Library Guide

Introduction to the UK Library System

Containing over 2.9 million volumes, over 27,000 periodical titles, and 1.5 million government publications, the library system has a computer catalog for locating library holdings, electronic indexes of books and articles, and many information resources, both electronic and paper. All campus libraries have computers where students can access these information databases, write papers, use a variety of software programs, and log on to the internet.

Learning to use a large research library is a crucial part of your education. What you learn in the Writing Program will be essential in other subjects and more advanced classes. The most important library for a first year student will be the main library, known as the W.T. Young Library, though you may find that you will visit the other locations, such as the Education Library, the Medical Center Library, and the Law Library.

In ENG 101, you will use sources like encyclopedias, magazines, and newspapers as you learn general research strategies--how to discover a lot of information about a topic quickly and how to locate sources that present a "big" picture of a topic in a concise form. In ENG 102, you will use sources like primary documents, academic journals, and scholarly books as you explore a greater spectrum of views--political, personal, academic--in order to create the more complex kind of theses that academic writing demands.

Excerpted from the ENG 101/102/105 Sourcebook. "Using the Library," written by Jon Cullick and revised by Bess Fox, Mary Vass, and Tevis Thompson (Summer 2002).

Exercises Using Search Facilities

Infokat Exercises: Finding Books and Journals

Infotrac Exercises: Finding Articles and Essays