Faculty Guide to the Library

If you remember only 3 things, let it be these:

• Always, always, always start your research at the NEIU Libraries home page.
  Our catalog and A-Z databases list provide special links that identify the users as NEIU-affiliated.
   
• Use your NEIU NetID and password to log in to library resources if off campus.
  UTS refers to this as your "User ID" (as opposed to the NEIU ID number, which they call the "University ID"). Neither of these is your email address. Leave off the @neiu.edu.
   
• Visit the NEIU OpenAthens Link Generator to create links to add to D2L*.
  
  * Except for exceptions

Know What You're Searching

Find everything? Really?

Not quite -- the "Everything" search scope includes references to articles in addition to books, videos, maps, etc. Databases are still the most efficient way to search for articles, though.

Right here. Right now.

If you are actually in the library and want to leave with an item TODAY, use the NEIU Libraries scope to find things we have on our shelves.

Have a little time?

We are very fortunate to be part of CARLI,  a consortium of more than 90 academic libraries that lends materials across the state, quickly (usually 2-3 days at most). Use the All I-Share Libraries scope to search across all CARLI libraries.

Adjust Your Results

Filters, just like with online shopping.

For instance, if you want to find materials available online, search for your terms then select:

• Availability: Available online and Resource Type: Books

How about the most recent books added to the library's collection:

•  Resource Type: Books and Creation Date: 2022 to 2023

Use Additional Tricks

10.1108/02640470610689151 ...

Have you seen these in articles lately? Every article has a unique number--Digital Object Identifier--assigned to it that makes finding it pretty easy. If you have a DOI, paste it into the catalog search box to either link to our subscription or request a copy through WorldShare Interlibrary Loan. For books, just search the ISBN number.

WorldShare? I thought it was I-Share...

Yes and yes. Both are important. I-Share is the system that lets you borrow physical items from other academic libraries in Illinois. WorldShare Interlibrary Loan is the system we use to borrow PDFs of articles from other libraries (or physical items from libraries outside CARLI, if I-Share  libraries don't own them.)

Choose your database(s)

Our alphabetically-arranged list of 240 NEIU Library databases can be organized by subject, type, and vendor. This list is also searchable by database title.

Choose your keyword(s)

• Use truncation to broaden your search results by including various spellings and endings of a single word.
  • Example: school*
    • A search for school* will yield results for school (singular), schools (plural), and schooling (gerund).
• Use quotation marks around phrases to yield only those results that use the words you've entered in a precise order.
  • Example: "public school*"
    • A search for "public school*" will NOT yield results that address e.g. a public investigation of prison schools.
• Use Boolean Operators: place OR between keyword synonyms and place AND between keywords describing different things.
  • Example: [gentrification OR "urban development"] AND "public school*"
    • A search for [gentrification OR "urban development"] AND "public school*" will yield results that address either gentrification or urban development (or both) in relation to public schools.

Choose your limiter(s)

• Use the date limiter to limit results by publication date.
• Use the Peer Reviewed limiter to limit results to only those that have been peer-reviewed.
• Use subject headings to limit results by topic.
  • The subject heading index is the most precise limiter in any database.
  • Subject headings vary by database and can be perused via a database's thesaurus.

To illustrate the importance of choosing your database(s), let's compare search results for peer-reviewed materials published since 2010...

• in Business Source Premier
• in Education Full Text
• in Social Science Premium Collection

To illustrate the importance of choosing your limiters, and to illustrate the power of limiting your search results by subject headings in particular, let's start with a one-word search in the PsycInfo database, and then apply the Subject: Major Heading limiter consecutively until we reach fewer than 50 search results.

If these search results don't seem introductory enough, consider searching in Credo Reference, the library's (cite-able) answer to Wikipedia!

All students, faculty, and alumni are encouraged to schedule a research appointment with an NEIU librarian. Both in-person and virtual appointments can be scheduled, and both 30-minute and 60-minute appointments are available. There is no limit to the number of appointments that can be scheduled.

All NEIU faculty members are encouraged to submit an instruction request intake form to request that an NEIU librarian provide group research instruction to a class. This instruction can take place in-person or virtually and is offered both synchronously and asynchronously (including via D2L).