The library assignment help desk is underrated

[ElisaMartins]

Can we talk about how the actual heroes of this campus work at the library research desk? I'm a junior and I just discovered this resource, which is honestly embarrassing because I've been struggling with citations for THREE YEARS.

I had this huge political science assignment that required like 15 peer-reviewed sources. I kept searching the database and getting either 10,000 irrelevant results or nothing at all. I was about to just give up and use whatever random articles Google gave me.

Then my roommate dragged me to the library help desk. This sweet grad student spent 45 minutes with me teaching me how to use Boolean operators, filter properly, and even showed me specific journals that are perfect for my topic. She didn't do the work for me, but she gave me the tools to actually do it myself.

Now I feel like I have a superpower. If you're still struggling with research, please learn from my mistakes and go talk to these angels. They actually enjoy helping!

 

[PatrickRR]

Can we talk about how the actual heroes of this campus work at the library research desk? I'm a junior and I just discovered this resource, which is honestly embarrassing because I've been struggling with citations for THREE YEARS.

I had this huge political science assignment that required like 15 peer-reviewed sources. I kept searching the database and getting either 10,000 irrelevant results or nothing at all. I was about to just give up and use whatever random articles Google gave me.

Then my roommate dragged me to the library help desk. This sweet grad student spent 45 minutes with me teaching me how to use Boolean operators, filter properly, and even showed me specific journals that are perfect for my topic. She didn't do the work for me, but she gave me the tools to actually do it myself.

Now I feel like I have a superpower. If you're still struggling with research, please learn from my mistakes and go talk to these angels. They actually enjoy helping!

For anyone reading who's still intimidated by the research desk:

What they can help with:

• Developing search strategies (keywords, Boolean operators, filters)
• Identifying relevant databases for your field
• Finding specific types of sources (peer-reviewed, primary, statistical)
• Citing properly in any style (APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.)
• Evaluating source credibility

What they WON'T do:

• Write your paper for you
• Find every single source on your topic
• Do your homework

The key is going EARLY. Don't show up the night before your paper is due (though they'll still help, they just can't perform miracles ). These librarians chose this career because they love helping people find information. Use them!!!