MC Library Research Guides: Use the Library as a Distance Education Student: Home

This guide is for students who are enrolled on College's distance education program. While this guide is not an alternative to MC Library, it provides useful links to help with your research.

Terms in this Guide

Boolean Operators: Words—such as AND, OR, or NOT—that command a computer to combine search terms. They help to narrow (AND, NOT) or broaden (OR) searches.
Check-out: To borrow something from the library; to take something home with you from the library.  You will need to show your MC ID card to check out an item.
Circulating Item: A book or a library item that you can check out to take home. The loan period at MC Library is generally three weeks.
Citation: A citation is a reference to a book, article, video, website, or other information source for the purpose of giving credit to the author. Citations also give more credibility to your work because your readers can find out exactly where you got the information.
Course Reserve: Select books, articles, videos, or other materials that instructors want students to read or view for a particular course. These materials are usually kept in one area of the library and circulate for only a short period of time.
Database: A collection of information stored in an electronic format that can be searched by a computer.

E-book (or Electronic book): An electronic version of a book that can be read on a computer or mobile device.
Electronic Reserve (or E-reserve): An electronic version of a course reserve that is read on a computer or mobile device.
RaptorSearch: RaptorSearch is not a database itself but a search tool that finds content in other databases subscribed by MC Library. It allows you to search multiple databases from a single search box. Results may include articles from scholarly journals, magazines, and newspapers; books and e-books; or videos and other media. Use RaptorSearch as a starting point for your research.