Support & Resources

Instantly accessing any article, from anywhere? Snapping your fingers to generate flawless citations? Or maybe closing your eyes and making sense of massive datasets in a flash? We may not be superheroes, but we do have a hidden power: the University of Rochester Librarians. I had the chance to sit down with Daniel Castillo, EdD, to explore the many ways our librarians are championing student success. Our conversation uncovered a range of tools, services, and surprisingly human ways librarians support graduate students in pushing their research further. Here's what he had to say.

Daniel: It's great to meet you. My name is Daniel Castillo.
I'm the Somerville director for the Carlson Research and Engineering libraries and research initiatives team.

Shannon: Thank you for meeting with me. So, what inspired you to become a librarian?


Daniel: Are you familiar with the idea of a third place?

Shannon: I don’t think so, maybe you could tell me a bit more about it?

Daniel: So, a third place is an idea that outside of the work and outside of the home, this place that people go to, and it can be to interact with other people, to socialize, to relax. There's usually a sense of belonging, comfort, unity within these places. And libraries have always been that for me.

Shannon: Thats's a great segue into what we're going to discuss, the ways that libraries can support grad students. What are some library resources that you think graduate students should be using at the University of Rochester? 


Daniel: The service that I would encourage every graduate student to use is our Librarian Liaisons. The liaisons are one of the most important groups here. If you need help with ideas for your research like, “I'm not quite sure what to do here,” a Liaison is great and can help find a place to start.

Shannon: The chemistry liaison has helped me quite a lot, she helped me set up a chemistry-specific program on my computer that was giving me trouble and connected me with someone else on the technical side.

Daniel: Librarian Liaisons are eager to support our students. Something I heard a lot of times myself, is “I feel so sorry about bothering you”. But these are people that choose service for their careers, they are eager to help you out! It crushes us when you we don't get a chance to help a student. 


Shannon: What is the interlibrary loan service and how students can take advantage of it?

Daniel: The interlibrary loan service is that at the University of Rochester we try our best to get a lot of resources for our students, but it’s costs prohibitive for any school to get access to every journal. One of the ways that libraries handle this is through something called interlibrary loans, and this allows us to work with partner libraries to identify things that our students need, and we just have agreements in place to have them basically share those materials with us when we need. I highly recommend everyone takes time to get familiar with this program, because there's ever a resource that you need, we're going to do our best to get it through this program. 


Shannon: The next question I have is about reference managers. When I started writing my first paper, I was doing the references manually and my friend was like, “what are you doing? You need a reference manager!” Can you walk me through what is a reference manager?

Daniel: The first and most basic thing that people think about is you get to that point where your paper's done, and you're like, “I'm finally done”. And you get to spend the next two hours playing with citations. A reference manager helps you automate a lot of that work.
And what you can do is you as you're going through searching databases, finding articles, you can just send the article information directly to the program and it's going to automatically build a library for you that can be added to your document. It's going to make referencing so much easier. I just want to quickly emphasize every graduate student should start using it day one, if they haven't already, just install it tomorrow.

Shannon: One of the things that I've used most in my graduate career is reserving a study space. I've used it for things from practice talks to group studying for an exam. What's the process for reserving a study space at the library? Who can do it?

Daniel: Anybody could do it and you can start off as simply as going to the website, there's a space for “spaces,” you can click just on there. These rooms are great for the things that you mentioned like having closed group study session, but also for having a little quiet space, or meeting someone for an interview. We also have larger spaces if people are interested reserving to hold a conference. If you have any questions about the process for booking a room, reach out to your Liaison. That's what they're there for. They're eager to help you out and they will be able to help you find the right room.

Shannon: My next question has to do with an appointment with a librarian. When would you suggest that someone utilize this resource?

Daniel: The reality is, you can contact them for almost anything, because they're here to help you out with your research and studies. You need help navigating a literature search or finding what resources are available from library– they’re eager to help you. Our Librarian Liaisons are hubs on this campus. We don't expect grad students to know which office handles the identification versus which office handles supporting data to management. I don't want a grad student spending an hour other time trying to navigate our system, it's not it's not a valuable use of time for them. They're already too busy. If they have that free hour, watch something on Netflix! If you're really stuck and if you don't know who else to reach out to, they are probably a very good first person to stop to start with.

Shannon: My next question is about Studio X. Studio X is the University of Rochester's hub for extended reality. What is extended reality?

Daniel: Extended reality is the umbrella term for the different virtual realities. It helps to think about these terms on a spectrum. Virtual reality is like the basic, you put on your goggles, you can see these 3D environments play a movie and play a game and it's in this 3D setting. With augmented reality, think of something like PokemonGO, where you have your phone, you can look in the real world, but you’re overlaying a virtual reality environment over the top of it.

Shannon: What kinds of equipment and software are available in studio X and do students need any prior experience to use them?

Daniel: Studio X has an amazing staff, so any of the equipment that you're getting, you can talk to somebody, and they will help you get started. And even if you're not sure how can you incorporate this for research, they're eager to help you brainstorm. As for the equipment, there's plenty of headsets. They also have a lot of computers, specifically with programs for 3D modeling and there's also 360-degree cameras and scanners.
I want to encourage anybody who's interested in learning about that space to go down there, talk to the folks. This is such an innovative space.  

Shannon: Could you share an example of a research project or a class that has successfully utilized Studio X?

Daniel: Some of them our most frequent users are language, religion, and history majors. Because you can go through and see a cultural site that you might not be able to take a full class on site of. On top of that, there was a manufacturers’ operating class that came down to learn how XR can be used for supply management. There was a public speaking class that came down to get exposure XR and VR and have a virtual public speaking setup that they can go on and practice speaking.

Shannon: Yeah, that's cool. I never would have thought to use Studio X like that. Are there are any upcoming, workshops or sessions for Studio X?

Daniel: If you go to the Studio X website, they have a programming schedule on a tab called news and events. If you click there, you can see all the different events they are hosting. This list is constantly updated, so be sure to check it frequently to see if there are any topics coming up that interest you.

Shannon: My next couple of questions are on student wellness. In what way does the library support student wellbeing?

Daniel: I sound like a broken record here but get to know your Liaison. When you are stressed out, those are times that you could meet with your librarian. These are people that are dedicated to service, they enjoy helping people. Not only are they going to get you the help you need, but they're also going to make sure you're okay. You'll also see the therapy dogs at the libraries, little things that we can do to create a little bit of distraction. We have a meditation and prayer space here at Carlson library. There's lots of little things that you can find around the libraries, too. In Carlson’s second floor there's usually little brain teasers, and in Rush Rhees, the Wells Brown room, there's a little meditation corner with little fidgets and sensory things. Things students can do if they just need distraction after, you know, a six-hour marathon studying before they start their next paper.

Shannon: Are there any library events that you are most excited about for 2025?

Daniel: The first one is right around the corner; that's our Art of Science Competition. I think the Art of Science for me is just this cool blending of all the disciplines on campus. In the fall we'll be running our Data Bloom series. This is a workshop series that focuses on data visualization. It's something that I think is important to graduate students is no matter what field you're in.

So now we know—research superpowers are real, and they come to life through the expertise and support of our incredible librarians. Supercharge your graduate journey: reach out to your library liaison today. Your next breakthrough might just start at the library.