Navigating UCLA's YRL Library: Resources and Services for Academic Success
The Young Research Library (YRL) at UCLA is a central hub for students, faculty, and staff, offering a vast array of resources and services to support academic endeavors. This article provides a comprehensive guide to navigating the YRL, highlighting key resources, services, and tools available to the UCLA community.
Exploring the YRL: Floor Maps and Book Locations
Understanding the layout of the YRL is crucial for efficient navigation. Books with call numbers A-QA are located on the first floor Book Stacks. Powell Library also provides floor maps to help users locate specific resources and service points.
Accessing Dissertations and Theses
The UCLA Library offers extensive resources for accessing dissertations and theses, essential for graduate students and researchers.
ProQuest Dissertations & Theses
UCLA Library provides access to the full-text of many dissertations through its subscription to ProQuest Dissertations & Theses, an index to doctoral dissertations from 1637 to the present, with abstracts since 1980. A number of master's theses are also indexed, with abstracts since 1988. Many are available for download in PDF format. UCLA has access to all full-text dissertations in the database. While the link to full-text doesn't always appear in the UCLA Library Catalog or on the page, UCLA provides comprehensive access.
UC's Open Access Repository
UC's open access repository is another valuable resource. It may include recent (2012-present) theses or dissertations not available in ProQuest. Users can search for the author or title of the dissertation to locate relevant works.
Read also: A History of the Rosenfeld Library
Master's Theses
It's important to note that master's theses are usually only available at the institution where they were written.
Utilizing Online Resources
The UCLA Library provides a wealth of online resources, including digitized books and publications.
HathiTrust Digital Library
HathiTrust is a repository of scanned books contributed from academic institutions across the United States, including UCLA. This resource offers a vast collection of digitized materials for research and study.
University of California Press E-Books Collection
Online access to over 2000 University of California Press books is available, covering a range of topics. More recent online publications from UC Press can be searched for in the UCLA Library Catalog. On the Advanced Search screen, search for University of California Press in Publication Information and limit to online.
Reserving Study Spaces
The YRL and Powell Library offer study rooms and collaboration pods that can be reserved by current undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, and staff who are eligible for CLICC services.
Read also: Vast Resources at UCLA
Reservation Policies
Eligible individuals may reserve up to 3 hours once every 24 hours, up to 3 days in advance. Each individual can reserve up to 6 hours per week.
Self-Service Reservations
Study rooms in YRL and Powell are now self-service. Reservation holders do not need to check in at a lending location before their reservation begins. QR codes placed at each group study room and collaboration pod can help verify reservation schedules.
CLICC Resources & Services Portal
For questions about the reservation form or policies, users can submit an inquiry through the CLICC Resources & Services Portal.
Key Library Terminology
Understanding common library terminology is essential for effective use of library resources. Here's a glossary of terms:
Academic Library
Refers to the library of a college, university, or other post-secondary institution of higher education.
Read also: Build Your Career at UCLA Library
Boolean Operators
Named after mathematician George Boole, the most commonly used are: AND, OR, and NOT. They connect search words together to tell a system how to combine those words.
Bruin OnLine Proxy Server
Set up your BOL proxy server to gain access to our library resources remotely.
Call Number
The number located on the spine of a library book that is used to identify its place on a shelf.
Citation
A reference to an item which provides enough bibliographic information for someone to locate that item.
Course Reserves
Course Reserves allows users to search for material put on reserve by a professor.
Database
An index to articles within magazines, newspapers, and/or journals.
Domain
Provides a general idea of what kind of web site you are viewing, mostly through the use of suffixes, like .edu for educational organization.
HTML (Hypertext Markup Language)
Markup language for webpages. Unlike a PDF document, an HTML full-text may include links that take you to different sections of a document.
Library Catalog
Search for books and periodical titles the library owns. UC Library Search is UCLA's discovery tool.
Oversize
Refers to books larger than standard and do not fit on regular-sized bookshelves. Oversized books are usually placed in the a separate location from the regular stacks in their respective library.
PDF (Portable Document Format)
Exact copies of items, as they appeared when published in print.
Peer-Reviewed Journal
Items which have been examined by experts in a field in an effort to ensure quality. Experts look for accuracy, completeness, scholarship, and use of appropriate and up to date supporting evidence.
Periodical
An item published at intervals (daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, etc.). Unbound issues are loose periodicals which have been published separately, usually with soft paper covers.
Periodical Index
A publication or database that indexes magazine, journal or newspaper articles and may include books, book chapters (essays), dissertations, conference papers, etc.
Plagiarism
Using another person's work, ideas, and/or words as if they were your own.
Reference
Service that provides students with assistance in doing their research or using the library.
Reserves
Library items that faculty have put on hold for their students so that everyone in the class can use them.
SLF-S (Systemwide Library Facility-South)
SLF-S, Systemwide Library Facility-South (formerly SRLF) is a storage facility for UC campuses in southern California (UCLA, UCSB, UCR, UCI, and UCSD). SLF-S happens to be housed at UCLA.
Truncation
A "wild card" symbol. It tells the system to search for items that begin with or come in the middle of a string of characters -- e.g., child* searches for child, children; wom?n searches for woman or women. Important Note: Different databases may use different truncation symbols.
Get it at UC
Appears in discovery tools like library catalogs, databases, and Google Scholar.
VPN (Virtual Private Networking)
A VPN is a secured private network connection built on top of publicly accessible infrastructure.
Maximizing Your Research with UC Library Search
UC Library Search is UCLA's discovery tool, which allows users to search for books and periodical titles the library owns. It streamlines the research process by providing a single point of access to a wide range of resources.
Remote Access with Bruin OnLine Proxy Server and VPN
For remote access to library resources, UCLA offers the Bruin OnLine Proxy Server and VPN. Setting up a BOL proxy server allows users to gain access to library resources remotely. A VPN (Virtual Private Networking) is a secured private network connection built on top of publicly accessible infrastructure.
tags: #UCLA #YRL #library #resources #and #services
