Graduates of IU East have learned a lot in their coursework about media literacy, critical thinking, and how to select and evaluate the best sources. Those skills can be applied anywhere – from television programs and newspapers to social media postings. Trustworthy, vetted content may seem more difficult to find after college. The free web is full of unsubstantiated opinion, bot-generated drivel, vacuous and repetitive fluff, and outright manipulation. Fortunately, resources that the library has curated, such as the Fake News libguide, remain available to graduates for guidance.
For residents of Indiana, the main source of vetted, academic databases is Inspire, offered by the State Library. Anyone with an Indiana IP address can access dozens of databases freely. Familiar tools await, including Academic Search, Newspaper Source, EBSCO Ebooks, ERIC, Business Source, MedLine, and more. Inspire categorizes tools based on appropriateness for grade level, so it can serve to help an adult as easily as an elementary student. For those who live outside Indiana, other states often have similar resources, although the specific tools may vary. For example, Ohio and Michigan offer substantial lists. Usually, these are offered through a state library, or less commonly, a university cooperative.
For local graduates, you can get an IU East library card and continue to use all the tools you are familiar with in the library. Cards can be obtained at the Circulation Desk with a photo ID (like a driver’s license) and will be mailed to you. With it, you can ‘check out’ a username and passphrase to continue to use the computers and all the online resources IU East subscribes to.
IU East also offers relief from extreme summer heat. The Campus Library will again be an official Cooling Center for the City of Richmond. The Cooling Centers are part of Richmond’s Beat the Heat program. Other sites include Morrison-Reeves Library, the Dwyer Community Center, the Richmond Senior Center, Richmond Square Mall, Central United Methodist Church, Rock Solid Ministries, and the Salvation Army. Keep yourself cool and your mind engaged, at your Campus Library!
Need help with your research? You can ask us at iueref@iue.edu or click here:
