LIBRARY NUTS & BOLTS
Who
can check out books from the Meriam Library?
You must be a registered student, faculty or
staff, or have a courtesy
or non-affiliated
user (NAU) card to check out material. Other patrons may
check out government documents (only) with a California driver's
license or DMV identity card and social security number.
Visit the Circulation Department's Web site
for more information: http://www.csuchico.edu/library/circ/circ.html
How
long can I check out a book?
The loan period is 21 days for undergraduates,
staff, courtesy
and non-affiliated
user patrons, and 35 days for graduate students. Books
checked out to faculty are due on April 15th.
Visit the Circulation Department's Web site
for more information: http://www.csuchico.edu/library/circ/circ.html
Can
I be put on a waiting list for a book that is checked out?
Yes, current CSU, Chico students, faculty, and
staff may place a hold on any book that is checked out. The
library will notify you after the book is returned and available
for you to check out. A book with a hold can not be renewed.
When a hold is placed on a book due by on April 15th, the
library will request that the book be returned as soon as
possible. To place a hold:
1. Search Books
for the book you'd like to check out.
2. On the "Search Results" screen, click the title
of the book to get to the "Full Record."
3. On the "Full Record" screen, click the small
"place a hold" button in the top right corner of
the screen (next to the search box).
4. Type your Library ID number (from your campus ID) in the
box to complete the hold request.
How
do I renew my books?
You can renew your library books online on or
before the due date stamped in the back of the book. To renew
online, from the ReSEARCH
Station click on "Renew
Your Books" in the "Services" box. From
there do the following:
1. Enter your campus portal ID and password and press the submit button.
2 . Click renew box for each item you wish to renew.
4 . Click "Renew Selected " or the "Renew All" button.
5 . Check new due date and review renewal column for messages.
You will not be allowed to renew nonprint items (like videos)
or if the item is overdue, is on hold for another user, or
you owe a fine. Please bring these items to the Library.
IMPORTANT: You can only renew once online. If
you want to renew the same items again, you must bring them
to the library's Circulation counter.
For questions or problems with online renewal,
call Circulation at 898-6501.
How
do I check my library circulation account?
Your circulation account provides you with a
list of books you have checked out, books you have on hold,
and fines you accrued. To login to your account, click on
this link (circulation
account), type in your campus portal ID/password, and look at
your record.
You can also access your account information
through the Meriam Library Catalog. To do so:
1. Visit the ReSEARCH Station.
2. Click on "Books."
3. Click on "My Library Account."
How
do I access databases from my home computer?
To access the library's databases from home,
you need a portal
or Wildcat Email account. After creating your account, follow
these steps:
1. Visit the ReSEARCH
Station.
2. Surf to the link for your favorite database, and click
on it.
3. Enter your portal or email login name and password when
prompted.
Note: Off campus access to subscription databases
is restricted to students currently enrolled in classes
at CSU, Chico or faculty and staff currently employed
by CSU, Chico.
Problems logging in? You may need technical
help.
Students call Student Computing: 898-4357 (898-HELP).
Faculty and Staff call the Faculty/Staff Help Desk: 898-6000.
How
do I get a Portal account?
If you are a current CSU, Chico student, faculty
or staff member you can create a portal account. A portal
account allows you easy access to the Library’s databases
and full text journals.
1. To create a portal account go to http://portal.csuchico.edu/
2. Scroll down to "Accounts."
3. Select "New Student Account " or "New Faculty
and Staff Account."
4. Follow the steps given.
If you have problems or questions call:
Students: Student Computing, 898-4357 (898-HELP).
Faculty/Staff: Faculty/Staff Help Desk, 898-6000.
My
professor has placed something on electronic reserve. How do
I access it?
Follow the steps below to use Electronic Reserves.
If you are working from home you should begin by opening your
Portal page and then connecting to the ReSEARCH Station. If
you haven't established a university portal account yet, see
these instructions.
To connect to e-reserve materials, you must have the CLASS
PASSWORD distributed by your instructor. If you don't have
the password, contact your instructor or another student in
the class.
1. To get to the E-reserves site, start at the library's ReSEARCH
Station.
2. Select (Search) "Reserve
Materials", on the left side of the screen.
3. Select "Electronic
Reserve (E-Res)."
4. Select "Electronic Reserves and Course Materials."
5. Search by Department, Instructor, Course* and other categories.
* When searching by course, use these formats:
Use the four-letter department abbreviation that appears in
the catalog or the abbreviation + course number
For example:
hist finds all the History courses with electronic
reserve materials.
hist001 finds the electronic reserve materials
for History 001.
I
am a faculty member. How do I place items on reserve for a class?
The library has both physical reserves and electronic
reserves. The Reserve Guide for Faculty at http://www.csuchico.edu/library/llo/llofac.html
explains both procedures.
If you have additional questions about placing
items on reserve, call the Limited Loan Department at 898-5729.
Does
the library own old campus yearbooks?
Yes, we have old copies of The Record
in Special Collections.
Call number: LD723 C57.
Years we own: 1896-1970, 1976/1977-1981/1982, 1984- date.
See Special
Collections' hours before making your trip to the library
to view the old yearbooks.
Does
the library have old course catalogs?
Old copies of the university catalogs are held
in Special Collections, including:
- Catalog from 1977-date, LD723 A3 C411.
- Undergraduate & Graduate Bulletin from 1975/77, LD723
A3 C411.
- Graduate Bulletin from 1969-1975, LD723 A3 C41.
- General Bulletin from 1972-1975, LD723 A3 C4.
- General Bulletin from 1889-1972, LD723 A3 C4.
Catalogs published after 1993 are available
online and
course descriptions may be printed from the Web. For older
issues, however, you must visit the library to make photocopies
of the print catalog. See Special
Collections' hours before making your trip.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
How
do I find a video in the library?
You can use the Meriam
Library Catalog to look up videos. This is the same system
you use to look up books in our library. So, from the library's
ReSEARCH Station,
select "Library
Catalogs" from the center of the page, then select
"Library
Catalog." Once there, you can search by title, subjects,
or keywords of the video you want to find.
Limit your results to only our video collection
at the bottom of the keyword search screen. Next to the word
"collection" is a scroll down list of our library
collections. Select all of the collections that have to do
with Videos or DVDs (you can select multiple options by holding
down the CTRL button while you click the options you want
with the mouse).
After you do this, your search will retrieve
videos in our collection based on the title, subject, or keywords
you searched. Use the call number provided to find your video
on the shelves of the Limited Loan room (1st
floor, near the stairs). You can check your videos out
at the desk in the Limited Loan room as well.
How
do I find a thesis submitted at CSU, Chico?
From the library's ReSEARCH
Station, select "Books."
Once there, search with keywords such as the
last name of the author or some words from the title. If you
don't have a particular author or title in mind, and just
want to find all the theses submitted to a department, then
use the department name as your keyword (e.g., biological
sciences). Or, you can use a likely keyword to find all the
theses written about a topic (e.g., learning styles).
Limit your results to only our thesis collection
at the bottom of the keyword search screen. Next to the word
"collection" is a scroll down list of our library
collections. From the list, select "thesis". Click
submit and view your results. Use the call number provided
to find the item on the shelves.
You may browse the shelves to see what theses
are available from each department. After 1994, all theses
from a particular department received the same call number
so they would appear on the shelves next to one another. Click
here to see what call number is assigned to each department:
http://www.csuchico.edu/lbib/bibserv.manual/theses_academic_units.htm
The Thesis Collection is located on the 3rd
floor in the northwest corner. You can check out theses
at the Circulation desk on the
first floor, near the exit.
What
information is available for local history, genealogy, and obituaries?
Local History
The Meriam Library is home to the Northeast California
Collection, a special collection of materials relevant to
our local region. In the collection are a number of books,
personal papers, and historic photographs. See this Web site
for more information on holdings: http://www.csuchico.edu/lbib/spc/
Genealogy
The library houses valuable California Census data in
addition to records pertaining to the local area in the Northeast
California Collection. In addition, the library's Ready
Reference & Quick Facts includes links to online
genealogy resources. Resources and research assistance
are available throughout Butte County. Please see this guide
to genealogy services: http://www.csuchico.edu/library/gov/MLIB_Obit_Geneal_Research.pdf
Obituaries
We own microfilm copies of the Chico newspaper, the Enterprise-Record,
in all its historic iterations. Patrons may visit the library's
microfilm collection and make copies of obituaries from any
paper. In addition, Special Collections provides a fee-based
service for those unable to travel to Chico. See this link
for more information: http://www.csuchico.edu/library/gov/MLIB_Obit_Geneal_Research.pdf
Is
it possible to access actual books online?
Yes. Meriam Library has purchased some online
books for its collection and provides access to others through
a CSU-wide consortium. Current CSU, Chico students, faculty
and staff may access these online books easily and for free.
To see what online books Meriam library has purchased for
its collection, you should search the Library Catalog. Follow
the steps below. To access online books available through
the CSU consortium, visit the Electronic Books Web page at
http://www.csuchico.edu/lref/ebook/index.htm.
This Web site also includes some collections of online books
freely available on the internet. You don’t need to
have current CSU, Chico status to use these free collections.
How to find online books using the Meriam
Library Catalog (requires current CSU, Chico status):
1. Visit the library's ReSEARCH
Station.
2. Select "Books."
3. Conduct a search for any combination of keyword, subject,
author or title. If you are looking for a particular book,
searching by its title usually will offer the fastest results.
4. If there are any online or electronic books with your keywords,
they will be displayed in the results of your search.
5. Look for the notation "[electronic resource]"
in the book title or a call number ending with the letters
“eb."
6. Click on the title of an online book you are interested
in. This takes you to a fuller description of the book, including
a link to it online.
7. Look for the line that says "Web Link." Next
to that is the Web address you should click on to access the
book online.
8. To read the book online, click on "Browse this eBook
online."
NOTE: Electronic books provided by netLibrary
are only available to current students, faculty and staff
of CSU, Chico. If you are off campus and using a commercial
Internet service provider (e.g., AOL, Earthlink . . .) you
may be required to setup an account (free) with netLibrary.
Follow their instructions on how to set-up the account.
Where
can I find images for a presentation?
Meriam Library's
Photos
Historic Photographs of the Northeast California region
are cataloged in the Meriam
Library Catalog. Search your keyword(s), and select "historic
photographs" from the "Collection" box at the
bottom of the screen to limit your results. To view a photo,
click on its title. On the next screen, find the line called
"Web Link" and click the Web address given there.
These photographs can also be searched and browsed directly
on the Web from this Web page: http://cricket.csuchico.edu/portfolio/default.html
However, many of the library's historic photos are not
online. Contact the Special
Collections Department for more information.
Images on the Internet
The library's Ready
Reference & Quick Facts page links to some of the
best sources of images on the Web. This site also includes
photographs of the CSU, Chico campus and the region. See:
http://www.csuchico.edu/lref/elebooks.html#Image
If you do not see your category listed among the options,
use the Google
image search engine to search for your topic.
Images in books
Search the Meriam
Library Catalog for your keywords. View the full record
of each title that looks interesting to you (click the title
to do this). Once there, look for the "description"
line. The abbreviations "ill." or "illus."
indicate that the book contains illustrations. Use the call
number and location in the catalog to locate your book in
the library.
NOTE: Most often, books in the folio
collection will offer the best image options. To limit to
the folio collection, follow these steps.
1. After typing your keywords in the keyword search box,
scroll down to the bottom of the keyword search screen.
2.- Next to the word "Collection," scroll through
the box and click on the word "folio."
3. Click the search button to begin your library catalog
search.
I
was searching in a journal database, and 
appeared. What is it and should I click on it?
What is it?
Find It is SFX software that allows you to immediately
find out if the article you'd like to read is available online
in full text format. When you click the Find It button, a
search is automatically conducted to identify if your article
is provided in one of our other databases or in print in the
library.
Should you click
it? Yes, click it if the article title and
description sounds like something you want to read. Find It
will help you discover if the Meriam Library has the journal
online through another database or in the library.
What happens after
I click Find It? A box will pop up, and it
will either give you a list of options or suggest you order
the item through Interlibrary Loan. How to read the results
page:
-
"Full text available from..."
means the database listed should have the article you
want to read in full text format. Click the database
name to access that database and find your article.
Find It will link you as close to the full text as
is possible in each database.
-
"For holdings check the Meriam Library
Catalog" means the library owns at least some issues
of this journal. Click the Meriam Library Catalog link
and look at the "Chico Has" line. Does it include
the year you want? If so, write down the call number and
find it on the shelf in the library. Journals (periodicals)
are available on the 2nd floor of the library (see
map).
-
"Request your item through Interlibrary
Loan" is useful if no other options are listed. Click
the link, fill out the form, and the library will get
the article from another library.
How
do I figure out if the library has the journal I need?
If you have an article you want to find, and
know the journal name, volume, and year it was published,
you are searching for a “known citation.” The
following steps will help you to find the full text of the
article if it is available through the Meriam Library.
1. Go to the library's ReSEARCH
Station.
2. Select the link “Periodicals
List” from the top left of the screen.
3. Enter in the journal title keywords or enter the full journal
title in the search box.
4 . Identify the title you entered among the search results.
If the journal is not available, you will get a blank screen.
You can then request your article through Interlibrary
Loan.
5 . If your title does show up, the search results will list
the title and, below that, list the names of databases providing
your journal full text or a notation that the library owns
the journal.
6 . Match the date of your article against the dates provided
in the results page. This will tell you which database is
most likely to offer your article full text.
7 . Click the journal title. Your options will include:
How do I
cite my research (books, articles, etc.)?
The ReSEARCH Station's Citation Formats & Style
Manuals Page provides guidelines for citing research
using several different style manuals. Look for instructions
using your style on this page: http://www.csuchico.edu/lref/newciting.html
If you are not sure what format to use, check with your
professor for his/her citation requirements before selecting
a citation style.
