Welcome to Belzberg Library! This guide has been designed to assist students in the MBA, Executive MBA (EMBA), Management of Technology MBA (MBA-MOT) and Master of Financial Risk Management (MFRM) programs at the Simon Fraser University Vancouver campus. It will help you to use the Belzberg Library to find and evaluate research material for your assignments and final projects. If you have any questions about library services, please contact Karen Marotz, Head, Belzberg Library at 778.782.5054 or marotz@sfu.ca.

The Basics:

• The SFU Library home page (www.lib.sfu.ca) is the gateway to SFU Library resources and information about all of the campus libraries, including research guides, electronic journals and much more. The Library Catalogue lists all books, journals and other material held by any of the campus libraries.
• Your library card is your SFU student ID card. It is the key to borrowing and requesting material. There are two numbers on the card. The larger number is your student ID number. The smaller number beginning with 29345, which is just above the barcode, is your library ID number. Get your card at Information and Registration Services - just next door to the Belzberg Library. Be sure to have your card with you anytime you want to borrow books from the library.
• Most library resources are accessible from your home or office through the library's website. Since this information is generally restricted to SFU students and faculty, you will be prompted for an ID and password. Use your SFU Computing ID and password to access these resources.
• As an SFU graduate student, you can also borrow books directly from UBC, University of Victoria, and many other partner libraries. How? By requesting a reciprocal borrowing card (aka a COPPUL card) at the Belzberg Library Circulation Counter. Of course, you can also use the library's Interlibrary Loan service to request delivery of material from other libraries if you can't use them in person.
• As an SFU graduate student, you are entitled to borrow books for the entire semester. However, these books are subject to recall. This means that once you have had the book for three weeks, another person may request the book and you must return it. You will be notified of any recalls and of the new due date. 
• All library notices (courtesy notices, holds, recalls, etc.) for SFU students will be automatically sent by email to your official SFU email address. You can redirect library and other notices from your official SFU email address to your preferred email address at my.sfu.ca.

About the SFU Library:

SFU has three campus libraries: Bennett Library is the main library and is at the Burnaby Mountain campus; Belzberg Library is at SFU Vancouver; and the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board Academic Library is at the Surrey campus. As an SFU student, you may use any of these three libraries. Check library hours to make sure that the library you wish to visit will be open. Belzberg Library's regular hours during the fall and spring semesters are:

Summer Semester (May 7 - August 16):
Monday - Thursday: 9 am - 7:30 pm
Friday: 9 am - 7 pm
Saturday: 10 am - 5 pm
Sunday: Closed

Monday, May 21: Closed for Victoria Day
Monday, July 2: Closed for Canada Day
Monday, August 6: Closed for BC Day
Monday, September 3: Closed for Labour Day

Further information about SFU Library services for graduate students is available in the online graduate student guide.

Belzberg Library - your home branch:

• Reference librarians are available at the Belzberg Library to assist you. Please don't hesitate to come in or Ask a Librarian online. As a special service to graduate students, you may make an appointment to discuss your research projects with any of our librarians.
• Students at SFU Vancouver may request delivery of books and journal articles from the Bennett Library (Burnaby Campus) or the SFU Surrey Library to the Belzberg Library (Harbour Centre building, SFU Vancouver). Delivery takes 2 working days.
• If the item you want is not available at SFU, it can be requested from another library (Interlibrary Loan) for delivery to Belzberg Library. This usually takes one to two weeks. See Borrowing Materials From Other Libraries for more information on using Interlibrary Loan services.
• All online journal articles and databases are available on Belzberg Library computers and most are also available from home. Many databases include the full text of journal articles. If not available online or at Belzberg, you may request delivery of a photocopy of the articles.
• All electronic journals are available on Belzberg Library computers or from home/office.
• Some graduate business research projects after 2007 are available in Summit: SFU Library's Institutional Repository.  Graduate business research projects prior to 2008 are held in the SFU Library and may also be available online. Finding Simon Fraser University MBA Research Projects by Topic is a quick guide to how to find these projects.
• Course reserves (if any) for your courses are available at Belzberg Library.
• Belzberg Library has some unique electronic resources on our standalone computer.
• Books borrowed from the Bennett Library or the Surrey Library (except for course reserves) may be returned to the Belzberg Library (and vice-versa).
• The Student Learning Commons provides workshops and individual consultations to support academic writing, learning and study strategies for SFU Vancouver students.

See the Belzberg Library web page for more information and take the virtual tour.

Finding Information:

Library research involves selection and use of appropriate research tools, accessing the items found and evaluating what you have found. Start Your Research Here is a brief guide that will help you.

1. Start your hunt for information "at home" by visiting the SFU Library Home Page.

Try our new Library Search engine from the home page to quickly find books, articles and information on the library website in one search.

For more precise results, search the Catalogue to find books, reports and media materials in the SFU Library, order materials from other SFU libraries, and check your own patron record.

• For assistance in using the catalogue, check the SFU Library Catalogue Search Guide.
• All print and electronic journals subscribed to by the SFU Library are listed in the catalogue. Electronic journals are also listed in the Electronic Journals Database by title, subject and by the association/organization who publishes the journal.

Connect to Journal articles and Databases to find articles in academic journals, trade magazines and newspapers, as well as financial and statistical data. Many indexes provide online access to the full text of the articles or allow you to directly request copies of articles. Use one of the Business Administration subject lists to identify the most useful journal and report databases for your topic. For financial, economic and market data, use the Financial Data list. Market and industry surveys are included in the Marketing database list.

• If the full text of an article is not included in the database, click on "where can I get this?" to link to or find the full text.
• For more help with searching, check How to Find Journal Articles and/or Moving From Citation to Article.
• Most databases are available remotely.  However, a couple important databases that are only available in the library, on the Belzberg Library standalone computer are: PCensus (Canadian census data) and Print Measurement Bureau (survey of Canadian consumers and publications).
• For Canadian government reports, check the Canadian Research Index. It is an index to Canadian municipal, provincial and federal government documents on microfiche which may not appear in the main Library Catalogue.

Request an Interlibrary Loan for books or articles not available at the SFU Library. Books can be directly requested from UBC, UVIC and other libraries. Most article indexes also allow you to request copies of journal articles directly online, using the "where can I get this?" link.

• Read the Interlibrary Loan guide for more information on this service.

2. Expand your search by using one of our Subject Research guides.

• Start by looking at the Business Administration, Course or Topic Guides. These guides are produced by Mark Bodnar, our Business Administration Liaison Librarian and will point you to the best external resources as well as providing information about publications available in the library. Of particular interest to MBA students downtown are the Business guides to:
  • Biotechnology Industry Research,
  • Case Studies,
  • Company Information,
  • Industry Surveys,
  • International Market Research,
    
  • Market Research,
  • Ratio Analysis,
  • Reference Sources for Business Research
  • Statistics Sources for Business Research
    
• Other guides which may be helpful are the Economics guide, the Economic Indicators guide, and the Statistics Canada guide.

Once you have explored resources at SFU Library and the web sources selected by SFU librarians, search the web to find additional material.

3. Go beyond the library to sources on the web.

In addition to the library catalogue and article indexes and databases, and web sources listed in the Subject research guides, you will find much good information on the web. Governments, research institutes, industry and other associations, and companies all have websites - many with publications freely available.

Use one of the web search engines to find additional information, including the websites of interest groups and other organizations. Try Google, Google Scholar or Ask.com and see our guide to Internet Research for further information.

Wherever you find your information, remember to evaluate it critically.

Evaluating Information:

Virtually all information has some sort of bias or inherent assumption about the world.  Since you cannot avoid it, you need to practice looking for it and taking it into account when you form your own conclusions.  Aside from watching for biases and assumptions, you also need to critically evaluate all information sources (regardless of whether the source was a book, an article, a Web site, or a person) for accuracy, currency, completeness, methodology, intent, and qualifications of the author. 

Don't despair that you will never find anything that meets all of the criteria: remember that decisions are made with such information all the time -- you just need to make a judgement call about how far out of line a piece of data is (e.g., is it so old as to be useless? is the bias extreme?) and about how much of it you can use.  You should also try to find as many alternative sources/viewpoints as possible.  Don't forget to clearly document any judgment calls or assumptions that you make based on the imperfect information you find.

Evaluation is particularly important when finding info on the web. See the evaluation section of the WWW Research guide for criteria to use in evaluation.

Many of the points on this guide apply to information in any format.

Writing and citing:

• Business Writing lists resources, both online and print, to help you develop business writing skills.
• Writing for University outlines the strategies and processes involved in academic writing and research, including writing for specific genres or disciplines, drafting your paper, self-editing, and writing at the graduate level.  Check the writing hand-outs from the Student Learning Commons.
• Writing and Style Guides includes information on how to cite your sources properly, including a Citation Guide for Business Sources in APA style.
• Plagiarism explains what plagiarism is and how to avoid it. Take the SFU Library interactive tutorial Understanding and Avoiding Plagiarism to test yourself and learn more.
• RefWorks is a web-based bibliography and citation database manager licensed for current SFU students. It allows you to import and export citations from numerous online databases and format bibliographies automatically. See the online Help for more information, online tutorials and FAQs.

Help with your final project:

• Need help finding information for your project? Remember, you can make an appointment to discuss your research topic with any of the Belzberg Reference Librarians. Phone 778.782.5051 to book in advance.
• Looking for previous projects on similar topics? Finding Simon Fraser University MBA Research Projects by Topic is a quick guide to how to find previous projects.
• Although research projects are no longer submitted to the SFU Library, you may find the Thesis Assistance guide useful, since SFU Business follows many of the same guidelines.

Ask Us!

• If you would like any further assistance or information about the library or your research, don't hesitate to Ask a Librarian in person, by phone, email or interactive reference.
• Ask Us Here provides in-person research help in the main lobby of the Segal Building every Friday, 12:30 - 2:30 pm, from the 2nd to the final week of classes.
• The business librarian (based at Bennett Library, Burnaby) is: Mark Bodnar.
• The liaison for SFU Vancouver graduate business programs is: Karen Marotz.