Textbooks at the Library? Maybe! Here’s How to Check…

We are often asked if we have course textbooks. The answer is, “maybe“.

Although the Bentley Library does not purchase textbooks, it is worth checking to see if (1) your professor has placed a copy of the textbook on reserve or (2) your textbook happens to be in the library’s regular book collection.

(1) Check Course Reserves

Sometimes professors put a copy of the class textbook on reserve at the library. You can search course reserves for your textbook by your professor’s last name or the course code. Reserve readings can usually be checked out for 2 hours, but some professors may allow a longer borrowing period.

(2) Search the Library’s Catalog for Your Textbook

Sometimes the library will have a copy of your textbook in the stacks. This is more likely for books that are not “standard” textbooks, such fiction/literature, business titles, popular nonfiction books and biographies. Search the library’s catalog by title and/or author for your textbook. If you do find your textbook, double-check the publication date or edition number to ensure it is the same edition required by your professor.

For More Help…

Have questions about textbooks? Stop by the Reference Desk, call 781.891.2300, send email to refdesk@bentley.edu or contact us using our chat/IM widget.

Find answers to more library FAQs in AskUs, the library’s FAQ database.

FAQ: How do I find a specific article?

Frequently heard at the Reference Desk:

“My professor said I could get this article at the library, but I don’t know how to find it”.

“This article is listed on Blackboard, but the link is broken. Can you help me get it?”

“I found a reference to this article in a book I’m using for my research. Can you help me track it down?”

Finding an article when you know the name of the journal, magazine, or newspaper in which it appears is as easy as one, two, three!  Follow these steps:

  1. Go to the library’s home page and click on the Journal Finder tab.
  2. Enter the name of the journal, magazine or newspaper in the search box and click [search]. The Journal Finder will tell you if the full-text is available, the database it can be found in, and the dates for which it is available. It will also tell you if the library has a subscription to the print journal.
  3. Click on the appropriate link to search for the article in that database.

What if the article isn’t available in any database or in print at the library?

Don’t worry, the library can obtain a PDF copy of the article for you, for free, and usually within three days! Request a copy of the article you need via Interlibrary Loan (ILL). Login to ILLiad with your Bentley username and password, click the link for “Request New Item – Article”, then complete and submit the form.

What if I’m not sure I have the right information, or that I am looking it up correctly?

It’s not unusual to have an incomplete or incorrect citation. Don’t give up! Reference librarians are happy to help you decode mysterious citations and locate articles. Contact the Reference Desk for help.

Find answers to more library FAQs in AskUs, the library’s FAQ database.

FAQ: What is a scholarly article and how do I find one?

What is a scholarly article?

Professors often require students to use articles from scholarly journals in their research papers and assignments. Scholarly journal articles are written by researchers, academic scholars or experts in a field and are written for a targeted audience that includes other researchers, scholars and specialists.

These are some identifying characteristics of scholarly journal articles:

  • the author’s name, credentials and academic/professional affiliations are clearly identified
  • article reports original research, experiments or theory
  • author writes in the vocabulary of the discipline; it is assumed the reader has some background knowledge of the subject
  • article is written in a formal style, is lengthy, and usually contains charts, tables or graphs
  • article is structured into sections that will likely include abstract, introduction, literature reviewmethodology, results, discussionconclusion, and references/bibliography
  • references and bibliographies are always included and cite other scholarly writings
  • journal is published by an academic organization/association, research institute, university or scholarly press

Is scholarly the same thing as peer-reviewed?

The terms scholarly, academic, peer-reviewed and refereed are often used interchangeably to refer to scholarly journals; however, strictly speaking, they are not all the same. Peer-reviewed and refereed journals are scholarly journals that put articles through a formal review process before they are accepted for publication. The review is conducted by a group of acknowledged experts (peers) who review the author’s research methods and consider the article’s contribution to the existing literature and body of knowledge in order to ensure a level of quality, value and academic merit.

It is important to note that while most scholarly journals are peer-reviewed, articles can be scholarly without being peer-reviewed or refereed. Essentially all peer-reviewed and refereed journals are scholarly, but not all scholarly journals are peer-reviewed or refereed.

If you are unsure what your professor expects, ask them to clarify.

How do I find a scholarly article?

How you go about finding scholarly articles depends on your topic, but most library databases allow you to limit your searches to scholarly or peer-reviewed journals. Keep in mind that not everything published in a scholarly journal is a scholarly article (e.g. book reviews, editorials, letters), so you will still need to evaluate each article individually, looking for the scholarly characteristics highlighted  above.

These two databases are good starting points for all academic subjects and interdisciplinary topics:

If your topic is a business topic, start with:

Conduct your search, then use the facets to filter to the scholarly articles.

The library offers many scholarly journal databases. (In fact, some databases contain nothing but scholarly content, in which case you may not see these limiters.) To identify the best resources for a specific subject, use the subject filters on the databases page, or ask a librarian to recommend databases to search.

Use Ulrichsweb to verify that a journal is scholarly

You can verify that a journal is scholarly or peer-reviewed by looking it up in Ulrichsweb Global Serials Directory. Ulrichsweb provides detailed descriptions of journals, including whether or not a journal is classified as scholarly and if it is peer-reviewed or refereed. For example, Ulrich’s tells us that the Journal of Consumer Research is academic/scholarly and refereed.

Ulrichsweb database

For more help

Have questions about scholarly articles? Stop by the Reference Desk, call 781.891.2300, send email to refdesk@bentley.edu or contact us using our chat/IM widget. Or, check with your professor to ensure that your article meets the standards required to be deemed scholarly.

Find answers to more library FAQs in AskUs, the library’s FAQ database.

FAQ: How do I cite this in APA format?

Citing sources is important and necessary. It can also be confusing and frustrating, even for those of us with years of experience! Complicating matters is the variety of citation formats available. Expository Writing classes here at Bentley typically teach and use the MLA (Modern Language Association) format, but business faculty rightly require students to use the APA (American Psychological Association) style, which is the citation format used in the social sciences. The APA style of formatting is better suited to citing business resources and databases.

This post will focus on a few online sources that the library’s reference librarians use when answering APA citation questions. It’s important to note that there isn’t always an exact answer to a “how do I cite this?” question, but in all cases the APA’s basic guidelines can be used to construct a citation that will serve to accurately credit and lead back to an original source.

Here are a few of our favorite sources for APA style help and citation examples:

Our very own reference librarians have created a comprehensive set of APA reference list examples for the library’s business databases (e.g. Mintel, IBISWorld, ProQuest). This guide also covers the basics of in-text citation and provides in-text examples for paraphrasing and quotations.

This trusted source provides numerous examples for the general format of APA research papers, in-text citations and reference list pages.

The official APA Style Blog® not only answers common APA questions, but also tackles those trickier questions that arise, such as How Do I Cite a TED Talk?. There are a few blog posts that I repeatedly refer to when helping students:

Also useful is the APA’s free online tutorial: The Basics of APA Style

APA Style online tutorial: The Basics of APA Style®
APA Style online tutorial: The Basics of APA Style®

For More Help…

Ask a Librarian

Visit the reference desk or contact a reference librarian via email, phone, text or IM/chat. You can also find answers to more library FAQs in AskUs, the library’s FAQ database.

RefWorks

RefWorks is a citation management tool that the Bentley Library subscribes to. It’s a little like EasyBib, but more robust, and every Bentley student gets their own personal account. RefWorks helps you create bibliographies and format research papers in the citation style of your choice. RefWorks also allows you to easily organize and keep track of your references in folders in your RefWorks account. The library’s RefWorks & EndNote Research Guide has more information on RefWorks.

We hope you find these resources helpful. Please let us know if you have any questions!

FAQ: Does the library have textbooks?

books-42932_1280One of the library’s most frequently asked questions is if we have course textbooks. The answer is “maybe“. Although the Bentley Library does not purchase textbooks, it is worth checking to see if (1) your professor put a copy of the textbook on reserve or (2) your textbook happens to be in the library’s regular book collection.

(1) Check Course Reserves

Sometimes professors put a copy of the class textbook on reserve for students at the Library Services Desk. You can search course reserves for your textbook by your professor’s last name or the course code. Reserve readings can usually be checked out for 2 hours, but some professors may allow a longer borrowing period.

(2) Search the Library’s Catalog for Your Textbook

Sometimes the library will have a copy of your textbook in the stacks. This is more likely for books that are not “standard” textbooks, such fiction/literature, business titles, popular nonfiction books and biographies. Search the library’s catalog by title and/or author for your textbook. If you do find your textbook, double-check the publication date or edition number to ensure it is the same edition required by your professor.

For More Help…

Have questions about textbooks? Stop by the Reference Desk, call 781.891.2300, send email to refdesk@bentley.edu or contact us using our chat/IM widget.

Find answers to more library FAQs in AskUs, the library’s FAQ database.

Try Our New Ask Us Service.

askus

One of our tasks this summer was to build a database of frequently asked questions and answers. The result is a new service that we are calling Ask Us.

Knowing that others have asked the same question is a comfort, but more than that, seeing questions you might not have intended to ask but wanted to know can help you to learn new things.

Here are a few examples:

Access is available in a number of ways:

If you have a question that is not answered, you can submit your question and your email address to get an answer. If the question is asked a few times, we’ll add it to the knowledge base. Of course, you can still visit our reference librarians in person at the library and we encourage you to do so, but try this service out. Give it a spin and see what questions others are asking and what the answers are.