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.
• You should be able to get access to all of our online materials from anywhere with Internet access but you can use the Virtual Private Network (VPN) or the proxy bookmarklet. 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 contct 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.
• Brush up on your research skills by taking some library tutorials on databases and resources.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Working on interdisciplinar research or with an interdisciplinary research groups? Learn about tools for each stage of a project.

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.