Mount 101 Guide

Welcome to info about the MSJ Archbishop Alter Library on the Mount 101 Guide! If you need any assistance—whether you need to find books and articles, search databases, start an assignment, or learn how to cite sources correctly—MSJ Librarians are ready and willing to help you.

Spring Semester
Monday-Thursday: 7:30am-10pm
Friday: 7:30pm-5pm
Saturday: 10am-5pm
Sunday: CLOSED

(See also full Library Hours Calendar.)

On the MSJ campus, the Archbishop Alter Library is located on the north side of campus, near the circle driveway accessible from Delhi Road. View a full map of campus.

Online, visit our website for our services and resources.

How to Make an Appointment with a Librarian

Visit our Research Help page for more information on what our librarians can help you with during a research appointment.

To make an appointment, visit our Get Research Help page and then do the following:

1. Click the Research Appointment blue button
2. Select a location – either in-person or Online (Zoom)
3. Choose your librarian or find an available librarian
4. Select the day and time that works for your schedule
5. Provide as much information as possible about why you are looking for librarian assistance. The information that you will provide will help the librarian be prepared for your appointment.

What do we mean when we say “article,” “call number,” or “database”? Below are definitions of terms commonly used in the Mount 101 guide. These definitions are from the “Library Terminology: Glossary of Library Terms” page by USC Libraries, which should be consulted for even more common terms. For even further in-depth library-specific terms visit the Online Dictionary for Library and Information Science.

Abstract: "A summary or brief description of the content of another longer work. An abstract is often provided along with the citation to a work."

Article: "A brief work—generally between 1 and 35 pages in length—on a topic. Often published as part of a journal, magazine, or newspaper."

Author: "The person(s) or organization(s) that wrote or compiled a document. Looking for information under its author's name is one option in searching."

Book: "A relatively lengthy work, often on a single topic. May be print or electronic."

Boolean operator: "A word—such as AND, OR, or NOT—that commands a computer to combine search terms. Helps to narrow (AND, NOT) or broaden (OR) searches."

Call Number: “A group of letters and/or numbers that identifies a specific item in a library and provides a way for organizing library holdings. Two major types of call numbers are Dewey Decimal Call Numbers and Library of Congress Call Numbers."

Catalog: "A database (either online or on paper cards) listing and describing the books, journals, government documents, audiovisual and other materials held by a library. Various search terms allow you to look for items in the catalog."

Check out: To borrow or loan "an item from a library for a fixed period of time in order to read, listen to, or view it. Check-out periods vary by library. Items are checked out at the circulation desk."

Circulation desk: "The place in the library where you check out, renew, and return library materials. You may also place a hold, report an item missing from the shelves, or pay late fees or fines there."

Citation: "A reference to a book, magazine or journal article, or other work containing all the information necessary to identify and locate that work. A citation to a book thus includes its author's name, title, publisher and place of publication, and date of publication."

Course reserve: "A selection of books, articles, videotapes, or other materials that instructors want students to read or view for a particular course. Print reserve materials are usually kept in one area of the library and circulate for only a short period of time."

Database: "A collection of information stored in an electronic format that can be searched by a computer."

Hold: "A request by a user to a library that a book checked out to another person be saved for that user when it is returned. “Holds” can generally be placed on any regularly circulating library materials through an in-person or online circulation desk."

Interlibrary Loan (ILL): "A service that allows you to borrow materials from other libraries through your own library."

Keyword: "A significant or memorable word or term in the title, abstract, or text of an information resource that indicates its subject and is often used as a search term."

Peer reviewed journal: "Peer review is a process by which editors have experts in a field review books or articles submitted for publication by the  experts’ peers. Peer review helps to ensure the quality of an information source by publishing only works of proven validity, methodology, and quality. Peer-reviewed journals are also called refereed or scholarly journals."

Periodical: "An information source published in multiple parts at regular intervals (daily, weekly, monthly, biannually). Journals, magazines, and newspapers are all periodicals."

Subject heading: "Descriptions of an information source’s content assigned to make finding information easier."

Course reserves are items, such as some textbooks, to be checked out free of charge from the circulation desk with a shorten borrowing time using your MSJ ID card. In many cases, an MSJ instructor will place materials on course reserve for an entire class to use during a semester. To locate course reserves:

• Search the MSJ Library FOCUS Catalog using the Course Reserves option to find items on reserve. Follow the on-screen instruction to search:
  • By instructor’s last name
  • By course number
• All reserve items must be requested at the Mount Library circulation desk.
• If a textbook you need is not on Course Reserves, visit the Textbook Guide to learn more about your options.
• Visit the Course Reserves section of the MSJ Library to learn more.

In the stacks of the MSJ Library

Using the call number listed in the online catalog, go to that location in the library.

1st floor: Reference and Exceptionalities Collections

2nd floor: 000s-600s; Children’s Collection (Easy Readers, Juvenile Fiction, and Juvenile Nonfiction); and the Curriculum Collection

3rd floor: 700s-900s, DVDs, Catholic Documents, and CDs

Read the call numbers from left to right, starting at the top of the shelf and looking across the row before going down to the next shelf. When you get to the bottom shelf, start reading at the top of the next shelf. When you read call numbers from the end of one row of books to the beginning of another snake around the stacks.

For more information on Dewey Decimal System, check out the excellent “How to Read a Call Number” guide from Pratt Institute Libraries.

The Ten Main Classes of Dewey Decimal Classification

000 Computer science, information & general works

100 Philosophy & psychology

200 Religion

300 Social sciences

400 Language

500 Science

600 Technology

700 Arts & recreation

800 Literature

900 History & geography

Want to request an item in the MSJ Library collection? Available to our patrons is the “Place Hold” feature in the FOCUS MSJ Library Catalog. Placing a hold online through our catalog yourself means library staff will find the item and place it on the hold shelf for you to pick up at the Circulation Desk.
 

1. Begin by searching the FOCUS MSJ Library Catalog for the title you want.
    
2. Then to request available items find and click the "Place Hold" button.
    
3. To complete your request, provide your last name and Mount ID card LIB # (printed on the front of your card) when prompted. 
   If you do not have your Mount ID card, you can securely look up your LIB # by logging into myMount.

To request items (books or other physical media) not available from the MSJ Library’s collection, follow directions below for searching and requesting from the OhioLINK Central Catalog.  (Note: for article requests, please use the MSJ Interlibrary Loan Form.)   

• Directly search the OhioLINK Central Catalog by title, author, subject, etc.
• When you identify an available title you’re looking for, find and click the green “Request” button.
• You will be prompted to indicate your school (Mt. St. Joseph University).
• To complete your request, you will be prompted for your last name and LIB # (appears on the front of your Mount ID card).  If you do not have your Mount ID card, you may securely look up your LIB # by logging into myMount.

For more in-depth information, see our How to Request Items page.

SearchOhio is a state-wide catalog of items available from Ohio public libraries. (In contrast, OhioLINK offers borrowing from academic libraries.) SearchOhio is an excellent option for finding leisure reading, children's literature, and popular items; whereas, OhioLINK primarily offers content that tends to be more academic or research oriented. As a service, requesting items through SearchOhio works very much like OhioLINK borrowing.

You can search for titles directly in the SearchOhio online catalog.

For more information, see our How to Request Items page.

If an article is not available as full text or if a book or other item is unavailable through MSJ Library, OhioLINK, or SearchOhio, we can try getting it from a library outside of Ohio through interlibrary loan. To start the requesting process, submit an interlibrary loan request by completing our Interlibrary Loan Request Form.

For more in-depth information about interlibrary loan services, visit our Interlibrary Loan page.

For in-depth information on how to find articles, check out our Locating Articles page or Schedule an appointment with a Librarian.

• Tips for Article Searches
  • What is a Library Database and Why Should I Use One?
  • Use Library databases to locate articles in journals, magazines, and newspapers
  • Academic Search Complete database can be used to find articles on just about any topic
  • Specialized databases cover a specific subject. Use these to find articles by researchers and experts, published in scholarly and peer-reviewed journals

To access content from our research databases (articles, ebooks), when prompted to login, use your MSJ login (same one you use for MSJ email and Blackboard).

More in-depth information about off-campus access to research database content can be found on our Off-Campus Access page.

If you quote directly, use ideas, or paraphrase from any information source, you should indicate this in your research paper, speech, or assignment. When you cite, you show that you have done the research, you are a responsible scholar by giving credit and acknowledging others’ work, you allow others to expand their understanding by going back to the original source, and you avoid plagiarism.

Citing a source means that you show, within the body of your text, that you took words, ideas, figures, images, etc. from another place.

Citations are a short way to uniquely identify a published work (e.g. book, article, chapter, web site).  They are found in bibliographies and reference lists and are also collected in article and book databases.

Citations consist of standard elements, and contain all the information necessary to identify and track down publications, including:

• author name(s)
• titles of books, articles, and journals
• date of publication
• page numbers
• volume and issue numbers (for articles)

Citations may look different, depending on what is being cited and which style was used to create them. Choose an appropriate style guide for your needs.  Here is an example of an article citation using APA and MLA citation styles.  Notice the common elements as mentioned above:

Parts of a citation for a journal article:

Author = Mary Kay Jordan-Fleming

Article Title = Excellence in Assessment: Aligning Assignments and Improving Learning.

Source (Journal) Title =  Assessment Update

Volume and Issue = Vol. 29 Issue 1

Publication Date = Jan.2017

Page numbers = p10-12

Permalink/DOI (if electronic resource) =
10.1002/au.30084

In American Psychological Association (APA) Style Citation

Jordan-Fleming, M.K. (2017). Excellence in assessment: Aligning assignments and improving learning. Assessment Update, 29(1), 10-12. https://doi.org/10.1002/au.30084

In Modern Language Association (MLA) Style Citation

Jordan-Fleming, Mary Kay. “Excellence in Assessment: Aligning Assignments and Improving Learning.” Assessment Update, vol. 29, no.1, Jan. 2017, pp. 10-12. EBSCOhost, https://doi.org/10.1002/au.30084.

(Adapted from MIT Libraries' "Citing sources: Overview")

Primary Sources:

Primary Sources are resources that record or describe events at the time they were experienced.

Examples:

• Original documents, such as diaries, letters, photographs, official records
• Creative works, such as paintings, manuscripts, scores
• Artifacts, such as tools, weapons, ornaments

Primary sources can be found in print and online collections.

Examples:

• Archives of Mount St. Joseph University
• Library of Congress Digital Collections

Secondary Sources

Secondary Sources are ones:

• that interpret or explain past events
• that analyze or restate primary sources
• may argue a particular interpretation or point of view

Examples are:

• Textbooks
• Journal articles
• Encyclopedias
• Biographies

Secondary sources can be found in print and online collections:
Examples are:

• Mount Library and OhioLINK collections
• Mount Library databases
• Websites

Examples:

Adapted from “Primary Vs. Secondary Sources”, by Carol A. Singer, Reference Librarian, Bowling Green State University