Published: April 13, 2022 by Hilary Meehan
Andrew Chae, ’20 MLIS, SJSU iSchool Library Liaison, offers information for students looking to optimize their access to and use of King Library resources, as well as ideas for engaging with the library community virtually. information sciences in the broad sense.
What are your top King Library tips for iSchool students?
1) I didn’t know this when I was a student at iSchool, but you can suggest book purchases! The suggestion form is
here.
2) If you need a book that is not available in electronic format, you can request it as a physical book through interlibrary loan. It will be mailed to you free of charge, although you must pay the return postage. Check guide,
page and
video for more information.
3) Although the library and information science guides we have for library and information science contain a lot of useful information for iSchool students, I would also recommend looking at library guides that cover other topics depending on the task. For example, if your mission is related to the story in some way, you can try using our lib history guide.
Is there a great resource that you think is currently underutilized by iSchool students?
So far, I’ve found that many students haven’t fully utilized the citation search. Two very useful databases in this area are Web of Science and Scopus. In addition to finding articles through citation searching, these databases can also help students find authors who have published extensively on research topics that may be of interest to them. This can be useful not only in their current courses, but also in potential future collaborations if they choose to continue doing research after graduation.
How do you support student research, publication and presentation?
Most of the research questions I get are aboutNFO 200: Information Communities. Students often ask for help finding articles related to their specific information community, and I try to help them by giving them different search strategies and tips. When I was in the program, writing my final article for INFO 200 was one of the most difficult tasks. It was especially difficult because it had been a long time since my undergrad, so I was very rusty when it came to writing big papers. Because I know that the final work for this course can be very difficult, I try to help the students as much as possible. I also regularly receive requests from students in INFO 285: Research MethodsINFO 244: Online research, INFO 204: Information professionsand INFO 203: Online Learning.
I haven’t had students ask for help with editing and presentation. I would love to help in these areas at some point in the future!
What virtual information communities do you recommend for iSchool students?
Hacking Library School
is a great blog for learning from other LIS students outside of SJSU. Since they accept guest submissions, it also provides an opportunity for iSchool students to participate in an online blogging community.
Reddit communities r/libraries and
r/librarians
are really useful to learn more about the different things happening in the world of libraries. There is also often a lot of good career advice.
Please tell us a good King Library/iSchool student story.
A student once asked for help finding Library of Congress subject headings related to paranormal enthusiasts. As I’m a horror movie fan, this led me down a fun rabbit hole where I found some really interesting topic titles that I had never thought of before. Some of them included:
- astral body
- astral projection
- Audio cassettes in parapsychology
- cursed objects
- Demonology
- demonomania
- Disappearances (Parapsychology)
- Discernment of spirits
- electronic voice phenomenon
- Extrasensory perception
- Fourth Dimension (Parapsychology)
Other ideas or suggestions?
Finally, I just wanted to give you some advice regarding your e-portfolio. You’ve probably heard this many times before, but don’t wait until the last minute! Be sure to save all
unique assignment in Google Drive and note if you think something could support a specific skill. Your future self will thank your old self for doing this!
Your links with the iSchool library:
Andrew Chae (MLIS ’20) is a tenure-track Library Faculty Member and iSchool Library Liaison specializing in Computer Science, Information Science and Data Analytics, and Library Science and information science. Andrew can be reached via
email to andrew.chae@sjsu.edu. Click here to view its library guides online.
Craig Simpson is Director of Special Collections and Archives for the King Library and Library Liaison for the MARA programme. He can be contacted by email at
craig.simpson@sjsu.edu or by phone at 408-808-2061. Click here to watch his video “Welcome to MARA”. See also
“Ask an Archivist: Craig Simpson, MARA Liaison Librarian”
SJSU King Library on Social Media: