Fall 2024 Hours
Monday - Thursday: 8:00 am - 8:00 pm
Friday: 8:00 am to 4:00 pm
Weekends & Holidays: Closed
Ways to Contact Us
Phone: (916) 608-6613
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Fall 2024 Hours
Monday - Thursday: 8:00 am - 6:00 pm
Friday: 8:00 am - 4:00 pm
Weekends & Holidays: Closed
Research Assistance
Phone: (530) 642-5693
Send us an email
Circulation Assistance
Phone: (530) 642-5695
Understanding Assignments
Before you begin looking for information, you should make sure you understand your assignment. If you don't understand the assignment, there is only one person that can best answer any questions - the professor that created the assignment. As they are the creators of the assignments and the subject expert, you want to always ask them for clarification immediately. Don't put it off.
Let the Assignment Guide You
Let the assignment drive what types of resources you choose to explore. Sometimes, your professor will tell you exactly which types to use, but other times, you will need to look at the assignment and figure that out on your own as part of the research process.
One of the greatest challenges in starting your search for resources is creating a list of the best terms and phrases that represent your topic. I chose the topic of self-driving cars and created the following list of key words to begin with:
Self-driving cars Artificial Intelligence Technology Safety
Ethics Autonomous vehicles Traffic Congestion
Once I have a list of possible words or phrases that represent my topic(s), I can then pair different ones in search systems, like OneSearch. For example:
(self-driving or autonomous) and cars and safety
Traffic congestion and self-driving cars