Research Help : Home

When conducting research, it will be important to keep your references saved so you can access them at various points during your research process. 

Signing into your Library Account
To save anything to your library account, you must sign in using the "my account" button below the main search bar, or by selecting "sign in" in the upper right hand corner of the results page. If the "sign in" link still appears and your name is not displayed, nothing will be saved to your to your account. 

Saving items to your Library Account
Once you have signed into your library account, saving items is a simple as clicking the "save" button in the top right corner of any title you'd like to save. Titles you have saved will show up in your "saved items" list at the top of the page.

If you want to save items permanently, you can save them to a list from the "saved items" page. Once you have created a list to save titles to, they can be saved permanently.

Note: If you are not signed into your account, the option to create a list will not appear for you. If you close out of the tab without signing in and creating a list, your "saved items" list will be lost. 

Research guides tell you what specific resources will be most helpful to you for a given subject, discipline or major. They are an excellent place to begin with any research project, but especially if you are unfamiliar with your topic.

Finding the research guides
You can find the list of research guides via the "Research Guides" button below the main search bar.

This button will take you to the full list of research guides, organized in alphabetical order. All of the guides in the list are subject or resource specific, so simply scroll through the list until you find what you need.

Navigating the guides
The layout of each individual guide may vary, but generally, once you have found the guide that best suits your needs, you can navigate through the various boxes and tabs at the top of the guide to find different types of sources relevant to your project.

eJournal Finder:

Our eJournal Finder is connected to our Browzine platform. Browzine digitally mimics the experience of picking up a print-copy journal and flipping through it. You can find journals related to your field or topic and browse for interesting articles. 

Note: Browzine only searches at the journal level, not the article level.

Finding a Database:
You can access our alphabetical list of databases via the "search for a database" box below the main search bar.

If you need an article or book that is unavailable in Beaman Library, you can fill out an interlibrary loan request and we will ask other libraries if we can borrow the item for you to use.

Note: As a general rule, we can not make requests for eBooks due to copyright law. If you need a book, you can either make a loan request for the print book to be sent to us in the mail, or make an article request for specific chapters you want scans of.

You can access the blank ILL form via the "Request Interlibrary Loan" box below the main search bar.

Filling out the Request Form
In the top half of the form, the title and author of the item you are looking for are the only required pieces of information, but the more of the boxes you can fill out, the better.

The next portion of the request form will ask for information about the request. First, indicate which type of request you need: if you are requesting an article or chapter of a book, you need a copy; if you are requesting a full print book, you need a loan. Next, indicate your timeframe for the delivery of the item usig the "needed before" box. And lastly, indicate whether the item being requested can be delivered as a copy to your email, or if the loan will need to be checked out from the Beaman library.

Note: Digital requests like articles or chapters can take up to a week to be sent to your inbox, while physical materials can take up to two or three to arrive in the mail. Plan your requests accordingly!

Lastly, you will have to provide your Lipscomb contact information. Please do use your Lipscomb email address for this portion, as this will make the delivery of your requested item smoother. Once you have finished this section of the form, you can click "submit request" at the bottom of the form and leave the rest to us!

Note: When listing your LNumber in this form, replace the "L" with a zero

Receiving your Requested Item
After submitting the request form, a confirmation will pop up on the screen. Unfortunately, this confirmation does not always get saved to your account, and it may seem like your request didn't go through, but it has. If you are uncertain about whether your request has gone through, you can contact our interlibrary loan staff at interlibraryloan@lipscomb.edu. Reach out to us with any questions you have about your request before submitting it again, as duplicate requests can clog the system.

If you are having trouble accessing an article by clicking the View PDF or View Full Text link, please contact Lipscomb’s Electronic Resources Librarian and report the title of the article you are attempting to access and attach a screenshot of the error message you are receiving. 

After you report your access issue, using the following strategies may help you succeed in obtaining the information you need:

1. Instead of using the View PDF or View Full Text links, click into the article record and scroll down until you see the "Access Online" tab and see what other links are available. 
2. In that same “Access Online” section, you should be able to see which database the article is coming from. Go to the A-Z Databases page by clicking “Resources” in the top left-hand corner and search for the article in the database itself. By visiting the A-Z Databases list, you can locate the database you need, and search for your article there directly.

There are seven reservable study rooms available to students in the Beaman library. These rooms hold up to four students and come equipped with apple TVs, whiteboards, and various other study supplies. They can be booked for up to two hours per booking and each student is allowed three bookings per week. Study rooms may only be booked up to two weeks in advance.

How to book a study room
You can find the booking grid via the "Book a study room" button below the main search bar.

How to use the study room booking grid
The booking grid is divided into 30min blocks, with green squares indicating available time slots. Select the square at the beginning of the time slot you'd like to book the room and the system will automatically select the three behind it to give you your full two hour window. 

Note: If you don't need the study room for the full two hours, please use the drop down bar below the grid to select an earlier end time for your booking.

Confirming your appointment
After reading the study room terms of use, the final step in booking a study room is filling out the booking details form. This form will ask for your Lipscomb information, and serves as your agreement to abide by the terms of use.

Note: you must use your "...@mail.lipscomb.edu" student email address to complete your booking.

Once you finish the form and click "submit my booking" at the bottom of the page, you will receive a confirmation email. You must show this confirmation email at the check-out desk on the library's main floor in order to check into your reservation and collect the study room key.