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Questions tagged [library]

Questions about libraries, librarians, and the resources and services they provide.

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3 votes
2 answers
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Is it acceptable and ethical to access journals via my previous university's account?

I switched universities for my master's, but I still have access to my old bachelor's university accounts. Now, sometimes it happens that I can only access a journal via my old university account, ...
Jesse's user avatar
  • 39
0 votes
2 answers
115 views

How can I access specific parts of a solutions manual that is not locally available?

I am currently facing a challenge in accessing specific problems from the solutions manual of a textbook that is crucial for my studies. The manual in question is not available in any library near me, ...
PBH's user avatar
  • 101
1 vote
1 answer
270 views

How much of a hassle are inter-library loans?

I've come across a few books which I'd like to read, which I'd only be able to access through inter-library loans - but these are purely for personal interest, not actual research. How much of a "...
Sean's user avatar
  • 113
-1 votes
2 answers
215 views

Do any colleges/universities require professors to provide the library with a free copy of a book they have written while employed by the school? [closed]

Let's say Professor X, who is currently a tenured professor at Y University, writes a book on genetic mutation. Is it likely Y University has a policy that requires Professor X to supply the ...
Bigjon37's user avatar
0 votes
2 answers
2k views

Alternatives to classify.oclc.org for getting a book's call number?

I need to get the LOC call number of multiple ebooks. I used to use http://classify.oclc.org/, but now the website doesn't seem to work anymore. Is there a (freely accessible) platform, database, ...
forgodsakehold's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
72 views

What are the terms imposed when someone subscribes to an academic database? [closed]

When an institution subscribes to an academic database, what are the specific terms of the agreement about what they can and cannot do with it? For example, what if they allowed anyone to use the ...
Julius Hamilton's user avatar
9 votes
4 answers
600 views

What is a direct and universal way to affiliate oneself with a university (library)?

I am working on projects for which having very direct access to relevant reference materials on the subject (linguistics) is basically essential. I have come to understand that there is no satisfying ...
Julius Hamilton's user avatar
27 votes
2 answers
4k views

Why are there dollar amounts listed near the copyright information for journal articles?

Specifically I am looking at this paper, but I've seen these in other papers too. At the bottom of the first page, it has some metadata and copyright information: © 2019 Copyright held by the owner/...
interfect's user avatar
  • 561
4 votes
1 answer
1k views

How to get access to university's library online resources as an independent researcher [duplicate]

I've recently found a place in industry and left academia after working there for more than 12 years. I benefitted while in academia the free online access to online journals and research publications ...
kaka's user avatar
  • 237
2 votes
1 answer
134 views

How can I access an eBook or an article?

I come from a part of the world where neither I nor my institutional library can afford to access certain eBooks, not because of any imposed restriction but because of a lack of funds. It is quite ...
Firdous Ahmad Mala's user avatar
41 votes
5 answers
7k views

Do academic libraries preserve the contents of books before selling them?

I’m a mathematician (after a fashion), working in industry, and I find great value in older books about geometry, written between around 1850 and 1920. I notice that my favorite books are often ...
bubba's user avatar
  • 1,776
-1 votes
1 answer
198 views

Why do national libraries not seem to invest in good computer facilities for visitors? [closed]

It seems like city/county libraries are very much concerned with giving quality computer resources to library patrons, as are university libraries. In Sweden and Germany, I’ve noticed the national ...
Julius Hamilton's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
71 views

Help me find the ISSN number of the journal or book and its publisher URL [duplicate]

I have been trying locate an article/Journal from one of the citations. I am in need of the article to complete my literature search for project. Help me locate ISSN number of the book or Journal and ...
RishiM's user avatar
  • 101
3 votes
1 answer
4k views

Is it possible to get a book category based on ISBN?

Libraries organize non-fiction books in category with sub-categories, using a hierarchical system, that makes it possible to find books on a specific subject. Is there some lookup service, for example ...
Morten Zilmer's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
224 views

Is there a database of publications for nearly all major disciplines? [closed]

Google scholar is an excellent service for looking at basic metadata about publications (e.g. authors, title, abstract, and papers it cites). But they do not offer an official API (free or otherwise). ...
Peeyush Kushwaha's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
55 views

Subject or object in the Dewey Decimal Classification

I'm not sure I understand how the Dewey Decimal Classification works. Do the numbers relate to the object or subject of the book? The confusion I have comes from the fact that in my faculty library, ...
user avatar
0 votes
3 answers
256 views

Dealing with softcover textbook curling? [closed]

So, I’m a postgraduate student, and I checked a softcover textbook out of my university library for my personal studies. When I pulled it out of my bag today, I noticed that the bottom corner (on the ...
nick012000's user avatar
2 votes
3 answers
188 views

Obtaining a non-digitized thesis

I have been trying for a few weeks now to obtain a published thesis (this one, if you're wondering), but have had no luck in doing so. There currently exists only one copy of this thesis, at the ...
Slereah's user avatar
  • 121
1 vote
1 answer
112 views

How to determine the merit of an encyclopedia?

Scholarly articles and books have citation counts (in for example Google Scholar), as do specific people in citation metrics such as the Arts and Humanities Citation Index. Even universities have ...
julkarham's user avatar
  • 111
-2 votes
1 answer
137 views

Going in person to a physical library [closed]

How often is an in-person visit to an academic library important? What means can normally only be accessed in-person? How important is to consider an institution with a good physical library? Should ...
Pierre B's user avatar
  • 188
4 votes
0 answers
136 views

Definition of Book Classification [closed]

I understand that libraries can use a classification system like Dewey or LOC. Apparently, the decision as to how any particular book is classified, however, is made locally at each library. So this ...
Malik A. Rumi's user avatar
34 votes
3 answers
4k views

How to preserve a rare version of a book respecting the copyright as well?

Electromagnetism by EM Purcell is a classic book on electromagnetism. Luckily in my college library I found all the three editions of this book. After many months of observation, I found that the ...
Kutsit's user avatar
  • 709
12 votes
5 answers
2k views

Is it appropriate to ask a former professor to order a book for me through an inter-library loan?

I am not a member of an academic institution right now, but am working on a paper for publication, partly to improve my prospects for admission to PhD programs after a long gap in my education. Two ...
Rai's user avatar
  • 239
-6 votes
2 answers
472 views

Why are academic libraries public? [closed]

According to the Global Library Statistics the United States consists of 3793 academic libraries with more than 7 million users. They are visiting their university library like other people the postal ...
Manuel Rodriguez's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
99 views

How widespread are electronic-only dissertations?

My university currently archives all our graduate dissertations as bound volumes in the library. We are considering dropping this practice and archiving them electronically only. How common is this ...
Nate Eldredge's user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
332 views

How to expedite? Compensation? University still hasn't provided alternative formats after 9 months

Facts My visually impaired brother attends university ("UNI") in England. In Jul 2017, he requested Alternative Formats. As of Apr 11 2018, UNI's Library still hasn't contacted the ...
user avatar
14 votes
1 answer
679 views

Academic librarian: workplace characteristics, and comparison to T-T faculty job?

How do the mix of job duties, work environment, and other qualitative factors for academic librarians compare to those for tenure-track faculty? (Some academic librarians are tenure-track faculty, but ...
cactus_pardner's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
111 views

How should work experience affect decision to get an MLIS (or another similar specialized Master's)? [closed]

The Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) degree is widely discussed as a potentially bad investment as a graduate level degree at this time because few programs are funded, it is rather ...
ArtemisPondering's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
95 views

How to access microfilm data at a university library in another country?

I am writing a research paper and need to access some data that was collected by someone long deceased. The university library that has this data is in another country, and has the data on microfilm. ...
G. Risan's user avatar
  • 111
3 votes
3 answers
469 views

How does a departmental library decide what new books to order?

Who decides what books a department (say, of mathematics, at a public university in the US) shall order for its library? Is there usually a formal process? I am somewhat surprised that I have found ...
darij grinberg's user avatar
4 votes
5 answers
1k views

Is it immoral to read scientific articles if you find them as pdf on Google without having access to some official libraries? [duplicate]

I like to learn things even outside my university degree and I wonder if it is moral to read articles found online on blogs and other sources?
yoyo_fun's user avatar
  • 233
4 votes
1 answer
449 views

What is the role of a University Archivist

I am wanting to know roughly what it is a university archivist does, and what sorts of documents are in the collections they manage. An acceptable answer would be "It varies wildly from institution ...
Frames Catherine White's user avatar
117 votes
5 answers
12k views

If I request a paper through my university library, must they pay a substantial amount of money?

I was asked to referee a mathematics article, submitted for publication in a reputable journal. To evaluate it, I also wanted to look at a cited article which it claims to extend. Upon searching ...
Anonymous's user avatar
  • 26.5k
1 vote
1 answer
84 views

Search if a term already exists in an older research

My research led me to introduce a term that describes a certain group of web applications. In order to ensure that the term does not already exist, I searched on IEEE, ACM and Elsevier libraries, ...
slevin's user avatar
  • 121
6 votes
1 answer
311 views

Is there any forum or FB group where people would exchange academic literature? [closed]

Does anyone know any forum, FB group or other platform where students from different univerisites would exchange academic literature available in their libraries?
user74481's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
135 views

Need a good, inexpensive app to catalogue journal articles and books [closed]

Like the title says, I'm looking for an inexpensive app or program that can catalogue both journal articles and books. I need something that has or can take input from an ISBN/QR/barcode scanner, and ...
zanathium's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
76 views

What are the steps for republishing imagery held in archives?

I want to reuse, in a new work, some period drawings and paintings that are held in various libraries and archives. Presumably this means paying for their time spent helping me. To make the process go ...
user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
509 views

If undergraduate Honor's Thesis printed/shelved in Alma-metar's library & checked out a number of times -- does it count as "published" on a CV?

As an undergraduate, I joined the Honor's Program, and completed the program by conducting original research and writing an Honor's Thesis. That Honor's Thesis has since been printed and shelved in ...
Butterfly and Bones's user avatar
42 votes
8 answers
3k views

Literature searches in publications when you have limited access to journals

I'm currently at an institution that has a phenomenal library system. I think every journal article or book I've ever needed, no matter how old or obscure, was available to me. I consider myself ...
iwantmyphd's user avatar
  • 1,613
20 votes
4 answers
3k views

Access to math papers

I graduated with my PhD in math two years ago, and I am no longer affiliated with a university. However I am still actively researching. Often it's possible to get papers on arxiv or directly from the ...
Matt Samuel's user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
1k views

Is there a way to check to which scientific journals a specific library has access?

Is there a way to check which journals are available in a specific library/university? For example, my university library has access to some, but not all, the scientific journals related to Machine ...
marsop's user avatar
  • 145
5 votes
2 answers
458 views

How do you (digitally) catalog the books you've read over the years?

I wonder how you keep tracks of what you've been reading over the years. I'm not talking about things that are 'relevant' and 'precious' to your academic work (to that end, all hail to EndNote or ...
T.NT's user avatar
  • 59
13 votes
3 answers
5k views

How to effectively navigate a large library?

I am looking to decrease the time I waste looking for a book in the library. I generally know exactly what book I want, but not where in the library it is located. (Finding out what book you want, is ...
Frames Catherine White's user avatar
30 votes
2 answers
1k views

What exactly are academic librarians?

I completed my postgraduate studies in France where, unless I am mistaken, librarians that work in an academic library do more or less the same work as, say, librarians that work in a public library. ...
scozy's user avatar
  • 1,280
6 votes
3 answers
4k views

Experience with DeepDyve group plan?

I am currently looking for alternatives / provisional solutions to traditional journal subscriptions. The research institute (200+ researchers) I am working at has contracts with all the big players ...
Heike R's user avatar
  • 439
3 votes
0 answers
111 views

What do the anglo-saxons use as "soggettario"? [closed]

A soggettario (in Italian) is simply a list of subject headings: it's a kind of thesaurus, used both as manual/tool for cataloguing and for browsing subjects and finding all books in a certain subject ...
Nemo's user avatar
  • 871
26 votes
4 answers
4k views

Reference for annual journal subscription costs paid per university?

Is there any resource that lists how much each university pay in journal subscription fees? I am mostly interested in US universities (E.g. Harvard: $3.5M/year in 2014, MIT: $4M/year in 2006 for ...
Franck Dernoncourt's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
2k views

How should I ask for library services for literature review?

Early on the research planning process, I would like to make use of the services offered by public libraries. Including online library services, what is the best way they could help a student ...
LVLLFD's user avatar
  • 113
3 votes
1 answer
203 views

Paths to specialize in antique book and manuscript conservation and handling

I am not sure whether this is the best place to field this question but I assume Academia is a reasonable fit. If someone is interested, initially as a hobby, in the collecting, cataloguing, rebinding,...
SeligkeitIstInGott's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
402 views

Do all US schools provide the same access to e-journal resources?

I recently took courses from several different schools, with different semesters in different parts of the US. When visiting the schools' library Web sites, I noticed that each offered a similar "...
Village's user avatar
  • 12.6k