Research Guides -- Your Online Research Friend

Ever felt like you have no resources for your assignment or project? Don't know where to go for royalty-free videos and images? The MHC Research Guides are here to help you!

From academic research to creative commons pictures, Research Guides can help you  find many different resources .

To start, access the Research Guides website from the LITS main website.

From there, you will reach the main page for research guides. There, not only will you see topics distributed according to academic subjects like Humanities and Social Science, but you can also view how-to topics (such as citing, finding images, etc) that can help you with your research. If you wish to see research guides for specific courses from specific semesters, you can click on one of the links under  "Previous Course Guides".

After clicking the topic you wish to explore, you will arrive at that topic's main research guide page. This page is built specifically to help you with research on the chosen topic. Different types of  resources are listed under the tabs. If you need further help from a librarian for your research, you can contact the LITS liaison whose contact information is displayed in the main page.

Happy researching!

Why Isn’t My Computer Using My External Microphone!?

Whether you are using an external microphone for communicating through programs like Skype, G-Chat, or a video game, or you are wanting to record some audio into a program like Audacity or GarageBand, you probably want your external microphone and computer to get along. If they don’t, here are some basic troubleshooting techniques that might keep you sane.

1)    Make sure your computer has recognized your microphone

Mac                                                                

a)     Click on “system preference” located in the apple menu at the top-left corner of your screen

b)    Click on “sound” in the “hardware” menu

c)     Make sure that your external microphone appears in the “Input” list

d)    Make sure that your external microphone is selected in that list.

***If you do not see your external microphone, try unplugging and re-connecting all of the wires associated with your microphone****

            PC

a) Open the start menu, Select Devices and Printers

b) If you do not see your microphone in the Devices Menu or in the Unspecified Menu, try unplugging your external microphone from the computer, making sure that wire is plugged firmly into the external microphone and re-plugging it

2)    Make sure that the program you are using is accommodating your external microphone

This is done by going to the preferences for your specific program (this varies from program to program) and making sure that your external microphone is selected as the audio output option.

For example, in Skype: Open the Audio Settings of Skype by going to the Skype preferences menu under tools > options > audio settings

Most external microphones can be plugged directly into your USB port or headphone. Some require interface boxes (this is more common among higher-end studio recording microphones. If this were the case, your microphone would not plug anywhere into your computer. You would probably know if this were the case).

These steps work most of the time. If they do not, you can also try re-booting your computer or reflecting on whether your external microphone is functional and whether your computer is capable of recognizing external microphones.

As always, don't hesitate to come into the MEWS consultant help hours if you are still having difficulties and we can aid you in person!