Welcome (and Welcome Back) to the GC Library!

We at the Graduate Center Library extend a warm welcome (or welcome back) to all new (or returning) students, faculty, and staff! Whether you are a new face or an old acquaintance, please take a moment to review these updates and reminders:

New OneSearch Interface: CUNY OneSearch is a powerful discovery tool that searches across the CUNY libraries catalog as well as an enormous index of e-books, journal articles, and more. And it just received a facelift! For those already familiar with OneSearch, rest assured that it has all the same features as before. Adjusting to a new interface can be challenging (what used to be on the left is now on the right, and other surprises), but we believe the new one is more intuitive to use — fewer buttons, fewer tabs, fewer clicks to get what you want. (But with the good is often some bad, and the new interface is, alas, somewhat slower than the old one. The vendor is aware of the lag, and we hope it will improve over time. Also, OneSearch is an incredibly complex tool, and we occasionally discover a bug. If you ever discover one, please let us know!) Here is a brief video overview of the new OneSearch:

Research Workshops Aplenty: Every semester, we offer a wide variety of research-related workshops, from A (archival research) to Z (citation management with Zotero) and everything in between (introduction to library resources, boosting your scholarly profile, and researching grant opportunities, to name a few). Some are on our events calendar already, and more will be appearing soon. Stay tuned!

Library Resources Anywhere, Anytime: With your GC network account credentials, you can access all of our databases, e-journals, and e-books anywhere you are, any time of day. Students, please be aware that your network account password (what you use to log into GC computers and printers) is not the same as your Office 365 email password. And please take a moment to register at the GC’s password reset portal. Once you register there, you can always reset or unlock your network account password yourself, without needing assistance from IT Services.

Library Help Anywhere, Anytime: Just as you can use our research tools whenever and wherever you are, you can also receive one-on-one research assistance whenever and wherever you are. We welcome your research queries at the reference desk whenever we’re there (11am-8pm Mon-Thu, 11am-6pm Fri), but there are a lot of other times when you might need help. Happily, you can chat online with a reference librarian 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You won’t always be connected with a Graduate Center or CUNY librarian, but, thanks to a consortium that spans several time zones, you will always find a qualified academic librarian (never a bot!) on the other end of the exchange.

Your Field of Study, Your Librarian: Sometimes you need a librarian’s undivided attention for more than a few minutes, and sometimes you need a librarian who deeply understands the research resources for your field (and is determined to learn more as necessary). At those times, contact your subject librarian. Yes, there really is a librarian for every degree program and MALS track, and yes, we really are happy to meet with you!

Let Us Help You Save: In addition to making many books and journals available, the library can help you save money in two key ways:

  1. Interlibrary Loan: When you’re looking for a journal article and hit a publisher paywall, do not pay for the article! First, check our journal finder to make sure we don’t have the journal in question. If we don’t (or don’t have the year you need), request the article through interlibrary loan, and we will secure a PDF of the article for you — often in a day or less, always for free. You can also request books, book chapters, theses, music scores, and video and audio recordings via interlibrary loan.
  2. Free NYT and WaPo Subscriptions: CUNY libraries offer all students, faculty, and staff (anyone with a cuny.edu email address) free access to the New York Times (website and smartphone/tablet apps); learn more about free NYT passes. We can’t claim credit for this next one, but the Washington Post offers free access to anyone with a valid .edu email address; learn more about activating a free WaPo subscription.

Stay in the Loop: To stay on top of important library announcements, database spotlights, upcoming workshops, and more, subscribe to the library blog by email, follow us on Twitter, or like us on Facebook. And, of course, swing by the circulation desk or reference desk anytime you have a question!

About the Author

Jill Cirasella is the Scholarly Communication Librarian and University Liaison at the CUNY Graduate Center.