Research Services: Home

College-level research requires that we use scholarly, reliable, accurate, and current information to support our claims, arguments, and opinions. In addition, not many free web resources can promise that the information they provide is as accurate as an encyclopedia edited and written by experts and published by Oxford, Cambridge, Yale, etc.

The library owns hundreds of thousands of print books, journals, government documents, videos, CDs, and more.

• We also subscribe to (or have purchased) 280 electronic databases containing research materials.  These resources make it easy to access full text reference books, scholarly journal articles, magazine and newspaper articles, books, statistics, company information, music scores and audio recordings, streaming video, polls, test reviews, clinical trials, and much more.
• There are both primary and secondary sources available for your research.
• We have specialized research resources for every area of study at ISU.
• For background information we have both print and digital reference resources.

• Dictionaries
• Encyclopedias
• Handbooks
• Manuals
• Directories
• Phone books
• Almanacs

Any books that are used to look up background information, facts, the spelling of a word or its meaning, and so forth are reference resources. The Oboler Library has a large reference collection in print, located on the first floor of the building.  You also have access to a great many of these kinds of resources electronically, by using our library catalog, OneSearch, or through one of the reference database "packages" like Oxford Reference Online or Gale Virtual Reference Library.

Research Services staff are trained to help you in many ways.  We can help you choose keywords or subject headings, construct a good search for better results, determine the best resources on your topic, find tutorials and other information on research, and cite sources. We can also help you use the library catalog, OneSearch, databases, microfilm readers, find books, and much more.  We can help you determine whether or not the library has the article you need. We are patient, great listeners, and our goal is to do all we can to help you succeed in college!