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Ask a Librarian Frequently Asked Questions

Question 1 Get Access UHV-

In order to access the Library's databases for research or to access your student email, you need to login to your UHV student email and change your password from the default of your birth date (MMDDYYYY) to one of your own creation.

To do this, please go to the following web page: http://vcuhvlibrary.uhv.edu/libraryservices/offcampus.htm

Click on UHV Information Technology Department's Student Services to Continue to Login -

Input your username and password this way -

username: uhv\####### (# stands for your 7 digit PeopleSoft number)

password: MMDDYYYY

If you do not know your 7 digit PeopleSoft number, please call the Office of Admissions & Records at 1-877-970-4848, ext. 137 for help.

When you are logged in, the system will immediately ask you to change your password. When you have successfully changed your password, you can then sign on to the Library's databases using your seven-digit PeopleSoft number as your username (no uhv\!) and your new UHV email password as your password.

Question 1 Get Access VC-

In order to access the Library's databases or to access your student email, you need to activate your Victoria College SAM account.

To do this, please go to the following web page: http://vcuhvlibrary.uhv.edu/libraryservices/offcampus.htm

Click on iSAM registration page. .

Read the instructions and follow through the process of generating a username and password for your VC iSAM account. You will use the same username and password to access the Library's databases for research. When you go to the Library's website and click on a Library reasearch tool from off-campus, you will be asked to input what type of student you are (VC) and your new username and password from your iSAM acoount.

Question 2 Find a Book-

To look for books, go to the Library's homepage at http://vcuhvlibrary.uhv.edu .

Find the search box labeled Search the Library's catalog for books & multimedia (it is in a gray box on the left).

You can do a General Keyword search (or use the drop-down box to select Title Keyword, Subject Keyword, Author Keyword, or Series Keyword and once you are in the Catalog you can limit by collection type or do browse searches)

If you put in a general keyword, such as computers, you will retrieve a list of books. You can limit the results to a particular collection or sort by another method by using limits and sorts on the upper right side of the screen.

If the citation you receive in the catalog is for an electronic resource (a resource that can be accessed and read online), a URL will appear near the bottom of the citation. Click on the URL to access the material.

Question 3 Find Journals-

To find out if we have journals and link to the database where your journal articles may be located full-text, go to the Library's home page at http://vcuhvlibrary.uhv.edu

Go to the search box labelled See if we have a journal or magazine (TDNET) - it is in a gray box in the center of the page. If you already have a citation, you can use the Advanced Journals List Search.

If you are searching from off-campus, you will need your email account username and password for our proxy server. You will need to enter your student type (VC or UHV), your username, and your password to enter the TDNET site. Click on Connect to TDNET from off-campus to enter our journals management system.

Type the name (or significant words in the name) of your journal in the search box.

Click on the checkmark under full-text access accross from your journal name to link to the database holding your journal. You will then be able to select the year, the volume, and the article you need.

If there is only a checkmark under Print Holdings, click there and you will be taken to our Online Catalog record that will show a subscription summary of what years and issues we hold.

If there are journal articles you need and we do not have access to the journals, please use our free Interlibrary Loan service to obtain your articles. Here is a link to the Interlibrary Loan web page.

Question 4 Find Scholarly Journals-

To find scholarly journal articles on a topic, first go to the Library's home page.

If you know the name of the database (such as Academic Search Premier or Infotrac Onefile) you want to use, select List of All Databases and click on the name of the database to enter and search. If you only know what subject you want to search, select your subject from the list under Start Research Here. Choose one of the links you see under the Journals tab.

For more information on this topic, check out our Need a Scholarly Journal or Article study guide.

All of the databases will have a search box where you will input your research topic. Look for options to check - these may say Scholarly, Peer Reviewed, or References Available. All of these will retrieve the type of articles you need. Scholarly may not appear as an option, but peer reviewed is just as good for retrieving scholarly results.

Question 5 Access Electronic Books-

To access the VC/UHV Library's collection of electronic books (netLibrary), go to the Library's home page.

Select your subject from the list under Start Research Here. Click on the Book Resources tab.

Select netLibrary.

If you are off-campus, you will need to use your VC iSAM account or your UHV student email username and password to access the netLibrary collection. When you do that, all of the electronic books that VC/UHV Library owns should be searchable for you.

A second way to access netLibrary books is through our Library Catalog. Find the search box labeled Search the Library's catalog for books & multimedia (it is in a gray box on the left). Search by keyword and look for a book title that is an electronic resource, it will probably be an electronic book from netLibrary. To pull up only books that are in the netLibrary collection, use the Power Catalog Search and include netLibrary as a General Keyword search term. For example: computers (general keyword) and netLibrary (general keyword) retrieves 431 books OR use the electronic books limit.

We also have electronic resources that are United States Documents. The URL link will take you to the full-text of the United States Document you selected. Inside the Library's Catalog, we also have links to Internet sites and full-text reference resources.

Question 11 Cite MLA Style-

To find help citing papers using the MLA style, go to the Library’s home page.

Select How to Cite Your Sources from the lower-right part of the page.

Click on on one of the links for MLA or APA, depending on the style determined by your instructor.

Included on the bottom of the page are three links to pages that will auto-compose your bibliographic citations for you.

We have a new study guide for the MLA 7th edition!

You can also chat with the Reference Librarian during the open hours of the Library . Just add the vcuhvlibrarian@hotmail.com, the vcuhvlibrarian@yahoo.com, or the vcuhvlibrary@aol.com to your contact list.

Question 14 Use MLA-

The MLA International Bibliography is a bibliographic index for books and articles published on modern languages, literatures, folklore, and linguistics.

To research topics in the MLA International Bibliography, go to the Library's home page.

Select List of all databases.

Arrow down to the MLA International Bibliography.

When you click on the link to the MLA, the Literature Resource Center will appear on your screen. If you are working from off-campus, you will have to enter your type of student, your username, and your password on an intermediate page.

Click on the blue box that says MLA International Bibliography with Directory of Periodicals.

Search the title of your work or your author’s last name and title of work. (Ex. Shakespeare and Hamlet or just Hamlet)

You will receive a results list of citations to journal articles, book articles, and books. The citation type will be identified on the right side of the page.

Those articles which are full-text in the MLA database will have a small full-text icon to the left of the number of the citation.

If there is not a full-text icon and your citation is to a journal article, use the following method to see if we have full-text coverage for your journal:

Open a second Internet session and go to the Library's home page.

Enter the name of your journal in the search box labelled See if we have a journal or magazine (TDNET) .

If the record for your journal appears, you can see if we have full-text available electronically and click on the checkmark to go to the database where the full-text is available. If you click on the check mark under "Print Holdings," you will be taken to our Online Catalog record for this journal. At the bottom of the record will be a summary of holdings for that journal.

You can repeat this process for your other journal titles.

You can also use the Advanced Journals List Search to add more information from your citation, such as author of the article or article title. This information must be entered exactly as it appears in the citation.

If your citation is to a book or a book article, you can search the Online Catalog using a title browse to see if we have the book that you need. Here is a link to our Online Catalog.

Question 15 Use Academic Onefile-

Academic Onefile (or Infotrac or Expanded Academic Index - other names used for this database) is a source for news and periodical articles on a wide range of topics: business, computers, current events, economics, education, environmental issues, health care, hobbies, humanities, law, literature and art, politics, science, social science, sports, technology, and many general interest topics.

To research topics in Academic Onefile, go to the Library's home page.

Select List of all databases from the upper-right side of the page.

Arrow down to Academic Onefile.

When you click on the link to Academic Onefile from off-campus, you will have to enter your type of student, your username, and your password on an intermediate page.

Search your topic in the search box provided or, if needed, go to the advanced search page by clicking on the link on the left side of the page.

You can limit your search to "articles with text," to "referred publications (scholarly)," to a specific "date range," or to a specific "journal name."

You will receive a results list of citations to journal articles or newspapers.

Those articles which are full-text in the database will have a text link under the citation.

If there is not a full-text link, use the following method to see if we have full-text coverage for your journal:

Open a second Internet session and go to the Library's home page.

Enter the name of your journal in the search box labelled See if we have a journal or magazine (TDNET) .

If the record for your journal appears, you can see if we have full-text available electronically and click on the checkmark to go to the database where the full-text is available. If you click on the check mark under "Print Holdings," you will be taken to our Online Catalog record for this journal. At the bottom of the record will be a summary of holdings for that journal.

You can repeat this process for your other journal titles.

You can also use the Advanced Journals List Search to add more information from your citation, such as author of the article or article title. This information must be entered exactly as it appears in the citation.

Question 9-Research Nursing

To research subjects in the nursing area, go to the Library's home page.

Select the subject of Nursing/Medicine from the top area labelled Start Research Here for Articles, Books, and More.

There are 15 databases for journal articles, including CINAHL Plus with Full Text , Health Reference Center, and Academic, and Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition.

The advanced search in CINAHL (click on the blue tab labeled Advanced Search at the top of the page) allows you to input 3 terms and gives you options for choosing where the terms are found. The bottom of the page gives you more options, such as limiting your search to full-text articles only and specifying what dates to search.

If there is not a full-text link under the article citations you retrieve, use the following method to see if we have full-text coverage for your journal:

Open a second Internet session and go to the Library's home page.

Enter the name of your journal in the search box labelled See if we have a journal or magazine (TDNET) .

If the record for your journal appears, you can see if we have full-text available electronically and click on the checkmark to go to the database where the full-text is available. If you click on the check mark under "Print Holdings," you will be taken to our Online Catalog record for this journal. At the bottom of the record will be a summary of holdings for that journal.

You can repeat this process for your other journal titles.

You can also use the Advanced Journals List Search to add more information from your citation, such as author of the article or article title. This information must be entered exactly as it appears in the citation.

The other nursing/medicine databases listed under the Journals tab can also have articles that pertain to your search. The Online Catalog, netLibrary, the VC/UHV Virtual Medical Reference Library and STAT!Ref are used for searching for books useful for your research.

Question 6-Research Business

To research subjects in the business area, go to the Library's home page.

Select the subject of Business from the top area labelled Start Research Here for Articles, Books, and More.

There are 10 databases for journal articles, including Business Source Complete and Business & Company Resource Center.

Searching IT Outsourcing in Business Source Complete retrieves 13,440 journal articles - 10,001 of those are full-text and 1006 are full-text from academic journals. Down the left-side of the page, there is a list of terms for narrowing your search.

If there is not a full-text link under the article citation, use the following method to see if we have full-text coverage for your journal:

To find if we have full-text coverage for journals, open a second Internet tab and go to the VC/UHV Library home page.

Enter the name of your journal in the search box labelled See if we have a journal or magazine (TDNET) .

If the record for your journal appears, you can see if we have full-text available electronically and click on the checkmark to go to the database where the full-text is available. If you click on the check mark under "Print Holdings," you will be taken to our Online Catalog record for this journal. At the bottom of the record will be a summary of holdings for that journal.

You can repeat this process for your other journal titles.

You can also use the Advanced Journals List Search to add more information from your citation, such as author of the article or article title. This information must be entered exactly as it appears in the citation.

The other databases can also have articles that pertain to your search. Try the Wall Street Journal online or the articles search in Business & Company Resource Center. The Online Catalog and netLibrary are used for searching for books useful for your research.

There are tutorials for the use of the APA style under How to Cite Your Sources.

Question 7-Research Education

To research subjects in the education area, go to the Library's home page.

Select the subject of Education from the top area labelled Start Research Here for Articles, Books, and More.

There are 9 databases for journal articles, including–

  • ERIC
  • Education Index Full Text
  • Professional Development Collection
  • Academic Search Complete
  • Master File Premier.

ERIC is the database from the U.S. Department of Education Educational Resource Information Center. It contains citations and abstracts from over 980 educational and education-related journals.

Education Index Full-Text has over 40% full-text. It also indexes 92 journals not covered by ERIC and indexes book chapters from books published in the field of education.

In Academic Search Premier, go to the Advanced Search by clicking on the blue tab at the top of the page. You can search more than one term and select options at the bottom of the page for full-text only, year of publication, etc.

When you retrieve your citations if there is not a full-text link under the article citation, use the following method to see if we have full-text coverage for your journal:

If there is not a full-text link under the article citations you retrieve, use the following method to see if we have full-text coverage for your journal:

Open a second Internet session and go to the Library's home page.

Enter the name of your journal in the search box labelled See if we have a journal or magazine (TDNET) .

If the record for your journal appears, you can see if we have full-text available electronically and click on the checkmark to go to the database where the full-text is available. If you click on the check mark under "Print Holdings," you will be taken to our Online Catalog record for this journal. At the bottom of the record will be a summary of holdings for that journal.

You can repeat this process for your other journal titles.

You can also use the Advanced Journals List Search to add more information from your citation, such as author of the article or article title. This information must be entered exactly as it appears in the citation.

The other education databases can also have articles that pertain to your search. You could also try varying the search terms, using keywords from the articles that best suit your research topic. The Online Catalog and netLibrary are used for searching for books useful for your research. A useful reference resource is the Mental Measurements Yearbook.

Question 8-Research Literature

To research subjects in the literature area, go to the Library's home page.

Select the subject of Literature from the top area labelled Start Research Here for Articles, Books, and More.

Click on the MLA International Bibliography .

Search the title of your work or your author’s last name and title of work. (Ex. Shakespeare and Hamlet or just Hamlet)

You will receive a list of numbered citations to critical works about your topic. Down the right side of the citations, it will tell you if the citation is to a journal article, a book article, or an entire book.

When you click on the journal article title, those articles which are full-text in the MLA database may have a full-text link under Content Links.

If there is not a full-text link under the article citations you retrieve, use the following method to see if we have full-text coverage for your journal:

Open a second Internet tab and go to the Library's home page.

Enter the name of your journal in the search box labelled See if we have a journal or magazine (TDNET) . The name of the journal in an article citation is found directly under the citation in bold print.

If the record for your journal appears, you can see if we have full-text available electronically and click on the checkmark to go to the database where the full-text is available. If you click on the check mark under "Print Holdings," you will be taken to our Online Catalog record for this journal. At the bottom of the record will be a summary of holdings for that journal.

You can repeat this process for your other journal titles.

If your citation is to a book or a book article (the citation type is found to the right of the citation in MLA) , you can search the Online Catalog from the search box on the left side of the Library's homepage. The box is labelled Search the Library's Catalog for books & multimedia.

Another source for critical material about your literary work is the Library's catalog. Search for the name of your work and add criticism to the search - example: Hamlet criticism. Use the search box on the homepage for the Library's Catalog for books & multimedia. Or, you can search your author's last name and criticism - example, Shakespeare criticism.

Question 10-Get materials (books & articles you need that we do not have) from other libraries

If the VC/UHV Library does not have access to the book or the article you need for your research, please use our efficient Interlibrary Loan service.

Interlibrary Loan is a free service for students. Our library borrows a copy of the article or book that you need and provides this material to you for your research. If the material is a book, you will check it out using your Library/ID card. If the material is an article, it probably can be transmitted directly to you via email.

You can make your requests online by going to the Interlibrary Loan web page and choosing book or article request. You will provide your information at the top of the form and the information about the material you need at the bottom of the form. Be sure to click on SUBMIT and fill out all the required fields (marked with a red arrow). Interlibrary loan is easy and quick turnaround service is the goal of the Interlibrary Loan staff.

Question 12-Renew Books

Yes, you may renew books one time by telephone. Just call the Library Circulation Department at 361-570-4177 during the Library's hours.

Question 13-Rules for 7 Day Books

7 day books have special circulation rules. You can check-out only three 7 day books at one time. 7 day books can only be renewed once, and they can only be renewed if there are no holds placed on the book. And, of course, you may only keep them for 7 days per check-out period. After 7 days, these books carry a fine of $1 per day per book.

All of these rules are to ensure every student gets an opportunity to use criticism of important authors.