Midterm time is start-thinking-about-your-paper time. And start-thinking-about-your-paper time is start-thinking-about-doing-research-for-your-paper time. If you’ve never set foot in your college library (or even if you have), there’s much to discover—and to use. This week, we’ve invited visiting blogger Alice Sneary, head of the community team at the Online Community Library Center library cooperative (known as OCLC), to bring us up to speed on the 21st-century university library. Here are her best 10 tips:

1. Ask a reference question—from anywhere. Brick-and-mortar libraries, with flesh-and-blood librarians, are still there to help you (really!). But virtually all libraries now offer online features for answering any question you can think of. Use them. And many libraries work cooperatively, around the world, to provide virtual reference desks 24-7. So if you need a reference source at 2 a.m., a bona fide librarian somewhere (Australia, perhaps?) is online to help. Ask your reference librarian for details.

2. Search like a pro. The university library’s own catalog is an obvious place to start a search. But one extremely useful resource that many students still don’t know about is WorldCat (sometimes called OCLC), worldcat.org, the world’s largest electronic library catalog, with more than a billion items available from more than 10,000 public, academic, special, and school libraries around the world. Special features (in addition to all sorts of ways of searching) are user reviews, ratings of materials, tagging, and an automatic citations export to make your research faster and more productive. And often, the full text/full image/PDF content is available in a single click.

4-Star Tip. Add supporting visuals to your in-class presentations. Many libraries and archives now have historical digital image collections available. Use the limiter “cntnt” on WorldCat.org to see what’s available.

Heads Up. WorldCat is coming to your mobile phone. There is a new WorldCat Mobile pilot with downloadable apps for iPhones, BlackBerrys, and most phones that are Web enabled. Now you can be anywhere, have a brainstorm about a project, and start looking for library materials immediately.

3. Don’t miss the databases. There’s a world of knowledge beyond the quick Google search, including scholarly content that your library pays for that is NOT indexed in search engines. Many databases are specific to individual disciplines, such as Hoover’s for business, Anthropology Plus, or Philosopher’s Index. Look for a list of databases at your library’s website (often under “electronic resources” and sometimes arranged in a “top 10” list or by discipline).

4. Search strategically. Take advantage of advanced search functionality (gasp!) such as plurals, truncation, and wild-card and Boolean operators when using your local library catalog or databases. Wild cards are typically a question mark (?), pound sign (#), or asterisk (*) used as placeholder symbols to stand in for letters. For example, when you want to find all the possible topics related to geology, geophysics, and geography, you can use “geo*.” For Boolean searching, "AND" (or "+") can help you narrow down a topic—for example, “Fair Trade” AND “coffee.” OR can help you expand a topic—“submarines” OR “U-boats.” NOT helps eliminate clutter in your search—“patent” NOT “leather.” Using these simple keystrokes can really save time sifting through results sets.

Extra Pointer. Most punctuation and special characters like @, #, $, %, ^, &, *, (,) =, +, [,], and are ignored by search engines. So the wild-card and Boolean operators that work like magic in library databases will not work on Google or Yahoo.

5. Pay attention to punctuation and foreign characters. Even in classes taught in English, there can be reference materials (titles, authors, technical terms) that use foreign characters. So when you’re searching for a non-English-language title or subject that includes accent marks, apostrophes, or diacritics—such as an umlaut (Ü) or a cedilla (ç)—be sure to put in a search string that the search engine will tolerate. Most database (including FirstSearch) either omit punctuation altogether or Romanize it to standard keyboard characters. So Scarlet O’Hara becomes ohara, and the French word façade becomes facade.

6. Take advantage of eAudiobooks. Audio versions of classics like Shakespeare's works are entertaining and can help unlock meanings you might miss on the page. E-audiobooks can also help with learning foreign languages. Transfer titles to a portable device, and take them with you.

7. Go ahead; use Facebook. If you’re on Facebook—and if you’re reading this article, you probably are—you can add library-related apps to your profile. Library apps such as CiteMe return citations, or you can search WorldCat directly from within Facebook.

8. Borrow from anywhere. So the perfect book or journal article about the economics of producing shark-fin soup in landlocked countries exists—just not in your library. Try requesting it using interlibrary loan, where your library borrows the material from another library for you. For digital and photocopy-able materials, this can be done fast—sometimes in just minutes. And often for free!

9. Invest in a study carrel. Many libraries offer semiprivate study carrels either to all who ask or via a student lottery at the beginning of the semester. Get one. It gives you a quiet place beyond your dorm room where you can concentrate between classes and focus in the evenings. There’s a good chance it will be within Wi-Fi range. In addition to library spaces, university classrooms may be available after hours for group project work.

Finally, and most important,

10. Ask for help. Take a tour, and get to know the librarians on staff. With your GPA and those tuition dollars at stake, it’s time well spent. Librarians are trained professionals who are there to help you find and make sense of information. Plus, many university libraries have subject specialists with advanced degrees in your field. Use them.