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Resources for New College Graduates

Designed for MLS academic member libraries to share with their new graduates. Members can adapt information to reflect their own institution.

Dear New Graduates:

On behalf of the library staff at [Your College] and the Massachusetts Library System, congratulations on your graduation! You may not realize that many of the library resources and services you've used during your time here are limited to current students due to licensing restrictions and staffing constraints. This guide is designed to help you access high quality information resources through local, state, and regional resources.

Library Services for Alumni

Libraries for Life After Graduation

Got a new job?

All that research you did in college was great practice for real life! Many jobs will require you to find information for reports, project proposals, patient education, etc. Some employers even have their own library! If not, you can check for relevant info at your local public library, statewide databases, or freely available resources such as the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

[image copyright 2013 by COD Newsroom, CC BY 2.0]

nurse looking at her watch at a patient's bedside

More Than Books!

Things you may be able to borrow from your local public library: museum passes, gardening tools, video games, video game consoles, DVDs, cake pans, wifi hotspots, telescopes, original artwork, neckties, ukuleles. Oh, and books!

[image CC0 Public Domain]

young person wearing a hat and holding ukulele over the shoulder

Adulting 101

You may have less homework now, but you've got all kinds of other stuff to think about. Job hunting and resume writing. Budgets and financial literacy. Apartment hunting and home buying. Healthy cooking. New tech skills. How to fix your broken stuff. Your public library may be able to help! Check their website for workshops and resources.

[image copyright 2009 by sanspoof, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0]

scene from the board game

Going Back to School?

Are you headed off to graduate school? Congratulations on this new chapter in your scholarly career! Each school is a bit different, so be sure to attend the library orientation session, or at least stop by the library early on to find out what kinds of resources and services are available to you. And if you've built up your own collection of sources through a library citation manager like EndNote or RefWorks as an undergrad, check with the library staff at your new school to find out how to transfer them over. (Alternatively, try out Zotero, which is freely available to everyone.)

[image copyright 20015 by Mathematical Association of America, CC BY-ND 2.0]

a man in front of a table at a graduate orientation fair talking with a prospective student, while another student looks on
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