Ball State University faculty and students can find full-text articles online more quickly and easily using a new software through University Libraries.
"Find It" provides easier access to full-text information resources owned by University Libraries or on subscription by the Libraries. A distinctive blue button labeled "Find it @ BSU" appears next to search results in the University Libraries Database. It is designed to improve and simplify the process of finding article information.
"If a student has a citation in a syllabus or print bibliography, he or she can submit the citation information using an online form called Citation Linker and be directed to available online full-text articles," Matthew Shaw, electronic resources librarian, said.
If a full-text article is not available in online subscriptions, "Find it @ BSU" provides links to CardCat and InterLibrary Loan. CardCat allows you to search only for books in the university's three libraries using the author's name, book title or number, said Alok Kumar, graduate student in Information and Communication Sciences. "Find it @ BSU," however, allows you to get access to full-text content in Libraries' online holdings.
"Find it @ BSU" works off-campus as well, thus making the research process much easier for distance learning students and others who work on research in off-campus sites.
Shaw said "Find it @ BSU" was a very intuitive tool that did not require any special knowledge from students about its use.
Austin Brown, a freshman English literature major and part-time student assistant at Bracken Library, received training on how to use the software.
"It is a helpful tool," Brown said. "It will direct students on whether the library has the article in the online database or in physical copy."
University Libraries is continually enabling more and more of its online resources with "Find it @ BSU," Shaw said.
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