Join us in celebrating National Library Week 2024, April 7-13! Each year, the American Library Association comes up with a theme for this celebration to acknowledge the importance of libraries. This year’s theme is “Ready, Set, Library!,” which ...
"... promotes the idea that in our always-online world, libraries give us a green light to something truly special: a place to connect with others, learn new skills, and focus on what matters most."
Although this is a week-long celebration, certain days are dedicated to advocating for libraries:
- Right to Read Day (April 8) is just that - it’s an advocacy day that supports the right to read, which includes the release of The State of America’s Libraries Report and Top Ten Most Challenged Books of 2023.
- National Library Workers Day (April 9) recognizes library workers and their valuable contributions to libraries across the nation.
- National Library Outreach Day (April 10) honors library workers who provide outreach services and meet their patrons at their point of need.
- Take Action for Libraries Day (April 11) encourages dialogue and advocacy, including persuading members of Congress to protect the freedom to read.
While we appreciate this annual spotlight on libraries, we are nothing without the communities we serve. So, what do we, the Chamberlain librarians, do for our community, the Chamberlain community? Well, let me tell you …
We do research. More importantly, we help you with your research. As you embark on your journey towards a degree, we are here to support your research endeavors throughout the way. We hope to teach you valuable skills to help you along your career path.
Here are ways we support you:
- We help you with search strategies. Let’s face it: extracting keywords from complex topics or clinical questions is difficult. Throw Boolean operators (connector terms) into the mix; things can get confusing quickly. That’s why we make ourselves available seven days a week through chat, email, 1:1 appointments, and text. You can connect with us through our Get Research Help guide. In addition, our How to Do Library Research guide simplifies the research process with step-by-step instructions.
- We help you find things. And no, not just finding sources on your topic but finding an article, book, or other source you are looking for through a title search. If your title isn’t available in our collection, you can request it through our document delivery service, or we can help you find similar sources!
- We understand you are busy and may be unable to meet with us during our service hours. We take this into account when we create content for the library website. Our research guides, FAQs, Tips of the Week blog posts, Loubot, and videos are a great way to get helpful tips and tricks outside of our service hours.
- If you are available during our service hours and prefer talking over typing, you can meet with us 1:1 or as part of a group in our live workshops or instruction sessions. Instruction sessions are available at the request of your instructors, so make sure to let them know where they can sign up.
- Speaking of instructors, don’t think that we forgot about you! Last year, we launched a new service to help support faculty throughout the research process. To learn about each service, visit the Research Services page on our Library Services for Faculty and Colleagues guide.
- Lastly, we work with your program’s leadership to build our collection based on the curriculum, acquiring only the most relevant and up-to-date sources for your assignments.
We truly appreciate all of you in the Chamberlain community and look forward to assisting you!