HERE FOR YOU & YOUR SUCCESS
RCCD LIBRARY's RESOURCES & SERVICES
Via RCCD’s City Campus Digital Library & Learning Resource Center

TWO ESSENTIALS
TO HELP MAKE THE RCCD LIBRARY WORK FOR YOU!

LIBRARIANS @ the Information Desk, DLLRC, 2nd Floor, West Wing

LAMP @ http://library.rcc.edu For access to our many information systems & services ... from both on campus and off ... 24 hours a day, 7 days a week — Your User ID = Your 7-digit Student ID Number — Your Pasword = The first letter of your first name, followed by up to six letters of your last name, all in lower case. If your last name is less than six letters, your password is your entire last name.

OTHER ESSENTIALS …
Ask at the Information Desk for help with any of the following...

RESERVES	Circulation Desk, DLLRC 2nd Floor, East Wing You need a “call number” to ask for RESERVE items.  If you don’t know this number, ask at the Information Desk.
BOOKS ~111,000 volumes in RCCD Library's collection	Reference Books - Books you use in the Library for facts, figures, definitions, overviews, etc. Shelved on the 2nd Floor, West Wing, next to the Information (Reference) Desk. Ask librarians for help finding these. For online reference ressources use LAMP's Electronic Resources, Reference Resources. Circulating Books (books you can check out for 3 weeks to use at home or elsewhere) – 3rd Floor (“Main Stacks”). Use LAMP's online Library Catalog to determine what books, media, and other items the RCCD Library has.
MAGAZINES JOURNALS NEWSPAPERS ~400 in paper ~3700 full text online	Most recent issues (in paper or "hardcopy") are displayed on the 3rd Floor, West Wing. However, for literally millions of articles (both current and past) available full text online, use LAMP's Electronic Resources, Periodical Indexes.
INTERNET	For Web sites with good, authentic, reliable information, use LAMP's Internet Resources.
PHOTOCOPYING & PRINTING $0.10/page	Photocopy Centers – on both the 2nd & 3rd Floors, West Wing. Print Center – only on 2nd Floor, West Wing. Buy  Copy Cards from vending machines in the two Photocopy Centers - 2nd & 3d Floors, West Wing

 

SPEED, EASE, SUCCESS
Finding Information For Your Assignments — Three Steps To Information Competency

STEP 1 Decide what information you need.	What’s your assignment?  Not sure?  Read your syllabus or assignment sheet.  Bug your prof ‘til you’re sure! You can choose any topic but aren’t sure what interests you?  Surf the Web.  Look through magazines and newspapers.  Ask Librarians about the “topic finding” features of some of our Electronic Resources.  Ask your lover (or family member or friend) – that is, adopt an interest of someone you care about as your own interest to write and read about for your assignment.
STEP 2 Find the information efficiently and effectively. Ask Librarians!  We’re here for you & your success! TIP: When using online systems, do KEYWORD searching, f you’re not sure of exact authors, titles, or subject headings. Results from your KEYWORD searches will lead you to exact authors, titles, and subject headings to use in further searching.	BOOKS:  Use LAMP's Library Catalog. MAGAZINE, JOURNAL, NEWSPAPER ARTICLES: Use LAMP's ELECTRONIC RESOURCES, PERIODICAL INDEXES - for Expanded Academic ASAP and many others that index, summarize, and provide literally millions of articles full text online. WEB SITES:  Use LAMP's INTERNET RESOURCES - then click on INTERNET BY SUBJECT for Web sites by broad subject and other interest categories that give good, authentic, authoritative information. FOR YET MORE INFORMATION SOURCES: Ask librarians! Read more about Step 2: Finding Information
STEP 3 Use the information well, wisely, appropriately. Includes evaluating and citing information you find.	Read and think about the information you find – ask: Is this information true, trustworthy, accurate, reliable, current, etc.? Cite or document the information you find according to standard “citation format style” guides (like MLA or APA). For online help with MLA or APA, use LAMP's Electronic Resources, Reference Resources, NoodleTools.

Read more about information competency.

More About Step 2: Finding Information

Books

Magazine, Journal, Newspaper Articles

Web Sites

1. Of the 25 online reference resources listed, click on that provide information about any subject, like BRITANNICA ONLINE or FACTS.COM (on the resulting screen, right-hand side, in the box under “Special Features,” click on “Issues in the News” and select from the many topics listed).
2. Or try these reference resources for more specific subjects respectively: ACCESS SCIENCE — for science and technology topics); COUNTRYWATCH — for excellent, up-to-date, reliable information about any country of the world; GROVE ART ONLINE and GROVE MUSIC ONLINE; Etc.
3. When accessing any of these reference resources, follow directions on resulting screens, use online HELP, and ask librarians for help too.

1. If you’re looking for books about some topic, click on KEYWORD – to search the catalog using words and phrases you think describe topics of your interest. 
2. From the list of items that results,  look at the full description of those items you feel will most likely give you information you want.  Note the SUBJECT line (field) of the record to see the official Library of Congress subject headings assigned to these items.
3. Click on those subject headings that look most relevant to the information you want.  What results is a list of other items about that same subject.

1. On the resulting screen from the list of our 15 magazine, journal, newspaper article indexing/abstracting/full text click on EXPANDED ACADEMIC ASAP or GENERAL REFERENCE CENTER – great to start with because here are hundreds of thousands of articles on all topics of human life and interest. 
2. From the initial search screen, you’re set to KEYWORD SEARCH.  In the search-statement box, type words descriptive of your topic. 
3. A list of articles results with the keyword/s you typed someplace in their respective descriptions; and listed most recent first.
4. You might want to click on LIMIT SEARCH (left column of screen), then follow directions on the resulting screen to make your search more specific and with fewer citations.
5. See SUBJECT headings assigned to these articles by clicking on an article, scrolling to the bottom of the screen, to the section headed: “View other articles linked to these subjects.”  Click on these to see more articles with these same headings, about these same subjects.

1. Expanded Academic ASAP includes indexing to the New York Times. General Reference Center indexes the New York Times – and  also the Christian Science Monitor, Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post. 
2. For more in-depth indexing to these four, plus the Los Angeles Times – use PROQUEST NEWSPAPERS, with indexing/abstracting plus full text to literally hundreds of thousands of newspaper articles. From BASIC SEARCH, in the search-statement box, type a keyword/s descriptive of topics of your interest, then click the SEARCH button. What results is a list of articles from the five newspapers indexed – listed most recent first. Usually this citation list is long, so consider limiting or narrowing your search by scrolling to the bottom of a screen of citations and clicking on “More Search Options,” then selecting from among the options listed. Alternatively, at the top of any ProQuest Newspapers screen, click on ADVANCED SEARCH to see immediately the many different ways to search this interesting, very helpful database.

1. Start by using “Web subject directories” to find Web sites that have been reviewed by and are recommended by experts. Because of this work by experts, generally we can be assured that the information given by these recommended sites is valid, reliable, etc. EXAMPLES OF WEB SUBJECT DIRECTORIES: The Librarians’ Index to the Internet and The Open Directory Project .  Also try the “Subject Guides” developed and updated by the Rio Hondo College librarians. For other Web subject directories use LAMP's Internet Resources, Internet By Subject - and on the resulting screen, just beneath this table of subject/interest categories, is the line “For even more subject links, click on …" - and to the right of this, several Web subject directories are listed.  
2. To learn about evaluating Web information - use LAMP's Internet Resources, Evaluating Resources. To learn about good Web searching in general use LAMP's LAMP Help, Internet Help - especially the links: "The Internet For Beginners" and "Searching The World Wide Web."