Library Research Tutorial: Module 1: Library Orientation

The Shake Library website (vinu.libguides.com/shakelibrary) is your central portal to library resources, services, help, and general information.

Use our Ask a Librarian! button on the Library website to contact us when you need help finding peer-reviewed sources, using databases effectively, and more.

Librarians are also available by email. You can schedule a personalized consultation with the librarian dedicated to your academic college.  This service is available to VU students, faculty, and staff. Find your librarian online on our Library Staff page.

Tips for scheduling your Personalized Consultation:

• It's best to schedule your consultation a couple weeks before the assignment is due. 

• Be prepared to provide as much information about the assignment or paper and your topic as possible when you schedule.

• Please schedule consultations as far in advance as possible, at least two days, to allow the librarian enough time to prepare.

You have two main Library accounts:

• VUX - Vincennes University students, faculty, and staff, including distance-education students, can access the library's databases and eBook collections by logging into VUX as follows:
  • Go to the VUX website.
  • Enter user name and password to log in to your VUX account.
  • Click on the Library's card on the VUX landing page.
  • This directs you to Shake Library's homepage where you can search databases and browse eBooks as if you were on-campus.
  • For questions or help with VUX, contact IT (Information Technology)
    • Phone: 812-888-4332
    • E-mail: ithelpdesk@vinu.edu
• My Library Account - Use My Library Account to renew items from Shake Library, save searches, and check your book due dates. Watch this short video to learn more:

Search OneVU to find books, eBooks, DVDs, streaming videos, and other materials. Use the search box on the Library homepage.

Watch this video to learn how to search OneVU:

Shake Library provides access to journals, magazines, and newspapers. While some are available in print formats, the vast majority are available online through Shake Library's research databases. You can access Library databases on or off campus.

OneVU

To search multiple databases at the same time, use the OneVU search box on the Library homepage. 

Sometimes, the database you're using doesn't provide full text to the article you need. In that case, look for the Refine This Search menu, scroll down to Content Type, and select Full Text. If you see a blue View full text button under an article's title on the results page, use it to discover the full text of the article available in a database that we subscribe to.

Databases A-Z

Find the full list of our databases on our Databases A-Z page. (Remember, if you are off campus, you will need to log in to VUX to access the databases.)

To access this page, click the Databases A-Z button on the Shake Library's homepage.

On this page, you can select databases by name, subject, database type, or popularity.

Visit our Database Help page to discover guides and videos to learn the basics of the features and search options for many of the databases to which Shake Library subscribes.

Watch the video below to learn the basics of one of the Library's more popular databases, Academic Search Complete:

When you know exactly which journal, magazine, or newspaper you're looking for, click the OneVU button on the Library homepage. Then click the Resources menu and select A-Z List of E-Resources. This will bring you to a webpage where you can search the journal title (not the article title) to find out if the Library subscribes to it and, if so, how to access it.

You can also search for the journal title in OneVU and use the Refine This Search to narrow your search results by selecting Journal, Magazine listed under Format.

Looking for suggestions for resources of a specific subject? Check out our Subject & Research Guides!

To view a list of these guides created by the librarians of Shake Library, click this button on the Shake Library homepage:

Watch this video to learn more:

If Shake Library doesn't have an article or book you need, you can request a copy at no cost to you through interlibrary loan. Interlibrary loan, or ILL for short, is the loaning of items between libraries. VU-affiliated library users may request ILL in two different ways:

• Paper request forms available at the Shake Library Information Desk (Vincennes Campus).
• Online requests via OneVU. Watch this video to learn how:

Some professors place course readings on reserve. To access Course Reserves, use OneVU -> Course Reserves (link is located in the top right corner of the search screen). Search by Course Name, Department,  Instructor, or Start Date. Click the "All" status button to see all Course Reserves. 

Watch this video to see how: