- Research Support
Reference librarians are available to help you, your students, and your research assistants with research needs ranging from choosing a topic for a research paper to tracking down obscure materials.
Research Guides Curated collections of resources and strategies by subject, discipline, and program.
Subject Librarians Use the Directory (https://libraries.usc.edu/directory) to search librarians by Subject Expertise, or use the list on the Ask a Librarian page (below). Subject librarians provide research support, library instruction and course support, and collection development in their areas of expertise.
Ask a Librarian Access help by chat and email here; also includes information about phone and in-person help, as well as a collection of Library FAQs.
- Accessing and Using Resources
Recommend a purchase Subject specialists review these requests and will respond in no later than 30 days.
Proxy borrowing cards Give graduate students, program assistants, or other users the ability to check out materials for you.
ADVOCAT Law Library catalog
Scan and deliver (interlibrary loan and document delivery) Information Contact
- Law faculty should use Asa V. Call Law Library Interlibrary Loan.
- Teaching Support and Instructional Services
Course reserves Place library and personal items on physical and electronic course reserve for your courses. The course reserves guide includes important information about deadlines and copyright.
The aim of USC Libraries' instructional services program is to support students' information literacy development within the curriculum, through a variety of services and approaches:
- Course-integrated information literacy instruction
- Assignment design and consultations
- Workshops on resources, skills, or topics relevant to faculty and students
- Online tutorials
- Use archives and special collections in your instruction
- Managing your Research/Publishing
RefWorks and Zotero Online tools that let you track and manage citations and bibliographies.
Spreading the Word: Publishing Your Research & Extending Your Impact This guide has information to help you identify major journals in your field and understand how a journal or article's impact is measured. Information on open access is also included.
Set up Google Scholar to link to USC Libraries holdings in your search results. In Google Scholar (https://scholar.google.com), under “Settings,” choose “Library Links” and type in “University of Southern California.”