From the shelves of Freel Library

MCLA's Freel Library has joined a 24/7 research help co-operative staffed by hundreds of librarians from participating colleges and universities as well as a team of dedicated co-op librarians.

MCLA's own librarians continue to be available for in-person, virtual, phone, email, chat, and SMS research assistance Sunday evenings, Monday-Thursday daytimes and evenings and Fridays during the day. MCLA librarians remain your best bet for getting help with research for your MCLA academic work.

But when an MCLA librarian is not available, MCLA students, faculty, and staff can now chat with a partner librarian from the co-op 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The partner librarian can answer many questions about using our library, help you get started with your research, and connect you with an MCLA librarian for follow-up as needed.

Please note that our 24/7 co-op partner librarians are only available via chat. You can still get help from MCLA librarians in person or via chat, email, phone, text, or Teams during our regularly staffed Research Desk hours (which you can always find listed on the library's Hours page).

To chat with a librarian 24/7, just visit the Freel Library homepage and look for the "Chat 24/7" button in the Get Help box.

The first week of November is Citation Week at the library, featuring three virtual workshops on managing and citing sources. Everyone is welcome to attend!

• Tuesday, November 2, 7-8 p.m. via Teams: Don't Reinvent the (Citation) Wheel, with Pamela Contakos - You don't have to start from scratch when creating citations. In this workshop you'll learn where to find citation information in the library databases to streamline the citation process and we'll take a look at some good resources with examples of citations that cover all kinds of resources.
   
• Wednesday, November 3, 7-8 p.m. via Teams: Better Living through Citation Management, with Emily Alling. Learn about options for keeping track of your sources and formatting and generating notes and bibliographies. We'll look at Zotero, a free, open-source citation manager, as well as built-in features in Word and Google Docs, depending on interest.
   
• Thursday, 11/4, 7-8 p.m, via Teams.: The Idiosyncrasies and Peculiarities of Chicago Style, with Kate Flower: Chicago Style can feel very intimidating, and you may not be sure where to start if you're required to use it. In this workshop we'll cover Author-Date vs. Notes-Bibliography, as well as how to cite unusual primary sources, and sources found within a source.

In addition to these workshops and our online guides, librarians are always happy to work with you one-on-one or or in a group setting to go over citation information (or any other research or information need!). Get in touch using our Ask Us tools, or, to request a workshop, use the Classroom Instruction Request Form.