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RUNNING HEADER: ASHFORD UNIVERSITY’S LIBRARY

Week 2 Assignment: Ashford University’s Library Instructor: Dan Hicks GEN 499: General Education Capstone Student: Kegan Wilson Due: September 19th, 2016

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ASHFORD UNIVERSITY’S LIBRARY Ashford University’s Library This paper provides personal experiences involved with the using the Ashford University Library to complete research, identify topics, and generate information in order to produce a college level research paper necessary to complete required degree courses. Included are several opinions about the concerns of utilizing the Ashford Library to write a paper as required by Ashford University instructors as well as suggested areas of improvement the school could make. Personal Experiences from Academic Research The Ashford University Library is available online to support the students and faculty members by providing the most updated resources aligned with the current academic courses and their prescribed resources. These materials are readily available to students needing to complete research and develop well written papers about a variety of topics required by all degree and course programs. The library has a link available to their online platform in each online classroom that Ashford offers and simply requires that students sign in in order to gain access. Over the last two years in which I have been a Public Relations and Marketing student with Ashford University, whenever I would conduct any academic research for my classwork especially in regards to particular subjects, I initially found the resource center to be quite confusing. The first time I utilized the library’s unique databases I felt rather overwhelmed by the number of different databases available to students and the vast amount of information available, if you know how to properly word what it is that you’re looking for. There are endless resources to include peer reviewed journals, web articles, newspapers, E-books, and videos, as well as countless encyclopedias and dictionaries. I also quickly had to learn that you should not simply use the very first resource that is populated in your search for information as this may not be the 2

ASHFORD UNIVERSITY’S LIBRARY best suited article or journal for your paper, and a number of times the information has been found to be outdated or incorrect. Concerns with Ashford University’s Library’s Resources One concern I have is in regards to the amount of time it takes to find reliable resources that cover the topic of research and its corresponding information. A good example of this would be when working with ProQuest, EBSCOhost, and JSTOR databases, Ashford University Library advises students to begin by selecting the database and entering key information about the specific article or topic you are searching for in the search bar. However, should the article you are looking for not have an author listed, then you must enter the title of the article "in quotations" to further your search. There is even a link provided for a video that provides students with tips on how to locate articles. Yet, the only way to access this information directly is through many searches through numerous tabs in the Library’s home page. While there is a plethora of information available to assist students, many students lose interest and strike out on their own to attempt to operate the Library’s many databases for their research due to the amount of time it would take to go through each tutorial and video. Also, when trying to locate the entire text from a book or article, should you attempt to use the link the link provided for the source typically another window will be opened and the information most times is unavailable. It can be extremely frustrating to then have to look outside of Ashford University to locate the missing information, especially when the small amount provided in the Library was indeed exactly what you were looking for in order to complete your research. Instead, all of the necessary information or text should be available to a student if Ashford University has a record of the material in their Library database.

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ASHFORD UNIVERSITY’S LIBRARY Areas of Improvement for Ashford University’s Library When using Ashford University’s Library, so long as a student knows the specific database, category, and topic they are attempting to utilize to complete their research then they will find plenty of valid and reliable resources with numerous references to complete their academic research paper. In order to acquire specific information and cut down on a student’s internet traffic, Ashford University should increase the amount of full text their Library has to offer without having to use multiple links to access the necessary information. There have been some recent changes within Ashford University’s Library in regards to the information available to students over the last few years since I have been a student. Such resources as the Writing Center have greatly helped me to be able to better develop my research papers and in regards to properly citing materials I have used throughout the paper and the required reference page.

I will continue to utilize Ashford University’s Library as I work on my Master’s degree in Public Administration as I’m certain I will be required to write endless research papers throughout the required courses to complete this next educational achievement. I know how to proper search for specific scholarly resources and this will continue to help me improve in writing academic papers. While initially learning Ashford University’s unique Library search criteria was daunting, frustrating, and confusing, after two years of working on my Bachelor’s degree I am now aware of the proper techniques required to find what items and I have learned it is important to take the time throughout the full five weeks of a course to read all of the information gathered for your research paper. This helps to determine the best resources available to cover a specific topic and decrease the overall time it takes to complete the paper.

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