USC Libraries

USC Libraries – the term undoubtedly sends chills down your spine and finds itself horribly, terribly stigmatized all over campus (some would say rightfully so).  Realistically, though, citing scholarly sources never goes out of style and professors aren’t going to stop assigning research papers at any point in the near or distant future, so we might as well get used to using these “USC Libraries.”

Of course they offer the book stacks and study spaces we’ve come to expect from college movies and pop culture, but anyone who has taken a campus tour here is more than aware of the laboratorial lit group study rooms in Leavey or the nine story dungeon that rests deep within the bowels of Doheny.  Arguably, USC Libraries’ most valuable resources can be found online.  They provide us with access to databases replete with articles from academic journals, newspapers, magazines, encyclopedias, and very nearly every other thing ever published.

The task of sifting through this nigh endless repository of pure, unfiltered information can then be very, very difficult for anyone who doesn’t already know where to find what they’re looking for.  So, what’s the best place to start?  Honestly, I have no idea.  Thankfully, USC Libraries, in addition to providing us this mass of information, also provides us tutorials and research guides, along with a myriad of other resources to help us on our way in navigating it, which can all be found under the “research support & tools” tab on the USC Libraries home page.

Last and certainly not least, perhaps the most useful and simultaneously the most grossly underutilized feature of the USC Libraries is, in fact, the librarians.  The website features an “Ask a Librarian” button, which brings up a page containing a link to the system’s FAQs, a dialogue box to submit questions, a live chat function, and a complete list of USC librarians with specialized knowledge in any given subject.  This feature grants us access to a large swathe of professionals who very literally possess advanced degrees in acquiring knowledge, and if they can’t find what you’re looking for (which is very doubtful), they can at the very least tell you where to look.

While this post provides a very basic overview of the services offered through USC Libraries, they have quite a bit more to offer, so check out the website and take look for yourselves.

-Derek Belle