy. The UDC provides increased visibility of your work, provides long-term preservation, and persistent links for sharing and statistics. Review recent dissertations & theses in the UDC.