How Do I ...

Ask a question?
Reference librarians can help you with your research or answer your general questions about how to use the library. You can contact a reference librarian by IM, phone, or use the email Ask a Reference Question form. For subject specific assistance, you can also contact the appropriate librarian for that department.

For questions about checking out or renewing books, overdue notices you have received, or books you have requested from other libraries, please contact the Circulation department.

For questions about articles you have requested using Interlibrary Loan, please contact the ILL office.

If you have a technical question about your computer or software, please contact the Computing Center's Helpdesk.

Get help with my research?
See the Reference page for information about the research services we offer.

One of our research guides or handouts may also help.

Find library hours and locations?
Addresses and phone numbers for our 2 locations are available from our home page. Library hours and directions are under the About Us link.

Find articles?
The best way to find articles is to use one of the library's databases, available from our home page. Use the Find Articles link and select Databases and Indexes. Some databases cover journals on a wide variety of subjects (Academic Search Premier, for example), while others are limited to a particular discipline (such as CINAHL for nursing or ATLA for religion/theology).

For help deciding which database to use, you can browse library databases in your subject. We also offer lists of new databases and trial databases.

If you already have a citation to an article you can use The Periodical Cat to find out if St. Kate's has the journal you need. If we do not have the journal, you can request the article through Interlibrary Loan.

More information about Finding Journal Articles once you have a citation.

Find out if the CSC libraries has a journal or magazine?
Check The Periodical Cat. This is a listing of both the print and electronic journals available from the CSC libraries. If you have not used The Periodical Cat before, search tips are available.

Use library databases from off campus?
You can access CLICnet from any computer with access to the Web by going through the libraries' web site at http://www.stkate.edu/library/ .

Off-campus access to databases for journal articles is limited to currently enrolled students, faculty, and staff. For most databases you will have to login using your KateWay login. A few databases require passwords.

See our Library Handouts page for guides to using CLICnet and various databases.

Find books?
Use CLICnet, the library's online catalog, to search for books at CSC and in other CLIC libraries.

If you would like to look for books at libraries outside the CLIC system, you can try MNLink, which contains listings for libraries throughout the state of Minnesota, or MNCat, for items at the University of Minnesota. Both of these (and some others) are available from the Find Books page.

Check out books? Renew books? Cancel a hold I've placed on a book?
You must have a valid CSC ID card to check out books and other items. For details about borrowing materials from the library see the Circulation department.

You may renew items up to two times. The first renewal may be done through CLICnet or by phone (St. Paul: 651-690-6647 and Minneapolis: 651-690-7784). If you renew by phone, please have your barcode number ready when you call. To renew items a second time you must present them at the Circulation Desk.

If you want to cancel a hold you've placed on a book, you can do so online through CLICnet.

Get course reserves items ?
E-reserves (as well as print reserve items) can be found using CLICnet. Select the Course Reserves tab from the opening screen.  You can also go directly to reserves materials from the library's home page, by clicking on the CSC Reserve Readings link in the middle of the right side .

More information about e-reserves is available from the Electronic Reserves web page.

Get books and articles not at the CSC libraries?
This depends on the item:

• For books found on CLICnet but not available from CSC, you can request the book through CLICnet.
• For books not on CLICnet, you will need to submit an Interlibrary Loan (ILL) request for the item.
• Journal articles not found at CSC libraries can also be requested through ILL.

Cite materials in a bibliography, including those I find online?
See our Citation Style Guides web page.

Use a laptop in the library?
There are electrical outlets throughout the library where you can plug in your laptop.

In the St. Paul campus library, there are also network jacks providing access to the Internet and the campus computer network. These are scattered throughout the library. Network jacks are not available in the Minneapolis campus library.

In the St. Paul campus library, if you have a laptop with a wireless network card you may be able to access the campus network in some areas of the library.
Wireless access points on the St. Paul campus