Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania Andruss Library Guides - Welcome to Bloomsburg University Library

Ways to get help

There are lots of ways to get help --

Phone the Reference Desk: 570-389-4204. The Reference Librarian on duty will assist you.
Email your question to Ask a BU Librarian, using a web form available here. Response time is usually within 24 hours.
If you're in the Library, stop by the Reference Desk on the 2nd floor.
Contact your Library Liaison to ask a question or schedule an appointment. Check here for a list of liaisons by department and here for the liaisons' contact information.
Get instant help online from Ask Here PA, available here. In most cases, Ask Here PA Librarians will provide an answer online in 15 minutes or less. (Please note in most cases you will NOT be communicating with a BU librarian.)
Lastly, check out our tutorials, listed to the right.

Sources for tutorials

There are many sites that have copyright-free or ‘open source’ tutorials that explain various 'information literacy' concepts:

ANTS (ANimated Tutorial Sharing Project) – http://ants.wetpaint.com/

MERLOT (Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching) - http://www.merlot.org/merlot/index.htm

iTunes has something called iTunes U, where many schools have posted freely-available videos and podcasts. There’s a lot of interesting stuff there. Check out Stanford’s page: http://itunes.stanford.edu/

Tutorials

Following are some online tutorials you can view to help you use the Library's resources.

ANDRUSS LIBRARY TUTORIALS
Course Reserves - how to access materials placed 'on reserve' in the Library for your classes
General Library Research Tutorial - covers the following 8 modules:
   Module 1 - Orientation to Andruss Library
   Module 2 - Types of Information
   Module 3 - Searching a Database
   Module 4 - Understanding Citations
   Module 5 - Using Internet Sources
   Module 6 - Evaluating Sources of Information
   Module 7 - Information Ethics: Citing Sources and Fair Use
   Module 8 - Search Strategy for Research Papers and Speeches
How to find articles - using Andruss Library's resources
How do I?... - answers to frequently asked questions
   Get a book or article not in the library?
   Know if journal is peer-reviewed
   Search for journals in Andruss Library
   Search PILOT (catalog) for books
   Use Discovery Search

DATABASE TUTORIALS
EBSCOhost tutorials - General
Basic searching techniques
Advanced searching techniques
How to create search and journal alerts - learn how to create an account and save your searches for future use

EBSCOhost tutorials - Specific databases
Academic Search
CINAHL - Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature

Euromonitor tutorial
GMID - Global Market Information Database

RefWorks tutorials
RefWorks Basics
RefWorks Advanced
RefShare
Write-N-Cite Help

Is it peer-reviewed?

Need to know if a journal is peer-reviewed?

Most library databases let you limit your search to only peer-reviewed articles. This source, Ulrich's Periodicals Directory, will let you verify if a particular journal is peer-reviewed. Search by journal title and then look for the column icon indicating that it's refereed (i.e. peer-reviewed).