LibGuides: Writing 10 (Gingold, Fall 2025): Pre-Activities

Welcome

Hello Writing 10 Students,

Welcome to the library! We are Elizabeth McMunn-Tetangco and Olivia Olivares, librarians at UC Merced who will be providing instruction for your class.

Prior to the library research session, please complete the two tutorials linked below AND the other two in the boxes below this one. None of the tutorials should take a long time.
- Using Keywords and Search Strategies
- Scholarly and Popular Sources

During our in-person session, you will be navigating to the A-Z Databases list and also using Academic Search Complete and UC Library Search. Please feel free to email me with any questions. See you soon!

Elizabeth (she/her), Instruction & Research Librarian & Olivia (she/her), Instruction & Outreach Librarian

Installing & Connecting to the VPN

The Virtual Private Network (VPN) is essential for accessing library resources for off-campus location. The VPN allows you to connect to the campus network.

Your VPN connection will be needed for the Academic Search Complete tutorial and our library session via Zoom.
Install and connect to the VPN. See the Office of Information Technology's VPN Installation Guide.

Discover why the Virtual Private Network (VPN) is important for your library research and where you can locate VPN download information. (2:01)

Tutorial: Finding & Selecting Databases

Finding & Selecting Databases

Instructions:

Visit Finding & Selecting Databases from the Starting Your Research Series.
Proceed through the tutorial.

By the end of this tutorial, you will be able to

recognize how the library provides access to academic content for your research.
find databases available from the library.
select subject-specific databases to search based on a topic.

5200 N. Lake Road
Merced, CA 95343
library@ucmerced.edu
(209) 228-4444