LibGuides: Resources for Writers and Researchers
Librarians love us, and LibGuides are one of the ways they show it. LibGuides are online resources produced by libraries to help their users navigate library resources. They can also cover general library- or research-related skills.
This is a roundup of some useful, interesting LibGuides for people who need to cite things, find things, or who just want to explore some really cool library collections.
Doing your own writing and research is empowering
If writing is thinking (and I believe that it is), then what happens when we do our own writing, using only our own brains? What happens when we don't outsource our research to AI?
In both cases, it probably takes longer, but it's also genuinely beneficial. This is probably a tired example, but I think it fits: Someone who pays a robot to go to the gym doesn’t get the health benefits of that gym visit. Writing offers us a profound way to examine our lives and thoughts to build a sense of integrity and even become clearer thinkers. Doing research builds skill at quickly understanding and categorizing information and following connections.
But also, you don’t get the benefits of the serendipity of the stacks if you’re not in the stacks. The serendipity of the stacks usually means you find a great book you weren’t looking for while searching for something else. I don't think you have to be in a library to experience something like it, though—you just have to be doing your own research. LibGuides can bootstrap research so it's not overwhelming.
What I'm saying is: insist on doing your thinking for yourself.
Keep scrolling for the LibGuides links! It’s a treasure trove!
Vitruvius “De Architectura...”: Perspective Diagram. n.d. Wellcome Collection. https://jstor.org/stable/community.24728360.
In my posts on Creative Commons and making zines, I’ve shared LibGuides that explain how licensing works and point to resources around the web for making and sharing zines. Here are a bunch more!
Cool library collections:
The Pratt Institute Artists’ Books Collection (Try browsing by book format! Wow!)
SCAD Atlanta Artists’ Books Collection (They have tutorials for different kinds of bindings, too.)
General online resources:
The American Library Association has this LibGuide for getting a book discussion group started.
Don’t forget to check what’s online at your local public and/or university library!
LibGuides for citations and research skills:
The Chicago Manual of Style Shop Talk blog spotlights tricky parts of the CMOS, like number ranges, punctuation and quotation marks, and serial commas.
CMOS also has a Q&A blog where they answer questions from writers.
Purdue OWL has a fantastic website with citation guidance for pretty much any citation style you might need. They also have some grammar and punctuation exercises if you want to check your skills.
The Cornell Libguide for citations has specific guidance for citing lot of different types of sources, including images and generative AI. They also have links to the MLA Style Center, the APA Style Blog, and lots of other good stuff.
LibGuides for writing and literature:
Iowa State LibGuide with Open Educational Resources (OER) for composition and writing classes
The OER have several completely free composition text books that might be useful for anyone looking to strengthen their fundamental rhetorical and composition skills.
A creative writing LibGuide from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign that has links to resources specific to the university, but also has links to websites for creative writing guidance and to help writers find literary magazines.
JSTOR’s Lives of Literature project collects journals about writers to support scholarly research.
They’re divided into sections on “Medieval Authors & Texts,” “Modernist Authors,” “Victorian, Edwardian, & Gothic Authors,” and “Literary Theorists.” Each section includes starting points for secondary resources (like scholarly articles about individual writers) and links to primary resources from the period. They also link to non-JSTOR collections.
Indexes of LibGuides
The Library of Congress’s index
The “Cabinet of American Illustration” guide is searchable or available to browse by subject.
There are resource guides by state. Here is the resource guide for Maine.
There are resource guides for literary awards. Here is one for the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction.
The LibGuides Community page has featured guides, but it’s also searchable and brings together LibGuides from institutions worldwide.
Let’s go write!