By Karissa Kilgore,
Staff Writer

Spring is in the air (finally) and the end of the semester is becoming visible on our sights but rather than set those sights on summer plans, most of us have to box a paper or two before the bell for the end of round two and collecting our treasured months in the sun.

Tackling research in advance is a good suggestion and, as a seasoned researcher, probably the best thing you could ever do as a student is exhaust all the avenues for information in halves-first half before your thesis, second half after. But no matter your grips, holds and locks on your paper-I don't care if you've got it in a half Nelson-drain those resources!

Now you're asking yourself, "What resources is she talking about? All I know is that the library is too small and doesn't have what I need." Sure that's what you said; to yourself at least, if not out loud jawing with your friends. Plenty of us are guilty of this very injustice. It's an injustice to our work for not finding proper materials, and to our library and ourselves for not caring enough to ask how to find them.

Resources on campus for students are abounding, and many of us don't even realize it. I decided that due to a friend's recent snafu that I'd look deeper into what Reeves Memorial Library has to offer Seton Hill University (SHU) students.

Before you let frustration body slam you and call it quits on your information gathering, ask a librarian for help. Marcia Pietrala, Public Services Librarian at the Reeves Memorial Library, explained a borrowing system called PALINETthat is available for students in search of multiple mediums of information.The acronym originally stood for "Philadelphia Area LIbrary NETwork,' but over the 65 years of its existence the name has come to mean more than the acronym stands for.

PALINET "is a cooperative membership organization of hundreds of institutions... includ[ing] libraries, information centers, museums, archives, and other similar organizations situated in Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and neighboring states..." (www.palinet.org).

PALINET is not the same as Interlibrary Loan (ILL). To use PALINET, you must ask for a form from a librarian, and take it with you when visiting the library you've chosen to visit. That library fills out a separate portion of the form so that there is a binding between students and the lending institution.

It's kind of like a tag team, but there is more responsibility on behalf of the students using PALINET, even though it is faster than ILL. PALINET is more immediate because you can go to a different local library whenever it is convenient for you.

ILL requests can be made in person at Reeves or online via www.setonhill.edu. Requests are processed by librarians and materials are obtained (through the US Postal Service), on average, within ten days. Did you know that as SHU students we are awarded up to 15 free ILLs? I didn't...

After the initial 15 are used up, costs range according to what is requested and are assessed by the library that is lending the material, so SHU has little to no control over that aspect of ILL.

Pietrala said "Seton Hill students and faculty are top priority with Seton Hill?s library materials." So don't worry about some freshman from St. Vincent's swiping that coveted book you need for that paper on widgets in the 21st century. You have precedence as long as you haul yourself to Reeves to find and take it, no sucker punches necessary.

If there is something you don't see at Reeves that would make a nice addition, there is a suggestion box in the library and also online. Pietrala said the library staff doesn't know how to address complaints if they don't know what they are.

Don't commiserate with your roommate next time you've got a gripe or unfilled need. I promise that your words are falling on deaf ears. Tell someone who can do something about it. Wrap your hands around the problem and give it a good shake. Before you know it, you're buzzing right through page after page of choreographed brilliance and-knock out!--you're a contender.

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