Occidental College Library Resources and Services: A Comprehensive Guide

Occidental College Library stands as a cornerstone of academic life, offering a wide array of resources and services designed to support students, faculty, and researchers across diverse disciplines. From traditional print materials to cutting-edge digital tools, the library is committed to providing access to information and fostering intellectual exploration.

Accessing Scholarly Articles and Journals

The library provides access to a vast collection of full-text articles from over 2000 journals. These journals cover a broad array of disciplines, including the humanities, arts, social sciences, education, computer sciences, engineering, physics, chemistry, medical sciences, and more. This extensive collection ensures that researchers can find the latest scholarship in their fields.

JSTOR: A Deep Archive of Academic Journals

For researchers seeking historical perspectives, the library offers access to JSTOR, a full-text archive of high-impact academic journals in many disciplines. It's important to note that the archive generally begins with the first journal issue and stops 3 to 5 years ago, meaning it does NOT include recent issues. Nevertheless, JSTOR provides invaluable access to decades of scholarly research.

Web of Science: Discovery and Analytics

To facilitate comprehensive research, the library subscribes to Web of Science, an abstract and citation database for discovery and analytics. Web of Science includes scientific journals, books, and conference proceedings in the fields of science, technology, medicine, social sciences, and arts and humanities, allowing researchers to track the impact of publications and identify key works in their areas of interest.

Innovative Research Tools

Occidental College Library provides access to innovative tools designed to enhance the research process.

Read also: Exploring Occidental's Campus

Keenious: AI-Powered Research Recommendations

Keenious is a resource recommender tool designed to aid in the identification and discovery of scholarly research. It analyzes writing from text documents and PDFs to recommend the most relevant articles and topics to explore, using AI combined with conventional search algorithms. This tool can save researchers time and help them uncover valuable resources they might otherwise miss.

Digital Content and Online Access

Recognizing the evolving needs of its users, Occidental College Library has made significant investments in digital content and online access.

BibliU: Transitioning to Electronic Textbook Reserves

In response to the challenges posed by COVID-19, Occidental College partnered with BibliU to deliver online digital content to students. The uncertainty surrounding in-person classes made physical textbook reserves impractical, as there was a recommended 3-day quarantine period between student use of physical materials. BibliU stepped in to facilitate the transition to electronic textbook reserves, ensuring that students who rely on library reserves for textbook access were not losing out on an essential part of their learning.

BibliU offers millions of titles from over 2000 publishers, both large and small. The platform prioritizes flexibility and tailors its product to fit the requirements of every one of its partners. Most importantly, BibliU cares deeply about equity and inclusion in higher education, making it an ideal partner for Occidental College.

Special Collections

The Occidental College Library also holds unique and specialized collections.

Colección Porrúa: A Window into Mexican History

The library provides access to Colección Porrúa, a collection of predominantly Spanish-language material covering the evolution of Mexico from c.1500 to 1929. This collection offers valuable insights into Mexican history, culture, and society.

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