5 Reasons to Use Your College Library
Whether you’re looking for a quiet space to study, seeking a desk to finish your paper’s MLA or APA citation bibliography, or need to borrow books and research materials, your college library can help! Here are our top five reasons to dig out that library pass!
1. Solo study
Studying from home comes with numerous distractions, whether it’s noise from siblings or your housemates encouraging “study breaks” at Starbucks or Subway. The college library is a place you can go to study pretty much distraction-free. Find a quiet corner and turn off your phone (or set it to block non-urgent messages) to create a completely distraction-free zone.
2. Social study
On the flipside, the library is a great place to meet with a study group or for a project group. You’ll have access to all the reference materials you’re likely to need, plus space to sit together that you might not have at home or in your dorm room. Larger tables should be located away from the single booths, to enable groups to work together without disturbing solo students. Some college libraries also have meeting rooms you can sign up to use.
3. The personal touch
The college librarians are an often-underused resource that can be super helpful in the course of your studies. A good librarian will be able to point you to the right resource — whether that’s a book, an academic journal or magazine, or an article or piece of research in the online database.
You may also find that your tutor has put together a list of reading and reference materials that are available in your college library — and maybe even placed them on reserve for students — making it easy to find exactly what you need.
4. Online databases
A good online database allows students access to more research material than a college library could ever hold! Although many colleges offer remote access to their databases, logging on at the library will help you to stay focused on the task at hand — and ensure that you have easy access to any physical books and journals that you might need to cross-reference or further your findings.
5. Learning skills sessions
Many college libraries offer a range of free learning skills sessions, which can cover everything from computer skills to brainstorming research paper topics to properly writing and formatting your papers.
College libraries are an incredible resource full of learning and research materials, so make sure that you use yours to its full advantage.
If you’re looking for convenient online help with grammar, citing, or plagiarism, BibMe Plus could help! There are tools to help you generate citations and guides that teach you a pronoun definition, how to write an annotated bibliography, what is a determiner, and other writing topics.