Triboro News

We have several drop in times available in the SLC -- both in person and online.

First, a composition drop-in lab is offered on Mondays and Wednesdays from 12-1. This one is in-person and online. 

Next, we have an art history drop-in lab on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 1-2. This one is online only. 

Here is what one student said about the Art History lab:

In my online art history II class, I would have trouble understanding what the teacher would ask of me in the quizzes and assignments. No matter how often I reread the prompt or asked other people what the teacher wanted of me. I would end up confused and doing three times the work or less than what was asked of me, which was hurting my grade. In the art history drop-in, though, having a teacher who understood the materials and would sit with me while I asked questions and got in-time answers was so helpful. She went over how the titles of the reading materials for the week can give you an idea of what connections dots between each article that the teacher wanted you to connect. She was able to explain the assignments the same way an in-person class would explain them, which was more beneficial to my learning style than just reading a one-sentence prompt was. All in all, this was so helpful to me and really helped me get my grade up in the class. 

Finally, we have two study groups. A freshman study group on Monday evenings and Interior Design Senior group on Thursday evenings, these are online or in-person. 

Please join us at any or all of these options!

RMCAD's schedule can be a tight turnaround between the A and B terms. We all know this, so start thinking about your Summer B classes now.  

The SLC schedule for Summer B should be open by the middle of this week. Go ahead and make your appointments now. If you are interested in making repeating appointments, just ask your tutor and we can set that up. 

Also, here are some handy links for finding the Learning Commons:

Library Catalog (our physical collection): https://rmcad.mlasolutions.com/

Library Instagram (Fast fact from the library!): https://www.instagram.com/rmcadlibrary/

Subject Guides (it is likely we have a guide for your topic): https://rmcad.libguides.com/

SLC Scheduler (make an appointment that suits you!): https://rmcad.mywconline.com/

SLC Youtube (lots of great tips and tricks): https://www.youtube.com/@RmcadSLC

*modified from this SLC tipsheet

Have you ever wondered how to get better search results when you’re conducting research on a database or on Google?

There are some standard tips and techniques for conducting better searches in Jstor, Ebsco, and other research databases. Many of the symbols are the same from database to database, but they don't always mean the exact same thing. So always check if you aren't getting the results you want. 

Wild cards

Wild cards are used to replace part of a term. This is useful when there may be alternative spelling such as color or colour. In a search you might see this as col?r. Wild card symbols vary from database to database, so it is good practice to check which symbol is used.

Truncation

Truncation is like a wild card, but for the end of search term. This is useful for plurals or extensions. For example photo* could retrieve photos or photography or photographer.

Boolean terms

Boolean search terms are algebraic logic terms that help us search. We typically use the following three terms the most in our searching:

And: searches for the intersection of two or more terms.

Or: searches for either or any term.

Not: excludes a term from the search

In Ebsco and JSTOR

* (Asterisk) Matches multiple characters.

• For example: col*r Will retrieve color, colour, or collector

? (Question mark) Matches exactly one character

• For example: color? Will retrieve color or colors

For further questions or assistance with research email library@rmcad.edu.

We are buying more and more eBooks through our EBSCO database. The benefit of this is that these eBooks are available to everyone, whether or not you come to campus. 

Many libraries make eBooks available to "check out" to an e-reader.  We don't provide that option, because several of the books are used as textbooks. We want them to be available to as many people as possible. 

To access the ebooks we own, do not choose the first option in the database list:

The EBSCO eBook Collection does not include the items we purchase...if you want to know why, feel free to reach out, but it is not exciting. It just is. 

Instead, choose the next choice -- the EBSCOhost Main Page, and select all on the next screen. 

From there, do your search and limit to eBooks. 

Try it out and do some reading!