PCC Library Blog - Research Guides at Pitt Community College

The Library will be moving upstairs very soon, so stay tuned for more news over the next couple of weeks.

Here's a sneak peak of how things look on the 2nd floor.

New Reference Desk

Seating Area

Tables and Stacks

Computer Lab

Paralegal Room

Recent Posts

New Year, New Books, New Study Room

Welcome back from the holiday break! We have a few new things to share . . .There are new print graphic novels, YA fiction, and nonfiction books about A.I., as well as many new additions to Dogwood Digital, ComicsPlus, and Flipster.An additional large study room is now available for booking on the 2nd floor (Room 214).The VR room has been relocated to 219.NC LIVE has provided access to a new database that provides primary sources related to the Indigenous Peoples of North America.Get the details on our What's New for January 2025 page.New Collection Development Librarian! Evan Schmoll is not new to us, but her role in the Library has changed! She is now in charge of acquiring and cataloging new materials for the Library. She will still be your primary contact person for setting up Library instruction (for now). Please congratulate Evan on her new role!...

Accessing The Chronicle of Higher Education

Update: PCC Library DOES NOT CURRENTLY SUBSCRIBE to The Chronicle of Higher Education (November 2024). Access Online via Library DatabasesAcademic Search Complete (EBSCOhost) and Opposing Viewpoints (Gale) include access to full-text articles from the Chronicle of Higher Education between 1999, and the present. However, there is a publisher imposed 30-day embargo on adding full text to these databases, so you will not be able to access the most recent issues. Use Academic Search CompleteQuick Link: Go directly to the Academic Search Complete Chronicle of Higher Ed. Publication page (view by year, volume, issue, etc.).Step-by-step instructions for getting to the publication page:Go to the PCC Library homepage (opens in a new window).Click Databases.Click the letter "A" then choose Academic Search Complete. You will be prompted to login with your myPittCC username and password.Once the database is open, click Publications in the top navigation bar.Skip the top search box on the next page. Look for the text box in the Publications section.Type Chronicle of Higher Education in the search box.If not already selected, click the radial button next to Alphabetical. Click Browse.Click the link for Chronicle of Higher Education. From this next page, you can choose to view articles by year, issue, etc. There is also a Search within this Publication link that will allow you to search by keyword.The Full Text section lets you know what dates are available as full text and whether or not there are any publisher embargoes. Use Opposing ViewpointsQuick Link: Go directly to the Opposing Viewpoints Chronicle of Higher Education Publication Page (view by year, volume, issue, etc.).Step-by-step instructions for getting to the publication page:Go to the PCC Library homepage (opens in a new window).Click Databases.Click the letter "O" then choose Opposing Viewpoints. You will be prompted to enter your myPittCC username and password.Click Advanced Search.Click Publication Search.In the search box, start typing: The Chronicle of Higher Education. Click the title when you see it appear in the drop-down menu, or continue typing the complete title in the Publication Search box.Click Search.Click the link for The Chronicle of Higher Education.Click the drop-down menu to view issues from a particular year.Use the Search Within Publication box to search for articles on a topic. If you can't find the article that you need, or you are having trouble navigating the database, please do not hesitate to ask a librarian....

This Librarian on A.I.

There’s always something to learn…about everything, all the time, and A.I. is the latest thing we are expected to master. But how? Who has time? Do we just jump right in, or take our time? In either case, here are few things I’ve come across just in the past couple of weeks that have been helpful to me – someone who is only just beginning to stick their toes into the vast ocean of AI “stuff.” What do college students need to know about AI? Read the Student Guide to Artificial Intelligence by Elon Univ. and the AAC&U. It’s brief and to the point, which makes it very manageable for all types of learners. It has a CC BY license, which means you can use it all day long for your classes!StudentguidetoAI.org (web version) Download the PDF If you only have time to read one section of this guide… The Essential AI “How-To” Manual should be required reading for all– students and instructors alike. There is a lot of good advice here on how to use generative AI for various things, but most importantly, it briefly outlines Generative AI Cautions – all from an academic perspective. And on that note... if you don’t know how to fact-check, that is now an essential skill. What is A.I. trained on? This interactive article from The Washington Post helped me wrap my head around this in that it provides very concrete examples: Inside the Secret List of Websites that Make AI like ChatGPT Sound Smart by Kevin Schaul, Szu Yu Chen, and Nitasha Tiku (April 2024). How do I distinguish AI hype vs. what it can actually do? Aspen Digital has launched an open educational resource (OER) designed to teach students (and the rest of us) how the media portrays AI-related technologies. There’s a detailed lesson plan along with educational primers:Interpreting AI in the News: A Media Literacy Plan A.I. 101 Intro to Generative A.I.This section on How to Talk About A.I. was very enlightening! AI Snake Oil is an online newsletter (with a book on the way) by two Princeton guys who are passionate about debunking AI hype. They have a checklist of Eighteen Pitfalls to Beware of in AI Journalism. What AI tools should I try first?There are so many AI tools it’s hard to know where to start, but this librarian has decided to play around with these for right now: Perplexity: Free tool that can be described as a cross between an internet search engine and generative AI. There is a pro version too, but the free version does plenty. It’s highly recommended by library-folk. Semantic Scholar: Free, AI-driven search and discovery tools, and open resources for the global research community. It’s not for general searching, but if you create an account, you have some neat research tools. MagicSchool – A high school teacher told me about this one and it’s great for all kinds of education things. You must have a .edu email to sign up, but it has a lot of built-in prompts that are specifically useful for teachers (K-12 and College) and students. Copilot: PCC provides access to Copilot 365. To use it… Open the Copilot homepage (https://copilot.microsoft.com). Click "Sign In" and choose "school or work account." Log in using your myPittCC credentials. Important Info from PCC IT: This version of Copilot DOES use your data to train the LLM for this tenant (and the OpenAI LLM too due to their business connections). So, if you log in and utilize Copilot AI, it should have access to the same data YOU have access to.  Why log in? Logging in with your PCC credentials gives you access to everything that comes with a paid subscription to ChatGPT4o (audio generators, visual generators, agents, etc.). Well, that’s probably more than you wanted to know. I went on an AI bender earlier this year and created an Artificial Intelligence Library Guide, but things change so fast it could literally be updated every day of the week. Have fun discovering new things! If you find something cool, let us know about it. Angela Davis Instruction & Web Services Librarian, PCC ...

Atlantic Monthly in Flipster

You can now view entire issues with images of the The Atlantic Monthly online through the Library's subscription to Flipster. It includes full issues from May 2014 to the present. FlipsterView digitized versions of select magazines: Atlantic Monthly, National Geographic, Entrepreneur, Popular Mechanics, and Consumer Reports.Need help using Flipster? Take a look at our Flipster explainer page. ...

Renovation Update