Students struggling with how to start a major project can visit the BYU Harold B. Lee Library to receive help using one of its many resources.
Through both in-person and online resources, librarians and other staff members are prepared to guide each student according to their individual needs.
The Research and Writing Center
The Research and Writing Center is located on the third floor of the BYU library, and it is open to help students at any stage of the writing and research process, whether it be figuring out what the assignment is, developing a topic, help with citations, organization, editing and more.
Students can schedule an appointment with a writing or research consultant online or in person. They can schedule in advance or make a drop-in appointment.
Appointments are 30 minutes long, and students can choose to do the meetings in person or online.
“I can't emphasize enough what a great resource it is, and it's really low risk for students to come here and give it a shot,” said Brittany Maloy, former First Year Programs and RWC supervisor.
The RWC is open weekdays from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., except Mondays when it closes at 5 p.m. and Fridays at 6 p.m.. It is not open on weekends and during BYU devotionals.
Media Production Services
The fourth floor of the BYU library is home to a variety of media-related resources for students to use courtesy of the library’s audiovisual services.
Mike Hill has been working at the library for 23 years and is the manager of the creative audiovisual services at the library. He has been there since the beginning of the construction of the space, including the podcast room and two production rooms.
The podcast room is a four-seat room with four microphones per person and a mixing sound board. The recording sound board has a lot of different options for people who want to come in and record a podcast.
The library also has two production rooms, one bigger and one smaller.
“The large one has a little more capabilities because of the space that it is,” Hill said. “It has a higher ceiling. We also have a little more lighting and space for people to bring in larger groups.”
Bands, dancing studios and more have come into this production room.
The smaller studio is more confined. Hill said the space is often used for library interviews and still life photography.
Students using this space have the creativity liberty to use backgrounds, light boxes and move around the couches and chairs based on the needs of their project.
“There's lots of options and we just provide those options so that they can be as creative as they want in those studios,” Hill said.
There is also an isolated sound booth with three microphones and a piano inside.
“You can actually have other MIDI plugs, so some people will come in and bring in their guitars or whatever music instruments they have,” Hill said.
There is also a 48-person theater room with 7.1 surround sound that students can use and view the media that is provided in the library. Students can also plug in their personal device to an HDMI cord or stream it over the streaming software located in the library.
Finally, there is the equipment checkout room where students can check out cameras and other gear. Students can check out the equipment for up to three days and reserve the production rooms for free.
Makerspace
The Makerspace, located on the fourth floor of the library, is filled with many different services for students and faculty working on school and passion projects.
It has a 3D printer that students and the general public can use. They also have multiple 3D scanners, large-format document scanning, virtual reality, large format plotter cutter table, sewing machines, bookbinding equipment, a laser cutter and engraver and a wide variety of hand tools and workspaces.
Most resources available in this space are free with some exceptions including 3D printing, laser cutting and poster printing.
Jordan Proctor, an employee at the Makerspace, said a lot of students who come in are interested in working on some sort of creative project, not something for an academic class. He also said that many who come in are not entirely sure how to go about their project
“They have this idea of something they want to create or a project they want to go forward with, and they come in and they just sort of explain what they're interested in, and we help them figure out what tools, what equipment, what services would be best suited to help them in their specific case,” Proctor said.
The Makerspace is also set up for people who have never used any of the equipment before. There are tutorial videos, guides and resources set up for beginners to use.
“One of the things that we want to avoid is we never want people to see the Makerspace and say, 'I don't know how to use any of that stuff, so I'm not even gonna go in there because I've never done it before,'” Proctor said.
Online Resources
The library website has plenty of online resources to help students on their way to major assignments.
"We have one big main search box on that library home page, and students can search by keyword or title to find books or journal articles that might be helpful to them,” said Elizabeth Smart, a humanities and media librarian.
She also said another great online resource is the research guides.
There is a research guide for every major on campus, and they are arranged in alphabetical order. Once students click on a major, they are guided to a page where they can easily contact their subject librarian.
The research guides page also points to the best databases in a particular field.
“We subscribe to a vast number of resources, databases of scholarly journal articles, databases of ebooks, news, historical newspapers, contemporary newspapers, primary source materials,” Smart said.
Students can use the library’s subscription to get free access to The New York Times and The Atlantic.
The library also has two online resources for streaming video.
The first one is called Kanopy. It contains many documentaries and global films. The second service is called Swank, which includes more contemporary films.
"We put films in Swank and in Kanopy that would help students with maybe films that have been assigned to watch for your classes," Smart said. "Instead of having to rent them or buy them through a streaming service, we try to provide them through Swank or through Kanopy."
Special Collections
Finally, an important resource to access manuscripts and books not available to check out or to take home is Special Collections.
“It is an amazing place full of wonderful, wonderful treasures,” said Trevor Alvord, associate librarian of Special Collections. “We've got things dating back to 3,000 BCE all the way up to items that were acquired or produced and published just this month.”
Students looking to access documents or manuscripts that are only available in this collection can come to the first floor of the BYU Library and ask the reference staff for help looking for a specific resource.
They can also check online using the search bar tool on the library website
“If you use the library website and you do your search in there, you can filter it down to just the items and special collections,” said Cindy Brightenburg, reference specialist at Special Collections.
She gave an example of how students can use the search bar.
“You (can) put in your topic, like if you're studying the Reformation or Martin Luther, you can put that information, you can put in a name. There's all different ways that you can do searches, and once you do that, then you should get a pretty good results page of what we have in special collections,” she said.
The special collections are eager to have students come down and visit.
"I think a lot of people don't realize how much we have and how many first edition books and early Church documents that we have, so I wish we could help more people understand what we have here on campus so that they can come down and use it,” Brightenburg said.
