Research and Information Help Guide

Our Librarians are research experts who will help you find and use information and resources on any topic. We aim to be your tutors and guides in this process, and our goal is to empower you to find and use this information for yourself, whether it is for a research project or personal interest.

Research appointments are a great way to get one-on-one help from a librarian. We encourage you make an appointment at any point in your research process.

To make a research appointment with a librarian, click the calendar app icon or "schedule a virtual appointment" text. Or visit https://appointments.lbcc.linnlibraries.org/.

You'll be asked to choose a librarian to meet with. We are all generalists and cross trained to help students in every subject area, but if you want to see if there is someone who focuses on your subject area, visit "Meet our librarians." 

Thirty minute research appointments are available once a day by phone or Zoom, Monday through Friday between 8:00 am and 5:00 pm. They must be scheduled at least 24 hours in advance. When scheduling an appointment use the "Notes" field to let us know if you will need accomodations, or anything else you would like us to know about your assignment.

Once you set up an appointment, you will receive an email from your librarian with more information about the appointment, including a Zoom link if needed.

Please bring your assignment with you to the appointment, along with any other documents you think will be helpful, like your instructor's syllabus and grading criteria. 

Need help sooner? See “Contact Us” for quicker options.

There is a lot we can help with, but here are some examples.

When you are beginning a project, librarians can help you:

• Generate, refine, and explore topics
• Discuss the types of resources available to you.
• Plan a strategy for your research process​

While working on your assignment, librarians will help you:

• Find quality information through the library or the web to incorporate into your project to support your thesis, such as:
  • Scholarly articles and news or magazine articles
  • Images, videos, and music
  • Reports, statistics, and professional literature
• Access information from other libraries
• Evaluate information and sources for credibility​
• Librarians also help with creating and finding open access content and understanding copyright.

Once you have found the sources you will use, librarians can help you:

• Be a scholar by properly paraphrasing or quoting sources, creating citations, and Bibliographies and Works Citied in APA, MLA, or other citation styles.​