Current Events and News

Are you looking for news articles on any current events? The place to start is in the Library's subscriptions to online newspapers and the NewsBank NewsFile. From the Resources page you can connect to links to news of all kinds. NewsBank has full length articles on a variety of topics. Look at their directory, or use the Hot Topics links to find a good selection on recent events of interest. You might also want to browse the print newspapers in the library for local and state-wide news.

Citing your Sources

It is important in writing assignments and other projects that you distinguish between your own thoughts and those of others you read or researched in writing the work. Your teachers will require a "works cited" page of some kind as well as citations in the text to indicate where you got an idea or facts. You have to give credit to the person who said it first. In the writing support links on this site you can find some great sources to help you determine the correct way to indicate what that person said. If you can't quite figure it out on your own, call the Library or the Academic Service Center. Someone will be glad to help you get it right!

Course Reserves

Many of the college instructors put materials for their classes on reserve. You can look at a list of what your teacher may have by going to ODIN and clicking on the Course Reserve button at the top of the basic search screen. Then you have to choose NDSCS from the list of colleges participating. A new search screen comes up.

Items on reserve usually stay in the library and can be checked out for 2 hours, althought there are some differences. There is a larger fine for reserves, so you want to be sure to bring the materials back before the limit.

A basic ODIN search on a title also will tell you if an item is on reserve. You must then be in the library to check it out.

English 110 "Names" Assignment

One of the projects for Deb Dusek's ENG 110 class is to do original research on your name. The library has collected books on names, which are available only on reserve while this assignment is going on. Some of these books are very scholarly, with lots of details about the origin and background of both personal names and family names. They may go into depth about the language or country of origin, or how this name came to be a connection to a family or perhaps a famous person.

Other books are baby name books, fun to read but not as authoritative. You will want to look at all of them. There are several web sites that are useful as well, and some genealogy might be useful although genealogy is not the point of the assignment. Use them all to be creative and imaginative while you tell Mrs. Dusek all about YOUR name.

Literature Criticism Online

Areyou writing a paper about an author, a short story, or a novel? You will want to have some biographical materials, criticism, and possibly a summary of the plot. Reading what others have to say about your topic helps a great deal in figuring out your own thoughts. If you are on the NDSCS campus, you can access Literature Criticism Online directly. If you are in an off-campus class, you can contact the library or your teacher to get the password.

This is a terrific resource that used to take hundreds of printed volumes in the library. It still looks like printed books, but you can search a lot faster. Try it, you'll find a wealth of materials.

Welcome to the Library Writing Page

Everyone is always looking for good places to get help with writing papers and projects. There are so many out there, it is hard to know where to go. We hope to help you with some suggested links for finding both writing helps and research helps. Have a look at the links that can help you in your English classes and with other writing assignments.