Orientation to Design Research: The Basics

This orientation is intended to give new Design students an introduction to library resources. It shows the procedures for finding and getting books and articles, and finding and using image resources.

If you have any questions or problems, or need more help with your research, please don’t hesitate to contact Karen DeWitt, the Design Library staff, or the Ask Us service.

Spaces

Virtual tour of the Design Library

In the virtual tour, click and drag to move around each space. Select different spaces from the menu, and click on the orange buttons to find out more information about the Design Library.

Explore Spaces

Explore the different spaces in the Hill and Hunt Libraries.

Finding books

The basics of searching for books (video)

How to find a book on the shelf (video): be sure to notice when they talk about how to request a book and have it sent to another library. You can have books from the Hill, Hunt, or other libraries on campus sent to the Design Library using the request button.

Borrowing periods and fines and fee information

Finding journal articles

Finding journal articles in Summon (video)

Access Summon

Finding subject specific databases (video)

Design databases

Searching a database on a specific subject gives you a head start on searching because it is already limited to articles in your topic. These are short videos discussing the main article databases about design. You can find articles online, or request them from Tripsaver through the "Find Text at NCSU" link.

We have other design databases as well, and you’re welcome to look in the advanced orientation to find out about those.

Image databases

These databases hold images and information about all areas of art, architecture, and design. Use them to find out about designers or get ideas for your next project.