Research Guides Homepage: Resources for Students: Services/Research Help

Research Assistance

Research Consultations

Research Consultations allow you to meet one-on-one with a librarian. You may schedule a consultation in advance, or walk in. Walk-ins are not automatically assigned to their subject specialist.

Learn about:

The information cycle
Focusing your research topic
Planning your research strategy
Identifying relevant sources of information
Finding and evaluating sources efficiently

Information Desk

The Information Desk is located on the first floor of the Library. It is the focal service point and provides research and instructional assistance to the University's students, faculty, staff, and local community. The department houses a variety of resources for the Library including general and specialized encyclopedias, dictionaries, directories, handbooks, indexes, atlases, and bibliographies.

The information desk is staffed at all hours that the library is open. Reference Staff is available to help users in person, by telephone, and virtually via text, chat, and email. To reach the Information Desk please call (334) 604-9164.

Our Collections

Citation Resources Information about citations using various styles such as" MLA, APA, and Turabian. Also has information about plagiarizing and academic integrity.
General Collection Resources Items located on the 4th and 5th floors that students may check-out.
Databases Databases provide access to articles from magazines, newspapers, and scholarly journals. Some databases allow you to access books, music, and many other valuable resources.
Course Reserves Select the tab for Course Reserves. Here, course materials made available to students by certain instructors are listed.
Serials The Serials Department is located on the third floor of the library. This department houses a large collection of scholarly journals, popular magazines and newspapers in print, bound, microfiche and microfilm formats.
Curriculum Materials Center The Curriculum Material Center Collections is located on the 5th floor. It is geared toward offerings that are educational,diverse, and cultural. The individual collections contain fiction, non-fiction, reference materials, books, videos, audio visual materials and equipment. The CMC has a Curriculum Textbook collection, Curriculum Juvenile collection, Curriculum Stax collection, a Vertical and Picture File, and the University's Media Collection.
Reference The Reference books are located on the third floor, and cannot be checked out. These books are for in-house use only and contain reference materials such as dictionaries, encyclopedias, and handbooks.
Special Collections Located on the 1st floor, this collection covers such topics as the African Diaspora, African American experience, and the Civil Rights Movement in Alabama. A small portion of the books in this collection can be checked out, for two weeks only, but most of these books can only be viewed in the library.
Archives/Rare Book Collection Located on the 2nd floor, this collection contains first editions, rare books, and signed copies of topics such as Slavery, the Civil War, Reconstruction, Segregation, Jim Crow Laws in Alabama, history of ASU, Lincoln Normal School, and the Civil Rights Movement in Alabama. Items in this collection cannot be checked out, or taken from the area.

Interlibrary Loan

Interlibrary Loan (ILL) is a service that allows you to borrow materials that are not available in the library such as books, periodical articles etc. ILL requests are made directly through WorldCat.

Montgomery Higher Education Consortium

The Montgomery Higher Education Consortium allows you to have access to all library materials at other institutions in Montgomery. To use this service, ASU students should complete a form and obtain a Consortium sticker from the Information Desk. The other institutions include: Huntingdon College, Faulkner University, Auburn University Montgomery, and Troy University Montgomery.