ENGL 1010 Accelerated College Writing

Librarians are here to help you.  This is our core function at the University, to assist students, faculty, and staff with research and information literacy.  Information Literacy is a fancy way of saying we help you navigate the information overload that is our world. There are two ways you can contact a librarian:

Library Chat

We now have an online chat service! You can talk with a Cal State Librarian online (anonymously or not) during the following times:

• Monday - Thursday 10am-6pm & Friday 10am - 5pm

Outside of those hours we have a network of Non Cal State LA librarians staffing the chat.

Librarian Consultation (Email, Zoom, in-person)

There are two business librarians at Cal State LA,Michael Germano and Jennifer Masunaga. Their profiles are on the left side column of this page. You can make an appointment by emailing them directly. During the COVID-19 crisis, all consultations will be done via Zoom (or email).  A librarian consultation is just like office hours with faculty. Like faculty, we cannot proofread your paper, but we can help you find what you need for your assignments.

For some of you, this might be the first time you've had a school library and a librarian to visit. Welcome! Here are some things to keep in mind...

1. You are never bothering a librarian by asking for help.  We want to answer your questions! If you manage to stump one of us, we will turn to our fellow librarians for help (it really bugs us when we can't answer something!)
2. Librarians (usually) do not grade you, therefore we do not know your class assignment requirements. Feel free to send us the assignment in advance along with your question.
3. The more information the better. One sentence questions are not the best way for us to help you, we need a little more than that!

Here's an example of a way to frame a question for a librarian:

I'm a student in Business 3050 with Professor XX. We are assigned to write a business report on any company we like and we will also present a Powerpoint presentation at the end of the semester. The assignment requirements are that the business report is 5 pages, double spaced and that we use 8 outside sources, 1 of which has to be peer-reviewed.  I would like to write a report on Zoom, the video conferencing service. I have looked online and found some information on them from their website but I need more resources to meet my requirements.  Can you help?

This is a great way of phrasing a research question to a librarian. There is the context for the question (what class you're in, what professor), information on the assignment requirements (5 pages, 8 outside sources, 1 peer-reviewed source), and information on what places the student has searched so far.  This will really help the librarian tackle the question!