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Composition 101: Home

Library Information and Research Help

If you need assistance with your research, Elizabeth Parish, Director of Library Services is available to help you.  

Click here to schedule an appointment - in person or online.

Send her an email:  elizabeth.parish@lcuniversity.edu 

Drop by her office:

      Monday - Thursday 8:00 am - 4:30 pm

      Friday: 8:00 am - 11:30 am

Interlibrary loan (ILL) provides current students, faculty, and staff the opportunity to obtain books, journal articles, and other resource materials that are not available through the library's collections. ILL allows the library to supplement its collections and enhance research opportunities. 

Before submitting an ILL request, carefully check existing resources on the library website.

Notes:

  • Interlibrary loan offices are CLOSED evenings and weekends, as well as for College holidays. Requests are reviewed and processed only during regular business hours.
  • Processing and shipping times vary. Please allow 5 business days for your request to be processed. Books may take up to 10 business days after processing to arrive. Articles may take up to 5 business days after processing to arrive.
  • Same-day or next-day requests will be attempted but not guaranteed..
  • Please ensure you are not requesting an item you have previously requested via interlibrary loan, as this delays processing time.
  • Students may submit a maximum of 3 requests per day and a maximum of 15 requests per week.
  • Textbooks are unavailable through interlibrary loan.
  • All interlibrary loan communication must be facilitated through your LCU email address.
To access the library databases while off campus you will be prompted to log in using your LCU email credentials just like you get prompted when you log into the MyLCU Portal to check your schedule and pay your bills. 
Should you encounter difficulties accessing library resources from off-campus, please contact the LC IT Department via email (itdept@lcuniversity.edu) or call them at 318-487-7200 during normal business hours: Monday - Thursday` 8:00 am - 5:00 pm; Friday 8:00 am  - noon. 
The library staff is unable to make changes to usernames or passwords.  
The Writing Center is a free academic support service sponsored through the Humanities Division that allows students to work one-on-one with trained assistants on any aspect of their writing project. Most of our clients are students who are working on class assignments. We generally help students:
  • grasp the assignment and what it requires of them
  • understand how their own writing is and isn‘t working
  • learn strategies for writing tasks (how to brainstorm, organize, etc.
  • practice the art of revision in both re-seeing and rewriting

 
Scan the QR Code below to schedule an appointment:

Writing Center

Pre-Research

Research Smarter, Not Harder.

Before you begin your assignment, you will need to understand the basic information about your topic. This will help you better search the databases for scholarly articles. Two excellent sources for this basic information or pre-research are:

Databases/Research Articles

Beyond your basic Google Search

Don't rely on Google for your research.  Try using these academic search engines instead, however it's your responsibility to make sure the articles you find are peer-reviewed.

Trustworthy Websites

  • .EDU – educational institution, backed by research.
  • .GOV – government
  • .MIL – military

  • .ORG can be trusted but be aware that it will be biased to where the money for the organization is coming from.
  • .COM is far less trustworthy as you often do not know the creator and they do not cite their sources.

DO NOT TRUST

  • Wikipedia – not an academic site.  Anyone can add information to pages.
  • Blogs – an individual’s opinion

Proper Google Searching

Enter the following to search by domain and your topic and your research will be only from domains you trust.

  • .site:gov
  • .site:edu
  • site:mil

Peer Review/Scholarly

Written by experts in the field and reviewed prior to publishing by other experts in their field.

How to make sure your articles are peer-reviewed:

1.  Limit the database search to peer-reviewed only. 

2.  Look for these terms in the article:

  • Abstract
  • Introduction
  • Literature Review
  • Method
  • Results
  • Conclusion
  • References/Works Cited  * very important

3.  Check the journal's official website to see if it is peer-reviewed.

4.  See your professor or the librarian.

Evaluating Sources

  1. Currency - Is the article current or out of date?
  2. Relevance - Does it relate to your topic?
  3. Authority - Who is the author?  What are their Credentials?
  4. Accuracy - Is the article correct and reliable?  Has it been peer-reviewed? 
  5. Purpose: Why was the information published?  For entertainment, to inform, or to persuade?

Citations

When in doubt CITE!!

The databases will help you with full citation information.

  • Look for an icon of quotation marks icon that says "cite" or an icon of a golden page.
  • Choose the correct citation style.
  • Verify the citation information is accurate by using Purdue Owl and MLA Style Guide.
  • Copy and paste it into your paper.

Helpful Websites