News & Blog

UCF Library’s Minimizing Misinformation Challenge Spring 2021

The first step to being a good researcher and citizen is making sure you have access to the best information. This semester two research tips Thursday each month will focus on skills you need to be a savvy information consumer. For each tip you’ll have an opportunity to test your skills and get prizes! Go to guides.ucf.edu/rtt to access the first challenge.

When you complete:

1 challenge = Coveted UCF Libraries Sticker pack

3 challenges = UCF Temporary Tattoo

5 challenges = Grand prize pack!

The 3rd floor of the John C. Hitt Library will be closed between Tuesday, January 19 – Saturday, January 21, 2021.

This temporary closure is part of the preparation for the upcoming renovations to the 3rd floor spaces which will begin later this year. Stairwells and elevators will be marked with signs and caution tape as a reminder that the floor is not accessible.

If you need a book or other physical library material located on the 3rd floor, please request it at ucflib.fyi/requestbook

The 3rd floor restrooms in the original 1967 portion of the building near the bank of three elevators will permanently close on January 19, 2021. New restrooms will be added to that section as part of the renovations.

For updates on the renovations, check out our 21st Century Library page.

As a part of the 2021 Research Computing and Data Workshop Series, the UCF Libraries presents a Spring 2021 Foundations of Data Management Library Workshop Series starting this February. We will hold a monthly workshop for the next three months remotely via Zoom, covering topics like finding data sources from a multi-disciplinary perspective, how to manage your data properly, and how to maximize the impact of your research. Come join us!

Our featured question this month is: “Why can’t I log in to access online resources off campus?

Here are some options you can try:

• Use another browser
• Clear your cache and cookies
• Reset your NID password
• If you logged in through WebCourses and used Library Tools, try logging on directly through the library website instead
• If you are logging in from your workplace, you may be trying to access OpenAthens from behind a firewall.  Please contact your workplace IT to see if there is a work around

Tried all of the above and still having issues?  Please email our eResources team at eresourc@ucf.edu Provide the browsers you have used, the options you have tried and error messages you have received.

Welcome to the Libraries new blog topic: Ask A Librarian Featured Questions. Our popular virtual Ask Us reference service supports the UCF community from wherever they are located. It provides options for chat and text from the UCF Libraries’ homepage in addition to phone and email support.

The most asked question on Ask Us: “How do I open this article?”

This question comes to Ask Us staff largely through our most used mode of contact, our chat feature.  

When someone clicks on an article in a result list accessed through QuickSearch, there is a link to our chat widget “Ask a Librarian Chat” below the article record.

Taking a look, we can check the left side of the page and see which link is provided.

• Find Full Text – click this button and on the next page select the link: Full text from (database name). The database should open with the article information and a PDF link, if not, you can copy and paste the article title into the database search box.
  
• PDF Full Text – click this link and it will go directly to the PDF of the article
  
• Request Item/See Options – this link indicates that this article is not available through QuickSearch. Please note that not all of our Databases are searched when using QuickSearch. Click on the link and another tab will open with links to check other options. A good one to try first is “Search for (journal name) in Publication Finder” to see if we have access to the journal and year the article is from. If so you can click on the Database link that contains the article, and search for the article title in that Database. Another option to try is: “Search for this article title in Google Scholar” sometimes it may come up and have a PDF link to the right of it. If after this you cannot access the article you can click on the link: “Request this item through interlibrary loan.”  This will bring you to the NID login and then to the auto-filled request form. ILL will access the PDF for you from another library, this usually takes 3-5 days.

Make sure to visit Ask Us to ask questions about research, library resources, services, and policies. We look forward to assisting you!

The video that was here is out of date and has been archived. Click here to download the video for viewing.