Undergraduate students

Using the Library

• Virgo: the Library’s catalog

  Use Virgo to find books, videos, journals and more. We have millions of physical items, digital books, streaming video, and online articles. You can search for items by title or author, if you already know them, or you can browse by subject or keyword to find something new. Virgo also provides you with citations for items in three of the most popular styles.

  Search Virgo >

• Your Library account

  You have an account which helps you keep track of anything you have checked out, plus it allows you to ask for books and articles from other libraries across the globe through our Interlibrary Loan service.

  Undergraduates at UVA can check out up to 500 books at a time, with unlimited renewals. Note that items can be ‘recalled’ if needed by another user, in which case you receive an email alert and the item would need to be returned.

  Sign in now >

• Library hours and locations

  Lots of locations, open lots of hours. During Fall and Spring semesters, Clemons Library is open 24 hours a day, 5 days a week.

  See locations and hours >

• Course-related readings (“Course Reserves”)

  Professors often ask the Library to set aside books for students to use for short periods rather than asking each student to buy the text. Search Course Reserves now.

• Access

  Check out Accessibility Services to get connected to Library materials and services. The Library offers assistive software, accessible scans, and devices such as headphones and magnifiers.

  Learn about accessibility at the Library >

• Off-Grounds connections

  Most digital items the Library offers are available to students located anywhere in the world. Netbadge login is how your status is verified if you’re off campus. If you find links that don’t work, chat with us and we’ll help.

Spaces

Find study spaces

We have several library locations, all of which have study spaces. Clemons and Brown are the most popular spaces for studying. You can see all locations and hours or reserve a library space. 

Makerspaces

The Scholars’ Lab TinkerTank is a place for experimentation with technologies like desktop fabrication, physical computing, and augmented reality. Open to everyone, they specialize in applications and research questions in the humanities and arts.

Additionally, the 3D Printing Studio is free and open to anyone at the University!

Both Library makerspaces are located on the 3rd floor of Clemons Library. Find more makerspaces, shops, labs, and other spaces for making at the Maker Grounds @ UVA website.

Doing research

• Articles and databases

  What is an academic article, and why do your professors want you to use them? Academic articles are articles written by researchers to contribute to general knowledge. They are usually published in journals, which are like magazines for researchers. 

  Journals, like magazines, will have a topic focus. That focus can be anything, from civil engineering to African literature to medical sociology to media studies. The most popular and respected journals tend to be peer-reviewed, that is, other professors working in a subject area will read and give feedback on an article draft before the journal will publish it.

  Journals have traditionally been published in print, but more and more students and scholars now use the online/electronic versions of journals to find articles.

  Academic databases collect these articles into one spot for ease of searching. There are dedicated databases for all kinds of subjects and also general databases that multiple subjects. Universities subscribe to databases to help their students and faculty do research.

  See our full list of databases, which is browsable by subject >

• Find@UVA

  When searching UVA databases and looking for articles, be on the lookout for the FIND AT UVA button. This button will help you find an article’s full text by looking through all of UVA’s databases at once.

• Subject guides

  Subject guides are websites made by librarians that gather together all of the resources that UVA offers to relating to a particular subject. These guides can be very helpful for finding the right database to search, collections of newspapers or other primary sources, resources on a discipline’s methods, or the right style guidelines for your bibliography.

  See our full list of subject guides >

• Data & research software

  If you need to find raw data or need help with managing and analyzing data, visit Research Data Services + Sciences. The Research Data Services team also offers Research Software Support for tools like R, Stata, Qualtrics, and NVivo.

• Interlibrary Loan

  What if a book you want is checked out, or if we don’t have access to an article that would be perfect for your paper? Never fear! Use Interlibrary Loan to request that the book be sent to you from another university or to request a PDF scan of an article. Click the “Sign In” button on the right column to sign in or sign up for a free ILL account. Never pay to get an academic article—we will be able to find it for you through ILL.

  More about Interlibrary Loan >

• Virtual shelf browse

  Browsing the shelves is a great way to find books on a particular topic in the same place, because libraries are organized by subject. But you don’t need to go to the stacks to take advantage of this! Use Virgo's Virtual Shelf Browse feature to see all the library’s holdings around a given book’s call number. (Every item in the library has a unique call number, which acts like the book's address on the library's shelves or stacks.)

  Shelf Browse, when available, will be at the bottom of an item's record page in Virgo.

Writing

• Citation managers

  Want to save time making bibliographies? Use a citation manager like Zotero or Mendeley to keep track of articles you’re using in your research. In addition to saving your articles in one spot, these programs will also automatically generate in-text citations and bibliographies in a variety of styles.

  More about citation managers >

• Writing center

  Need some help with academic writing?  

  Visit UVA Writing Center >

Borrowing equipment & streaming video

The library has a lot of equipment you can check out! Some of these items need a reservation, but most don’t.

For example (not an exhaustive list)...

Don’t need a reservation

• Bike pumps
• Calculators
• Dry erase markers
• HDMI cables
• Headphones
• iPhone chargers
• Laptop locks
• USB drives
• Audio recorders
• Microphones
• Video cameras

Need a reservation

• High-end professional cameras
• Light Kits
• Sound systems
• Wireless lavaliere microphones

See equipment, sorted by location, which includes instructions for how to make a reservation if needed.

• Robertson Media Center

  The Robertson Media Center is all about creativity. Located on the third floor of Clemons Library, the RMC fosters innovations in learning and creation by providing space, equipment, and expertise to support audiovisual production, 3D data processing, 3D fabrication, and virtual and augmented reality. Staff offer individual consultations and group training to help students with their projects.

  RMC has audio & video studios, media computer labs, a 3D printing studio, and virtual reality spaces. Reservable studio spaces and computer stations are available for media project work. Come use software like Photoshop and Final Cut Pro!

  Visit the RMC >

• Streaming video

  Our streaming video collections hold everything from popular movies to oral histories to documentaries to the Metropolitan Opera on Demand.

  Browse streaming video >

Getting help

• Ask a Librarian

  Get help online through our Ask a Librarian chat system. Live chat is staffed by a librarian during open hours. We welcome all kinds of questions. Don’t be shy — even your professors use Ask a Librarian!

  Ask a Librarian >

• Workshops

  Tons of things are always happening at the Library. In addition to regular events, you can sign up for workshops to learn anything from Python to R to Zotero to how to write a literature review.

  See upcoming events >

• Service & Information Desks

  There are Service & Information Desks in all Library buildings, where we are happy to answer your questions and offer in-person help.

  See Library hours >

• Subject librarians

  Nearly every academic department at UVA has a dedicated librarian, and it’s that librarian’s job to help you with your research! In addition to looking at the subject guides, feel free to contact any of our subject librarians for help. Some librarians also offer for you to schedule an appointment using our online request system, though note that not all librarians are reachable that way.

• Training, tutorials, and more

  Let us help you succeed! Learn to use Virgo, discover databases & subject guides, explore Information Literacy training, and much more.

  “How do I …?” >