Library Hacks – Mary and Jeff Bell Library Blog

Introducing Zotero, your personal research assistant!

Post author:Lorin Flores
Post published:October 13, 2023
Post category:Library Hacks Things to Do

Have you heard the news about the University’s new implementation of Zotero? You might be curious what Zotero is and what it does. Zotero is a free online tool that helps you store and organize your research sources (journal articles, book chapters, etc.) Zotero works as a desktop app on your device, but also has a browser connector to help you gather citations from your sources and a web-based version, too. Zotero generates bibliographies of your stored citations either as…

How to Make Course Content Accessible with Blackboard Ally

Post author:Lauran Guerra
Post published:September 6, 2022
Post category:Library Hacks

With the growth of online, hybrid, and web-enhanced courses showing no signs of slowing nationwide, the need for the accessibility of electronic and information resources (EIR) grows exponentially as well! EIR refers to the applications, hardware, and digital content such as documents and videos we use or access every day. By striving to create and/or provide accessible EIR we: Extend learning opportunities to our diverse community in a university environment.Expand participation in, or benefits from, programs and activities.Keep our university…

Book Review, Free Resources, and New Computers!

Post author:Enrique Rodriguez
Post published:July 19, 2022
Post category:Books & More Hello, from the Staff Library Hacks Tech in the Library Things to Do

It's hot outside right now. I mean people are literally moving away from Texas because it's so hot! Thankfully here in the library, we have A/C. I am an indoor person and while I like to go out and experience things, my perfect day out is one where it looks like it might rain. Regardless, stay safe out there - it’s going to be a long summer! Book Review I wanted to review this book because 1: I have never…

Keep on Tweeting on (Responsibly)

Post author:Emily Sartorius
Post published:July 6, 2022
Post category:I-Know Library Hacks

Something that may surprise you is that I, a librarian, love social media. As librarians, we often tell students to shy away from social media and find “credible” and “scholarly” sources. But that doesn’t mean I don’t love watching TikToks or creating content for my puppy’s Instagram account. Social media can be fun. It can create a sense of community and make us feel good about ourselves. We can also learn new things from our friends and the people we…

Library Hacks on Finding Information

Post author:Emily Sartorius
Post published:April 26, 2022
Post category:Library Hacks

We all have questions we want answers to. Those questions can be simple, like: what time does the library open on Saturday? What is the weather like this weekend? And what was the final score of the Islander baseball game? And usually, with a simple Google search, look at the weather app, or visit to the Islander Baseball team website, we can find the answers to our questions. But sometimes our questions are more complex, and Google’s algorithm cannot give…

Red Flags: How to Identify Predatory Publishing

Post author:Alexa Hight
Post published:March 15, 2022
Post category:Books & More Hello, from the Staff Library Hacks

What is predatory publishing? The term “predatory publishing” refers to an exploitative academic publishing business model that involves charging publication fees to authors without checking articles for quality and legitimacy, and without providing editorial and publishing services that legitimate academic journals provide, whether open access or not. If you are unfamiliar with the term “open access,” you can read about it in another blog post, but a quick definition of one model of open access, is that instead of having…

Sharing is Caring: what librarians do when we’re stumped

Post author:Bell Library
Post published:June 1, 2021
Post category:Behind the Scenes Library Hacks

Where do you go when you need research help? The library of course! But where do librarians go when we need research help? Well, there’s a secret closet in the back of the library where an eternal flame exists. If we sacrifice an obsolete form of information preservation, say a CD-ROM or a floppy disk, we’re allowed to ask the flame one question. That’s how we learn new stuff! Just kidding, that’s not a real thing. Definitely don’t go searching…

Open Education Week 2021: Open Educational Resources in the Age of COVID

Post author:Lisa Louis
Post published:March 2, 2021
Post category:Books & More Library Hacks Service for You

I’ve been talking for a while on this blog about open education and how it can lower costs for students while at the same time bring new, invigorating practices to the classroom. But when the pandemic hit last year, open educational resources (OER) became a solution to a problem that was now more urgent than ever before. As a result of the pandemic, many students have been struggling financially. Access to physical books -- for example, reserves in the library which before the pandemic had been one strategy students could use to lower textbook costs -- were disrupted. Supply chains…

Career Research at Bell Library

Post author:Bell Library
Post published:February 12, 2021
Post category:Library Hacks Service for You Things to Do

“Where do you want to be in five years?” Apart from being asked why you’re still single (it’s a choice, grandma!), perhaps nothing stokes the flames of anxiety like being asked where you see yourself in fives years. College students have plenty to worry about with classes, homework, extra curriculars, and jobs, and now folks are going to add this to the pile?? Well, yes. During college, while you’re maybe still trying to find a path that excites you, career research doesn’t…

What’s a Journal Article?

Post author:Bell Library
Post published:October 9, 2020
Post category:Library Hacks

So you’ve been asked to find a journal article, but no one told you what that means. You’ve come to the right place, my friend. Let’s talk. What are journals? Journals are publications that come out periodically, like once a month or twice a year, and are filled with all the new content that was submitted to them. There are journals for research, journals for book reviews, journals for creative writing—whatever you’re in to! Each time the journal publishes a…