There are many books on how to do research. Among the best and most recent that focus on using the library are:
George, Mary W. The Elements of Library Research: What Every Student Needs to Know. Princeton University Press, 2008.
Mann, Thomas. The Oxford Guide to Library Research. 3rd ed., Oxford University Press, 2005. Z 710 .M23 2005 / Geisel 1 East stacks.
Stebbins, Leslie F. Student Guide to Research in the Digital Age: How to Locate and Evaluate Information Resources. Westport, Ct.: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. ZA 3075 S74 2006 Geisel 1 East.
Rob Melton received A.B. and M.A. degrees in English and American literature from Duke University in the mid-1970s, with a dual concentration in Renaissance drama and British and American modernism. He wrote his M.A. thesis on the British novelist Ford Madox Ford's (1873-1939) growing knowledge about and appreciation of contemporary American writers. After a few years as a lecturer in the English Department at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, and beginning doctoral work at the University of Virginia, he decided to re-direct his career into librarianship and headed to Columbia University in New York City, where he received a Master's degree in librarianship in 1979 from the School of Library Service. There, he concentrated his study in rare books librarianship and humanities and performing arts bibliography. After working briefly in the Preservation Department at Rutgers University Libraries, he took a position as Bibliographer for English Literature at the University of Kansas Libraries in Lawrence. Within a few years, he added curatorial responsibility for the 20th century literary collections (Joyce, Yeats, and postwar American poetry) in KU's Kenneth Spencer Research Library. He received KU's Chancellor's Award for Distinguished Librarianship in 1995.
After 21 years in Kansas, he moved to San Diego, where he has a similar joint appointment in the UCSD Library as subject librarian/liaison for English and General Literature, Religion, Film Studies, Theater & Dance and Curator of the Archive for New Poetry in Special Collections and Archives. He was promoted to the rank of Distinguished Librarian in 2013. He is active in both the Association of College & Research Libraries, particularly its Literatures in English Section and the Rare Books and Manuscripts Section, and in the Theatre Library Association, for which he has served on the Board of Directors, chaired the Publications Committee, and served a recent four-year term as a juror on its George Freedley Memorial Award for the best scholarly book on live theater.
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The Library provides access to the MLA Job Information List, both English and Foreign Language Editions. Due to licensing restrictions, it may be possible to access these online resources only within Geisel or the Biomedical Libraries. Try it first from where you are; then come to the Library if you are denied access. Sorry -- this is a licensing restriction from MLA.
There are various ways to contact the Library when I am not available or if your question is not specifically about the library's resources in literature, film, religion, theater or dance.
