Getting Started
Contact: 828-227-7465 or go to http://researchguides.wcu.edu/help.
Hunter Library at Western Carolina University is a great place to start looking for materials and sources for an undergraduate research project. The professional staff at Hunter Library is a group of expert researchers who are eager to help students with projects.
Know When to Ask an Expert for Help
One important aspect of being information literate is knowing when to ask an expert for help. When working on an academic project, this expert might be a professor, a librarian, a tutor, or someone in the Writing Center. A professor is an expert in the discipline; a librarian can find quality information and help a researcher find it more easily. The Writing Center can help students communicate the information and use it ethically by correctly citing sources.
The Key to Good Research is finding the right source for the right question.
Information Literacy
In a world where we are bombarded with information, it can be difficult to decide what we should pay attention to. According to the Association of College and Research Libraries, "Information Literacy is the set of skills needed to find, retrieve, analyze, and use information.”
The beginning of the 21st century has been called the Information Age because of the explosion of information output and information sources. It has become increasingly clear that students cannot learn everything they need to know in their field of study in a few years of college. Information literacy equips them with the critical skills necessary to become independent lifelong learners.
Too often we assume that as students write research papers and read textbooks, they are gaining sufficient information literacy skills. This is not so. Information literacy skills may be introduced, but what is needed is a parallel curriculum in information literacy forming a strong foundation of a college education.
Reference Librarian Heidi Buchanan is an expert researcher devoted to Information Literacy and to helping students find and evaluate information. Following are excerpts from her booklet “Tales from the Reference Desk: Helping Students Find and Evaluate Information.” The full text of this article is available on the Hunter Library webpage: http://www.wcu.edu/WebFiles/PDFs/facultycenter_booklet8.pdf.
Two Myths About The Internet
“Everything I need is on the Internet.” The Internet has changed the world and there are a lot of wonderful things available via the World Wide Web, but not everything is available on line. Though many journals and scholarly resources have online formats, there is a lot of scholarly information that is not available on the web for free.
“Librarians don’t like Google.” Librarians do like Google; however, they also understand that there are times to use a search engine and there are times to use other resources. The web is convenient for looking things up quickly. Librarians use web search engines for finding statistics, entertainment information, news, company information, directories, some primary documents from universities and museums, maps, travel information, etc. But not everything is available for free online, so researchers will want to dig deeper in books, articles, library databases, etc.
Hunter Library Core Values
Education and Lifelong Learning:
Hunter Library supports Western Carolina University's mission of teaching and learning. Librarians assist patrons in successfully and efficiently finding and critically evaluating information. The Library provides access to the information patrons need to successfully complete university studies, provides a physical space devoted to scholarship, and encourages learning and reading as lifelong activities. The principal core value of Hunter Library is the belief in the intrinsic and extrinsic benefits of education and devotion to the critical role that the library plays in providing this education.
Collaboration and Consensus:
Library employees collaborate with students, faculty, and staff to collect information and to help patrons pursue and obtain quality information. Further, library employees work with each other to manage the interrelated operations of the library and often work in tandem with other libraries to provide information and services. The ability to listen to and respect the opinion of others, to develop consensus that satisfies all affected parties, to compromise when necessary, and to enthusiastically implement decisions that have been made through this process are highly valued qualities within the library organization.
Freedom of Inquiry:
Hunter Library plays a vital role in preserving freedom of academic inquiry at Western Carolina University through its commitment to rational, open, and critical inquiry; and through its provision of a balanced array of scholarly resources representing a variety of different points of view.
Respect for the Individual Patron:
Respect for each library patron dictates fundamental aspects of quality service. Library employees interact with patrons with integrity; they strive for accuracy, equity of access, and privacy of patron records, and provide services to meet patrons’ needs.
Adaptability:
The mix of services offered by Hunter Library and the way in which they are provided continually change as new opportunities and challenges emerge. Always staying focused on the needs of patrons, the library continually seeks new ways to serve the university and to improve services already offered.