Christopher Center Library Services: Faculty Resources: Research Support

Faculty Resources: Research Support

Are you an adjunct faculty member here at VU? In addition to the links below, be sure to check our Adjunct VU Faculty Resources for quick answers to the most frequently asked questions regarding our library services.

Finding Materials Owned by Valparaiso University

Use Galileo, VU's online catalog, to find books, media, microfiche, and periodical holdings. The books are shelved in Library of Congress (LC) order, A-L on 3rd and M-Z on 4th floors. The Reference collection is on 2nd floor, and media is located on 1st floor.

Current periodicals are on 1st floor in LC order. Most bound older issues are housed in the Automated Storage Retrieval System and can be accessed through Galileo.If you submit the request for an item in storage while in the Christopher Center, the item will be at the 2nd floor Circulation Desk within 15 seconds! Or, you can submit the request from your office or home and the item will be held for you at the 2nd floor Circulation Desk for five days.

Use our online databases to find article citations and full text journals. Use JournaLocator to see if VU has access to a specific journal title. JournaLocator searches Galileo and all of our databases.

    To search for books and other materials in Galileo, click here.
    To learn how to set up preferred searches in Galileo, click here.
    To search for articles, click here.
    To search for journal titles, click here.

Finding Materials Not Owned by Valparaiso University

There are several options to help you locate and borrow materials not owned by Valparaiso University. WorldCat is the database to use to search for books. There is an Interlibrary Loan feature built into WorldCat which will automatically fill in the loan request when you log in to your Illiad Interlibrary Loan account.

To find out more about Interlibrary Loan, click here.
To search WorldCat, click here.

The Center for Research Libraries (CRL) makes available more than four million publications, archives and collections to its member libraries to supplement their own humanities, social science and science holdings. Center materials can be obtained for extended loan periods and at no cost by users affiliated with member libraries such as Valparaiso University. Use Illiad to request these materials through Interlibrary Loan.

To search the Center for Research Libraries, click here.

With a reciprocal borrower's card from Academic Libraries of Indiana (ALI), you can travel to other Indiana universities, such as University of Notre Dame and Purdue, and check out materials from their collections.

To find out more about Academic Libraries of Indiana reciprical borrowing, click here.

Citation Management

Currently, there is no purchased product (e.g. RefWorks or EndNote) which is supported by Valparaiso University. IT suggests that Firefox users download the free product, Zotero. Many of our databases also contain tools which will format citations to conform to different citation styles.

To find out about Zotero, click here.
To find out about citation formatting within a specific database, consult the "Help" screen in the database.

Grant Writing

The Office of Sponsored and Undergraduate Research is located in the Christopher Center and coordinates faculty and departmental research grant applications. VU is also a Foundation Center library which gives us access to the Foundation (Center) Directory Online database (only available in the Christopher Center) and all of the Foundation Center books.

To find out more about the Office of Sponsored and Undergraduate Research, call (219) 464-5494
To use the Foundation (Center) Directory Online database while in the Christopher Center, click here.

Faculty Study

The Faculty Study on the 4th floor of the Christopher Center is open to all faculty for study, quiet reflection, and small faculty meetings. The Study houses the Teaching Resource Center and a two station computer lab with a printer. Free coffee is available across the hall in the Administration office until 5 p.m. The Faculty Study is locked at 5 but any faculty member can request the key at the 2nd floor Circulation Desk.

To find the Faculty Study on a floor plan, click here.

Celebrating Your Scholarship

As part of National Library Week each spring, Christopher Center Library Services hosts an annual reception to honor VU faculty, emeriti, staff, and students who have authored, edited or translated books during the previous calendar year.

To find out more about VU Authors, click here.
To submit a title for honoring at the spring reception, click here.

Return to Faculty Resources