Meridian gives our students access to several resources that can be used for research purposes and help you avoid buying expensive textbooks. Access to the library resources, descriptions of said resources, and guides to use them can all be found here. DO NOT try to access these resources through a search engine - Meridian pays for access to these resources; accessing them through a search engine will not give you access to the exclusive content Meridian pays for.
ResearchGate is a way for researchers of all kinds to share their work. It is free to join and you can connect with researchers around the world. If you come across a resource you don’t have access to, search for it on ResearchGate! Sometimes, the author has already posted their work on ResearchGate for open access to anyone with an account.
If you find the resource or author and their work is not posted publicly, send them a respectful message and they will often share their work with you for free! Having articles published in academic journals is important to researchers for many reasons; but, they have all been in your shoes and know how expensive being a student is. Additionally, they want their very important knowledge to be impactful for the widest audience. For these reasons, authors on ResearchGate will often provide their work to you for free.
If you use Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, or Firefox you can add an extension that allows you to see if a book you would like to read is at any of your local libraries! Add the extension from the appropriate link above.
Do you ever get frustrated by articles hidden behind paywalls? Paywalls are a tool that websites use to block access to their content unless the user pays for access or signs up for an account. 12 foot ladder is a great resource to get past this.
12 foot ladder does not work on all paywalled content - it usually does not work on articles published in academic journals. However, it does work well for other content types and occasionally for academic journals, so it is definitely worth trying.
"OER are teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use and re-purposing by others." The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
OER’s are more than just textbooks! You can also find course materials, video streaming services, practice tests and quizzes, software, and many other tools and materials that support shared knowledge.
The main difference between OER’s and other open resources is that they can be Retained, Reused, Revised, Remixed, and Redistributed (the 5R's) for educational purposes. Other resources that are openly available are more strict in the way they can be used due to copyright laws.
Here is a great list of OER’s from the USC Library.