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PSU 7: First-Year Seminar Behrend (Kertis)

This guide was created for the students enrolled in Margo Kertis's PSU 7 course at Penn State Behrend.

Welcome to Penn State Behrend!

At Behrend we have 5 reference librarians available to help you with your research projects! Our 5 librarians are:

  • Matt Ciszek, our Head Librarian
  • Angela Davis, specializes in engineering
  • Stephanie Diaz, nursing liaison
  • Russ Hall, history liaison
  • Jane Ingold, manages our college archives

Feel free to contact me, Stephanie Diaz, your librarian for this course. I'd be happy to talk to you through email or set up an online meeting with you. You can also contact the librarians at behrendlibrary@psu.edu. We can answer questions related to:

  • Developing research topics/questions.
  • Choosing relevant databases.
  • Finding scholarly articles, books, and more.
  • Evaluating sources.
  • Citations.

Ask a Librarian

Screenshots of ask a librarian service at libraries.psu.edu

You can use Ask a Librarian to chat, call, text, or set up an appointment with a library employee. The Behrend librarians monitor some, but not all, questions that come from our campus. This service is one of the best ways to get help quickly.

If you are beginning a research project and you need help getting started, it might be best to set up an appointment with a librarian. However, if you have a quick question, the chat feature usually is best. Quick questions include topics such as loan periods in your account, finding a specific book or article, or a question about in-text citations, for example.

Borrowing Items

Woman browsing library shelves.

COLLECTIONS

At the Lilley Library, we have over 100,000 books, thousands of DVDs, audiobooks on CD, video games for a variety of consoles, some course materials, laptops, and other media equipment. In addition to all of the items you can get at the Lilley Library, you can also borrow items from the other Penn State libraries!

REQUEST AN ITEM

To request an item, search in the main search box at libraries.psu.edu or The CAT (the library catalog). Click on the item, and click on the "I Want It" button to request that item. Requested items will be delivered to the Lilley Library, at no extra cost to you, in approximately 3-5 business days. Then, they will be quarantined for 96 hours. After the quarantine period, you will receive an email telling you, you can pick the item up at the Lilley Library. Your Penn State student ID card is required in order to check out items.

MY LIBRARY ACCOUNT

You can check "My Account" at libraries.psu.edu to view requests, view due dates, and renew loan periods.

E-Books

Hathitrust logo

Because of COVID-19, some of our physical items may not be available for you to borrow or you might want an item more quickly. The library has many e-books available. You can find them using the library's catalog (link below). Electronic books will have the note, "[electronic resource]" next to it.

You can also check libraries.psu.edu/remote-resources for information about temporary services that provide access to electronic books like, HathiTrust.

Library Databases

The Penn State University Libraries subscribe to hundreds multidisciplinary and subject-specific databases. You can find databases relevant to a course or major by browsing the library's Subject Guides. Find our databases and subject guides at libraries.psu.edu.

COVID-19

Nittany lion wearing mask for COVID-19

Wifi is available in all areas of the library, and we encourage you to use the library as a place to connect to online classes in between in-person classes throughout the day. Socially distanced computers will be available, and additional outlet strips are being purchased to provide power throughout the library. Students, faculty, staff, and other users will be expected to wear masks in the library and keep a safe social distance from other users.

We appreciate your cooperation, and we are excited to have you back!