The public computers can be used by anyone to do research using the Library's resources or the Internet. Library workstations are equipped with web browsers (Foxfire Mozilla, Internet Explorer and Netscape) and basic utilities such as Adobe Acrobat Reader, but do not have office applications such as word processing, spreadsheets, etc.
Research databases include the information for the access of articles in magazines, journals and newspapers and other kinds of resources. Some research databases may contain abstracts or brief summaries of the articles and may also include full text or links to the full text of articles. So you would use research databases when you need to find articles on a topic in magazines, journals or newspapers, public opinion polls, specific company information, technical reports, book reviews, biographies and more.
Books cover virtually any topic. Most books in an academic library are written by scholars with expertise in specific subject areas. Classics and popular fiction are also included in the collection. Academic libraries provide access to these and scholarly books that are relevant to course-work in all formats: paper, e-books, and others.
The University of Toledo Libraries have a collection of videos (VHS and DVD formats) that support the University's curriculum. There are educational videos on a variety of topics, as well as feature films that primarily support our department of Theatre and Film.
Articles are submitted by researchers from academic or professional fields to specialized magazines, called ?journals.? Often, an editorial board reviews these scholarly articles to decide whether they should be published in their journals. Articles that are reviewed by this process are called ?refereed? or ?peer-reviewed? articles. These are written in the language of the field of the scholars (professors, researchers and students). They also contain references to other works being discussed in the article. Journals come in many formats, paper, electronic, and microform.
Popular magazines are made up of miscellaneous articles and news items covering a wide variety of subject areas including current events and pop culture. These articles are written by journalists, writers or editors, employed by the magazine. Magazines are aimed at specific interest audiences and use a lower reading level language. Magazines come in many formats, paper, electronic, and microform.
Newspapers provide articles about current international, national and local events. Newspapers also present opinion articles in the form of editorials, letters to the editor, and columns by commentators with expert or popular views. Articles are not intended to be scholarly and also use a lower reading level language. Newspapers and newspaper articles come in many formats, paper, electronic, and microform.
The Library has maps and geographic information in many formats: single maps (sheet maps), atlases, and globes, for example. Much of the collection consists of topographic maps (showing contours and elevation) from the United States Geological Survey. Maps can display a wide variety of information, such as: the religious population in a specific country, general population information, the elevation of a certain area, historical information of a certain area, or waterways for boating or sailing. Maps come in electronic and microform formats as well.
This is where you can find class notes or other required supplemental reading or viewing. Access to Reserves materials also may be available through the Reserves page of the UTMost catalog as electronic documents. You can get to that information using your instructor?s name or the course number. Electronic image documents must be limited to class members only for copyright reasons. So have your student ID number ready. For more information, see: http://utoledo.edu/library/serv/reserves.html
Government documents can be books, maps, datafiles, dvds, cd-roms, microforms, films, videos, pamphlets, or webpages published by federal, state and local governments and their departments, agencies, committees, commissions, etc. Governments publish large amounts of information on all topics, including employment statistics, schools, almost everything. State and local governments publish similar materials, focused on their respective constituencies. Government documents are worth the effort, as they can supply facts, statistics, authoritative decisions and current information that may not be available elsewhere.
Ward M. Canaday Center for Special Collections is located on the fifth floor of the Carlson library. The library's rare books, manuscript collections, and the University of Toledo's historical documents or archives are kept here. In order to use the collection, you would need to register and work with the materials in the Center's reading room. You must also follow the Center's rules on preserving the documents for future use. The collection is available Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and by appointment.
Use Interlibrary Loan (ILL) to request articles from journals we do not own or are not available full-text online. You can also use ILL to request any sort of material that is not available in UTMOST and circulates from another library almost anywhere in the world. For more information, see: http://www.utoledo.edu/library/serv/ill.html
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