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Category:Library’

Navigating the Library’s Web Site

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Know how to get there:

  • Open browser window and type: http://library.gcu.edu in the browser address bar
  • Open browser window and type: http://my.gcu.edu in the browser address bar and click the Library link in the Quick Links column on the left side of the screen
  • Click the Library link at the top of the screen in your Angel class site

Know where to go:

For Books and Streaming Videos

For Articles

For Assistance

  • Attend a Webinar – Learn the features of the GCU Library, utilize the databases, search the book collection and much more
  • Ask A Librarian – Submit a question or comment to the Library
  • Report a Broken Link – Submit a broken link found in your Angel classroom
  • Tutorials – View tutorials and resource guides
  • FAQs – Answers for frequently asked questions such as fines, InterLibrary Loan requests, and textbooks

For Library Information

  • Hours – Monthly calendar
  • Phone number – toll free and local
  • Email address
  • Mailing address
  • Policies – Policies concerning computer use, circulation, copyright and our reference services

For Citation Assistance

  • RefWorks – Manage your citations with this tool that automates the creation of
    your reference lists in the style format of your choice
  • Citation Guidelines – Links for GCU’s Center for Learning Advancement, OWL at Purdue

If you would like assistance with your research or research topic, call us at 602.639.6641 or Toll Free 800.800.9776 ext. 6396641, send an email to library@gcu.edu , chat live with a Librarian at our web site, http://library.gcu.edu , or visit us in the Library (view library calendar).

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Academic Search Complete

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In early February, the GCU Library upgraded from Academic Search Premier to Academic Search Complete. This upgrade provides the same excellent coverage of multi-disciplinary subjects as Academic Search Premier did, but now includes access to an additional 3,600 full text journals.

“Academic Search™ Complete is the world’s most valuable and comprehensive scholarly, multi-disciplinary full-text database, with more than 8,500 full-text periodicals, including more than 7,300 peer-reviewed journals”  (EBSCO, 2011).

Subjects covered in this vast collection include: animal science, anthropology, area studies, astronomy, biology, chemistry, civil engineering, electrical engineering, ethnic & multicultural studies, food science & technology, general science, geography, geology, law, materials science, mathematics, mechanical engineering, music, pharmaceutical sciences, physics, psychology, religion & theology, veterinary science, women’s studies, and zoology.

We hope you enjoy all the new content. If you would like assistance with your research or research topic, call us at 602.639.6641 or Toll Free 800.800.9776 ext. 6396641, send an email to library@gcu.edu , chat live with a Librarian at our web site, or visit us in the Library (view library calendar).

Sources:

http://bit.ly/fwbXMA

http://bit.ly/hygN1H

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The Library Offers More Webinars

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Starting in the month of February, the Library will be offering additional webinars. In addition to the GCU Library: Introduction, webinar topics will now include Doctoral Research, Education Resources, and Nursing and Health Sciences Resources.

GCU Library: Introduction, Wednesdays 3pm*

  • The tour will walk students through the features of the GCU Library, utilizing the databases and much more!

GCU Library: Doctoral Research, Tuesday 7pm*, 3rd Tuesdays of the Month

  • The Tour will walk students through the essential doctoral research resources, including databases, electronic books, dissertations, RefWorks, and more!

GCU Library: Education Resources – Monday 3pm*, 3rd Mondays of the month

  • The Tour will walk students through searching the main education resources, including Education Research Complete, ERIC, ProQuest Education, and more!

GCU Library:  Nursing & Health Sciences Resources – Monday 3pm*, 2nd Mondays of the month

  • The Tour will walk students through searching the main Library nursing resources, including how to locate research articles in the CINAHL database(Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature), and much more!

Sign-up for a Library Webinar

If you would like assistance with your research or research topic, call us at 602.639.6641 or Toll Free 800.800.9776 ext. 6396641, send an email to library@gcu.edu , chat live with a Librarian at our web site, or visit us in the Library (view library calendar).

*All times are Mountain Standard Time

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EBSCO – It is Not a Database, but a Vendor

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To provide the best and most comprehensive collection for you to use in your studies, the GCU library scours all the available resources. Unlike in the past, when journals, newspapers, and magazines were purchased individually and stored on a shelf, they are now available through numerous vendors that provide collections. These collections are organized in Databases. The Vendor is the one who sells the subscription. In this case, EBSCO is the Vendor. Some of the EBSCO databases we subscribe to include Academic Search Complete, ERIC, CINAHL, and Business Source Complete.

Why is this important? Each database has different content. You want to choose the best database for your topic. If your topic is nursing related then you will want to be in a Nursing related database like CINAHL. But if you are in an education related database like ERIC, you won’t find the kind of resources you need for nursing.

How will you know if you are using an EBSCO database? Look for their symbol and the blue and green search page. How will you know which database you are in? The database name is located in the upper left part of the page, next to the logo.



Here is a list of EBSCO databases available through the Library web site: library.gcu.edu

If you would like assistance with your research or research topic, contact us via email (library@gcu.edu), phone (toll free 800.800.9776 ext 6396641 or 602.639.6641) or in person (view library calendar).

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The Library Offers New Webinars!

 - by library

Starting in the month of February, the Library will be offering additional webinars. In addition to the GCU Library: Introduction, webinar topics will now include Doctoral Research, Education Resources, and Nursing and Health Sciences Resources.

GCU Library: Introduction, Wednesdays 3pm*

  • The tour will walk students through the features of the GCU Library, utilizing the databases and much more!

GCU Library: Doctoral Research, Tuesday 7pm*, 3rd Tuesdays of the Month

  • The Tour will walk students through the essential doctoral research resources, including databases, electronic books, dissertations, RefWorks, and more!

GCU Library: Education Resources – Monday 3pm*, 3rd Mondays of the month

  • The Tour will walk students through searching the main education resources, including Education Research Complete, ERIC, ProQuest Education, and more!

GCU Library:  Nursing & Health Sciences Resources – Monday 3pm*, 2nd Mondays of the month

  • The Tour will walk students through searching the main Library nursing resources, including how to locate research articles in the CINAHL database(Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature), and much more!

Sign-up for a Library Webinar: http://my.gcu.edu/Pages/startWeekTutorialWebinars.aspx

If you would like assistance with your research or research topic, call us at 602.639.6641 or Toll Free 800.800.9776 ext. 6396641, send an email to library@gcu.edu , chat live with a Librarian at our web site, http://library.gcu.edu/ , or visit us in the Library (view library calendar).

*All times are Mountain Standard Time

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Library Web Site Changes Improve Student Research Tools

 - by robynitule

The Grand Canyon University Library has some incredible new content for every academic subject, including 30 new databases covering expanded full text content for the Fine Arts, Education, Nursing, Health Sciences, Business, Social Sciences, Computing and more!

The library added a wonderful tool called RefWorks, where you can export your citations from the databases to organize and manage ongoing research projects involving extensive literature searching.

For general reference, you can now consult the Credo Reference collection, which includes over 500 online reference sources such as encyclopedias, dictionaries, biographies, quotations, and much more.

How Can I Get Help From a Librarian?
Call us at 602.639.6641 or Toll Free 800.800.9776 ext. 6396641, send an email tolibrary@gcu.edu, chat live with a Librarian at our web site, http://library.gcu.edu, or visit us in the Library.

Library Hours:
Sunday, 1 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Monday-Thursday, 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Friday, 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Saturday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

We are available for both one-on-one help (phone, chat, email, in-person) and group training in-class and in the library (online and ground).

We also have weekly Library webinars, where students can experience a guided tour of the Library resources and ask questions in a live setting.

Introduction to the GCU Library

http://my.gcu.edu/Pages/startWeekTutorialWebinars.aspx

The Library has reorganized the web site to make it easier to find the research you need most! Check out the new pages at http://library.gcu.edu.

KEY CHANGES:

Databases Organized by Subject:

Choosing a database relevant to your research topic is easier than ever. Select a page based on subject and be taken to the list of databases that contain relevant resources. Search multiple subject related databases simultaneously from the OneSearch box located on each Subject page.

RefWorks:

All GCU students will now have free access to RefWorks. Utilize this excellent resource to manage all your citations and make citing your sources easier than ever. For help using this new tool, contact the Library or check out the live webinar links on the RefWorks page. http://my.gcu.edu/Academics/Library/Pages/RefWorks.aspx

More Databases!

Thirty new databases are now available! Brand new content is included for all academic disciplines.

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Library Web Site Updated!

 - by library

The Library has reorganized the web site to make it easier to find the research you need most! Check out the new pages at http://library.gcu.edu.

KEY CHANGES:

Databases Organized by Subject:

Choosing a database relevant to your research topic is easier than ever. Select a page based on subject and be taken to the list of databases that contain relevant resources. Search multiple subject related databases simultaneously from the OneSearch box located on each Subject page.

RefWorks:

All GCU students will now have free access to RefWorks. Utilize this excellent resource to manage all your citations and make citing your sources easier than ever. For help using this new tool, contact the Library or check out the live webinar links on the RefWorks page.  http://my.gcu.edu/Academics/Library/Pages/RefWorks.aspx

More Databases!

Thirty new databases are now available! Brand new content is included for all academic disciplines.

Contact the library with any questions! library@gcu.edu or  1 (800) 800.9776 ext. 6396641 or 602.639.6641

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Wikipedia: What’s the Big Deal?

 - by library

You’re in college now, and no doubt you’ve already heard about the murky trap that is Wikipedia. Many of your professors discourage its use in academic research and some might outright ban it as a resource. It may seem like a pretty black and white thing. Just don’t use Wikipedia. But it really isn’t that easy. But then again, this is college, and if it were easy it wouldn’t mean as much when you finally have that piece of paper at the end that calls you a graduate.

I’m a librarian and I pride myself on being able to find answers to anything and do so with the best resources. But I use Wikipedia all the time. I love it; I really can’t say enough good things about it. But, it is a tool, not an authoritative resource, and should be used as such. This is where the complexity begins.

Information resources are tools used to find knowledge. And just as you use a hammer for nails and a screwdriver for screws, different information resources are used in different situations for different purposes. There is no one size fits all tool and I believe that is where the real trouble is with Wikipedia. It has this mystique of having all the answers. It is comprehensive, current, and accessible. Nearly every web search brings up a Wikipedia article on the first page. In many cases, the information found on those pages seems really good, often it is.

But, and here’s the kicker, how do you know for sure? Well, if you don’t have firsthand knowledge of the topic you really don’t. This is the case for anything you read, including blogs, newspaper articles, books, and even scholarly articles. Everything should be read with a critical mind. Wikipedia should be more so than others, and this is why.

A wiki is designed to allow for collaborative work between a specific group of people. Wikipedia was developed so “anyone with Internet access can write and make changes to Wikipedia articles” (Wikipedia-About, n.d.). This has allowed for it to grow exponentially with contributors from all over the world and from vastly different backgrounds. Errors can be corrected immediately. Topics that otherwise would not receive coverage do and the collective cooperation between people allows for a depth of input and expertise that is often quite good.

But that doesn’t mean that the one piece of information you have found for your research is accurate. This is why, as a college student, you should be concerned. You need that one piece of information to be correct. Wikipedia does have a review process, but it happens after publication—after the information is already out there—and because it is all done by volunteers,  and Wikipedia is so very big, you never know if your piece has been checked.

This essentially means you need to verify any information you get from Wikipedia against reputable, primary, good secondary, and/or scholarly sources. This takes work and requires digging deeper into the resources you have available, many of which you can find in the GCU library. This extra verification isn’t limited to just Wikipedia however, the same goes for blogs, social networks, newspapers, magazines, and web pages.

With all this extra work, why do I use Wikipedia? Well, that brings us back to the tool concept. There are many times when I do not have a good understanding of a topic. Finding keywords to search for good resources can be a challenge, and that is where Wikipedia comes in. I will pull words and concepts and enter them into my search engines, book catalogs, and article databases. I will also look at the reference found at the bottom of the page to see where the contributors are getting their facts. Wikipedia is an excellent tool for leading you to more information. It is a step along the way, and it is extremely valuable.

Just don’t use it as your definitive source.  You can always find something better, more conclusive, and more authoritative. And if you can’t seem to find what you need? Well, just give us a call or send us an email. Helping you find good information resources is what your GCU Librarians are here to do.

Written by: Heather Lausten, GCU Librarian

Additional resources:

Jaschick, S. (2007) News: A Stand Against Wikipedia. Inside Higher Ed. http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/01/26/wiki

Johnson, C. A. (2006). The Good And the Bad of Wikipedia: The Online Encyclopedia Has Revolutionized Information Sharing, But There Are Downsides. CBS News, New York. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/12/10/sunday/main2244008_page2.shtml?tag=contentMain;contentBody

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New GCU Library Catalog

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By Monday, 8/30, the Grand Canyon University Library will be launching a new library catalog accessible through the Find Books & More link on our the GCU Library website. The new catalog will look significantly different than our current catalog, but also has a cleaner, more user-friendly appearance and social networking capabilities which we will gradually introduce soon.

The catalog search page defaults to a basic search box with all records displayed as results in the beginning.  There is an option for an advanced search next to the basic search if needed.  After searching, results will load up in the default order of recently added items displayed first.  This can be changed using the “sort by” drop-down box on the left side of the page.  Physical books will load an open book icon . Electronic books (the bulk of our collection) will load an icon which looks like an index card.  DVDs will load a DVD image. Streaming videos do not have a specific icon.  Here is a screenshot of what the catalog will look like:

If you have any questions, please contact the library and we’ll be happy to help you!

Twitter: @gculibrary

Facebook: facebook.com/gculibrary

Phone: 602-639-6641 or toll-free 800-800-9776 ext 6396641

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Take a Live Virtual Tour of the GCU Library

 - by robynitule

Join GCU for a live tour of the GCU Library! The GCU Librarians will teach you how to effectively search and utilize the various databases, about the various forms of resources available to you, and answer your questions!

Register for a session now by clicking a date below:

Wed, Aug 25, 2010 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM PDT
Wed, Sep 1, 2010 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM PDT
Wed, Sep 8, 2010 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM PDT
Wed, Sep 15, 2010 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM PDT
Wed, Sep 22, 2010 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM PDT
Wed, Sep 29, 2010 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM PDT
Wed, Oct 6, 2010 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM PDT
Wed, Oct 13, 2010 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM PDT
Wed, Oct 20, 2010 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM PDT
Wed, Oct 27, 2010 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM PDT

Once registered you will receive an email confirming your registration with information you need to join the Webinar.

System Requirements
PC-based attendees
Required: Windows® 7, Vista, XP, 2003 Server or 2000

Macintosh®-based attendees
Required: Mac OS® X 10.4.11 (Tiger®) or newer

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