Navigating Bellevue College Library Resources: A Comprehensive Guide

Bellevue College Library offers a wealth of resources to support students, faculty, and staff in their academic pursuits. From traditional books and journals to online databases and streaming films, the library provides access to a vast collection of materials and expert guidance to navigate them effectively. This article provides a comprehensive overview of the resources available at Bellevue College Library, covering everything from using the online catalog to understanding copyright law.

Exploring the Library Catalog

The Bellevue College Library's online catalog serves as the primary gateway to its extensive collection. This powerful search tool allows users to locate books, articles, magazines, and other materials held by the library. By entering keywords, titles, or author names, users can quickly identify relevant resources for their research. The catalog provides detailed information about each item, including its location, availability, and a brief description.

Research Guides: Your Subject-Specific Resource Hub

Research Guides, also known as LibGuides, are curated collections of resources and information on a variety of subjects. These guides are created by librarians and subject matter experts to help users find key resources and navigate the research process more effectively. Whether you're researching a specific topic or need help with a particular assignment, Research Guides can provide a valuable starting point.

Databases: Unlocking a World of Information

Databases are organized collections of information from various sources, including journals, magazines, and books. Bellevue College Library subscribes to a wide range of databases covering diverse subjects, providing users with access to scholarly articles, news reports, and other valuable resources. The library's website lists databases alphabetically, with a short description of each to help users choose the most relevant ones for their research needs. The list also includes resources for streaming films, interactive anatomy, and e-books.

Beyond Traditional Resources: Multimedia and More

Bellevue College Library goes beyond traditional books and journals to offer a variety of multimedia resources. Streaming films provide access to a wide range of documentaries, educational videos, and feature films. Interactive anatomy resources offer students a dynamic way to learn about the human body. E-books provide convenient access to a vast collection of digital books that can be read online or downloaded for offline access.

Seeking Research Help: Ask a Librarian

Navigating the library's resources can sometimes be challenging. That's why Bellevue College Library offers a dedicated team of librarians to provide research assistance. Users can contact a librarian by visiting the Ask a Librarian page to chat online or request a video appointment. Librarians can help with a variety of research tasks, including:

Developing research strategies
Identifying relevant resources
Evaluating sources
Citing sources properly

Copyright and Fair Use: Navigating the Legal Landscape

Copyright law is a critical issue for educators, librarians, and students alike. It governs the use of copyrighted materials, such as books, articles, and images. Understanding copyright law and the doctrine of fair use is essential for using copyrighted materials responsibly and legally.

Several resources are available to help users understand copyright law:

Copyright Clarity: How Fair Use Supports Digital Learning by Renee Hobbs: This book presents simple principles for applying copyright law and the doctrine of fair use to 21st-century teaching and learning.
The Copyright Librarian's Guide to Home Recording and Streaming by Laura N. Gasaway: This book provides information professionals with practical guidance to minimize the risk of copyright infringement in the era of information sharing and online collaborative working.
Copyright Law for Educators and Librarians by Kenneth D. Crews: This book offers timely insights and succinct guidance for LIS students, librarians, and educators alike.

These resources cover a wide range of topics, including:

Basic copyright definitions and key exceptions for education and library services
The four factors of fair use and related court interpretations
Current interpretations of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act
Setting up a copyright service at a library, college, or university

Open Access and Creative Commons: Expanding Access to Knowledge

Open Access (OA) and Creative Commons (CC) are initiatives that promote the free and open sharing of knowledge. OA refers to scholarly research that is available online without cost or restrictions. CC licenses are a set of standardized licenses that allow creators to grant certain rights to their works while retaining others.

Read also: Bellevue College Mascot

Made With Creative Commons by Elizabeth R. More offers in-depth coverage of CC licenses, open practices, and the ethos of the Commons. This book provides guidance on:

The layers and elements of CC licenses
Reusing, revising, and remixing CC-licensed works
Locating works in the public domain
Adapting existing openly licensed materials

Digitization and Digital Archiving: Preserving Information for the Future

Digitization is the process of converting analog materials, such as books and photographs, into digital formats. Digital archiving is the process of storing and preserving digital materials for long-term access. Bellevue College Library is actively involved in digitization and digital archiving projects to make its collections more accessible and to ensure their preservation for future generations.

Digitization and Digital Archiving: A Practical Guide for Librarians seeks to answer common questions about the digitization and digital archiving process, such as:

What should be stored?
Where and how should it be stored?
How exactly is information stored in a computer?
Does it really make a difference if one uses a jpg or a tiff file?

Workshops and Tutorials: Enhancing Your Research Skills

Bellevue College Library offers a variety of workshops and tutorials to help users enhance their research skills. These sessions cover topics such as:

APA formatting
In-text referencing
Using Zotero
Library instruction

These workshops and tutorials are offered online, making them accessible to users regardless of their location.

Accessing Electronic Resources from a Distance

Distance education or online patrons can access EWU's electronic resources (e.g., articles from social science & humanities journals) back to 1999. However, sometimes if the article is available from a journal vendor, then the link may not bring you directly to the full text of the article. If no online access is available for the article, then you'll get this message: "Not found online. Please check print holdings." Being a distance education or online patron, you won't be able to access the print version of the article in person.

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