Services for graduate students

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 (spring 2021) 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.
• 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.
• Browse scholarly journals available from the UMN Libraries on your tablet device, iPhone, or via the web using BrowZine.

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.