Serving the campus of the University of Alabama since 1894

The Crimson White


Serving the campus of the University of Alabama since 1894

The Crimson White

Serving the campus of the University of Alabama since 1894

The Crimson White

Library compiles databases free for student use

“All current students and faculty have access to our electronic resources,” Public Relations Director Donna B. Adcock said. “Not only does it benefit students when they need it, but it also helps teach them not to simply ‘Google’ their questions.”

Information Services Librarian Mark Robison said the University always tries to improve electronic resources and make them easier to access for everyone.

“We have over 300 databases and add several new ones every year. When we see some that are not used very often, we take those down,” Robison said. “We consider which databases to add depending on what students use, and, often times, what our faculty and staff suggests.”

Some of the recent additions to the website are Coloribus Creative Advertising Archive, a database containing millions of ads from different countries, and Refworks, a citation website meant to help create works cited pages for essays.

“Many students, especially our incoming freshmen, don’t know about these resources, but it’s all right here on our library’s website, and we encourage everyone to use them,” Robison said.

The library also encourages students to read the newspapers around campus, such as USA Today, The New York Times and Financial Times, a business news source available online at ft.com.

Robison also mentioned Hathi Trust, an online library full of books and journals. The website operates in over 400 different languages, and millions of these books can be viewed in full online.

All these databases can be found on the school library’s website, and they are accessible from any library on campus, even off campus on personal computers.

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