The library homepage will most certainly be your first stop when you are about to start your research. Scroll down the page to where you see "Your one source to search for all materials".
Ask a librarian - Reference and research-related questions can be answered in-person, at our in-library service desks, or by email, text or chat.
USD Archives and Special Collections houses the rare books, manuscript collections and institutional archives for the University of South Dakota. Materials are gathered into several collections based on content and subject.
Archives and Special Collections contains historical materials with strengths in the study of the northern plains relating to:
The following softwares are available for free to USD scholars to help you collect, manage, and cite your research sources.
Visit the Citation Research Guide for citation style guidelines.
The Civil War and Reconstruction Governors of Mississippi project (CWRGM) is a joint effort by USD and the Mississippi State University to digitize, transcribe, and edit over 20,000 primary source documents sent to the governors of Mississippi during the US Civil War and Reconstruction. Housed at USD, CWRGM offers USD students opportunities to gain hands-on experience in the preservation and dissemination of cultural heritage materials through work-study, grant-funded hourly positions, assistantships, and internships. Review the project’s Get Involved page to learn more about how you can take advantage of these opportunities.
The library subscribes to over 260 databases. Use the Subject, Database Type, Vendor/Provider filters, or the most frequently used databases to find the best library database for your research.
Advantages of using databases over the Internet search
| Library Databases | The Internet |
|---|---|
| Paid for by USD LIbrary so you have free access to scholarly information. | Some resources are free, but others require payment. |
| Content is evaluated for authority and accuracy. | Information is not evaluated for accuracy and may be incorrect, misleading, or biased. |
| Information is stable. | Websites come and go. |
| Filters and other tools help organize information. | The internet is a vast sea of information with little organization. |
| Offer options to quickly limit or expand your search to find what you need. | Search engines often return an overwhelming number of results with no quick way to ensure they relate to your topic. |
The Digital Imaging Lab (DIL) provides imaging services for both the digital library and patrons requesting reproductions of materials held in the Archives and Special Collections (A&SC). USD’s digital library provides online access to many unique resources and collections held by the university. Finally, the Digital Imaging Lab, Digital Library and Photographs department curates, preserves, and makes accessible a diverse range of photographic materials and photograph collections housed in the A&SC.
Visit the following pages to learn more:
Digital Scholarship & Research Services (DSRS) is a collaborative initiative of the University Libraries that aims to support and enhance the learning and research of the faculty, staff, and students at the University of South Dakota and the Wegner Health Sciences Library partner groups.
Some of the services DSRS offers are:
ILL lets USD students, faculty, or staff order items we do not have in our catalog. This guide helps you navigate from creating an ILLiad account to submitting the request.
LibKey is an API, or application programming interface, from Third Iron that works with the USD Libraries subscriptions to provide quick, one-click access to the full text of journal articles available to USD users. Currently LibKey has five products available: LibKey Discovery, LibKey Nomad, LibKey Link, LibKey.io, and BrowZine.
While some of the features of LibKey utilize the BrowZine platform, it is not necessary to have a BrowZine account to take advantage of their functionality. Users may need to log in with their USD ID and password when connecting to the full text of articles.
Are you applying for a USD Graduate School Research and Creative Scholarship Grant?
RED (Research, Engage, Design) is an open access digital repository for the collection, management, preservation, and dissemination of intellectual works produced at the University of South Dakota. It is designed to contain scholarly and creative works by faculty, staff, students and institutional partners, and can include journal articles, working papers, technical documents, images, audio and video, datasets, theses and dissertations, problem reports, honors projects, capstone projects, and open access textbooks.
RED can also be used to host journals, publish digital projects, organize and archive conferences and events, and share special collections
The South Dakota Oral History Center collects and preserves voices of the people of the Northern Plains.
Included in the collection are over 6,000 interviews which preserve indigenous memories and experiences from the 1890s to the present. This makes the collection an especially vital and valuable record of the historical, social and cultural legacy of the state. The collection has been digitized and cataloged and is available to researchers and historians.
Writing Grant Proposals in Epidemiology, Preventive Medicine, and Biostatistics by 
Writing the NIH Grant Proposal by 
Grant Writing Handbook for Nurses and Health Professionals, Third Edition by 
Successful Grant Writing: Strategies for Health and Human Service Professionals by