Library support for graduate students (Fall 2025)

Olivier Charbonneau 2025-09-30

Every fall brings a new cohort of exceptional students to Concordia University’s John Molson School of Business. I have been asked to present, very succinctly, the library services and collections afforded to them upon joining us. They are in for quite a treat!

In fact, the library may seem a bit overwhelming to new students, given the breadth and depth of support to provide. So, I have prepared a short list of essential support provided by the library and librarians, specifically tailored for new graduate students. When in doubt, start with these elements.

  1. The library website is your portal to our services and collections
    1. https://library.concordia.ca/
    2. Sofia, our NextGen search engine, covering the print and digital collection (with partial coverage of our market & industry resources). Search for academic articles and books here.
    3. Blue “ribon” – below Sofia – provides for quick access to popular resources: Databases by subject; eJournals; Citation guides
    4. Information for graduate students (we will cover these points in further detail below)
    5. A note about Google Scholar: use the settings to display “deep links” to articles in our databases, see: https://library.concordia.ca/help/using/google-scholar.php
  2. Zotero
    1. https://library.concordia.ca/help/citing/index.php
    2. In Sofia and most article databases, you can upload bibliographic data directly to your own account on Zotero.
    3. Organize your readings in folders for your seminars as well as chapters to your thesis. Create your own abstracts and reading notes in special fields.
    4. You can create bibliographies automatically in hundreds of citations styles with the click of a button in your favorite. Check out our GradProSkills workshops on Zotero (or search YouTube!)
  3. Spectrum
    1. https://spectrum.library.concordia.ca/
    2. Theses defended at Concordia University. Yours will be made available here at the end of your studies.
    3. Advance search: by department or by advisor (find out about past projects)
    4. For theses from around the world, use the database named ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Full Text, PQDT: https://concordiauniversity.libguides.com/az.php?q=pqdt
    5. Pro tip: find a few theses of interest and get a sense of the scope, tone, and use their bibliography as a starting point for your literature review!
  4. RSS for “Really Simple Syndication”
    1. https://library.concordia.ca/help/using/rss/index.php
    2. Be at the forefront of your discipline by harvesting RSS feeds on a special app or website. Subscribe to the table of contents of journals (find the RSS feed address on the Journal publisher’s website), setup an alert in article databases like ProQuest or enjoy webcomics for academics (like https://xkcd.com/)
  5. TOC: Learn how to create a Table of Contents automatically in any word processing software… you need to encode your document properly
    1. How to do this in MS Word: https://www.outfind.ca/using-word-with-style-ms-word-tm-2007-edition/
  6. Scholarly workflows
    1. Copyright, open access & licensing: https://library.concordia.ca/copyright/students.html
    2. Research data management: https://library.concordia.ca/research/data/
    3. Bibliometrics and research impact: https://library.concordia.ca/research/bibliometrics/
    4. GenAI Quickstart guide: https://library.concordia.ca/learn/genai/index.html
  7. Remember to ask us questions!
    1. For general information: https://library.concordia.ca/help/questions/
    2. Request an appointment with your subject librarian: https://library.concordia.ca/about/staff/business.php
  8. Take care and enjoy our collection – we allocate about 7 million dollars a year to enrich it!

Ce contenu a été mis à jour le 2025-09-30 à 2:14 pm.