PCC Library Blog - Research Guides at Pitt Community College

New for May 2025

05/01/2025

Angela Davis

Resources & Services

May the 4th Be with You!

Star Wars Comics Covers

To our Star Wars fans, we wish you a happy Star Wars day (May 4th). The ComicsPlus database includes many Star Wars stories both new and old.

Speaking of things that are new… see What's New at the library for May!

High School Battle of the Books (HBOB)

04/29/2025

Angela Davis

Events

The Pitt County Schools Early College High School Battle of the Books (HBOB) team is building quite the legacy. Each year, these very busy students somehow find the time to read multiple books in order to compete against the the other high schools across Pitt County. It's like trivia, but all the questions come from a list of 16 books! Students must be familiar with the books and have the titles and authors memorized. This year's team came in third place. This was no easy task, and we are very proud of their hard work and dedication! Reading for the next competition (that takes place each spring) begins as soon as the previous competition is done. You can visit our HBOB page for the current reading list. Keep up the good work! Go Wolves!

The ECHS 2024-2025 HBOB team placed 3rd in competition on March 31st, 2025, at South Central HS. Pictured are Brianna Barnes, Austin Ju, Phoenyx Leaks, Gabriela Washington, Anna Cauthon, Celia Bansah, Jamaria Barrow, Victoria Wright, and Amanda Diaz. Coaches (not pictured) were Evan Schmoll (PCC Library), Natasha Martin (ECHS), and Angela Davis (PCC Library).

What is PubMed?

04/17/2025

Angela Davis

Medicine & Health

PubMed is a free web-based interface for searching MEDLINE, which is the National Library of Medicine's (NLM) premier bibliographic database that contains millions of references to journal articles in life sciences, with a concentration on biomedicine.

PubMed searches across several resources: MEDLINE, PubMed Central (PMC), and Bookshelf.
You can go directly to PubMed online, find it on our database list, and on some of our research guides.
If an article is not available in fulltext from PubMed, PCC Library may have the article in one of our databases, or you can request an article through our interlibrary loan service.

Check out these PubMed tutorials…

Did you know…?

You can see all of PCC library’s health resources on one page. Need help searching? Ask us!

Allied Health Exam Prep

04/16/2025

Angela Davis

Medicine & Health

You have access to many online practice tests and study guides to help you prepare for allied health and nursing exams.

PrepSTEP*

You can access both LearningExpress Library and PrepSTEP College from the same interface.

There are study guides and practice tests for:

ATI TEAS
Nursing: NCLEX-RN, Nursing Assistant/Nurse Aide Certification, NCLEX-PN, etc.
Dental Assisting
Medical Assistant Certification
Occupational Therapy Assistant Certification (COTA)
Radiologic Technologist Certification
Respiratory Therapist Certification (TMC)
Surgical Technologist Certification
EMT Certification
Paramedic Certification (NRP)

If you need to brush up on basic math and reading skills, basic computer skills, workplace skills, and more, PrepSTEP and LearningExpress Library have got you covered!

*Online Access: PCC students and staff should use their myPittCC login credentials. Community library card holders can get a username/password from a librarian.

How to Access PrepSTEP

PrepSTEP

Provides access to both LearningExpress and PrepSTEP. Includes practice for the TEAS test, ACT, SAT, NCLEX-RN, licensing exams, developmental math and reading skills, basic computer skills, workplace skills, and more. Getting to PrepSTEP content . . .

From the LearningExpress Library homepage, click the menu icon (which they call Product Launcher).
Click PrepSTEP College.
If the page is stuck on “Loading,” try refreshing the page or clearing the browser cache.

What's New for Spring?

04/15/2025

Angela Davis

Resources & Services

Below are just a few of the new things that are now available. Check out our What's New guide for more details on what is new for Spring 2025!

Print Books

We Do Not Part by Han Kang

Call Number: F Han

Tells the story of a friendship between two women while powerfully reckoning with a hidden chapter in Korean history…

The Death of Truth by Steven Brill

Call Number: HM 851 .B75 2024

How did we become a world where facts - shared truths - have lost their power to hold us together as a community, as a country, globally? How have we allowed the proliferation of alternative facts, hoaxes, even conspiracy theories, to destroy our trust in institutions, leaders, and legitimate experts…

Original Sins: The (Mis)Education of Black and Native Children and the Construction of American Racism by Eve L. Ewing

Call Number: LC 212.2 .E95 2025

Why don't our schools work? Ewing tackles this question from a new angle- what if they're actually doing what they were built to do? She argues that instead of being the great equalizer, America's classrooms were designed to do the opposite - to maintain our inequalities…

E-Books & Audiobooks in Dogwood Digital

Cover Art Atomic Anna by Rachel Barenbaum

Dogwood Digital: Audiobook
In 1986, nuclear scientist Anna Berkova is asleep in her bed in the Soviet Union when Chernobyl's reactor melts down. The energy surge accidentally sends her through time…

Cover Art Everyone Dies Famous in a Small Town by Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock

Dogwood Digital: eBook & Audiobook
In this book, the impact of wildfire, a wayward priest, or a mysterious disappearance ricochet across communities, threading through stories. Here, ordinary actions such as ice skating or going to church reveal hidden truths…

Want more? Titles new and old are constantly being added to Dogwood Digital by community college libraries all over the state. Learn how to access Dogwood Digital.

New Year, New Books, New Study Room

01/06/2025

Angela Davis

Resources & Services

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

11/22/2024

Angela Davis

Education, Faculty

Update: PCC Library DOES NOT CURRENTLY have a print subscription to The Chronicle of Higher Education (as of November 2024).

Access Online via Library Databases

Academic 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 Complete

Quick 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 Viewpoints

Quick 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.

09/26/2024

Angela Davis

Science & Technology, Research & Writing

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.”

Figuring Out Artificial Intelligence. Just jump right in...?

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

09/02/2024

Angela Davis

Resources & Services, Sociology, Social Issues

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.

Flipster

View 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.

ECHS POP-UP Library

08/22/2024

Angela Davis

Resources & Services

Check this out: Pop-Up Librar Thursdays during lunch, ECHS Multipurpose Room

POP-UP Library

The PCC POP-UP Library for the Early College High School is held on Thursdays during lunch in the Multipurpose Room. This is an opportunity for students to visit with a PCC librarian, request, renew, or check-out library books, and get research help. Of course ECHS students can get help anytime by visiting the Library's ASK US page or by coming to the Library in person.

When the librarian comes over, they will have a selection of books available for check-out, but you can request specific books be brought over. Complete the POP UP form and let us know what you need!