1	Tidewater Community College Library Overview
2	So what can the library do for you? Here are some of your amazing resources! Access hundreds of online books and articles selected for college students. Locate thousands of free books, DVDs and CDs in the libraries. Over 170,000 volumes and 200+ databases of articles to use for all your information needs! Ask A Librarian offers chat, email, or phone service with a librarian. LRCLive is a real time chat service 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
3	Research Steps Choose a topic and think of some key words . Do some exploratory searching to find other words related to your topic. Use the library catalog to look for books and media. Use the databases to find articles worthy of a scholar. Evaluate the credibility of your sources and their value to your research. Be able to cite your sources and give credit where credit is due.
4	Start with the TCC Library Catalog
5	The VCCSLinc search screen will open up.
6	Choose how you will search for the item… You can search by: Keyword …anywhere, in subject, in title, in author’s name Author …personal or corporate or government Title …includes titles of series Subject …assigned by librarians to group like items together regardless of key words. Format …e-books, serials, etc.
7	Choose a search type
8	Enter Your Search Terms or Key Words
9	You can limit your search to a specific campus.
10	When you have entered all your search information, click the “Go” button
11	Your Search Results The results screen gives you a quick view of the items your search found. It also gives basic information about the item. Author Title Publication Year Call number Campus where the item is located
12	Reading the Results
13	Click “view record” for more information.
14	Full view displays information useful for citations.
15	Holdings?
16	Databases=articles from encyclopedias, newspapers, scholarly journals and magazines. Like newspaper and magazine subscriptions and buying books, libraries pay for electronic versions of scholarly information. Databases have content, like academic journal articles and subject encyclopedias, that are not available for free on the Internet so Google or other search engines won’t find them. Unlike Wikipedia, databases contain credible information reviewed and selected for reliability and accuracy. If you know the contents of what you’re searching you’ll be more effective at finding what you need.
17	Databases and the Internet are not the same thing. Databases are searchable collections of thousands of articles from newspapers, magazines, academic journals, encyclopedias and other sources. Databases give you access to high quality academic information you would otherwise have to pay for. TCC students have access to over 200 databases. You can access databases from off-campus but you will have to login. Use your TCC username and password. On campus, no login is necessary.
18	You can easily access databases from home The easiest way to access the TCC databases from off campus is through Blackboard using your account in myTCC.
19	In Blackboard, click on the “Research” tab.
20	Now click on the stack of books next to the Library/Learning Resources
21	The Library Homepage displays and you are ready to begin your research.
22	Under “Find articles & more” click Favorite databases..
23	Academic Search Complete is full-text database covering many topics. A great place to start your research. But you can choose any database you think would be best.
24	Enter your key words in the search boxes and you can limit your search to full-text articles.
25	Now click “Search” and see what you find!
26	The Results!
27	To access the article click on the title.
28	Scroll down the page to read the whole article. You can print or email the article.
29	Guides to Topics
30	Click on “Guides to Topics” to view all or select by your course number. “Writing & Citations” is very popular.
31	The subject guide will give you resources on the topic it covers. You can find… Call number areas to browse for books on the topic Books in the library on the topic Library resources and databases to use to find information Web sites that a librarian has evaluated as appropriate for college students.
32	Pulling it Together
33	Subject guide for writing and citing.
34	Problems, questions, confused, or lost? You are not alone. With so many options you may need help. Use our Ask A Librarian page http://www.tcc.edu/lrc/askalib.htm Remember the library staff are here to help, it’s the best part of our jobs. Tidewater Community College Learning Resources Centers 2010